a little more sister sneak

comparing our biore strips...aren't we gross?! but, we love it!

amber, elena, me holding izzy, and mom

me and nat while "shopping" in jackson hole! i found many things that i loved like this very expensive cowboy hat and a belt that was on sale for $106. but, i decided to leave them there for someone with a bigger pocket book. boo hoo!


me...always the blogger!

more sister sneak

melissa taking it easy (sister)

amber (sister-in-law)

me and emily (sister)

mom holding izzy and katie (sister)

sister sneak favorite things

this year we added a new tradition to our sister sneak. we each brought an inexpensive gift for each sister that was one of our favorite things! some people broke the rules and spent more than a couple bucks per person (MOM) but it was still so fun! mom provided the cute brown bags and we each "secretly" added our gift to the bags. when the bags were BURSTING full of goodies we sat down to discover our treasures.

before


after (elena)

we were SO hooked up and i can't wait to try out some of these "favorites".


kaylin hand crafted a cute block of wood with mod podge; melissa gave assorted fresh scents which i can't wait to put in my vacuum cleaner to make my house smell heavenly; natalie gave biore strips, biore face mask, and whitening strips; i gave a cross-word puzzle book, pencil, and becky's sugar cookies (from the mini bazaar...heavenly); katie gave febreeze lavender vanilla & comfort and i can't wait to spray that on my linens...yummy!; emily gave some paul mitchell firmstyle hairspray; mom gave a mccall's witches brew candle and pretzel flipz; amber gave colored toilet paper (long story), a bracelet, and raisins; and elena gave bath & body works pumpkin room spray

sister sneak 2008

amber, kaylin, emily, me
melissa holding izzy, elena, my mom, natalie, and katie

it's still hard to believe that we were able to pull off our annual sister sneak with all nine of us in attendance (plus baby izzy)! elena (my sister-in-law) was brave enough to put it all together this year and we did it at a bed & breakfast in victor, id that elena knew about because her hubby (jarom) does their website. we were able to have the entire place to ourselves and had a WONDERFUL time!

friday after the men returned from the work force all the ladies met at my mom's, we situated the vehicles and we were off to victor, id without a care in the world! the weather was fabulous and we arrived at the fox creek inn bed & breakfast a little before 7pm (it's about 1.5 hours from idaho falls). the owner, julie, and her...david...came out to greet us and help us in. julie has a fabulous inn that she runs mostly on her own. she is from new orleans but had lived in london for the last 15 or so years and decided she wanted to do a b&b somewhere in the west and fell in love with victor, id (about a 40 minute drive from jackson hole, wy). her man still lives in london and comes and goes. he is a music composer and producer and is working with julienne irwin (who was on america's got talent last season...click here to hear the new single he composed and produced for her which they are trying to get released). we could have chatted with them both all weekend long because they are very fascinating people but we had our own agenda. they were kind enough to show us around and then they actually took off for most of the evening and let us run WILD in their place.


david and julie...our fabulous hosts...cooking our amazing breakfast

we brought some papa murphy's pizza and threw it in the oven for dinner. we were all reveling during our very quiet, undisturbed dinner. we enjoyed it immensely! then we spent the rest of the evening relaxing, soaking, chatting, laughing, and pampering.


it really wouldn't be a sister sneak without biore strips (THANKS NAT)!

natalie, emily, melissa, and me taking a soak under the clear sky with LOTS of stars and OHH so quiet. i even saw a shooting star! beautiful!

we were up until 2am just enjoying each other. it was so great! and then we were able to sleep-in until nearly 10am. after david and julie served us an incredible breakfast we packed up and took a very beautiful scenic drive to jackson hole, wy. we had a good time walking around and "shopping" for a couple hours and then started the drive home.

we all went to dinner at johnny carino's in idaho falls and then ended our sister sneak by going to the General Relief Society Broadcast at my mom's stake center. this is a satelite broadcast that the leaders of our church do for the women once a year and it's always packed full of inspired messages. i really enjoyed julie b. beck's message about the purpose of relief society and reminding us allow ourselves to be still enough and quiet enough to hear personal revelation. and i also enjoyed president uchtdorf"s message on finding peace, hope, and joy through our talents and service. if you missed it click here and you can listen to it!

what a fabulous weekend! when i walked through the door last night kevin said "you look like a new woman!" and i really felt like one.

thanks elena for putting this together and thank you kevin for allowing me to leave. kevin took such good care of the boys and i came home to a clean house and the boys in the tub. i really didn't have to lift a finger all night and he even let me sleep in sunday morning! LOVE YOU ALL!

wes the mess

my little wes.

have you ever seen a little kid make such a mess of animal crackers? our wesley LOVES to make a mess with everything he eats.

when wes was just a brand new baby he had a monster of a sneeze and blew snot everywhere. owen arrived to the scene first and reported to me that "wes was a mess!" since then we affectionately refer to our little wes as "wes the mess" and he works hard to keep it.

but, he's the cutest mess we have ever seen. and he cleans up REAL nice! love ya bug!

happy birthday jarom!

happy birthday to my big brother jarom! our guitar hero superstar turns 33 today. it's always refreshing to have a conversation with jarom...i learn something new every time. and we love how he laughs at his own jokes (makes them even funnier)! (;



we love you jarom! try to do SOMETHING fun today. and we look forward to that red velvet cake tomorrow.

life-long friends (and cousins)

although we are happy to be home and back in our own space we did enjoy living in josh (my cousin) and joni's home, driving their big car, meeting their great friends and joni's family, and living close to my brother and sister-in-law (they live just around the corner, talk about convenient).

the kids had a lot of fun together. elena even brought her two little ones over a few times to join the fun. i hope they stay good life-long friends.


morgan and kate playing with their babies.

jaden, carter, and owen playing some football in the back yard...shirts off of course.

it didn't take morgan and jaden long to learn that kevin made a GREAT horse.

sahara and wesley-they kind of had a love/hate relationship as they were constantly fighting over my attention or the same toys. but, when they were on the love side it was SO CUTE!

thanks again josh and joni for the opportunity to stay with your kids!

we're back...and even smarter for it!

we're back! and we survived 12-days with 5 kids under 5! and i learned oh so many things.

1-one sure way to keep 5 kids happy for a good 10 minutes is to pull out some popsicles!



2-the "hair drawer" is VERY intimidating to me! and i have a lot to learn about doing little girls hair.

3-bathing 5 kids is a BIG TASK.

4-brothers and sisters can be "tight" too! even when the other is SICK!

5-2 1/2 yr old little girls can have more fashion and color sense than a grown woman. i can't even count how many times morgan told me the hair thingys i was choosing to put her in her did not match. (;

6-2 1/2 yr old little girls LOVE to pick out their own clothes and change SEVERAL times a day.

7-i need a little more practice on how to make the bed correctly. according to morgan i never quite got it right.

8-5 kids are able to consume A LOT of snacks every day.

9-when feeding 5 kids under 5 save yourself some energy and don't plan on sitting down until after they are finished eating. (;

missing in action

i thought i would drop a few lines to explain my blogging absence...i know, you have all missed me.

we packed up monday afternoon and moved across town (temporarily)! we will be living in my cousin's house and watching their three little ones while they are in scotland for the next couple weeks! it has already been a ton of work...and fun too...upgrading from a small apartment to a large home and from two kids to five.

it's kind of like we have two sets of twins since their youngest is just a few months younger than wesley and their second youngest if just a few months younger than owen! oh the fun! so far owen is loving following their 5-year old around and playing with all his toys. and wesley is quite entertained by the little doll house and kitchen (don't tell kevin)! (;

although i am doing my best to find time to peek in on your lives i don't know if i will be getting much posted on my end! we shall see! but, keep sharing the love!

you are too kind

elena loves my blog! and because she was so generous in giving me ...i mean my blog...this award, i would like to nominate 7 other blogs. and don't be afraid to pass on this blogging love to others. it's a day brightener for sure! thanks elena!



The rules of this award are:1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.2. Link the person you received your award from.3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.4. Put links of those blogs on yours.5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated


camille-i can always click onto camille's blog to get a good laugh. i love her story telling ability.



rachel-beautiful kids equals a beautiful blog! i love being able to see what they are up to in sunny arizona.



elise-elena already gave elise this award, but i want to give it to her as well. updates on her blog ALWAYS MAKE ME HAPPY!



corin-i've only recently met her, but i adore her! and i love learning more about her family and life through her blog.



jen-because of blogs we have been able to reconnect after many years. you gotta love that.



emily-my only sister that blogs! enough said.



stephanie-a true blogging buddy, always leaving comments! and it's so fun to keep tabs on her even though she is far away.

aunt rosanne

kevin's sister rosanne came (from provo, ut) and spent the holiday weekend with us. owen and wesley LOVED that their aunt came and slept at their house. it was nice to have company and spend more time with rosanne!


owen (orange fanta mustache and all) and rosanne

if rosanne ever "disappeared" owen was yelling for her. "aunt rosanne? where is my aunt rosanne?"


wesley and rosanne

too bad our kids drain all our energy out of us...sorry rosanne. hope you had a good time anyway. we loved having you and look forward to your next visit!

eastern idaho state fair

the eastern idaho state fair opened on saturday. so, after we made our appearance at the reunion we stopped in blackfoot to get our fill of the fair! i go mostly for the food, but it was fun to hit a few rides with owen and play a few games.

owen would have preferred playing games the whole time, but since we bought a bunch of tickets we had to hit a few rides as well.


owen and kevin catching a fish. owen picked a pirate sword for his prize.

owen riding the cars all by himself

wesley LOVED the corn on the cob

and of course, kevin had to try the basketball toss to try to win a HUGE stuffed animal.
no luck this year, but we will try again next year!

we certainly got our fill of the fair on saturday! i am not sure if we will go again before it closes. we will see how ambitious we are.

arthur manwaring reunion

being the obedient and supportive child i am , i loaded up my little family saturday afternoon (including kevin's sister rosanne who was visiting for the weekend...what a good sport) and drove to pocatello, id for a family reunion.

the arthur manwaring reunion is only held every other year and is a gathering of all my paternal grandpa's siblings. well, actually none of them are living...but, their descendants. i only knew a hand full of the people there, but i was thankful i attended because i was able to see my dad accept this...



"the spirit of Elijah award"

my dad's cousins presented this award to him (through many tears) to show how incredibly grateful they were for dad's hard work in keeping the family in touch and educated about their ancestors through his "picture of the week" (he sends an email EVERY week to all of the arthur manwaring clan that includes a picture and history or details to go with it), for creating and updating the manwaring family website (with help), and keeping an updated name, phone, address, email, and website address list on everyone and sending out any updates. if anyone in this HUGE family needs to get a message out they always come right to my dad!

thanks for being such a great example dad!

during the family business portion of the reunion they had a little craft area for the kids. they had foam hats and little foam decorations for the hats. owen LOVED making his little pirate hat. he was so proud of it!

i only had two cousins in attendance (becca and tressa). and boy was i glad to see some familiar faces!

tressa and jake...expecting their first baby (boy)!