Testimony..

Today was a great day.
Merrill woke up at 3:30 am not feeling too well.. hoping it's no big deal. I was feeling bad that he was going to miss out on this great day.
I got to take the girls to the first half at our ward, then head off to my younger brother's ward for the baby blessing.
What an awesome day!!
My brother has come a long way.. he's had some trials in his life, and I can say, I have always been praying for him.. praying for his happiness.
It is interesting to see how Heavenly Father has His plan and it is in His time as well.
There have been some great moments, incredible blessings in the life of our family, but some of the greatest, are with my little brother and his family.
The day he and his sweetheart were married in the temple.. there was a thankful family prayer uttered that night. To see how far he's come, what he always wanted, and it was now his.
They recently celebrated their 3rd anniversary, and they have been trying to add to their little family ever since the day they were married. Again, trials and hardships adorned their path, but here they are..
More prayers of thanks.
I am not only thankful for the people that these events have added to our life, but thankful to my Heavenly Father for the lessons learned along the way..
We want things so badly, and in this society, we want them (and can usually get them) right now.
Yet we are taught patience, and we are taught that His time is the time.
I sat in their fast & testimony meeting pondering these thoughts.. just so grateful.
Love you Kev & Randee!
Now can we take some pictures soon? ;)

Summertime Rules and Regulations.

Here's to summer...
Last night, well night before last if you really wanna look at it that way... we had an FHE about our summertime rules. We went over lots of information with the girls. Everything from what bugs and spiders are good and we shouldn't run screaming from them, to which ones we should tell mom and dad about and not touch. Swimming rules. Staying in the yard rules. Stranger Danger. What to do if they get lost or separated from us. Chores. Keeping food in the kitchen. The one that I always hate to even bring up because it makes me feel so sad that this world isn't a safe place... good touching and bad touching. We have talked with them about it before, but...
There was an incident this last week in Orem with a mom and her little girl at a Wal-Mart. The mom left her little girl in the shopping cart to go around the corner and get an item. A stranger came up and touched her underneath her shorts. The girl told her mom, the mom saw the guy, and he knew that she had told on him and he ran. So we have to teach our children now, that even when they think that they are safe, it is possible that bad things can still happen. I don't want to teach my kids to fear everyone and every situation, but I think it is important to teach them what isn't acceptable and what they should do about it. I want them to know that I know what goes on and they should tell me if it were to happen.
So tonight we quizzed the girls at dinner.
Me: "Okay Ash, pretend like I am a stranger... 'Hi little girl. What's your name?'"
Ash: "Ashley!"
Mer: "Buzzz!"
Lynn: "She did it wrong! Let me do it!"
Me: "Now remember, I am a stranger...'Hi little girl. Your mom wants me to take you home. I have candy in my car, c'mon.'"
Lynn: "Nope. What's the password?"
Me: "Fartknocker?"
Ash: (giggle)
Lynn: "Nope!"
We have taught them that they can still be friendly, not grumps, but to keep their distance.
We also went to see the hotel. It has a second floor now! It is so amazing to see it is really happening. Every day, something new is going on down there. It's so cool to watch and to know that this is just another part of our future.
Kevin and Randee lost the baby... I feel so bad for him, since this is his first experience at fatherhood... I hope it happens for them soon.
Ally has gotten me in the mood to scrap. Since I am feeling better, but still don't have the energy back, I have been trying to get caught up on housework before I play. Today I was all set out to get all the floors done. I busted my butt to get everything in it's rightful place and clean up trash along the way, got all the vacuuming done and went to use my favorite tool (well, up until today...) the Swiffer. To my horror, it just wouldn't work. I replaced the batteries thinking that was the kink, nope, nothing. Now I do have to say that Ashley has a little kindergarten crush on the Swiffer. She has Swiffer radar and knows when the cleaning closet is open and goes to the Swiffer and presses the button just to hear the sound it makes. I keep the cleaner separate, because I have learned that she likes to do that. So I thought that she wore out the batteries. Apparently it is something far, far worse... my floors aren't as clean as I had hoped they would be.
But I do plan to play tomorrow!
We spent part of the evening at Lagoon... three year old metldowns as we leave the park and five year olds falling off of retaining walls... might just keep us away for a little while. Peyton was the best behaved.
As the girls were going to bed, we had to explain the science of shadows to Ashley. She thinks that they will hurt her. That was interesting. She just couldn't seem to stay in bed after that. She got up to go to the bathroom, again. To get a drink, and then to tell us, "Goodnight, don't let the big bugs bite." And finally, she brought in her blanket to me and asked if I would "decorate it on her". I have no idea how she came up with that word for spread it out... so I "decorated" her, and they were out. And now my post is done, and so is my float!

a day at a time...

run down of what's been going on here...
saturday:
had on my calendar to clean the church, but someone else's schedule supersedes mine (love you mer!), so in the hectic life we live, i innocently forgot... ash broke the finger off of my Christus statue, she ran into it. her head got the worst of it... anyone know of some awesome glue?
sunday:
another awesome day (sike). our family's schedule did not match up to what we were supposed to do that day, stake conference... it was 15 past noon, we were supposed to be at the tabernacle at noon, and I still wasn't ready... wet hair, no make-up... lynn and peyton were the only decent ones in the house... we missed it.
monday:
kev and randee found out they are preggers!!! they have been trying for almost 2 years now.
tuesday:
went over to grandpa's while mom and peg cleaned out some rooms. got some fun stuff...
wednesday:
tried to play catch up...
thursday:
celebrated brookers b-day...
so, here's been the reason why my week hasn't been too crazy:
chrisite's kittens...
one needs to be bottle fed, he can't nurse. there is nothing funner than bottle feeding a little kitten!

my eye swelled up like crazy thought the other night, that helps me to remember why we do not have any kittens... well that and punk kitty kind of ruined it for us...
the girls were having so much fun with the balloons from the birthday celebration... lynn decided to let ashley's go OUTSIDE!!! she wanted clint to see it. so nice that she is willing to sacrifice someone else's. even nicer that ash doesn't go ballistic...
tonight after dinner and before checking on kitty, we went to see the progress on the hotel...
this is where the entrance will be...


lynn and i both got stuck in the mud :) guess who didn't cry about it...


funny right now to me is that i am watching "the goonies" with the girls, late friday night kicks and giggles... what's funnier than that is that josh brolin is in it... i have watched him in "into the blue", "no country for old men", and "american gangster" just during the past two weeks... talk about growing up!