D.A.R.E. Graduation

At school Spencer graduated from D.A.R.E.  He pledged to be drug free and did several projects related to being anti-drugs.  He did a great job in his program.  Really the song is the best.  And he makes the cutest faces during the song.  Here's a link to his performance...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVAyamjZtLY



Here's a few pics of him after...

Camping Adventure

Every summer our family LOVES to take a fun camping trip.  Well this summer we decided to take a second trip.  My friend Alisa invited us to come camping with her family near her home in Ephraim.  She told us they would find a "spot" about 20 minutes up the canyon.  Sounded great!  Wow were we in for an adventure!

So we hitched up our trailer to our van...yes, it's quite a site...and headed south.  We met up with Alisa and we followed her behind her 4 wheeler to the camp site.  Half way up the mountain we stopped to see the oldest tree...It's seriously huge and so pretty!

Then it was back on the steeeeeep, dirt road, up the mountain.  After an hour I started wondering if we would ever get to the site!  Finally we reached the summit...9,500.  I kept thinking...are we there yet?  Nope!  Not yet!  We then turned onto a NARROW, ROCKY, road and proceeded to the "site".  Now there's something you have to understand.  Our van, when towing the trailor allows us about 1INCH clearance.  Yes, you read right, ONE INCH.  One inch clearance on an extremely steep rocky road=not a good idea.  But we were up for an adventure and went for it!  Finally we made it to the camp site at 10,000 feet.  It was stunningly beautiful.  Not a lot of trees, but mountain vistas as far as the eye could see!

We set up camp and the kids immediately asked to go fishing.  Sure!  No problem!  There was a quiet lake just below our camp site. 

Matt took the boys down, while Alisa and I chatted the afternoon away.  Then Alisa's hubby showed up with their kids and we all headed down to the lake to fish.  This is what we saw...

Yes, lots and lots of mud!  The kids LOVED playing in it!  They did manage to catch several fish too, so...BONUS!

Then it was back to camp to clean up and get dinner ready.  Some delicious home grown steaks for dinner...sooo yummy...and farm fresh corn...to die for!  I loved all the super fresh food!  (pretty sure, I'd never move to a small town for it though...:)

The sunset at 10,000 feet is simply stunning...

And the stars were AMAZING!  Here's the Big Dipper overlooking the city glow of Ephraim.

Shooting star?  Nope, just an airplane..:)

That's not the moon...That's Jupiter!!!

The glow of the fire made the branches on the trees look red.  You can still see the stars beyond them...super cool.

Then after a little rest, we were greeted by the most beautiful sunrise.  Seriously, for me to get out of bed at 6am, it had to be good!!!

After a delicious breakfast it was time to break camp and head for home.  We made it out alright (barely) and our bumper was litterally hanging on by a thread by the time we got home...sweet! 

Thanks Alisa and Brandon for the awesome time!  We're ready for next summer!  Only this time we're staying longer than one night!

First Day of Pre-School

Sadie has been watching the boys leave for school every day for a while now and always wished she could go to school too.  Well, she finally got her wish.

The day had finally arrived. (August 31) It was time to send Sadie to her very first day of pre-school.

Every parent knows that you must have a backpack for your child in order for them to go to school, right?  Well, I'm sure you can imagine what color backpack Sadie picked out...

After a quick picture or two, we hopped in the car and drove down the street to Miss Sheryl and Miss Holly's preschool.  Lucky for us it only takes about 45 seconds to get there! YAY!

Sadie seemed a little shy when she saw the other kids, but she quickly got very excited and gave me a hug and said, "Ok Mom, bye.  You can go, I'll be just fine." 

I stayed a few minutes longer and watched as the kids were all waiting on the step together for all the other kids to arrive.

Sadie seemed to fit right in with this darling little class of 6 girls!!  Aren't they cute?!!

Have you ever seen so much pink in your life?

I asked Sadie if she likes all the kids in her class and she said, "Yes, Mom.  There are no boys.  That's good.  I hate boys."  Well, ok then.  Let's just hope she keeps that attitude until she's 20.

So after dropping her off at pre-school, I came home to a quiet house.  AHHHHHHH.....it was sooooo nice.  I think I accomplished more in that 2 and 1/2 hours than I had done all week.  But the time did still go too quickly and it was already time to go pick her up.

When I walked up to get her, I didn't see her face, I saw this...

She was carrying her new flower painting.  And she was SOOOOO proud of it!

I asked her how her first day went, (expecting to hear, "fine.") and I got a detailed minute by minute account of the entire day.  Wow!  What a difference between boys and girls.  I have to pry information from the boys about their day.  Sadie just spilled all the details with one general question! 

I then asked Sadie what her favorite part of the day was and she said, "Painting with my fingers and wearing a special painting shirt that is too big, and it's just silly.  It's a silly painting shirt.  But it's ok because Miss Holly said it keeps our clothes from getting paint on them."

We then came home and looked through all the papers in her backpack.  She insisted on hanging each one up on the fridge.  We filled the entire fridge.

It was a bitter sweet day seeing my baby girl head off to pre-school.  But nothing makes me happier than seeing her so happy.

I Love to See the Temple...I Went Inside Today...

On August 23rd, we were able to attend the 9th and final session of the dedication of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  Since Ethan had just turned 8, both he and Spencer were able to join Matt and I inside the temple for this special day.

I was so impressed with how reverant Ethan and Spencer both were.  We arrived an hour before the session actually started making the total sitting time 3 hours.  That's a long time to sit and be completely quiet and reverent.  I even had a hard time! 

But it was worth it.  We got to sit in the room right off of the Celestial Room and could even hear the choir singing louder from the hallway that our monitor!  And to make the experience even better, President Monson came into our room following the dedication to say hello.  Ethan and Spencer were both beaming as they got to see a Prophet of the Lord in person.  We also got to see President Eyring and Elder Ballard.

Needless to say it was an incredible experience we'll remember forever.  I feel so blessed to have had both boys and husband there in the temple together.  We figured the next time the 4 of us would be able to sit together in that room would be when Ethan is getting ready to leave on his mission and Spencer would have just returned.

We are so grateful to Matt's parents who offered to watch Sadie and their other grandchildren, so we could all attend the dedication.  Yes, I know it gets a bit broken record sounding, but I do have the best in-laws ever!!

Family Reunion

We had a great time at Matt's annual "B" Family Reunion.  Lots of fun, games and food.

And then it came time for the talent show.  Spencer decided to tell a few jokes, wearing what was left of the pinata on his head.  His uncle Joe shared the idea and did a mean "chicken" version of a song, followed by his famous " Transformer Dance".  Yes, we have serious talent in our family!

Thanks everyone for a great day!

A Day at the Beach...

Nope, we didn't travel off to some exotic location, or even head for California.  We hopped in the car and drove 5 minutes to our local beach.  That's right.  Beach.  There's a nice beach right here in our town that the city built for the lake.  And it's way FUN!

Sadie immediately went for the sand toys and began mixing the sand and water. 

Spencer quickly found the dock and started jumping off of it...over and over and over...endless fun.

Ethan was a little nervous and asked for his lifejacket and joined Spencer in the dock jumping.  Spencer and Ethan chased around throwing sand and pouncing on each other in the water.

Sadie couldn't get enough of the sand and water.  She enjoyed splashing, playing, and building fun things on the beach.  And of course she's my little poser...when I tell her to smile, she naturally does some cute pose...

While having a teasing big brother isn't my favorite, (sorry Nate...you did tease me relentlessly) this particular tease was super funny and caught on camera...so I must share.

Sadie was just sitting in the water playing away, having a great time.  Well sneaky Spencer was ever so slowly creeping up behind Sadie...and then just at the right moment, "BOO!"  Poor Sadie scared out of her mind and Spencer is laughing his guts out.

If you look closely you can see Sadie getting upset, pouting afterward and then turning around to splash him back!  That's my girl!  Get him!

I decided to join in the beach fun and help Ethan and Sadie build a sand castle.  The sand was perfect for building.

What a fun day at the beach!  We could have stayed for hours, but the beauty is we didn't feel like we had to.....since it's so close, we could come back the next day!

So California eat your heart out!  Utah beach Rocks!  Well...that is until October rolls around and it's frozen over....but until then...Beach party!

The Incident

As a mother of a little girl, there are a few things I feared for my little sweetie.  Some things with greater consequence than others, and some things just plain vain.  One of the things I LOVE about having a daughter is dressing her.  I LOVE shopping, choosing outfits, making bows, and I especially LOVE styling her hair.  Sadie is my real life doll.  No need to buy the baby that cries, pees, poops, etc.  I've got her for real!

Well, recently, one of my greatest fears for my sweet little girl, happened.  This actually happened about a month ago and it's taken me this long to actually write about it.  So here's the scoop...

One day, I went down to the kitchen, got Sadie her breakfast and turned on her show for her.  Then I headed upstairs to check email and work on a few photos.   (Yes, I let Sadie hang out and watch TV in the mornings...no judging perfect mommies out there...) 

Well, I'm sitting at my computer just working away, when Sadie walks in and says, "Mom, look how pretty I am."
 "Yes, Sadie you are very pretty," I told her without even looking at her. (yes, I am a horrible mother..again...no judgements please.)
 Then Sadie said, "Mommy!! Look at me and see how pretty!"
I turned around and at first didn't notice anything.  And then after further examination, much to my dismay, I noticed HALF of Sadies hair was GONE.  That's right, G-O-N-E.  (And this is where those of you who are awesome Mommies out there can just stop reading and ignore my horrible reaction.) 
I RAN down the stairs into the kitchen and found LOCKS and LOCKS of hair strung all over the kitchen floor.  Then I headed over to the garbage can where I found LOCKS and LOCKS of hair.  I started screaming, crying, sobbing, and asking Sadie, "WHY???? WHY???? WHY would you do this Sadie?"
I would be lying if I didn't have MAJOR flashbacks of this....

I just kept crying and crying...

Sadie tried to tell me that she got the scissors out to cut her fruit snack open and then she was just watching TV and wasn't paying attention to the scissors cutting off her beautiful, took 4 years to grow out, silky, shiny, curly, HAIR. 


At this point I was so upset, I couldn't even look at her.  I sent her to her room and I went to mine.  Lots of thoughts were racing through my head.  The thoughts of the moment when I lost my own hair.  How much I hated having no hair for a year.  How much I hated wearing hats and wigs not because I wanted to, but because I HAD to.  I thought of the many mornings waking up and looking in the mirror and crying because I just wanted to be me again.  I thought of the time that I finally was brave enough to go without my wig when my hair was 2 inches long and while paying for something at the store was asked to show my id.  The clerk so carelessly exclaimed, "WHY oh WHY would you cut off all that beautiful hair?"  Not wanting to let cancer control me I politely told the clerk I was trying out a new summer cut.

Then I started thinking about Sadie.  What if she had to go through what I did?  The thought is unbearable!  Thinking of your child going through so much is more than heartbreaking.  I can't imagine my own mother who had to watch me.  I then prayed with all my might that Sadie would never have to do that.

So after a good hour or more of constant crying, I went into Sadie's room to survey the actual damage.  Her hair was parted on the right and luckily I hadn't done her hair yet, so the cuts she made were pretty uneven.  She basically cut at ear level from the front all the way around to the middle of the back of her head. 

No I did not take any photos. 

I'm sure a lot of you moms out there would have grabbed the camera and moved on with your day.  I was paralyzed.  I kept crying.  I showed Sadie in the mirror what she had done.  She said, "We can get some tape mom and it will be fine."  I tried to explain that we could not get any tape, but that it would eventually be fine. 

We went downstairs and cleaned up all the hair.  I collected a few locks and saved them in a baggie.  I then wet her hair down, did my best to slick it into a pony tail and let her watch her show. 

The rest of the day I could barely function.  I'm not sure why all these old feelings and emotions surfaced from my chemo days, but no matter what I did to supress them, they continued to come out and I cried and cried.

Not my favorite day. 

The next day I woke up feeling much better and able to look at Sadie and figure out what we were going to do with the hair she had left.  I got the scissors out and started evening out her hair.  I ended up having to cut a good 3-4 inches just to get things to look remotely normal.  Sadie and I both have hair that grows at snail speed.  It's taken me 7 years to grow my hair out since I lost it.  And I'm still 3 inches short.  And poor Sadie has inherited this.  Anyway, I finished the haircut and now you can't really tell that there are pieces only 1 inch long around her ear, unless you are looking really carefully.

Several weeks after all of this, I finally broke out the camera and took pictures.  Here they are.

So why is hair such a big deal? It's just hair!  It grows back, right?  Right.  And that's what every doctor, nurse and friend told me.  Somehow those words didn't really help.  I knew it would grow back, but it didn't change the fact that I still had to live without it for so long.  I felt like the ugly cat on Friends that Rachel buys that has no fur.  She had a difficult time finally selling it....no one wanted the ugly thing! 

I think our hair is so much of our identity.  When you are describing a person, that's one of the first things you describe....she's got short blond hair, or she's the brunette.

I learned a lot from Sadie with this experience.  Within moments of the entire ordeal, Sadie was back to normal, playing as usual, like nothing had happened.  And really, did it change who she was?  No.  Did her hair make her any less pretty?  No.  Did I love her any less? No.  (angry maybe...) The answers are all no.  Who we are is not defined by our outward appearance, but by who we are on the inside.  So you don't have hair, or it doesn't look normal, or it's short, or long, really, it's ok.  You are who you are because of the things you do, the people you love, the people that love you, and the choices you make.

I love my sweet Sadie.  Short hair or long.

First Day of School

Summer has officially come to an end.  Well, maybe not, we just start school extra early around here with the track system.  Having a little bit longer summer actually made the boys excited to start school.  Hooray!  And because we were having so much fun this summer, I was actually a little sad they were going back....that thought only lasted for 2 seconds...a quiet house with no teasing Sadie sounded pretty nice to me!

So Spencer is headed into the FIFTH grade.  Wow!  I can still picture him waiting in line for the bus with his backpack that is twice his size and nervously waving goodbye to me. 

Ethan is headed into the THIRD grade.  Really?  Sweet little baby Ethan is a third-grader?  Wow, that happened over night!

It was all smiles as they headed off to the bus stop together. 

And then just like that, the house is quiet.  For a second I stopped and thought, I'm gonna miss them today.  And then the moment passed and I celebrated!! Woohoo!!

A New Skill

Sadie learned how to slide down the firemans pole at the park recently.  She was SO excited she begged me to take some pictures of her sliding down....so I took a few...thank goodness for fast shutter speeds!  I took a dozen pictures before she reached the bottom...so here they are...

(if you click the image, you can see it larger)

Sadie repeated this exciting new skill over, and over and over.  Every time she got to the bottom, she was beaming with joy!

Could there be a cuter girl?  I think not.

We have an RN in the family!

My sweet littlest sister Danielle, is now an RN!  She graduated and passed her RN exam!  Way to go Danielle!  Love you!

We decided to have a little surprise party for her!  My half sister from California, whom I haven't seen for 8 years even flew in to help celebrate.  It was so great to spend time with my sis Rebecca.  Love her!!  She needs to come visit more often!  And I guess, we need to make our way to the Bay area more often to visit her.

We had fun taking lots of pictures.  Here's a few...

In order from left to right... My oldest sister Nicole, then Rebecca, Me, Larena, Brittany and Danielle.  Gosh we're cute! :)

My Dad decided to show off a new item he acquired...

Yes, he had us all going.  It looked like the real Book of Mormon of Orin Rockwell, bullet hole and all.  We were all floored until Dad pointed out the small stamp that said, "replica".  But still, pretty realistic don't you think?

All in all it was a great afternoon.  So great to spend time with family.  Love you all!

Over the River and Through the Woods, to Grandmother's house we go...

So this year we got on a great track schedule for school and actually ended up with 6 weeks of summer break instead of just 3 weeks.  We  had lots of fun.  I decided to take the kids up to visit Grandma for a couple of days and enjoy the beauty of Mountain Green.

I haven't been horseback riding for at least 10 years or more, so I thought it was time to get back in the saddle again, literally.  And boy was it fun.  My mom took me on the most scenic ride ever!  It was so fun to go riding again!

Good 'ol Rico

and Dante

were playful as usual and provided a fun smooth ride.  I think once you ride a Paso Fino horse, it's hard to ride any other.  The smoothness of their walk/gate is untouched.  And you can cover the mountain side in half the time!

After an afternoon of riding, we had some dinner and I took the kids pictures.  Finally.  You would think being a photographer and all that I would have loads of pictures of my kids.  Well, I do have a lot of candids, but no formal pictures.  It was time.  Unfortunately, I haven't even had time to look at those yet, so you'll have to wait to see those.

If the kids behaved for their pictures, I promised a horseback ride after we were done.  Well it was getting a little dark, but we still went out for a ride.  I had some fun with silhouettes while the kids were taking turns on the horse...

The next morning we got up and did more horseback riding.  The kids had a great time.

I'm so lucky to have such an awesome Mom who let's us come and invade her house for days and while doing that feeds us, entertains us, and let's my kids run amuck!  Thanks Grandma!  We love you!!