A visit to Grandma and Grandpas!! Part 1

Puppy Love

Madie absolutely LOVES Grandma's "puppy" (he's not a puppy anymore but that's what she calls him) Toby. She spent many hours in Toby's room playing, feeding, feeding and trying to give him LOTS of treats. She got many puppy kisses and tried to give him a few herself...YUCK!

Trying to sneak more food for Toby. We had to take his food out of the room a lot due to this sneaky one trying to over feed him.
Please let me in...I want to play with my friend.

I don't know why but she would stick out her belly and laugh at Toby.

Trying to get Toby to "kiss" her hand.

She just can't get enough of those "kisses".

So far behind I don't even know...

where to begin and what to blog about. I'm going to try over the next bit to catch up though. So here we go.

Hope

Hope. Hope comes in many different forms. Sometimes not in the form we think hope comes. This time hope came in the form of an elderly man, who has lived a full long life and at first glance looks to be in excellent health...especially for his age. I sat in the second row on the left side of the chapel not knowing this man. He was introduced by our Stake President as being a former Stake President in our area. This man, who now I see as a man of strength, began to speak. He spoke of a time not too long ago when he was told by his doctor that his kidneys, after all this time of having Nephritis, were failing him. He was told he would need a transplant and the likelihood of getting a kidney anytime soon was NOT likely. He would most likely have to go on dialysis for the duration of time it would take to get a kidney. He was told of an alternative list that the donor kidney doesn't have a long life span, for lack of a better way to put it. They wouldn't expect the kidney to function longer than a 30 year span, which being an older man who has lived a great life and probably wouldn't live longer than that, chose to be on this list.

He served in the temple and he and his beautiful wife were preparing one morning to head to the temple when the phone rang. It was his doctor telling him that he needed to get to Salt Lake. There was a kidney available. They had notified the person ahead of him, but always have a backup person just in case. So on the chance of being a backup they headed. There were actually two kidneys and he was the recipient of one of them. His doctors were amazed that he didn't have to have dialysis prior to the transplant. Its not very common. The transplant took nicely and there stood a strong elderly man who to me was the face of HOPE.

I debated going to the adult session of that stake conference, but am forever grateful that I did. It was personal testimony to me that my Heavenly Father loves me. He sent this man to this conference of many people and out of these people spoke of something that meant something special to me. Those who know my dear Cailee of course, their thoughts joined mine in that miracles do happen. I wish I could remember this mans name because to me he was an angel sent to deliver a message of hope. I don't know what Cailee's future will hold, but for now it gave me a renewed sense of hope.

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.

Within each of us lyes...

the desire for fairies to be real...dreams to come true...and sometimes we just get to experience a little bit of magic! Abby turned five this March and it was truly a fun and magical birthday. She had a fun and fantastic tinkerbell party with a lot of her friends! My awesome friend Nicole helped make all the pixie pizzas (she makes the best home-made pizza dough and a special thanks to her for making all the dough!!) and I had a fun time making her tinkerbell cake! She loved each present she opened and felt special! She was so excited to see everything she kept going from present to present! It was pretty funny. They all had fun eating pixie pizzas, making pixie dust bottles and playing! I am so happy to have Abby in our lives...she makes us smile with her sweet laugh and smile. She keeps us on our toes and never ceases to ask lots of amazing and out there questions. We love you miss Abby!