**Sharing a Message**

I love Mormon Messages. They are found at the bottom of the http://www.lds.org/ homepage and they are so inspiring to me. Today I was on the website and the recent Message was about a girl that I have never met, but have read her blog from time to time. She survived a terrible plane crash and she has kept a blog. She is AMAZING and her story is incredilbe! It was so touching to watch her video clip...
Watching this was a tender mercy for me. It made me realize that even though things aren't the way I pictured my life would be I am so blessed to have a functioning body and to be a wife and mother. I am so thankful for so many things that I won't be able to list them all here. These are just a few of the things I am MOST grateful for!

**Like I said these pictures were just to show a few things I am grateful for (and to catch up on the old blog...) I am thankful for many, many more things!

I hope that my grandma and my mom and my sister Emily have a Happy Mother's Day!! You mean the world to me and I LOVE YOU!!

**GIRLS WEEKEND 2010**

This year for "Girls Weekend" my sister and I nominated ourselves to be in charge. We decided to meet in the "middle" at Lava Hot Springs! I didn't get a ton of pictures, but here are a few. (I was busy soaking it up in the hot pools.)
A picture of the girl cousins that were there: Me, McKenzie, Brittany, Lauren, Paige and Emily

The older girlies :) Lori, Jody, Rosalie, Grandma, Ellen and Tammy (or Tamara...) :)
We rented a little apartment/condo. (That is what they called it online.) When we got there, we realized that this was a large overstatement. We renamed the joint "THE GHETTO"! I won't go into details, but picture a place without doors on the bathroom....Enough said with 12 girls sharing a small space. It didn't matter though because we were all together and we had the greatest time EVER! I wish I could go back. Looking forward to next year.....Love you girls!!
PS: A little shout out to Megan/Kristin/Kim and Chelsie...We sure did miss you. Hope to see you next time!





*An annaul tradition of Girls weekend is to buy new sunglasses...Brittany, Emily and I bought matching pairs, but Brittany could never find hers.

Easter/Spring Break Weekend


For Spring Break/Easter/Conference weekend, we decided to go down to visit my family. It was a fun filled PACKED weekend.
Here is a brief summary:
Had an Easter egg hunt at the local "Pony Palace" (an indoor event center). It was a good thing it was there because it snowed during the night and I don't know if I would have wanted to venture out for an egg hunt that morning otherwise....I didn't get a lot of "pictures" of the hunt and the ongoings, because somebody was filming the whole thing in video mode...And I am too lazy to download those. So, here are 2 pics.

Needless to say it was fun and Brinlee found 4 eggs that contained papers with numbers on them so she could claim some prizes. She shared with Cambree so it all worked out for everyone.

**Side note: Brinlee won a coloring contest at our local copy shop and she was awarded with an Easter basket full of candy. She was super excited and shared her loot. Here is a picture of the colored picture and the basket after 3 kids have eaten their fill. :)

Like I said, the kids attacked that basket like they had never seen candy before. It was really cute when we got it and I didn't think to take a pic then. Oh well...you get the idea.

We colored eggs during the Priesthood session of Conference, and yes that is Aidan sucking on the wire egg holder. Whatcha gonna do with that kid???

Emily's egg broke and she was sad. My mom was annoyed because I was taking pics and she didn't think she wanted to be on the blog. Whatcha gonna do with that grandma???
We left on Monday to come home and on the way back we decided to stop in Ogden and go to the Treehouse Museum. It was a lot of fun for the kids. Here are some pictures of that.
(I just thought this section was so great because everything was made out of stacks of books or giant books!)

**This one is for my dad! Dad: You need this Chess set to teach with!!

Oh, Sweet Brinlee....



Just thought I would record a few things that Brinlee has said and done the past little while... A few weeks ago, the school had a "Used Book Fair". The girls were very excited to spend a little money there. Brin is a very generous person--she thinks of others and shares everything she has. Well, she came home from the book fair with an Elmo sing-along video for Aidan. She was so pleased with herself and was determined that Aidan was going to love it. Well, it happened. Now, we "get" to watch the video 2 times EVERY morning. (Of course Brin is at school, so it is just me and the little fella having the time of our lives singing along!)

About a week ago, I had Cambree vacuum the front room and when she was done, I told Brin to put the vacuum away in the closet. A little while later, I went in the laundry room where she had rolled it to and there it was in the middle of the floor:
Me: Brinlee, why can't you follow directions?
Brin: I don't know. I guess I'm just lazy!

Some Days...

I can't decide if I was blessed with a "special spirit" or if all boys are so much fun!! Whatever the reason, some days I just wish we had a nanny and a maid!




...Or, to those of you who said you would take the little fella, I wish you would pick him up soon. I am tired...

A Little Makeover!

(Warning: Below are some pictures that I took of myself by myself. While, the subject of the picture isn't the most photogenic, these pictures are the best I could do. Having said that, here you go...)


I haven't had longish hair for about 14 years or so. One day I woke up and it seemed to be long and I just started letting it get longer. It grew faster than I remember it growing in the past and before I knew it, I had hair past my shoulders. At times it looked okay, but for the most part, it probably wasn't that attractive. So, I got a new do. Now, in these photos, you can't get the best sides of my hair, but I think you get the gist!






And, what would a post be without a picture of one of the kids? Here is Aidan after his sisters got out the dress-ups and he thought he needed to be a part of it. (Mike was at work at the time and when he saw the pics he didn't think we were very funny!)

FOR SALE!!!

One cute, blue eyed boy. Just learning to talk (back) well. Loves bubbles and oranges. Can fend for himself in the kitchen with just a simple chair and/or accessible pantry. Answers to the name of Aidan. Can still be trained to do what you would like...(we think) Available for pick-up any time.

*Disclaimer: Can probably expect messes like these in just a short 24 hour period, while you are doing household chores like folding laundry and washing dishes. (Also, he has been known to feed other children spoonfuls of sugar...)