"What does Tuesday look like?"

Last night I hear Madison crying at 5 am and so I go in there and she is distraught that her bed sheet has come off the mattress and so she asks me, "will you fix my bed?" I fix her bed and am about to leave and Madison says through tears and sobs, "I can't find my treat. I looked all over for it and it's not here." I said, "didn't you eat it before you went to bed?" "No," Madison said, "I put it right here and now it's gone. I even prayed to find it." At this point I begin to frantically look for it so that she knows Heavenly Father answers prayers. I find it rather quickly on the floor at the head of her bed and give it to her and say, "see, Heavenly Father answered your prayer." The next morning when I go into her room I ask her if she remembers waking up last night and wanting her ring pop. She says, "Yes, and I couldn't find it and so I prayed and then looked and still couldn't find it and so I prayed again like this." She then showed me how she knelt on her bed and said, "Heavenly Father, Jesus, please help me find my ring pop." Then she said, "and then I would look. Then I cried and you came and found it. Heavenly Father did answer my prayer." The faith of a child. She really believed she would find it if she prayed. It was a heart warming experience.

The other one came tonight as I was tucking her into bed she asked, "What are we going to do when I wake up?" To which I said, "I don't know, but it will be fun. We will have to plan something." Madison then asked, "What day is it when I wake up?" I said, "Tuesday."
"What is Tuesday? Is it Sunday?"
"No, It's Tuesday."
"What does Tuesday look like?"
I told her, "It looks just like today." That seemed to satisfy her curiosity for the moment. She is so fun and full of questions lately. It's great and I love it. I am so lucky to have two beautiful daughters that just light up my world.

Oh, while we were driving home from the Evans' home last night Brad sneezed and no one said anything and then we hear Abby say, "bless you." No one prompted her at all. She surprises me more and more each day.

Today I got to sleep in since it was Brian's turn to watch the girls and I hear, "hold it Abby. Have you gone yet? Hold it." Then I hear the rip, rip of the diaper coming off. That's when I get out of bed and wander into the bathroom just in time to help the naked Abby onto the toilet. I turn on the water, squirt water on her, still nothing. She then gets off and she leads me into her room to where the diapers are. I put one on and she goes to inform daddy that, "I went on the toilet and went uh (grunt sound)". Gotta love kids.

The Joys of Being a Kid

Madison was to do quiet time and this is how she fell asleep. I just had to take a picture of it. Both Abby and Madison had gotten dressed up in Halloween costumes yesterday while I was trying to go through all our stuff and get rid of a few things.

This is Abby's favorite Costume because it has a furry tale she can hold while sucking her thumb. It's all about the tail!

This is Madison and Abby playing boat. They climb in Abby's crib and pretend it's a boat. They will play for over an hour at times together without me hearing a peep. They are such good sisters. I feel so blessed and just hope they stay this way for a while:-) Even though Abby doesn't look like she is having fun and loving her sister. I love the look on Abby's face! Classic:-)

Way to go TARA!!!!

I have this amazingly talented neice who had her last dance performance since she graduates in June and will be going off to college. I am so proud of you and it was so fun to see you dance. I was so proud knowing we are related:-) Thanks for letting me be a part of the night!

This was a hilarious dance and it was so fun to see Tara and the rest of the girls really get into it.


I was finally able to capture one of her leaps. She was amazing!!! Did I say that already?

This was the dance with the guys and Tara was dancing with her boyfriend Jake.

All the Seniors did a solo and this was a picture from Tara's. She was so elegant and crisp. It was fun to watch. These pictures are for you Tamara since you couldn't be there. I hope you get a feel for how great Tara did.

Echo...

Madison heard her voice echo while walking through some sort of an underpass and said, "my voice is in there."

Sunglasses anyone?

Yesterday we went to Park City and Madison wanted to get some sun glasses from Children's Place. They cost $3.50 for one or 2 for $5. I thought maybe I would get one for Abby too since I hate to spend $3.50 on one pair when I could get it for $2.50. I decided we didn't need any sun glasses and told Madison 'no.' I had been asking her all weekend when she would ask to buy something if she wanted it bad enough to use her birthday money. She always said, "no", so I tried that with the sunglasses. She said, "I want to use my birthday money for this. I want Abby to have a pair too." I told her that Abby doesn't need a pair, she already has a pair. To which I said, "You may buy Abby a pair with your own birthday money if you want, but I'm not going to get her a pair." I thought I had solved the problem, but no, Madison was willing to use the rest of her birthday money to buy Abby a pair and as we were walking out Madison asked, "Do I have any more money?" I said, "no, you spent it all." Madison said, "Well, when I get money for my next birthday I am going to buy sunglasses for kids that don't have any." In the care I asked her who she would give them to. She said, "Anna, Mesia, Elizabeth, other kids that don't have them if they need them." So tender hearted.

Growing up Together...

I was trying to find pictures of the girls together, but my filing system isn't as good as I thought. Here is a picture from each year...Cousins as best friends. Couldn't ask for more:-)

Park City Weekend

This weekend Dan was on call and Brian had a lot to do, so Clare and I went up to the condo and had a blast. We went to the outlet malls, watched movies, went to Taco Bell, Wal-Mart, walked Main Street and had a photoshoot, and relaxed. It was so much fun. For Mesia and Annas shoot click here. Thanks Clare for a fun weekend!!!!

Putting holes in one's ears...who would have thought

I did it! I pierced my ears with my little sister Emily. I've never had them pierced and never wanted them pierced due to one more thing to accessorize and since I own only two rings, one necklace, and a bracelet, the chances didn't look good that I would ever have anything more than just studs for my ears:-) But, I did it! I put holes in my ears and metal rods in the holes to keep them from closing in on me. I have sensitive teeth and that must also affect my ears because Emily has been just fine with the holes being punched in her ears, but mine hurt. They are fine as long as you don't brush them with a hair, try to lay on them, or breathe on them:-) They aren't that bad, but they do hurt. I will tough it out because I paid $26.50 for the studs and then another $20 for some ear rings so I will have something to put in the holes when my 6 weeks of rinsing them three times a day is over with:-) Over all, I do like them and I feel more girly than I ever have. Now I just need to buy my first dress (I currently don't own one) and then I will officially be girly!!! I even learned to put make up on for my first time over a year ago. I know, I just couldn't stand how mascara felt the first time I wore it and swore it off from that point on. Well, I guess it had to happen some time or later. Now we are just trying to get Lael to join the 'hole in the ear' group. Go LAEL! I also wanted to thank my support group by name: Madison, Abby (they just wanted a sucker), Lael, Melissa, and Emily. It was a girls weekend (we missed you Lacey) and that is how we spent it:-) Brian didn't even know I did it until he saw me in church on Sunday and he noticed it right away. I got his stamp of approval:-)

NYC

We arrived at Dan Harrison's around 7:30 pm or so and showered after flying the red eye from Utah to NYC for a layover and onto Burlington, VT where Doug and Carol Heavyside picked us up and drove us to the Mender's where we were storing our car and some stuff. We packed up the car and drove back to NYC to have dinner with Harry. It was fun hanging out and spending some time with Harry. I should have taken pictures of his batchelor pad. It was really impressive! The following day we slept until 10 am, which felt so good after flying the red eye. Hung around the apartment and read, relaxed, and enjoyed the view from NJ looking onto NYC. It was fabulous. Then we left and I attended WICKED on broadway. Words don't even come close to expressing my feelings for that broadway. It was wonderful, awe inspiring, clever, spiritual, and plain amazing!!!! I came out a new person. Then we went back to the apartment and started our drive to DC. Thanks Harry for a fun time. Wish we had more time to hang out:-)

DC in all it's glory

We started at the Arlington Cemetary and visited the grave of unknown soldiers and saw the changing of the guard. Then we walked across the bridge into DC. We passed the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, onto the WWII Memorial, past the Washington Monument, and finally arriving at the United States Capital where we got a personal tour by some interns from Utah who work at Orrin Hatch's office. Let me interject here that flip flops were not the smartest choice of shoe wear:-) After the Capital tour we headed home to take Kim and Joe to dinner.

DC at night...

Kim took us back at night to see the city lit up and I got a few shots. It was beautiful. To see the Jefferson, Washington, and White house lit up was magical. I am humbled to have laid eyes on such meaningful memorials made to honor God fearing men who made this country great.

Air and Space Museum and the Library of Congress

We got to view one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. It was the Library of Congress. The artwork, marble columns, statues, and other beautiful structural elegances took my breath away as I admired the work and hours that must have been put into it. This is just a taste of what was all around us. 360 degrees of pure beauty.




We were able to see the Air and Space Museum our second day there and it was fun...I must admit that Brian had more fun there than I did. He spent 15 minutes looking at something that I spent 15 seconds at. It was like Brian was a kid in a candy store and all of it was free! He loved it. The orange plane was the one that first broke the sound barrier. There was also the one that breached the sound barrier twice, Capsules that astronauts first orbited the earth in, war planes, the wright brother's plane, etc.

DC Wonderful Hosts...

We were able to stay with Joe and Kim Breault while visiting DC. We had almost the entire apartment to ourselves and as you can see, they treated us like royalty. This was the dinner we had to come home to after spending hours on our feet walking around DC in 80 degree weather. It was a godsend. We feel like the Breault's are family to us. We had the privilege of introducing the gospel to Joe and then he went and found an amazing woman to marry and they are dynamite together. Thanks for such a wonderful time in your spirit filled home, for the amazing ice cream, wii competition, and great company. It wouldn't have been as fun without staying at your place. You were the fresh air to come back to when we had been out and about all day!!! Oh, did I mention we slept in until after 10 am our first night there! That was how nice it was:-)

New Nephew

We were graced with a new nephew on Saturday. His name is Aiden and he is my brother Seth and Lacey's little guy. Mason was here when he saw his brother Aiden for the first time and was so cute! He kept pointing to him and making this 'ooo' face. It was priceless. My girls loved Aiden and kept wanting to hold him. What a precious little guy and to come through someone else to our family makes it all the more amazing and spiritual. Welcome to the fam!!!

Outside fun!

Brian was playing a chasing game with Cannon, Madison, Abby, and Mason. Mason wasn't quite sure at first, but joined in later and had fun running around.

I love this look. It's totally Abby!

This is the look Mason would give me when I would tell him to stay out of the street. He would slowly inch closer to the road and then make a dash for it if I would try and get him. It was so cute! We got to have him stay with us while Seth and Lacey were in Idaho with their new baby boy Aiden.

"Catch me if you can..."

Brian was the favorite outside today. When Madison got hurt and Brian went to help her, the rest just followed and laid on him. It was so cute!


And the chase is on!!! Go Madison! They just love playing this game with Brian.

Cannon would try and run and then would loose his balance as Brian jumped over him or ran right by him and he would fall and laugh. I tried to get him laying on his belly laughing, but he put his head down on the grass. What a fun day.