Growin' up!

Kate is turning into a big girl! It all started when she got her first tooth in Hawaii and it's been nonstop ever sense!

Soon after the life changing moment of cutting her first tooth (on the bottom), the two top ones began poking thru as well!

Then she figured out how to crawl overnight! She had been getting up onto her hands and knees for a while, but wasn't showing much interest in really c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g. But then, WHAM! All of the sudden she shot accross the room like she had been doing it all her life.

And now, she is a fast little bugger. Tonight, she had been playing under my feet while I was preparing a lesson and then all of the sudden she was gone. So I left the kitchen to see if she had gone into the family room to play with Danny, but no, she was climbing up the stairs! She was already up four steps by the time I got to her!

How did this happen?! :)

FREE CHOCOLATE!

So my good friend Stacey informed me of this fun bit of information. Every Friday, through September, the chocolate company Mars (makers of M&Ms, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, etc) is giving away tons of coupons for one free chocolate bar. They're calling it The Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act.

So go sign up and get free chocolate coupons in the mail!

Virtue: For Such a Time as This (Ether 4:14)

I felt the Spirt so strongly while I watched this for the first time during the Young Women's broadcast. It is very powerful and pure. I am so grateful for my calling to serve with the wonderful young women in my ward. They are such examples to me!

Please take the time to watch it. It's just over five minutes long. I loved it.

Four years ago today...

It was a very happy day.
We were lucky enough to have a short break in the rain to get some pictures.

Time is an interesting concept. At times it seems like we were just dating, but then at other times, it seems like we've been together forever. I realize four years isn't a huge amount of time, but a lot sure has happend in these last four years!

Love

Dan and I watched a movie last weekend that we just loved! Dan in Real Life is the title. Fitting for our family, I think. But it's with Steve Carell. Has anyone seen it? It was very endearing. And we loved the screenplay, the dialog was great. I'm not a great movie review writer, I had to do it once in a college English class and I'm not sure how well I did, so I won't attempt to create a compelling summary to set the scene for this next quote, (it's kinda complicated) so I'll just tell you the quote. But at the end one of the characters says, "Love isn't a feeling, it's an ability."


I have mixed feelings about this quote. (I'm not at all critiquing the movie, because I loved it. This is just something I've thought a lot about.) To me, this says that one can make a conscious decision to love or not to love. That there may not be a "one and only soul mate," but that we can simply choose to be happily in love with whomever we choose. But then I wonder if that kind of philosophy takes the romance out of love.

In contrast, at the end "Dan" says, "You know that feeling in your heart? When your heart is just pounding, like it's actually outside your ribs. Exposed, venerable, but wonderful and awful, and heartsick, and alive, all at the same time?" That description to me describes more of a feeling than an ability to love.

If you really have the ability to chose who you love, can you feel this same emotion as described? But I don't know, I just wanted to get some honest feedback on your thoughts of love.

Is this normal???!!!

Danny is chewing on EVERYTHING these days!! He's always chewing on his fingers, not sucking, but chewing! He chews on the bed sheet, toys, books, crayons, anything! I mean, he mutilated this ball. It was a hard nerf ball too. We didn't think he'd be able to chew it up, but he showed us wrong! This can't be normal, right? He's 2 1/2.

Family Vacation

We had a wonderful time in Hawaii! We absolutely love it there. The kids were great on the flights and adjusted well to all the travel and everything we put them through...except getting back on some form of a schedule since coming home. They have really struggled with the time change and now don't want to sleep at night! But if that's my only complaint, I'll take it!

The boys making goofy faces, intentional or not, I'm not so sure.

Danny showing off his slippers.

Kate looked so pretty with her lei at the PCC.

Dan's parents and brothers were able to join us on the trip. Danny LOVES his uncles! Here is Mikey and Danny splashing in the ocean. If you look closely, you can see Danny's cheesy Doritos face.

Kate enjoyed her grandma time on the beach. At this moment, Cindy was holding her hands, so it was a rare moment when Kate wasn't trying to eat the sand. She was oftentimes too successful.