Baby Maggie

Photo taken October 21, 2007

The Cutest Little Girls Ever!

I love being a mom. I really do. It's all I ever wanted to be. I'm not kidding or exagerating when I tell you that I used to dream of white picket fences and making brown bag lunches and cleaning house while my family was at school and work. It's my dream job.

One of my favorite things about being a mother is something that was completely unforseen. Watching relationships develop between siblings. I find it fascinating and heart warming and it is also one of the things I worry about most.

In my opinion, siblings are potentially (and hopefully) the best friends a person could ever have. A sibling will have spent the most time with you and know you the best and have the most similar experiences and background. They will know where you're coming from...and maybe where you're headed.

Oh how I hope my children will be friends. I hope they love each other and look out for one another and are kind to one another.

I hope they will always be the best of friends!

Dayton

Dayton
Originally uploaded by Hodgson 6

Sarah

Sarah
Originally uploaded by Hodgson 6

Davis

Davis, originally uploaded by Hodgson 6.

The RCWilley Company Picnic

Maggie, originally uploaded by Hodgson 6.

I finally have some photos to blog but not too much to say about this particular occasion. This is a super fun playground at Settler's Park in Meridian. If you haven't been there it is worth a visit (when the snow melts!)

Salt Lake City

So we are in SLC this morning. The kids and I hanging out and waiting for the excitement to start this afternoon. An early dinner and then Temple Square when it gets dark. I love Temple Square so much and this will be the first time any of us have seen it lit up for the holidays. We just can't wait.
Last night (after an awesome dinner) we drove to through the park in Layton. It is all lit up and there is every animal you can think of in lights. It is really cool. There were penguins diving in the water, a whale, moose and elk, spiders, flamingos, bears...I can't remember them all. I'd never seen a holiday light display in a park before. It was all set up so you could either drive through or walk through it...what a cool idea.
Unfortunately, I forgot my stinkin' camera! Kent brought his though so someday I'll be able to scan his pics in and then edit this post to include some photos. Even worse than forgetting the camera though was forgetting Davis. Just kidding, we didn't forget him, he was just unable to come. But that is a whole other story and it is a very sad story with a lot of tears so I won't tell it here. We sure are missing him though.
It's been way too long since we came down here to visit our wonderful family. I'm thinking that we need to come back the minute school lets out and go to "This is the Place", Hoogle Zoo, and Temple Square again. Oh and Lagoon! We'll have to stay a whole week to fit all that in! Yeah!

Harkness Lake

This will not be the last post from our Montana vacation. Just so you know. Seriously people, we did so much that week! It was the most fun ever. On this day we took the Ranger up to Harkness Lake and did a little fishing.

Dayton, Chance and Kent were the only ones to catch any fish. One each, and we let them all go. They weren't nearly as big as the ones caught in the reservoir (and we kept so many of those!). But what they lacked in size, they made up for in beauty. Who would have thought I would ever call a fish beautiful? But, though you can't see it in this photo, beautiful they were.

What I liked even better than the fishing was the four-wheeling. We drove for about 30 minutes to the place where we unloaded the four wheeler and the ranger and then it was another 30 minutes from there to the little lake. It was nice terrain. Bumpy and hilly enough to entertain the kids, but not so much that I was freaking out. I have become a real ninny in my old age! The best part were the three creeks that we had to drive through; one was deep enough to get daddy's feet wet. That was hilarious!

Montana truly is "big sky country". From up here at this lake you feel like you could see all the way to Canada or the Pacific. I can't describe it but I will post a photo sometime and even that won't do it justice. You have to see it to believe it.

Vacation

Maggie looks a little sad in this photo, yes? It must be because she knew that no vacation lasts forever. Though nine days is about six days longer than this family has ever had before. It was wonderful! Kent and Sue really out did themselves entertaining us. They had something planned for every day. We had a blast!

Davis thinks he's Davey Crockett or Lewis and Clark or something. He is such a cool kid; he has always had an amazing imagination. He also has an amazing amout of patience with his younger brother and sisters. They love playing with him.

Is my little cowgirl cute or what? She is going to kill the boys with that smile when first grade starts at the end of the summer. We'll have to start keeping her under lock and key before you know it.

Mr. Tough-Guy. Honestly, he would move to Montana in a heartbeat. He loves it there so much. He talks about moving there every time we visit. He and his dad may talk me into it someday, but I doubt it!

This Post is Dedicated to Dan Gus

When we went to Montana for the 4th of July this year, we went fishing at the same old fishing hole. We love to fish. Even if we get skunked. However, as you can see, this year we did not get skunked.

This year we caught our limit. We caught our limit and they were big. We caught our limit, they were big and Chance made Trout Almondine for dinner.

It was a very good year for fishing. Even Dayton and Meredith caught fish!

Too bad Dan wasn't with us this year.

Almost Summer

Big difference from my last post, huh? It's really warming up and today was the first day the kids played in the sprinklers. The sprinkler itself didn't last long and soon it was just the hose.

Poor Maggie Anne got the worst of it. She's so little and the others never pay any attention to what is going on around them so she got squirted every time they turned around.

Amazingly, she never cried. What a trooper. By the way, I washed her face like a million times today but she has a little cold and I just can't keep up with that nose. Poor kid.