A message to BYU Football

I want to let you know that even though the Utah game was a bit of a disaster, well a 10 points from a complete disaster, I will always be your fan. GO COUGARS!

I attended the General Relief Society Meeting at the Conference Center with my in laws. It was great. I am not sure who doesn't feel this way, but President Dieter F. Uchtdorf talk was exceptional. He used the forget me not flower, which has five petals, as a metaphor to illustrate five things he would like the women to remember. They were
1. Forget not to be patient with yourself.
2. Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice.
3. Forget not to be happy now.
4. Forget not the why of the gospel.
5. Forget not that the Lord loves you.

His talk was very touching for me personally. It can be so easy for me to forget these steps that I see as great contributors to my joy in life, self worth, and Testimony.

Here is one clip from his talk you can find more here from his talk.

So I just had to get a picture of the lovely woman I attended the meeting with. They were a bit hesitant about it, but they went ahead put a smile on their face, and took a beautiful picture for me. Thank you so much Autumn, Karen, Karen, Wendee, Sherrie, and Cindy.

After I took the first picture I turned the corner and there was the Salt Lake City Temple shining so beautifully. I was a bit bummed that we didn't take a with Temple in the back ground vs. the western sky. Karen noticed my slight disappointment, took my camera, I spun Sherrie around, and in two seconds we had a totally glamorous picture:). I love it.

Spontanous Tea

This morning we had a bit of an unplanned party at our house. First the next door neighbor girl came to play. Tori was being a bit of a pill till I told her we could have a tea party. Her mood immediately changed, and she began to find dresses to where to her Tea Party. I figured that inviting one more little freind over would only make tea party more fun so I called and invited Tori's that lives around the corner. She came over very excited, and started looking through Tori's dress ups. While the girls were getting dressed I mixed the pink lemon aid and prepared the treats. I set up the kids table laid out a table cloth, passed out the tea set, filled their tea cups, and gave out snacks and the fun began. The three of them were so silly together as they sipped their pink lemon aid, and nibbled on their pretzels. Tori had a great time and didn't want her friends to leave.

Dragon Fight

Labor day was a blast! It was full of fun, eating junk food, staying up way to late, laughing with friends, and dragon stomping fun.

We went up to Vancouver , WA to support one of our favorite little boys, Carter, in his fight against Leukemia. Carter is the son of our great friends Dennison and Robin. Carter was diagnosed with Leukemia at the end of last year, and for the past eight months has fought a hard fight. He is doing great, and to celebrate him going into maintenance (a significantly easier part of treatment) Robin put on a huge party. There were close to a hundred people there. I don't have pictures of the party, but Carter smashed clay dragons, and slayed a dragon pinata to symbolize his smashing and slaying his personal dragon, cancer.

Other than the party we had tons of fun. I felt like a youngin staying up till the wee hours of the morning, taking, eating all the junk food in the house, playing video games, watching to TV shows, and laughing at all the good times we had. Tori and Macy had a great time to playing with Carter and Jude.




Last but not least, Jake celebrated his 30th while we were in WA. I am trying to convince him the that new cool is 30, and that 30 makes him seem more distinguished, mature, and so attractive. I don't think he believes me though. Anyway I didn't know what to get being that he bought his own gift. I figured humor would be a good gift, so I gave him ensure, hard candies, wrinkle cream, and hair dye. HAHAHA. He said it was mean. Sorry babe! I love you so much!

New Layers

Neasa's and Fern's tiny first eggs!

So in my garden post when I mentioned blogging about the chickens sometime, I didn't think it would be so soon. However today had to be the day I wrote about my gals because the two younger chickens, Fern (my favorite) and Neasa, laid their first eggs today! I am so happy to have four laying hens.

Okay now let me tell the story of me coming to have my chickens.

It all started about a year and half ago when I was asked to gather eggs, water, and feed the the chickens for my neighbor. I immediately became interested in having my own chickens after I experienced how awesome it was to go out in the morning have fresh organic eggs. Jake was never nearly as excited as I was about the thought of being poultry owners , but sometime between last year and this past spring he became okay with the idea of getting chickens. So it was now down to getting a coop built, AKA another project.

My chicken dreams were slipping away as more important projects kept popping up taking priority over the chicken coop. My hope was almost lost when my neighbor, who asked me to care for her chicken last year, texted me, and asked if I would like her two chickens being that she was moving to NC.

A couple weeks later Jake and my bother in law moved the chicken coop to our backyard. I brought the chickens over, and just like that I had two chickens. Tori named those two Penny and Jewelry.

With Penny and Jewelry I typically got two eggs a day then a few days where I would only get one egg. I wanted more eggs, so I looked into adding chickens to my two chicken flock. I found out that is was possible to add chickens, but that a pecking order had to be established. That means the the chickens will scuffle a bit or alot till they sort out their individual ranks in the flock.

I looked in the classifieds for cheap chickens and found a guy selling soon to be laying chickens in close by. I bought two of his chickens, and introduced the new chickens to Penny and Jewelery. The pecking started. The new chickens, Neasa and Fern, never fought back, and I felt so bad for them being pecked and chased. Thankfully blood was never drawn.

Now that is was been a couple of weeks the pecking and fighting is slowing down. I think it will take a little while longer for the four of them to become totally happy with one another, but everything is going well.

Today has been the most exciting day thus far though. Finding Neasa's and Fern's eggs was so great. When I first saw them I was taken back because the eggs were just little things. I can't wait to go out tomorrow and see if they have laid anymore eggs!


Neasa, she seems to be the most photogenic. Maybe she wanted to peck my camera. She did not try, and hasn't pecked me, but that look in her eye seems a little fishy.

Neasa and Fern the new layers!

Jewelry. She seems to give the most eggs, but is also a bully.

Neasa is my favorite chicken. I love her black and white feathers. She is also the brunt of most of the bullying of Jewelry, and is most scared of me.

Last but not least, Penny. Tori tells me she is the boss of all the chickens. Maybe she is, and has Jewelery do all of her dirty work.

Camping Flowers

This weekend we went camping with my sister and brother in law Loyd and Angela, and their baby Marla, and a couple of friends. My daughters had a lot of fun. Tori loved being in the forest, sleeping in the tent, and eating marshmallows. Macy like playing in the dirt. Both of the girls did very well sleeping in there sleeping bags, however Jake and I didn't sleep very well:( Air mattresses with Jake and I don't create great sleep. Even with crappy sleep I still really like to camp. It is fun to get out of the house, eat smores and rough it just a little bit. Tori and I hope to convince Jake to go camping st least one more time this year before it gets to cold.

Tori and Macy in their dirty happiness

Flowers Tori picked for Jake.

Angela and Tori

Uncle Loyd and Baby Marla.

My rad family and Jake's new tent he got for Father's day. I don't think he loves it, but I do!

Macy giving Jake snuggles.

Glorious Garden

Early this year I didn't write anything about planting a garden, but I did. As usual I planted tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, squash, radishes, onions, lettuce, peas, and spinach. I Just didn't get around to taken pictures, and to quite honest with the sprinklers doing the watering for me, and paying the neighborhood kids to weed, I didn't pay much attention after to it till it started producing.

This is my bounty from today. Yes just from today. That is 42 tomatoes( including the little ones), 3 peppers (not shown), and 6 zucchini, and yes one egg. Yes, we have chickens. I will blog about them when I can get glamor shots of the gals. Granted I haven't picked anything for a few days, but still I am amazed at my green thumb. HAHAHA! Just kidding, My tomatoes are small, and if I knew what I was doing I am sure I would have better results.

With all my tomatoes I want to can salsa. Yummy! I have a also heard great things about making tomato jelly. But most of all I love giving tomatoes to the neighbors, which gets in the way of having enough tomatoes to can, but wherever. I have met a few of neighbors, and became better acquainted with them in past couple of years due to my tomatoes. They sure are amazing little vegtiable or fruits, aren't they!?!

HypnoBirthing

Most of you know, but just in case you didn't I am a child birth enthusiast. Really! Experiencing my births and working with couples as a birth doula (birth support/coach) has increased my passion for the divinely designed, and awesome process of birth.

With that passion so strong I decided to start teaching child birth education classes called, HypnoBirthing. Yeah it sounds a bit crazy, but HypnoBirthing focuses on using self-hypnosis and relaxation to learn not to fear birth, but to learn to work with your body to birth your baby calmly, and safely.

I am currently looking for pregnant couples to join my class. If you like me spread the word:) I would greatly appreciate it. I will even give you gift if you a couple that you recommend takes my class!

The class is a five week course
My next class starts Thursday, September 1 from 6:30- 9:00. After that my next class is scheduled to begin Thursday, October 13 from 6:30-9:00.

Now go and spread the word!
Thanks!

Tuacahn

This year the the Tuacahn Amphitheater is St George put on Disney's The Little Mermaid, and my very generous in-laws treated us, and the rest of the family to the show. I loved it! Tori loved it, except for the mean parts that is. Like when the chef throws knives at Sebastian.

The Little Mermaid was one of Tori favorites from she was 18 months or so. So she was in awe to see the play. She loved seeing Ariel's sisters and seeing Ariel rescue Prince Eric from the water. Tori was a little sleepy by the end of the show because it ran till 11:45pm. However she did very well and stayed in her seat.

HAhAHA!!! Look at Macy's face. She was not amused with the picture taking, but she gave me some great scummy looks!

I thought fro a second to have the family get together for a picture, but I decided not to bother them. So I took this instead. You can see all of the parts adults in the family other than myself.

Snow cones!

Jake is so hard core.

Tori, Look At The Camera!!!

Thank you for finally looking, Tori, I mean Sebastian.

On the way home we saw a beautiful double rainbow! You have to look close to see the top rainbow.

Michigan to Texas

Last month two of my nephews turned eight years old. The months prior to this I was constantly debating if I should spend the cash to go to their baptisms. I couldn't make up mind. I considered going to just one of the batisims and not the other or going to both of them. I also had to make up mind if Tori would be coming or not. This was a very emotional process for me. It would cost a lot of money to go to both and bring Tori but that was what I really wanted. And I hated the thought of not going at all. Plus, I would be away from Jake for a week and half. That is a really long time for us. I finally made my decision when I lost my patience with Jake. ( I can be a little rash, poor Jake.) I bought plane tickets for both Tori and I to fly to Detroit Michigan, then to Austin Texas, and then back home.

After I bought the tickets I felt a guilty for acting so rashly, but Jake understood that I really wanted to see my family. He also knew that I wanted to feel closer to my nephews that live so far away from me. I don't think he was totally clean of frustration with my purchase and even more so with me being gone so long but he was very clam about it all. What a great man I have.

As I prepared for my trip I was a little worried about flying alone with my two children. I did a little research on flying with children and got great ideas on good food to pack, toys, and other things. I even bought them super cute matching outfits to fly in.

On all three flights they Tori and Macy did great! They got a little frustrated at one another from being so close for over three hours but overall I was very impresses with their behavior. If I had to I would totally fly with them again by myself.

So now that I am back and every thing is done I am very happy went. I missed Jake a lot, but I got to know my nieces and nephew so much more. I has such a fun time.

Now to the good stuff...

At the airport...

Flying....
In Michigan...


These three cousins are close in age and had fun together most of the time.

Macy and Stella would play well together then start biting and pulling hair when they got bored. Crazy girls.

Tori Hanging with Pa Pa Ron

Tori and Reighly having fun at the lake.

Spenser's and Bryce's combo birthday party



Tori love plating with Emily. However Emily taught tori how to be add some sass to her life.

In Texas...

The Alamo!

Everyone at Bryce's baptism

Jenna's cat trap


Fun at the Oasis

Candida you are silly

Three cute cousins.

My cool nieces and nephews.