Manning Family

So, about a year ago, I joined this InStyle Magazine trendsetter readers panel. I actually don’t read the magazine much, but like to look through it now and then. Well, about 6 weeks ago, they sent me an email asking for me address and my size and today in the mail, I got these Eileen Fisher (some high-faluting New York Designer) pants in a package! I normally wouldn’t be impressed by a designer name, nor would I pay the $198 these pants retail for, but WOW! They’re black, skinny pants with lots of stretch in them and they are SOOOOOOOO comfortable. I’d post a picture of me in them, but they show the flaws I’m currently working on, so I’ll wait a few months, but wow people. $200 pants….for free! Love it!

Filed under: Family on September 1st, 2010 | No Comments »

Yesterday while I was talking on the phone, the kids decided my hair didn’t look quite right. They took it upon their selves to give me a new look:

Isn’t it lovely? Oh yes…I think I’ll have them do it like this when I speak in church next time.

Filed under: Family on August 9th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

While I enjoyed some quality time with Annika, Ammon took the older two kiddos to do some more trails. I was happy to have the quiet time, but once he returned and I saw the photos…I wished we’d gone too!!!

You think this is pretty? Just wait!

How about these cute flowers Ammon found up there?

Heaven…..right here. 4 foot tall purple and white wildflowers! Sigh….

GORGEOUS! Do you see why I wish I’d gone?!

This field is just adorable with all it’s low-bearing flowers

A field full of our state flower-columbine (the little blue and white guys with the yellow centers)

Pretty in pink and yellow

The view straight ahead is Telluride (ski-resort town, similar to Vail…Tom Cruise has a place there…think we should go visit?)

Two chilly kids eating lunch at the top of the pass…they ended up eating, tent-style…completely under the blanket!

I love places like this where you get to drive through the mountain!

Filed under: Family on August 9th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

We’d been planning to go up to Yankee Boy Basin for weeks. It’s very well-known among photographers for it’s stunning display of wildflowers during the last few weeks of July. While, it was still beautiful, unfortunately most of the flowers were finished blooming. We stopped to have a snack and take pictures and had a visit from a rock chuck =) Too bad we didn’t get a picture of him!

The gang at the top of Yankee Boy

A few of the flowers that were hanging in there despite two weeks of solid rain

Ammon had to take a picture of Jack at the top of the hill

Purple flower just for me

After Yankee Boy, we decided to explore a little up Governor Basin, which turned out to be incredibly breathtaking…

Waterfall on the way up

View at the top

One cute little columbine growing by the side of the road, all by itself!

View on the way back down

For the second weekend in a row, we’d planned to go camping on Friday, but since the forecast was predicting rain and it rained the whole week long…we had a backup plan. Not the same, but still lots of fun. Take a look:

We just finished eating our hot dogs, etc at our camping table, in the garage. We even did smores in the garage over a stove. We actually have a small fire pit, but we didn’t have enough time to get the coals ready. Next time!

Everyone did really well sleeping considering we hadn’t gone camping since last year. The kids loved their new sleeping bags Daddy made them. Annika unfortunately, still managed to slide out of her bag and since I was right beside her, I had the privilege of shoving her back in!

Annika refused to take a nap today, despite not sleeping as much as normal the night before. After I got her up from her futile nap attempt, I was laying on the floor and she came right over to me and layed on me and fell straight asleep! Talk about how to melt Mommy’s heart! She has never been one to sleep in the same bed with Ammon or I and never EVER even as a baby would fall asleep on us like that when we were laying down. It was one of those “to remember” moments as she’s already growing up so fast! When she woke up, she snuggled with me and stoked my arm softly and had lots of giggles. Sigh….

Filed under: Family on August 8th, 2010 | No Comments »

The kids and I went back-to-school shopping the other day. Yes, it seems early to me too, but it was rainy and cold and there were good sales on, so off we went! It kind of made me excited for them to start school…not because they were naughty or anything , just because it’s fun to see them learning and growing and good for them to be with other kids all day!

Anyways, while I was there, I “happened” to walk down Walmart’s clearance aisle and what should catch my eye, but these two darling little lanterns. $4.00/each!!!! I’ve been eyeing these things for YEARS; in pottery barn catalogs, in target, on bhg’s website, but the lowest I’ve ever seen them is about $12/each and I’m just SO cheap! Needless to say, I snatched them right up and brought them home. We don’t have a place to put them at the moment, but I can’t wait to use them on a future table or shelf!

They look pewter from the picture, but they’re actually silver…I just took a bad picture ’cause I was in a hurry.

And yes, I know they’re just things and I shouldn’t love them, but they’re just so darn cute!

Filed under: Family on August 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

Last night at 8:30pm, we welcomed two new members to our family. Brennan, the sofa and Brennan Jr., the loveseat were long-awaited joys in our lives. Our bottoms are very happy and both Brennans and the rest of the family are doing well and enjoying their time together.

Here’s a peek:

They haven’t been moved to their permanent positions, at the moment we’re just playing with them and cuddling their soft, sandy microfiber. Sigh….must be love!

Filed under: Family on August 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

This sums up summer to me:

Sweet corn on the cob

This is our 2 cobs a sitting boy. 2 cobs…that’s plus other food!

Big mud puddles to splash in

I love how unapologetic Annika looks in this picture =)

hee hee, I’m all muddy!

Being his normal self, albeit, a muddy self…

Tasha didn’t want to be left out on the picture action. She made up this pose herself!

Gorgeous end to a great day

Filed under: Family on August 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

We had talked about going to Animas Forks (Ghost town) a few weekends ago, but Tasha and I both ended up sick. We decided to reschedule our trip for today. It was a 5 hour tour from start to finish, with stops along the way, of course. The trail was a lot rougher than when Ammon and I were on it three years ago. The kids thought it was pretty entertaining though with all the bumps and rocks and big puddles we splashed through. It was a little overcast, which made it more comfortable, but made the photos not as pretty. It was a lot prettier in person. Our chauffeur was driving a little too fast for me to take pictures of the beautiful purple, yellow and white wildflowers, but wow, they were incredible!

Here’s our first stop, snacktime:

One of the gorgeous valley’s that doesn’t look like much in the picture….oh well!

We stopped to let the kids peek inside a small abandoned mine and there was this small pond right beside it. We probably shoulda gotten out of the car to take the picture, but it was still really pretty and green.

This is the largest standing home at Animas Forks. It was the Duncan home; William Duncan was a miner and the mail carrier for the little town.

There are about 10 buildings standing now, including a jail and the falling down mines. It once had at least 25 buildings, including a market, a butcher, a livery, a hotel, and lots of homes. It’s boom was between 1850 and 1879 or something like that.

We found these cute kids while we were exploring the town and decided to take them home!

The kids were in front of the Gustavson home….can’t tell you much about them. I forget.

All in all it was a very fun trip and the kids even said so too, despite the length!

Filed under: Family on July 31st, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Last night, we had been planning to go camping, but it had been raining with thunderstorms of and on all day and the forecast wasn’t any different for the evening. Now, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE camping. But I DO NOT like camping in the rain. It’s still sorta a little bit fun, but when you have three small children who end up muddy and wet and you can’t bathe them….it’s not fun. So, we nixed camping and decided to have something fun that we could do indoors.

I was feeling mighty tired and really didn’t feel like being creative, so I browsed the net for some ideas and combined a few of them, with an original Ammon idea thrown in!

First, we ate our dinner under the table. The kids thought that was funny! They didn’t understand it when I asked them to move the chairs out from the table. They moved them out and then sat on them and looked at me like, “how the heck are we supposed to reach our food now?”

Second, Ammon spontaneously used his kid-brain and thought it would be fun to tie a toy to a big rope and hang it over the ledge upstairs and tease the kids with it. They loved this pinata-like game. They tried over and over to get that bunny before he pulled it back up. So fun.

Can you see the string? Tasha is holding on to the bunny

Ammon didn’t have any fun at all

Then we played a homemade game of twister with homemade dies instead of a spinner. The kids liked this, but would get pretty mixed up with the whole left and right and had trouble keeping their other hands and feet where they were supposed to be.

The kids helped me color the circles

The last game was hide the phone. One person hid the phone and then used another phone to page the first one and the rest of the family would try and find it. Whomever found the phone had a turn to hide it next. They thought this one was the BEST! =)

It took me a little while to decide what I wanted to do, but we had such a fun evening and the kids loved playing our games. We might have to start a monthly family game night!

Filed under: Family on July 31st, 2010 | No Comments »

Last night, there was THE most beautiful sunset I have EVER seen in my life…take a look:

Isn’t it spectacular??????????

Wow, is all I have to say!

Filed under: Family on July 29th, 2010 | No Comments »