Memorial Day Hike

Today is Memorial Day and we decided to take our little family on a nature hike. We went down the trail by the river just East of the Bountiful Temple. It was a perfect day for hiking...not too hot, just right! It was so lush and green! Kayla had a pouty face when she didn't get her way. We crossed the river a couple times and the water was freezing!!! Right after you got out of the water your feet stung just for a minute until you got the blood flowing again. JoeJoe had a blast throwing rocks in the water.

It's Official!

Joe has a been an employee with Lakeview Hospital for 2 weeks now...we're expecting our first paycheck any day now. He's got his new hunter green scrubs on, can you tell they're right out of the package? He looks so official in them, don't you think?

Where is Summer? More like, Where is SPRING?

It has been unseasonably cold this spring. We'll have one good day among 2 weeks of 50 degree weather. We managed to slip this good day in and filled up the pool. The water was freezing so I had to dump a couple huge buckets of really hot water to make it luke warm. The kids had a blast until they were shivering and turning purple. If only we could get more days like this before we start hitting 80, 90 and 100 degrees.
Mother nature...YOU'RE KILLING ME!

I'm slowly slipping into a depression coma from the constant overcast.

Joseph James Ruganis, DPT

After many years for undergrad, 3 years of PT school, lots of student loans, endless hours of studying and living in grandma's basement Joe has graduated with his Doctorate of Physical Therapy. PT is definitely Joe's niche in life. I (Mindy) and the kids monopolized his time constantly, pulling away from study time and he still managed to make great grades and pass his licensure exam the first time around.

This is the invitation to the "Hooding Ceremony". Joe is being "hooded" below. The big shabang was at the Rice-Eccles Stadium Tower...wow! It was an exciting, amazing, incredible night!
We only had 8 tickets and three of them were for us (Joe, Mindy and Kayla - sorry Little Joe, you have to stay home for this one)...who do you take?
Joe's sister Michelle, Joe, Mindy, Kayla

Mindy's brother Marc, my mom Penny, dad Mark, Joe, Mindy, Kayla, Mindy's brother Matt

Easter 2010

Our kids are spoiled rotten. The Easter Bunny always brings them way too much and then they don't eat anything healthy for 2 weeks. However, looks how cute the baskets are...color coordinated. Pink for Kayla and blue for JoeJoe. Didn't "she" do a great job? And the kids look all cute too. :)

Little Joe turns 2!!

JoeJoe had his 2nd birthday on March 27th.
We bought this cute blue and green cake at Dick's.
What we didn't know at the time is that the cake itself was blue as well.
It tasted ok but we all had green pee the next day.

This is one of my favorite pictures of little Joe.
He has this "I'm trying not to smile"-smile.
He got this tricycle for his birthday and stuffed the backend
with his new dinosaur toys. He looked up at my dad,
all proud of himself, being two and all.

New Kids Pictures

Every Easter I get new pictures of the kids taken. This year I was so sad because Kiddie Kandids had closed down and they were my favorite. So with a heavy heart I took them to Target Portrait Studios. They turned out pretty good. Here are some of my favorites.

Dad's Surprise 60th Birthday Party!

For my Dad's 60th birthday this year (April 4th) we decided to throw him a big surprise dinner. We reserved a room at Ruby River in Ogden...his favorite restaurant. All of us with kids got sitters...YEA! No Kids!... We all arrived early to set up. We had party hats, fun straws, party bags, confetti (all put together by my sister Michelle). My sister Marie put together a fun photo of the six siblings and we had it framed with a big matte. We each wrote a tribute/letter, etc to my dad on the matte. Something to remember each one of his awesome kids. :)

Something that we did for my mom's 60th birthday and decided to do again for Dad's 60th birthday was that we put together a fun DVD of pictures set to music.
We gathered pictures back to when they were kids and scanned them.
It's a little lengthy so that's why it's not posted here.
Happy 60th Birthday Dad!

~ The Whole Family ~

My nephew Mack was blessed in January.

It was the first time in a very long time that our
entire family was all together at the same time.
We got a snapshot of all the grandkids and the entire family.

These are all the grandkids. They look like angels but they aren't.
More like wolves in sheeps clothing.
This is my entire family!
And it is one of those moments when I am caught on camera
showing one of my most prized expressions...annoyance.
Whatever happened to 1...2...3...Flash?!?