Blessed!!!

I am SOOO incredibly thankful to my Heavenly Father for all of my wonderful blessings. Especially grateful for healthy, happy children and for the health Brian and I are able to have (so thankful for modern medicine that allows me to be so much better than I otherwise would be!). We are so blessed! I am soooo thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for me and for all of us. So happy for eternal families! So grateful for the Holy Ghost and his constant companionship.  I am truly blessed.

6!!!

~We went to Steph & J.J.'s annual 24th of July Weenie Roast Tuesday in Spanish Fork. It was so much fun spending an evening with family and friends!! And there was a bounce house water slide, a bounce house, a water balloon fight, brats and dogs, a snow cone machine, a movie theatre type popcorn machine, Kung Fu Panda on a giant inflatable movie screen, their awesome aerial fireworks display, and finally, the Days of 47 Rodeo fireworks display with the perfect view from their backyard. It was a blast! It's always one of our favorite days of the year! Thanks for a great time Steph and J.J.!!!


~As we were trying to leave our house to head to Spanish Fork, we notice that Max is shoe-less. I looked and looked for some shoes for him. I found 6 LEFT flip flops...SIX!!! Seriously?! What do they do with all the RIGHT flip flops? I tell ya, sometimes I just have to shake my head as I realize that I truly will NEVER understand how the minds of small children work. Oy vey!!!

Now that's my kind of "camping" :)

~On July 17th we went to my sister, Stephanie & her husband J.J.'s cabin that they bought in Scofield, Utah. They went in on the cabin with 7 other couples. They each take certain weeks throughout the year. They invited us and Katie and Chris and our parents to go with them last week. No one else in our family lives in the state anymore. :(  We had such a wonderful time! Sunday and Monday of that week my stupid raw nerve was bothering me so much. It kept hurting while we were up there but after being so relaxed up there and having such a great time it finally went back to normal (my normal, anyway. maybe tolerable would describe it better. haha). We had so much fun 4-wheeling, playing card games, eating delicious food. The kids and hubbies went fishing almost every day. They loved that! Max and Matthew had never fished before. Crazy, I know! They were in heaven! It was so nice to spend some time with family. I came away with a new addiction...HAND AND FOOT! It's a really fun card game. If you haven't ever played it before, you're missing out! We all came home with a renewed desire to have our own 4-wheeler. Someday.  J.J. owns a rental store called Toy-It-Up! They rent boats, 4-wheelers, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, jet skis, etc., so there were plenty of 4-wheelers to go around. Steph had some fun craft projects for the kids to do. They were SO excited to actually get to use paint! And did I mention the fabulous food? So yummy! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show for this because I thought my camera was out of batteries, but no, apparently the hot pink, zebra print, duct tape wasn't secure enough for the batteries to work right...Darn Disneyland thieves stealing my bag with my brand, spankin', new, camera in it, anyway! When it came time to leave we all hated to go but all good things must come to an end, as they say. On the way home we got a flat tire. That quickly brought us right back to reality!  :)

~Zack's scout camp was only like a mile away from the cabin. That made me feel better. Especially when he was on his 5 mile hike and they walked up the road by the cabin. They were lost and J.J. got them on the right path to get back to camp. Then, the night before they came home there was an award ceremony thing and parents were invited to come watch. We were kind of worried about going because we didn't want to embarrass him by being the only other parents that showed up. Well, one of the other parents called me and said they were going so I didn't want to have him be the only one who's parents DIDN'T show up. It's a slippery slope with 12 years I tell ya. :)  So we went and it turned out all of the boys from our ward had their parents or grandparent there to support them except for one boy. I felt so bad for him! And when Zack saw us he gave us great big hugs and looked like he was holding back tears. 6 days is a long time to be away from your family, especially when you're 12!  Zack had a great time at scout camp. I'm so glad he went and that everything went well!!! Having him so near where we were made it better!

Zack on the morning he left to the Frandsen Scout Ranch Camp

I just liked this outfit that my friend, Mysti gave me for Gracie! I just love cute hand-me-down's!! Just thought I'd share  :)

Nothing else will do...

Last night while I was reading in my bed, Gracie came in the room, crawled under the covers and snuggled up to me and started talking. She talked and talked her cute little heart out. She's in that funny stage where she makes things up as she goes. She comes up with some real doozies! I just love my little girl so incredibly much that words could never express how much I love her! As she talked away, she made some of the funniest little faces. Scrunching up her nose, rolling her eyes, cracking herself and me up. It was just the sweetest moment. I can't believe how quickly my babies are growing. It hurts to think about it too much. As I laid there by her and looked at her beautiful little face and listened to her sweet little voice I almost got teary. It was one of those moments when you wish you could just freeze time and never let it change the way things are right then. I hope and pray that I can always remember that sweet little conversation and the beautiful feelings of being incredibly blessed and of feeling pure joy. I am so grateful to be the mother of my 4 little precious angels. I know with all of my heart that they are truly the best part of this life. Besides the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the wonderful blessings that come from Him, our Heavenly Father, and The Holy Ghost, these are the greatest sources of joy and blessing that Heavenly Father could ever give me. I can't help but be incredibly grateful to Him for this gift. I hope we can live worthy of being a family forever. Nothing else will do...