Family Trip to Yellowstone

We had such a blast having Cory's whole family come down and stay with us. We went to Yellowstone, had a campfire at the sand dunes, and went to the zoo. It was one of the funnest trips ever. I haven't been to Yellowstone since I was a little girl, and it was so awesome. We saw a bunch of animals, and the kids were in heaven. Marlee still bugs me about going back, and she missses all her family in Utah. Thanks everyone for coming. We need to do it again soon.

This is Brody and my sweet niece Zowie. She has Rhett Syndrom, so she can't walk or talk, but she is the sweetest, cutest little girl ever. We love her so much. Brody was putting the moves on her.

Marlee and me at the zoo with the flamingos.

Liam, Zowie, Rylee, and Max in Yellowstone. The kids made it so much fun.

Simon, Morgan, and Brody. They are all about 4 months apart.

The grand canyon of Yellowstone.

Simon, Katelynn, and Rylee watching Old Faithful. I must say the geyser seemed a lot bigger when I was little. I guess when your a kid everything is more exciting.

Marlee and Brody loved the Buffalo. We also saw a coyote, elk, a black bear, and two grizzley bears. The bears were too far to get a good picture, but it was awesome to see them in the wild. Our brother-in-law, Lance, thought he saw some bears on the mountain and started yelling and telling us to follow him in the car. We were pretty excited until we looked on the hill and saw a couple buffalos. We laughed so hard. We'll never forget it Lance.

Michelle, Simon, and Natalie. Sorry about the candid shots. We never took a group photo.

Brittney playing with Zowie, Simon, and Morgan. Britt is Zowie's mom, and she is amazing. She is one of the finalists for Utah best blogs, so everyone please go to her blog and vote. She is under my friends and families list under Britt and Rob.

Our new basement

We finally finished our basement! Cory did an awesome job with everything. I feel bad because I really pushed him to get it done. It's so nice to have all the space. I have a ton of pictures I'm working on posting, but our computer is really slow, and I don't have a lot of time and patience.
Cory added on this kids nook. It's so great for the kids, and we can keep all their toys in it.

Marlee and Brody hanging out the window of the nook.

I got our couch from the D.I. and ended up spending more to buy a slipcover and pillow covers, but it turned out cute. It's even cuter with my two models.

Fun pics of our family

Newton News

Hey everyone! So much has happened in such a small amount of time. We have been so busy. Cory and Troy started football with the Eastern Idaho Lionz. Troy also just started school at Madison High School. His first day he ate lunch with 18 girls. Let's just say he's pretty happy. The boys have also been working on the basement. Hopefully we'll get it done soon, but right now it's a great place for the kids to ride their bikes.



I can't believe it, but Brody just started nursery! It's so crazy how fast he's grown up. He still doesn't like to say a lot, he just mumbles most of the time, or rolls his eyes. His new favorite fetish is shoes. He cries when he wakes up until I get his shoes on. I just got him 2 new pair, and he is in heaven. Marlee is still her fun and crazy self. She's made the unfinished kids nook in our basement her room. We put a mattress down there and she sleeps there every night. It's so crazy that she's not afraid. I guess that's just Marlee. Fearless.

I went to Moab two weeks ago with my old Utah rec team. It was so much fun. We stayed in a sweet condo, with amazing views of the red rocks. There were 42 teams at the tourney, and we made the top 14, which is pretty good for us. I've also been busy lately being called into the Young Women Presidency as the secretary. It's been so fun spending time with the youth in our ward. I love it.

Cute Cousins

Hurray! I just got these super cute pictures of my kids and their cousins from Cory's side. Actually I stole them from Britt's blog. I couldn't resist, because they are so adorable. I love the candid shots. Marlee and Brody love it when we get to go to Utah and see all their cousins. Hopefully we'll make it back there again soon.

What's New with the Newts

Our little Marlee is growing up. She's been taking gymnastics, which is so awesome for her. They have a huge complex that she can play in, and she's actually doing really well. It's been good for her to follow directions and be with other kids. She also started preschool today at the high school. It's so nice that she has some things to keep her busy during the freakin cold winter. We went down to Utah this weekend and there was no snow and it was 50 degrees! It makes me wonder why are we living in Idaho. Seriously.

We also have a new addition to our family. Cory's brother, Troy, moved down here two weeks ago. He's had a rough time back home and we wanted to give him a fresh start and get him graduated. Plus Cory is so excited to get him into football. That's all they talk about. So far it's been good. Troy's such a good kid, and he's been fun to have around.

Marlee and Me

Okay, so we went to the movie Marlee and Me over Christmas, and it inspired me to tell our crazy stories of Marlee Newton. If you haven't seen the movie, it's about a columnist who writes stories about his dog that gets into all kinds of trouble. I started to write some examples of what Marlee is capable in the last post, but there's more. Lots more. Friday nights we usually rent movies. One for us and one for Marlee. Usually Marlee stays in here room and is glued to the show. Well, after our movie we went to go check on her, and I joked about her getting into some kind of trouble. We opened Marlee's door and found all my make-up in a huge mess with mascara on the walls and her face, blush and powder rubbed into the carpet, and all my eyeshadow picked out and rubbed on her pajamas. I was ready to kill her. Thanks goodness for Cory, because I just might have. I don't know how many times we have told her not to play with my stuff. About this time last year I had just bought brand new mineral make-up, and Marlee decided to dump it all out in the bathtub. After we tried to clean everything up, I went to Walgreen's to get some more make-up, even though it was already really late, I didn't care because I was still mad at the little stinker. Of course on my way I get pulled over by a cop for the 2nd time in two weeks because we can't get our old license plate off to put the new one on, so our plates say they are expired by a year. I just started laughing out loud, and the cop probably thought I was drunk or something. Luckily he let me go, because he felt sorry for me. So now you can see how much fun we have at our house with Marlee. I can't wait to see what other things she's going to do next. Somebody save me.

Don't let the cute thing fool you

So everyone always tells me my kids are cute, so I thought I'd show a little bit of their true colors. We're in the stage right now where we can't turn our back on either one of them or they'll get into some kind of trouble. Some examples are marker written all over the walls, toys, and even Brody. Marlee taking out all of her clothes in her closet, putting them down the heat vent, and then peeing on them. Brody climbing on everything and taking out all my bowl, dishes, and anything else in his reach and Marlee taking every wipe in the house and putting it in the bathtub with water in it. Those are just some examples of what goes on in our happy house. Love you Marlee and Brody. Life would be dull without you.

Happy Holidays

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! So, Santa did bring me a camera, but it took me about two years to upload a few pictures on blogger.


Jilene came up from Arizona for the holidays, so a few of us got together and wore the ugliest sweaters we could find. Carp won the contest hands down. Hers is the one with the little sailor girl. It was hilarious.

We have started a tradition cutting down our own Christmas tree up in Island Park. This year we got a huge one. Sometimes I wonder why we go to all the work to set up the tree and take it down. I guess it's the memories.

Here's my little angel, Brody. He's such a tender hearted guy. He was nice enough at Christmas to let Marlee take over and open everybody's presents.

Marlee was definetly spoiled this Christmas. She loves animals so much. Everytime we went to see Santa she asked for a rooster and a goat. It was so random. I don't know where she got that from, and it was kind of embarrassing. Santa brought her a little people farm with all those animals, and my mom found her a stuffed rooster. This is her baby panda that she loves so much.

We went to Utah this Christmas to be with all of Cory's family. Grandma Debbie loves family parties and goes way out. She bought all the grandkids matching pajamas, and the boys got Wii's and the girls got nintendo ds's. Here's all of the girl cousins: Zowie, Harlie, Marlee, Katelynn, and Morgan. We just found out Kasey is preggo again, hurray. They have three girls, so we're routing for a boy.