Finally an update, a year in pictures...

Well, as you can see it has been almost a year since our last post. I kinda got sick of the blogging world, but I really loved having a journal of sorts to look back on. Realizing that it had been a full year and I have nothing to account for it made me realize how important this really is to me. I also love reading and looking at all of my friends/families blogs so I thought for posterity sake and for your reading/looking pleasure I would summon the courage to dive back in. By that I mean I have a lot of territory and back dating to do but.... here it goes. Hopefully this will be another beginning of more posts to come... we'll see.

May 2009: Our New House

We are loving every second of it, having our own space, a place for everything, the wonderful views, the trails, the neighborhood, mowing the lawn, shoveling our walks, planting our plants, relaxing on our porch...its so nice to have a home.

Welcoming our best friends newest addition Eliza Marie Young. Congrats Meg and Bass!!

Memorial Day always full of fun, food and baseball

Johnny's brothers move to Utah for school. Our summer was filled with hiking, eating and hangin out with them. It has been so fun to have them close and get to know them... my brothers from another motha.

Picking wildflowers on on of our many hikes. Please don't tell on me!!!!

Annual Rexburg Airshow. Again Johnny got to help Grandpa and enjoyed every second of being near all the cars, planes and of course Grandpa!

2 cousins got married this summer. This is us hanging out with fam at Jeremy and Chantelle's wedding in Rexburg. Fun times.

Day at Lagoon with my parents and Karl and Kevin. The Graham's have now been exposed to all that is Lagoon.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Yates from South Carolina, ohhh how we love them!!!!

Next we had a visit from some of the Grahams: Johnny's Mom Beki, brother Joey and his wife Rachel, daughter Avery, brother Jason, fiancee (now wife) Hannah, and lil sis Jeni all came for almost a week. We spent time hiking, barbecuing, baseball and as you can see the brothers all had a great time.

We loved hanging out with family in our backyard or hiking the near by mountains, our summer was spent where else...outside.

Brady our cousin and also brother from another mother returned home from his mission in Chile. We missed him soooo much so we got right to it and took him up Mountain biking that ended with a swollen knee and a stolen granola bar, Dang those pot guts!!!

We were able to enjoy an awesome camping/hiking adventure with Josh, Kim and family is Jackson hole. Complete with a visit to Bar J Wranglers, The old barn, a hike up to a beautiful lake and a trip to the dry cleaners to dry our sleeping bags. We had so much fun hanging out with the kids and the late night card games and chats with Josh and Kim. Awesome Family!!

Golfing was a weekly occurrence. Here we are with the parentals after just skiing earlier that day. Where else can you golf and ski in the same day?? Mom do you remember almost tipping the cart?? Who taught me how to drive?

Mom's annual Halloween party. Such fun.. Two batmans, a spiderman, joker, Pocahontas, cowboy, Homer, a witch, a super woman and 4 polygamists. What a group!

Halloween was spent watching the Utah Utes beat the Wyoming Cowboys. My lil sis Cami was also showing the Ute pride at the game. Sorry to all the neighborhood kids we didn't get to see in their cute costumes.

Surprising Grandma for her 80th birthday!! She never saw it coming and we had such fun! My mom , Debbie, Johnny and I arrived the night before. Jay came in time for breakfast and Cheryl as a monkey were all there for the festivities. Love you Grandma!!!

Tawnie goes through the temple to marry her best friend.

Tawnie and Zack's wedding day. Welcome to this crazy family Zack! We love you guys!

LOVE this picture of Zack, yeah he is defiantly one of the family!

Our house lit up for the season

Mommy and I baking away. My favorite Christmas treat, Cherry chocolate cookies. mmm mmm

Ginger breads combined this year with a birthday party for my Grandma and Grandpa's 80th birthday party. Unfortunately I neglected the camera during the party. Too many fun people to talk to and too much good food to eat.

Stockings Grandma Yates made for us hung by the chimney with care.

Christmas was a blast. Johnny and his brother Karl went skiing in the morning while I worked after we headed to my parents where she gave us each a Christmas robe and we ate our traditional Christmas Brunch. Love this family!

Best New Years Ever!! Josh, Kim and family stayed with us for a couple of days! We rang in the new year with sparklers, sparkling cider, card games, good food and great company. We headed to Sugar house park for our annual sledding party then home to make pizza and fleece blankets. We ended their stay with building forts in the backyard for the ultimate snow ball fight, and Ashley built an Ashley size snow woman. We had so much fun with them and love them all so much.

We then headed to Georgia and South Carolina for Jason and Hannah's wedding. We were able to catch a Georgia and Kentucky basketball game. (Thanks Joey for the tickets!) We had never seen a top 3 (at the time) team play before. That was awesome. The next night Kimi had us picked up in a town car and took us to my first Thrashers game. Johnny took her to her first game so she was returning the favor. Best hockey game I have EVER been to. We had soooo much fun. Thanks Kimi! We also went to the Atlanta historical society had southern tea at the historical Swan Carriage House, toured the Swan house. We then headed to S.C. for the wedding. There were married in the Columbia S.C. temple. The ceremony was beautiful and were so happy and excited for them as they start the best part of their lives together. Overall great trip full of food, fun and family. Loved it!

Aunt Kathi and I in our matching coats. Love this woman!!

All the siblings 8 out of 10 not bad.

Kimi's second annual snowboarding trip. Complete with dinner at LaCaille, stay in Midway, snowmobiling, tubing and of course boarding/skiing. Johnny and I couldn't believe how she picked it right back up! Next year we are on to black diamonds. You're ready Kimi!!! We had such a fun week and I really miss my twinny!!! Wish we lived closer.

The Second annual Yates family ski day. I couldn't believe how fast these kids picked it right back up. Love this family. These kids are such fun to be around and we just adore Chris and Heidi. Wish we could see them more often but looking forward to another burrito night.

This winter has been filled with what else??? Our favorite thing in the WORLD to do... SKIING

Hiking the mountain across the street. Looking forward to spring and summer and all the fun that sun brings.

Well, there you go. You have been fully updated. I just hope I didn't forget anything. It has been on fun filled crazy year. Sorry for such a long and lengthy post, I promise the next post won't be next year. We just want all our family, and friends to know how much we love and adore you. As you can see you are a HUGE part of our lives and we are so glad to have each and everyone of you. Thanks for putting up with us. Love you all!