Our 4 week vacation

Well, for the first 2 weeks of our vacation we spent it up in Washington. My brother Randy came home from his 2 year mission in Denver, Colorado. I can't believe have fast 2 years goes by. He hadn't meet Raegan yet, so we were excited for Randy to meet her. We had so much fun while we were up there hanging out with family.

For the last two weeks, we went down to visit Johns sister in El Centro, California (the town is below sea level, how crazy is that), its 2 hours east of San Diego. For 5 of those days we babysat Amy's cute kids (below) while Amy and Jason went of a business trip... Being a mom of 4 is hard work, let me tell you! We really enjoyed going down and visiting and getting to know Amy's family better. We especially enjoyed the nice 70 degree weather while we were there. We were definitely ready for Spring here in Driggs, but when we returned home, there was still 2 feet of snow on the ground and snowing every other day...in a few more months maybe it'll be spring here...doubt it! :)

The first weekend we were there, we spent a night in San Diego. We went to Sea World and the beach while we were there. At Sea World my favorite was the flamingos, they are such funny and funny looking birds. We bought Raegan a stuff animal Flamingo, she loves it, she snuggles to it every time she sleeps, its so dang cute. Right as you lay her down, she grips her flamingo and closes her eyes. its priceless.

6 & 7 months

I can't believe my little girl is 7 months this week. Where has the time gone? This picture above was taken when she turned 6 months...but haven't had the chance to blog lately, so this post is about her 6 and 7 months together :)
At her 6 month appointment she weighed 15.9 Lbs (40%) and was 26 1/4 inches long (70%). She got her two bottom teeth during the holiday season; one was on the night before Christmas (great gift huh-NOT) and the second a few days later. I don't knows what’s worst-the first 8 weeks where she had to eat all the time or teething?...they both equal no sleep and no fun!! She definitely has got a killer bit and you got to pay attention when you are holding her cause she'll pull your hand in her mouth and take a bite! Ouch! haha She loves to play around and is very ticklish.

We give Raegan those fast dissolving Gerber cookies occasionally, she loves them. One night we were taking picture of here eating her cookie and well here is how the story went...
These cookies are yummy....

....I wish my mouth was bigger...

...Yum...

...Hey wait, where did my cookie go?...

...serious guys where did it go?....

...Ok, i don't care where it went anymore, I'm just laughing cause your laughing!!!

HAHA! we love her and all her expressions!

Here are some of the things we have been up to- notice how they all have to deal with snow? I guess that’s what happens when there is snow on the ground clear till June-heaven help me!

Raegan loves to plow the snow with John

We've been out horn hunting a few times. Raegan loves going with us...even though she looks frozen in these pictures she really does enjoy it. We've seen tons of deer and moose-up close to. We were like 20 feet from a moose the other day, a little too close for comfort.

Her eyes look frozen in this picture.

John and I pull each other on knee boards and snowboards behind the snowmobile a lot. We usually go while Raegan is napping in the truck. But once she wakes up we pull out this black sled and she loves riding in it with me. She is so dang fun.

And this is for all you people who think I have an angel of a child...She does occasionally act like this...

Until I whip out the camera and start taking pictures of her....than its a complete turn around. . .Little stinker is what she is!

More pictures to come...Hopefully I'll get better and post more often.

...Christmas...

My Family came down to Driggs for Christmas this year. It was tons of fun. They rented a cabin that we all stayed in. We went and cut down our christmas tree, went snowmobiling... ALOT :), tubed and knee boared around the cabin, visited the Elk refudge, walked around Jackson Hole, went snowboarding, played games, and just hung out and enjoyed the christmas season.

Here are some pictures of our Christmas.....

It was so cold this day we went snowmobiling. We decided to strap our boards on so we would snowmobile up and snowboard down.

Up at Targhee

Our tree...

...looking for the tree. Raegan loves riding on the snowmobiles.

Busted!! haha She loved ripping the bows off the presents and eating them.

Our little Reindeer

The Rocking Horse Santa brought.

Sleigh ride at the Elk Refudge

Tubing up at the ski hill

Raegan got so much attention when my family was here. After they left she was pretty fussy cause she wasn't getting as much attention as when they were here. spoiled girl!

She loves her aunt Morgan

Raegans Christmas Dress and the boots that aunt Alison bought her.

What we spend our time doings...

...Being Parents! Raegan is now 5 months. It is so crazy how fast time flies. She is very interactive and knows who her momma is. She loves rice cereal and candy canes-and pretty much anything John will feed her while I'm not looking :) She rolls all the time now, sits up-as long as we are supervising, talks ALOT, laughs and she moves on her back around the floor. It blows my mind how fast they learn! We have lots of fun with her. Raegan loves the snow, she even loves to eat it. haha!

This is our first pony tail. I didn't keep it in very long cause i couldn't take it seriously! haha we still got a little ways to go before we wear pony tails... But we are close!

John and I were able to get a little deer hunting in this year-he got went lots more than me, but we thought it would be fun to dress Raegan up in camo when Grandma Jo watched her. She looks like a chunk in this picture. haha i love it!

For Thanksgiving we were able to go up to my parents in Washington. We had a lot of fun and can't wait to see them for Christmas!

Raegan playing the Wii with Papa.

Grandma and Raegan on thanksgiving

4 months

Raegan turned 4 months on the 5 of November. We went to her 4 month check up yesterday and the doctor says she is doing great. She weighs 13.7 Lbs and is 24 3/4" long. She is such a good baby and loves to play now. Her hair is starting to finally fill in and get longer as you can tell in this picture. She is such a joy to have around!
This picture is for aunt Morgan-she loves zebra! :)

Oh, and.....


DON'T FORGET TO VOTE for the cute little Candy Corn!!
(read the post below)

VOTE for Raegan

Hi everyone,

My friend Jessica was having a halloween costume contest, so we entered Raegan hoping we'd win the $50 dollars to go towards a photography session with Jessica Calderwood photography jessicacalderwoodphotography.blogspot.com/ If you wouldn't mind taking a couple minutes and following these instructiont to vote for Raegan #3, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks a bunch!
Hope everyone is doing great!

Love, John, Karie & Raegan Strong

All votes can be emailed to jessicacalderwoodphotographycostumecontest@hotmail.com

Contest opens today Monday, Nov 8th and closes on Monday November 15th at midnight. You can have one vote per person in a household from one email, or two votes per email. (ex: you and your five kids can vote from that one email, and those 5 kids can also vote under the other parents email, or if you don't have anyone else in your household, your email can count for 2 votes.) In the email include either name or number of the contestant.

You can view the contestants here: http://jessicacalderwoodphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/2010-halloween-costume-contest-driggs.html