Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving we went to Great Grandpa Cannon's. All of Rustin's Cannon cousins were there. It was great fun except they started the dinner late. Both of Rustin's sisters were here for the weekend and it was great to see them. Tonia brought a high speed scanner with her and we were able to get a lot of grandpa's old pictures scanned. We were also able to type up a lot of his history, from what he has written down. It was great to see pictures of Rustin's great great grandparents and to learn a little bit about them. The kids got to play with their cousins and they had great fun. Here is a 4 generation picture.

My two fron teeth

In November Annalynn finally lost her 2nd front tooth. She loves that she can put them her tongue in between them.

Snow!

This morning we woke up to quite a bit of snow. Enough for the city plows to come out. Here are a few shots of the kids making snow angels. It was not wet enough to make snowmen, but they had a lot of fun. I think winter has finally arrived.

October 2011

My cute little skeleton. He couldn't be scary.

My beautiful butterfly. I love that smile and those freckles. For one of the Family Home Evenings in October we carved pumpkins. We had grandma and grandpa Barlow over for dinner and then grandma, the kids, and I stayed in and carved pumpkins, while dad and grandpa split wood and filled the trailer.

Ryan with his finished pumpkin. He was so happy to have a pumpkin on the porch.

Grandma Barlow helping clean out the pumpkins.

Annalynn with her finished pumpkin. She was happy to have a pumpkin on the porch too.

Red Ribbon Week was in October and Annalynn had a crazy hair day for that event. This is what we came up with.

October was filled with many day of Elk and Deer hunting. This is one of the sunsets that I saw while we were coming home from Elk hunting. Of course a camera never does it justice, but I thought it was beautiful. We had one elk and one deer tag this year. We were not able to fill the elk tag, but we did get our deer. We got one gallon bag full of ground meat for jerky, since Rustin has become quite the expert at jerky making. He actually has people asking if he can do it for them and they pay him. We also got 14 pints of bottled meat our of the deer.

Grandma's Funeral

If any family reads this, please remember that these are our families thoughts and feelings. If there is something that you don't like or agree with I apologize in advance. Rustin's grandma passed away in August. We were able to see her a few time while she was in the Beehive Home before the actually passing. Annalynn didn't really like seeing grandma while in the Beehive Home, because she had, had her stroke and she couldn't speak to you. Ryan was just fine with it. It was a sad day, but a blessing. Grandma had been in pain for so long.

The pallbearers...even President Metcalf helped, he is the one on the end. Rustin is the one in the white shirt.

The kids with grandma one last time. They sure did love going to her house and giving her "loves." I feel blessed that my children had the opportunity to get to know their great-grandparents. I never had that opportunity. I hope that they are old enough that they will have at least a little memory of her.

Steven and Ryan getting one last look.

The pallbearers...The oldest grandson from each family. R to L Brent Barlow, Rustin Barlow, Alan Keeler, Troy Barlow, Jeff Barlow, and Bradley Barlow.

The vault cover.

Annalynn with the casket. Beautiful flowers.

Ryan getting a drink at the cemetery. A side note. After the dedication of the grave. We were all getting ready to leave and loading up all the kids into the cars. Steven had disappeared. We had all had heart failure for a few minutes. He decried that he wanted to go play on the backhoe. So thankful that we found him and that he was okay. It is so amazing how kids don't see the danger in the things that they do.

Rusitn giving his boutonniere to his grandma.

Ryan with grandma's casket.

August 2011

In August we had to run some parts to Rus in Minnersville. He needed them to finish up fixing a disc. I had never been there before and was available so the kids and I got a work truck and headed on over. It was quite the drive. Very pretty country to pass through. But I should have grabbed the portable DVD player for the kids. On the way back we stopped at Parowan gap to get see these petroglyphs. They were cool. Kind of hard to see, but now I can say that we have been there.

On a Sunday afternoon we decided to take a drive to Cedar Mountain. Rustin was looking into the possibility of clearing a lot of fallen trees. It was a fun Sunday afternoon. Annalynn loves flowers and here she is with them in her braids.

While up there we decided to go to the ice caves. Here we are down in the cave.

The kids at the top of the ice cave.

At Navajo Lake on the top of Cedar Mountain.

August started a new school year. Here Annalynn is on her first day of first grade. She was so excited. She wanted to start about 2 weeks before school actually started. Every day she would ask if it was school today. She was up at about 6 wanting to get ready for school. Unfortunately the camera was lot for Ryan's first day of Pre-School. I will take one this week now that the camera is found. It is a few months late, but at least he will have one for remembrance purposes.

July 2011

Well it has been awhile since I lasted posted. This a summary of what happened in July in our family. Sorry the photos are not in order, but oh well. Hope you enjoy!!!

In July we met my mom and brother Loren for a picnic in Pine Valley. It was fun. We stopped at the Pine Valley Chapel before and went through the tour. The kids' great grandfather Cannon was the Summer Branch President in Pine Valley for quite a few years. It was fun for the kids to see his picture in the chapel. We played games and had a great picnic time.

Great Grandma Barlow waiting for the 24th parade to start. This is the last picture I have of her while she was alive to bad I didn't think to get the kids in the picture.

Tonia, Victoria, Elizabeth, Ryan, Allie, and Steven waiting for the 24th parade to start. Annalynn was on the primary float.

We did fireworks in our backyard on Sunday night. Grandpa Barlow came over along with Kirby, Nicki, Jaycee, Brylee,and our neighbors the Brackens. It was a cheap package and there were not very many in the package, but the kids had fun and loved them.

At the Pine Valley Chapel.

In July Ryan turned 4. It was a fun birthday. Here Rus is showing him how to use his brand new dart gun. Tonia was visiting and they were able to be here for the fun. Steven wanted to join in the fun of the gun to.

Jaycee and Ryan watching fireworks in the backyard.

Ryan and mom and dad with his cake.

Ryan's cake he wanted a Thomas the Train cake. This is what I came up with.

He also wanted a Thomas the Train set. He loves this train track set. Grandma and Grandpa Barlow gave him some extensions and a Percy. It kept them entertained for hours and hours. Rus is helping them figure out the sawmill and the zip line.

Annalynn on the primary float for the 24th parade. She is on the back row 2nd one from the end of the trailer. She was so happy she got to dress up as a scripture hero and she was wearing a purple dress. She thought she was so beautiful and she was.

Pine Valley Chapel sign and my handsome little man.

Ralph, Nicki, and Brylee watching fireworks. Rustin get another one ready to light.

We turned the water trough over to fill it up for a horse that we had on our lot for a couple of months and this is what we found. Rus and I couldn't figure out why it was so hard to turn over. This is all from stinking gophers. Totally crazy.