Eggs and Kids

Just because you have to put a few egg hunt pictures on here

Hunt #1 with cousins Grant and Logan

Katelyn was happy with one egg

Finding the goodies inside

Egg hunt #2 with cousins Sydney, Joshy, and Ryan

Filling up that bag

Katelyn opening her Easter basket (the hat was part of it)

Our attempt at a family picture....

Maybe we'll get a good one someday.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend. The weather was beautiful in Hailey, ID. Being with Doug's family was so much fun. This weekend has started with a dust of snow in Boise. Fun.

Katelyn's Tongue

Katelyn is almost 10 months old. She crawls backwards...not forwards. She still has {0} teeth. She is her own woman. She just does things her way. I am learning to love that about her! Recently she has been playing with her tongue. It is so funny and very cute.

Here is a little gift she gave me last week. Mmmm...that was fun. I enjoy her and her puke! :) Only a mom could say that.

Allie loved playing with her tongue as well. Here is her video.

Dino Eggs

We dyed some dinosaur eggs over the weekend. When I told Allie that we were going to dye eggs she said, "No, I don't want to kill them." English is so confusing!! The idea of course was not mine, but I got it from here.

They turned out great and we enjoyed some colorful egg sandwiches last night.

Right Now

::working together as a family in our new container gardens

::enjoying the closeness of Doug's family

::dating my husband and having fun with the girls too

::crying because crawling forward is honestly the worst thing in the world to her

::smelling homemade, yummy bread

::seeing green sprouts from little seeds

::eating "pupcakes" made by Allie

::jumping like a mad woman

::writing all the letters of the alphabet

::teaching about the weather, calendar, life...

::making healthy, delicious stuff {Green Monster Smoothie, Banana Breakfast Cookie}

::doing a happy dance

I am...

a child of God

a daughter

a wife

a mom

a sister

a cousin

a niece

a loyal friend

a granddaughter

a graduate

a teacher

a clean freak

a recent gardner

and

an amputee

These are titles that really do define who I am. There are so many more too. I lost myself for a few years. Not because of something bad. In fact, quite the opposite. I was so focused on the other people in my life that I forgot who I was. I became embarrassed about something that I was always proud of and always overcame. I am an amputee. My blessed parents had to make a choice for me before I could choose for myself. Their choice has blessed my life in more ways than they will know. I was born without my fibula and a few other bones in my right foot. So the doctors asked my parents to choose between amputation or reconstruction on the foot. They chose amputation and because of that I can walk, run, jump, and play with my girls. I am so grateful for that. Has it come with its own challenges? Of course. In fact I had to beat up two annoying little twin boys that made fun of me all the time. Trust me, getting kicked with a prosthetic is NOT a good time. Yeah, they never said a word to me after that. {Gee, I hope they are able to have children.} I'm digressing. But I feel sort of empowered to do the things I do with only one foot.

When Doug asked my dad if he "could have my hand in marriage" (haha, that sounds so funny) my dad asked him how he felt about my leg. My dad wasn't trying to turn him away from me in anyway, he just wanted to make sure that Doug loved all of me. Doug thinks it's the coolest thing. He has never even thought twice about it. Reason #322 why I love him. He never judged me or put me down. He wants to make me a leg someday........we'll just work on getting a job right now.

I have very great friends who would literally knock someone out if they made fun of me. So if you didn't know it, now you do. It's cool. Ask me questions, I love them.

I hardly have any pictures of my leg "showing." That is because, like I said, I lost myself for awhile. But don't worry, I found her again and it's been wonderful!

Part of my Heart

My heart is very full. I have so many wonderful things to be grateful for. I feel like I need to document my thoughts today, whether it's just for me or maybe it will help someone else, I'm not sure. We watched the LDS Conference last weekend and I have been rereading and pondering everything. It was so good. {Please take a minute to read some of the talks given by our dear leaders and prophet, Thomas S. Monson.}

Some of my personal favorites were:

"Waiting on the Road to Damascus" by President Uchtdorf

"An Ensign to the Nations" by Elder Holland

"The Eternal Blessings of Marriage" by Elder Scott

"Opportunities to do Good" by President Eyring

"The Holy Temple--A Beacon to the World" by President Monson

"Face the Future with Faith" by Elder Nelson

We thought we would get to watch a little bit here and a little bit there because of our small children causing a ruckus. However it was quite the opposite. On Saturday we set up the tent in the living room and Allie "decorated" and brought all her "cozy" things inside. And when she woke up on Sunday she kept asking when conference was going to start. She sat at her table and colored in her conference notebook. She would repeat the words she heard every now and then. On Monday she was ready for some more talks!! She kept asking when we would watch. Katelyn was really good too. It was so nice to watch all 4 sessions together as a family and be uplifted, reminded, and enlighted. It always comes when most needed.

photo credit: here

I'm so grateful for our wonderful families who lift us and help us in so many ways. They are everything to us. As we look for jobs nationwide we begin to question our faith because we are so sad to move even further away from our families. They truly are our biggest blessing.

My daughters are precious angels from God. He has so much love for them. And He has entrusted me to raise them. I look at them each day. They are so pure, innocent, loving, sweet. I want them to be that way forever. I don't want anyone to ever hurt them and I most certainly don't want them to make choices that will cause them grief or pain. Allie and I read scriptures together everyday. I want both of them to see me reading my scriptures and know my testimony. I want them to love the gospel because it brings about eternal life.

My husband is unreal. I am amazed everyday at his love for me. He is so giving. He wants me to be happy in every way. His love for our girls is astounding. He only gets about 2 hours each day with them before they go to bed. The minute he walks in the door he is playing on the floor, laughing, letting Allie do his hair, etc. What a joy. That really brings joy to my heart. To be sealed to him for eternity is one of the greatest decisions I've ever made. I try to think of eternity without him and I fall apart.

The people in my life make it as perfect as possible. I am so grateful for the ways the Lord has shown His love in my life. His tender mercies are everywhere. I hope I can be more aware of them and teach my girls to look for them. I want to be better for them. I hope I can be the kind of woman who is full of virtue and love and has a serving heart. I hope we can ALL be that way. I know the people around me are inspiring me each step of the way.

Mormon.org

This website is so awesome! We can uplift and inspire each other through our testimony of the Savior.

Dating

We were in a dating slump to say the very least. After moving, having a baby, and being broke we didn't ever go on dates or couldn't justify spending money. If you don't practice then you aren't good at it anymore. We weren't creative and we weren't having quality fun together. Maybe this has happened to you...maybe it will. Here was our solution and it's great.

We are teaching Allie her ABC's all the time. So in a joking manner one night during pillow talk I said we should do ABC dates. Laugh if you want but it's brilliant! We now have a letter to plan our dates around every week. It gets us thinking about what we can do. We take turns each week.

Nothing extrordinary but it is planned, quality time together.

A: Date out. Answers and Allie. We answered questions about each other and went bday shopping for Allie.

B: Stayed home. We have been really excited to start our new budget so we did a budget and beverages (cherry limeades of course).

C: Stayed home. Romantic comedy (Doug rented "Teen Witch" just for me...I have the best husband I know!) and candy (chocolate covered cinnamon bears of course).

D: Date out. Doug's favorite place to eat, Denny's. Dollar date: Go to Walmart and fill your basket with things for the other person that cost $1. After 15 minutes come back and they can choose the best one. We both got knives (photo from last post). Donuts.

E: That's our date tonight. This is the agenda that Doug left on the computer for me. I'm excited!

So if you need some creativity for your dates, go ahead and try this. It's fun and we are loving it!!