Oh I've been lazy...

Hello All! It's been a little while. I did this already once... but it didn't stick.

Sorry all it's been so long, but I know I need to update the blog here with our trip to Southern California. It was nice seeing some sites and friends. We really had a great time. We were grateful for hanging out with good friends Dejah and Mike... sorry everyone else. Oh we had some great Mexican food. Finally! I've been in dire need of real Mexican food. Brenden had a wonderful birthday at Disneyland. But our first stop on our way down was to the LA Temple. We loved visiting the grounds of the temple. It was nice to be able to visit it. It was a Monday and due to the renovations we were able to wander the grounds freely. It was so beautiful. Brenden really enjoyed seeing the ocean. He spent hours letting the water run across his feet. Kaleigh really loved the ocean as well, however the sand was her favorite. As you may be able to see there was sand all in her and Keith's hair. She loved throwing the sand up in the air as high as she could. The kids had a blast at Disneyland. Their favorite rides were Buzz Lightyear (once again) and the Toy Story ride. I think they love the interaction and they feel like they are part of the ride and the characters really see them. It was a blessing to enjoy the week, stress free. Even battling ants was fun... for us anyway.

my late night rambelings... not worth reading but I was compelled to write something tonight.

I have no idea why I felt compelled to write all this... maybe due to my own struggles currently. I found myself thinking of a dear, dear friend that I miss dearly. I hope that by sharing this I can give you all a glimpse into my heart tonight. I cannot sleep and therefor, I'm not getting a thing done... I pray that if anyone else out there is having a difficult moment they can read this and understand something... I don't even know if I understand.

In times we are faced with the most difficult trials. Trials, that at times try to break your spirit and test your soul. You realize that all you have is what lies before you and happiness seems like an unattainable goal. There are times where darkness clouds your every thought and everything good seems like it's not going to last. It makes you feel as if you have failed to acheive the very goals and standards that you have once set upon yourself, disappointing all those that know you. You feel as if you have disgraced those who have come to see you as an example. Sometimes you wish you didn't have to be seen. But sometimes you feel like you can bare it. We all struggle in our lives and no one need be selfish and feel like their struggles are worse than those of others. We all have our weaknesses and our stresses are individually delt with. Tonight I've been reflecting on my past. I know that there have been some downfalls and shortcomings recently and I feel as though I have let some down. I don't know what I can do to repair what's been done. I can try to plead for the answers. Tonight I'm remembering a dear friend whom I wish I could have done more for. I don't know why she's in my head tonight but she is. I regret not taking more initiave to try to be closer to her. I was very cordial don't get me wrong, but I feel as though my unwillingness to go that extra step was detremental to her. I know it still haunts me. Especially on a night like this. I don't know why this incident is in the forefront of my mind but it is... and it is bothering me tonight. I can't sleep. I haven't felt well all day and I just keep thinking because my mind can't stop racing. Sleep eludes the conciousness of my mind. I don't feel as if a single moment of rest would find it's way to me on a night like this.

Tonight I remember a dear friend Anna. She had a beautiful spirit that was troubled with a darkness I didn't see. I feel as if I let her down, letting her have space and feel as if I made her feel sad and alone. I feel that my dear friend who left us so long ago could have been someone I could talk to on a night like this. I imagine she had many nights unable to sleep unalbe to rest, unable to know what was in store each day. What struggles she must have faced. What pain went on in her mind. I just think of how hard her struggles seemed, and wish I was there to ease her pain and soothe her aches. Her heart ached for something she could not find solace. I know her smile brought happienss to those around her, which was rarely seen. I look back and think of the signs I saw in her. The hesitation in her eyes that spelled darkness and loneliness. I think of something I recently heard 'you may feel alone, but you're never truly alone' in hearing and reciting that, I realize how true it is... While you may feel like you are alone in the struggles and the pain isn't something that can be understood. There is someone who will and always understands what you are feeling because he has felt it too. Our brother Jesus Christ has felt all or our pain, of our suffering, of our weakness. I know he's there to listen and relay our heart's desires. I know that there are not many things we can wish for in this life, that will affect us in our eternal glory. But an understaning of our importance and of the love our Heavenly Father has for us is above all. I know that my Father lives and I know his son, our brother, Jesus Christ lives. They are constantly by our sides, and in our darkest hours we can call upon them to pour the spirit of the Lord upon us to save us from the wretched and evil that seeks to disrrupt our comfort. Seeks to destroy our spirits, and feast upon the weakness of our souls.

I pray for my dear friend tonight that she may be guided and taught by the spirit that wherever she is. I pray that she knows her memory lives on always within my heart and that I will never let her memory fade. I will always be greatful for the love and compassion she had for my son. I am so greatful for all she did for him. As his teacher she touched his young spirit and taught him with love. I will always love her for the way she loved him. Anna you are missed and you are loved.

Haircut...

Ok so I couldn't find a good pic of my hair before. But this moose one was taken last weekend on date night. My hair is curled here... so it looks shorter than it was.


And the now... I guess I need to start carrying around my camera... cause all my pics have been underexposed.

Halloween Ideas

So Kaleigh was going to be s princess for halloween our favorite holiday... but I figure with no longer being able to use her own hair... she's gonna need a wig... so I'm up for any ideas...

She did it again.... After I fixed it.

So she cut her own hair... and I fixed it... best I could. What do you think?




I guess she didn't approve... cause while I was cleaning my bedroom and bathroom... this is what I walked out to...

Amy Meredith is AMAZING!!!

Ok so my friend Amy is a pretty cool amazing woman. She's uber skilled and right now she's giving away one of her amazing creations. Just see what she can do. Visit her blog http://amymommyof4.blogspot.com/2009/09/100th-post-giveaway.html
If you want to try to win one of her creations do so. I've seen her creations... I don't have one yet... (so wait... just look don't enter, so I have a better change...lol) but she is amazing.

Haircut Time

Here she is! This is when I followed her sound of "Look, mommy. I beautiful." I thought she was watching Hannah Montana the movie. Apparently she doesn't know the difference of a wig and real hair.

She found a pair of scissors while I was busy uploading some pictures... ya can't leave em alone for a minute. So wish I still lived in somewhere where I had a few people who could help with this. Sadly I don't have a clue what to do.

Rockin IT! For all my Muse Fans!

Ok so here's my kids listening to the song! and I do mean THE SONG This is what they listen to all the time. Everyday! This is right after school. We rocked it. I'm looking forward to making this a video of all the times I've managed to get this on video.
Sorry it got cut off due to space so I had to add another.

What Matters Most

I watched this earlier today... right after yelling at my kids to not treat the bathtub as a indoor pool with diving board... yes, they jump into the tub by balancing on the side.
It made me smile after now, I'm listening to them make a mess and realize they are enjoying their time as children, and I should enjoy it too. Not that I'm happy about the water splashing about my bathroom... but hey it's helping me clean my floor, which I needed to mop today anyway. I'm grateful for my children and seeing life thru their eyes. Seeing everything as happy and fun. It's amazing to me that they are so close to one another and yet so very different at this stage in life already. I love their personalities and love all that they teach me. I'm thankful I've been so blessed to have them here on earth with me.

Please no one tell my husband what's currently going on in the bathroom... ha ha ha

I love to see the temple.

So over the weekend. I had the honor of attending the Sacramento temple with a friend of mine who was attending for the first time. Oh what a beautiful and blessed thing to share with someone. I was so grateful for the opportunity to share this day with her and her family. Those of you who know Julie know it was a long year to wait for her. But it's been so worth it. It was a hot and humid day the previous day when we got to Sacramento. But the overnight rain brought a much needed cooling of at least 10 degrees, and some beautiful skies. Such to correctly represent the day. It started off darker and once we came out form the sky was clear and the day was bright.

Here we are when we came out of the temple. I wish we had one where we can see Julie's face...


Oh can I say how much beauty was in this day. I don't think words can convey the thoughts and feelings I felt. I am grateful beyond words to share this day.

Some reason makes me believe that we'll have many more of these days where we will attend together. Hopefully all our husbands will be able to join us.

I can Ripstick.

This is what I learned this weekend.
Sorry not the best quality... but you get the idea.


What no one else thought this was as funny as I did?

So I held something back yesterday...

Ok so I wanted to see if anyone actually reads my blog... for those of you not on facebook... I'll share the news. Yesterday while Keith was getting his haircut, I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time. I took Brenden to meet daddy... well, actually sit next to him, and say "Cut it all off." The result...


Yea, I had no idea my son had ears. Well, hope some of you are happy... I know Keith won't ever get his haircut again...

Welcome to C. Roy Carmichael School

This is day one!

Well today marks the end of week one for Brenden's kindergarten year. We are so amazed at how well he's doing. You know you always feel great about your own kids but wow this was a treat for us. He's loving school and not upset about having homework. But he is shy. He says it all day long. I was pretty worried about it. Today was my day to volunteer in his class so I got to see him in action. He's pretty shy about a few things but not afraid to stand up and answer questions during class. He's a great helper and always on the clean up duty. That I pride myself on a little. He never has to be asked to clean up.

These are all DAY ONE pictures.

This is B and his buddy Reece. Reece is bigger he's a bit older. Bren is actually one of the tallest boys.

As you can see I wasn't the only mom on day one... ha ha ha I do love this pic though so classic. Who taught Kaleigh to pose?


Mrs. Wolcott is amazing. What a fantastic teacher. Brenden loves her.


I was worried about B surviving day one so I brought him gatorade to help him out. He survived. LOL

This is it. Week one is over. Best part is that on Fridays Kaleigh can join and we can enjoy school all day long.

Oh what I was leading to earlier is I had a conversation with B's teacher about him starting at 4. She has NINE 4yr olds this year. WOW! Well, she told me it's not the starting that's the hardest thing it's the decision to move them on... where she said she had no worries about Brenden because he excels clearly above the level he needs to be already. I personally just want to work hard on his penmanship.

I promise later I will share my first day of school photos. Hope you are all having a great beginning to the school year.

it's been too long

I will try to post pics this week. Does anyone still read my blog out there?

Girl's Camp

So I've been gone for a week (for those of you who don't facebook). I've enjoyed/endured a week at beautiful Buck's Lake. I was asked to be a tent mom for the first year girls. I have to admit I was a little scared at first I mean, 12 yr olds. I only have one beehive in my class and she's going to be a mia maid next month! I'm glad to have older girls because I'm not much on patience. However, these girls were AMAZING!!! Not one complained about getting out of bed by 6:30, which is more than I can say for our YCL (who happened to be one of my laurels). I was greatful for their excitment and determination. Every girl was excited to get up and do the POLAR BEAR PLUNGE. The Polar Bear Plunge was jumping in the lake at "NO NO Beach" at 6:30 every morning, except for the day we left. Every girl was up and down at the beach in record time, to hopefully get a warm shower after. It was fun, but I must say the water was warmer than the air. It was a nice teambuilding thing as we promised (including me) that we would all do it everyday together. We all won awards for doing it everyday. I apparently won a Hardcore Polar Bear Prize. Probably because I didn't want to get out of the water. I had a different bathroom than the girls so I had less of a fight for a shower. We enjoyed learning a lot of things together, including:

how to cook biscuts on a stick,

making omlets in a ziplock bag,

how to treat a 1st degree burn, and how not to run near a fire (she's okay).



We also learned that taking a double dose of Benadryl helps you not be afarid to conqure the rock wall,





and we learned how to work together to conqure the "copes course",

we learned we are truly sisters and are willing to do all we can to keep one another on the straight and narrow. We learned that we can strengthen our testimonies of Jesus Christ throughout our lives. we know that our Father in Heaven wanted us to know that our mission in life is possible, but we can't hold it inside and not share it with the world. I'm greatful for the blessing of being in the Young Women's program and for all that they do, they teach me even more than I can ever teach them. Before I thought teaching principles and history would help them understand where we come from. Now I know they are learning for themselves who they are.
I look forward to this week, I'll get to see one of the older girls. It will be a blast! I'm just sad that our wards are so far apart. Each ward is about 1-2 hours away. We are the only one's building. Every other building has 1 to 2 wards in it. I miss all my girls already and wish they could all be in my ward.

Waterpark Fun!

Today we had our first trip to the waterpark. We will be going many more times this year. Here we are at the beginning of our trip. As you can see we need a lot of sunscreen for Keith.

Brenden was really brave today. We started the day by going down the green slide behind Keith, a slide that Brenden and I got to do together on a double tube. Quickly followed by both the blue and red slides, which B did ALONE! He did a great job of catching the lifeguard's float awaiting. He asked to go on them over and over. Eventhough he was submerged he loved it.Brenden again enjoying one of the kid play area's. This is the one Kaleigh was afraid of.

Then, trying to get them to come up. I got drenched by cold water and Keith so kindly took a picture.

Here's the brave guy again getting ready for another kid area. This time with his own tube. I think he's ready for a solo. But I wasn't ready yet.

And my favorite picture of the day...

Here is B doing the kid slides solo... he did this for about 4 hours without any help. Just me watching from the pool. I was so impressed.

Kaleigh wasn't brave enough to go on her own just yet. Maybe a few more weeks. She stayed close to daddy the whole time.
All wiped out and ready to go...

oh, I knew I was pale from the past few summers being indoors, and living in snow areas, with little days off... but um...

Oh, and prior to today my face is officially burned and peeling. That hasn't happened since I was about 10, maybe 11. I just wanted to share with you all my wonderfully modest tan line. HA! Honestly even if I didn't have a "mom" body, I'd still wear board shorts and a rash guard. But I'd only share my rash guard line with y'all. ;)

Kaleigh's Party.

That's Kaleigh's cake. What else would she have wanted. She loves horses and it was a perfect fit to her theme of presents this year. All she asked for was a horse, and since we couldn't afford it, or wanted one... ha! We spoiled her with tons of apparel from her new favorite store Boot Barn.She couldn't wait to blow out her candles. She blew them out a few times before we started to sing.


Here is a pic of her wearing some of her gifts... just so ya know our garage is cleaned up now.

You Are Invited

Here's the view of our new place. You can't see too well, but we have a pretty nice front patio. There's room for a small table. But for now we only have a pair of chairs.

Here's our back patio or part of it.

Most of our backyard is taken up by the patio. Which we can't wait to have people over to entertain. But when it's too cold we'll come on in. We know our furniture is hideous. But it's comfy.

My Amazing Weekend

Thanks to Ashely you guys are getting this post. I had not decided how to post my weekend experience... because I have zero notes. To me that's just odd. Usually I have pages upon pages of what I experienced. So some of you who do not visit my Facebook are wondering what happened. Only one of the most amazing experiences in my life. On Friday I was honored to attend a meeting called by President Monson to be held by Elder Bednar, Elder Anderson and Elder Zwick. Unfortunately due to some illness Keith was unable to attend and took care of the two ill little ones. Thanks hubby-sand. So I'm there and there are over 1400 other young singles and young marrieds, along with a few infants...

I sit there so excited for the talks to come. I pull out my iPhone and my favorite note application... so here's my notes:

Young Adult Mtng Reno NV 5/15/2009
Elder Bednar
1.

(everyone who has pda's, pens, paper or anyother device to take notes put them away, I do not want you to miss anything the spirit has to teach you.)

Yea, that's it. Then following that Elder Bednar told us that they were here not to give talks but to answer any questions we may have. From that I new I had a questions bothering me. However there was no way that this completely personal question was going to be asked especially since it was regarding someone who was there. I watched as some people asked questions. The first was a young lady who is a convert, and is getting married this year. I guess she has the unfortunate experience of having people around her telling her that she needs to prepare for the Second Coming. Also telling her that she need not spend money on a wedding since food storage is more important. Well after the settling down of laughter that erupted. Elder Bednar sweetly said, it was up to us to prepare ourselves spiritually, but not one person knows when that day will be. We need to prepare ourselves in the best way we can, even if that means one extra can of beans at a time. We do not need to go out of our way to have a year's worth of food storage, if we do not have the means to do it.

Another question that stuck out was one of a young 32 yr old young man who stood up and said with some pain was "I'm 32 years old and single. I want to find my place in the church. I've tried going to a single's ward and I'm out of place. I've tried going to a family ward and I'm out of place." Elder Bednar put his arm around this young man and said so sweetly 'You have a place in this church. Never feel that just because of your marital status. You do.' Then I forget if it was Elder Andersen or Elder Zwick but he so lovingly said "All those women in the audiance between the ages of 27 and 32 please stand. (we all laughed) He then proceeded to tell of how wonderful and pure this young man's heart is. Him standing up and saying that was true to show his heart was pure and worthy'. He then told this young man to keep true to who he is and that he will find peace in who he is and not to feel pressure of his peers.

Another young woman stood up with an infant in her arms saying that she was a young mother of 5 and wants to know how to balance work, church and family because she feels that if she focuses on one the others will feel that they lack the attention. Elder Bednar then told all of us "there is no such thing as multitasking. It does not exist." If you give 100% attention to one thing others will not have that attention, and that is okay.

Upon the end of our time he asked everyone that had a question, it was not asked by anyone else, and they received an answer to please raise their hand. An overwhelming amount of people raised their hands, and I realized then was he was going to say.

Their reason for coming was not to teach us any lesson or principle. Their reason for visiting was to help us understand that we can always receive and answer to our questions by listening to the spirit.

At the end we were all allowed to walk up and shake their hands.

It was amazing night. I'm so grateful for them visiting us.

We also had the honor of had the honor of having Elder Zwick to preside over our special stake confrence. It was amazing. We had wonderful talks and one challange from Elder Zwick. Two of the talks were given by President and Sister Moyle the temple president and matron of the Reno temple. I had the spirit speak to me. I know the importance of the temple. Personally I have the desire to attend the temple once each month for six months fromt he challange that was issued to us. The challange that was given was: Read the Book of Mormon and write a one page paper, do this as many times as you can within six months. So I'm reading a lot lately.

By the way I got to sing in Stake confrence. Meaning I got to sit up on the stand the entire time... was a little nerve racking.

I love you all and hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.

My Sweet Princess

Dear Kaleigh dear,

I cannot sleep I'm thinking of you. How three years ago this day I saw you. How you looked so beautiful to me, and everyone else who could see. The first time I saw you I knew you were going to be daddy's little girl. I remember the exact feeling of your cheek against mine as the nurse let me have your face against me as long as I could. I remember your big brown eyes and your beautiful thick hair.
I remember all I could think was please let your big Brother take care of you and keep you safe. Please let the two of you know how much you mean to one another. From the very start he took good care of you and would fall asleep watching you sleep. He loves you so much and will always be there for you.Oh how I remember your first Christmas. How happy you were. You didn't care about presents or things all you wanted was to be held by Grandpa Great and laugh as he tickled you over and over and over again.
Oh I remember your first cold. Poor girl. Daddy kept you company as we nursed you better.
And who could forget our first family vacation. WE had fun even if those boys ditched us to ride cars.

All I can think of what you will be doing on the birthdays after this. How wonderful it will be to celebrate your 8th and what I hope we have taught you becoming something you beleive yourself. How I hope your faith grows. I think of your 16th when all you'll talk about is going on your first date, and how you hope to drive daddy's car. I think of your 18th when you'll be ready to graduate and go on to college. I think of the first birthday you'll celebrate without us, either away at school or whatever it may be. I think of one day when you have a family of your own and you will one day welcome your own daughter in the world. And one day reflect on her first three years of life and say there are so many more to come.

I love you Kaleigh! I love you for who you are, even if it's a screaming tantrum fit at 7am on the way to school.