Words to live by...

My new motto. I am totally going to memorize this!

Corny

Nathan needs to eat everything we are eating. He will grunt and squawk until he gets a taste of everything on your plate. And the other day we found he is especially fond of corn on the cob...well, corn bits left on the cob really :) He gnawed on this corn cob for 10 minutes and was happy as a lark.

Meanwhile, the other kids were eating watermelon dipped in A-1 sauce....

And yet they won't eat zucchini, go figure.

Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog...

There have been a TON of blog post that have been waiting and waiting for me to sit down and get them put together, so here goes...

This is, or was, Ally's new room, (in the loft) until she realized that she missed her brothers and sister and wanted to sleep back in the same room with all of them. I think that's sweet :)

This one is specifically for Grandma Laing....Look familiar? Your gifted hands are everywhere in this photo. Thanks for all the great quilts. We surely do love them. :)

Denver Zoo

We went to the zoo yesterday, and here are some amazing pictures...of the animals, not the kids.

Yes, that bear IS smiling at us :)

These were the most NOBLE looking lions I have ever seen.

And finally, a few of the kids, though for the most part, they were unaccommodating when it came to the photo department.

Little music man

Nathan LOVES music. He loves to sing and to play the piano, and he loves the radio.

Here he is playing a song and singing a little :)

Daddy Daughter Date

My cute girls with their cute daddy.

Useful skills...

Our dishwasher recently broke, and for a week or so, until it was fixed, we were washing by hand. It was at that point that I realized that I had never taught my kids to wash dishes. I had taught them to unload the dishwasher, but never how to wash dishes. So, after a few instructional moments, they were off and running. They actually really liked it, and turns out a broken dishwasher wasn't so bad.

Love this shot of Logan!

Fishy, Fishy...

One of the wonderful things about this move for us was that there is a swimming pool here in our subdivision. The kids and I have spent a LOT of time there lately, and thanks to some amazing floaties (that gave them confidence) and a little bravery :), Ally and Olivia have learned how to swim on thier own! We are very proud of them. Olivia looks like a little tadpole as she swims, she has no fear! And bless here heart, she was the first to learn, and helped to motivate her sister to get with it and not be left behind :)

And here is Logan... he loves the pool and when he got dressed the other day, this is what he picked to wear... for the whole day... swim trunks, his floatie, and a dress-up hat... He is an individual for sure! :)

For Rent

Friends, we have 2 houses for rent. If you know anyone who is interested, give them my number!

One is in Spanish Fork:

3 Bed/1 Bath

approx. 1400 sq. ft.

New bathroom, and new kitchen countertops

Just painted

Good size living room and good size kitchen

Nice covered balcony on back of the house

washer and dryer in unit

$900/mo. $1000 deposit

(this is the upstairs unit of a duplex, downstairs tenant is super nice and super quiet)

Available August 1st.

One is in Provo:

3 Bed/2 Bath

approx. 2100 sq. ft.

Basement is a non-conforming in-law apartment with a separate entrance and it's own kitchen with 1 bed and 1 bath and gas fireplace in living room.

Upstairs has a cute kitchen with lots of storage

2 Bedrooms -HUGE master bedroom with lots of closet space

Nicely refinished hardwood floors

GREAT neighbors

laundry room in basement with small storage room

$1050/mo. (for the whole house-upstairs and down) $1000 deposit

Available Saturday July 21st.

If anyone has forgotten, I still have the same phone number.

A moment of perfection

Yesterday, I had one of those moments, where everything seemed wonderful, perfect even. Church was wonderful, I was inspired and uplifted and touched and encouraged by the spirit. Craig and I were making dinner together and the children were all happy and it just was one of those moments, where everything was perfect and I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. A song came on, that I had forgotten about. I probably hadn't heard it for 10 years at least. It is called "What I need" by Michael McLean from his Safe Harbors album.

I have had this recurring thought over the last few years that we should be more thankful for just having enough to meet our needs, and not feeling bad because we don't have more. In the world today, lots of people are suffering, and lots of people are going without. The fact that I have enough to pay the mortgage/rent and the fact that there is always enough to buy groceries and pay the bills, is such a wonderful blessing. The idea of living paycheck to paycheck is something we talk about like it is so terrible. When really, having enough to get from paycheck to paycheck is a wonderful blessing. I am thankful for the life I live, the blessing I have and the fact that I have always been given enough to meet my family's needs and more. I have always been given just what I need by a Heavenly Father who knows me and loves me.

Let's review

It has been so long since I have posted pictures or written anything about my kids, I would feel remiss if I didn't try to catch up. We will start with this little guy...

Nathan is 6 months old now, and in the last months, he has had many new milestones.

He cut his first 2 teeth at 5 1/2 months, and for 2 days, did this...

He rubbed his cute little tongue on those teeth all day. It was DARLING!

He has decided that he doesn't want to be left out of anything, and has to be right by me, doing whatever I am doing. He loves to be busy. He has also just learned to sit up by himself, and we had our first trip to the grocery store without a humongous car seat in tow! He sat in the basket like a big boy and was THRILLED with the new found freedom.

Here is a cute shot of both my boys with me. What handsome little cuties huh!

Here is Logan with Uncle Aaron at Grandpa's house. He followed Aaron around for an hour at least "helping" with his tape measure.

This is Logan on our drive out to Utah. I'm not sure what he had eaten, but it was blue, sticky and obviously yummy by the look on his face :)

Another cute shot of Logan at the park...

My little monkey Olivia at the park also...

All the kids at the park, with Madison and Makenzi our sweet neighbors from Mapleton who came to visit for the week. We all had a great time.

This is a fun shot of Craig- playing Samuel the Lamanite high on the city wall for Family Home Evening. The kids were trying to hit him with stuffed animals. It was cute.

Olivia with Daddy playing on the trampoline...Who's having more fun?

The girls playing in the sprinklers....in the rain.

And finally, a few shots of dad...This is the last shot of dad that I took. Both of my boys loved papa, and I am glad that Nathan will always have this shot to remember him by. It makes me sad that they will not remember him, and how much they loved him. This is one of my favorite pictures.

A shot of me and my brothers at the burial in Manti. Aaron is on the left and David on the right. I was so proud of David, he was able to participate in the honor guard military salute and he presented the flag to Christine just before the burial.

All the family at the cemetery.