Cheer for the Home Team!

What would BYU be without BYU football? Well we got tickets to the home game BYU vs. UCLA. Go Cougs! And we won! Personally, I think football is a lot more exciting when you are actually there. Last year, we had season tickets, but with two kids this year, we didn't think we could handle that. Mom and Dad still have season tickets, so they come down and visit us every home game. (or is that visit the grandkids :) Either way, we have a lot of fun and have made some good memories over the past 3 years of BYU football games. And this is just one of them!

Here is BYU scoring one of their touchdowns. We had seats in the end zone, so it is pretty exciting when they score a touchdown. Camilla went to the game with us. Not too much emotion for the home team there. :) Brandon and Alicia (my siblings) babysat Emma during the game. Can you imagine her at the game?Cami spent most of the game on a make-shift bed of sweatshirts and blankets under our feet. She was a lot more content there.After the game with our little family...minus Emma :(

This was all of us that went to the game, Dad, Camilla, Mom, Me and Kevin. We had a blast. Thanks again Mom and Dad for coming down. It was so fun!

Mawage is what bwings us together today...and other firsts!

So who is super cool and goes to a wedding and forgets their camera? Oh yeah, that would be me. Thanks to my bro, I borrowed his camera and was able to document a momentous occasion...Kim tied the knot! Kim is Kevin's sister, for those of you who don't know. We have been waiting with baited breath to see if she would go through with it (she has a bit of a history:), and the winner is Darren! So we trecked up to Idaho for the wedding and experienced a great first! Funny story, at the luncheon she said, "now do you all believe me that I was getting married?" Go Kim!Here are the newlyweds coming out of the temple. They were married in Idaho Falls just like us. It was really fun to go back.Here is a pic of Kevin and his siblings. Yep, count them up folks...10! (Plus Kim's husband) Kevin is seven of ten children. (Might I add, the tallest and cutest of them all!)This is of all the siblings and spouses! There are now seven of us married. Kevin's parents are in this picture too.And this was an attempt at a Belnap family picture. You see the Belnaps take the counsel of 'multiply and replenish the earth' literally. As to date there are 26 grandchildren with one on the way. Not all of the family made it into the picture and like we could get all the children even remotely looking at the camera. (Yes, my Emma is one of those distracted children. She is in front in the red and blue dress. Kevin and I are in the back next to the bride and groom.)The next two pics are an updated family picture of us! We were on the temple grounds, so pretty! You will have to tell me which pic you like the best.Random Emma found a stroller at the reception and was pushing it around. There was a dance at the reception. Here is Emma dancing with her cousin Paxton. He is 2 months older than she is.
This first is Camilla hanging out in her exersaucer. I just can't resist her smile.

Here is a first...well maybe not a first. We all went to BYU-I together and haven't gotten together in a REALLY long time. We finally got back in touch. This is Rachel, Cori and me. So even cooler, we went to Vashon Island, WA together for a semester and taught school in Tacoma, WA. Good times!

A first! Camilla is eating rice cereal! She loves it. This is always a monumentous day!
These are some pics taken on Sunday after church. The first is the cute new outfits we have them in. And the fact that they only look cute on Sundays, the rest of the week, no curls or headbands.
We love our Cami Jo, even when she seems distressed.
My poser Emma!Camilla is starting to roll all over the place. This first was her rolling under the chair.P.S. Rachel here is a picture of my sink so I won't be lame! My first here is that EVERY dish was clean in my house! It only lasted maybe a minute and will probably never happen again.

So now that you have been overwhelmed with pictures, here is a fun video of Camilla screaming out her frusteration. She sounds just like Emma when she screams. (This is not a first, she screams every day)

Life for the Belnaps

I am always behind on my posts and usually only post events. So this time, I thought I would give you a little idea of what life is everyday. I felt cool that Rachel tagged me and then you would really get an idea of what life is like, but I didn't want to post pictures of a sink full of dishes, clothes on my bathroom floor and toddler toys strewn throughout the house. Thanks for the tag Rach, but you will just have to come to house to see what it is really like. One of Camilla's new tricks is rolling over. This is catching her performing her new trick. She has mastered it a lot better now. Here are our two cute girls. Emma loves to copy what Camilla is doing. Somedays I have 2 babies instead of one!
Does anyone else forget to change diapers sometimes? Ooops. Emma will usually tell me if she is soggy. But she failed to mention it that day and I was a little sidetracked or is that mommy brain? Either way, yes I know Rachel and Anabelle this is a good sign that I should potty-train. In the meantime, I am trying not to leave her so soggy.

Emma is a little mimmick. You can tell how I go to work each day. And this is the way Emma goes to work with me, purse, glasses and her keys. There is no stopping this chica!
This is Emma and Sophie painting pumpkins. If you come to our house Emma will be sure to show off her pumpkin. She loved it! Thanks Wilkins!
Our fun girls again! This picture happens to be on Camilla's 6 month birthday. (Happy half birthday to Lexey too!)
Ummm....yuck! So this is becoming part of our lives. Kevin has wrecked on his bike twice in the last month. Note to all motorists, watch out for my sweet husband! A girl pulled out of a parking lot and turned immediately. The only problem was she didn't look for the bike riding past her. So she hit Kevin on his bike. Duh! BYU drivers have got to watch out!

Kevin is taking a swimming class this semester. Emma thinks she is in the class too. She loves to 'swim' a.k.a. taking a bath with goggles.
Camilla's other trick is eating her toes. Check out that flexibility! If only we were all still that flexible. Me, I probably can't even do the splits anymore. Boo!

These vidoes are of our girls performing more tricks. Camilla is saying 'mom!' This is always a great day. But on the video it started to morph into 'ba' instead of 'ma.' But I promise she can still say 'mamama.' And Emma is riding her bike! This is a major accomplishment and has taken us all summer to get it. Good job Ems! (Too bad bike riding season is almost over)

Ode to the Minivan

So I have been feeling a little depressed the past couple of days. I don't know if depressed is the right word, maybe just dealing with change. Anyway, so we have been looking for a van for awhile in the anticipation of our move to California. So a really great deal came up and we bought a Honda Odyssey. (It looks like the above pic, but used :) So that is the good news...yeah, we got a deal!

So here is where the depression comes in. I am feeling so old! Owning a minivan is like a huge milestone! I still feel 18, but everything around me reminds me that I am not. So I guess I am officially a mom, since I now own the minivan that goes with the job description. You know, mormom mom, minivan, a million kids. Yikes! So thanks for letting me vent out the aging process of life! And good luck to all those in the future who will cross this great milestone called getting older and having kids and driving huge cars! In the meantime, don't laugh at people driving minivans, it might be me!

The rest of the summer!

With difficult internet, a very slow computer and a broken flash on a camera...I finally bring you the rest of the Belnap summer! Here is a picture overload of a summer. (Yes Kevin, this is proof that we actually do cool stuff!) We visited both of my grandmas. Did anyone else have one of these? We grew up playing on this awesome horse. And now the next generation continues to play on this fun horse!

This is the day after the 4th of July. It has become a tradition here in Provo for us to see the hot air balloons in the morning. It was really fun! (We missed it the first day because we slept in. Sorry Rachel and Tanner.)Here we are camping! But don't get too excited. We are camping in McCammon, ID. Not my idea of 'roughing it' but hey. This was the Karl Belnap family reunion, which was once again more like the Ross Belnap family reunion, since our fam is HUGE!!! I was trying not be bitter that I didn't win the dutch oven cook-off (obviously still not over that one:)And then Kevin ditched us and went to Disney World for 'training.' PricewaterhouseCoopers paid for him to go to Disney World for a few days. That is who he interned with over the winter. They also paid him while he was there! And that is why we have signed a job offer with them. :) This is Kevin with more of the PWC interns. You'll have to ask him who these people all are. They spent 2 days playing around in Animal Kingdom and the Hollywood park. Sorry, I've never been, so I don't really know what I am talking about. He was in a culinary competition, they built bikes and listened to speakers. Sounds rough.


The person taking the picture didn't realize they were taking a video. So here is Kevin with Mickey! Emma was excited.So while Kevin was in Florida, we (me and the kids) stayed in Idaho for a week. He came to Idaho the day before his birthday. So we stayed another day and celebrated his birthday. What a great day!So we invited all the Belnaps. Our nieces and nephews could hardly stand candles being blown out without their help. So Kevin let some of them help. Emma is helping too! After the fact, we realized that we had the first Kay Jenkins family reunion. Everyone came down to Utah and we went to LAGOON!!! It took us planning it all summer, but we finally made it. So from right to left: Dad, Alicia, Camilla, Kevin, Jen, Allison, Richard, Stephanie, Brandon, Emma and Mom! Thanks everyone for coming. It was awesome!
Here we are at Lagoon! We are all really excited to be here (as you can tell).
Alicia and Allison riding the swings. You go girls! (Kevin is the insane one taking all the pics. I was too chicken and dizzy!)
What is a reunion without some chow! What a fun day!

This is Brandon, Allison and Richard on the tidal wave. Brandon was pretty nervous and held on the whole time. We love ya Brandon!
This is in line for the white roller coaster. And this would be the only ride that mom rode all day. Sorry mom. But we are soooooo grateful that you watched our kids so we could ride crazy rides like the Rocket!

We all rode the Merry-go-round with Emma. She was a little nervous, but then warmed up to the rides. Dad said it was funny to watch us, because about 6 grown people were surrounding one toddler. What can we say? We love our Ems!
I think Emma rode this ride like 6 times. She loved it! She was crazy on the rides. We took her on the kid roller coaster and even took her on the huge white roller coaster! What a trooper!

Emma finds her true love? Nope, not the boy...the car! She loves to drive anything so the cars were a hit too.

Our dear "Unca Bandon" fell asleep behind our couches. He is 6'5" (at least) and 100% legs, as I am sure you can tell.

We also took a family vacation to Yellowstone. Here is my bragging rights, my grandpa started the Playmill Theatre in West Yellowstone, MT. So this is always a sentimental place for me. We always drive past our cabin and stop in to see this great place. And yes, that is me in front of the theatre.

We were able to stay at our brother-in-law's cabin (for free, the best vacation!) in Island Park. So we spent two days going through Yellowstone National Park. Here we found some elk along the road. Emma called them 'Uk.'
Here we are up at the artist paint pots. It was really pretty, but cold for us Utahans.

Here is Emma looking at a geyser. This child has no fear! Funny story, she even tried to throw her shoe into Echineas geyser. (So Dine, not just a stick would fly out of the water :) Luckily the shoe did not go into the geyser, but Kevin did break park rules and hopped the fence to get her shoe.

Here we are in front of Old Faithful. "Ain't as faithful as it used to be!" We had a blast up at the cabin with just us. It was a nice relaxing family vacation.

And what would a summer be without swimming? Emma and Jacob love to swim together and spent a few days playing in the water. (Which mostly consists of just running around the yard in their swim suits.)

We put the hose on the slide so they could have a cheap 'water slide.' They loved it. My favorite part is Emma sliding down and catching air at the bottom. (Plus the clip ends showing her nice JLo bootie!) We love ya Ems!


And here are our girls in their matching dresses. Thanks Grandma! We love our girls and think they are adorable!