Mary & Christian March 2014

The big event in March was the trip to California to see my little baby sister Mary get married.  She married her childhood sweetheart just a few months after he returned home from his mission.  Their engagement was a pretty sure thing so Mary spent the 2 years he was gone planning every aspect of their wedding perfectly and it that's what it turned out to be...absolutely perfect.  Those two are the cutest couple ever.  Congrats to you two.

Mary & Christian are engaged!

Headed back to Cali for another Wedding!

Hanging out at my Dads house.  Its always a good time. 

A quick visit to Knott's Berry Farm

Wedding Day~March 13, 2014

Since the wedding and reception were on different days, we snuck in some time to visit the beach for a little bit.  It was chilly but that didn't stop them from getting sand in every crevice.

I just love this picture of Paige helping her little brother in the swimming pool.

Reception Day~ March 14, 2014

Hidden Oaks

Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Mary spared no detail at this reception.  She (and Pinterest) did an amazing job planning this out and making it all happen.  It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect that night. 

The highlight of the evening was probably the awesome dance floor.  The kids were little dance party animals that night.  I was quite impressed by the moves on the dance floor that night.

Do you even need to ask?  I just love this mans face.

December Part 2

Its time to get back to this blogging silliness. So here it is...the rest of December 2013. 

Christmas Eve lights at St George Temple.

Looks like Santa has been here.

Christmas Morning...nuff said.

Christmas breakfast with family.

We packed up and headed north on Christmas Day.

Next Christmas celebration with the family.

Playing with Max in the tent.

We took a little drive up to Midway and stopped by the Homestead Crater.  How can I have lived here for almost 20 years and I didnt know this thing existed??  We didnt swim but someday we will.  Its a little freaky though.

Right down the road, the Midway Ice Castles were fun to see.  Its pretty much this gigantic icicle that you can walk through.  Its pretty cool (literally).  If you have seen Alex Boye's rendition of Let It Go with the One Voice Childrens Choir (Google it), it was filmed there.  Very cool.

 

December had LOTSof selfies and random faves

Where did the year go? October 2013

Holy cow...its just hit me that December is half way over and Christmas...CHRISTMAS is 10 days away!!  Yikes.  Where did the time go?  I recently watched a series about King Henry VIII and I loved this quote:

King Henry VIII: In these last days I've been thinking a great deal about loss. What loss, your grace, is to man most irrecoverable? 
Charles Brandon: His virtue. 
King Henry VIII: No, for by his actions, he may redeem his virtue. 
Charles Brandon: Then, his honor. 
King Henry VIII: No, for again he may find the means to recover it, even as a man recovers some fortune he has lost. 
Charles Brandon: Then I can't say, Your Majesty. 
King Henry VIII: Time, your grace. Of all losses, time is the most irrecuperable for it can never be redeemed. 

I loved this quote.  I don't know that Henry VIII actually said this but I love it, nonetheless.  Its so true. Its so amazingly true.  Most losses can be reversed or at least redeemed, if you will...but time is something that you can never recover.  

I spent a couple hours looking back through this blog the other day and I came to the realization that my kids are changing by the second.  MY LIFE IS CHANGING BY THE SECOND!  Its terrifying and wonderful and makes me ill all at the same time. Thank goodness for my little camera phone; my little magical time thief. These kids will thank me one day for all the dreadful pictures and the month-by-month documentation of their lives.  

I love working on this blog.  It helps me to sort of encapsulate the years as they pass in each little post.  I can't believe I have been keeping it since 2006 (with some small gaps in between).  That was a long time ago but I was born in 1977 so that is a lot of years that have NO DOCUMENTATION.  I am 36 now.  I have been really bad about journaling so this blog is the place where one can go to find the proof that I and my posterity existed. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!

What am I getting at? I feel old.  HA-HA!  Why does that sound so silly?  Truth is, I actually DON'T FEEL old.  I feel great!  I am in great working order (for my age). Not to mention that I know that 36 is actually still young!  I mean, I may have plucked a few sparkling grey hairs from my head and my "laugh lines" are really starting to make their appearance but my grandma is 89!  I could still have another 50 something years ahead of me if I am anything like her BUT when I think about HOW FAST the years have flown...the next 50 years doesn't seem so long.  Nooooooooooo!

I am excited for the years that lie ahead of me...and a little bit terrified.  The milestones are happening every day, even ones I wasn't expecting.  Not just for my kids, but for me as well. I mean I am only 36.  I still have milestones too!  Thank goodness someone is documenting them! But I feel like now, since I have come to accept that I my child-bearing era has passed, I need to make sure that my time is well spent.  

I can't recoup time, but I can certainly capture it and make the best of it as it goes by.  

SO anyway, I don't know where that came from.  I digress...

We are here to talk about October. 

Here we go!

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The first weekend of October was Quincee's Blessing so we went up and had a great weekend with cousins.  We cant seem to get together without a trip to Chuck-A-Rama.  UGh!

Then S'mores in the Parry's back yard.  

The next weekend, Bonnie and her crew came down to see us in St. George.  A hike in Snow Canyon was the perfect idea on a perfect day.  It was so beautiful and Braiden even climbed down into one of the lava tubes.

We went to Grandmas pool.  Swimming in October...Love it!

I was invited to the IT team activity...ya, I went paint-balling.  Apparently this is how IT people do teamwork and togetherness...shooting people with high speed projectiles filled with a nasty gooey substance that HURTS like a you-know-what!  It was awesome.  It hurt a...LOT.  I got some wicked welts on my inner thigh and shoulders.  I feel cool now.

More to come for October, but first...

MY FAVORITE RANDOMS of OCTOBER

We call this "Braiden surfing".

Happy Columbus Day.

Paige has had the best tutor ever.

I love this baby.  She is such a "QT".

Her Baptism Day

The highest HIGHLIGHT of June was Paige's Baptism day.
 
We had her pictures done in May in her baptism dress.  It was a gorgeous day at Thanksgiving Point.  The sun was perfect and the flowers, oh my, the flowers were so perfect. Seeing her in that gorgeous white dress and posing for a camera made my heart swell with happiness but also the realization that it wont be terribly long before we will be right back in the same place in her next white dress with that same gorgeous smile and silly attitude, while she poses for the camera again...

My Baptism 

Today I took a closer step

to be with Heavenly Father.

I humbly walked down five white steps

and into clean, clear water.

My loving daddy took my hand

to help me stand up straight-

Just as he has through all my life

till now when I am eight.

My daddy showed me what to do-

breath deep, then hold your nose-

And baptized me with priesthood power

and smiled when I arose.

Tomorrow I'll take another step

to be with Heavenly Father.

My daddy, uncles, grandpas, too,

will all around me gather.

They'll lay their hands upon my head,

bless me, and say, "Amen,"

Then the Holy Ghost will be my guide

If I but follow Him.

(Friend, May 1996, p.46)