Ashlyn took her first step

Tonight we went to Garcia's for dinner with Mom, Dad, Amber, Kyle, Michelle, Hunter and of course all of our kids. Well we got there and they said the wait would be about 30 minutes. So we were all just sitting around talking and all of the sudden Ashlyn let go of everything and took her first step! She has been standing for along time. Since before Thanksgiving. But tonight she finally took a step. To bad Craig wasn't there. He had to go back up to Utah to work. We ended up waiting for over an hour and 15 minutes. But between Michelle, Hunter, and my Dad they were able to win stuffed animals for all the kids (except Ethan). They were playing those crane games and just kept winning them. I think Michelle won all except for 1 of them, she is really good at it. She wins them every time we go. We had a fun time.

Family Outing

This week Lacie and Alexa have done so good at getting their chores done so I thought it would be fun for them to go on a fun family night out. So we first went to Wendy's and bought them happy meals. They always want them and we never buy them. Then we went to Cold Stone Creamery and got ice cream, yum. We had a gift certificate for it. Cold Stone is in the mall so then we went through the mall and played at the tree house and went to Mervyns. And of course Lacie wanted to stop and take pictures in front of some Christmas decorations outside of Mervyns. We had a lot of fun. I realized it is nice that we don't give our kids what they want all the time so when we want to do something special for them they really enjoy it.

Decorating our Chistmas Tree

Tonight we decorated our Christmas Tree. It was a lot of fun. Lacie was playing charades before we started so it took us a little while to get her going. Once we finally made her decorate it :) she said "This is actually fun." She is a funny one. We finished with the grand finally of Craig holding both girls putting the Angel on the tree.

Smores, Yummy!!

Normally after we decorate the tree we sit and have hot chocolate and donuts, but this year we decided to have smores. Last Christmas my mom gave me a little smores maker for Christmas. So we did what I'm sure wasn't following the fire safety rules and had are little fire and made smores right next to the tree. It was a lot of fun!

Going and getting our Christmas Tree

Tonight we went and got our Christmas Tree. The first tree lot we went to had small trees that were VERY thin. We told them we wanted to spend around $35.00 but we wanted a 6-7 ft tree. So he took us to that price range and the trees were so small and ugly I thought no way am I getting that tree. I would rather put up the fake tree we have then buy that. So we took some pictures then we went looking at another lot. We were able to find a really pretty one for around $42.00. It was amazing the difference in the two lots.

Turkey Trot

Today I ran/walked in the turkey trot (10K). It was a lot of fun. I have been wanting to do this for years but I never felt like I was in good enough shape. But a couple of weeks ago We were at my parent's house and Karyn was saying she was going to walk it so I said I could walk it. So me, Amber , Michelle, Hunter, Dad, Justin and Jason all did it. My mom and Craig were going to but my mom had to go get Jeremy at the airport and Craig had to watch the kids. I started off running before the 1st mile I was tired so I started walking. I would walk a little then run a little. My first goal was to finish then my second was to try to run 3 miles of it. So at about a mile and a half I started watching the street lights and i would run for 2 of them and then walk for two and I did that pretty much the whole rest of the way. At about 2 1/2 miles I caught up with Michelle. Then at about 3 1/2 I passed Amber, only for a few minutes then she caught up with us. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be but then again I walked half of it! My time was 1 hr. and 24 minutes.

Lacie's Primary Presentation

Today Lacie was in her very first primary presentation. She did so good. She had her part completely memorized. We went over it two or three times with her several weeks ago and she had it memorized. She has such a good memory. Every couple days since I would have her say her part to me. She was so excited. Yesterday they had a practice and after I picked her up she couldn't stop smiling she kept saying that was so much fun. Most of the kids got up and you couldn't really understand them but Lacie did GREAT!!
Later today I was getting some visiting teaching assignments ready to pass out so I was having Lacie put them in chronological order (they were all condos). So I put out four assignments with different condo numbers like 24,15, 32, 10 and asked her which one was the smallest then we put that one in the pile, then the next smallest, etc. and she got them all right. She is getting so smart. She amazes me everday!

Alexa is in the Ensign

Alexa's picture appeared in the November Ensign in Kathleen H. Hughes talk titled "Remembering the Lord’s Love."

Our Family went to temple square for conference in October. It was so much fun. Craig and I would take turns going in to sessions and the other one would stay outside with the kids and listen from the grass. It was really neat being able to be there and go to the sessions inside the conference center. We aren't sure when they took this picture of Alexa because they took several different pictures of all of us while we were down there.

http://lds.org/churchmagazines/ENSN_2006_1100_Nov_Complete_26911_eng.pdf

Halloween 2006

Today was Halloween. Lacie and Alexa were butterflies. We forgot Ashlyn's costume so we went and bought her a little sleeper costume it had paws and ears and I painted a black nose on her with whiskers. They all looked so cute. Craig was in Utah :(. He had to go back and work. But he is coming back on Friday..yippee! We all miss him!! We had a fun Halloween. Lacie went in to a haunted house with Grandma and Hunter. She was begging to go with them so I let her and she cried and screamed the whole way through. It wasn't really that scary.. But it was a lot of fun. But you were very missed Craig!

Isabella's Funeral

Today was the funeral for Isabella Olson (my cousin). A week ago her and her friend, the nannies son, were playing in the yard. One of the people working on their house left the gate open and the got out and went to the canal. They both slipped in . A few minutes later Jacqueline started looking for them and couldn't find them. John and Micheal (her brother) saw the gate open and immediately started searching the canal. They found them about a quarter of a mile down the canal. Jesus was holding on to a pole but his face was under water and Isabella was right by him but at the bottom. Jesus had somethings wrong with him but he got a priesthood blessing and was completely healed. But our Heavenly Father had other plans for Isabella. They never were able to revive her. There were so many miracles that showed how it was a true miracle that Jesus made it but Isabella didn't. I know at funerals everybody talks about how we should be rejoicing but with a death so sudden it is hard to she the happiness in it. But at the funeral we were at the grave and John was dedicating the grave. I couldn't really hear him but I received this overwhelming understanding of how we really should be rejoicing. When she left Heaven, only two years ago, she knew that this is how long she was going to be down here. She knew she wold come down touch the lives of the people around her, receive her body and return to our Father in Heaven for eternity. Here we buried the body of a precious spirit that just doesn't need it right now. It was so important that all need to come and get these bodies so we can progress even more someday. But she does it need it right now. So we bury it until the time comes when we are resurrected and our spirits will again reunite with our bodies and we will all be together again. Our bodies are truly like a trophy, we have come and earned these wonderful things so we can one day be like our Father and Mother in Heaven. It is so hard to understand but I just felt so strong it really is a happy day. She came and did what she needed to do and now she will be able to be in the celestial kingdom forever. How wonderful!

I finally went to Aspen Grove

Today I woke up and went to the temple at 5:30. That was the first time I went that early. It was kind of fun. It was such a cold day today. We have a play group every week we all get together and go to the park. Well today it didn't last very long because everybody was so cold! Craig had a second interview for a Training Coordinator position so we went and picked him up after his interview to go to lunch. He works in the Riverwoods in Provo, which is only about 2 mins from the road that takes you up the canyon. So I decided to take lunch up there and show him the waterfalls. We parked in front of the waterfalls and had lunch then we drove up to Aspen Grove and Sundance. Wow, now I understand why my mom always has talked about it. It is very pretty. Tons and tons of trees. But the best part is we got snowed on for the first time this year :). It was so much fun. Lacie and Alexa saw deer for the first time (at least the first time they can remember). Then on the way back we stopped at this park that was so beautiful! It has walking trails all over and little picnic areas that have fire pit rings. It will be a lot fun to go up there and have a fire when it is dry.

My Beautiful Girls!

On October 9 we went with my friend Jessica and her kids Eden and Judd to go take pictures. We tried to go up the canyon but all the leaves had fallen so it wasn't very pretty. So we ended up going to BYU. It was still really pretty there. Of course my grils loved geting their picture taken. Alexa had to get warmed up but once she was there wasn't any stopping her she wanted us to take pictures of everything. It was a lot of fun.

More About Me

) I was born in Mesa, AZ. My family moved to Las Vegas when I was 8 yrs. old. Then about 2 years later we moved back to Mesa. I lived there until I got married to the most wonderful man in the whole wide world!! Craig. After being married for about a year and a half we moved to Dallas, TX. We stayed there for a little less than a year and a half. then we moved back home. That is where our sweet Lacie was born on Jan. 23, 2002. After being home for about two years we moved to Sterling, IL (with a short 2 month stay in Iowa before actually getting to IL). We had a lot of fun in IL. We really enjoyed it there. In October 2003 we found out we were pregnant with our second baby. We really enjoyed IL but had the opportunity to move back home after about a year and with the second baby coming thought it was probably a good time to go. On May 26, 2004 Alexa was born. She was born in Scottsdale but we were living in Gilbert. Only about 11 months later we found out we were expecting our third baby. Wow, were we excited!! And were we even more surprised to find out 15 weeks later we were having another girl. Three girls! Craig never thought he would love the color pink so much. When I was about 6 months pregnant we felt that it was a good time to sell the house we were in. We really didn't want to but we felt it was right. The real estate market had been going CRAZY for about a year prior so the home had over doubled in value since we had been it. It started to slow down the month (or probably the week after) we put it on the market so it took us about 5 months to sell it. (Which is still good because my friends out there are telling me nothing is selling in Power Ranch now). During that time Ashlyn was born on Jan. 16, 2006. In the beginning of June we moved into my parents house. We had decided to move to Utah but we were still trying to find a job. So we decided to stay with my parents for a couple of weeks. Six weeks later we still didn't have a job and decided it would be easier to get a job if we were in Utah so we packed up and came. So here we are now living in Pleasant Grove, UT.