merry freakin' christmas everyone

we took these totally spontaneous and random pictures tonight after dinner with nate's laptop. it had different built in frames. we are so festive!

normal family conversation

setting: kitchen counter, kids doing homework....

jared: i don't think satan is getting anything for christmas.

the utes

anyone who knows the harwood family, know that nathan is a true blue cougar football fan. he has taught the boys that blue means byu and red means utah.

the other night, i had the boys on the lds church's friend website (which by the way is really cool - online coloring, videos, music, etc).

anyway, isaac and jared were coloring a picture of jesus online. in order to make it look right, jared took one of our jesus pictures off the wall so they could be sure the colors were all correct.

a few minutes later, jared says to me "i think jesus likes utah because he is wearing red."

you're a mean one, mr grinch

the three words that best describe you,are, and i quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."

why yes, that is a picture of me and my attitude this year.

it is not that i don't want to celebrate christmas (i have all of my shopping done), i just don't want to decorate my house. anyone who knows me, knows that i like to have things a certain way and putting out a whole bunch of decorations just messes me up. it is bad. for at least the past 5 years, my christmas afternoon is spent taking down all the decorations. if you were to show up at my house the day after christmas, you wouldn't even have known that we celebrated.

i told nathan that if he wanted decorations out, he would have to put them up.

i know, i know..... you nauseate me, mr. grinch. with a nauseaus super-naus. you're a crooked jerky jockey and you drive a crooked horse. mr. grinch. you're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce.

nathan would like me to cut my hair

so this is a picture of me in may 2002. nathan would love for me to cut my hair like this again. this is the last time i ever had my hair this short and it has taken me almost 6 years to get it to the length it is now. i have become a little too attached to take such a drastic measure.

random ans parties

we tend to have a lot of parties where i work, but we can come up with pretty good reasons to hold these parties...

here i am enjoying a yummy burger at our tailgating party in october. tony brought his BBQ and every friday we cook up burgers and hot dogs.


here we are having our "positive party" and eating delicious ice cream sundaes. we had to be positive at work for a certain amount of days to participate in the party...

me and jessica, with collette and jill in the background
amber and jonna (jonna is so healthy, she only ate a banana)

and finally, here we are for our thanksgiving feast last friday. nate's dad came and deep-fried a turkey out our back door. it was yummy...

here is basically everyone. malia's grandma, nate's dad and amelia are also pictured.

more pictures to are on their way. we are having our work party in vegas again and then we will be having a christmas brunch in december as well.

amelia's haircut

october 21, 2008 (i'm a little behind)

i finally took amelia to get a real haircut. i had been trimming up the back of her hair so that eventually the back and front would be the same length, but it was just getting a little funky.



she looks so cute with her hair all curly and of course i don't have any pictures of it done right now. i will post some later.

vegas

i was in las vegas this past monday and tuesday for work.

here are some of us out to dinner at Maggiano's (patti, jen, malia and i)

here we are in our booth (me, jen, patti, malia, and jill)


again in our booth (front: jen, malia, me, patti; behind: jill and jerry)

here are patti and i on the way home. jen and i got upgraded to first class on the way there, but only patti and i were upgraded on the way home. poor malia endured both flights in coach...

here is malia offering up some bud light from behind the bar -- and yes she is the relief society president in her ward.


this was malia's first trip to a trade show. to quote from her blog:

On Sunday I left to Vegas with my coworkers to attend a DMA show for work. Our booth was a bar/Cheers set up. I had a great time hanging out with Jen, Patti and Wendy and we had a lot of laughs. One story in particular was when a man approached our booth and asked what we did...and I froze. Luckily Wendy was crouched down eating her lunch and out of sight and whispered "list brokerage and list management", after my obvious pause and unrehearsed answer he asked, "do you work here?" We all had a good laugh at that.

grrrrr

yes, that is me trying to scare Wyatt at his birthday party on October 4th.

lickin' the beater

uhhh ohhh

nathan and i are going to have our hands full with this one. she's not even 3 and is already putting on her own lipstick.

i especially like that in the top picture you can see bc pills in my make-up drawer.

isaac's first day of kindergarten

my little man started kindergarten this year. he was so excited to go and be like jared.

jared's 7th birthday

jared celebrated his 7th birthday at liberty land in lehi.


from left to right: amelia, kiley, rissa, ethan, isaac, jared and tyler. playing mini-golf.


boys down one side, girls down the other. this goes up and down. the kids' faces were priceless.



that is jared clear up there. he got so close to the bell at the top, but never did get all the way to it. you can see kiley climbing up on the other side.
jared and isaac in the bumper boats.
kiley was not very happy that she got all wet.

happy birthday jared!

camping up fairview canyon over july 4th

nathan and i left amelia coloring in the camper trailer for a few minutes. when we came back inside she had fallen asleep on the step inside the trailer.

and of course, you have to get dirty when you go camping.

just another carter family dinner

why yes, those are Peruvian hats on all the kids. and yes those are all annoying little ceramic bird whistles they have in their mouths. my mom went to Peru a few weeks ago and she brought home these hats and whistles for all the grandkids.

last night we had our monthly Carter family dinner at Shane and Roni's house. after all the kids got their hats we sent them across the street to play at the park. a short time later, a sketchy looking young man came walking towards the house, saying "i think one of your kids is running down the street, he's got a beanie on." we knew by the beanie comment it had to be one of ours. soon Shar and Kevin had retrieved their youngest, Rhett (picture in the bottom left corner next to Amelia) at the very end of the street.

all things school-related

jared started first grade earlier this week. so far he seems to love it and i am glad to have him back to school. his favorite things are lunch in the lunchroom and that he gets 2 recesses.

isaac starts this next monday, but we met with his teacher this past monday and i think he will do well. he has the same teacher as jared did.

the last couple of weeks he and isaac have gotten themselves into a lot of trouble.

1. spraying WD-40 all over the basement, including beds, clothes, walls, etc
2. coloring with markers on the hallway carpet

so needless to say, i think they were a little bored and having them in school should occupy them a little bit.

nathan starts back to school next week also. if you couldn't tell by now, we are really big on education at our house. nathan has been going to school for 8 1/2 years now. he earned his bachelor of science: aviation professional pilot in 2006. we joke that he is an eternal student, but he seems to enjoy what he is studying now (engineering).

i am planning to go back to school again, sometime. i completed a year back to school in 2006 to make my associates a bachelor's degree, but i found it difficult at the time to juggle all the pressures in my life. so, i decided to let it go for a little while. plus i am not sure what i want to be when i grow up and so it seemed like a waste of money.

yellowstone 2008

for our family vacation this year, we went to yellowstone with shane and roni and their kids. we had a lot of fun looking at all the animals and the crazy caldera stuff.

this is one of only like 3 pictures i am in. why is it always that way. people are going to look at family pictures after i am dead and wonder why i never did any of the fun stuff with my family. hello!!!! i'm the one behind the camera!


a beaver (the only one i have ever seen in the wild):


us on the shore of lake yellowstone:
a raven:


the harwoods at lower falls outlook:


shane and roni and the kids at mammoth:
the harwoods with kiley and ethan at the grand prismatic spring geyser place:


shane and roni and kids at the lower falls outlook:
pronghorn - the first time i have ever seen one at yellowstone:
the kids watching a movie in the trailer after a long day in the park:

the black thing in the shrubbery is a cow moose:

isaac and jared:

of course, buffalo:


all of the kids watching old faithful:

nate and the kids....

ethan and jared...


the first bear we saw (we saw a total of 11 or 12. the last one is under debate):

the kids..

a momma and a cub on our way out of the park:


an elk:

another bear: