Life is Precious- Powerful!

The Super Bowl commercial that you WON'T see.

Here's why:

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=404524

Spencer's 1st Pinewood Derby!

*Saturday was a lot of fun as Spencer had his very 1st Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts! The race was very organized with an awesome track complete with computer system, and big screen for us to watch results on. I loved this cute race car driver board someone painted for the boys to stick their heads in.  

*Tim & Spence came up with idea of making the car into a Humvee with Chewbaca sitting on top complete with gun. I helped Spence paint on the camouflage. I think it turned out pretty good considering this was our...I mean Spencer's;) 1st car.

Look closely and you can see Spencer's car winning 1st place in this race. Since the other races he got 2nd, 3rd & 4th place, this was his most exciting moment. I wish I could've got a picture of him right after this. He stood up, did a "double pump fist" with his arms saying "Yeah!"

After the races we had the award ceremony where he won "Most Unique Car." Then his 2nd favorite part of the day...Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (Just happened to be that we had also eat them for breakfast that morning at home & then he went to a party later that day with more Krispy Kremes..3 times in 1 day!)

Gum+Brothers+The Slide= TROUBLE!

NO!- that's not a neon green lizard in her hair...It is a big wad of chewed up bubble gum! 

-The kids were at the neighborhood park and there was a boy there handing out gumballs. Spencer was chewing away up top of the slide as Kaylea was down below playing. With all the excitement of a playground, as he went down the slide the wad of gum dropped from his mouth into his sisters hair. Then I guess he ran over and tried to pull it out only making it worse of course, not to mention making his sister SCREAM! 

-So Kaylea runs home and after about 30 minutes 

+ a few more tears 

+ a little scissor action, luckily the tragic gum incident was solved.

 

Through a child's eyes....

~Daylan and I were driving in the car the other day just talking the time away. We have both been enjoying what we call "mommy-daylan time" as the older two are off at school. Day is one who really needs some uninterrupted one on one attention; And with a little baby coming soon I figured it should be a top priority of mine. So as we are driving or playing, I try to listen more than I do talk. And being that he doesn't have S & K to interrupt or talk over him, he sure does TALK!...and sometimes sing too.

~Here was one of our latest driving conversations:

*(imagine this with your best 3 year old voice)*

Daylan: "Mom, when I do Preschool? ...Cuz you said I would."

Me: "Well I need to call some people and find out where there is a Preschool for you to go to that's close to our house."

Daylan: "I know Mom! You can call a police man.....No how 'bout a police man's mommy! She would know! Mom...police mans' Mommies know everything!"

This was probably the highlight of my day.

~His thinking process must've been this:

Okay let me think of the highest rank I know =a police man of course....and we all know that Mommies know everything! So what better than a police man's mommy!?

*Hopefully I can live up to his "Mommy-standards."*

:) (Isn't he just  edible! .....Gobble...Gobble )

More Free Stuff!

Here's another GIVE AWAY site! I'm all about FREE these days!

*giveawaytoday.blogspot.com*

Anyone like Free Stuff??

I came across this blog recently where hundreds of moms contribute and their individual posts are classified into different categories.. kinda cool. Still checkin it out.

***Click on link to enter in their FREE GIVEAWAY:  http://mormonmommyblogs.blogspot.com/ 

Looks like some great stuff...jewelry-clips, necklaces, bows, bracelets etc., photography session, target gift card & other handmade goodies.

Inauguration of Obama

Good Bye to Mr. & Mrs. Bush...

~Today at the Inauguration, I was saddened that Aretha Franklin received more applause after her singing performance than President Bush received after his 8 years of service. Although this President perhaps made many mistakes and ill decisions, let us not forget he achieved his greatest goal. That being to keep Our Country safe. He focused on mine & your safety-and that he achieved. I believe in the years to come we will then realize how grateful we are to him for this and maybe then might see and hear of possible calamities that are now still classified. 

*On September 12, 2001, there was not one American citizen who thought we'd be completely safe and free of attacks here on our home ground of America. But with this imperfect man leading this country, one who believed in God, we were blessed. We were blessed that he called upon God each day on our behalf and our country's. So let us give our thanks for his service.

*Continuing now with our "New" Theme...

...we begin our New Year with a New President...And for how much our society sure believes in this man, I hope he can walk behind his talk! If anything though, peoples' "hope" for "change" will at least play on our psyches for now as we battle out this economy. So here's to HOPE & CHANGE! (Hopefully only changing bad policies and not good ones.) May we support our new President and pray for him that he can have the Heavenly guidance he will so greatly need!

*Church Leaders Invited & Represented at Inauguration by Elder Uchtdorf & Elder Ballard

I'll leave you with a little humor:

Help Preserve Innocent Life!

Dear Friend,

I'm writing to let you know about a terrible piece of legislation called "The Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA). FOCA would establish the right to abortion as a fundamental right to anyone! (like the right to free speech) and would wipe away every restriction on abortion nationwide. It will eradicate state and federal abortion laws that the majority of Americans support and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future. Please read the expert analysis by Americans United for Life (AUL) and 

PLEASE SIGN the Fight FOCA petition at: http://www.fightfoca.com/

Thank you!

*Click on link to view video of Obama speaking about his agenda.

~We must act quickly! This is one of the first things "President" Obama has pledged to do this coming week as he takes office. We do know that he does not fully oppose partial birth abortion & supports a "woman's choice" more than the babies' choice to come here! 

~This is something that is hard for me to swallow right now being that I am at the stage of pregnancy right now that He and others agree it's still ok to abort the baby at! --After I just saw my baby sucking his fingers, blinking his eyes, kicking his legs!...I don't think so! I believe in free agency but not to the point of harming another innocent human being.

Cardinals go to the Super Bowl!?

Ok -YES I always say we have WAY TOO much Football Games on in our house, but who CAN NOT be excited about our Arizona Cardinals going to the Super Bowl???!!! (After had waited 60 years for it)

I have to say that I really do like a lot of the players on our team. Of course who doesn't love Kurt Warner, the family man, Dad of 7, a natural born leader, positive, all around nice guy, a class act. And everyone knows Matt Leinart is just too cute. Then on to Larry Fitzgerald who has his head on straight, a gentleman, classy, good good guy who even showed us some precious tears on the sideline as they were almost to win this last game. Not to mention he can flippin fly through the air to catch a pass! Oh I also thought Adrian Wilson's tears were sweet too..such a tough guy but so humbled by the win. And to stick with a team like this the past 8 years and FINALLY be rewarded!

*Told you we watch a lot of football over here. 

I LOVED this moment when Fitzgerald was being interviewed and Warner came out & gave him a bear hug. My 2 favorite players:) Of course when there was emotion involved, not necessarily any sports action here. 

Can you believe Audra's talking about football?? Ok I know this is weird. Maybe I'm just mostly excited cuz the season's just almost over. Sshhh...don't tell Tim. My husband has stuck with them throughout all their crappy years..through thick and thin. He was always so positive as others laughed at him saying "Are you kidding me...the Cardinals??" He's probably as happy tonight as any player or coach on the team! Ha-no seriously.

Anyhow CoNGRATS to Our ARIZONA CARDINALS for making it to the SuPeR BoWl!-especially when no one gave them a snowball's chance of even getting there!

New Year, New Beginnings & New Miracles

*First off I must say that recently whenever I think about my life and maybe how hard things might be, I immediately turn my thoughts to people who are much, much sadder than I. I am training myself to do this in hopes that I in turn might be more grateful. I think about the fact that so many people in this past year have lost their fathers, their sisters, their brothers, their mothers, their grandpas, their wives & husbands to death. And as much as we know about families being together after we die, it must still hurt and hurt so badly. I try to comprehend their pain but it hurts too bad, I can't. 

And as much as the rest of us go through "our" trying times, I tell myself I'll take it any day if that's the trial I must face..and I'll feel blessed that I still have my family on this earth to be here with me to face these things. 

I do have a testimony that our Father in Heaven is over everything. He knows all. He has sent us here to become better, to learn from our experiences and sometimes these experiences aren't necessarily the ones we want to occur, but they will in the end be for our good. He loves us as does our Savior. They long for us to be happy even more than we desire it. And to have true, pure joy, not just fleeting moments of happiness. They see the whole picture where we can just see a little blip of it.

*Now for 2009. A New Year, New Beginnings, and New Miracles. Today a miracle happened. One you might have already seen, but I thought I'd share for those who haven't. We all know the story that captured Arizona's heart of Stephanie & Christian Nielson who survived a plane crash in August. In fact they didn't think she would survive; but guess who slowly & carefully typed her first blog post today?

*Click to witness the miracle:   NewNie

So Here's to the New! New beginnings and new miracles as we all begin together our New year!

IT'S A.......

BABY! 

(although hard to see features in this picture)

~Ok we are sitting there for the long while it takes for the Ultrasound Tech to do all the vital measurements of the heart, the other organs, the brain etc. Finally after what felt like an eternity she started giggling. A similar response to what another technician did when we looked at spencer & daylan. She was literally laughing as she said.."Do you see that?" I was suddenly embarrassed for my immodest child, or shall I say SON! Let's just say all my boys have been anxious to show off their manhood while in utero. 

~So after the initial shock & denial of it all, slowly came the acceptance and within minutes utter joy! As I lay there, I thought about Heavenly Father and his plan...oh does he have a plan. Oftentimes I've thought I had my whole life figured out and he has taught me a better way-HIS way. I became teary as I realized this little boy was coming to OUR house at THIS time for a REASON. I got goosebumps as I once again was humbled. I really thought it was a sister for Kaylea. Actually I should say I hoped it was for Kaylea's sake. I never had any real feelings per say unlike pregnancies past. 

~I began to get to know my little guy as I watched him move around my belly. His hands close against his face, his little legs kicking. We feel blessed to have this precious spirit join our family in May.

~Tonight we waited patiently for Dad (Tim) to get home from his meeting so we could make the announcement. Just a bit ago after dinner we scooped up bowls of ice cream. We told them if they had pink sprinkles on their ice cream it was a girl & purple sprinkles would be a boy. They ran in the room when they heard the music playing and saw the PURPLE sprinkles! Spence was stoked & Daylan was singing.."Oh yeah I won...it's a boy." (He told us he had a dream you know. About a month or two ago he said "Mom the baby is a boy. It was in my dream. His name is Max.") 

~We kinda laughed it off but now we're wondering if he knew something we didn't! Kaylea is trying hard right now to hold back tears but hopefully by morning she'll be okay. I think she was in shock as we all were, but she is trying to be tough. Okay wait her eyes are officially teary- I better go!

1st Day Back to School

So yesterday was the kids REAL 1st day of school since last semester we home schooled. Here is Kaylea -in jammies & all- saying bye to Spencer in the morning. 

(This is why we're doing AFTERNOON Kindergarten.)

Uh Mom why is the sun coming up right now?

SPENCER-the 3rd Grader

KAYLEA-the Kindergartner

Pure cuteness!

Daylan saying Bye to Kaylea. (It was HIS idea to jump in the picture & hug her.)

And a couple hours later...

"Mom, Mom I gotta tell you about my day!

*Kaylea rode the bus for the 1st time. (Spencer rode it too but he had already started walking away with a friend he made.) Kaylea was a PRO with this whole school thing. She was quite excited about the playground scene. She came home & said half way out of breath: "Mom a girl asked me to be her friend. Her name is Haylee & she kinda looks like me...She even has a CTR ring." It was pretty funny and oh so cute!

*Spencer's day went pretty good although he forgot how long a real school day is. He admitted he misses homeschool. One funny thing he said was: "Mom-You were right..I think I AM the smartest kid in my class cuz me & my partner finished our packet first...and then he told the other kids 'You guys are gonna want Spencer as your partner...he knows all the answers." 

...The rest of the Trip

 FIRST thing in the morning.....Wii, Wii & more Wii!

Lots of CHILLIN' on the couch~Football & my Mac

kids playin on the beach

playin tennis 

Tim & his Mama

Lonnie & Tim (no they didn't plan their team outfits:)

The "Ball Girl & Ball Boy"

they fetched all the loose balls for the tennis players

CHEESE!     Aw..."Kids These Days"

LOTS of card games

Lacey & Spence playing Solitaire

Dude & Kay Kay in a game of Rummikub

Goin' out to dinner again! @ Savannahs~

Tim: "Arrgh...Lacey did you have to take that last piece of bread?"

Taking a bite of my delicious halibut with mushrooms & asparagus

could you just pinch these cheeks?Cute couple 

Lonnie's thinking "Why does this family take so many pictures?"

Can you believe this is the view from Tim's parents back porch!

More Cousin Time!!

~The day after Christmas Tim flew to freezing Colorado with his dad Ron & brother Brian. He attended his Uncle Dennis' funeral after his long battle of cancer had ended. As sad as it was, it was nice for Tim to be able to have that time to spend with his dad, brother grandma and other family.~ 

(Today we reflect on another Dennis who has passed away yesterday. We send our condolences to the Barney family. We say goodbye to a kind, kind man, Bishop Barney, who was always there to give a warm handshake, hug or pat on the back. Read an article here.)

*While Tim was away the rest of us stayed home and soaked up some good quality cousin time.

~Grandma Kathy & her grandkiddos!~ 

(I love that Carson is pulling Kaylea's hair in this one & she is even laughing about it; and Ethan is trying to run away to play.)

Daylan & Ethan, although a year apart, are now practically the same height & size. They were so sweet together.:)

Aw....HUGS!

We sure miss them as they are now back in snowy, frigid Idaho!

*Thanks for coming to visit us! We Love You!*