Montana, MY HOME!

There is hay to play on...

Fun horse swings to swing on....

Eggs to collect with Gramzy....

And fish to catch with Daddy...

What more could a kid want? I love Montana!

Papa John

This is my step-dad, John. He is a true cowboy from Montana. When I was there last weekend, I could not get over how handsome he looked just being himself! I LOVE being at my mom and John's house, it is exactly what I need to get away from the big city life that I live!

While we were there, John held Kaiya for a little while. It was such a beautiful site to see this big, hard-working man hold my tiny, little baby with such love!

Hands can tell a lot about a person, and this picture tells a lot about a man and his love for his grandkids!

Look how comfortable Kaiya looks in his arms!

And that thumb was perfect to chew on! Thanks Papa John for being such a wonderful dad and Grandpa! We love you tons!

Kaiya's Blessing Day

We had a wonderful weekend when we blessed our little Kaiya Bee. Lots of family and friends came to share that moment with us and we felt soooo blessed!


This is the same blessing gown that KK wore. We had it made from my wedding dress. It was fun to see both of my girls in it.


A lady in my ward made these darling cowgirl boots for Kaiya when she was born. She wears them almost daily....I love them! I thought they would be cute under her gown. I guess Montana is in my blood more than I know!

Bartel Family Reunion

The second week in August we went to Montana for our family reunion. This reunion we realized just how special our family is. We have my mom and John, her 5 kids and his 4 kids and all of their kids. We even had Grandma/pa there for part of it! I am so happy that ALL of us choose to make this reunion a priority in our lives. We always have a wonderful time, how could you not with so many wonderful people around. Thanks Mom and John for a wonderful time!

We were staying in a cabin right on the lake. Most of the family camped outside, but I got to sleep inside...on a bed...because I am a nursing mom! That is one good thing about having a baby! It was rainy and cold almost the whole time, but it didn't stop us from having fun. Here the kids are playing a game with Aunt Jamie.

It was so cold at the lake, we decided to go to the hot springs near by. It warmed us up enough to allow us to brave the lake again!

It was really fun to have Grandma and Pa there too. This is a 4 generation picture. None of my kids are looking at the camera. I hope someone got a better picture....my camera didn't.

This is a fun picture. It is of all 5 of my siblings, my mom, and her dad and step-mom.

We did lots of fun activities at this reunion. One of the fun things we did was have a leg wrestling night. I love this picture of my two brother-in-laws!

We had a potato peeling contest, and a few other fun games that we did for our own pioneer day. Then, we made a great stew with the potatoes.

We spent a lot of time by the fire, even during the day! The kids would make a fire, go swimming, and then stand by the fire to get warm! Here we were singing songs, and telling stories, and I was zoning my grandma's feet. It was a wonderful evening.

Saunders Reunion

We had such a wonderful time with all 5 of the brothers in my husbands family! We are so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing family members.

This is me posing with my mother-in-law's wedding dress. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. It was so fun to look at their wedding picts! They even put on their wedding clothes and took pictures. Fifty years is something to be proud of. They are am amazing example to all of us.One of the activities we did was make a quilt to celebrate my in-laws posterity. We each decorated a square and then we put them all together into this quilt. It turned out darling.

We ate good food. I love this picture because it shows dad wearing his basketball shorts. He is the most wonderful father-in-law that a girl could ask for. All of his boys have the same shorts, I wish we would have had all of them wear them for a picture. That would have been cute.

One of the other activities we did was a service project. The grandkids did a lot of cleaning etc. for Grandma/pa, the boys worked on the roof, we took a piano through a window, and it all ended with a water fight!

I am so pleased that all of us were able to be together for the reunion. Our family is growing bigger so quickly, and many of us live far away, but it is always worth the time that we spend TOGETHER!

Saunders' Family Reunion

At the end of July all of my husband's brothers and their families got together for a family reunion. We had a wonderful time spending time together. Here are a few picts.
This is my sweet husband getting beat by his nephew in a wrestling match. They do this about once a year, and our sweet nephew beats him every time....dispite the size difference! Chris is very strong for his size!

Each family was in charge of an activity. We made rockets. This is a photo of some of the launchers.

We were also celebrating my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. Here they are giving each son a pile of photos of their wedding day, and some other fun picts to have for geneology reasons.

Here are some of the kids making their rockets for our activity.

A bit behind

I have been sooooo busy that I have not had a chance to sit here and blog. We have had two family reunions that were so wonderful, I can't wait to tell everyone about them. My kids are growing up too fast, and guess what? My little Scrubba is going to 1st grade in a couple of days. Honestly, who is going to help me with the two little girls while he is gone? He is the greatest little boy in the world. I promise to find a few minutes to show everyone how wonderful my summer has been. Until then, just know that I am just chasing time, and three little ones in circles!

Our newest princess...

She is finally here! And I have to say, I am just getting used to the fact that she is a SHE! She was 6 lbs. 7 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long.

We didn't find out the gender of our baby until the day she was born. For some reason I thought we were going to have a boy....I guess mother's intuition is not as reliable as I would have guessed! When they told me it was a girl, I was so shocked. It took me 2 days to name her because I had not REALLY thought of girl names, because I thought I was having a boy!

We finally came up with a name by the 3rd day, but we didn't put it on the birth certificate until the day we left....just in case! I am so excited that she is a girl because it gave me the opportunity to name her after my best friend, someone I look up to, someone who is beautiful in every aspect of her life, someone who makes me want to be a better person myself. We named her Kaiya Braumlee Saunders, after her Aunt Braumlee, my younger sister. In the picture above, Braumlee is holding her namesake. I know that Kaiya will be proud to be named after such an amazing person.

We are loving every second of this beautiful little girl. She already has found a special place in all of our hearts. Now, if she could just figure out that we sleep at night and play during the day!

It's a GIRL!!

Yesterday our newest addition came into this beautiful world. Our daughter was born at 8:42 in the morning. She was 6 lbs. 7 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. She has dark hair and she looks a lot like our little KK! We are still working on a name for our little princess....I have been very indecisive in that department. We are so excited to have her in our family. There will be pictures to come!

Counting days...not weeks!

I can't believe that I am now counting DAYS until this baby is born, and not how many weeks I am along! In 12 days I will be holding our new baby! I am sooooo excited! I am feeling great, however, people look at me like I look horrible. I think it has something to do with the swollen feet and the nice waddle that I have perfected. It will be nice to have my own body back again. It will be amazing to finally meet our new baby.

Eight and so much more!

I wanted to put one more thing in my last entry, but I ran out of time....I am guessing that one of the kids needed me or something, but I have a minute so I will hurry and try to finish it. I wanted to make a list of 8 things that have changed in my life because of my sweet husband. The hard part is narrowing it down to only 8 things. If you know my sweetheart, you can probably understand. He is such an amazing person! Our lives have blended together so wonderfully, it is like the perfect combination of ingredients to make the most amazing dessert that you would want to enjoy over and over again! I am truly blessed by this incredible man. So, here is my short list:

1.) I now eat onions. I never loved them, in fact I almost hated them, but his family puts them in EVERYTHING! I can now say that I enjoy a good onion, with most meals!

2.) I know how to and enjoy jeeping. My guy loves the outdoors in a different way than I do. He likes to take his Jeep up the mountains, and I like to hike up the mountains. We each have learned to love what we had not done much of before we got married.

3.) I have a very strong example when it comes to religious matters. He blesses our family with priesthood blessings, with FHE, family prayer, church on Sunday etc. I have always had religion in my life, but not as constant as he has maintained it.

4.) Softball. Yeah, I have never played, and because of him, I have learned to LOVE it! I still play like a girl, and I am probably the worst one on the team, but it is sooooo fun to play on our co-ed team.

5.) Gardening/Canning. His parents have three HUGE gardens that they share with us. We try to get up there to help when we can. I remember having a garden when I was really young, but I can't remember anything about it except weeding it! I have learned some new things, but my favorite is how to bottle what we grow! YUMMY!

6.) KIDS. We have 2 8/9 kids. Our third will be born next month. They are so amazing! And the best part is that my husband fits right in with them. He is just a big kid himself!

7.) Reaching my potential. My husband has proved to be the best in helping me to accomplish more than I ever thought I could. He is my biggest fan in all that I do.

9.) Grilling/Dutch Oven cooking. Because of him, I have learned to do both fairly well. I will have to admit that my husband is an amazing cook, and I will never surpass his abilities in these areas. In fact, when it comes to breakfast...he will always have me beat!

I love you sweetheart. I can't wait to see what the rest of eternity brings for us!

Eight Wonderful Years!

My sweet hubby and I have been married for 8 wonderful years today! We were able to go to Portland, Oregon together and spend a few days alone before our new baby comes. We have never been to Oregon and we were so excited to see some wonderful things. When we flew in it was BEAUTIFUL! On our honeymoon, we were actually staying on the coast up by Washington and we saw some whales, but not very close. Our friend told us that we could see some whales off the coast by Portland as well....we were so excited! The drive was long, but gorgeous. Right when we got to the outskirts of the coast town that we were going to we realized that our beautiful day had turned to FOG!!! We REALLY wanted to see some whales, so we looked into a charted boat/tour guide sort of thing. The guy was really nice when he said that they would not have any boats going out, and that honestly, we were the only ones who have even asked....go figure! So, long story short, we ate a great bowl of clam chowder and some amazing calamari, took a picture to remember our efforts and headed back to Portland!
Just outside of Portland, there are some beautiful falls called Multnomah Falls. It is the second largest year-round waterfall in the US. It is around 620 feet tall! It was still beautiful in Portland, in the mid 80's, so it was nice to be by this amazing waterfall. The force of the water falling made a wonderful breeze, and a lovely mist as well! I love this picture of the bridge. The two people are a mom and her daughter....I just thought it was sweet.

We walked the .2 miles up to the bridge and decided to do the whole mile up to see the view from the top. The picture is taken at about 1/2 way. I had to laugh at people's reaction to me as they walked by. They all looked at my face, then my belly, and then quickly diverted their eyes so that I didn't see their next reaction! One guy told me I was an inspiration....yep, that made my day!

Here we are at the top. It was beautiful up there, but you couldn't see much of the falls, you just got a great view of the river. I was starting to swell...my fingers, toes, and ankles didn't enjoy the hike as much as I did!

Still at the top, you can see the river behind us. Really, it is worth seeing! Portland is a beautiful place to visit. The hike was so wonderful for me for lots of reasons. I like to hike, I love the color green (and you see lots of it), my legs miss exercising, and last but not least, everything is so much fun with my sweet husband!

Here is one last photo of the falls. It is hard to do it justice just because it is soooo huge. Anyway, after we saw the falls, we made our way to Boise. My brother and sister-in-law live there and we were able to spend a fantastic day with them. We had amazing snow cones, at dinner at a great restaurant, and watched a darling movie together. Today, we are swimming and shopping and just enjoying our time together. Tomorrow we head home to get our kids....they are the most wonderful thing that has come from the last 8 years. I love you sweetheart!

Goblin Valley!

We went with some friends to Goblin Valley a couple of weeks ago. We had never been there, but we had a wonderful time! We ate yummy tinfoil dinners, had smores, and slept in tents...and loved every second of it! The friends that we went with had these little head lamps for the kids. Scrubba and KK thought they were so much fun. They ran all around camp with them on. We have decided to get some for our family for our next camp trip!KK and Scrubba were up bright and early. It was a little chilly in the morning, so we bundled up and drank hot cocoa. We actually got up, took down camp, and headed to see the goblins in the valley, and then we went to Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon, but the photos are put in with the canyon first! So, here are some of the picts. This is the huz, walking through one part. In some areas it got so narrow that, being pregnant, I was touching the wall on both sides of my body! The hike was so beautiful! Words can't describe how amazing it is!

We had to climb under this rock, so Scrubba held it up for us!

We saw a few caterpillars, and KK thought they were so neat. I think this photo is cute of her. She is that close to it because I told her to smell it so I could get them both in the picture. She cracks me up.

A little hole in the rock made a perfect frame for Kk's precious smile.

These are our friends, the Fishers. They are our inspiration for our outdoor enthusiasm. We look forward to more outdoor fun with them, that is for sure!

When I heard of Goblin Valley, I had a hard time imagining what it would be like. I was shocked to actually see the grandeur of it all. My whole family played there for a few hours and we never got sick of it. Scrubba climbed and climbed....let's just say he slept well that night! Here is my sweet huz being the Karate Kid. He always makes me smile!

Here we are with a family photo. I fit right in with those round goblins!

I LOVE this picture. I had no clue what Scrubba would do when I asked him to be a goblin for me. What a cute kid he is. He makes a pretty sweet goblin! I will have to say that he amazed me on this trip. He played SO hard in the valley for so long. Then, he wore a back pack and hiked through the canyon for hours....and he LOVED it! He is a trooper! All I know is that our family still talks about how much fun we had. We love the outdoors! I think it always brings us closer together.

My Three Sisters

I will have to say that I am probably the most blessed when it comes to my sweet sisters! I am the oldest of 5 kids and 4 of us are GIRLS! You can imagine what our home was like when we were all young. Now we are all grown up and are having families of our own, and honestly, it just doesn't get better than this. I have three beautiful, talented, spiritual, loving, giving sisters who I can turn to for ANYTHING! A few weekends ago, we all got together for the first time without any of our parents....we felt so grown up! Between the four of us we have 8 1/2 darling children who loved our get together just as much or more than we did! We were able to spend nearly a week together, just enjoying one another! We did a lot of fun things with the kids like: swimming, Boondocks, Jumpin' Jacks, etc. We ate good food, laughed, talked, told stories, traded clothes, gave advice, and so much more. At the end of our week, we drove to Rexburg, ID to attend our step-sister's graduation from BYU-I. There we got to spend time with grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins and more! We had a wonderful time together, and I do say that I don't think it gets better than this! Sisters, I love you! I am so grateful for the bond that we all share. Thank you for your love and support! I LOVE YOU!!!

SIX!!

Our sweet Scrubba the Wubba turned six at the end of March! What a handsome little guy he is! He had french toast with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast and was so excited to bring some treats for his class at school.

Scrubba loves Pokemon. Honestly, I have know idea why kids like them, I guess I am just old! He wanted a Pokemon cake and so....here is Bulbasaur the Pokemon. He took me quite a while to finish, but it was nothing compared to the Buzz Lightyear cake I did for his 3rd birthday!

We had a fun party with 20 kids and some parents as well. We ate pizza, opened gifts (more toys and things that I have no clue about), had cake and ice cream, and then we went to a place called Jumping Jacks that is a huge room filled with blow up slides/toys etc. FUN, FUN, FUN!! All of the kids played hard, and so did some of the adults. Let's just say that we all slept well that night! Happy Birthday Bud!! We love you sooooo much!