Annual Snowboarding Trip

Dave's friends from high school always come to Utah for a snowboarding trip around January or February. They had a big group this year and we had about 5 people staying here with us. They snowboarded all day Friday and Saturday. They always love getting together and have a great time. The bonus was that Dave didn't even get hurt! Can you believe it? I was so glad he didn't come back with some crazy injury.

Hats!!!

My friend makes these hats and Courtney has been wanting them so badly. I finally ordered them and she was super excited when they came in the mail. She can't wear them to school but as soon as she gets home, she puts one on. We ordered brown and black and they have removable flowers so they match all her outfits. I found her like this in bed last week and had to take a picture. I think she likes them! She would wear it all the time if she could. Thank you, Jamie, for the cutest hats ever!!

Courtney's First Hair Cut

Courtney has been wanting to cut her hair for about a year. For those of you who don't know, Dave hates short hair and forbids Courtney and I from getting it cut. She has been adamant about it, so Dave finally decided to let her do it. She knew exactly how she wanted it. I told the hairdresser that I wanted it to be able to still be put in a ponytail, but she said it needed to be shorter. She loves it and says it's exactly the way she pictured it being! She is even fine with me round brushing it everyday. Dave actually agreed that it's cute but still doesn't like it because he said it makes her look way too old. I agree that she looks older, but she is going to be six in June, so she's going to grow up regardless of how we cut her hair. She is already asking when she can go get it cut again!

Christmas Present

We got a family picture done over the holiday's and decided to send them to a few of our friends. This was cool that our pic ended up in a rock video.

Click link: http://www.myspace.com/fanvideo?id=24a570f5ae7b56c10e9791fc6150132d

Gingerbread Stuff

Dave's mom gave us kits to make gingerbread trees and trains. We had Brian and Megan over for dinner, then made our cute things. We had a lot of fun and love it when we get to hang with these guys. It was fun to do something festive!

Family Pictures

We had a great Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to have my newly married brother in law and his wife host a fabulous meal and Dave's entire family from Vegas came to celebrate with us. It was a weekend filled with shopping (9pm to 6am), games, movies, and of course, good food! I love the fact that Dave's family does the black friday thing with me. Dave, of course, hates any shopping, most especially black friday. His family, however, are the best people to shop with. It was great. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went up the canyon to get family pictures. They turned out so good! I normally hate all of our family pictures but thanks to the best photographer, Kevin Lunt, we got some great shots, even though we were freezing. We are so happy with how they turned out that I had to post a few of them. Hope everyone felt they had as much to be grateful for this year as we did. I love my little family and realize that we are so blessed!

Winter has come!

We got back from Disneyland (85 degree weather everyday) to this huge snowstorm. I guess we all knew it was coming. I was hoping it wouldn't snow until the week before Christmas, but I guess the week before Halloween is more realistic in Utah.

Halloween 2009

We had a ton of fun carving pumpkins this year! Courtney really enjoyed designing her pumpkin this year. Then we went to our friend's house for Halloween. It was really great. They had chili and hot dogs for dinner and hot chocolate and a fire to keep us warm. Then they had a trailer to put the kids on and they drove them around for trick or treating. How lucky!! She has never had such an easy time getting so much candy. It was a good Halloween and we are now ready for Thanksgiving.

Disneyland 2009

We had so much fun going to Disneyland with Brian, Megan, and Wendy!! We love Disneyland and had a great time going for Dave's birthday. Courtney could ride practically everything and doesn't get scared one bit. We can't wait to go again next year!

And it goes on and on

Since I hadn't been able to figure out the picture thing, I sort of stopped taking them. We also went to BrianHead with the whole Bollard clan in September. It was the weekend of my birthday and a lot of fun. We got to stay in the coolest cabin and rented four wheelers to ride around on all weekend.

Just this last weekend, Courtney had a late night with all of her girlfriends. They ate pizza, decorated cookies, painted, made crowns, made braclets, played a ton, and watched a movie. They loved it and we may even try a sleep over next time.

We have also loved having Brian and Megan(Dave's brother and sis in law) so close to us. They got married in May and left to Texas for the summer. :( I was so sad and missed them lots. They had a house built while they were gone, in Lehi. We spend many of our nights with them!

We have been busy, continue to be busy and are loving our life. We have big plans this weekend for Dave's birthday too, so stay tuned for the post.

P. S. It won't be another 6 months before the next post!!!!

Fall Soccer

Despite the look on her face, she has loved soccer. The season ended on Saturday, where she scored her first goal. She got a trophy and everything. Dave has been making her wait to start playing sports because of her small size. She makes up for her stature in heart. She goes for the ball every time and really tries to control it and to do her best. Every one of our friends were super impressed with her. She was lucky enough to get to play with some of her best friends, the whole team was made up from the ward. She will definitely be playing again in the spring.

First Day of Kindergarten

I'm not sure when we gave Courtney permission to grow up, but she is. I used to laugh when people would say that time went too quickly and that they wouldn't be little for long. I used to not believe people when they said they couldn't remember their children as babies. I now believe everyone that has ever told me those things. Courtney is absolutely loving school. She works really hard and is already a great reader! Her teacher is the greatest and the best part about the beginning of this school year(drum roll please!) is that there was no crying. Not one tear was shed for the start of school this year. Yet another reason that we know that she is growing up. I am so happy and relieved. This is what the two painful years of preschool were for. She is absolutely the light in our life and we wouldn't trade her for all the money in the world! She makes us happy and our family complete.

Sun Valley, Idaho

When Dave first told me that he was being sent to Idaho for business, I told him that we wouldn't want to go with him. Was I ever wrong?!! This place is great. We are hoping to be able to go back next year. There was bowling in the basement of the lodge, an outdoor skating rink, deadly swans, an ice show, swimming, blow up slides, trampoline jumping, and more. We were given a gift bag when we first arrived full of tons of goodies and it just kept getting better. There was so much to do that we needed more like a week there. I guess I've always been wrong about Idaho because I would visit there again in a heartbeat!!

A Trip to Colorado

We went on a road trip with Grandma and Grandpa to visit Darron,

Kristen, Emma, and the new baby, Rosie. Courtney couldn't get enough of Rosie and had so much fun playing with Emma. We don't get to see these guys too much, so it was a real treat to get to stay with them for a few days. We hope to be able to visit again sooner than later!

Swimming

Courtney loves to go swimming when it's hot, and her favorite place is Grandma and Grandpa's, of course. I'm pretty sure these little girls swam everyday.

Ali and Aubrey's Birthday Party

We were so lucky to be able to be in Las Vegas for Ali and Aubrey's Birthday. Courtney hates missing a cousin's party, so she was thrilled. It was a princess party with a real prince and princess! There were stories, candy, songs, make-up, balloon animals and much more. It was such a blast. So many people were there to help celebrate. As usual, Courtney couldn't let it be just a princess party, She insisted on a sword and holder to become a pirate! So much for my little girl.

Fourth of July

We went camping with some of our best friends for the Fourth. Although we had to for go the fireworks(they really frown on that in the forest, fires and all!), we had a great time. We love having our tent trailer to camp in.

Courtney did manage to get an injury on her bike. She layed down for awhile, then she was on her way again.

The guys decided to set up a trap for the chipmunks and squirrels. The little critters couldn't resist the food and we ended up catching 3 squirrels and 1 chipmunk. We learned our lesson after the chipmunk. Dave and Torrey think it may have been cardiac arrest but I'm not sure. The thing started running around like crazy, so they lifted the bin to let it go, and it killed over. We won't be catching chipmunks again any time soon.

Our wonderful friends, the Gardners!!!

Courtney told Torrey that he was the best boy scout ever because he was so good at starting fires.

Courtney and Megan, the best chef's ever!!

Oh so Behind!!

This happened to Dave on a wakeboarding trip at Lake Mead with some old high school buddies. Right before that trip, he bought a new computer and he just now showed me how to upload pictures and blog again. I know everyone has missed me! So much has happened since that time. Don't worry, Dave recovered and is as good as ever. My brother and his four kids came home from that trip with us and stayed with us for five weeks! That pretty much took over the rest of our summer. They relocated here from Las Vegas, so it is very exciting to finally have them closer to us!!! I started working at the school that Courtney attends, half days. I work in a first grade class, as a teacher's assistant. I have really enjoyed it. I also have started tending four wonderful kids, 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. They are all boys, 10, 5, 18 months, and 2 months. Courtney loves going over there and they are fun to be with. I love to stay busy! If you have the time or want to know about other specifics, I will be posting more.

Happy Anniversary!!

On this day, eight years ago, Dave and I were married and sealed in the Mount Timp Temple. I can't believe it has been so long. Even though Dave never looks at our blog and will never read this, I wanted to tell him how much I love him. This year has been the craziest year of our whole married life(which is really saying something because we've had lots of ups and downs) but I can honestly say that going through things with him is what gets me through each day. He is a wonderful husband and I couldn't ask for a better father to Courtney. He works so hard for our family and hardly ever complains(he's human, so it does happen sometimes)! He would do anything in his power to make Courtney happy and loves us both so much. Even though our life seems so uncertain and every plan we have ever made hasn't worked out the way we wanted or the time we wanted, we always do it together. I have learned so much from him and his family and would not be the person I am today if he wasn't my eternal companion. I love you so much Dave!! Happy Anniversary!