2009 Family Newsletter

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!






Here is a link to the fanily newsletter I sent out...just in case you didn't get one. My printer is running low on ink.

Failed Photo Shoot

I attempted to take some picture of the girls for our Christmas card. I did not do so good. Here are the results. e would not cooperate so I ended up going through some past pictures.

Ole Saint Nick

Aaron's mom invited us to come to their ward Christmas breakfast. Santa also came & the girls got to sit with him. He was the best Santa. He was really kind & spent a lot of time with each child. It was hard to wait but I was glad when it was finally our turn & the girls had his full attention. Thank you Santa!

 

 

Number Two is FOUR!

halloween 2009

reese was not feeling too great so we did not get very many pictures of her. the ones we did get aren't that great either. charley then became the star & she loved every minute of it. i was too lazy to dress evangeline up. bad mommy.

Pumpkin Patch

Neal & Connie took us to the pumpkin patch. It was the perfect day & the girls had a blast. Charley insisted on wearing her cowgirl hat (hat for her Halloween costume. She has hardly gone anywhere without it these last few weeks but it works. She even rides her bike in it. Thank you to Neal for the amazing pictures. A nice camera makes a such a difference. We love the Knights!!

lil' e

zion national park

aaron & i went on our 3rd annual utah national park outing. my first time to zion national park. it was amazing! our cameras are stupid, not as stupid as me...we hiked angels landing & got two pictures before our battery died & i didn't bring our backup camera. we waited til we got to an overlook of angels landing & then got a few more pictures out of the camera. i really wished i would have had it to take pictures of the top of angels landing. i copied some pics from someone else just to give an idea of what we hiked. it was only 5 miles round trip but it was intense. our other pictures of hiking the narrows weren't very good either because we were hiking the river & it was dark & shady. next time we are hoping to have better more reliable equipment. an excuse to go back.

aaron's favorite quote from a mormon pioneer credited for naming Zion Canyon: "These are the Temples of God, built without the use of human hands. A man can worship God among these great cathedrals as well as in any man-made church - this is Zion."

summer goodbyes

this is one of my favorite pics from this summer. i am sad that it has come & gone so quickly.

 

flower girls

aarons nephew got married last month & the girls were asked to be flower girls. they had so much fun...and once again, they seemed to have stolen the show. reese was worried that the bride was going to be prettier than she. charley reprimanded a bridesmaid for being "immodest". thank goodness she was a good sport. it was a fun evening. thanks logan & jacque!

 

 

 

 

blue eyed baby

carasols & a princess

after geocaching we took the girls to a fair. they each got to ride the carasol, reese loved it, charley abhorred it. so, we let them pick one more ride. charley loved her ride & i was glad to see her enjoy her self. reese chose a rollercoaster ride, my pics were all blurry. lil' e is turning out to be so fun...demanding but fun. she reminds me so much of reese as a baby.

geocachin' in the sticks

earlier this summer aaron's brother gave him a GPS for his birthday. so, he got online & printed out some geocache's close to the house. we decided to try it out & told the girls that we were going on a treasure hunt. the first one we picked was the closest at jordan parkway. we started out on what seemed to be a trail but then decided it was not, backtracked & headed to the actual parkway. once there, we headed out to the west side of the river, bushwhacking it for about 1 mile til we got to the edge of the river only to find that our treasure was on the other side. argh. backtracked again to the parkway, go off the parkway....bushwhacked it again on the east side of the river only to be disappointed once we got to the edge of the river 30 feet from our destination. our treasure has been swallowed up on the river. charley & i took a pic of us being sad because they were very disappointed. we needed to be successful. so, aaron took us to some other ones in a park nearby. i must say that my laser eye surgery has been a success because i spied them both...& one was tiny. you can see charley holding it in one of the pics. anyway, it was so much fun despite being thwarted on our first try.

24th of july at the cabin

chalk artist

aaron came home to this one night....i had no idea what she was doing.

best blueberry pie ever...

i bought some blueberries & made this pie. two days later my sister brought me some more, so i made another pie...that same day aaron bought more blueberries for me to make another pie. at least i am good at something!

4th of july festivities

cecret lake

we took hike to cecret lake...it was absolutely gorgeous. the girls were in heaven, especially reese. she was rock climbing, running, jumping...she was in her element. we kept having to coax charley along. all summer we have been trying to build her endurance. i keep telling her that there are no wussy girls in the utley family. she made it all by herself until we got to the last steep hill. i finally had to put her on my back since aaron had the baby. about 1/2 way up the hill i had to stop to take a breather. when i stopped she said "mom, don't stop. there are no wussy girls in the utley family". grrrr....

lovely ladies

the other day reese spent the afternoon with her grama. when i picked her up she was so excited to show me what they made. grama said that she planted these hollyhocks specifically to make these dolls, which she learned to make from her grama. i just thought that they were adorable & was so grateful to a grama who would do something so thoughtful.

giggly girl

From 5-17-09

Preschool Graduate

dear jenni...these flowers remind me of you

zoo day

 

 

 

 

making memories with the speeds

john & jenni asked if we would take them to southern utah while they were here visiting from hawaii. i posted mostly my pics but some are jenni's. i'll let her put her fantastic twist on the landscape pics. she was awesome about taking lots of pics...john certainly had his fill. love ya jen!!!

Golden Spike/Spiral Jetty

Erika has been wanting to go see the Spiral Jetty ever since she heard about it from our friend Elise. We made the trip to see it yesterday and on our way stopped at The Golden Spike National Monument.
We weren't planning on stopping but I'm glad we did as it was pretty interesting.



The train picture is in front of "No.119", a replica of the original No.119 that met "The Jupiter", the other train, on May 10, 1869 when the Transcontinental Railroad was complete.

Finally over a long dusty and very rocky dirt road we made it to the Jetty. This was the girls favorite part of the trip.

The Spiral Jetty is out in the middle of no where on the Northeasten shore of the Great Salt Lake. There are a lot of great rocks out there. We brought a couple home and put them in our flower garden. It was a pretty fun day.


I think every Utahan should see The Spiral Jetty at least once in thier life.

where is alisha when i need her?

it seems like i never get pictures of me with the girls...so i had to take one myself. this was the only one where my face wasn't either being sucked on or cut completely out.

 

big girl

 

easter sunday

 

 

 

 

yesterday