Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a variety of layouts and cover options to choose from.

Jenette turns the BIG 30

This is one of those birthdays that you will always remember. Especially since Kris, again, went out of his way to spoil me and make it special. This, again, was one of those I feel bad moments because his 30th birthday wasn't anything great. I tried, but then he got sick and almost died of MRSA, so we ended up doing Chinese with his parents instead of a BBQ Bash like I had planned. I never thought to try again at 31, or 32. However, after being so shown up, I am determined to make his 33rd memorable. Just wait! On my big day Kris took me to dinner at Flemmings (Our favorite steak place) and wowed me with new diamond earings!! I was one happy 30 year old. Then he surprised me further by taking me to Grand America where there was a surprise party waiting for me in our suite. It is a little odd to have your friends and family come jumping out at you from the bedroom of your suite. I think some of them felt the same way, but were placated by the delicious cupcakes and sparkling cider offered. I was so overwhelmed and grateful for such great friends. We broke up the party in time for Kris and I to go to the Utah Symphony; water music. This was a real shocker to me; not that he bought me a ticket to the symphony, but that he bought two tickets and he himself was going. This man is full of surprises. He even actually liked it, and said he would go again. My heart is glowing by this point.

I feel really lame about this, but I have no photos of the assembly that came to wish me well. I was too overwhelmed and wanted to talk to everyone personally and never thought of a group shot. I am not even sure who had the presence of mind to take these pictures. Whoever you are, thanks! Oh and those were trick candles on my cupcakes. NO FAIR!

Christmas 2012

Kenny was a little more excited about things this time, now that he was one and had just opened a bunch of gifts he kind of had an idea what to do with the grundle he found on December 25th waiting for him. His loving mom and dad wrapped him up a stick and spoon. (spoons were his latest obsession) but Santa and Grandparents were more comercial for his benefit. He was thoroughly spoiled as any grandchild should be. He hadn't tried a lot of Candy until this point, so the good things in his stocking caused a lot of pondering as you can see by this picture.

He is so far my favortie child.
I was really spoiled too by my husband. I got just about everything I thought I wanted and then some. It was one of those, oh crap you did way better than me in the gift giving arena. I was under the impression we were giving each other a vacation to Tahiti and went super lite. He told me that was the plan, but suprised me with a lot more anyway. Hey I am not complaining, and the guilt over the unfairness went away way sooner than it should have.
These are just some cool wintry scenes during the holidays in Vernal. Kris's dad loves to feed the birds so they are always close by and beautiful, and the cattle going up the street? Well only in a small town I suppose.

Kenny turns the BIG ONE!

Well, what can I say? There is a moment in every moms life when she blinks and her little boy has gotten older. I feel like this litterly happened when Kenny turned one. He went from being my little baby to a toddler (well a pre-toddler). He has had this red hair for most of his babydom, and we decided to give him a cute cut the night before his big celebration. His Aunt Kandice was kind enought to help out and when it was all over he was a blonde and looked like a big boy! After I got through the initial shock and panick over him growing up I was able to enjoy my new man. So here is the before and after so you can see what I am talking about

At least he wasn't walking yet. For his big day we had cake and ice cream of course with all the cousins and friends out in Vernal. Grandma Stewart hosted the party at her house the day before Thanksgiving. Thanks! So after cake which Kenny thoroughly enjoyed, so much that it gave him a sugar shiver, we unwrapped gifts. I do mean we, becuase I did most of the unwrapping. Kenny was too distracted by the paper and each toy to be much help. We wrapped up the party with a pirate ship pinata. It went perfectly with the sailing theme we had going. Every kid got a wack at it, and then they really had to beat it to get our the goods. We had stuffed it with candy and noisemakers. Every parent there I am sure was thrilled to have us hype thier kids up on sugar and then send them home with a horn or whistle. You are welcome, and thanks for coming! ;)
He was very contemplative about eating his birthday cake, and we actually had to take it away from him after he had eaten a good chunk of it because we thought it might make him sick if he ate much more.

Halloween 2012

My little guy got to experience his first trick or treat and mom got to enjoy most of the spoils. I like this tradition with little kids! We made Kenny into a cowboy and he was a cute one. For our ward Chilli cookoff/Halloween party Kris and I followed suit and cowboyed up with the little guy. He has been so fun and loves everything. The world is so new and exciting to him it is neat to watch him discover it.
pay close attention to the chaps, because ya, I made those!
,

Family Camping events July- September 2012

Over the summer we have done some camping with our little one. We of course had the Richins Reunion where Kenny again loved kickin it in hammoks, but we also went for a Briggs/Schulzke family adventure to the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana and then hit Yellowstone National Park on our way back. The Caverns are really neat and have some really huge columns, stalagtites and stalagmites.
A funny story from this adventure comes from the tourists at Old Faithful. They were fascinated with Kenny, because he was a red head with blue eyes and had the charm all the way up giving them smiles. They didn't speak a word of English, but they took a lot of pictures of Kenny. They were oriental, and really nice, but it was funny how interested they were in Kenny. The other funny story is that we took our Bob stroller on this hike up to a waterfall, and lets just say, Bobs are impressive, but even they are no match for narrow steep trails. We had to carry it up a few switch backs. We looked ridiculous, but it made for a funny story afterwards!

Going Coast to Coast

Our next big adventure with a baby boy in tow was to go coast to coast in the fall. We started by flying to Seattle to visit my sister Angie, husband Lance, and kids Cole and Molly. It was great fun to stay with them and see my niece and nephew that I don't get to see too often. Kris and I traveled up to Victoria Canada one day and saw the beautiful Buchart Gardens, and ate at a pretty good sea food place. Kenny really liked the ferry ride and met some playmates there. We also went to the Locks with the Egli's and saw the salmon run which was pretty cool.

We landed in Salt Lake and then repacked for a turn around trip to the East Coast where we visited Kris's Cousins the McCullochs. We had a lot of fun with them too. Kris and I drove into Washington DC and toured all that we could handle in a day. I have been several times, but this was Kris's first time. I thought it was great to finally have the one up on Kris when it comes to places of travel. He has been everywhere, but I could show him around DC! We really like the Spy Museum and decided we needed to come back to spend more time there. Kenny was a trooper for letting us stroll him around all day.

While on the East Coast we also went to the Anapolis Maryland Boat show, which was Kris's dream, and really hot and boring for me and baby. I am such a good wife. After and afternoon of touring sailboats we got some yummy ice cream and checked into a neat hotel there. Kris went back to the boat show by himself the next day. Kenny also got to go to his first baseball game. The Washington Nationals versus the Phildelphia Phillies. Nationals won, and we were just above thier dug out so Kris got the pitching coach to throw Kenny a ball. He loved it. We had a lot of people comment on how cute, fun, and happy baby Kenny was. This was a real compliment to Kenny for being so good as we sat through a game during his nap time!

Our last day was spent going to the National Museum of the Marine Corps just outside of our hosts home in Stafford Virginia. This place was very interesting, and we were sad we didn't have enough time to tour all the rooms or look as closely at everything there.