Hopkins Family

Summer at the Ranch

2010-08-09T09:22:00.001-07:00

We were lucky to be able to go up to Mike's family Ranch over the 4th of July. I look forward to visiting every summer. It is such a beautiful place and I love Mike's family so much. I am so thankful to have married into such a wonderful family. Here is Amy when we first arrived. Of course the first thing she has to do is go say hi to the horses. She has such a love for horses and enjoys every minute with them.

Here is Amy and her cousin Lexi. I love this picture. Look at the hair on these girls. Amy had such a great time with her. She loved being the "older cousin" for a change. Lexi is such a cutie. They were two peas in a pod. I love these girls!Amy riding the 4-wheeler around the ranch. Yes, she does wear a helmet. I just got the picture before it was on. Lizzie's house is down by the river so we walked down with the cousins and let them play in the water. Here is Amy with Seth. Lexi and Auntie Lizzie. This picture of Lexi is so adorable. She looks like she is posing for a magazine.

We also took the boat out one day.

Amy and her horse Sunny. Getting Sunny ready for a ride.

Even Sally went on the ride with us. I am amazed her little legs could keep up. Aunt Vicki and Amy.

Our little Cowgirl is getting so big.

Mike and I only stayed a week. Amy stayed another week all by herself and flew home. She had such an amazing time. She can't wait to go back. We all love it there.

Disney on Ice and Christmas Set up

2009-12-10T21:57:00.001-08:00

Amy was so excited to decorate the Christmas tree. I always make her wear a Santa hat. This one is getting too small for her. I guess it is time to get her a new one.
She wanted a picture with Sally...I don't think Sally was too excited about it. Maybe it had something to do with the Mrs. Claus dress we put on her.

We had our friends dog Sable over too. She loves to give kisses.

Awww...so cute.

My parents took us to see Disney on Ice. Amy was SO excited. They let her pick out a souvenir and it was not a suprise that she picked out the horse. I was happy that she picked something that she will play with for a long time.

Here is Amy, her cousin Ally and Papa before the show started.

Part of the show.

I love getting pictures of how they are reacting to the show. So fun.

The girls wanted shaved ice in these special cups. Of course Papa has a hard time saying no to his grandaughters.

Grandma, Papa, Ally and Amy after the show.

THANK YOU ! It was an amazing show!

Fall Pictures

2009-10-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

The family went up to the Alpine Loop (Timpanogos Canyon) to take Fall pictures. Both my sisters families and my Mom and Dad came. The colors were amazing and I am really happy with how the pictures turned out.

It was the perfect weekend to go. Sometimes the colors change so fast that there is only one or two weekends where the colors are this great in the mountains.

I love this idea. My sister is such a great photographer. She had the kids pick up leaves, pose before they threw them and then captured them throwing them.

The girls climbing the tree.

Amy loves to climb trees. I have so many pictures of her in them.

My oldest sister and her family.

My other sister and her family.

Mike wasn't able to come so we got a Mother/Daughter picture.

Grandma and Papa with Amy.

Grandma and Papa with the girls.

My parents like to get a picture with all their grandkids for their Christmas card. All but two of the grandkids were able to come.

3 weeks of Summer and my big 1st grader

2009-08-03T08:21:00.001-07:00

So I am having to get used to short Summers because Amy is on a year-round school calendar.

We had 3 weeks to get in as much fun as possible. So I will start with the first trip we took after she got out of school, in fact we left to go camping the day of her Kindergarten presentation (after it was over of course).

We went to a place called 12 mile. It is really beautiful and we had such a great time.

Amy in the tent trailer with her friends.

This little pond was right in our campsite. Amy loved fishing with Daddy.

She had a blast riding her 4-wheeler.

Her friend Ryan kept getting stuck in the ruts. It was so cute she would stop and run over to help push his 4-wheeler out. After a while I think he started to do it on purpose just so she would help him. It was so funny. They have been best friends since they were 18 months.Mike was the chef one night . Great hat and what a goober. He didn't smile for the first picture and I gave him a hard time so this is the smile I got for the next picture.

Amy on Ryan's bike. We forgot to bring hers so he was nice to share.

Buddies forever!

They are eating in the tent trailer because it rained one of the nights we were there.

We took the 4-wheelers up to Skyline. I didn't realize how high we would get. And yes...that is snow behind them. Crazy!

Amy and her Daddy.

We found a little stream that the kids had fun playing in. Amy loves to find walking sticks.

Mommy and Amy.

We had such a great time. I love camping with my family and friends.

One night we went "Color Me Mine" to decorate pottery. We went with a few of Amy's cousins. It was pajama night which means that if you wear your pj's you get a discount. The girls thought it was great fun and they had such fun things to decorate.

The girls with their finished products. We had to leave them there so they could be baked in the pottery ovens. Everyone's turned out so cute.

We also went to Seven Peak water park a couple times with Grandma and her cousins. Amy is a fish and can't get enough of the water.

Amy and Kymi ready to go on one of the scary rides. Amy has no fear and will try almost anything...is that good or bad??

Melissa, Ally and Amy on the tire swing.
Ally underwater

Amy underwater...still smiling

Getting eaten by the crocodile

Amy and Melissa

Ryan, Amy, Melissa and Nathan on the snake.

Amy going down a slide with Ryan.

Ally, Kymi and Amy...nice pose Ally.

The kids drowning Grandma in the wave pool.

Cute girlsOne, two, three...under

Seven Peaks was great. I have never been there before this summer.

Amy also loved playing in the sprinklers. She likes to get out the sidewalk chalk and draw while the water is on. It makes the chalk like paint.

Nice hands. Thankfully it washes right off!

I just took these pictures one day. They are too cute to leave out. This is her favorite pose.
Here she is on her first full day of 1st grade.

Got her backpack and ready to go. I can't believe I have a 1st grader. Where does the time go?

She's not in Kindergarten anymore

2009-07-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Last week was Amy's last day of Kindergarten. They did a little celebration. Here are a few pictures and videos. I can't believe she is going to be in 1st grade. She is growing up so fast.

Amy with her teacher Miss Giesa. This was her first year teaching and she was wonderful.

Amy with a few of her friends.

I love this video. It is a song called "I like being me". So cute. Amy is in the back row next to the boy with the red shirt.

This is a funny song. It is called Vinnie Volcano. Amy's friend was very animated while she sang it. She is the one wearing the white shirt.

Fun at the Ranch

2009-06-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, Mike's family lives in Northern Idaho on 54 acres of beautiful land. It is about 30 minutes north of Coeur d'Alene and about an hour and a half south of the Canadian border. It is just gorgeous up there. His Mom and Dad, Aunt and Uncle and Grandma all live on the Ranch (in separate houses of course). They have 6 horses, multiple 4 wheelers and lots of trails to ride or walk through.

Amy and I were lucky enough to go up to the ranch while Amy was off track. We were there for 2 weeks and had so much fun. Here are some pictures of the things we did. Thank you Gary and Cindy, Vicki and Vanny, and O'ma for taking care of us and making us feel at home.

Amy got a pair of Wrangler jeans, John Deer boots, a belt with changable buckle and a cute cowgirl shirt. She said "I am a real cowgirl now".

All saddled up and ready for a ride. I had her pose for some pictures before she put her riding helmet on.

Aunt Vicki, Amy and Grandma out for a ride.

Riding on one of the trails.

Amy just loves her cousin Lexi. She is feeding her some of her yogurt.

Lexi and Amy

O'ma and Amy making a quilt for Amy's dolls. It turned out so cute and they had a great time making it together.

Lexi turned 1 just before she got to the ranch so we had a celebration while we were there. Here she is going for the candle. We all thought she was going for the frosting.

"Ooooh pretty fire".

Cousin Seth loved the cake...now that is concentration.

The barn cat had 5 kittens about a month or so before we got there. Amy named them all and they were pretty tame. She loved playing with them and taking care of them.

Out for another ride on her horse Sunny.

Thank you Sunny...I love you.

Playing in the kiddie pool with Seth
They have a boat so we took it for a ride around Lake Cocolalla which is only about a 10 minute drive from the ranch.

Amy helped Grandpa reload.
Amy just loves gymnastics. Her Uncle Vanny has done gymnastics his whole life, so she spent a lot of time learning tricks with him. She learned to do a hand to hand (handstand on his hands). I was really impressed.

Tada
Goodbye Sunny...until next time.

Here is a couple video clips. One of a little gymnastic routine and another of her riding her horse.

The Zoo...and more

2009-05-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

I has been a few weeks since I posted my last update and I also realized that I forgot to post Easter pictures. So this post has multiple parts to it.

THE ZOO

For Amy's Kindergarten field trip they went to Hogle Zoo. She was so excited to take the bus for the first time. I met them there and helped out with the class. The picture below has the new goslings in it.

When we first go there, the parents were given their kids they were supposed to take around the zoo. I had Amy and two girls that she plays with all the time. Here they are when we first go there. From left to right...Paige, Kaylee, and Amy.

Paige and Amy looking at the porcupines.

The girls thought it was hilarious to pretend they were kissing the gorillas. There are multipe pictures like this. The school didn't allow much time to wander the zoo before the bus had to head back to the school so I signed Amy out and we spent the rest of the day there...just the two of us. It was great.

I didn't realize how many pictures I got of the elephants. I guess I really like them and didn't realize it. I won't bore you with all of them but here is a cute one of Amy with them in the background.

They have so many statues around the zoo. Of course she likes to pose for pictures on all of them.

Look at that huge turtle! Isn't it so cute.

What a fun day we had. Hopefully we will be back sometime this summer when more of the exhibits are open again. Some were still closed for winter.

EASTER PICTURES

I can't believe I didn't post any of these.

Amy on Easter morning going through her basket full of goodies. New earrings!

The day before Easter we went to Grandma and Papa's for an Easter egg hunt.

All the grandkids getting ready to go for the eggs. Timmy (my brothers son) was the only one missing in this picture. He must be behind one of them.

She loves crafts and art so decorating Easter eggs were so much fun for her.

MY FRIEND LORI

My friend was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I am running (or walking) in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on May 9th to show my support for her. A group of friends have been putting together little support gifts for her while she has been in and out of the hospital and going to chemo. One thing we wanted to give her was a blanket to take with her to her chemo treatments because we heard that you get cold during them. I found some really cool fleece fabic at walmart and made her one of those tie blankets. Here is a picture of it.

This is Lori right when I brought her the blanket. We love you Lori. If you would like to support me in the race, every dollar helps. Thank you.

Here is the link. http://race.komenslc.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1000&px=1060646

I COULDN'T RESIST

So the last picture is just funny. Amy loves to dress up our dog Sally...poor thing. She found her old ballet recital outfit and a build a bear hat and put it on her. I was laughing so hard...ENJOY!

That's it. I should be all caught up...I hope.

Thanks but you don't have to lead me

2009-04-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Amy went to a birthday party this weekend and they had a pony there for the kids to ride. Well, if you know Amy...she LOVES horses. All the kids took turns riding while someone lead the pony around the yard. When it was Amy turn, she got on and said "Thanks but you don't have to lead me. I know how to ride. I have big horse in Idaho that I ride all by myself." I was cracking up. She does have a horse at grandmas house in Idaho but I didn't know she would be so confident. Everyone at the party was laughing. She did great though. She wrapped the lead rope around the saddle horn, took the reins and lead the pony around like a champ. Grandma and Aunt Vicki would be so proud.

After her turn, she took it upon herself to lead the pony while the other kids got to ride. Here she is leading around her friend Kira. Amy spent pretty much the whole party with the pony. She only took a break when I made her go eat lunch and when they opened presents.

2 Wheels

2009-03-20T13:42:00.001-07:00

Last year we bought Amy a big girl bike (it still had training wheels but it had room to grow). She rode around on it a little and loved it but it was a little too tall for her. So she didn't get a lot of practice and she didn't want to try it without the training wheels. Now that the weather is getting better we decided to pull the bike out and get her riding. Yesterday she rode it around for a couple hours with the training wheels still on and today she decided she wanted to try without them. So, I took them off and took her to the path we have behind our house. I held on for a little bit but the first time I let go she did amazing. I couldn't believe it. She was obviously ready and I didn't even realize it.

Sorry about the shaky camera. I was trying to watch her through the camera and walk at the same time and then I was worried about her falling so I wasn't paying attention to keeping it still.

She wanted to go down the hill so here is the first time down. She did it many times after this.

Ear Piercing

2009-03-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Amy has been asking to get her ears pierced for a while now. I have been putting it off because I knew it would make her look so much older and I am having a hard enough time accepting her growing up so fast. I finally decided that it was time. She was so excited.

They sat her in the chair and gave her a teddy bear to hold. I tried to prepare her. She knew it would hurt but just for a second.
Ready...Set...

first one done...and tears

So for the other ear she sat on my lap. She did so good on the second ear and didn't even cry.

This picture cracks me up. She looks traumatized for life....and then like 5 seconds later we got the picture below. All better!

She was so excited to show off her earrings at school the next day. She loves looking at them in the mirror.

Amy's 6th Birthday

2009-03-02T21:35:00.001-08:00

Amy had quite a fun birthday weekend. On Friday night she had a friend spend the night. They played with barbies and then dressed up in all Amy's costumes and gave us a fashion show. Then I blew up an air mattress and put it in Amy's room. They ate popcorn and watched movies and all we heard was the giggling in the other room. They had such a fun time.

Goofy girls!
On Saturday we had a birthday party at the bowling alley. I forgot how noisy bowling alleys are and then add 13 five and six year olds and it is crazy. Amy had such a fun time though.

Here is Amy with a few of her friends. Amy is up. She has way better form than I do. For those of you who have seen me bowl...you know exactly what I am talking about.

Here is Amy with her Hannah Montana birthday cake.

I didn't ask the bowling alley if I could light the candles. I didn't want them to say no. I looked up and saw all the smoke alarm sprinklers. You know how in movies they are so sensitive and are set off so easy. I kept picturing them going off just as I was lighting the candles. Thankfully everything went smoothly.

Blowing out the candles.

Opening presents

I was so exhausted after the party. All three of us went home and took a nap. It was worth it though. I think Amy had a fun time.

6 years old!...Where does the time go?

2009-02-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

Be prepared...this is a long post. This weekend we have celebrated Amy's 6th birthday and I am just amazed at how fast the time has gone since she was born. I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of the last six years. I didn't think it would be hard to pick out pictures but it was so hard and there are a lot of them so sorry if it is too long.

February 26th 2003 Amy Elizabeth Hopkins was born. She was a whole month early.

I love this picture of Mike holding her in the hospital. There is just a look that a man gets the first time he becomes a Daddy and holds his child.

3 weeks old

4 months old

7 months

She was crawling around everywhere

10 months

Taking her first steps

Happy 1st birthday!

Right after her first birthday her hair got really curly.

14 months
16 months

Happy 2nd Birthday!

This is the funniest video clip. Amy has always loved to dance. This is the end of the movie Hitch where they dance down the aisle. Amy loved it and tried to copy all their moves...it cracks me up. She wanted us to play it over and over again.

First trip to Disneyland
Amy has never been afraid of the water. If she was in the bath or in the pool she was happy. She learned to swim almost by herself at 2 1/2 but she could do it on her own at 3.
This is her first ballet reciatal. When she is in the mood, she comes up with the funniest poses.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Such a cutie. I loved this shot.

Happy playing in the sprinklers.
Amy swimming at Grandma and Papa's house in California.

Leo Carillo Beach
Amy was a flower girl at her Uncle Matt and Aunt Megan's wedding. I don't have a lot of pictures because I was in the wedding and didn't get to carry my camera around. At the reception she danced the whole time...and I am not kidding. She took off her shoes and danced with probably everyone there.

Happy 4th Birthday

When my Dad retired he took us all to Hawaii. Her favorite thing was the hoola dancers so she had to get her own outfit.

She loves to make silly faces. For every picture I get of her smiling, she wants to do a silly face picture too.

She got to hold her cousin Seth for the first time.
Strike a pose

Fishing on one of our camping trips.

Fourth of July

Meeting her horse Sunny for the first time.

First day of pre-school

Pumpkin Patch

Amy with Uncle Matt's dog Wilson.

Happy 5th Birthday!

This has been a very busy year for Amy. She got to try new things and go to lots of fun places
She took her first ski lesson and really loved it. I think I was more nervous than she was. Amy even learned how to get on an off the lift.

Amy really wanted roller blades for her 5th birthday. So first she practiced on the carpet in the house, then moved on to the kitchen, then the sidewalk. She even roller bladed to pre-school one day. I promised her that when she had practiced enough I would take her to the skating rink. This is her first time out and thankfully it was not crowded. I was so proud of her.

We did lots of camping over the summer. You can't go camping without roasting marshmallows!

In June she graduated from pre-school. I know they make too big of a deal when it is just pre-school but she had fun. Her teacher loves Disneyland so instead of a graduation hat they had gold Mickey hats. I loved it.

Below is the video of her class throwing up their hats.

Hawaii

In June one of our cousins on Mike's side of the family got married in Hawaii. It was so fun to be able to spend time together in such a beautiful place. Amy was able to try new things while we were there too...

She climbed a coconut tree and made it to the top...

Learned how to snorkel with her daddy in sharks cove (close to North Shore)

She met her new cousin Lexi...she loved her from the first moment...

and she got to be a flower girl for her cousin. What a trip!

She spent some time up at the ranch this summer. She loves riding her horse Sunny and even got her first offical riding lesson. Sunny is such a good horse and Amy is so lucky that Grandma and Aunt Vicki take care of him...thank you!!

In August she started Kindergarten. She really loves school and cries when there is a holiday. I will enjoy that while it lasts.

Well that sums up most of the year. I can't get it all in.
I will post pictures of her 6th birthday soon.

Valentines Fun

2009-02-19T17:46:00.001-08:00

Amy and I celebrated Valentines on Friday. She started it off with her school party. That night we made smoothies and topped them with whipped cream. Yummy! I bought her a fancy cup that said love bug on it. She has a book called "Love Bug" and it one of her favorites so when I saw the cup, I had to buy it.
Then we played some games. Uno, go fish, and of course Twister. I only got pictures of Twister because Uno and go fish are not nearly as entertaining.

I guess when doing funny poses she feels the need to stick her tongue out because she does it in every picture.

At the end of the night we made chocolate covered strawberries and white chocolate covered rasberries. I didn't get any pictures but it was lots of fun and very yummy. On Valentines morining Amy helped me make a special breakfast for Daddy. We made Omlettes, and bacon and ate the chocolate strawberries too.

Girl Fun

2009-02-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

Amy had a couple friends come over today. They wanted to paint their nails so first I painted them pink and then put a coat of glitter polish on them. They had lots of fun.
Sally is one of the girls too so she got the nail treatment also.

Our Little Gymnast

2009-01-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

Today was Amy's performace day in gymnastics. She has been going to The Little Gym for almost a year and really loves it!

Here she is waiting for her turn on the beam.
She has really improved on the balance beam. It is so scary for kids so small to be up so high. She just learned to do a cartwheel off for her dismount.

In the background you can hear the other teacher cheering on the other half of the class. She is very dramatic but the kids love it.

The uneven bars are still her favorite. She does such a great job..but of course I am the "proud mom".

She gets so excited when they give out medals.

This is her with her whole class. Her teachers are so great and Amy really loves them. They teach the kids so much and make it fun for them.

Hole in her mouth

2009-01-10T21:03:00.001-08:00

Yes...Amy finally lost her first tooth. It seems like this tooth has been loose forever and Amy has been so excited to have the tooth fairy come. Of course I had to get a cheesy picture of the hole in her mouth.

It is sort of hard to see but she wanted me to get a picture of her holding it.

Christmas

2009-01-01T15:09:00.000-08:00

This year we spent Christmas Eve over at my sisters house. We played games and told a Christmas story. We had a great time with each other but I forgot my camera. Christmas morning after opening presents, we went to a friends house for breakfast and then out to my parents house for dinner. We did a lot of running around that day but it was fun. Here are a few pictures.

Amy was so excited for Christmas this year. Five is such a fun age! Here is Amy getting Santa's cookies and milk ready for him.
Christmas morning getting her stocking down. She was so excited to see a new Webkinz at the top of it, she almost forgot the to get the whole stocking down.

Santa brought her a barbie house with a few new barbie's and Little Pet Shops.

New winter coat. She really needed one and she was so happy that she had to put it on right away.

Uncle Matt and Aunt Megan sent her a whole set of princesses. She loves them! Perfect to go with her barbie house.

Here is my dad and my nephew Ryan. The kids love to play with the train they have going around the tree. Something was wrong with it and the kids couldn't leave Papa alone while he tried to fix it. Papa didn't care though. He loves to have the grandkids all over him.

Amy's turn to kill Papa's back.

Amy was a lucky girl on Christmas. We all had so much fun.

Here comes Santa Claus

2008-12-18T10:18:00.000-08:00

So I took Amy to the mall to see Santa yesterday. They have changed the set-up from just the normal picture spot. Norad Tracks Santa was the sponsor this year. Some of you may have heard of Norad Santa tracker before, but just in case you haven't, this is what it is.

NORAD is the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization responsible for the aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada. NORAD, created by a 1958 agreement between Canada and the United States, provides advanced warning of impending missile and air attack against its member nations, safeguards the air sovereignty of North America, and maintains airborne forces for defense against attack.

So Norad has set up a Santa tracker where kids can go to their website on Christmas Eve and see where in the world Santa is. It is really fun to do with the kids. Here is the link http://www.noradsanta.org/

There were multiple interactive things for the kids to do while waiting in line. There were things to read to the kids and then there were trivia questions to ask them. They taught them about satelites, gps units, and the different time zones. It was nice to have something to do while we were in line.

This was a map listing all the diffent time zones throughout the world. They could drag Santa and his sleigh through all of them.
Cute picture by a Christmas tree just before we got to the front of the line.

Santa was asking if she has been a good girl this year. She looks like she is thinking really hard.

Ok, confession time is over. Smile for the picture.

He is such a great Santa, real beard and all. This mall has the same guy every year.

Top Gun

2008-12-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

My brother-in-law Matt is a Navy Pilot and last weekend graduated from Top Gun. The whole family went to Fallon, NV to see him get his diploma and celebrate such a great accomplishment. We are so proud of you Matt.

The day before the graduation we got to see him in his final Top Gun flight. We got a tour of the base and watched them take off. They flew right above us. It was amazing.

Here he is getting his diploma.
Here is the whole family after graduation.

Matt and his two nieces, Lexi and Amy.

Amy posing with the jet planes on base.

Amy just posing.
The whole family.

We had such an amazing time. It was such a special occation and to spend it with the whole family made it even better. Love you all.

Random Pictures of Amy and Family while in Reno

2008-12-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some fun pictures of Amy and the family over the weekend. We had such a great time being together. As you can see, Amy really loves her little cousin Lexi.

I love this picture of Amy and her Aunt Lizzie. She always has so much fun when they are together.
Amy just loves her Uncle Matt. She came up to Mike and I and said "I love Uncle Matt. I just can't get enough of him". I thought it was so cute.

Amy and her Aunt Megan in Sams Club. They had races down the aisle.
Lexi is such a sweetheart. I hadn't seen her since she was a month old. Now she is 7 months old and just adorable. I had so much fun playing with her.

Amy loves being goofy with Uncle Elias. They are like two peas in a pod when they are together.

Amy let Lexi hold her special pink blanket.

My cousin Nichelle who lives in Reno, came to see us while we were in town. I haven't seen her in so long. I am so glad we got to see her. Amy loved getting to know her again.

Here is Lexi wearing Amy's sunglasses. "No pictures please".

Pa holding his two grandaughters.

O'Ma and her two great-grandaughters.

Amy holding Lexi. I think Lexi looks like a cabbage patch doll here. Such a cutie.

Amy thought it was so fun to make Lexi laugh. This was so cute.

Ready, Set, Cut

2008-12-09T17:11:00.001-08:00

Amy has been asking to cut her hair short for a while now. I have been putting it off and putting it off because I just love her long curls. So I finally told her that she could go as short as her shoulders. Believe me when I say that it was much harder on me than it was on her. Here she is just before it was braided. Look how long it was!

Cutting off the braid. We cut it below the shoulders because her curls lift it up so much.
Getting it styled and blown dry.

Getting her first look. At least she was smiling.

The final hair style. Look how old she looks.

Remembering December 7, 1941

2008-12-08T14:02:00.000-08:00

I know this is a day late but still important to remember the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. We went to Hawaii in June and had the privilege of visiting Pearl Harbor for the first time. Nothing prepares you for the feelings you experience when you visit the Arizona Memorial. The love, sorrow and gratitude you feel for these men is hard to explain. I think what suprised me the most was how Amy responded. We explained to her the events of what had happened that day and she also watched the movie they show you before you go out to the memorial. When we were there she was very quiet. When she looked into the water, she asked if that was the boat the people were in. I was suprised at how much she understood and it actually brough tears to her eyes.

Then what really got me choked up was when we went into the room with all the names on the wall. She asked what it was and we told her it was the names of all the people who died that day. She started crying. Here ia a picture of Mike holding her. Then she got down and looked closer and found someone with the last name Hopkins and started to cry again.

Visiting the memorial truly brings to life what happened that day. It reminded me how lucky I am to live here in this country where men and women of our military are willing to fight and die for our freedom.

Getting Ready for Christmas

2008-12-03T21:56:00.000-08:00

I finally got the Christmas decorations out. Amy was so excited to decorate the tree and she did a great job. Everytime she picked up an ornament she asked if it was a special one. If I said yes, she said that she would be very carefull with it and she held it like it was going to break in her hands. It was cute.

The tree is finally done. Not a very big one but it was fun to decorate. I love putting up our decorations every year.

It is a tradition in our family to have Santa's elves come to our house. They keep an eye on Amy and make sure she is being a good girl. Starting December 1st one elf arrives everyday until Christmas Eve. They hide somewhere in the house and Amy looks for the hidden elf every morning when she wakes up. The first day a "personal elf" comes in the form of a doll. This is the only elf she is able to play with. On Christmas Eve they slowly start leaving the house throughtout the day until they are all gone.

Ths is Amy with her elf. She loves that she has curly hair just like her.

Dallas Cowboy Fans

2008-11-23T11:17:00.001-08:00

Mike has turned Amy into a football fan. Of course she like Dallas because of daddy. Last year Mike bought all the minature helmets for all the teams and helped Amy learn all of them. She can name all 32 teams by looking at their logo. I couldn't even do that.

Fall Pictures

2008-11-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

I wasn't able to make the trip into the mountains to get fall pictures in September because of my back surgery. So I had to wait for the colors to change in the valley. This is the tree in our front yard. Amy loves climbing it so I thought it would be perfect to take pictures of her.

2008-10-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

Amy went to her cousin's school for a Halloween party. She was a cowgirl.

Amy and her cousin Nathan. He wore this cool jacket. The hood zipped over his head to look like a skull.

Each classroom had an activity. They got their face painted and then this was them making green slime.

I loved this one. They made ghosts out of tissue and suckers then had ghost races.

Amy's first paint job got messed up so she went back and they did it again.

They did a great job on the face painting.

This is the mummy wrap.

And finally they got to make picture frames. She had such a great time.

Scarecrow Festival

2008-10-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

We went to the Scarecrow festival at Thanksgiving Point. There were a lot of fun activities for the kids but not too many photo spots. There were a few though. Here are a couple of the cute ones. I am hoping to make it to the pumpkin patch for pictures too.

This is Amy with her cousin Allyson.

Amy Reading

2008-10-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, Amy hasn't shown to much interest in reading until recently. She is much more into crafts and art. So I am so happy that she is starting to read. I taped a little bit of her reading out of the book Dick and Jane. It is a really old book. It was the first book I read and I think the first one my Mom read as a kid too...so it is really old! Ha ha Mom. Anyway. I thought it was cute.

She got a little camera shy at the end but she is doing good.

Fun Summer Pictures

2008-10-02T22:09:00.001-07:00

Well, I haven't taken many pictures because of being stuck in the house but I am tired of my blogg having the same old pictures. So....I thought I would just share some fun pictures from the last few months. This is Amy up at the Ranch in Idaho riding her horse Sunny. Yes...she has a horse that lives with Grandma. Lucky girl!

Camping in the mountains. Amy was waiting for Daddy to get off her 4-wheeler. I think Daddy is a little too big for it.

Finally Amy got her turn.

Our big trip this summer was going to Hawaii. We went with Mike's family and had a great time.

Amy wanted to climb this coconut tree at the PCC. The guy there thought she was too little to do it but she is very determined. Off she went!

Halfway up. The whole crowd was cheering her on. I was amazed at how well she was doing.

Yeah.. she made it to the top and everyone was clapping for her. If you look at the clock, she made it in less than a minute. Go Amy!

One day we drove to North Shore and we stopped for some shaved ice.

Of course, as most kids do, she had to have blue.

The same day we stopped here for pictures. As you can see, her mouth is still blue from the shaved ice.

Just thought this was a cute picture.

One reason for the trip was for Mike's cousin's wedding. Amy was the flower girl and her little cousin Seth was the bible boy.

Amy, Grandma Cindy, and Lexi

Down the aisle she goes.

Seth, Amy, and Lexi on the beach

For her 5th birthday Daddy bought Amy a ski helmet and goggles. She was so excited to learn to ski.

This was Amy dressing up Sally in her doll clothes. Sally is just happy to get attention. Amy likes to put her in her shopping cart and push her around the house.

Well, I am done looking for pictures. I will try to get some new ones on here soon.

Surgery

2008-09-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't done much to update this page but I have a good excuse. I just got out of the hospital from having back surgery. I had a herniated disk and they did a one level fusion. I am home now but pretty drugged up. I am getting better every day and I hope to have a speedy recovery.

Beth's first blogg

2008-09-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blogg. I have never done this before so I am leaning as I go.