She will be missed

A dear family friend of mine passed away last week in a car accident and I had to post because I just found out tonight, and I'm pretty shocked. When I lived in Minnesota, I was great friends with a girl in my branch in Bemidji. Allison and I were two of a handful of LDS kids in 3 grades at school. We were buddies. When she and her 2 brothers died in a housefire, I became close with her mother Wendy. She, 15 years later, continued to leave tender "Motherly inspired" messages on my facebook account with words of love and support. Somehow, I think I helped her feel a closeness with her daughter who was no longer hear on this earth. It is my belief that she is now with her children and rejoicing, but my prayers are with her 2 remaining children and other family members at this time. Oh, how life can change so quickly. Don't forget to tell those around you how much you love them. She will be missed.

Memorial Weekend Festivities!

We decided to head out of town for a little R & R Friday after Rich took his last couple tests. He is officially a 3rd year! We are so proud of him and all his hard work. Friday afternoon we took off to St. George to spend the night in a hotel and and hike Zion's the next day. The kids slept the 2 hr drive there so we swam our hearts out when we got there and had happy water babies! We were super hungry at like 9 o'clock so we decided to go to Red Lobster. I continually count my blessings that we have such good children that we can go out and enjoy fancy things every once in a while. Kai sat quietly and played with his cars and ate clam chowder, crab, shrimp, and even broccoli! How many 2 yr olds can you say that about! Meili was fine just as long as she had puffs and any random item of food that we would throw at her! They were the only kids in the restraunt at that time of night and everyone was so suprised that they were so good! Naps do wonders! We got up the next morning and hiked Zion's. Ok, so we walked the river walk. It was a flat 2 mile hike, but we were dying by the end of it! It is rough packing the kids around! Kai insisted on being in the backpack for most of the hike, and Meili is just dead weight. We met up with my sister at Sand Hollow and spent the rest of the weekend with them swiming, hiking, and enjoying good quality family time! I brought my niece, Gabby, home with me, as we will be returning to Utah in just 3 days for a whole month! What an awesome weekend!

Swimming at the hotel

Hiking the Riverwalk

My sister Michelle and I at Sand Hollow

Kai doing his victory dance after climbing this rock

A hike overlooking St. George

Rockin Fun Day!

On Friday I got a chance to take the kids to Pirate's Cove, a private water park here in Boulder City. My friend Ambrea and her family were staying there, as her husband is working for the owner of the park. He owns part of the Nuskin company. Originally, he just built it for family and friends, but it has since been extended to co-workers. This is the youtube link if your interested, it had waterslides and everything! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE-XcQwE6QQ Here are some pics, it was an awesome place to say the least! Thanks for bringin' the fun Ambrea!

Meili and Ammon

Kai and Brigham

Just When I Think He's Abnormal...

Just when I think he's an abnormal 2 year old, being overly responsible, neurotic, and cautious, he goes and does something like this.... Lest I forget that yes, he really is a 2 year old.

If you can't tell, those are crayon markings on the fireplace, wall, and my couch. I'm not sure what possessed him. Maybe it started with the crazy day he had when I was continually reminded that he really is not above these stereotypical 2 year old performances. He started out by getting out of the church building while we were doing aerobics, yes we had a big long talk about that one. Then later after playing at the water park I come out of the bedroom after nursing Meili and putting her down for a nap, I caught him red handed, crayon still in hand actively coloring on the couch. I'm screeching in this shrill voice, "What it the world are you doing!" "Oh, I'm so sorry Mom." Really? ok, so I confiscate the crayon. On my way to all the crayons, I see the fireplace. More shrieking. Sent him to his room. He's crying. Walk to the counter to put them up and realize the entire length of the wall is colored on. More shrieking. So, I make him help clean the couch, and watch me clean the fireplace. I get to the wall and no success with water. Thanks for the tip Mom, spray N wash really does take care of stains! Took care of a bit of paint too, but what can you do. 3 hrs later and voila. Then, later tonight while Rich is gone studying for boards, I just get done feeding Meili in the booster chair at the table and Kailer is very bouncy. He climbed up on her chair and I told him to get down. I went to rinse off the spoon and there was a big thud and screaming. I come around the corner and there she is flat on her back. He had tipped over the chair and they both went down. Luckily it is carpeted, but she hit her head on the back of the chair on the way down and had a big goose egg. More shrieking and constant thoughts of what happened to my resposible listening 2 year old? I guess he still has those moments and I just need to roll with it. I just feel like I did an aweful lot of shrieking today. Hopefully less tomorrow... What in the world got in to him? What a crazy day.

Birthday Fesitivities

Rich turned 29 on Sunday, so we suprised him on Friday with cupcakes and a couple gifts, I got him a new watch with a second hand on it for clinicals and a mission quilt that I have been making secretly for months now. I scanned in photos of his mission and printed them onto fabric paper and sewed it in blocks. Let me tell you it is really hard to keep something that big a secret for that long! Kailer ratted me out about the cupcakes a day before and I'm so suprised he didn't tell him about the quilt. I had been working on it mostly at night while Rich was gone studying. The other night I was pinning it on the floor and he came home without telling me. I quick rolled it up and threw it behind the piano before he came up the stairwell. I had black yarn, batting, and fuzz from the backing all out on the floor and I quick threw our big area rug over top of my mess and immediatly started turning lights off to hide the mess. I swear sometimes men can be so oblivious. The rug obviously wasn't in the right spot and I was in a hurry to get him to bed and out of the living room so he wouldn't notice! Didn't matter, he didn't notice a thing. We had a good laugh about that later. I think it turned out really great, he loved it and was super suprised. Happy Birthday babe! You only have one good year left in ya before the downhill slide starts! Better make it a good one! We love our Daddy!

The Diva is 8 Months

How time flies. I can't believe it, but my baby is already doing the inchworm lunge! She's getting so big and is starting to show her spunky personality. Here's a few pics of the celebratory occasion!

Can you believe that Kai took this first pic? It's practically the best one!

Bellagio Baby!

Well, I just got done cleaning the entire house because we had a crazy weekend and lets face it, I didn't do a thing yesterday with it being mother's day and all! I did get about a 30 foot rub from Kai on each foot, it was so cute and heartfelt! My house tends to look like a tornado went through it when we get busy. I was going to post before and after photos tonight, but then I thought that would just be embarassing. So, I'll blog about our weekend instead! We got a once in a life time opportunity on Thursday night last week to stay at the Bellagio Hotel, as Rich's Dad and his wife went to Mesa, AZ. They went to attend a funeral and it was so sudden that they couldn't cancel their room. Fortunately for us, we live here and didn't let a "too good to be true" room go to waste. We spent the night in a fancy pancy room that overlooked the strip and spent all day swimming in the 4 pools with fountains, and 2 hot tubs that were the size of small pools themselves. It was awesome! Kailer learned that he could swim on his own with floaties on! Yey! That makes swimming with him so much easier now! We saw the volcano show 3 times with Kailer. It is his favorite. We have definately nailed down the best viewing area for that, so we can properly entertain the next Vegas guests! We also got to eat one night with Erroll and Brenda at the Bellagio Buffet. I have been to my share of buffets and I can assure you this is the nicest one by far that we have ever been to! Although, no one can top the cotton candy that the Treasure Island buffet had, right Kai? This one had crazy enough, duck, quail, crab, swordfish, it's own sushi bar, and chocolate covered strawberries! Great right? Except, I was too slow on the strawberries, they ran out before I could get a plate full :( Here's some pics of our Vacation "my Bewwagio" as Kailer puts it...