November...where have you gone?

We have been busy around here:

  A room painted, a bunk bed assembled and new curtains added. 

 A mom sick, a hubby with a cute scar from skin cancer, and a painful vein procedure for me.

Lots of homemade soups, warm pj's, and yellow leaves everywhere.

Choir music, rehearsals that paid off, and more music to sing.

Three whole presents bought for Christmas, some photo shoots, and never ending laundry.

A grateful heart, an excitement of Christmas and

A POTTY TRAINING GIRL!

She is getting the hang of it....she loves her Yo Gabba Gabba panties

 but she cant see the picture because her cute belly gets in the way:)

11 years

Today, my hubby and I celebrate our anniversary. 

 I love him. 

 He is such a great hubby.

  He is a great daddy. 

 He is a great...well everything. 

 I am crazy about him.  Six weeks and 11 years is how long I've known this man.  Boy, was I blessed to find him.  Six kids, a dog and a cat later, we are happier than ever.  Thank you Heavenly Father for blessing me so much. 

Goodbye Summer

This is a perfect summer send off picture. 
I am ready for fall to arrive. 

Sophie is officially 2 1/2.
Look out world.
Now I know why she made it when she was so sick.
She is a fighter.
There is no holding her back.
Lord, help us.
(But oh how I just love her:)





Bridgete's baptism

"When Jesus Christ was baptized down in the River Jordan,

 three members of the Godhead were present there in love. 

 The Father spoke from Heaven when Jesus Christ was baptized, the Holy Ghost descended as gently as a dove.

And now when I am baptized I'll follow his example,

 be baptized by immersion through sacred priesthood power. 

 Then I will be a member of Heavenly Father's kingdom

and have the Holy Spirit to guide me every hour."

(When Jesus Christ was Baptized from the Children's Songbook)

A perfect song for baptism.

Bridgete was baptized on Saturday.  It was so sweet and special and the spirit was strong.  Just like Bridgete. 

 All the family that came to share Bridgete's special day with us.

Look a family picture.  Miracles do happen:)

Bridgete, we love you and are so very proud of you in making this big decision.

Vacations Galore! Part Three of Three..Thank Goodness!

Ahhhh Yellowstone.  We loved being there.  We loved all of the marvels we saw.  We saw God's hand in the beauty and wonder of Yellowstone. 



Oh hello Mr. Elk. 
 We saw you once and never saw you or any elk again for the three days we were there.




Yeah...that is Dave in the driver's seat and a couple of bison buddies wondered by to say hello.  We were dying with excitement!




Yellowstone had so much water! 
And it was moving fast.  It looked cold and dangerous and just beautiful.




There she blows!...Old Faithful!
  So amazing.  There were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting faithfully for her.




Dragon's Mouth. 
The sound of it sounded like a dragon...or some other big creature.  It was fascinating to watch and listen.  You could feel the heat from it.





My aren't you a big beautiful buffalo. 
Lovely scenery, huh?

 

Overlooking the upper falls.
  Now you can't possibly look at that and not believe in God and in his creations. 

Bridgete and Spencer with Old Faithful in the background.

This is the Triplet geyser, but the big one is the Grand geyser.  We stumbled upon it on our hike and within 30 seconds of standing there it went off.  People had been waiting there for 10 hours.  We were so fortunate to see it.  And it kept going and going.  It went off three times and that never happens!  Everyone was cheering it on.  It was so exciting!

Spencer and the Churning Cauldron.
  Hot and super stinky.  Many of the hot spots were super smelly.  Lots of sulphur.  We would get back in the car and we would just reek of sulphur.  It wasn't bad...reminded me of Easter:)



Some young male bison hanging out by the road.



They were troopers!  It was hot in the sun, and this was when we were by a lot of hot spots (notice not a lot of trees).  The best treat ever was Yellowstone's ice cream.  It made all our hiking worth it.

It was a wonderful vacation.  The 18 hour drive was not that horrendous either.  The kids slept through half of it so that was nice.  What I miss most is being all couped up in our 30 foot cab over Cruise America motor home.  There was barely any fighting and just lots of laughing and reading and talking and eating.  Of course, we were probably one day shy of all the melt downs and fighting.  So glad we went.  We traveled through Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.  Not bad for a 5 day road trip. 2,200 miles all driven by my hubby.  We aren't driving anywhere for a long time...his orders. 

Vacations Galore! Part Two of Three

I drove home (six hours) from Ventura on Tuesday July 19th.  We got home around 3:00pm.  I had exactly 13 hours to do laundry, repack and set up our awesome Cruise America motor home all before our 4:00am departure for Utah. Umm....I was a little crazy.  I tried to have as much stuff as possible ready before Ventura, but there is still a lot of stuff to do.  A LOT.  Food, sippy cups, medicine bag, toilet paper, bug spray, baby shampoo...that is just a tiny bit of the Don't Forget list.   Everything worked out fine and we got out the door at 4:00am (Dave and I got 3 hours of sleep...better than 2 I guess:).  We got to our campground in Salt Lake around 4:00pm that afternoon.  The next day (Thursday) we went to Temple Square.  This was my first time in Utah and so we had to do Temple Square.  It was just beautiful.  40 years of hard, backbreaking labor to build the Salt Lake Temple.  Those saints were amazing.  Visiting all the buildings was a huge testimony booster.  I love The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 



The Tabernacle.  So beautiful. 



Behold the tree in Filippo's palm.



Evan, Filippo, Spencer, Sophie and Bridgete in front of the Salt Lake Temple.





 

An original chair from the temple.  So beautiful!

"This is the place."





The first presidency and Spencer and Bridgete in the Conference Center.



On top of the Conference Center.  It was a beautiful clear day.  Sophie eventually passed out.  All the kids did great and enjoyed seeing some church history. 

Friday, we hit the road again.  Our destination was Rexburg Idaho to pick up Jenny from BYU-I.  It took about 4 hours.  It was a beautiful drive.  Everything was so green.  After we got Jenny, we headed for some pizza and then to Yellowstone.  But I have to save that for Part Three. 

Vacations Galore! The First of Three

The last part of July was a crazy one!  On July 15th we drove six hours to Ventura to stay with all my family in a big beach house.  It was so much fun.  Adam found a great rental and we took it over for a week.  Lots of sand, sunburns, sand crabs, food, sand, diet coke, laughs, sand, a few cries, and pure joy.  Dave could only stay a couple of days (boo) and I stayed with all the kids till Tuesday.  Everyday after breakfast, we packed up food for lunches and water and snacks and we headed to the sand.  (The house was only eight houses away from the sand so it wasn't very far:) The kids played all day long!  It was wonderful.  This was Sophie's first time at the beach and she couldn't get enough.  She had no fear of those waves (a mother's nightmare) and was fascinated by wet sand. I'm so glad she could experience all of it.

"Ewwwww, I think I like it daddy!"

"Ok boys, I know I'm a cutie...just let me outta here."

Happy Birthday to my mom.  69 years old....and look at that skin!  What a beauty!

Spencer and Caden and the cork!  That thing entertained them for days!

Now that is a lot of kids.

Filippo!

Abbie showing Sophie sand crabs.  She loved them.

Evan!

      We left on July 19th and got home around 3:00pm.  I had exactly 13 hours before we left for our road trip to Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.  That is soooooo not a lot of time!  Stay tuned for the second installment of our July vacation madness. 

The Fourth of July

Well Another Fourth of July came and went. 

This year everyone came (except for Jared...one day:).  On the Fourth, we had 30 people!  Is that wild? It was so much fun. 

Stacey is my favorite in this picture!  And Tyler looks like he is walking on water!

 My family looks forward to our annual Fourth of July celebration with much excitement.  The countdown begins in May.  Since my kids don't see their cousins very often, this is sooo special to them.  This is the one time every year they get all their cousins at their house.  It's like Christmas morning:)  I love it, too. 

Forgive me for not taking a ton of pictures. 

 I meant to, but I was busy. 

Crew is the prettiest baby ever!

  

Why are all these crazy people in my house?

   

Macie and Bridgete.  They have got the Bishop genes...blond hair and brown eyes.

My family rocks.  It really does.