Adam and Raelynn's Wedding

We spent the end of July celebrating Adam's wedding to Raelynn. They got married in the Thatcher Temple and had a lovely reception afterwards. The next evening we held an open house in my Mom's backyard. The whole thing was beautiful and a wonderful time spent with family. Below are some photos of the fun occasion.

4th of July

We headed up to St. Johns for cooler weather for the 4th. We spent most of the day at the City Park doing all the traditional festivities St. Johns offers. We did miss out on fireworks for the first year because of all the fires we had up north. I was really bummed because I love fireworks, but I understood the concerns of the community. Below are some photos of the day.

There's nothing better than snow cones on a hot summer day shared among friends!Eating some BBQ with Uncle Adam!

Getting lined up for the annual races. I practiced with all the kids over the weekend so we would be ready. On your mark....get set...GO!!

June 2011

This summer has been a lot of fun. Madilyn and I spent a great deal of it up in St. Johns hanging out with Grandma and cousins. The middle of June we spent a whole week at Grandma's playing in a whale pool I bought for Madilyn and her cousins to play in. The whale ended up being where we spent most of our late morning swimming and doing relay races in the sprinklers. It was such a nice time being able to sit outside and enjoy the sun.

Madilyn really enjoyed staying at Grandma's because every morning she would wake up around 6:30am to see if Grandma was awake working out in the yard. Most of the mornings Grandma was so Madilyn would run back into our room to get clothes on so she could help Grandma water the flowers. This made it nice for me because it gave me an extra hour to sleep in with complete silence. :)

Most of the hard yard work ended with a ice cream Popsicle with Grandma!

By the end of our stay we ended up across the street with the neighbor kids playing on their zip-line they had created. I thought Madilyn might be scared, but she ended up loving it and did it several times.

Graduation!!

After almost two years I finally finished my Master's in Psychology and walked on April 30th. It was quite the journey, but something I have always wanted to do. It's one of those goals that has haunted me for years. So to have finally accomplished this goal really brings a huge relief. Graduation was a great day and exciting because my whole family was there to celebrate it with me.

Mom and Me!

All my sisters!!

And of course a picture with my good looking brothers. :)

After graduation we attended a BBQ festival that was going on at the UOP stadium and than went home to go swimming. The water was freezing, but it was a lot of fun watching all the kids swim.

Everyone pumped to make their first season debut in the pool!!

One of Madilyn's favorite things to do when swimming is jumping into the pool.

The beach babes catching a little sun after being in the freezing water. :)

Easter Weekend 2011

This Easter Madilyn and I spent it in SJ with the whole family. We had a great time starting it off with decorating eggs. We probably colored at least 4-5 dozen. Madilyn was so cute she would just drop the egg in the cup and immediately take it out and place another one in the cup. Not much patients with the egg coloring. The next morning we all got our Easter baskets full of yummy things. Madilyn got some little mermaids, high heels, and a tinkerbell hat. After getting sick off eating chocolate all morning we had our annual Easter picnic at the park. Like every year it was extremely windy, but this never discourages the Patterson clan from keeping family traditions.

Coloring Easter Eggs!

Look at our decorating crew.

Even Kyle and Candace are excited about dyeing Easter eggs. :)

Madilyn with her Easter basket and goodies. Look at those heels they go with every outfit!

Here we are at the picnic. If you take a close look you can see how windy it is by Lora's hair. :)

(sorry Lou!!)

Strategizing what the next move will be in the big football game.

Madilyn and Sarah became artistic on the sidewalk with Sarah's chalk she got from the Easter bunny!!

This was the best picture I could get for Easter Sunday. :)

Vegas Baby!!

For Christmas Jill bought everyone tickets to Garth Brooks show in Vegas. It was the best concert/show I have ever seen. He is such an amazing musician. I didn't want the show to end he could have gone on for hours. I was unable to get pictures at the concert, but I did get some during the day when we were walking the strip.



You can't go to Vegas and not get a picture with Elvis and Marilyn.


Lora, Mom, and Jill all did the oxygen machine thing. They seemed to really get a high off of it. They said it made them relaxed and energized. Nothing like a little pick me up. Afterwards we headed toward the New Yorker roller coaster...it was awesome.


Of course we went to M&M World. Poor Madilyn slept through the whole thing though. I took the picture so she could have a memory of it. :)

I decided to through in a couple other pictures. Madilyn loves coloring and does it all the time. I love how much she concentrates when she colors.

She loves her baby and is always caring her around. Madilyn feeds her in the high chair with a bottle, and puts her to bed. To put the baby to bed Madilyn will put a blanket over the
baby and pat her back while singing. It's such a cute thing to watch. She typically sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

Christmas 2010!!

This Christmas we spent in St. Johns with the whole family. It was so nice seeing everyone and keeping up on all our family traditions. Below is a recap of this Christmas season.

We started it off with Donut day. Madilyn is helping Grandma role the dough and cut the donuts out.

Time to make the donuts....what cute little bakers.

Grandma with her little donut helpers.

Madilyn wanted to nap in the big bed so I layed her down and came back a few minutes later and this is what I found. Looks like she was playing and than just passed out. I have no idea why she has the hat on. :)


Sarah and Madilyn finding fun with the wrapping paper rolls.
They got such a kick out of them....silly girls!

Christmas Eve lunch doesn't it look so good. This year I decided to make pasole to go with the lunch and it turned out pretty good for my first time. :)

Placing all the presents under the tree. Madilyn seemed to like doing it this year. She didn't care who's present was who's she just grab and place them under the tree.


Caroling crew...not really we just all like to check out the Christmas lights so the best way to fit everyone is on Grandpa's trailer. However, there is some singing going on. Fortunately, I'm up front driving the Christmas light crew with Grandma Drain.

Madilyn was not so excited about seeing Santa this year, however we did get this snap shot. :) Santa got Madilyn a puppy because Madilyn is obsessed about puppies. Scared to death of them, but talks about them all the time.

Christmas morning opening up gifts.

Visiting Daddy Christmas afternoon.

This year Santa brought Madilyn a playhouse. The first thing she said when she saw it was "Mama look at the pretty flowers". I didn't even think she would notice them, but that seemed to be the first thing she saw.