Safari Day

We went with some of our good friends, the Crofts, to Natural Bridge, Virginia, where they have this great Safari Park. It was a total BLAST! It was so cool to see so many different kinds of animals and to see them up close and personal. Sometimes a little too up close!! haha! You can see in some of Kevin's pictures he didn't mind that though!haha! All of these pictures are of us at the Park. We all had buckets of "feed" to feed the animals with. Now, my kids are deathly afraid of dogs, but a buffalo .... heck, they have no worries. Nathan was feeding this one buffalo with his hands and just dropping food into its mouth, with his hand almost touching the tongue of the nasty ginormous animal! Oh well, we carried a lot of hand sanitizer thats for sure, and it came in pretty handy...no pun intended.haha! At this park you could walk around and see different animals and then you could either drive your car around the major safari part or you could ride on this wagon. We chose to ride the wagon, which was a ton of fun, but I included a picture in here that we took of a car a couple cars in front of us (while on the wagon) and a camel had stuck its head and neck in this minivan and was eating out of the van. It was hilarious! I'm sure that van needed a major slobbery clean up job when that feeding was over. haha. While we were walking around there was this kangaroo that was just resting right on the pathway we were walking on. It was soooo COOL! The kids hung out with it for a little while and it was so friendly! It was such a fun family day trip! Maybe our next family Safari will be in AFRICA wouldn't that be cool? Anyway, I love all these pictures! I count my blessings every day to have such a sweet, fun, and loving family!

We love Strawberry Pickin' in Virginia

One of our favorite things to do in Virginia is to go to the orchards and pick our own fruit! Its really fun and yummy! This time it was strawberry picking! Here are some cute pictures of the kids! I love how beautiful it is in the orchards out here too!

Grandpa's Easter Egg Hunt Brought to Denver and Easter Surprises

Easter is always such a great time of year! I am so grateful for the Resurrection of my Savior, Jesus Christ and for his atoning sacrifice. What a blessing it is to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and to know that I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who really does love and care about me. I am so grateful for the promises that our Heavenly Father has made to us as we keep His commandments and repent and come unto him. What a blessing it is to know. I wish everyone in the world would know and choose to accept his plan. That would be awesome! I love the spirit of Easter as well as some of the fun traditions!
One of our favorite Easter traditions is that Grandpa Hughes always has a FANTASTIC Easter egg hunt! One that the kids look forward to all year long, and heck even the adults! We have missed it for several years now, that we have been living so far away. But, Grandpa and Grandma are always soooo thoughtful and send it to us through the mail each year! What sweethearts!!! One of the best things that Grandpa did while we were in Denver was bring the Easter egg hunt to the kids, since we would be missing it in Vegas again this year! Grandpa, thanks a ton, we had a blast!!!! And we were so grateful that we got to share it with you, Grandma, Aunt Bonnie, Amber, Kayla and Taylor! What a fun time to be with you guys in Denver! Throughout the pictures you can see how much everyone enjoyed it! Nathan got into it so much he had to take off his shoes during the hunt so that he could run faster to get the eggs. haha, what a smart kid! Since we came home from Denver on Easter Sunday, there are also a couple of pictures of the kids looking in their Easter baskets at home and a picture of them dying Easter eggs! What fun! The last picture is of Brooke with her very first tea set. Aunt Bonnie gave that to her for her Birthday while she was there with us in Denver! She loves it and continues to play with it! Thank you for thinking of her! We love you!

Denver Trip Pictures

Here are a ton of Pictures from our fun time in Denver, but for some reason I couldn't add little comments under each one, so I'll try my best to tell you what they all are in a row -
1st - our first afternoon together with some long lost friends!!! Jeromy and Becky went with us to undergrad, then to medical school with us, then we parted our separate ways for residency and after three years, we just couldn't stop hugging or maybe that was me..haha!
2nd - My sweet Uncle Bill and Aunt Shirley! We got to spend a day with them while we were there and it was so great! My Uncle is super talented in wood work and he gave us a few of the things that he made (a birdhouse and a beautiful bowl with lid on it.) What a treasure! Thanks a ton and thanks for taking us to a yummy and very fun lunch! We love you!
3rd,4th,5th,6th - The wrestling match in the hotel with Aunt Bonnie! First it started with Nathan, then came Heidi, and Ashley was not about to be left out of the fun! Aunt Bonnie - thanks for being such a good sport! We had such a great time with all the Hughes!!! We love,love,love you!
7th - We went to a yummy pizza restaurant with the Hughes Family and this is a picture of Nathan dipping his pizza into ....um, Ranch...no...sugar!!! sick!!! Ad he actually ate it that way, until we stopped him, that is...
8th and 9th - We watched the movie Twilight for the first time with our friends, the Coles while we were there and Kevin kept making fun of "Edward" (I think he might of been a little bit jealous, haha,jk), he kept making this face and saying that it was his Edward face. So while we were at the Zoo with the Coles we came across a picture of a Spider Monkey (hence the movie) and the guys both mde their best Edward faces!! haha Not even close in my opinion.
10th and 11th - We went bowling with both families and had a great time!!!! Here are 2 cute pictures of Nathan with his buddy, James and Heidi with her sweet friend, Julia!
12th - Being with friends is fun!
13th - They had a little Deli there, called Heidi's deli, so of course we had to snap a picture with our favorite HEIDI!
14th and 15th - Brooke at the Zoo with the Komodo/Komono??? Dragon and kids at the zoo
16th and on - We went to Redrock Ampitheatre while we were there. It was a lot of fun and absolutely beautiful! So the rest of the pictures are of that! We had a great time and there are more posts to come!

Catchin Up and Liberty Jail!

Well, we have been busy the last few months! Yeah for that it, it keeps things movin'~ Kevin is about to start his 4th year of anesthesia residency and has been interviewing for fellowships lately in Pediatric Anesthesia. So, we decided to go with him. The first was in Philadelphia (the whole family went, while Kev interviewed we went shopping, to the movies and then we all went to see Grandma Peggy in New Jersey, it was great to see her, but I don't think we brought the camera. bummer. The next was in Boston (just Kevin and I went) and it was great! We loved spending 2 days with just us, but we were definitely ready to pick up the kiddos when it was time. I just don't like leaving the kids for a long period of time. But thanks to some very sweet friends we were'nt very worried about them and knew that they were partying it up with their buddies! We went to a place called the North End in Boston, it was soo fun. There is this street in the North End that has like 90 restaurants on it (its like a little Italy). When you start to walk down the street, it smells like GARLIC, fresh bread, GARLIC, pastries, and GARLIC! And we LOVE garlic! So it was perfect for us! We ate at a yummy restaurant and had some of the best Italian food ever and stopped at a different place to get dessert, it was great! It was fun too, because tons of people had a deep Boston/Italian accent. If you can imagine that, i.e. "Foget about it" haha. And we stayed in a hotel room that was about as big as our apartment. We walked all over Boston, took the subway and walked all over some more! It was really cool to see so many of the historic things there. What a great place (bummer that I forgot the camera there as well). Last but not least, we went to Denver. We took the whole family for this interview and decided to drive it, instead of fly......Are we crazy, you ask.....YES, but it was loads of fun and the kids did fantastic for the entire vacation! On our way to Denver we decided to stop by the Liberty Jail in Independence, Missouri. We decided to use this as a great teaching opportunity. The few days before we left, we decided to teach the kids about it, starting with Family Night and then reading a little here and there. So when we got to the Liberty Jail, it meant, I think, a little bit more to the kids as well as to us. It really was a cool experience! The Spirit is so strong there and we all felt it! They have really done a great job with their presentation of it. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is thinking of going!! Here are a couple pictures at the Jail.

This sweet sister missionary was our tour guide and was just a great gal. She was so kind to our kids and was funny too. The girls loved her, so we took a picture with her after the tour. She asked some questions to the girls and this was how the conversations went:

Sister: If you had to leave your home and everything else that you owned but you could take only one item with you and leave everything else behind, what would it be?

Heidi: Um...I would take money. Because if I had money, then I could buy anything I needed later.

Ashley: My scriptures.

Their answers were so precious. I loved it.

----------------

New question

Sister: Do you know who General Alexander Doniphan was?

Heidi: I do, he was the General that said that he would not go through with the order to kill the prophet. He said it was murder and that he would tell on them and get them in trouble if they did.

Sister: Woah, I can't beleive you knew that, I didn't even know that, until I got my mission call and did some research about the Liberty Jail. ... I know that one day you are going to go on a mission to one of the Church History sites and you are going to be a great missionary, because you already know a lot about church history.

It was soo cute and made Heidi feel so good! She was smiling and giggling as she walked out!
Well after stopping there, we stayed a night in Topeka, Kansas, swam a lot and went out for ice cream at Dairy Queen! Then we finally and I mean FINALLY (that is a long drive) moved on to Denver. We got to stay with some of our closest friends, Becky and Jeromy Cole. THANK YOU, THANK YOU COLE'S WE HAD A BLAST! The following are LOTS of pictures of our time there! ALSO, a BIG SHOUT OUT to Grandpa and Grandma Hughes, Aunt Bonnie, Amber, Kayla and Taylor for coming all the way from Vegas and meeting us in Denver for just 2 days!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!! Thank you so much for sacrificing a lot to come out and see us! We will always be grateful for that!

Baptism, Birthday, and just fun pictures

We have had some great things happening in our family lately. We'll start off with the best thing, which was that Heidi turned 8 and recently was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I can't believe how the time has flown by with our oldest. She has grown up so fast. You always hear that but don't get it until you recognize it in your own life. Ashley said something so funny the other day. The girls had gotten up to go to school. They had woken up about an hour before we needed to leave to take them, of course, we mosied in getting ready and were racing out the door to get them to school with no minutes to spare. As we started heading towards the school, we said a prayer that we would get to school on time. After the prayer was over, Ashley said, "Mom, our time goes by too fast, doesn't it?" I replied that "it definitely did" she then responded, "we should get a new clock!" It was hilarious!! I busted out laughing. I love the things my kids say. They are so true, yet so so funny!

Heidi had a very special Baptism. Her Grandpa and Grandma Hughes were able to come out for the special day and her Grandma Mangum made her Baptismal dress (which she loved). Other family members sent some very thoughtful gifts that we sooo appreciated! We wish that you all could have been here for it!!!! She had great support from our ward members and Charlottesville friends with over 70 people showing up. She was baptized and confirmed by Kevin. Her Grandpa Hughes and I said the prayers. Kevin and her Grandma Hughes spoke and the songs that we sang were "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", "When Jesus Christ was Baptized" and "Baptism". It really was a special day. We then went and had a great nachos and taco salad luncheon following the baptism. After all of this was over, we went home and opened gifts that some of our sweet family sent and gifts that Kevin and I had gotten her. One of our very favorite parts of that afternoon was that the Hughes family had gotten together and made posters and a video congratulating Heidi! We watched it over again a couple times and cried each time. It was so thoughtful!!!!! There is a picture of Heidi looking at the posters (that are now hung in her room) below. We then went to eat, again, at Red Robin and then relaxed the rest of the time. It was a beautiful day to the fullest extent! Following are the pictures!

Just outside our home on Baptism Day! Kevin and Heidi (this one's my favorite) I love their smiles!

Us girls right after changing.

Heidi getting ready to go.

I just thought this was sooo cute.

Heidi at the church before going in. Ashley actually took this picture. Not so bad, eh?

This is one of the posters that was made by the Hughes family. As you can tell my the look on her face, she LOVED it! What can I say, we all did!

The girls love the shakes at Red Robin!

Before Kevin's parents left, we were trying to take some family pictures. Kevin wanted to try the "automatic shoot" on the camera. This was us trying to get it right. I just think this is sooo funny, because Kevin is running so fast trying to make it back for the pose, and doesn't quite make it in time. It doesn't seem like Nathan minded though. He's having a blast. haha

We took a few shots, but this was the best it was going to get!

Some single shots of the kids with their grandparents. Just Stinkin' Adorable if you ask me!

Kevin saying goodbye to his parents. Kevin loves picking up his dad and mom and giving them lots of love! haha. They HATE it! hahaha!

CAUGHT, RED HANDED! Ashley snuck into Grandma and Grandpa's rental car and hid in the back before they took off. It was as they were pulling away that she popped her head up and said she was going with them to see her cousins. I had to get a picture it was so cute!

On Heidi's Birthday, we played all day. Heidi wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday and wanted to have donuts, not a cake (must be the Mangum in her, haha). So we took her to get her ears pierced and by the looks of the person doing the piercing, she had a lot of experience! Kevin and I laughed and said if we had to pick anyone to pierce Heidi's ears it would be her. (She had many multiple peircings all over). All went well, she only cried for a second. We came home had donuts, opened presents, and Heidi and I went shopping and to a late night movie together. It was fun!

Heidi pulling off the candles of her favorite donut. Yum, Yum!

I just thought this was a funny picture of Brooke. It looks like she is looking to see if it really is okay that she eats the donut. Her face is so funny.For Heidi's friend Birthday party, I made a real cake. The theme was a sleepover party with out the sleepover (pretty much a pajama party). So I made a cake that looked like little girls at a sleepover. Heidi and I together, in our pj's and sleeping masks, with the cake.

A close up of the cake. Isn't it cool!!!!

She had a lot of friends over as you can tell! For the party favors, she handed out sleeping masks and journals with ring pops. Face masks off!

Face masks on!

Through the night we did lots of sleepover activities, along with opening presents and cake and ice cream, from pillow fights too...

Limbo, to ....

Dancing, (it was really cute Grandma was in the kitchen working on a ton of food for the next day (bless you, mama), when all the girls came in and convinced her to dance with them (she is such a good sport) the girls loved it!!! She showed them how they shook their thang in the old days)to...

A major marshmallow fight. We separated the room in half and built up baracades for the girls to fight eachother, but then as soon as Kevin and I came in, they all came together and attacked us. It was great! This is Kevin getting totally pelted.

I found marshmallows for weeks after. The funniest one that I found, was in the lamp next to where Kevin is standing. I was cleaning my front room and heard this sizzling sound. I looked all over and found that it was coming from the lamp. I tilted it down and noticed that a half burnt marshmallow was roasting by the hot lightbub. Anyone for s'mores??? I know it was dangerous, but really funny!

More marshmallow fights! After all of that was over, everyone sacked out and watched one of Heidi's favorite movies, Mr. Bean's Holiday and ate a ton of goodies. The party was really such a blast! I was talking to one of Heidi's friend's moms a few days later and she told me that her daughter came home and said "Mom, that was one of the two funnest days of my life!" her mom said, "well what was the other one?" the little girl replied, "the day I was born." We got a great laugh out of that!

Now are just some random pictures that I thought I would put in. Kevin and I love how Brooke is starting to get our attention. It is so cute, she'll grab our face and lay a big wet kiss on you! Its soo cute!

I love how much she smiles and laughs. If I'm laughing, she does too and I love it!

Check out the little curls she's getting and that cute smile!

The day before Valentines Day, Ashley had a bring your parents and grandparents to school party with little heart learning games. She lucked out and actually had her sweet Hughes grandparents here. Thanks for coming out, guys! If you click to enlarge the picture you can see Brooke's face. It is hilarious, she didn't enjoy it as much. haha

However, Nathan and Ashley had a great time. Nathan felt like a big boy with all the big elementary school kids!

We went to Dick's Sporting Goods while Grandpa and Grandma were here, and I lost Ashley for a second, when I found her, this is what she looked like. hahaha. She is so funny! She's always putting on different clothes where ever she is at!

There is a bounce house place here that the kids like to go to, so of course we had to take Grandpa and Grandma to it as well. Here are some pictures from there.

Doesn't this look like fun?

This is Nathan trying to fight the little blown up knight. He got pretty bored when the knight wouldn't fight back.

Brooke coming off the slide. I think she liked it!

One thing our kids love to do when the weather simmers a little is have a good swing at the park. If you enlarge it, you can actually see the kids faces.

As we were preparing Heidi to be baptized we would talk a lot about her baptism as well as her receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We had a family night on the purpose of the Holy Ghost as well as many talks on the subject. A few days prior to Heidi's baptism, Ashley said the prayers a lot for meals and bedtime. Every time she would say them, she would always make sure to say, "and Heavenly Father, please bless that Heidi will feel the spirit in her heart everyday after she is baptized." Talk about melting a mama's heart! It is a tender thing for a mother to hear her child pray to Heavenly Father that their sibling will continue to have the Holy Ghost with them. She now will say periodically in her prayers, "please bless that when I am baptized I can feel the Holy Ghost in my heart, too." She has also said, "please bless that me and Heidi will start trusting our mama and daddy more so that we can make better choices." (I think that one is my favorite...haha) I love listening to my kids pray. I really feel like it is a tender mercy of our Heavenly Father to have the gospel in my life and to be able to raise my kids in it. How blessed we are to know that there is a Father in Heaven to go to whenever we want and that our kids know the same thing.
These are some fun pictures of our family night about the Holy Ghost. "Ears to hear the Holy Ghost and a Heart to feel it." One may think that I modeled the ears after my own big ears, however I did not, it was a template. hahahaha!

And Brooke, of course, did not want to wear hers. But, she's cute enough to end off this post!

Oh Christmas time, I know its over but, how I LOVE everything about it! The frost in the air, the smell of warm cinnamon, the fun of making candy, spending time with family and friends, the kindness that everyone in the world seems to share, the kids anticipation of Christmas morning and most important, truly dedicating a month of learning, reading, and teaching about our Savior's birth!!!! How sad I am that it is over! You'd think I would have posted this last month.....but January comes and so does all the sickness from sniffles and snot on mom's pants and shirts, to coughing, to sore throats that turn into strep throat, to sore bellies that turn into a full night of puking to super cuddly kids that want lots of love and milk it for all its worth and mom enjoying almost every minute of it! Happy to say that as of this minute all are now healthy, I think! So, maybe in July I'll post my new years resolutions! hahahaha!
A week or two before Christmas we took the kids and went to go visit our families in Vegas. It was sooooo great! We hadn't seen the entire family together in a year. Both of our parents came out when we had Brooke and my little sister Jody and her husband Josh came to Brooke's baby blessing in June other than that we hadn't seen anyone for a year! It was a long awaited trip and well worth it! We spent a lot of time with both families and just had a great time all together!!! And, while we were there, it snowed a ton in Henderson and Las Vegas!!!! It was great! We finally went to see Kevin's brother, Kenny's house in New Harmony, Utah that was full of the much-loved Hughes family! We went riding quads in the snow, ate lots of good food, had a mini-early-christmas eve with all the cousins, and thanks to Kevin's sisters and mom for watching our kids, Kevin and I went snowbaording with our neice and nephew, Amber and Caleb! Its been a few years since we lived in Utah and went snowboarding a lot more, but thanks to some well thought out prayers, I didn't fall once, (except for getting off the "Lift", which doesn't count because I fall off that every time - that little bugger is so hard for me to get off of, I don't know what my problem is.hahaha) I can glide down the mountain, gracefully - but that stinking lift is one day going to kill me.hahaha. This time I only made 8 people all crash together, getting off! haha Wish I had my camera then! But hey Kevin totally rocked it on the slopes!!!! That guy is an animal! Any thing that requires athletics or academics - the guy is a complete natural! It is truly amazing! He is wicked smart and rocks every sport! Way to go on that babe! That is one of mine and Kevin's favorite things to do together! So, even though it was freezing! We had a total blast! And, we love Amber and Caleb for coming with us!!! Their wicked awesome on the slopes, too!!!
We then spent the week back and forth with both families. We ended off our trip with the much-loved Mangum side doing a fun little mini-early-Christmas eve with all the cousins! Wich was really fun! Kevin and I also got to go on a really fun date with all my brothers and sisters and parents! It was sooo fun! Good times! Here are some random pictures of the week in Vegas. I don't know why but my camera didn't work very well - and I also kept forgetting to get out the camera, I was having so much fun! Sorry, not very many good pics, sorry guys! And, SORRY friends that we didn't get to see any of you, our time was pretty well taken! However we would have loved to see all of you!!!!



Grandpa Hughes' favorite time with Brooke! I think maybe her second favorite thing with her Grandpa - next to getting slurpees! Who would've known that a 7 month old likes coke slurpees?? (I'm gonna get you for that one dad! To bad they don't have any formula slurpees - you could've been her #1)
Snow in Vegas at my parents home! Isn't it beautiful? It could not have come at a more perfect time!

My dad and Kevin had fun making a snow-bear in my parent's back yard together! Isn't it sooo cute! I love their smiles! What a good memory!

The kids making smores with gigantic marshmallows my mom got in the firepit in their backyard! They loved it! My kids are made for snow!

Heidi and Ashley with Hughes cousins in Aunt Bonnie's backyard on candymaking day! What a blast! If your wondering who the crazy guy in orange camo is, it's my great brother-in-law, Scott! Hey Scott, the orange camoflouge isn't going to hide you in the snow.hahaha!

At the Hughes early-Christmas eve bash. Ashley getting on Santa's lap and realizing that it was her grandpa-undercover! She also ruined it for all the other younger kids! hahahaha! We all kept trying to get her to be quite! It was hilarious! Hopefully they didn't catch on!

Nathan showing off his belly, while waiting to go see Santa. My camera ran out of battery after Heidi and Ashley saw Santa, so I didn't get Brooke and Nathan on Santa's lap! MAJOR BUMMMER!

Heidi giggling but not saying a word about Santa being Grandpa! I think she liked it better that it was him! Way to go Dad Hughes - you make the best Santa!

One of the mornings that we were there, we went to see my little sister Shannon's new house and made a Gingerbread House! The kids had a lot of fun doing that! I love Nathan with the knife and frosting. Not a good combination with him!!hahaha!