Gesundheit!

At bedtime,

Me: Once upon a time, there was a princess named Nora.

Nora: (Fake sneeze) Ah-choo!

Me: Bless you.

Nora: I'm allergic to these kind of stories.

A Note of Thanks

My bishop was shot and killed at our church on Sunday. The shooter was a mentally ill man with a vendetta against the Mormon church, he did not even know our bishop. Bishop Sannar was a true hero and tried to save everyone else around him once he realized this man was dangerous. He leaves behind a beautiful wife and six boys.

This tragedy is just so senseless and sick. There are so few answers to be had when it comes to things like this. What I do know though is that God is in control. While that doesn't mean we will be shielded from pain, it does mean that eventually, if we live His gospel, He will grant us greater happiness than we can even imagine now. We will be resurrected to live again with Him and our loved ones. And that's about all I know, but it's what gets you through.

So this post is my tribute to Bishop Sannar. Thank you for your willingness to be our bishop. Thank you for being a righteous priesthood holder and an excellent example of an LDS father. Thank you for trying to get everyone out of the church when the shooting began. Thank you for being so brave. Your good name will now be forever remembered as a martyr for your faith. My prayers and support are with Julie and the kids. May God bless them with every comfort and hope at this time.

A Visit with Tina!

Branden is working some crazy overtime this month in order to pay for some upcoming landscaping (see previous post!), working some six and seven-day stretches. I have used this as an excuse to plan some visits I've been wanting to make. My dear friend Tina has lived in San Clemente - on the beach! - for the past four years and I had not gone to visit her in all that time. Now that we are only :) 4 hours away, I packed up the kids and spent a few days with my very generous host.

First of all, San Clemente is GORGEOUS! It's all on beautiful rolling hills. These pictures that I found don't do it justice. It's just breathtaking. Especially coming from Visalia! :)

The beach was phenomenal too. Warm water, great sand, perfect weather. Wow. We loved it!


And we also had a ton of fun hanging out with Tina and Soren (Hunter was out of town.) Tina and I haven't really hung out for years and it was cool to just be together again and talk until 1am about everything and nothing. Thanks for the fabulous trip Tina - come visit us soon please!

Let the Backyard Rennovation Begin!

I don't know if you can call it a rennovation if there was never anything done to it in the first place, so maybe its a makeover. Anyway, we invited my Dad and brother down the first weekend in August to help us jump start our project.

In the morning, before these pics were taken the weeds in our yard were as tall as the fence, creating a lovely home for dozens of hornets and these camouflage little fellas.

Yeah, we had three frogs living in our backyard for who knows how long! Anyway, Dad and Logan were superstars and helped rototill the whole backyard, install a beautiful new fan in the playroom,

build a new fence gate,

and build a privacy fence to hide our garbage cans.

Thanks Dad, Logan, and Branden!!!

P.S.I'm sure this is blasphemous for many out there, but... I think we will pay someone else from now on to do all our yard stuff. :)

Vacation Extended

We brought our niece McKyla home with us from Idaho after our trip, and we spent the next week galavanting about central California with her, so it really didn't feel like our vacation had truly ended.We took a day trip to San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay. San Luis is a really chic town that I'd love to go back and explore without toting kids around. This picture, however, is in front of the really disgusting "gum wall" there. Just an entire alley decoratedly stuffed with people's chewing gum. The photo doesn't do the gross-ness of it justice.Nora's addition.
The rest of the day was spent exploring the beach, because our 11-year-old niece had NEVER BEEN TO THE BEACH BEFORE. Outrageous! She loved it and especially had fun collecting seashells.






We ended the day with a stop on the boardwalk for some traditional fish and chips. Our children were by far the noisiest thing in that restaurant, but at least they were happy.

Later on in the week, we headed to Sequoia National Park/Forest?, home of the giant sequoia trees. We had actually never been though, so McKyla's visit gave us a great excuse to check it out. The trees were pretty amazing and it was nice to do a little hiking.






So now vacation is officially over and its back to normal, whatever that means!

July Vacation

We took a two week vacation in July to get out of the Visalia heat and visit some of our loved ones. We did a enormous amount of driving but it was worth it to hang out with all the family. We started by heading over to Denver, with pit stops in Las Vegas and Loa, Utah (thanks for the visit, Grammy and Grandpa!). We had a blast spending a few days with Stepharter and their kids. Nora and Reese got a long SO well this time and I would love for them to be able to play more often.
Emery and Ike actually did pretty well together too, with Emery teaching her little cuz how to crawl.

We arrived on Nora's 3rd birthday and Steph had decorated her place with balloons and streamers in her honor, as well as baked really cool cupcake ice cream cones. (Thanks Steph - that was awesome!)


The view from Steph and Carter's backyard. Fantastic! We LOVED the cool summer weather there. Even the summer showers were a welcome change to our heat waves at home.

Steph and Carter also very graciously offered to babysit our munchkins while we explored downtown Denver together. This larger-than-life cleaning sculpture is in front of the museum of art. Although I still need to visit CO in the snowy months to be sure, we have pretty much decided that the Denver area will probably be our "settling place" in a few years. We've already got Steph there, Bri is almost certain to come back there with he CO native hubby, and if we move there, Mom and Dad may eventually follow. We'll have the majority there, so that means that's where they'll want to be, right? :) We'll see how it all works out.




After Denver, we headed for Branden's parents' home in Smithfield, Utah. Nora got to spend a week with her cousin Audrey who was visiting from New York.


We took a quick side trip to visit my sister Briana and have dinner at Gandolfo's with her cute family.

We ended the week with a birthday celebration at Grandma's with a majority of the Utah/Idaho clan joining us.
Ike with his great-Grandma Nelson. I think she is 94 this year.

Throughout our vacation of endless driving and assorted and many stresses, my husband was a champ. I love him like crazy and I am so glad he's mine forever!

Father's Day Photo Shoot

Ike was a little freaked out by his first picture session, but we got one good one of him to give to Daddy. Nora was our little star, as always!