What the kids do while I'm unpacking

Goof balls!

Yes, she's a little angel.

Actually, I'm kind of surprised it took three and a half years before the big sister dressed the little brother up in her dress-ups.

First day of first grade!

My cute girl is a first grader. We were in a rush to get out the door this morning. I told Lily to go stand by the front door while I ran to get the camera. When I popped around the corner, this is what I saw! Last minute adjustments to her adorable new shoes! They sparkle and have Hello Kitty on them. I am in love with them! I wish they had a pair in my size. I'd wear them too!

My girl is growing up!

The summer came and went so quickly! Although we started school weeks after the other local schools, it still feels like it snuck up on me and arrived way too quickly.

I used to worry that I'd get sick of my kids in the summer and try to hurry them back to school in the fall. I don't feel that way. I love having them home and miss them when they're gone. I'm excited for Lily's adventures in learning and fun, but I'm so bummed I don't get her home with me. After I dropped her off and drove away, I felt a little teary.

I had wonderful plans to have a special breakfast prepared and get Lily to school early so she'd have time to greet and play with friends. However, I'm not as on the ball as I wish I were. Those things didn't happen. I will follow my husband's good advice and focus on what I did do, rather than what I didn't get done. So, in an effort to focus on the good: I wrote Lily a "first day of first grade" letter, washed her hair all fresh and dried it, made her lunch, and got her off to school, with a baby sis and jammied brother in tow.

Now I'm going to continue unpacking and organizing...wish me luck!

Home

I don't have words to adequately express how I feel right now. "Thankful" is most succinct. This is our new home!!


We have been waiting years to buy a house. We moved here after college, right around the peak of home prices. They were incredibly high. There was no way we could purchase a home at that time. When we started to rent in 2006, I would have screamed if someone told me we wouldn't purchase a house for four more years. But it turned out, we were in the Lord's hands and were so blessed while we waited.

I love, love, love this home. I love the huge pantry that fits all our food storage!!! (Our food storage used to be in our master closet!) I love the comfortable kitchen. I love that it has a living room so I'll have one room in the house that is always clean. I love all the windows that let in light, but are covered with sunshades. I love the soft carpet. I love the open stairway that looks into the living room. I love the big family room. I love the loft upstairs that is full of toys! It'll be a constant mess, and that will be okay! I love the kids' bathroom. I love that I will have a craft room!! I love the three car tandem garage that will provide storage and a place to park both cars. And I love the pool!!

When we first moved here, Lily was 2 years old. Her request in a home was that it have stairs. She quickly added a request for a pool. Luckily for her, our new house has both!

I am so thankful to Heavenly Father for His loving kindness as He helped me wait for something I wanted so badly. And I'm extremely thankful to my wise husband whose knowledge, patience, hard work, and desire to follow God have brought us to where we now live.

The house is full of boxes. I'm slowly organizing. I'll slowly post interior pictures as we get the place in order. If you can't wait for those posts, come on over and visit!

Picture of success

That's right, folks. My little guy is potty trained! This was our exciting adventure when we got home from our trip to Utah in June.

We provided some pretty awesome incentives, I must say. Every time he tinkled in the toto, he got an M&M and put a sticker on his chart. If he went poopoo in the toto, he got a mini Snickers bar and put a sticker on his chart. When he filled a row of stickers on his chart, he got...a new die-cast Thomas and Friends engine or car. Yeah, he was in heaven. (Thrifty me, of course, got the engines off of craigslist.) Hooray, Carter!!

Wedding bells are ringing!

My baby sister is getting married next month! I'm so excited for her. She's excited too as the picture attests.

The man of her dreams gave her this beautiful ring. I still haven't met the man but I hear from the family that he's a keeper.

We threw her a bridal shower. Those fortune cookies were handmade by my amazing sister-in-law, Melinda. They contained some of the funniest fortunes I've ever heard. My aunt's fortune read, "Your future will be embarrassing." Love it!

I enjoyed meeting some of Julie's close friends and spending time with family that I don't get to see often. I administered a multiple choice test all about Kurt and Julie's courtship. It was great fun to invent make-believe scenarios about their courtship. It was fun to see which people were really in the know on Julie's life!

Fun, fun, fun!

We stayed with my big sis, Jenny, and her three kids. Can I just say we had so much fun with them?!! Lily has been waiting ages to spend time with Sarah and Amy. And she's been excited to see Ty, but oh, so afraid, he'd tickle her 'til she couldn't breathe. She laid down the law and said no tickling her...he agreed.

My Carter is such a boy. He loves to play rough, blow raspberries in people's faces, and do annoying stuff like that...well, I was delighted to see that he'd found someone who would play with him! Ty was lying on the couch. Carter came right up to him and made a very annoying sound in his face. Normally, if he did that to me I'd say, "Stop it, Carter." But awesome Tyler did it right back to Carter! So they had a little annoying sound war with each other...and Carter loved it! He's a super fun cousin! I also have to add that Tyler is a busy young man, always at work or out with friends, but he made time to spend with us while we were there. Thanks, Ty!

Sarah did Lily's makeup and hair. Lily felt so beautiful.

My beautiful nieces, Amy and Sarah.

Aunt Jen spoiled the kids and showered them with love. She's affectionately known as Aunt Skittles because she often has packs of Skittles for all the little cousins. They adore her! My beautiful sis is an amazing woman. I admire her courage, sense of humor, dedication to her family and the Lord, and her beauty.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love Temple Square. I have pleasant memories of time I spent there throughout my childhood and youth. I want my children to have a little bit of that too. We visited Temple Square and had a wonderful time.

A feeling of peace pervades this place. It is calm and beautiful. I feel God's love for me when I am there.

We enjoyed the Christus statue and the reminder of our Savior's love and infinite sacrifice for us.

The temple grounds are always so lovely. I love the flowers, grass, and trees there, coupled with the blue sky. It's a beautiful place. I wanted to get a photo of all my kids together. The girls appeased me...

Carter didn't.

Another favorite activity of the day was watching Book of Mormon stories in the visitors' center. We watched clips about Nephi's trust in God when he and his family were traveling in the wilderness and needed food. He sought God's direction about where to hunt and went to work to make a new bow and arrow after his original one broke.

We also liked the clip about the young men who fought valiantly to protect their families, people, and liberty. They trusted God completely because their mothers taught them to have faith in God.

This statue caught my attention because it captures and portrays motion. Joseph Smith was always in motion, he was always doing, working, producing, serving. I felt inspired to move forward and better serve others.

Lily got a kick out of this cool drinking fountain. You push the foot pedal on the bottom to get water. Cute Lily had to put both feet on the pedal and use all her body weight to make it work! Needless to say, she took several drinks from that fountain and then got a few more when we passed by it again later.

I served my mission in France and Belgium. I found a soeur Francaise (a French sister missionary) serving on Temple Square and absolutely loved speaking with her in French. I love France and speaking French, but don't have the opportunity very often. So this was a treat. At the end of our conversation, this soeur sincerely thanked me for serving in her country. I honestly can't express how that touched me. If you served in France, you can understand why that meant so much.

As we stood on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, I told the kids again about their great, great....grandpa from their daddy's side of the family who manned the crane that placed the statue on top of the Salt Lake Temple spire after it was built. The kids always love hearing that story. Hearing it again while seeing the statue high on top of the temple, made it real and exciting to them.

This was a wonderful day. I was spiritually filled.