PROM

Last weekend was an exciting one for Kenzie. Not only was it her 17th birthday but it was also the night of Junior prom. She was asked by Chayse, a super great guy in our ward. He's pretty much my favorite and I've already made an arranged marriage between him and one of my girls (he's 16, right between Kenzie and Mallory, so I'd be happy either way). His mom is one of my good friends so it's been fun making plans together. They had things going on all day, starting with breakfast in the morning, pedicures and hair in the afternoon and then Olive Garden before the dance. Kenz went with two good friends, Lexi and Mckensey. Everybody looked so great and it was fun doing pictures. I think Kenzie had a really fun time since Chayse is just a friend, so no pressure. 

Mark and I enjoyed seeing her be so excited and girly although we can hardly believe she's old enough for such things. Gosh we love this girl and just couldn't be any prouder of the person she's becoming. 

An Easter to Remember

Hey! Remember me? Remember how I used to blog at least a couple times a month? Yeah, not so much lately. I just haven't wanted to and I figure I have enough things that I have to do, so if don't want to blog I won't. Plus, I blame my iPhone. It's just too easy to take a pic and put it on Instagram rather than haul out my big camera and then upload everything here. Considering it's already taken me over an hour to get these pics up I'm thinking Instagram is the way to go.

But I have this brother, you see. His name is Trevor and he's one of my favorite people and he's been bugging me for months to blog again. And I've been bugging him for months to propose to his darling girlfriend Kaitlin. I told him that I would blog again when he got engaged, so guess what....he's engaged!

Trevor and Kaitlin came to Boise for Easter and even though he wasn't really planning it ahead of time, he popped the question Sunday night. We had spent most of Saturday at the mall shopping for a prom dress for Kenzie (hopefully I'll blog about that for you) and looking at engagement rings for Kaitlin. Pretty fun way to spend a Saturday, don't you think?  Thanks to my niece Camille's awesome husband Jonathan, who works at a jewelry store, we found the perfect ring for Kaitlin's tiny little finger. Mark and I secretly paid for it that night while Trev took Kaitlin to the car.

The next night Lindsay (who was also visiting) and I went into stealth mode, hiding the ring in a golden egg and placing it in a sweet little bird's nest in  our neighborhood. Trev and Kaitlin went for a walk, discovered the egg and the rest is history. Linds and I even got to watch the whole thing crouched in our secret hiding spot.

These two are the most photogenic couple ever and just as cute as can be. We absolutely love Kaitlin and are excited to have her as an official Moyes Girl come August 11th.

All in all it was a crazy Easter weekend, but full of lots of fun and great memories.

Finally Snow!

We woke up to a pretty major snowstorm last Wednesday. By midday I think we probably had 4-5 inches on the ground. The kids were so excited!

Unfortunately, this is what the yard looked like the very next day:

The snow turned to rain and melted it all away before the kids had much of a chance to play.

So we decided to head to the mountains to my uncle's cabin where there was considerably more snow:

 Like four feet of snow.

We got an additional 6 or 7 inches the night we drove up (scariest car ride of my life!)

Just to add to the adventure the power went out around 2 am, probably due to the heavy snow crashing branches into the power lines.

It never came back on. Thank goodness we had these propane heaters that kept the cabin warm and helped us rethink our cooking plans. (Toast and hot dogs...perfect breakfast and lunch!)

We really didn't need electricity because all of the fun was outside! The kids had an absolute blast!

 

My cousin Paul cleared a great sledding hill to go down.

Even I was brave enough to try it!

I also enjoyed getting a chance to try out the new camera lens I got for Christmas.

It is such a beautiful area up there with gorgeous trees everywhere.

We also saw some amazing views on the drive home.

Not too bad for iphone pics!

It was a great weekend and we loved having our own winter wonderland just a few hours from home.

Christmas 2011

It's been four years since we've all been able to spend Christmas together in Beaver, UT, my mom's hometown. (She has spent every Christmas of her life in the same house...imagine that!) Mark and I weren't planning on going down, but after much begging, pleading and a few tears, Mark agreed and we decided to head down and surprise everyone. I will never forget the looks on everyone's faces when we walked in the door.  Totally worth the 8 hour drive and packing our entire Christmas into the back of the suburban.

Here's the whole crew, all 33 of us.

Mark, Jason and Matt

 Moyes family

 Siblings

 Siblings acting like we usually do when we're together...goofy

" Strike a pose"

 Pretty much my favorite people in the whole world

 Opening one present on Christmas Eve

All the grandkids in new jammies

 Trevor in his Neil Diamond turtleneck

 Here's what Christmas for 30 looks like (this is actually just the kids, the adults opened presents after church)

 Pretty much total chaos

 And here's what Brady looked like the entire weekend...he wouldn't take these night vision goggles off.

Definitely a crazy, wonderful Christmas to remember.