PICTURE TAG (HOW LONG AGO WAS I TAGGED?)

Ok, so I was tagged by my sister, Stephanie, back in February and I'm just now getting to it. Sorry Steph. I finally got it done though and I have tweaked it a bit. The tag was 10 of your favorite pictures. Well, I have many many many favorite pictures, so I changed it to 10 favorite things and pictures that go along with it. For those of you who are reading this I tag Natalie Olsen, Janae Burkinshaw, Jerianne Conroy, Merrilee Feller, April Fortenberry and Jenn Patrick. Don't you just love tags.
The real tag was just 10 favorite pictures.

1. My Husband, My Best Friend

These are my favorite pictures, probably because they are the only pictures I really have with me and my husband. And thank you to Merrilee, I have another picture with him and my other best friend Merrilee. I also love these because I think I look pretty good. I certainly don't look like that anymore, how depressing. And of course the wedding picture was the happiest day of my life!



Another reason that I love the above picture is because my baby before I was married is sitting in the parking lot behind Josh. It was my Mitsubishi 3000GT, loved that car.
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2. My Little Girls

There are many many many pictures of my girls that are favorites so I spared you and only put a couple on here. That first one makes me laugh every time I see it. Ayva was probably 2 months because it was taken in London and we left there when she was about 2 1/2 months. And Cheyenne just looks so cute in that picture.


This one makes me laugh because I caught it right before she tipped over. Cheyenne is leaning against the couch. And they look so funny in their slippers from Grandma and Grandpa Bates.
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3. My Other Girls

These are my most favorite girl friends. The first picture are my girls from Ricks College and still my best friends to this day and they are, from left to right, Jenn Dehdari Patrick, April Olsen Fortenberry, Merrilee Feller, and me. I have some great memories with these girls and some that will go down in history (fence, hint hint).



The second one are my girls from Kansas during the Junior High and High school years. This was taken at EFY. Love the outfits, aren't they so ... floral. And that hair that I'm sportin, what is that, I mean really what was I thinking?! Anyways, I unfortunately have lost touch with a couple of them. Starting from left to right, Janae Jardine Burkinshaw (sorry sweetie, this picture just makes me laugh I had to put it on), Aubrey Sherratt, me and Carrie Utterback (I don't know her married name). Love you girls!!!
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4. Old Pictures

I love this old picture of my dad and his dog. They had two dogs at this time named Bitter and Bear and I'm not sure which one this is. I heard this story from dad and I probably don't have the details just right but one day Bitter got out and dad went chasing after him. There was a lady by the dog and dad yelled out "Bitter, Bitter!" The lady had this stunned look on her face when dad called out for the dog because it sounds like "bite her." I guess I would be a little stunned too if I were in her position.




The second old picture is just one of me and it just makes me laugh. What a chubby little thing.
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5. The Dunes

Oh the dunes, how I miss you.

When we were younger and living in California my father built dune buggies, for our family and for a few other family members and friends, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong dad.

I looooooved going to the dunes. Riding in the buggies, ATVs, digging giant wholes, ATV tracks, comp hill (competition hill which is featured in the first picture. That is a post card that we've had for a long time and I always loved it.), Uncle Kevin burning some sort of shape on the dune in front of camp, jets flying over camp, wind storms, Halloween at the dunes, the bathroom (yuck), swimming in the canal, getting in trouble for doing something wrong, making Stephanie walk back to camp because we ran out of gas on the ATV and getting in trouble for that (I'd have to agree, we were pretty far from camp.), the Glamis Store, night runs, races, Leonard Peabody ( for those of you who know all this his name is all I need to say), the silver bodysuit (Dad I'm sure you remember that, what was his name?), the new trailers with the squeeky beds or should I say cots and of course all the accidents. Oh how I miss you!!!!



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6. My Photography

I love photography, not much else I can say about that. This is just some of my work, London, wedding, and most recent family pictures.

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7. Gymnastics

I love gymnastics. When I was little I took classes and loved everything about it. My favorites are the beam and uneven bars. After a few years of doing that I stopped to play soccer and then we moved to Kansas and I never did it again until my 8th grade year.

I tried out for the team and made it. I wanted to get back into it and I thought this would help but to my dismay, it didn't. I psyched myself out, I thought about the move I was working on too long. I pictured it in my mind and all the possible accidents that could happen and so I could never do it. It has always been a great disappointment.

I love watching the Olympics and any other kind of gymnastic competition on TV. Gymnastics takes so much strength, flexibility, grace, self control, confidence and they are so powerful. They just look so graceful and beautiful when doing their event.


There are two older movies that I love watching. One is about Nadia Comaneci and is called Nadia (I think), the other one is called American Anthem.
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8. The Beach

Who doesn't love the beach? I grew up in Southern California just minutes from Newport and Huntington Beach. One of my favorite things to do during the summer was go to the beach. I remember my brothers and I rode our bikes down there and hung out for the day.

One of those times Brandon got caught in a ripe tide. That's when the current (I believe) pulls you out to sea. One minute I saw him pretty close to us and the next minute he was really far out there, the life guards had to go out and get him with their boat. It was pretty scary.

Our ward also had night parties out there and those were a blast.


So many fun memories and some scary memories but I do love the beach. It makes for some beautiful photos as well.
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9. My Favorite City (but have never visited yet)

I've always wanted to go to Venice. The first time I saw pictures and heard about this place I've always wanted to go there. The idea of a city on the water is just really cool, I think. I love the old buildings and how you walk out your front door and down the steps into the water. Granted I've heard that the water is nasty but it still looks amazing to me. This place too also makes for some awesome pictures, and oh how I would love to do that.



Anyone willing to fund my trip to Venice? HaHaHa
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10. My Boys

Those of you who have known me for years know that I've never been into sports. Well being married to a sports fan I guess it was bound to happen. I have really grown to love this team and annoyed with them at the same time, especially this season. They just let the playoffs slip away. That's the annoyance right now.

I know all their names and I even know the names of players from other teams. I'm starting to understand the game, which I never did before. I get into the games, get mad at the refs and yell at the players for making a bonehead play. Crazy, huh! I never thought anyone could get me to do that.

This isn't the only team that my husband likes but the Jazz have been the only one I really get into and follow. I think because it's a fast pace game. Football just takes forever for one play and baseball, I'm sorry to those of you who like it, but it's just boring to watch on TV. I enjoy going to a game but not on TV.



This is Deron Williams, their point guard and he is just a stud. He is one of the best point guards in the NBA right now. He is the one that pulls this team together. It's shocking how much I know about this team, even the history of it.


I hear that President Monson is a fan of the Jazz as well. At this game he was in the stands but I guess he knows someone who has box seats and gets to use those. His personal secretary told a reporter that he goes to a game at least once a month. I thought that was awesome.

So there you have it, some of my favorite things.

Happy Birth-day Cardston!!!

My beautiful sister had her baby today and mama and baby are doing well! And so is daddy!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD

CARDSTON SHAYE STOUT!!!

Born this morning at 4:55am to Evan and Stephanie Stout

Weighing in at 8lbs. 2oz.

Congratulations guys!

We love you!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Happy Anniversary guys!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

We love you and can't wait to see you next week, hopefully!

Love,

Josh, Lacey, Ayva and Cheyenne

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

To the two mothers in our lives...

Happy Mothers Day!

Thank you for all that you do for us!

We love you very much!

Minnows, Beer, Scrapes, Musical Chairs, Fish Jaw, Death March, etc.

Now it's been a few days but I'd like to share our adventure we had on Saturday.

It all started early Saturday morning. We didn't go camping but we went to a state park to go fishing. Josh wanted to try out his new bait thingys and Ayva really like them because they looked like little fishies. So we got up at about 6:30 and arrived at the park about 7:30. It was pretty chilly, especially down by the water. So we were all bundled up and set up our little day camp, chairs, cooler, snacks and fishing gear. Josh started fishing and Ayva set out for discovery. Cheyenne just chilled out in her carrier, like she always does, good baby! Ayva was coming back and was on a little slope as she bent down to pick up a leaf she fell right on her face. She was a little mad because she had dirt all over her face and after the cleaning found a little scrape on her chin. I believe that was the first scrape on her face ever.

A little later Josh put one of his new bait thingys on and told me to reel it in while he uses the little boys room. Me not knowing anything about the different ways to fish didn't realize that you cast this one out there and then reel it in pretty fast so it doesn't get stuck on the bottom. You know, they are suppose to look like little fishies swimming around. So he went and I started reeling it in but I guess I wasn't fast enough because it got stuck. At first I thought I got one, yay for me I was excited for a brief second then the thought "OH NO!!!" came. So I sat there holding it trying to get it loose. My way of getting it loose entailed me yanking on it. Josh came back and I looked at him and said "this is what happens when you leave your wife to do it." So he tried and couldn't get it and then just cut it loose. So I lost one of his bait thingys. Sorry Josh!

Later, it started to warm up a bit and Josh decided he wanted to try live bait, so I went down the street to the bait shop and got a dozen minnows. Ayva was so excited when we took the lid off, she loved the little fishes. She just stood there and watched them for a while waving at them and saying "Hi, little fishies."

Poor Josh didn't catch a fish but he did catch a fishes jaw. At one point, he thought he caught something so he reeled it in and there was no fish, just it's jaw.


So we left the park and went home for a planned nap before we went to the baseball game. The Dodgers is one of Josh's teams and they were here playing the Rockies. The girls went down for a nap and after cleaning up a bit it was about 2pm and we had to leave by 4pm. Long story short we slept through the alarm and woke up at 4pm. Needing to get the girls ready for the game because it was going to be a little chilly we left at 4:30pm. Which ended up being ok because we got there with plenty of time to spare. We parked pretty far from the entrance and so we took a shuttle. We ended up on the opposite side so we walked to the other side, I know this is boring but it is important to the end of the story. We got to our seats hoping it wasn't going to fill up around us. Anyone else hate being packed in at the ballpark? I hate it. So we got hot dogs for dinner and I came back with them and Josh and I started eating with kids in hand. Cheyenne was just eye balling my dog the whole time. So of course with our luck everyone started packing in all around us and we were right in the middle of the row. We knew we'd have issues because Ayva, for those of you who know her, hates being still. So we went higher in the stadium where there was no one, thinking we had it made. Well it was the 2nd inning and people were still coming and of course the section we moved to just got sold out by late comers. We moved a little higher and then again and then again. And everyone that was coming had a beer in hand. Beer everywhere you could smell it, yuck!!! So we finally moved to a section that was closed off, it had a sign and chain that said "closed" , we were bad we know. It just kept filling up, there were no seats left in that section. So the usher guy saw us and said we couldn't sit there. By this time it was only the fourth inning and people were still coming, all the party people I guess. So the usher guy told us we could sit in the handicap seating area. You know that row as you walk through the tunnel and they are right there. So after playing musical chairs through the first 5 innings we ended leaving after the 5th. Dodgers were winning anyways so it was no big deal.

On our way out I was thinking we wouldn't have to walk as far if we go the other then the way we came in. So we were out of the ballpark and asked the lady how to get to our lot going the other way. So she told us to go over the bridge, turn left and walk down the side walk past the parking lot and tun left again to go under the roadway. So we did and got to this stop light and asked the policeman where to go next. We told him where we were parked and he said we went the wrong way and either have to make our way through all these apartments and up this street ramp and down another street ramp and then we would be at the entrance we arrived at. Or go back the way we came and go all the way around it again. We decided to keep truckin it through the apartments and the street ramps. After we made it to the parking lot we had to walk all the way through the parking lot over a busy street and through another parking lot. We finally made it to the car and boy were my arms like jello. We didn't bring a stroller, we just carried Cheyenne and of course after a while we held Ayva as well. Talk about a death march. Well for me it was especially when you weren't expecting a long walk like that. On the bright side of all that we got a little tour of the city in all that walking.

So, guess what? We are going camping this weekend. This time in the mountains.

Wish me luck!!!

Sorry about the lengthy post.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVIN!!!

Happy, happy birthday Devin! Hope you have a very fun day!

Can't wait to see you!

Love,

Josh, Lacey, Ayva and Cheyenne

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANELLE!!!

Happy, happy birthday Janelle!!! Hope you had an awesome one!

We miss you and hope to see you soon!

Love,

Josh, Lacey, Ayva and Cheyenne

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!

We are so sorry about the late birthday wish!

We hope you had a very fun day!

Love,

Josh, Lacey, Ayva and Cheyenne

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAMPTON!!

Happy Birthday Brampton!! Love, Ayva

Love you little dude! I can't believe you are two! Ayva misses you, whenever she sees a picture of you she says "Brampton."

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

This is the lovely view we had when we woke up this morning. Nice, huh! Didn't I see somewhere that it's MAY!?! The forecast said it's suppose to do this until late Friday. This just doesn't seem right!