Keegan

My sister Heather needed a few quick shots of her littlest one, Keegan, for a project she was working on. Here's what we got.

Puppy Love

Since Jordyn was away from her best bud Max {her cat} for so long, she had to find a substitute for all that love she has for animals. My parents have a stray cat that hangs around, but he didn't want anything to do with Jordyn {not that most animals do}.

So instead, she found a puppy to love. My parents have a beagle puppy named Copper, and Jordyn loved him to death. She feed him treats {along with some of her dinner} , she wrapped him up in a blanket and tried to rock him, and occasionally she'd try to hop on his back and go for a ride.

Jordyn would give Copper hugs and kisses,

she'd pull up his lips to look at his teeth, and tug at his floppy ears. He was a great dog and put up with most of it {though rumor has it that he's a much happier dog now that we're gone, wonder why?}. My favorite part was when she'd stand right next to him and yell "CO-pper" just the way she'd hear grandma do it when calling the dog to come back inside. Ahh, young puppy love!

Daddy's Princess

One day, there was a little girl who decided that she wanted to figure out who she was and her impact on the world around her. She had heard of famous people such as Ariel, Belle, and Cinderella, and thought I could be a movie star such as they. So she tried out for the part of Snow White

and of a fairy princess,

but she wasn't quite digging the whole movie star thing. Then she thought, I'll be a great worker like grandpa, but soon found out those were big boots to fill.

Another thought that crossed her mind was going back to her 'Nawlins roots and so she got down to her birthday suit and put on some body paint,

but then she realized it was still a bit early for Mardi Gras. Finally, the little girl realized that she'd known who she was all along, she was Daddy's little Monster,

I mean Princess,

okay maybe both. (I guess she did make the whole movie star thing work... you've seen Shreck, right? The name Fiona ring a bell?)

Cabin Fever

This year for Christmas, my family got a couple of snow mobiles, and since there was actually snow in the mountains this year (so. Utah doesn't get a whole lot of snow) we decided to try them out. I was a bit nervous about taking Jordyn on a snow mobile since she can be a bit of a wiggle worm, and how things worked out, I would have to hold Jordyn and attempt to drive. So, on Friday Jan. 2, we loaded up our stuff and headed up to Kolob. After everyone donned their winter attire, and the sleds were packed, up the mountain we headed. To my surprise, Jordyn held quite still during the ride, and was actually enjoying herself. In fact there were a few times we had to stop to let everyone regroup, and adjust layers, and she would sit there and yell, "go ride, vroom, vroom" over and over until we started going again. As we were about 1/2 way to our cabin, we had some mechanical issues with one of the snow mobiles, it got turned off while waiting for everyone to regroup, and then we weren't able to get it started again. Fortunately, my little brother Colt came to our rescue. Colt had drove one of the trucks up the mountain and helped us get the snow mobiles unloaded, and then he'd headed back to Hurricane to wait for his girlfriend, Karen to get off work, and they'd be coming up later. As Colt was driving down the mountain, he had a feeling that something was wrong so he turned around and headed back up. He hopped on the snow mobile that we'd left at the beginning of the trail for him and rode up to meet us. He found us stopped with the dead snow mobile. He got it started and finished driving it to the cabin for us. He then drove all the way back to Hurricane to get Karen. Once we all got to the cabin and got ourselves settled in, Jordyn wanted to go back outside and go for a ride. Unfortunately it was getting dark so the rides were over for the evening. However, we did enjoy our time inside by playing games (Settlers of Catan) and watching Utah cream Alabama. Jordyn enjoyed playing with her cousin Keegan. He's 6 months younger than her, and she thought he was the perfect play toy. She would hug him, and kiss him, try to wrap him in a blanket and rock him. Keegan wasn't to fond of all this, but Jordyn was bigger and stronger so he got lots of hugs and even got tackled a few times. The following day, I took Jordyn for another ride on the snow mobile and let her play out side in the snow. She enjoyed playing with her cousins Sage and Shaylee. At one point they gathered icicles for the three of them, and Jordyn sat in the snow sucking on hers. That afternoon, we headed back down the mountain. This time, Jordyn wasn't quite so cooperative. Part of the problem was that it was a bit colder. There was a storm moving in and the wind was blowing. I had to keep stopping to adjust Jordyn and try to keep her comfortable. Fortunately, she eventually fell asleep and slept for most of the ride down. She woke up as we were heading down the last hill (unfortunately, it was the steepest part of the trek). We made it home safe, and had a great trip. We can't wait to go again sometime when Erik can go with us.

Kolob Slide Show 1

Kolob Slide Show 2

Hiatus

For the past 2 weeks, Jordyn and I have been on a hiatus from just about everything. On the evening of December 29, we headed to the airport, only to come home 1/2 hour later due to flight issues (our flight leaving Houston was delayed which would have caused us to miss our connecting flight so we were transferred to a flight the next morning). So, on December 30, we actually flew out of Houston (having our flight switched wasn't too bad, especially since we ended up flying first class). Then, we spent the next two weeks in Southern Utah with my family. We went snowmobiling, sledding, and just enjoyed our time with Grandma & Grandpa Stratton (along with all of Jordyn's aunts, uncle, and cousins). We arrived back in Houston late last night, and the day has been spent unpacking suitcases, grocery shopping, and cleaning house. Tomorrow's task is to go through all the pictures and give more details of our adventures.