Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary!!!

We had fun celebrating my Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. We had a dinner and a short program for them, it turned out nice. All my brothers and sisters were there with their families. Except my oldest brother Mike, he and his wife along with most of their kids are serving missions. It was fun to see everyone. I forgot my camera, fortunately my assignment for the program was to put together a slide show. So, luckily for this post, I had hundreds of pictures, that I had scanned in, to choose from. Here are some of my favorites.

Mom and Dad cutting their cake

Me and my sister Nancy in our Christmas pajamas. My parents always made Christmas special.

Nancy and I at the swimming pool by Granite campground in Wyoming. When all my brothers and sisters and I shared memories for the program. One memory was common between us all, we all loved going to Granite. It just goes to show you don't have to spend allot of money and go to far away places to make memories with you kids. Some of the simplest family traditions may be what they remember most.

I just had to throw this one in because it pretty much sums my dad up. He is a kid at heart. All the Grand kids love their Grandpa Thornton, he never seems to tire of playing with them. And thinking of new toys to make for them. Thanks Dad for being such a fun Grandpa.

This is a picture of my mom with our very first microwave! I chose this picture because it is of my mom in the kitchen. She was such a great homemaker and made our home a great place to be. One of my favorite memories is of my mom making bread, she would always let my little sister and me make a little loaf of our own. Because my mom was always at home for us she was able to teach us even in the simple things. Thank you mom.

Congratulations Mom and Dad!!!! Thanks for making it through 50 years of marriage and giving our family such great memories!!!

Our Florida Vacation

We finally made it to Florida! We had a great time there. Although, getting there and getting home were a little more complicated than I anticipated. Because of the way the frequent flier miles worked out, Shaun flew on one plane and I took our three girls on the other. On the way there we were all worried because we thought Shaun was going to miss his flight. He went to park the car and got pulled over by the police for speeding and then couldn't find a parking spot. I checked his bags and got his tickets and he just made it. I thought all the drama was over until I went to check in and found out my plane had already left! Apparently they changed my flight time to an hour earlier and failed to notify me. I had to fly standby the whole way there. The way home was even worse. This time I made sure to check my flight times. But Miami international requires you to check in 45 min before your flight not the usual 30min of most airports, I was late by 5 min and they wouldn't let me on my plane, so once again I had to fly standby. This time, however, the planes were much more crowded, and we had mechanical issues on both flights, turning an already long trip into 2 hours longer. Needless to say we were glad to make it home.

Other than the plane rides we had a fabulous trip. I had trouble narrowing down the pictures, so I decided to break it up into days. Sorry this post is so long.

Day one flight out and Miami beach!

The girls were so excited to ride in an airplane for the first time. On our first take off Brianne got so excited she kind of forgot there were other people on the plane and practically shouted with excitement, "we are up in the air Mom!" Everyone in the airplane was laughing.

We finally made it to out hotel on Miami beach. Our original hotel had overbooked and so they payed for us to stay at a 5 star hotel just down the road. It was really nice, our room was huge with a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. We had a beautiful view of the beach and the Miami lights at night time. The minute we got to our hotel, we threw our swimming suits on and headed out to the beach the girls had lots of fun, but they both wished the ocean wasn't salty, because it tasted bad when it got in their mouths.

Here is Sydnie having fun in the water the first day was about the only day she enjoyed the water she got knocked over by a wave shortly after this picture and it ruined her for the rest of the trip. She wouldn't even get her feet wet in the tidal pools of water that were completely still.

Day two more Miami beach and alligators.

We spent the morning again on the beach, then cleaned up and headed for a place called Holiday park just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. They have air boat rides on the everglades. The girls had fun on the boat and we saw quite a few alligators and other wild life. After the boat ride, they do an alligator show and then let the kids hold a baby alligator if they want to. My girls were not scared at all to hold it. Later that day we drove over to the Gulf of Mexico and stayed on Sanibel Island, a little island just of the shore by Ft. Meyers. It is know for its sea shells and the girls had allot of fun looking for them.

Kaylee and Brianne holding the baby alligator at Holiday Park.


Day 3 Playing on the Beach at Sanibel.

We spent the whole day on the beach. The girls had fun playing in the water, either in the ocean or in the swimming pool just of the beach by our hotel.

Kaylee and Shaun body surfing. This is one of the few times she got it to work. The waves were not huge on this part of the ocean.


Brianne and I made a sea shell sand castle. It managed to last the whole day.

This is not sand we are sitting in it is seashells. The shells are piled up into big mounds all down the whole beach. The shells are as plentiful as the sand. So the trick is not finding shells, its finding the good ones.

Sydnie thought it was great fun to sit in a pile of seashells and throw them. She looked so cute in her little sun dress throwing the shells, that everyone who walked by was commenting on the cute little sea shell princess.

That evening the tide went way out and we were finding all kinds of fun things. We made a tidal pool and filled it up with all kinds of live shells. We found small conch shells and hermit crabs, sea urchins and some sort of clam thing. The girls especially like the clams they would stick their foot out, and try to jump out of the tidal pool. Kaylee would laugh and laugh, and Sydnie kept trying to grab them and almost got her finger stuck inside one of the clam shells.

I just had to add this picture of all of our feet in one of the piles of sea shells.

Saying goodbye to Sanibel. This Island is also known for its spectacular sunsets, and it did not disappoint us on our last night there.

Day Four Sea World.

The girls had had their fill of the beach so the last day we decided to make an unplanned stop to Sea World. We got up early Saturday morning and made the long drive to Orlando and spent the whole day at Sea World. It was allot of fun and the girls favorite part of the trip.

Kaylee and Brianne had allot of fun riding the kiddie rides at the end of the day. Here they are on the Shamu Express roller coaster.

Easter Fun!!!

OK, I know that most of you got your Easter posts done weeks ago and I was just going to give up and not even post on this but I am using these blogs to help out with my scrapbook journaling so I am going to post this anyway. We had lots of fun and celebrating Easter in Idaho. On Friday we had an Easter party and egg hunt at my moms house. The girls had fun on an Easter egg hunt and my mom as always had a scavenger hunt set up for all the grand kids and great grand kids and they followed the clues to the Easter surprise she had got them. On saturday we went to my niece Morgan's baptism, congratulations again to her for choosing to get baptized. And then we had family pictures taken with Shaun's side of the family. The girls had fun finding their baskets Easter morning, Brianne wanted the Easter bunny to leave her clues to help her find her basket and Kaylee decided she was old enough to find it herself with no clues. Although she did end up needing a few little hints from her mother before she finally found it.

Sydnie finding an egg on the Easter egg hunt at Grandma Thornton's.

Grandma Thornton passing out the Easter surprises from her scavenger hunt.

All the grand kids ready to go hunt for some Easter eggs.

You've got to love spring!!!

Spring time where we live is always crazy. One day it will be freezing cold and snowing, the next day it will be sunny and 60 degrees outside!

This is the girls on Saturday we woke up to snow and they just had to get all dressed up in there snow clothes and go out and play in it.

This was Sunday, the very next day. The girls played outside most of the day, and we went for a walk to the park after conference. Here is Brianne on her bike, she has finally gotten the hang of going up and down all the hills we have in our neighborhood.

Trip to Hogle Zoo!!

We took advantage of the last nice day last week and went to the zoo. I think everyone else had the same idea it was pretty crowded. Luckily we went in the morning, you should have seen the lines to get in when we were leaving. The girls had allot of fun looking at the animals, but were most excited to ride the carousel and the train. Sydnie thought all the animals were great. She especially liked the giraffes and any animal that looked like a kitty. Her favorite animal (surprise surprise), was one that looked just like a house cat. We had to take her kicking and screaming from that exhibit.

Riding the train

Kaylee on the carousel

Sydnie on the carousel

Sydnie loved the giraffes

Kaylee and Brianne at the Elephant exhibit

SYDNIE!!!

I haven't posted in awhile and I have been meaning to post this picture of Sydnie. She loves to get into my kitchen drawers and put on my oven mitts and walk around. I thought I would take a minute and write down some cute stories and some milestones. It seems like you will remember these things forever, but if you don't write them down, you find yourself regretting it.

Sydnie is almost 18months now, and I can't believe how it seems like she has turned into a little girl instead of my baby almost overnight. She has her own cute little personality and loves to do silly things to try and get her sisters to laugh. She loves to dance. I was trying her swimming suit on her the other day, and I think she thought it was a dance outfit like her older sisters wear. She immediately went out in the living room and started doing a little dance.

Lately she had been into dogs and kitty's. Every stuffed animal she picks up is either a doggy or a kitty. She is always walking around with them saying "meow, meow" or "woof, woof". She has also learned the word no, and thinks its fun to offer one of her toys to her sisters, then hurry and take it back and say "no!"

Syndie has always been such an affectionate baby, and is very generous with hugs and kisses. I have been going to nursery with her the last few weeks and its funny to watch her try to hug all the other kids. The usual response is a push or a hit back. I wonder how much longer she will try to get them to hug her back.

The other night I was having trouble getting her to bed, so I let her come in my bed. I was trying to ignore her and show her it was bed time, so I had my back turned and was pretending to sleep. She tried poking me and patting me to get my attention, finally crawled over the top of me and started giving me wet sloppy kisses. Of course I gave in, I turned around and laughed and gave her a hug.

Sydnie brings lots of joy to our family, she has been such an easy going baby and so easy to love. I think I have been more aware with her that they don't stay babies for long. I have tried to be more conscious of slowing down and just enjoying each stage, because I know I will blink my eyes and she will be heading off to kindergarten.

It's That Time a Year Again!

I have spent the last month getting ready for my spring show and I actually finished a few days early. I set up this Saturday and the show starts next Wednesday the 12th. Usually I am scrambling until the last minute to get everything done. But the economy has taken its toll on the crafting business and I haven't had to make as much for this show. It has actually been a nice break not having to spend hours everyday stressing about how I am going to get everything done. Below are pictures of a few new things I have made for the spring show. I usually make a few more new things for each show but with the economy the way it is I had to hold myself back a little bit. Hopefully my plan to scale back will work out.

This one was actually a late addition to my last show in December. But I didn't get pictures of it last time. It was a big seller and I am doing several again for this show.

These are a new Easter item. I think they turned out cute. I left them in their packaging because I was too lazy to take them out for the picture.

These blocks turned out cute. This is a picture of two sets, I wanted to show you both sides. One side says Spring and then you can turn them and they say Easter on the other side. So kind of two decorations in one!

This is a turning photo cube. I had this idea in my head and it took allot of thought to get the idea out of my head and made into the actual craft. If any of you are wondering yes I actually cut and assemble all the crafts myself.

These are actually an adaptation of something I've had in the show for awhile we will see if these sell better or not.

And now for my absolute favorite of the show. This wall hanging is actually quite large about 20"x 20" and I customize it to your families initials. Its kind of hard to see in the picture but I put your families last name with the date of your marriage over the top. I really love the way these turned out. I am doing them for special order at my show.