July 30, 2009

Some new pictures...

The other day, I had taken the day off work and just played with my girls. It was wonderful. I got to watch Jade's gymnastics, we got to hang out at my parent's house and visit with my brother, my sister-in-law, my sister and their kids. We went swimming and just had a relaxing day.
Then, it was time to go home. Scott called and said, "the sooner you get home, the sooner you get your present." Like all women out there, I love getting unexpected presents. This present was beyond my wildest dreams (okay, maybe not wildest- but darn close).
We got home, and I started looking towards the bag on the table. I asked if I could open it yet, we waited until the girls were gathered and I opened it up.
It was a Compact Flash memory card. I said, "Wow, thanks hun, but I don't use a Compact Flash card. My camera takes an SD card." He reached beside the couch and pulled out a new Nikon D300 camera for me. I could not believe it. We had been looking, but I didn't think it was in the cards just yet. I was ecstatic and very surprised. (Even though Scott didn't believe that I was surprised- I WAS).
So we went outside and did more of what we do: ride bikes, jump on the trampoline and take pictures. A perfect night to end a perfect day.







July 28, 2009

My First Award! Thanks Carol.


Wow, I am so excited to receive my first award. Sunday night, when I got the email about Carol's comment. I was so excited I wanted to sit down and write a post about it. But, it was really late at night so it had to wait.

Carol, from Songberries, gave me this award. You should go over and check her out. She talks about her family, her dog and her brand new puppies, about cooking and crafts and tips. Be sure and check it out.

I'm passing the award on to some of my favorite websites...

1. Fuller Family Blog-ish -- Kat
2. Churnings and Burnings -- Cass
3. A Little Sass -- Sari
4. Tenderness and Toil -- Emily
5. Blinding Moments of Unconviction -- Vanessa
6. Awfully Beautiful -- Amy
7. JulieTopham.com -- Julie
8. Living the Dream -- Chandra
9. The Jet Set -- AzĂșcar
10. Better in Bulk -- Lolli
11. Acte Gratuit -- Acte Gratuit


The rules of accepting and sharing this award are:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs that show an attitude of gratitude
3. Link to your nominees within your post
4. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received this award
5. Share the love and link to this post and the person who nominated you for the award.

Tell us how you've come to have an attitude gratitude.

I have so very much to be grateful for. I am actually very overwhelmed by this award and the opportunity to share what I cherish and what swells my heart and soul.

My greatest blessing is to know that Christ's Atonement has made it possible for me to spend forever with my wonderful family. I can't imagine a day without hearing my little girl's voices and their sweet giggles, seeing my husband's big gorgeous smile, or a day without the love and support of my family that Scott and I are raising together and the family that raised me.

On Sunday, our lesson was on adversity and more importantly, how we may feel abandoned at our most difficult times but that we are not alone. Even Christ as He was on the cross, dying for us, He called out to God for forsaking Him. This lesson really made me think about how blessed we are. Today I feel like I can look at my future trials and know that because of Christ's Atonement, we can get through anything. I know that the Lord loves us and will help us through the challenges (whatever they may be) and most importantly, we WILL learn from each of our trials. We will be a closer family and will learn to lean on one another and be there to lift each other up. The challenge will be remembering this when in the midst of adversity.

I am so grateful for every day that I get to spend with Scott and the girls. I love them each so much and love the difference in each of their personalities. It is delightful for me to see which of my traits and which of Scott's traits each of the girls has now and which will stay with them forever. Even when there have been horrible days, in the end, these three are what get me going in the morning and keep me going all day. When I have to travel for work, I long for the moment that I get to walk in and give my girls "huggies and kissies."

My family is my reason for everything in my life. They are my joy, my sorrow, my light, my dark, my loves through good and bad. I was raised by wonderful parents and grew with fantastic siblings. They are my best friends and always will be. I love you all.

That is what I am most grateful for (and for this award that helped me share).

July 26, 2009

I Heart Faces- Beach Week 29




Here is my entry for this week's contest at http://www.iheartfaces.com/ The theme this week is "at the beach." Living in Utah, we don't get enough beach time. Something we will have to work on.

Check out the other entries!


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July 25, 2009

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Living in Utah, we are very fortunate to be surrounded by temples. From my office window, I can see 3 temples- 2 of which are brand new. I'm so glad that my little girls have gotten to experience open house tours of both of them this year. My girls are very excited to get married in a temple. Ivy is certain she is going to get married in the Oquirrh Mountain temple. We'll see.


My mom coordinated this trip, Aunt Kat coordinated the last trip. It was really fun to get to go tour this temple with all of Uncle Tom's family and Aunt Kat's family and Grandpa and Grandma. Unfortunately Scott and Jon weren't able to get out of work. At least we were able to get a picture of all of the grand kids at the temple.






July 24, 2009

A real man wears a pink helmet

I love having a playful dad for a husband. Every day, I count the ways that I am so blessed to have him in our lives. You can always count on him to get the girls to giggle, wrestle, tickle or at least just smile.
We love you and thank you for being you!



Happy Pioneer Day!



Thank you to all of our ancestors that made the painful and dangerous trek across the plains to settle Utah. We are grateful for the sacrifices that you made for us to gain a place of prosperity and freedom. Our family is here today because of you.
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July 23, 2009

Youngest Kitten's Baptism

My cousin's youngest daughter just turned 8 and was baptized. She had an awesome girlie girl birthday party where the girls got all glammed and also did some glamming to Cass, Emily and my aunt. The day after her party was her baptism.

I really liked that they had an individual meeting for each child that was being baptized. When I got baptized, in the same church, we had maybe 5 or 6 other kids being baptized. Which meant I had no say about who gave the talks or said the prayers. I really liked that she got to pick and that the program was all about her and her family.

Cass and Dan did a wonderful job with the service and then with the family feast after. We are so glad we got to be part of her day. Congratulations and we are very proud of her!



The four in the middle picture are quite the group. Youngest kitten and Jade are so excited for summer, because that means Dilia and Asher will be in town for several weeks of play time. Jade is the youngest and doesn't get to play as often. The other three all live through the backyard from each other- at least during the summer.

The bottom picture is of all but one the girl cousins. 3 of them are my cousin Cass', 2 are my cousin Em's, 1 is my brother's and of course the remaining 2 are mine. Ezzie wasn't in the picture. (I'm not sure why).

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July 22, 2009

Scooters and Dance apparently go together

It took us a while to get Jade excited about her bike. It didn't take us a minute to get Ivy excited about her scooter. We bought her an adorable 3 wheeler princess scooter. She loves the tassels and things she's pretty amazing cruising around. There is a smile from ear to ear.

One of the important lessons that we have learned from her scooter skills is that her dance lessons are paying off. Check out her form while holding an arabesque and gliding across the street. So, if I ever question whether or not to keep her dancing, I have my answer. YES YES YES. Plus, she's a bit of a klutz, so the dance will help with that.






I copied my sister...

My sister shared this style personality test today on her blog. So, I thought I would give it a try. Check it out.


July 21, 2009

Zoo Day with Grandma and Aunt Kat

Our girls are very lucky. When it was said that it takes a village to raise a child, it was referring to my girls. They are blessed to have many people around them that love them and want them to be the best they can be.
My mom and dad are two of those people and my sister is another. Whenever we get in a bind, they all are eager and willing to help out. When Kim took a week off to do MD Camp, the three juggled their schedules to watch the girls and run them to all of their lessons.
On one of the days that we needed help, mom and Aunt Kat took the girls (and the boys) to the zoo. The four (plus Baby Z) had a blast. They highly recommend the bird show. Hogle Zoo actually has some great exhibits and shows. My mom has a grandparents pass to the zoo, so they are looking forward to an early morning admission to watch the animals start out their day, and other fun special activities for members. If you are in the Greater Salt Lake area, I suggest you check out their member information. Oh wait, don't do that. We like the small crowds.
Thanks mom and Aunt Kat for a fun zoo day. The girls had a ball.



July 20, 2009

The day of the 4th of July

The 4th of July recap...
This year's theme was all about Hawaii. And surprisingly enough, it has nothing to do with that my parents went to Hawaii this year. The theme comes from Hawaii celebrating 50 years as the 50th state. It's too bad we couldn't celebrate on a beach in Hawaii, but we did a pretty darn good job of celebrating the culture.
Mom decorated for the occasion and made her yard look like a Hawaiian hut. And Uncle decorated the pool and surrounding area to feel like a Hawaiian beach.
Then the games began. This year we had a quiz all about Hawaii. No one scored a perfect score, but everyone tried hard and had some good laughs. The team pictures were very creative this year. One team pretended they were on a boat, another team rode a wave with sharks below and another team created a "50" with their bodies. Very fun to see the creative juices flow.


The relays were a blast, and we managed to catch my dad and Lori in an uncomfortable exchange- again. The cake walk was made perfect by Teral and Nina's mock hostess cupcakes. They were to die for!
My favorite part of the games was the "So You Think You Can Dance the Hula" portion. It was so fun to see the skills our group has. We're talking a lot of 10 cow women in this bunch.

My mom researched a bunch of recipes and she delivered a wonderful meal. Everyone contributed to a meal worth repeating.
The evening ended with fireworks, a special tribute to Micheal Jackson by the Fire Girls 550 South dance team, a blimp dropping candy, the "Bonus Brothers", the Star Spangled Banner by a real American Idol, Carmen Rasmusen, and a spectacular entrance and speech by the soon-to-be-Governor of Utah, Gary Herbert. It was AWESOME!

Check out Colin's video for an awesome recap of the events... here.

Here are some other blog posts about the event...

Kat- hasn't posted yet- so I'll update when she does

Cass (It links to her Celebration Tag- there are several posts about the 4th)

Sari

Emily- hasn't posted yet- so I'll update when she does



July 14, 2009

Flowers from our yard

Just thought I'd share some of the flowers in my yard. I absolutely love lilies.




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Finally time to post about the 4th...

Well, there has been enough time pass since the 4th of July. I can now post all about it.

I took off a couple of days before the 4th, to spend with my girls. I had a few things that I wanted to accomplish, but my main purpose was to play with them. So, we tried hard to play. On Thursday morning we got up at the crack of dawn. Okay- 6:00. We headed down to the Freedom Festival Balloon Launch. It is really an amazing site. It would have been better if the balloons would have actually gone in the air higher than 20 feet. Hopefully next year.

The girls had a blast and were really glad that we got up early and went.

Funny little story about the differences in our two girls. Jade was the first one that I tried to wake up. To wake her takes several tries. She is soooo my daughter- in that way. She tossed and turned and moaned while keeping her eyes closed. Then I went in to Ivy's room and said to her the same thing I said to Jade. "Honey, do you want to wake up and go see the balloons?" She sits straight up in bed and says, "Yep, let's go and see the balloons" -- proving that she is her father's daughter.

I sent both girls with their own camera. The first collage shows pictures from my camera and the bottom collage is a group of their pictures. Ivy's would be better if she would quit touching the lens with her sticky fingers- but we'll pretend it is a filter.

My mom came with us, but I don't have her pictures to include in their own collage. I may have to get them and do another balloon post.

We enjoyed the Kiwanis breakfast- an absolute must. 13 years ago, I was one of the Kiwanis serving breakfast for the balloon festival. I miss those days, but would pick going to watch the balloons with Jade, Ivy and my mom over going back in time.

I am so grateful that we have two girls that enjoy doing things and like to experience life as much as they can.

Next year hopefully we will get pictures of the balloons in the air.


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July 13, 2009

I Heart Faces- Sports


Here is a picture of my daughter, during her first volleyball lesson. She and her cousin absolutely loved it. The other day, Jade told me that Aunt Kat and Uncle Tom cared about her more than I do. The reason? They taught her how to play volleyball. When I told her that I was really bad at volleyball and if I were to teach her, she'd learn all wrong. Her answer? "Well, you and I will just have to play, and I'll teach you."
I posted another picture, of Asher for Lolli's "Give me your best shot"
Be sure and check out other sporting pictures at "I heart faces"

July 12, 2009

She loves her new bike

For Christmas 2006, Jade got a pink Barbie bike. It was adorable and pink with training wheels. While we lived in my grandparent's condo, she learned how to ride her bike, but she had a really good little spill and it scared her a little. So she never got very excited about it.
Last year, we thought we had her riding a bike without training wheels. But, we were wrong. It wasn't until this year, when Scott started teaching Ivy and gave Jade a ride on his bike, that she finally got excited about it.
We needed to get her a little bit bigger bike and Scott did not want to get her a "girly" bike. He began his quest at Target, then Walmart, then REI and Sports Authority. Finally at ToysRUs, he found this adorable bike. It is a Tony Hawk Nancy BMX bike in Hot Pink and Black. It's perfect and Jade loves it.
On Monday, she was hesitant to take it for a ride. She had Scott following her on the other scooter until she got more comfortable. Now, she's loving it and taking corners like a pro. (Okay- so not like a pro, but at least more like an experienced 6 year old rider). Tuesday she rode it whenever she got a chance. When you ask her about riding her bike now, she beams with pride and the grin of a girl who's found the love of biking.