Mom & Dad's trip to Sydney Part 1

Ahh, the kids....

All I can say is that these little munchkins are growing up way tooooo fast!!!

A new name for a chicken nugget...

Ummm...pretty funny, right? I was grocery shopping the other day and stopped to look at the selection of chicken nuggets..when lo & behold I came across this wonderful brand. I must say...I have never seen a chicken nugget called a Breast Munchie!

Ron + Barby

This pic was taken just before leaving to take my parents to the airport. It was hard to see them go.

Relaxing at Balmoral Beach!

One hot mama!!

This was taken 2 years ago. There are a few family members missing. It is quite the gang and so fun when we are all together.

This was from this year. Again some are missing...including us of course.

This one is hard to see but I love it because all the haircuts and clothes are so 70's and classic!

Beautiful mom!

6 of the 9 of us...me, Ry and Jeff are obviously not born yet. well maybe Ry is..just not in the pic.

Their growing family...Mike, Jo, Deb & Steve

Cute little tom boy mom on the left...

Little Barbara Jean

Dad when he was in the Air Force

Whooo...gotta love the butch...

Cute lil Ronnie

I love this pic, I think it is so cute!

August 21, 1962 my parents were married in the Manti, Utah LDS temple. They met at the University of Utah in the marching band. Dad played the trumpet and Mom played the flute. They dated, married, lived in various places in the US and had 9 children. From that nine their family has grown to almost 50 with 29 of them being grandchildren. They have traveled the world together and lived in England, France and India. They always taught us the importance of education, a love for camping, traveling and time together. Now that I am a parent, I sometimes wonder how they did all that they did.

I have learned so much from them as parents. I have seen them excises faith during trying times and lean on the Lord for comfort and understanding. I admire them. I appreciate their love and support and am very grateful they didn't stop having kids at #7......I am sure Jeff would back me up on that one..:).

So here is a BIG Happy 47th Anniversary Mom & Dad!! Congrats! Love you lots!

I just love all the old pics and having them to add to this blog/journal!

Blue Mountains

I love mountains, I grew up next to the mountains, when we lived in Idaho, I missed the mountains in Utah. Although we don't live next to the mountains here...we do live about an hour from the beautiful Blue Mountains of Australia. It was chilly, but a gorgeous view!

shivering...but loving the mountain air.

Ma & Pa with the 3 sisters in the background.

one tooth down...

You would think I would have this picture thing down, but apparently I don't..I keep putting them in the wrong order..oh well. ;) So as you can see...Miss, I am growing up way too fast, Alivia lost her first tooth on the 4th. She has her two big girl teeth coming in behind her babies, so we have been wiggling and wiggling trying to get them out. Luckily my mom is here and pulled the dangling by a thread tooth out. I just don't do teeth...I get all weak thinking about yanking one out.

So there it is. Alivia was so proud and excited. I think Rex was equally excited because he was jumping around yelling, "Yay, Yay Liv's tooth is out!" It was a pretty eventful moment.

Grandma going at it. I held Liv, but I had to turn my head and hope I didn't hear any sounds. haha!

Oh how I love these chubby legs

Let me tell you the story behind these shimmering shoes. A month or a so ago our friends went out of town overnight and we had their kids stay the night. Their little girl was wearing these sparkling beauties and Lucy had her eye on them. The entire time the kids were at our house, Lucy had Laine's shoes on. So when it was time for Laine and Gabe to go home, Lucy had already claimed the shoes as her own...so as you can imagine we had a screaming 2 year old on our hands when I told her that the shoes belonged to Laine. Her nice, understanding mom told Lucy that she could keep the shoes. I am not kidding when I tell you that Lucy wears these shoes non stop. For the first few days I had to peel them off her stinky little feet after she had gone to bed. She wore them to church, but the funny thing is that they are too big for her so they make her feet look massive. So these cute pics are of Lucy's creation. She put the socks on herself, the skirt by herself and topped her outfit off with her sparkly, stolen shoes. I love her chubby legs so much, can't get enough of em!!

Joe's Delight

Every year Jared requests Joe's Delight for his birthday cake. It is a lemon cake with a lemon drizzle on top. I had a hard time finding all the ingredients here, but I made it work. Happy birthday, Jared!!

Grandpa & Grandma are here!!!

These little kids are so happy to have their grandpa and grandma here for a few weeks. It was fun to pick my parents up at the airport and show them around beautiful Sydney. We tortured them and made them stay awake as long as possible so that they could get used to the time faster. We have been having a great time with them here. I have heaps of pics to post here in the coming days!! Stay tuned!!

Finch fam reunion

We missed a great family Finch family reunion this year. It is always fun to be with Jared's side of the fam. They had a great time down in southern Utah swimming, eating good food and seeing two shows at Tuachan. We were sad to have missed the time together, but we are shooting for next year. :)

Jared is 34...

Jared celebrated his 34th birthday on the 3rd of August surrounded by wild koalas, ocean views and beautiful weather. Ok, well we think we were surrounded by wild koalas, we just couldn't see them, but we know they were there. :) We took a trip up north to Nelson's Bay, Port Stephens and Lemon Tree Passage. We rented a cute bungalow right on the waterfront and in an area known for koalas. It was fun to be with my parents and explore that beautiful area together. We hit the beach, found a seashell graveyard and came home with two buckets full of shells, ate meat pies and the famous Red Ned's pie shop. Unfortunately Ned was fresh out of kangaroo pies. Jared really wanted to snack on one for his birthday...(gross, I think, I don't know, maybe they are good, but just the thought of a kangaroo pie puts me over the edge.) We did find one resident koala named Kevin or PJ, two people told us different names. He was all cute nestled up in the tree. It was a beautiful area that I am sure we will visit again.

Now to JARED!! I have known Jared since 1998, back when we were youngins, so I know a thing or two about him. He impressed me then and he impresses me now! He is a great husband, dad and example to all of us. He has a great sense of humor, he is awesome with people and is extremely handy & works very hard!!. No, he is not sitting next to me making me type this....he is one amazing fella! I can count on him for anything. The kids adore him and scream like crazy monkeys when he knocks on the door letting us know he is home from work. We love him and are grateful that he is a part of our lives!! We love you so!! xoxo

Happy Birthday, Jared!!!!