Climbing to new heights...and falling

Blake and I had the opportunity this summer in May to go to St. George with our awesome friends, the Nelsons! We stayed with their family (thanks to you all for your wonderful hospitality) and one of Nicole's sisters and nephew were great and watched our kiddos so we could go canyoneering in Zion National Park. The Nelsons and two brother in laws all went with us! WE HAD A BLAST!! Fears were faced, a lot of laughing went on and we can't wait to go again. Can I just say that it was such an adrenalin rush each time we went on a rapel!! Our camera battery went dead part way through so we didn't get all the pictures we wanted with our camera. Can't wait to see what everyone else got! I absolutely fell in LOVE with this place. I have never felt closer to our Heavenly Father's creations than I did there. I have a greater appreciation for the world around me and I think I look at things differently now. What a great opportunity we had...thanks again Nelsons!! Can't wait to go again...hint hint!!!

Things I don't want to forget:
1."Freaky Frogs" So while start going down the first repel (there are 10 by the way) you come to a little bit of water and there are these frogs. Why are they freaky you may ask...THEY SOUND LIKE MOUNTAIN GOATS. When you get down the last repel and start hiking out, you can hear a bunch of them and it sound like a bunch of mountain goats. One of the bro-in-laws decided to push on the back on one and it literally sat there making the "noise" and let him continue pushing on it...they are so weird. I almost smashed one with my hand once...after a little scream I decided to name him and he jumped into a puddle...we swear he must have been playing dead. (Disclaimer...no freaky frogs were hurt in the exploration of their world)

2. "Phrases" Oh my heck...that's funny...Seriously?...Are you freakin' kidding me?

3. Saying ZION"S" National Park and it driving Tristan crazy...calling it repelling instead of rapelling and it doing the likewise to Tristan

4. My "beaner" getting stuck all the time and having to have someone else get it undone.

5. The FREEZING cold water that Nicole and I managed to finagled our way out of getting into just to have to jump in the next freezing water hole...BRRRR

6. The lovely bruises...some in obvious places for the sport...some maybe not.

7. A new "yo-mama" joke about butt suspenders.

8. Dinner afterwards...I wonder if people at In and Out wish I was back so that business would pick up...Just a little funny joke. Sometimes I speak faster than I think.

Gunna Ride on the Dinosaur Train

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY DUDE!! I know that most moms say that they can't believe how fast their kids grow up and I am one of them. I truly can't believe how fast Brandon has grown. He loves the alphabet, trains, dinosaurs, talking, playing with his best friend Preston, talking, playing (or pestering) with his sisters, talking, drawing pictures and did I mention talking?!? Brandon has developed a love for TALKING. He talks from the time he gets up to the time he goes to bed. It's been known for Blake and I to tell him at meal time that he must finish eating before he's allowed to talk again or it would take him HOURS, and that's not an exaggeration, to finish eating. We love his passion for learning new things. He loves to spell and one of his favorite cartoons is Super WHY. He got a Super WHY costume for his birthday and we've enjoyed moments of being zapped with the Why-writer.

His other favorite cartoon is The Dinosaur Train and his friend Preston loves trains and dinosaurs too. They have birthdays only a couple weeks apart, so his mom and I decided to do a joined birthday party...themed The Dinosaur Train. We had a great time with friends at the party. They enjoyed decorating bags, jumping in a blow up jumper, opening presents, hitting a pinata and eating cake and ice cream.

I made Brandon and Preston's birthday cake and decided to take on a new adventure in the cake world. It was a fun adventure that took A LOT of time, but it was so worth it. Everything was edible except the toothpicks and the dinosaurs on top!

I figured out a way to get a real working flashlight into the front of the cake for the headlight. The boys thought that was fun!

A little girl and her pink pony

Madie LOVES her pink pony. She has a hard time sharing her pink pony at times because she loves her so much. Her name I think is Pink Pony. One day Madie was riding her pony and really got to rockin'. She rocked so hard a couple times that she flipped the pony...oops! I grabbed the camera and we all had great entertainment!

I know that my Redeemer Lives

I KNOW that my Redeemer Lives. I am grateful to my Savior for giving me the opportunity to live with my beautiful family forever. I know that He Lives because of my four beautiful children that He has entrusted to us and I know that there is a plan for us to be able to be together forever!

Easter Fun

The Easter Bunny visited our house Saturday morning! We've come to an understanding with the Easter Bunny that he can have Saturday because Easter Sunday is for our Savior. The kids were excited to see what was in their baskets!

Madie's favorite part of course was "the candy"

Brandon and Cailee have wanted Zhu-Zhu pets since Abby's birthday

Abby loves Barbie's and loved getting the Princess Frog Barbie

We've always wanted to do an outside Easter Egg Hunt and thought it would be fun to get together with friends and have one in our backyard. All of our kids are still young enough to still really enjoy a simple fun hunt, so we took advantage of that this year.