NAUVOO

Ok, it's official.  I'm terrible at updating my blog.  But it's better to add stuff late than never I suppose.  Most who get on facebook have seen these pictures, but some people don't do facebook, so here ya go. :)

This summer we drove to Nauvoo, IL for a Bates family reunion.  We stayed in a campground that is owned by the Community of Christ.  It had cabins and a lodge with everything you need to survive.  It was a lot of fun!  We had a great time with family, and seeing the awesome Nauvoo sites.  Here are just a few:

Our first church history stop was Liberty Jail.  It's amazing that six grown men lived in that hole for so many months.  Must have been awful.  Was a neat experience to see this place!

The next stop was Adam-ondi-ahman.  It was SO beautiful, and the valley was WAY bigger than I ever thought it was.  Very peaceful place!

This is Logan right before his baptism, on Sunday, July 4th.  I love this picture.  This is the end of Parley Street, where the Saints lined up their wagons to leave Nauvoo and head West, when they were driven from their homes.  Logan loves to tell people he was baptized in the Mississippi River. :)

This is a caption below statues of Joseph and Hyrum on their horses, riding to Carthage.  This right across the street from the Nauvoo temple.

We got to do a session in the Nauvoo temple.  The clouds made for a pretty picture. :)

This is part of the "Camp Nauvoo" campground where we stayed.  Marlee and Nanny are playing "princess leaves".  Marlee turns just about any object into a princess to play dollies. :)

Little Tubby, getting dirty at the playground.

The Lodge

Carthage Jail, where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred by an angry mob.  The top window in this picture is where Joseph fell from, right after he was shot.  It was a really neat experience going through the jail, walking where the prophet once walked.

This is Hotel Nauvoo.  We didn't get to go inside because it is still rented out to people like a regular hotel. :)  But it's a hotel that Joseph and Emma ran while they were alive.

This is the final resting place of Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith.  It is located right next to Joseph and Emma's home, which is the next picture down.

We got to take a tour through this house, and the Mansion House.  It was neat to see the rooms and some of the same furniture that was used by Joseph and Emma.  The most memorable was a mirror that Emma had used, and a chest of drawers that had a fallout drawer that Emma used to hide the manuscripts of the bible translation.  The tour was run by the Community of Christ, and they did not allow pictures to be taken of the inside of these structures.

The original Mansion House (below) was actually 3 times bigger than this, but after the Saints left, the rest of it fell into disrepair, and since there was no one to rent it out, they just tore that part down.  This is what remains of the Mansion House.  Inside the house is a model of what the original house looked like.  It was HUGE!  We also got to walk through the Red Brick store, and go into the upper room where the Relief Society was organized, and where the first endowments were performed.  But for some reason we didn't take pictures of that.

This is a model of the typical wagon used by the Saints to go West.  It's much smaller than I envisioned.  This is located at the end of Parley Street next to the Mississippi River.

This is the end of Parley Street (also where Logan was baptized).

A view of the Nauvoo temple from the "city" below.

Logan, waiting for the Nauvoo Pageant to start.

Grandma Bates, we think she had a good time. :)

Marlee at the campground, sweet little gal.

The reunion goers. :)  Only 8 of the 14 families were able to come, plus Grandma Bates.  It was fun to see everyone, but we really missed the ones who couldn't come too!

I think this picture describes how we all felt after leaving Nauvoo. :)

Landon had the best time catching fireflies and tiny froggies.  He had up to 5 froggies in his hands at a time.  It was so fun!

We'll never forget our trip to Nauvoo.  It took 3 days driving there and 3 days driving home, with 4 days in between.  Worth the drive?  TOTALLY!  We LOVED being there.  It was like going back in time in many ways.  The  bugs weren't terrible, and the weather wasn't too hot.  It was perfect.  Doing Logan's baptism there was so special too.  The water wasn't too cold and there weren't too many onlookers either (although the onlookers thought it was pretty cool too!).  It was great to have my Bates family there, and was nice of Nanny and Papa McBride to make such a long trip to see the baptism too.  After talking about it, we decided it was our best family vacation yet.  We're grateful we were able to make the trip, it was unforgettable!!

Logan's 8th birthday

Logan finally turned 8 on June 27th!  He's been looking forward to this for a long time, especially because that means he gets to be baptized.  We did a big party for this special birthday.  This picture was taken on his actual birthday with just our family.

The big birthday party was on the day before his birthday (since the actual day was Sunday) at a pool in my friends subdivision.  Of course it was just my luck that they removed all the furniture from the community pool (because of vandalism) a few days before his party.  So our tables/chairs were towels on the ground. :)

Bryce and Aaron Bloom (a good friend of our family).

Tubby hanging out in the stroller, eating his pizza.  Love spaghetti sauce faces! :)

The wind decided it was a great day to blow, so our decorations were haggard by the time we were done.

Logan, Landon, and Jake Bloom (one of Logan's best friends whose family moved away but came back to visit and come to the party), having fun in the sun.

Some of

the party kids. :)

Logan loves Calvin & Hobbes, and this is his first attempt at drawing one of his favorite characters. Can you tell who it is?? :)

Bryce videotaped Logan blowing out candles and opening presents, but took no pics.  Oh well.  Logan got his first set of scriptures with his name engraved on them.  He was very excited about that!  He actually spends time reading them and looking up topics to study.  He also got the Lego Harry Potter x-box game that they've been looking forward to for a long time.  He got lots of cool presents from friends too.  It was a fun birthday party and I think Logan felt very special.  Logan loves being 8!  Eight years has gone by fast, and it's been fun watching Logan grow and learn.  I love that he's excited to have been baptized and participate in the important ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We definitely have our crazy moments with him, but we really love his strong, excited spirit and his enthusiasm for life.  Happy birthday Logan, we love you and are glad you're in our family!!

Marlee's 4th birthday

Marlee had her 4th birthday on June 17th.  She had been counting down the days for over a month, "how many more ni-nights till my birthday Mom?"  She was so excited to finally be 4!  Her birthday was very "princess" themed.  She loved the princess dollies on her strawberry icecream cake.

Little miss, getting ready to open her presents.  She got princess puzzles and games.

Enjoying her cake and dollies....

Nanny McBride made this beautiful Snow White dress for Marlee's birthday, she loved it!

Marlee's best friend Kendis came to celebrate her birthday with us.  They had the best time playing dress-up and watching Tinkerbell movies.  We definitely have a girl in the house!!

I can't believe it's already been four years.  Like I said on facebook, my dolly is growing up! :'(  It's a real treat to be Marlee's mom.  She can be a real firecracker, but most of the time she is funny and sweet.  We love our little girl!  Happy birthday Marlee!

Updates

Ok, so it's been kind of a long time since I've posted anything.  Since I've gotten on facebook, my blog has suffered a bit, but posting once in a while is better than never!  During Spring Break, Bryce's mom (Nanny) came for a visit and treated us to the Phoenix Children's Museum (thanks Papa, too!).  The kids really had a fun time, and hopefully Nanny did too. :)

Here's Marlee at the sand-art booth.

Logan and Nanny playing the xylophone.

This is Masen laughing hysterically at what Landon is doing in the next picture.  They had all sorts of cool car/ball rolling tracks in this room.  It was pretty cool.

They have this "noodle forest" at the museum which consists of hundreds of swimming noodles hanging from the ceiling and the kids had such a fun time walking through the forest to the other side.  I didn't get any good pictures of that, but it was a highlight of the museum.

The kids are actually sitting still to listen to the Prophet for General Conference.  We love those moments. :)

So Marlee pulled out her butterfly hairclips and started attaching them to Masen's head.  I can't believe he sat still for her to do that, and didn't take them out right away.  It was just a matter of time before our girl decided to dress up one of our boys. :)  The following picture says it all about how he felt about the experience.  Poor thing, this surely won't be the last time. :)

For a Primary Activity in April, we had kids bring cardboard boxes to make into cars.  After they made their cars, we had them drive around the hall in the church, following road signs, to re-enter the gym to watch a drive-in movie.  Then they played red-light green-light.  It was such a fun activity and some really cool cars were created.  Marlee made her car into a bed a few days later and we found her here.  Looks......comfy?

This picture was taken by Logan on our 10 year anniversary on April 25th.  Beautiful backdrop eh? :)  Can't believe it's been 10 years, it's flown by so quickly.  While we've definitely had our fair share of trials and challenges, it's been a lot of fun and we've experienced so many joys.  We have so much to be grateful for: our children, the gospel, our testimonies, a home to live in, Bryce's job, our families, and so many great friends.  It's been a happy 10 years, and I am excited to see what the next 50 or 60 years bring. :)

Masen's 1 year pictures

I know I already posted pictures from Masen's first birthday, but these are his official 1 year pictures.  Jen did such a great job again, and I'm having a really hard time deciding which one to frame and put on my wall.  I also need to pick one to have our friend sketch to frame and put up with all my other kids' baby pics sketches. 

This picture below makes him look like such a big boy and not so much a little baby.  I love it.

This one cracks me up, his face looks so funny when he tries to blow raspberries!  He doesn't just use his lips, his whole face gets involved to make it happen.  I just had to include this one. :)

Anyway, he's such a funny little boy, full of personality and excitement.  Just thought I'd post these cute little pics. :)

Masen turns 1

Really, has a year gone by already???  My sweet little baby boy Masen Todd turned 1 year old on February 16th.  That year FLEW by!  Masen has been a good little baby, and is a lot of fun for both us and the kids.  He's got the same intelligent look in his eyes and a very similar personality that Logan had as a baby, like he knows what's going on around him.  I guess we better hold on tight for the wild ride ahead.  :)  Right now, Masen loves Baby Beethoven/Bach/Motzart, Baby Tad, his "naney" (blankey), hearing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Little Star," playing patty-cake but making Mom clap her hands by grabbing her thumbs and clapping them for her, loves to turn the x-box on and off repeatedly (little pill), loves splashing in the toilet when the older kids forget to close the lid/door (grrr), likes to hear us cheer when he stands on his own, and really likes to be on the trampoline.  He has an intense excitement about many things, and he cries and bangs his face on the floor when someone takes something away from him that he was playing with (it sounds terrible, but it's actually really comical!).

Masen getting ready for his birthday cake.

A few minutes later..... :)

Big yummy bite of cake.

He really ate a lot, considering his size.  He loved feeling the texture of it on his fingers too.

This is his birthday present from Nanny (Bryce's mom).  I love the cute little cowboys on the blanket, it is so cute!!  Masen liked it too!

Here we are getting ready for mother's group.  It can be pretty chilly in the mornings here in AZ, so we put this cute little hat on Masen to keep his ears warm.  You can't see it, but there's a Superman logo on the top of the hat.  I love his smile in this picture.  We love our sweet baby Masen.  He'll always be my baby!

Family pictures

So we had our family pictures done at the end of November.  And yes, I'm just now posting them.  We took them in a pecan orchard about 20 miles south of our home.  Here are a few of our favorites: