Is there anything sweeter?

I just had to share this. Is there anything sweeter than hearing a baby laugh?

Family

Today was the Primary program! It was so sweet. I look forward to it every year. It is by far the best sacrament meeting of the year. Spencer and Bridgete had their lines memorized and did a great job.

They sang a song "The Family is of God." It was in the Oct 2008 Friend magazine. O my gosh....the tears started flowing. The words are simple and beautiful. Add 50 kids singing it and it makes it even better. Here are the words:

Our Father has a family. It's me!

It's you, all others, too: we are his children.

He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,

To live and learn here in families.

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be-

This is how He shares His love, for the family is of God.

A father's place is to preside, provide,

To love and teach the gospel to his children.

A father leads in family preayer to share

Their love for Father in Heaven

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be-

This is how He shares His love, for the family is of God.

A mother's purpose is to care, prepare,

To nurture and to strengthen all her children.

She teaches children to obey, to pray,

To love and serve in the family.

God gave us familiesto help us become what He wants us to be-

This is how He shares His love, for the family is of God.

I'll love and serve my family and be

A good example to each family member

And when I am mom or dad, so glad,

I'll help my family remember:

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be-

This is how He shares His love, for the family is of God.

After the program was over the Bishop shared a few words. He talked about the chorus of this song. Heavenly Father shows us his love by blessing us with our family members. Kind of makes you think twice before getting upset or impatient with those that should always be most dear. They are forever. Is there anything more beautiful? 'fraid not :)

The California State Fair

We finally made it to the State Fair. Yipee! It was huge! Dave kept telling me the LA County Fair has nothing on the CA State Fair, and he was right. The kids had a blast. They went on a couple rides, saw some exhibits, ate "fair" food, and saw some animals.

Getting on the ferris wheel.

Jenny and Jake (just a "friend") in the fun house.

Spencer and Bridgete on the swings. They laughed the whole time. And Spencer would like you to know he did "no hands" the whole entire time:)

And this little one was a trooper once again. Don't you just want to bite those yummy cheeks? Her favorite ride was the stroller :)

Labor Day Weekend

So Dave's best friend Ron decided to make reservations for us to go camping at Bruno Island. What's that?....You've never heard of it? Well, we had never heard of it either. There is Brannon Island that is known by many...Bruno Island is like the little brother of Brannon. It is along the Delta and it took about 45 minutes to get there...gotta love that!

It was great. There was grass and nice trees and we were seconds from the water. Everyone else camping at Bruno was river rats. That made for some interesting company :) As Dave kept saying, "They're just good ol' boys." We stuck to fishing. So Saturday morning was spent patiently waiting for something to happen....nothing. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was the bait. Call me crazy, but I just had a feeling that fish weren't into synthetic worms.... :)

So we decided to head out and explore the sights. We did a little Geo caching along the way, thanks to Hailey and Ron. I had heard of it before but wasn't too excited by it. The kids had a great time doing it. We found four. They are all over the place. Spencer was soooo into it. He loved it and wants to do it all the time :) It is pretty neat, especially for kids. Anyway, it was lunchtime so we stopped to eat at the famous Fosters Big Horn. Dave and Ron told the kids that it is a place where they can see lots of stuffed animals.

Yeah....this guy Foster killed all of these between 1930-1950. There are pictures to prove it. None of us will ever forget this restaurant, that's for sure :) Dave got some night crawlers, and within 5 minutes of baiting the hooks, Spencer caught a fish. He was so excited. It was like Christmas morning! All the kids caught numerous fish...29 to be exact. But we left them in the water overnight (don't ask me why) and the otters ate ten of them. That left us with nine...they all had a bite taken from them...naughty otters. The kids were sad and decided to fish again Sunday morning and they caught what the otters took. Dave cleaned them and I floured and fried them for a mid morning snack. They were blue gill which aren't real meaty but they were tasty. Everyone tried it. I told them that if you catch them we have to eat them, and they didn't argue.

The kids love camping. Dave and I love it, too. We haven't done much of it this year because of Sophie but she was sooo good. So I hope to get in a couple more quick trips before the weather gets too cold.

Happenings

Thank you, thank you to Dave's patient who found all my deleted files on my camera! I now have the pictures that went missing from this summer. I am so thankful for computer savvy/camera savvy people. Now maybe I will get around to posting a few :)

Sophie has a cold. She coughs quite a bit, but we went to the doctor's yesterday and her lungs sound great...it is just a head cold :) Can't help but stress when she is coughing and coughing! She weighs a whopping 15.1 pounds. OK, OK, so she is no heavyweight, but she is right where she should be :) I know my sister Aimee's kids weigh that at two months (love you Aimee!)

Dave is close to being rehired. Hopefully this month!

And I am doing just peachy. Trying like heck to lose this baby weight. Any pointers? I am breastfeeding....so starvation is out the window (like I could do that anyways!) My friends and I have a goal to lose 20 pounds by Halloween. 16 to go! and then after I hit 20 pounds, I need to lose 10-20 more. Is there ever an end to the dieting madness? I do feel much better from making better choices ...my new favorite is steel cut oatmeal. Yummy.