Little Miss Amelia

I have been meaning to put these pictures up for a while but have not taken the time to do it until now.

As some of you know, our Little Miss Amelia is a very busy, mischievous, stubborn little girl. BUT, we have been able to catch her being cute as well.

Because she has the power to put the whole household in an upset, it is very pleasent when she slows down enough to do something constructive.
Every time I am in the kitchen making dinner or lunch or baking cookies or whatever it may be, Mia will always pull up a chair right up next to me to watch or help or make a mess. At first I did not have much tolerance for this because the chair always got in the way as I was busying in the kitchen. But then I realized that it was much easier with her by my side while I cook than to keep stopping what I was doing to break up the fight that she was causing.

Here is a time after dinner when we filled up the sink with soapy water and let her wash some cups. She washed... and washed...... and washed......... at it was heaven.

A few months ago when we were getting our garden ready, Mia wanted to help daddy too. So she went inside and got gavin's Home Depot tools and got to work.

We love those rare occations when she gets focused on something........Anything!

Note: Mia has the same shirt on for both sets of pictures. These were taken months apart...go figure.

Turkey regret

Once again, just like every year, Thanksgiving has come and gone and I find myself regretting not eating more of that yummy Turkey dinner. Every year I plan on making my own turkey spread at home so that we can have the leftovers but the thought of it makes me tired.....maybe next year.

Crisis Response update

I've gone on 2 shifts so far and have not gone on an official call yet. The people that I go on shift with joke that the City of Surprise is safe when I'm on shift because we don't go on any calls when I'm there. I would rather go on calls though. Sitting at the station is hard because I think of all the things at home that I could be doing. When I'm there at the station, I'm there to help.
Anyway, below is a picture of the CR team not including the new people that just went through training, so I'm not in this picture. They wanted to get a picture of everyone in front of the new CR van.



This is the CR page of the City of Surprise website, just to explain better what we do.

http://www.surpriseaz.com/index.asp?NID=1385

Reese is 10 months.....well has been for 2 weeks

Reese finally got some teeth! She has had 5 break through in the last week and a half and I can see a few more that will break through very soon. I'll post pictures as soon as I can get some good ones. Reese has also been pulling herself up to things for about 2 months..... cruises around the furniture pretty well and is even trying to take some steps! She is definitely a normal active curious little girl. The other day she witnessed me opening the CD player and I knew right as I was doing it that her little gears were turning and low and behold she crawled right over and opened it up. She also figured out zippers, drawers and cupboards. Reese is also into talking on the phone. She likes to say hi to Daddy and anyone else who will listen. She likes to use any small toy as a phone and pretend as well. She has finally accepted that grass will always feel weird to crawl on and that is okay. This realization has made it possible to finally get to the toy helicopter in our backyard...she loves it. Our sweet little Reese is also learning how to throw little tantrums and make silly faces.
Sigh..... I'm going to miss having babies.

I miss my happy baby

This is Reese yesterday all happy, enjoying her first lollipop. She had fun slobbering all over the sucker and letting it run down her tummy.

This is her today after waking up with a fever and a sore throat last night. She does NOT feel good at all and I feel so bad for my poor little Reese.

Halloween pics

This year's Halloween was sort of non traditional for our family. Traditionally we get together at my Mom and Dad's house with all my siblings and the cousins. Sometimes my aunts and uncles show up and we share chili, cornbread and all kinds of yummy treats. This year my sisters had other plans so we decided to celebrate Halloween with some friends in our ward. We still shared chili and cornbread and treats, but we stayed here in Buckeye and had fun hunting down the people that were actually home handing out trick or treats. The first area that we tried was unfruitful and as a couple of the older boys (Gavin included) were getting agitated at their lack of candy we decided to get in our cars and try further north in our neighborhood. There were quite a few more people handing out treats but we still had to find them in between all of the vacant, foreclosed homes.
On the first Saturday in October our ward had their Fall Festival so we got to dress up and trick or treat early!
I had a lot of fun this year thanks to a few friends from our ward family! Happy Halloween!
By the way, if you click on the slideshow you can view the pictures bigger.

CR training update and a WARNING to parents

So I have 3 more days of regional CR training and 2 more days of training for the City of Surprise next week. Each night of training is 2 classes which means I have been through 12 classes so far. Wow. I knew that I have a good life but with each class my eyes are opened up more and more to what kinds of things I have not had to deal with in my life. Some of the classes we have had are: Elderly Abuse and how to spot and report it, Veterans and how to recognize if they suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and if they are suicidal, Sexual crimes victims, Domestic abuse, how to spot it and how to get victims help, Drug and Alcohol abuse, On scene safety and information on the top most deadly infectious diseases and how they are spread and how to help people who just lost a loved one, whether it be from a drowning, a fire, a homicide, a car accident etc.
The instructor of the Drug abuse class brought a whole duffel bag full of things to show the class. Little things that a parent might not recognize as drugs or alcohol. She also brought different types of energy drinks. Some of the energy drinks have alcohol in them but you might not recognize it as having alcohol in there because it looks just like an energy drink; the only difference is that there is a 21 printed on the can. Energy drinks are a dangerous combination because it is mixing an upper(caffeine, ginseng taurine etc.) with a downer(alcohol) in one product. Stores that sell these do not know the difference between an energy drink with or without alcohol so they are selling them to kids. Some other things she showed us were shots of 80 proof alcohol that were not recognizable as alcohol because they were packaged to look like things like hair gel or like small plastic bottles that could be mistaken for shampoo or nail polish or liquid candy. These products come in fun looking colors and flavors. The scary thing that parents need to be aware of is that kids know about this stuff and they know that the local mini mart or convenience store sells them. The kids also know two things: (1) that the store guy won't card them because they don't recognize it as alcohol, and (2) that their parents will just think it's some kind of teenage cosmetic product if they see it sitting in their room.
The instructor also showed us pictures of drugs that are out there that are designed to look like candy. There is one that I think is particularly scary because it is strawberry flavored meth that looks like strawberry pop rocks. This is alarming to me because I might be successful in teaching my kids to "just say no" but they might accept "pop rocks" from a schoolmate.
We were also shown various drug paraphernalia that are disguised as magnets, mini keychain flashlights, water bottles, cans of pringles etc. School staff are not aware that all this is going on and that is also alarming. I would hope that school districts would require school staff to take classes on how to recognize this stuff.
We were also informed that the reason that Hot Cheetos are so popular among 8-13 year olds is because they are crushing them up and snorting them. What would posses them to make their nose burn like crazy is beyond me but it shows that these kids are mocking a more deadly behavior. This class scared the heck out of me and it made me feel like pulling my kids out of public school immediately. I am glad though that I am more aware of what I am up against when it comes to protecting my kids from drugs. We were given some great resources to go to and learn more about all the crazy, dangerous stuff that is out there. One of them that you might recognize is drugfreeaz.com which gives you age appropriate conversations on how to talk to your kids about drugs. There were more websites that I was given that I maybe shouldn't post because they were maybe too informative for some, but if you want them just ask and I will give them to you.
I know that I went on a little tangent and that I might have shocked some people by what content this post contained, but I felt it was important to inform parents that drugs and alcohol are totally different and WAY more deadly than when we were in school. I wrote this in hopes that it might alarm someone to get more educated on recognizing what is what in their child's bedroom.
THE END

Andie's Baptism!

On September 27th it was Andie's Special day to get Baptized. Grama and Papa Backus came down from Colorado, Great Nanny and Papa and Great Uncle Craig and Great Aunt Linda came from the East Valley, Great Granny Mortensen came from Phoenix and lots of other Family came to support Andie on this important day. There were 3 other kids that got baptized as well and there were a lot of people there to support them as well. After the baptism we went to Macayo's to eat. We had a great time catching up and spending time with family. We are very pleased with Andie's decision to get Baptized and become a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Later Day Saints. I was excited for Jeremy because even though he went on a mission and taught many people the gospel, this was his first time performing a baptism ever, and it was for his daughter. We love you Andie, Congratulations!

Crisis Response

I just got accepted into the Volunteer Crisis Response Program for a City nearby. I've been wanting to do this for years and finally went for it. I went on a ride along a few weeks ago and got a good taste of what the Crisis Response Unit deals with. We had 2 "code" calls and had to be with the families in the quiet room in the hospital to be with them while we waited for the Dr. to come in and report. It was a very surreal experience. It was the first time that I have dealt that closely with death. I had my interview last Monday and have been accepted into the program. I start training on October 6th. As part of training we have to become First Aid and CPR certified. It has been a few years since I've been certified so I will be glad for that. Even though we are required to be certified we won't be able to use it. I'm excited and scared to volunteer. On one hand I think it will be good for me to get out there and do something for the community but on the other hand it might be hard to have to be involved with the trauma that we will be dealing with. I'll just have to see how it goes and find out if I am able to do what needs to be done.
Jeremy wanted me to clarify what a "code" call means. It means that someone has passed away and we need to go be there for the family or the ones involved.

Mini Hilary

So I was in Joann's with Mia and Reese the other day looking at Halloween costumes and came upon this mask of Hilary Clinton. Reese thought it was funny so I put it on Mia and cracked up at how hideous she looked. It was so funny that I was crying! And no, I am not a supporter.

Getting chased

Dust Storm Sept '08

A few weeks ago we promised the kids that we would finally let them ride their scooters around but we needed to get dinner first. So we got in the car to drive to Taco Bell. When we went outside to get in the car we could tell that a storm was coming. As we were driving we were being chased by a big wall of dust. We got into Taco Bell just in the nick of time before the storm caught up to us. It was crazy watching the wind blow the light poles and trees back and forth.

End of story, kids did not get to ride their scooters.

Our Fall Garden

garden

So we are trying to obey our Stake President who has really been encouraging our stake to grow something this fall. We have started growing some basil, parsley and chives inside. This is the before picture of the garden outside and some pictures of our sprouts. When the garden is complete it should be really nice. It is slow goin' though. Jeremy's been at work so much that we have been having a hard time finding the time to get it done. We did build one of the sections of the garden and have planted Cucumber, green onion, carrots, broccoli and tomatoes. We will be planting sweet peas soon. So far we have some pretty healthy looking cucumber, broccoli and green onion sprouts. The kids are really interested in watching our garden grow. Mia helped me plant some of the seeds and when I showed her the cucumber sprouts she said, "Yay! Let's pick them!" I hope she doesn't decide to harvest before it's time.
Click on the picture to see the rest!

The beach and Lombard Street

My favorite part of our day in San Francisco was when we went to the beach area close to Ghiradelli square. We let the kids take their shoes off and roll their pant legs up and dip their feet in the water. Mia progressively lost all layers of clothing down to her undies because she couldn't stay dry. I wish I would have remembered their swim suits, but oh well, next time. We also went to a museum that had all kinds of old games to play. It was very interesting. The last thing we did before we left was drive down Lombard Street. Driving up the hill to get to it made me real nervous. It was so steep that it reminded me of those dreams I have of trying to drive up a road too steep and the car can't make it all the way to the top and starts rolling backwards. I can't believe that people live on those steep hills like that and it's just a normal part of their every day. The pictures I took don't do justice to how crazy it is.
Well, there it is, I finally put all of our pictures of California up for all to see. Enjoy!

Pier 39

We went to Pier 39 and had a blast looking in the shops and watching the Sea Lions. Grama took Andie and Gavin to the Aquarium for a birthday present and they had a great time. Jeremy wanted to take a tour of a submarine and I wanted to go to the Golengate Bridge and eat at a deli that Allison highly recommended but when you only have one day to pack it all in, it just doesn't get done. Gavin really wanted to go to Alcatraz really really bad. I think just the name, "ALCATRAZ" was intriguing to him. It sounds scary. He wanted to see the skeletons of the dead prisoners. We told him there were none and he relaxed a bit but it was still the thing that he kept begging to do. We plan to go back some day when the kids get a little older. It's a neat place!

On the way to San Francisco

On Monday we took the 2 hour drive to San Francisco. The kids were excited to see all the big bridges. I liked them too!

Jen and Connors Big Day!

I've decided to make good use of all the time that I have while Jeremy is working crazy hours at work and buckle down and finish blogging our trip to CA.
Saturday was the big Day! Andie and Gavin and Mia did a great job with the responsibility of being in the wedding party. Gavin had to keep the rings safe and when the cerimony was over we congratulated him on a job well done. Gavin said, " Well, I didn't do very well because I dropped the rings." I guess he was a little embarrassed. Everything turned out really well and everyone had a good time, especially Mia. I'm sad that I didn't get pictures of her totally bustin' a move when it was time to dance. She was coming up with moves that I have never seen her do before. It was a crack up! I'm glad Jen and Connor are now happily married. Congratulations you two!

Rehearsal day

I'm a little behind on our trip to California. I'll get the rest up soon. Friday was rehearsal day. We went up to the wedding site at Apple Hill. Jen made some cute flower girl shirts for the girls and a ring security shirt for Gavin. We helped set up the wedding decorations and rehearsed the ceremony . It was hot but fun. In the evening we had the rehearsal dinner at Jen's moms house. I don't know why but I forgot to pull out the camara for that. ooops!

Adventures in Sacramento

So, as most people know, we went to northern California recently for Jeremy's youngest brother, Connor's wedding. On the first day the boys and Papa went on a cave exploration and to go see the Redwoods to celebrate with Connor. While the guys were gone the girls and the kids had a little fun of their own. We took the kids to a place in Sacramento called Funderland. Andie, Gavin and Mia really enjoyed the dragon roller coaster and the airplane rides. Mommy liked the Dragon roller coaster too. After getting as hot as we could stand, we went back to take the kids swimming. It was the first of a few action packed days.

Cute Fabric!

These are the aprons we made for Andie's party. I just love this fabric! I need to buy some more and make myself an apron.

Andie's in 3rd, Gavin's in 1st, Mia's in jammies!

Just some pictures of the first day of the 2008-2009 school year for Andie and Gavin(and Mom). We are very happy with the teachers that Andie and Gavin have this year. We hope they enjoy another action packed year of learning!

Gavin turned 6!

Gavin turned 6 in August and for his birthday he really wanted an Indiana Jones whip that he saw in the store, little did he know that Mom already bought it for him before he knew it existed. Hee Hee! For his birthday dinner he picked one of his favorites, Kraft Mac and Cheese and broccoli. Mom didn't mind, it was kind of like a day off from cooking. After dinner we all went to the park and launched the balloon rockets that Gavin got for his birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAVIN BOY!

Andie Turned 8!

Andie's Birthday

Since Andie turned eight this year and is getting Baptised she got to have a friend birthday party. We had a cooking party. Andie and Mom picked fabric out to make aprons for her friends to wear while they made pizza and decorated cupcakes. I forgot to get pictures of the overloaded pizzas but they were yummy! Then the girls had fun decorating cupcakes. I thought that it was very sweet that most of the girls that had siblings asked if they could bring some home for their brothers and sisters. Jeremy took the 3 younger kids to Peter Piper to cut down on the chaos for the party and Kelly Fitzgerald came and helped me to keep the party going. I had a great time getting to know her better. Thanks to all the little girls who came and made Andies birthday a fun one!

9 years and still goin' strong

So today is our 9th Anniversary. I am truly blessed to have Jeremy in my life and to have him as the father and Patriarch of our home. He sets such a good example of how to be humble and selfless and I am so happy that I said yes when he asked me to marry him. We only knew each other for 5 weeks before we got engaged but I knew it was right from the very beginning. What I didn't know is just how good it would be. I think Jeremy and I make a great team and I hope that will come in handy as our kids turn into teenagers. I typically think it is cheesy to pay a tribute to your Sweetheart on a blog but today I am just feeling so thankful for what Jeremy and I have. So here's to you Jeremy, Happy Anniversary! I look forward to each year together being better than the last. Oh, and for everyone else, you may now call me cheesy.

I know

Yah, so I'm a little behind on our blog but it's been busy so I'll update after our trip to California. Keep posted for Andie and Gavin's Birthdays, Reese photos and more.

A weekend in heaven

scottsdale

Jeremy won a two nights stay and dinner for two at the Hotel Valley Ho. I entered him in a Father's Day contest on channel 12 and he won the Grand Prize! I've been wanting to stay at Valley Ho for a while so I was thrilled that he won. My mom, and sister, Hailee, took care of all the kids for us so we could have a couples getaway. We had so much fun. We haven't had a night away from the kids since Andie was little so I'd say it was about time. We got to eat at my new favorite resturant, the Kona Grill, we also ate breakfast at The Breakfast Club, lunch at a Mexican resturant, Ice cream at the Sugar Bowl and free dinner at the hotel's resturant, Cafe Zuzu. We also shopped around fashion Square and saw Get Smart in the theater. It was like a dream to get to be just me and my hubbie. My sister, Hailee was able to go on a getaway with her husband just recently and she made a good point. She said that single people want to know what things get better when you get married and have kids. She was right when she said that trips with just the two of you are way more special after having kids. I'm having major vacation withdrawls.

Click on the picture to see more.

Locks of Love

locks for love

Andie has had long long hair for a while but it is getting harder and harder for mom to manage it. It was so long that I still had to wash it for her and she's getting a little old for that so what did we do, we chopped it off! Andie plans on donating it to Locks of Love as soon a mom takes the time to help her. I secretly miss her long hair but I just keep telling myself that it's okay, hair grows back.

Andie the gymnast

Andie in gymnastics

Andie has been wanting to take a dance or gymnastics or karate class for some time now so we finally signed her up for a gymnastics class through the City of Buckeye this summer. She really learned a lot and seems to be a natural! On the last day of class, the parents were allowed to come into the class and see what the kids have learned. Poor Andie got nervous and couldn't concentrate on what she was supposed to be doing. She kept getting confused between a round off and a cartwheel so she would just end up doing some flailing move. Her teacher was confused and was wondering what was happening. I didn't know that my little social butterfly was capable of stage fright.

Now it is Gavin and Amelia's turn for gymnastics. We'll see how that goes.

Click on the picture for more. But remember, I am not a photographer like my sisters so they arn't very good pictures, plus they were taken with my camara phone.

Birthday lunch with the girls

birthday lunch

My sisters, Hailee and Katelyn and my Mom went to a birthday lunch in June. We went to Kona Grill, my new favorite restaurant, where I got hooked on the Macadamia Nut chicken. After lunch and an enormous brownie that we couldn't finish between the 4 of us, we drove around looking at some cool houses. It was fun but Allison was missing.

Click on the brownie to see more photos

tagged again

Someone else tagged me and I decided to have some fun with it. I didn't exactly follow the rules but it was fun.! You're supposed to take pictures of all this stuff as is, as it is in your house. I like how I decorated my house but it's a little messy right now so some of it isn't exactly true, it's just what I would like it to be. Tee Hee Hee!

The Guest Bathroom


The kitchen Sink

My favorite shoes

The refrigerator

Laundry room

Master closet

Favorite Room

What the kids are doing....

Reese is out fighting fire

Mia is skydiving

Gavin is up in space

Andie is scuba diving

Self portrait....

Favorite vacations...

Disneyland of course. It is still just as magical as it was when I was a kid!

New York City. I did the New York City thing with my friend Bettijo a few years ago. I had a blast but I wished that Jeremy could have joined me. I plan on taking him there someday.

We plan on going to Hawaii for our 10th Anniversary. It will be in September of 2009.

I'm black pepper!

You Are Black Pepper

You may be considered ordinary by some, but you're far from boring. You elevate the mood of any discussion, and people miss you when you're not around. You are secretly very dominant and powerful. Most can only take you in small doses.

What Spice Are You?

I saw this on Kary Hoopes' blog and decided to give it a try. I answered the questions twice but tweaked the second time a bit and got the same thing. It's pretty interesting except I really hope the last sentence isn't true.

I got tagged

My sister, Allison, tagged me and my sisters. So I will do it for her but don't worry, I won't tag anyone else.

5 things on my to-do list:
-Start planning everything to do with Andie's 8th Birthday on August 1st (baptism dress and accesories, buy scriptures, plan her b-day party, decide what to get her). Her baptism is the last Saturday in September.
-Plan our trip to Sacramento for Connor and Jen's wedding.
-Finish reading The Host.
-Get rid of the mound of clean laundry in my family room (this is virtually impossible).
-Trim the bushes in the front yard, but it's too HOT!

5 things I'd do if I suddenly became a millionaire:
-First off, pay off all our debt.
-Move out of Buckeye into a house that has a decent sized laundry room, master bath, kitchen and plenty of storage.
-Get my whole years supply.
-Like my sister Allison said on her tag, I would first go to New York and do everything I want to do there (Church history tour, New York City etc.).
-Invest in a promising small business or put some money in a high interest savings.
-Yes, I'm adding a 6th thing. If there was money left after my first 5 things than I would buy a motorhome and drive all over the US.

5 Snacks I love:
-ICE CREAM is the best!
-Chocolate of course
-Beef Jerky on long car rides
-Oreos and milk
-Sour gummy candy, but I can't eat very much before my teeth start to hurt.

5 Places I've lived:
-Glendale, AZ
-Peoria, AZ
-Phoenix, AZ
-Pagosa Springs, CO (for 5 months)
-Buckeye, AZ
You can tell we like adventure!!! Hee! Hee!

5 Jobs I've Had:
-Bookstore at Greenway High School
-The little Gym
-Waterworld as a life guard
-A community Bank as a bank teller
-Dash mat, a car dash cover manufacturing company. I did grunt work.

5 things most people don't know about me:
-I sometimes eat chocolate chip cookies or brownies for breakfast. Why? "Because I'm the mom. When you're a mom, you can do it too."
-No matter what I'm reading, it puts me to sleep after a couple of pages, so it takes me months to finish a book.
-I am deathly afraid of Black Widow spiders. They look evil because they are evil.
-I still like to catch creatures like horny toads, crawdads, and frogs.
-I often have nightmares about tornados even though I've never seen one in real life. Therefore I won't live anywhere that gets tornados a lot.

The ride along that didn't happen

So here is something interesting. I posted about taking the kids to the fire station and how I wanted to go on a ride along. (Some weird hobby of mine.) Well it's been a while since I've been on one and I was all set up to go on one with shift A last Friday, and when I called Courtney, the female on shift A, in the morning to ask her if we were all set for that night, she told me that I couldn't do it that day because they didn't have their engine at the station because it was at a police shoot out early that morning and it was taken for examination because it was evidence. What good is a fire station full of firefighters without a fire truck? You would think that they would have made it a priority to get the truck back before anything else. Anyway, I was bummed out that I didn't get to go but we will reschedule for another day. I'm glad that I didn't do the ride along the night before; that's not the kind of action I'm looking for in a ride along with the F.D. Here is a link to the news story.
http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2008/06/20/20080620abrk-mandeadinshooting-CP.html

Firefighters for a day

Trip to fire station

Tuesday I decided on a whim to call Buckeye fire station #2 to see if we could bring them cookies...and to maybe see the fire truck. They said sure so I loaded up the kids and off we went. They took us on a tour of the entire station. The office, the sleeping quarters, the tv room the exercise room, the kitchen etc. Amelia was very impressed that the kitchen had THREE refrigerators. Captain Keith took the kids for a ride in the fire truck after the tour of the station (Mommy wished that she could come too) . The kids had a great time. We did some grocery shopping at Walmart after we left the station and the kids proudly wore their hats inside the store. They were still so excited about the fire station that they behaved the whole time I did the shopping. I think I'll have to go on a ride along soon. Thanks Buckeye Firefighters! Click on the picture to see the rest.

Memorial Day weekend

memorial day weekend

As is the family tradition, we spent Memorial day weekend at a hotel in town ( Jeremy called it a staycation). We stayed in Scottsdale near the Biltmore shopping center. Not very many could make it this year but it was still nice to get away from home and relax by the pool. We went to dinner at CPK and did a little shopping, then spent some time at the hot tub where Mia decided to jump in before we could get floaties on her. I was trying to tell the guy that was in the hot tub that she can't swim and he just looked at me, so in I went with my weged sandles and dress still on. On the way down I cracked my tailbone. I can still walk and stand and sit, I just have to be very careful how I sit because yah, it still hurts, but we had a blast! Click on the picture to see the rest.

A visit to the Cardiologist

Gavin's cardiology appt. 5/22/08

Gavin had another check up with the Cardiologist. We had been seeing the Dr. every six months to keep the progression of Gavin's heart condition in check. At this visit the Dr. said the progression is slower so we don't have to come in again for another year. The other good news is that we can postpone starting him on beta blockers until possibly the next visit which was a relief. Don't forget to click on the picture.

On to 1st grade!

gavin's K graduation

So this was Gavin's first year as a school kid. I was worried that he wouldn't do well this year because he turned 5 ten days after school started, and because he's small but he surprised us and came out of kindergarten as one of the top of his class in reading and math. This year Gavin also discovered a passion for cafeteria lunches and playing soccer at recess. He can't wait until 1st grade! Don't forget to click on the picture to see the rest.

Sommer's Birthday

soms' 28th b-day

I had a pretty fun Birthday this year. We got to spend my birthday with Jeremy's brother and his wife and their cute little baby Blake. They were visiting from Utah. We started off the day meeting for breakfast at Coco's and after that we went to see the new Narnia movie at the AMC down town at the Arizona center. After the movie was over we decided to take pictures of all the grand kids first time all together (with Grama and Papa in mind). We got hot and thirsty so we found a McDonalds and had icecream. Troy and Emily had to go meet some friends for a baseball game so we had to say goodbye. We finished off the evening at our friends the Hirschi's house and they grilled us a yummy dinner. They sang happy birthday to me which I could almost not bare the embarrassment, and I blew my candles on my birthday ice cream sandwich. We put the kids to bed at their house and stayed up way past our bedtime playing games. It was a very fun filled day. Oh yeah, and Jeremy got me the Bosch that I've been wanting for a long time. It's time to make some bread! Click on the picture to see more photos.

It's not trash!

retro dresser

Look at this sweet retro dresser that I picked up from the curb. Someone was going to throw it away! We couldn't have that so it's going in my sisters house.

Reflections of Christ

I am treating this blog like a scrapbook slash journal since I'm really bad about doing both of those things. I am not really good about getting up on fast Sunday and bearing my testimony in front of everyone so I'm going to do it right here. I just wanted to publicly thank Heavenly Father for my life and for the blessing of having the gospel in it. I have been feeling like I have been a selfish and neglectful daughter of God lately and as a result I have not had the Spirit with me as strong, and because of that I have been feeling very lonely but didn't know why. I would tell Jeremy that I was lonely, but when I thought about it I didn't know why I felt that way. I have a good family that loves me and accepts me, a husband that is more than I could have ever felt worthy to ask for, good children that I know love me and I have friends that I know love me for who I am, so why am I so lonely?

So today I decided to watch the Reflections of Christ video and I realized why I was lonely. I wasn't abandoned or neglected by anyone, I was the one who did the abandoning. I wasn't thanking Heavenly Father daily for my blessings, I wasn't reading things that would invite the spirit, and I wasn't leaning on Christ when I was sad or frustrated. My loneliness was my fault. As soon as I realized this everything seemed to clear and almost instantly the pain and loneliness were gone. My Savior was there just waiting for me to seek His comfort, all I had to do was ask.

I know that Heavenly Father and our elder brother, Jesus Christ and the comforter, the Holy Ghost are real. I love the life that they have let me live. I know that we have a true Prophet to lead us just as there were prophets before the restoration of the gospel. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and is concerned for my Spiritual and temporal well being. I know it because I have seen it and felt it many times in my life.

This video, Reflections of Christ, that has been put together with the music and photography is truly inspired. I can't get over how perfect the music is and how well it goes with the pictures. I don't know how anyone could watch it and not know with surety that Heavenly Father is real and feel the love that He has for each of his children. It has certainly helped me to put things back into perspective.

Click on the link to watch the video.

http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html