Chucke Cheese, Photo Shoots, and Smores (Montana trip part 2)

I was finally able to download some pictures from our trip to Montana. It started out with a trip to ChuckE Cheese. Now I'm not typically overly germophobic, however, this place really brings it out in me. I really had to talk myself out of going around spraying every square inch of the place with my Lysol to-go (yes there is such thing!) In the end it was a lot of fun and I was able to get over the germ thing and just make sure I scrubbed the kids down afterwards

Of course it's all about the tickets! Krista was really gettin into the Whack-a-Mole so she could rack up the kids ticket count...you know so they could get some 10 cent piece of junk that they can lose in the car on the way home!

Brynlee was't very impressed by ChuckE...I don't understand why she wouldn't like a giant rat coming right at her??

Our next item of business was a photo shoot with the grandkids. We took over my mom's kitchen, gathered some props and let the fun begin. I think we went through 5lbs of jelly beans bribbing the kids to cooperate. Here are a few of my favorites.

Playin play dough!

And of course it wouldn't be a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's if we didnt' roast marshmellows and make S'mores!

Gotta love the Marshmellow roaster stuck to my dad:)

My dad trying to tell his classic "scary" story about 2 polocs sitting in a boat. As you can see from Emily's face it was really "scary"!

We had such a great time on our trip and were very sad to leave. We can't wait until the next time we can all get together again!

Claire's Wedding

This isn't the greatest picture but I didn't have many that showed off Claire's dress...it was GORGEOUS! I'm pretty sure it's my all time favorite wedding dress.

It certainly has been a long time since my last post. I'm blaming it on one rough month which included kidney stones, back injury, and eye troubles followed by a much needed and Fun trip to Montana for my little sister Claire's wedding. Unfortunately, along with the health issues we now have computer issues and I can't upload all pictures from our trip but here are some of the wedding...I'll have to post more later of the rest of our trip.

Claire and new hubby Derek with all the nieces and nephews, as you can see Brynlee was in a great mood!

Lydia (now 5 monthes old!) in here dress for the wedding ...and yes those cheeks are as kissable as the look!!

Gracie and Brynlee in their wedding attire...I'm so sad I don't have a picture of all the grandkids together, they look so cute in all their matching outfits:)

Claire and my cute niece Emily at the reception

It was a fun day and we are so glad to have Derek as part of the family...of course I'm not sure he knows what he's gotten himself into by becoming a part of our crazy family:)

Lydia is 3 months old!

Our little Lydia is 3 months old today! I can't believe that it has been 3 months already and at the same time I can't believe its only been 3 months...I just can't imagine not having her in our family! I just had to capture her chub-luba figure! I just wish my chuba-luba figure was as cute as hers!

New Camera....lots of photos!

I was SO excited when Jake surprised me with a new camera for my birthday! Our old one was weighing on the side of ancient and when somehow all our pictures from Christmas morning were somehow erased because of a camera malfunction I very openly expressed my distaste for the darn thing! Well Jake heard my cries and got me an awesome new camera with lots of fun features...so lately I spend all my free time testing it out. These are some photos that came from one of our testing session:)

Sisters make the best friends

One of my favorite things to do lately is sneak up on Gracie and Brynlee while they are playing together and listen to the conversations they have. They play all day long together and are lost if the other one is not around. It was pretty difficult to have babies 15 months apart for about the first year or so but now it's so fun for them to have each other and dare I say worth it! (however, I don't see myself ever having kids that close again!) I just hope that when they are teenagers they will still be able to stand each other! Sisters really are the greatest, I know because I have 5, and I'm so grateful each of them. I'm just so glad that my girls get to have that sister bond too.
P.S. I also have 1 brother that I love dearly! I don't want to leave you out Tanner:)

Lydia's Blessing

Here is our sweet Lydia in her blessing dress. Poor girl has definitely gotten the 3rd child shaft when it comes to taking pictures. I'm pretty sure we took at least 60 pictures when Gracie was blessed ( you know... getting her ready, one with mom, one with dad, one with mom and dad, one with grandma and grandpa, one with everyone there, just the Smith's, just the Bennion's, standing, sitting, smiling ect.) but we actually had to put Lydia back into her dress at the end of the day just to get a picture of her...sorry baby girl:( Any how she looked so cute and the blessing was beautiful. We were also so glad that we were able to have so many family members attend (something else we didn't get a picture of!)

A little update

Well it's been almost a month since my last post so despite the fact that I'm in desperate need of a nap I'm going to take a few moments to put a few updated pictures. Lydia is growing up so fast and has already lost that newborn look which I'm sad about:( However, she is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

All the girls in their Christmas dresses. I'm proud to say that I actually made some pieces and parts of these dresses, however the real credit goes to my talented mother in law for the real work!

And I thought I'd throw this in as a representation of what seems to be going on more often than not these days...lots of mischief! If you are ever wondering what happens when you leave a 2 and 3 year old alone to "watch a movie" and forget to block off access to the food storage and more specifically to about 20 packets of Hot Chocolate mix...this is it! Our basement had a nice dusting of Hot Cocoa all over it and still smells like chocolate several days later! And don't worry my girls don't mess with the cheap walmart brand they went for the nice expensive gourmet Hot Cocoa that was intended as Christmas gifts!

Merry Christmas!