Family Fun

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with all the family this year. It wasn't long ago that we only had a baby, now we have all our babies having babies! We decided to get a family picture done while everyone was in town, and so Josh helped us by taking some family pictures while we were at home since we can't take little PresLee around the public yet. The pictures turned our really great! We thought we'd share some of the fun ones we were able to capture while trying to get the gang to sit still, pose and SMILE. Time flies when you are having fun, and the weekend went too fast!

Cousins get to meet for the first time! (PresLee and Mason)

Memories are the best part of life, and we were able to create a few new ones this year

FINALLY~ We get a few that turn out...

Left to Right:

Zach, Sara (baby in tow), Cory, Ashley, KayCee, PresLee, Josh and in front

Stephanie, Mason and Joe

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here it is...already November 27th and time for the annual stuff your face day. We are very thankful this year to have all our children here this year. Josh and KayCee are coming down from Idaho Falls with PresLee, and Zach and Sara arrived from California with Mason to spend time with those already in Utah. Cory and Ashley are already in town and so we will have our big family once again. We are planning to enjoy the big feast today with the "Hughes" side of the clan, and then spend time with our immediate family while we have the chance. Hopefully the tree and decor' will be done today and we can just look forward to the next several weeks during this holiday season. It has been fun so far, a little chaos is good right!??

This is Phoebe and Rawley all ready for the holiday season... Josh took these photo's for us when we were up visiting them last week. (Thanks Josh!) Hopefully we can get some 'real' family photo's while the gang is all here and post them soon. Ü

Love to all...we count our blessings to have our family, friends and all the privileges that we take for granted. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! GOBBLE GOBBLE

A well needed "PresLee" fix...

Joe and I just returned from Idaho Falls. I was able to tag along with Joe on a work trip and take advantage of some time with our darling grand baby PresLee. I had a nice day with Josh on Thursday, and then a day with KayCee on Friday. Of course both days I had the privilege of seeing PresLee! Joe had to work both days, but he was able to join in the fun when he got done. We had such a nice visit and thanks to KayCee and Josh's wonderful camera skills we were able to get some wonderful "Kodak moments". Thanks again for having us, we had a great time!



Preslee at 9wks. She is so much more bright eyed than last time we saw her.

Isn't she cute?!

PresLee got a lesson in 'patty-cake, patty-cake' from Grandma.

It was so cute to make her smile and coo.

As you can tell I think PresLee liked the game too. Ü Grandpa Joe was able to get her to smile too! PresLee loved the way he held her up so high. Since he is 6'2", it was like going on the Sky Ride. LOL

She was pretty intrigued in this shot.

Grandpa Joe also got to feed her the first night there,

he was getting a kick out of that. You can see how tiny she still is by the comparison to Grandpa Joe's hands!

(Either that or his hands are just massive) LOL It was so much fun feeding her, I was also able to take several turns.
Of course she eats every 3 hours, so it made it easy to get a turn in here and there. Ü


Grandma Stephanie just enjoying the simple moments and realizing what life is all about...

We can't get enough of her... Can you tell? We loved every minute of it.

The best part is that PresLee is coming with her Mommy and Daddy to Utah for Thanksgiving, and so we will get to see her again very soon! PresLee will also get to meet her cousin Mason, and some of her aunts and uncles for the first time. We are excited for family photos this year!

Joe's fun night...

Last night we took Joe out to dinner for his birthday. Ashley and I took him to the new restaurant, "Texas Roadhouse". It was really good, but what a zoo! I had told the waitress it was Joe's birthday which would of made for a much better pic than this, but Joe was not willing to participate in my fun. Texas Roadhouse has the birthday person sit on a saddle while they yell out to the whole restaurant that it is your birthday, and the whole restaurant replies with an astounding..........Yaaaaaaaaaa Hoooooooooooo! Yiiiiippppppeeeeeeeee! Eeeeee Haaaa! Well, a table near ours had a birthday also, and the gal that had to sit on the saddle ruined the surprise I was hoping for when it was Joe's turn. Oh well. We did get a restaurant wide holler in his honor however, and though Joe did not ride the saddle, he was slightly embarrassed and it was fun. I snapped a pic of him afterward, but unfortunately you can't see the restaurant staff at the table doing the cattle call for his b-day. We then came home to a pumpkin pie (Joe's favorite) and had a nice evening. Hopefully Joe had a nice birthday. Ü

Happy Birthday Joe!!

Today is Joe's birthday. He is now 48! Joe didn't want much of a "to-do" for his special day, but because he is special to me I am posting a Happy Birthday Blog Message. This is a tribute to my lifetime friend and soul mate. These are ten things you may not know about Joe...

• Joe loves to run


• Joe loves chocolate...especially brownies, chocolate reisen candies, and chocolate milk


• Joe cuddles to Phoebe (our female poodle) every night instead of his wife. lol.


• Joe can fix anything! He is a genius at woodworking, and fixing stuff....except cars that is.


• Joe has a bad habit of leaving the water running...but his wife is trying to cure him of that.


• Joe loves reality TV.... Amazing Race, Survivor, Biggest Loser


• Joe loves to watch UFC fighting more than football I think


• Joe NEVER gets sick. Really! We all have a party if he gets a cold, which is very seldom


• Joe is the 7th of 9 children. He has 2 sisters and 6 brothers


• Joe looses stuff alot. He leaves things behind on most trips by accident. Just ask Zach...

Joe is a wonderful husband, father and best friend...I have had the priviledge of having him in my life for the last 30 years. Happy Birthday Joe!! May your day be the best ever.... I love you!

Joe...This one's for you

Since Joe travels so much, he is missing his "puppy kids", and he asked that I put a picture on our blog. Not that anyone else cares, but this is Phoebe (left) and Rawley (right). It will be a whole month that Joe hasn't seen them by the time he gets home on Friday. As for me, I was really enjoying the dog free days while I was gone. Ü

Ashley is our only real "kid" left at home now. And although she may kill me for using this picture, (sorry Ashley...it was the only one I could find with just you in it) I thought I'd post a picture of our cute baby girl who is now 21. She was a huge help in taking care of the house while we were gone. Ashley is always having fun, so this pic is appropriate.

Bucca and Munga Time

Joe and I (aka...Bucca and Munga) were able to spend the weekend with Mason while Zach and Sara went to the annual Marine Corp Ball. We had so much fun at SeaWorld riding rides and seeing the sharks and touching the manta rays. We also went to Chucky Cheese and had fun (or at least Mason had fun at Chucky Cheese) lol. Mason has kept us busy playing cars, and our little game of hiding from the wicked witch. He would play that for hours... Today we watched Mason while Mommy and Daddy had an ultrasound to find out whether or not Mason gets a baby brother or sister. AND.......the answer is...
Mason gets to be a big brother to a brother... Ü

Halloween in California

Joe and I flew to California to spend the week and Halloween. However, Joe ended up having to fly back to Utah for a last minute business change, so I stayed with Zach and Sara and Mason this week. We had lots of fun carving pumpkins, and walking the neighborhoods to see "witches, monsters and goblins". Joe flew back on Halloween day and we all enjoyed Sara's homemade chili and trick or treating. Mason loved it! He was dressed up as Mike Wazowski from Monster's Inc. We are off to Vegas next week and back to California next weekend for the Marine Corp Ball to watch Mason while Zach and Sara attend.