Valentine and Easter 2010

We had a blast sharing our Valentine traditions with Brad and Kendall and their two sweetie kids this year! Scott and I figure that it is really fun right now in our lives to include our kids in our Valentines Day traditions! We keep it simple and family friendly... I order a heart shape pizza from Papa Murphy's, and while its cooking the kids make valentine cards for each other, and I set up the table to have an elegant candle-light pizza dinner. The kids love that I sprinkle valentine candies, like confetti, all over the table! Its SO fun, every year!

Kendall made the DELICIOUS Valentine's dessert! Flourless Chocolate Cloud Cake, with fresh-made Raspberry syrup! SO YUM!

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Easter was SO fun as well! We all got new mits and baseballs in our Easter baskets! The kids also LOVED dressing up in their Easter clothes for brunch at G&G Mack's!

We LOVE the tradition of Easter Brunch as Scott's parent's home every year! We endulge in huge Belgium waffles, delicious fruit bowl and pudding dip, and Grandma Mack's famous sausage and egg casserole... I am usually not a fan of sausage, but her casserole is SO delicious! I look forward to it twice a year, Christmas and Easter! We also played some catch with our new mits and had a GREAT Easter egg Hunt! SO much fun!!!

Updating 2009 ... Enjoy the Highlights!

... Ah! It has been way tooooo long since I have posted about my amazing family! (Thanks for the little reminder, Tami, that I need to get posting!)

Here are a few pictures and stories to highlight the rest of 2009 ...

We had such a fun summer! Got to be with cousins Elli and Delaney, go with friends and bbq up the canyon, face paintings at McDonalds... are a few pictured here. Hana's green hair is from her Crazy Hair day during the Rock Climbing camp she did! What a blast!

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As for Amy... I took a job teaching at the private school where Hana has attended pre-school and Kindergarten, Children's Christian School. I teach the Jr. High class, 6th-8th grade. I LOVE it! My kiddos get to be with me all day... Hana in 1st grade and Conrad in preschool. What a blessing!

This collage of pictures is titled "Od to Scott's Baby!" Scott's truck was rear-ended extremely hard while he was stopped at a red light during 4:00 traffic. Sadly, it totaled his truck. We took some goodbye pictures of it before we left it at the junk lot. Sad day for Scottie :(

For Conrad's 4th birthday I did a Mario Brothers theme... as you can see the RAD cake I made! :o) So to add to the jumping action of the Mario brothers, we rented a bounce house... and it happened to be on the ONLY day it rained in September! :( Lame! SO we had a house full of people... friends and family, and wet, freezing kids running in and out as they bounced in the bounce house. As you can see in the pic, the kids are soaked out there, but having a blast!



As always.... GO UTES! Scott and I had fun at all the home games, and took the kids to a couple! Our favorite time together was when Scott and I went to the Oregon game. It was a fun get-away for the two of us!


For Hana's 7th birthday... we had a Pet Shop theme... once again... as you can tell with my RAD cake! :0) Since Hana's birthday is in December we can't do outside parties, so we took a few of her friends to Hollywood Connection... an indoor place with rides and mini golf. They had a blast! Then on her actual birthday we had more family and friends over! Good times!

The next few pictures are highlights of Christmas! I loved being at Nana McKinnon's this year on Christmas Eve.... she is a lot of fun! ;) We were able to spend a little time at G&G Holt's too.

Christmas morning is the BEST with kids! I love it! The pic of Conrad is him, so quietly, sitting waiting patiencely to open his gifts at G&G Mack's house... I think he was shutting down from overload.... it was funny.

Aaaah. St. George family! Silly silly! Love you!

It was a GREAT year of 2009! Happy New Year ... 2010!

"Goin' Country" with Cami and Zach...

Here is a pic of Zach (black hat), Cami, Hana, Conrad and a couple cast members that perform in the show. (Virginia trip August 6-11, 2009)

We got to visit Cami and Zach in Virginia! It was a blast! Below are a couple links to videos I put on YouTube of their show "Goin' Country!" It was so fun - Scott, I and the kids never got sick of watching them sing and perform! They make it so fun and Cami and Zach each had their moments of changing things up a bit to make it fun. Zach also played lead guitar in the band for Kinetix show - he is amazing on the guitar!

We also had some REALLY GREAT hangout time with them! We LOVED it!!!

Click the links below to see the videos on YouTube...

---- Cami and Zach performing in their Goin' Country show (on Youtube)

---- Cami singing "Survivor" by Reba (on Youtube)

Pioneer Day!

Hurray for Pioneer Day!

Things you do when you get away in Park City for two nights...

• Chill in the condo, and make treats
• Enjoy the pool and hot tub
• Learn to swim under the water on own (Hana did it!!!)
• Mozy at a local Farmer's Market, and get a new belt (Scott will model it)
• Find a local party and participate in all the fun free stuff...
• ...face painting, fried chicken and corn, music, Utah's heritage.
• Ride the Alpine Slide! Good times!

Check out the video of us going on the Alpine Slide!

One of the BEST days ever!!!

Scott and I have really been wanting to take the kids on a really great hike up in Uintahs (our most favorite place to be!). So we decided on a hike that was about 2 or so miles with little lakes on the way, so as not to get bored. We would end up at the Clyde Lake, relax and fish and eat lunch, & maybe mozy over to Three Divide Lakes if we wanted before we headed back.

At Clyde Lake we relaxed and played for a couple hours. The kids found a fun little pond they named "The Little Mack's Lake" and played in their "clubhouse" right by it. Then Scott and I decided, from looking at the map, it would be fun to cut across and bush-wack to another trail to head back. It was SO beautiful!

We also LOVED teaching the kids about what we LOVE ... being in the mountains, hiking, and going into parts of the mountains that not too many people go. It was one of my BEST days!!!

The hike ended up being 6 miles long, total! And our kids walked to WHOLE way! We just can't stop being so amazed and so proud of wonderful kiddos!!!

Here are just a few of the amazing views we had as we hiked! WOW!
Can you spot Zephyr in this one above?

I figured it out!!!

For SO long I couldn't figure out why I could click on some of my collage pics I posted and I could see them bigger, and others I couldn't. Well, I figured out that when I export them directly from the collage pic after I create it in Picasa, it will enlarge if clicked on. If I export it from my pic library on Picasa it can't enlarge if clicked on. YEAH! I figured it out! (this post is for you Beck ;)

June June June

What a FUN June we had. As I continue to play "catch up" with this blog, here are the highlights...

The following collage of pics is pretty funny! We went camping with our friends, Jason and Heidi Sterzer and their kids, and Neils and Natalie Griffith and their kids up at Smith-Morehouse in the west part of the Uintah Mtns. We all have kids the same age! There were 8 little kids running around all under the age of 6 years old! So FUN! We fished and explored and had great campfire time!

This is Hana watching Jason gut a fish! Hilarious!!! (Abby was laughing so hard, I think because of Hana's reaction! :)

Next, the week before Father's day, Brad called us one evening and said "Hey, we're comin' up tomorrow! I have to work up in SLC and I'm bringin the fam!" What a great surprise! Here are some cuties and a fun cake Kendall and I were inspired to make!

The cake is all of our faces in each of our families on the cute frosting tree! (We had just watched Cake Boss! I LOVE that show! Buddy is my idol!)

June 21st: Father's Day!

I made a cake for Scott, RC, and Terry (G-pa Mack) and we enjoyed it after dinner at the Mack residence! It was a delicious made from scratch, chocolate cake, cream cheese frosting, and dark chocolate gonache in the middle and on the top! YUM!

The next weekend, Saturday June 27th, the kids participated in a one mile children's race called the Mountair Mile. It is a local race one guy and his neighborhood started to benefit The Sharing Place. --Kids helping kids! My kids LOVE it because it is just long enough to challenge them and short enough to be FUN! They rode their scooters and then they run in the last 1/8 of a mile. It was fun. My bakery Ar Mel's sponsored all the treats! The cakes and cookies were a hit!

The next day, June 28th, we took the fam on a little evening hike up by Brighton Ski Resort! It was beautiful! We tried to go to Lake Mary, but it was straight up hill, so we just made it 1/2 mile short, to a swampy lake called Dog lake. A good warm up for the kids. haha

I LOVE my cute family!!!