It's a Wonderful Life

My beautiful girls are such good friends. Kate is so good with Brooke and Brooke is in such awe of Kate. She can't wait til she can run around and dance with her sister!



Our dear family friends got to meet Brooklyn. It was so good to see them but it wasn't enough! We miss them so much!


Katelyn just finished her first season of dance. This is just before her recital. You should see the video. It's hilarious.


Katelyn fell asleep eating a popsicle. Every time I tried to take it out of her hands, she would wake up just enough to grip it tighter. I was laughing so hard!




For those of you who don't know, I am in love with the sky. Everything about it. I thought I'd share a couple beautiful pictures with you. Maybe you'll fall in love with the sky, too! I was particularly grateful for the sky this day...it was so amazing.

My Amazing Husband

What a beautiful day Fathers Day was. I woke up early to start getting ready and make Steve orange rolls for breakfast. Watching Katelyn give Steve his gifts was awesome. They are such good friends they love each other so much. Church went well. Right after one of the talks in sacrament meeting, when it was dead quiet, Katelyn cuddled up to Steve and said "Happy Father's Day, dad!" It was so cute. She is such a sweet girl. After sacrament meeting, we met with the bishop, stake president, and both of our families to see Steve ordained an Elder. What a perfect Father's Day present, for both Steve and his dad, who was the one that gave the blessing. It was such an awesome experience, and I am so very proud of Steve for all the hard work he's been putting into every aspect of our lives. What a very long way we've come. We used to be such hooligans! I love my family so much. Seeing Steve with our girls is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. He is such an amazing father. He makes me a better mommy. I guess that's what it's all about. I didn't think it was possible to be more in love with Steve after seven years, but I am.

Blogging Saves Lives- and a Graphic Poop Warning

I never knew what an adventure motherhood would be. And I'm sure, I don't even know the half of it yet. But, I do know some of it. One of my favorite things to say lately is a quote from the movie "Baby Mama"...is it poop or chocolate? I get to say this quite often because, quite frankly, my life is full of poop. For example, Saturday I had a lot to do to get ready for our families coming over for a barbecue after Steve's ordination. Knowing that I had a lot to do, Brooke sat around half the day, thinking of ways to complicate my life. She must have been working on her surprise all day. I was sitting on the bed watching Snow White with Katelyn, feeding the baby. I felt Brooke's stomach rumble. I moved her so I could burp her. I realized it stank. I looked down, and both of us were covered in poop. I didn't hear or feel her poop, but it was very, very there. I screamed and ran out of the bedroom, holding Brooke by her hair fuzz and fingers, and hoped against hope that I wasn't leaving a trail behind me. I was freaking out! I so did not need to clean up yet another poop mess right in the middle of trying to get so much done! This is where blogging came in. I realized that, instead of freaking out, I needed to take a deep breath, and start snapping pictures. I realized that this is something that, in a matter of minutes or days, I would be laughing about. (and also something I couldn't wait to share with all of you. You're welcome) Brooke's outfit is ruined, but I gained a new perspective on dealing with the little things. If I find myself in a situation where I feel like I may have to kill someone or myself, I need to take a breath and ask myself if I will be blogging and laughing about this later. Chances are, most situations will fall in this category, and simply don't need to be stressed about.

Brilliant

Today for lunch, I gave Katelyn a cheese dog. Ya know, cause I'm the best mom in the world. You knew that, right? Well, now you do. Anyway, I cut it up into little pieces and she likes to eat it with a toothpick. I walked out of a kitchen to this sight, and my hilarious, creative little love saying, "Look, mom! I made a pasocsalo!" (that's how she says popsicle. Sometimes I forget how to really say it.) Stacking pieces of cheese dog on a toothpick to make a pasocsalo. I never would have thought of that. Maybe she could teach our president a thing or two.

Speak of el diablo

Maybe some of you think I went a little over the top with my last blog. To further my point, and maybe convince you a little more that I am right (he he) I am going to share a story with you that happened yesterday...the day after I posted my rant. Yesterday, I took Brooklyn with me to Becky's birthday lunch, and left Katelyn with Steve. On his way down to Layton to drop Katelyn off to me, Steve and Kate had a close call that never should have happened. Driving on Riverdale Road, Steve was in the right lane, preparing to get on the freeway. In front of him was an old lady in a Cadillac. Over in the left lane, a big truck hauling a long trailer full of construction equipment...long bars of metal, etc. Out of nowhere, the truck decided it too was going to get on the freeway and suddenly veered to the right, almost hitting the car carrying my husband and first born. Even worse, this truck and trailer ran the poor old lady in front of Steve right off the road...and into the guard rail. Yes, INTO THE GUARD RAIL. Steve called 911 and followed the truck (they didn't bother to stop at the accident they had just caused) so he could tell the police where they were and a description of the vehicle. When the 911 operator asked for a license plate number, Steve realized there wasn't one on the back of the trailer, so he got in the lane next to it to drive forward a little to get it off the truck. There wasn't one on the truck, either. How convenient. And suspicious. And illegal. When Steve looked up at the cab of the truck, he realized that it was filled with Mexicans. About seven, Mexicans actually. Seven Mexicans who must have known that my husband was reporting what had just happened because they were obviously upset at him. Yelling, glaring, etc. One of them even lifted his shirt up so Steve could see the Mexican flag that was printed on it, then flipped him off. Steve had our daughter in the car, so he left the rest up to the police, and told the 911 operator where he could be found (he pulled over at a Wendy's) so they could get a statement from him. A policeman was there promptly, talked to Steve about what happened, and then got called by another officer to the location where they had pulled over the truck full of patriotic Mexicans. Steve called the police station later and spoke to an officer who told him that the police were still talking to them, but did reveal that half of the men had no identification on them at all, and the other half had sketchy-looking Idaho IDs. None of them spoke a lick of English, except for the driver who spoke very little. Hmm. So you are telling me that these freaking people who, chances are, don't even have a right to be in this country, almost ran my family off the road and DID run an old lady into a guard rail! I don't need to go off again, I just thought I'd share this story with all of you to prove my point a little further, just in case you weren't full convinced. I hope that whole thing didn't happen in vain, and that they got deported.

Beware: I'm about to rant

Steve and I are sitting here watching the news (which if you know Steve and I at all, you know that is a very bad idea). They just showed a video, taken by hidden camera, of Mexicans walking across the border. I know, you're all shocked that something like that could happen in this country, especially with this on-the-ball administration that is currently "serving" us. What will shock you even more is to find out that these are not just ordinary, trying to better their lives, family oriented Mexicans. Oh no. That would be bad enough, considering the fact that those people seem to think that even though they are in this country, sucking up its resources, and taking jobs that rightfully belong to Americans, they don't need to pay any taxes. Oh, and by the way...we are also expected to support them on government programs, teach their children (in Spanish, mind you), all the while turning the other cheek while our country gets raped and pillaged by people who don't belong here in the first place. I digress. No, these aren't even relatively good people that are slithering their way into our back yards. They are drug dealers, murderers, rapists, and all around wastes of skin. How in the world is it that THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA seems so freaking powerless to stop these criminals from STROLLING across the border and simply blending into our daily lives?! The places that these illegals cross into our country are left a wasteland. Full of urine and feces, garbage, bottles, backpacks, dirty clothes, a dump. The people who came here as immigrants decades ago took so much pride in the opportunity to be an American. Learned the language, became citizens (what a novel concept) and treated our country with respect. From the second these illegals step foot in our country, they begin to leave a trail, literally and figuratively, of destruction and filth that is becoming the ruin of our country. I am so sick of hearing time and time again of an illegal "immigrant" being thrown into prison because they have stolen, raped, vandalized, or in some other way furthered the down fall of a country they don't belong in and have no right to! What is it going to take to get them out and keep them out? In the last six months, FOUR Arizona families have been terrorized by these illegals as they pass through our borders. Families, American citizens, camping in a place they have every right to be, shot by Mexican criminals who had no right to be there in the first place! The "leaders" that have been elected to speak for us and to take care of us, quite simply, don't care. They have their own issues that they are much too worried about to think about the people they are supposed to protect. So, obviously, it is up to us to protect ourselves and each other. What is it going to take for us to wake up? What has to happen before we stand up and say NO MORE! No more illegals, no more running into our country, getting paid under the table and taking it back tax free, no more drugs and guns brought in, no more Mexican criminals, no more tolerance for American employers that hire these illegal Mexicans! NO MORE!

I am so very naughty

This is not an over share. This is a plead for others to admit that they are just as bad as me. I'm sitting on my couch right now. I finally got my baby to take a nap, Kate is in her room watching a show, and Steve is sleeping. I'm looking at my house: a basket full of socks needing to be folded, dusting that needs to be done, dishes in the sink, miscellaneous clutter and a million other things that I SHOULD be doing. I don't want to. I know that as a woman and a wife and a mother, not wanting to do something normally doesn't change anything. You still have to do it, so you do it. But sometimes, just sometimes, is it okay that I am sitting here eating beef jerky and drinking Pepsi, playing dorky word games on pogo and watching "Say Yes to the Dress", instead of attending to all the millions of things that I SHOULD be doing? Please tell me that I am not the only one that, every once in a while, turns my nose up at all the mom-jobs screaming in my face, open a new Pepsi, have something totally unhealthy for lunch,(chips & salsa and milano cookies, anyone?) and actually do something I WANT to do!