Reflections of Christ

For those of you that haven't made it to the Visitor's Center yet to see the "Reflections of Christ" display, here is what you're missing. This video doesn't do it justice. I would encourage all of you that can to go see it quick before it's too late.

Swinging & Easter

My kids love to swing! Janey's been teaching Parker how to swing on his tummy and he's just getting the hang of it so I took the camera outside and got a couple of good shots of him. Parker loves to be outside so we spend quite a bit of time in the backyard. The back door just stays open most of the time so the kids can go in and out. Janey will go out there and just start singing at the top of her lungs, usually primary songs, and I just laugh because I know the whole neighborhood can hear her. She's such a funny girl.

The Easter Bunny made it to our house this year...again. Just like always, but Russell was more worried on Saturday night about getting to bed early than he is on Christmas for Santa! He was up at the crack of dawn on Sunday (6:30) and he took the liberty of waking Parker too. And as I'm sure you all know...when the baby's awake so is the rest of the house, ugh! Finally at 7:00 I let him go out in the family room to see and what do you know...he came (like always)! I didn't take any pictures on Easter (I know I'm a bad mom), but we had a good time. Our ward had a great Sacrament Meeting program, lots of songs. Then we headed out to the Belnap's for dinner. It was nice to relax and visit with family.

HaPpY BiRtHdAy PaRkEr

Parker turned 2 yesterday! We had a fun party with grandma & grandpa and a few friends. Here are some pics...

OH...NICE

Yesterday Janey came home from playing with her friend Mikenna at Mikenna's grandma's house (The Walter's). When she got home she proceeded to tell me "mom when I was at Mikenna's grandma's house I was farting a lot! But I said excuse me mom." Chad & I just about died laughing. And for those of you that don't know...Janey has the stinkiest bum ever! My sweet little girl just fartin' away...What do you do?!?

Not Again...

Russell gave us another scare on Saturday. He was playing at his friends house and decided to climb the orange tree in their backyard (and like I said in my last post, he loved to climb). They were picking oranges to make juice. Well when he reached for what he thought was "a good one" the branch he was holding on to broke...and down he went...right on his head. He fell a good 12-15 feet. When I went to go pick him up I could definitely tell things weren't right. So, I took him into the urgent care. From there they transported us to Maricopa Medical Center via ambulance. They took him there because they have a trauma unit and when a child falls from over twice their height, it's considered a trauma 1. Anyways, so after they cut his clothes off, took chest x-rays, CT scans...we find that he has a concussion and some pretty nice scrapes and bruises. I'm so grateful that's all it was. And Russell has promised to keep his feet on the ground for the next few days at least.

London's Run

Oh gosh...I'm really not very good at updating this thing. Things have been busy, no surprises there! On Saturday, the 2nd, we went out to Schnepf Farms to participate in London's Run. I ran the 10K with my brother Joel, his wife Nicole, Chad's sister Alisa and her husband Jason.
Well...I didn't really run with them...more behind them! I'm certainly not a fast runner, but I always finish...eventually! There was so much going on out there for the family. My kids had a blast eating ice cream, making necklaces, climbing rock walls and getting lots of free stuff! Russell loved the rock wall. Apparently he scaled it 3 times while I was running. He's my climber.

Russell was the "Super Star" in his class last week. We made him a cool poster of pictures and stuff to show off to his classmates. Janey is loving preschool. She got her shots this week for kindergarten, which totally freaks me out. She cannot be old enough for that! Parker is doing good. He's been seeing a speech therapist for the past month or so and I am seeing some big improvements. For those of you who don't know...Parker is not much of a talker. He's a crier, all the time!!! But since we've been doing speech therapy he is learning to use other ways to communicate with others (me primarily). He is a much happier boy, which makes me a happier mom. Chad & I are doing great. I have another run planned in April, then Chad & I will take another trip to Havasupai in the summer. Chad's been playing a lot of paintball lately. He's got a good group from the ward that gets together a few times a month. Business is picking up. We've had a slow winter, but things are definitely turning around.
I love hearing from all of you and getting to read up on your families & the happenings in your lives!

P.S. Many of you have been asking about my friend Charlene who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She is doing great. For more updates, you can visit her blog. (I love the new family pics Char.)

Catch Up

Okay, so it's been awhile since I've been able to sit down and post. I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year! We sure did. Things have been very busy, as I'm sure it has been for all of you. On Thanksgiving I was able to run the "Turkey Trot" with two of my brothers, Chris & Joel, and a sister-in-law, Nicole. It was a lot of fun and I ran into lots of old friends out there at Red Mountain Park. Chad brought the kids down to cheer me on! Hopefully, he'll run it with me next year...We enjoyed way too much food with both of our families!
After Thanksgiving we had my niece, Morgan stay with us for several days. She is the same age as Parker, and they are great friends. When it was time for her to go home, Parker wandered around the house looking for her for a few days. It was so cute.
Then, the first part of December, my dear friend Charlene called with some shocking news, she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. That just has blown me away. I haven't known anyone that has had cancer that I'm really close to. What a hopeless feeling. I just love her to death and we've been close friends since right after Chad & I got married. After visiting with her Dr. they decided to do a double mastectomy. Her surgery went really well. For her hospital stay, I decided to try my hand at quilting. I made her a quilt with pictures of her sons on it. I was so excited to make it. I felt like it gave me something worthwhile to do for her. I finished it in about a week and a half working on it constantly. Many thanks to my husband and friend Ann for helping with my kiddos during that time. I'm not much of a sewer and taking on a project like this was huge for me, but it ended up being such a spiritual experience for me. I know it probably sounds so lame, but I know I wasn't sewing by myself. I can't sew a straight stitch if my life depended on it, but everything turned out just right. I cried the whole time I was making it...I know she was really happy with it and grateful. I'm really thankful for the whole experience, it has helped me see what is really important to me because things can change at any second. I am so thankful for my family, that we are healthy and have the tools we need to be together for eternity.
Russell turned 8 on December 21st and was able to be baptized on the 22nd! We had lots of friends and family in attendance! Russell was pretty nervous about being "dunked" but he did great. Afterwards we went over to Grandma Robyn's for some lunch. Some of us weren't very keen on getting pictures taken, but I'll post one anyway.
Christmas was awesome this year! The kids were very excited that Santa was able to make it to our house...and that he didn't leave coal in their stockings. We were able to spend Christmas Eve with my family for dinner and a gift exchange. Then Christmas Day we spent with Chad's family. I love this time of year. Being able to spend more time with family and the cool weather of course.