So long...Yet so much fun

I am still here in Texas. I promise I will post pics when I get home to my own computer. We have had so much fun here. Mom and dad have taken us everywhere. We have enjoyed the family. It is way too hot to ever what to live here and we miss Arik so so so very much. While here, my brother took out his endowments. It is one of the coolest things I have done here. Then one day, mom, Brandee and I went to the temple. Another day, we did family sealings. And one day, Garrett and I drove to Houston to go to the temple and then made it back to San Antonio and went to the temple and did baptisms for the dead with my cousins, Jacob and Ryan (who just turned 12 a couple months ago), this was thier first time in the temple.

It has been awesome!! On Wednesday we head to California for 6 days. My great grandma turns 100!! We are going to party. I have many pics and I will update all that when we get home.

My hubby, I get to see you a week from Tuesday!!! Love you.

Finally made it

We left our home Friday morning at 11:30 am. We got to the Salt Lake Airport at 2:15 pm. Our flight was supposed to leave at 4:30 pm. Arik got a special pass so that he could go through security and sit with us until we left. (What a blessing!) As we walked passed the big board that tells departure times I noticed that ours now read 5:00 pm. 30 minutes late not bad. Then at 5 they told us that Denver had a ground stoppage meaning no one was flying into or out of Denver. (That is where our layover was.) They said we were going to try again at 5:30 pm. At 5:45 pm they told us that we were for sure leaving at 6:30 but that all connecting flights had been cancelled. (Great!) So, I went and waited in line to change my plans and was then told that my connecting flight was still okay and that all others were cancelled. Our flight didn't leave until 7:10 and our flight to San Antonio left at 8:20 so we would have to run to our gate and pray that they would wait for us. We finally took off. As we landed in Denver the pilot told (the 16 of us flying to SA) that the plane we wanted would be at the exact gate that we landed at. I was so grateful. We boarded and landed in SA at 12:30 in the morning (11:30 time in Idaho). We are having fun so far and love it.

Craziness...the time has finally come

Okay, there has been so much happening and I can't keep up with it all. After a crazy month that seemed to fly. Where did June go? Yesterday, we were able to spend a great few hours with our friends from North Carolina. Thanks, Tufts for making the time to see us before we take off on our trip to see family. We had a lot of fun with them and hope that someday soon they will live closer to us again.

On March 9, I bought tickets to Texas for...TODAY!!!! We are so excited. Brookelyn has been talking about it for months and now we finally get to go. In a couple of hours we will head to Salt Lake and then wait two hours and then fly with a layover in denver to Texas. At 9:30 our time we will see my parents. A whole month of hot hot hot!!!!!


I will update with fun pics and stuff throughout my trip. We are SO EXCITED!!!!!!

4 is the new 20

On the 1st my oldest turned 4!!! Holy Cow where does the time go? I love her to death and am so grateful that she is part of our family. We just would not be the same without her. She thinks she is twenty and not four.

So what can this four year old do:

1. Can count to 20

2. Knows all her letters

3. Can write her own name

4. can pray all by herself.

5. Is trying to teach herself to read.

On Saturday we had a birthday party for her. All her friends were invited, near and far. We had a princess party. We played many games and had tons of fun. We had a castle pinata. To hit it the kids rode in a wheel barrow decorated as a horse (thanks Brandee) and then Arik pushed them towards the "castle". They each got a hit and then the candy went flying. They also playd musical chairs (listening to Disney music) and kiss the frog. (pics below) Here is the kiss the frog. Again thanks Brandee. She is so talented and much more creative than me. Thanks for helping. The kids were blindfolded and were each given a set of lips and then tried to find the frogs lips. It was funny and some of the kids got pretty close.

Here they all are standing in line for the game. They were awesome.

My two girlies watching tv together. Right in the middle of all the fighting and yelling, they are the greatest friends. I sure love them.


Happy (belated) Brithday Brookelyn! We love you so much and are so proud of you.

And then there were 5

First off I want to say Happy Father's day to my dad and father-in-law!! I love my dad so very much. We have a very special relationship and I am so grateful for it. I am grateful for never wondering if he will chose us kids or something else, we came first. I love you dad!!!

So we have finally added a new addition to our family. Penny joined our family at 9:00 AM Saturday morning. She is a chocolate lab/border collie mix. Eight weeks old. She is really Arik's dog. Much like "the wand choses the wizard" this puppy chose Arik. She really gets excited to see him. This has a disclaimer: This is my own way of teaching my children, I do not care how others teach thier children, this was just the easiest way for me to teach mine.

I decided when I had Brookelyn that I would just dress my girls modestly from the very beginning. I couldn't decided when was a good time to final draw the line and teach them modesty. I have a really hard time during the summer months finding dresses with sleeves. I was in Costco the other day and find new dresses with sleeves. Here is Kira wearing hers.

Here is brookelyn wearing her dress. She played the Wii with dad before church. (We are always waiting on me. But I get three girls ready. Three hairs and three showers (all in one) takes time.)

This morning when I asked Brookelyn what she wanted me to do with her hair, she said blow dry it and curl it like you, mom. Most it not all of you know that my girls have perfectly curly hair without even trying. So I did what she asked and it was so different seeing her with straight hair. Here is a pic before I curled the ends.
Here is the finished product. She looked so different. More grown up I think. She never complained and stood on a stool for the 20 minutes it took to dry and curl her hair.


T minus 11 days until we are in Texas. We are so excited and rushing around trying to get stuff done.

Spring cleaning... in June

So, here I am finally having time to Spring clean my house. The thing that really got me motivated is that the young women in our ward are having a huge yard/bake sale to earn money for girl's camp. So, I figured, if I cleaned I would have stuff to give them. I completely rearranged my bedroom. Brookelyn's room and Kira's room finally have stuff hanging on the walls (I know a whole year later) and I rearranged our front room a little bit. I took pictures because I know that it will not look like this for very long (hopefully at least 15 days then it will be good for a month unless Arik is a pig (which I know he is not)).

Another thing I did was try and decorate my house a little bit (shocking, I know). So here are some pics.

This is the bathroom wall. I finally hung my candle holder up. The nice thing is that the candles are green to go with the paint.

For my birthday, I was given some money so I went and bought a book case that could hold all my books. I know that I will have to move hte pictures from the top shelf someday (once I get another book) but for now it is nice).
I decorated Brookelyn's room and gave her my old bookcase. She wanted to make sure I got enough pics of her room (so there are three). She is counting down the days until we are in Texas.

Yes, that is a High School Musical 3 poster on the left side. She told me where is wanted everything hung.

Her new bookcase (to her) and all her books and stuff on it.

I was told that I had to have a picture of Kira's room too. So here it is. The pink board has all the B's on it from Pres. Hinckley. It is so clean!! I also exchanged all the clothes so she now is whering 3T stuff.

A year and a half ago we got big family pictures done with my dad's side of the family. It was for my grandparent's 50th. I finally got picture frames for them and hung them up (okay Arik hung them). This is one of the walls in our front room. I love that all the family pics are in cherry wood frames and that the picture of Christ and the Proclamation are in gold making them the focal point.Here is a pic of my front room. I rearranged the couches. It will only stay this clean for so long. In the corner where the Princess chair is, is where my piano will go when I get it from my in laws.

It has been raining a ton here. Much more than usual. It doesn't help when you want fires! One of the great things about the rain is the rainbows that come with it. This is what I saaw out of front door. You saw the whole thing, I couldn't get a pic of it all because it was still raining.

So here are the real reasons you all look at this blog. Here is Kira. The outfit she is wearing is 4 top and 4T bottoms. She is just getting too big too fast.

Here is Brookelyn. That is her smile. This is her "High School Musical" shirt. It actually has nothing to do with it but that is what she calls it. It really fits her.

Where has June gone???

So I am sitting here and taking a breath, when it hit me. June is already half over. Where has it gone? My life seemed to get busier once school ended. I was teaching a GED class which ended today. (Thank goodness). One of the young women in our ward and in my Sunday school class has been watching the girls in the mornings. They totally love her.

The first weekend in June a group of us ladies went to Time Out for Women in Pokey. We sent all our kids and husbands to my house and let the boys watch them and we had a girls' weekend. WE attended Friday night's session and then went out to dinner. Saturday we went to the Time Out again and Saturday night my husband took me to the temple and we went out to dinner.

Last week was the craziest week ever. I was asked to help with the high school basketball camp and then I was asked to help with the high school volleyball camp. This next year I will be the high school "C" team coach. I will also be coaching basketball at the middle school and track as well. On top of the camps and teaching GED I had an Enrichment. I am the Enrichment leader and, of course, had to be there and plan it and everything. (This is the like the fourth time I have been enrichment leader. I really need to learn this so that I can move on.)

So last week my great sister watched my kids. Between my stuff and Arik's crazy life we saw each other no earlier then 10:30 pm all week. (Hence Brandee watching my kids. Thanks so much Brandee it really did help).

I then offered to take Brandee's kids home with me on Thursday, knowing that Brandee worked on Friday and it would save money not having to pay a babysitter, so I had four kids and Brandee's van. (We are trying to save to get a new vechile in Feb/March, after we get our tax refund back. No we are not expecting we just know that my car won't last a lot longer.)

Friday we went to Rexburg and spent the night at our friends, the Hemmings' house. Saturday we threw Alicia a baby shower. (She is having her first girl. HEY!!) Brandee met up with us in Rexburg on Saturday and she threw an awesome party. It was so much fun. The games were fun and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Saturday night when we got home we went to the drive in and saw Monsters vs Aliens. (Kids are free so it was a cheap family night activity. Probably the only one we will get all summer). Brookelyn liked it and Kira had a hard time sitting still. But she did pretty well.

Sunday was my birthday. I am getting old. WE had some friends from Montpelier and our backyard neighbors over and Arik made dutch oven potatoes and chicken. We had fun.

I have this week and next to get my house in order before we head to Texas for a month. We are so excited. My brother got his mission call, Jacksonville, Florida Spanish speaking, and he is taking out his endowments while we are done there. Poor Arik will stay in Idaho and work, July is usually busy with fire but with all the rain we are getting who knows if there will be any fires this year.

This weekend there is a baby shower in Logan and the following weekend we are having a birthday party for Brookelyn. My little girl will be four on July 1. Then we are off to Texas. When I get back I have one week before Volleyball tryouts and then school starts on Aug 17th.

The girls are growing so fast. Brookelyn just hit a growth spurt and Kira is trying to make up the distance of two years as fast as she can. We have started the potty training experience with Kira (she is much more willing to sit on potty then Brookelyn was, and she won't use the potty chair she wants to be just like Brookelyn.) We have gotten rid of diapers and are now using pull ups.

The last thing is that I am going full time next year at school. They just don't know exactly what I will be teaching. They don't even know if I will be half at the middle school and half at the high school. So, that should be interesting.

My summer is already gone and I think it just started. Sorry for the long time in between posts. Life has been crazy. But I do love it.