I WIN!!!

I can't believe it!! I won the give-a-way!!! No Way!! But, yup I did!! YEAH!!!! I am so excited!!! What a cool one to win!!! Check out the adorable dress and bow!! And check out http://www.allthingsribbon.com/ if you like it too! She has super cute stuff!!

http://hairbowsforgirls.blogspot.com (you can see here where she announces the winner!)

Give-a-way

Ok, time to post about another give-a-way, but this time I want to win it!!
www.allthingsribbon.com has just launched a new blog to go with her buisness - http://hairbowsforgirls.blogspot.com. (she sells fabulous bows and dresses for little girls) She is now giving away an adorable sun dress and a matching bow! You should totally go check out her store - they have the CUTEST stuff!! I am not kidding! (and I do know cute girl stuff :) )

Happy Mother's Day

I just wanted to wish all my mommy friends a Very Happy Mother's Day! You truly inspire me to be a better mom and I am grateful to have friends like you!!

Allison is Getting Baptized!!

Allison will be baptized on June 6th 2009! Yikes!!! We have been getting ready for the big day!

Here are my favorite pictures that we took of her in her baptism and confirmation dresses for her announcements and invites. Tell me I don't have a beautiful child - I dare you!

Our Family Vacation – Disneyland

Last time we took the girls to Disneyland, it was …. shall we say … a disaster?  Allison and Chloe were terrified of all of the rides and all we did for 2 days was stand in line waiting to meet princesses.  Not my idea of fun – especially since Brian and I LOVE the thrill rides of places like Six Flags Magic Mountain!  We were all very nervous to take the family back this year, but we made Allison a promise that if she earned the money for her ticket – we would pay for the rest and let her go dance.  She earned more than 3 times what she needed and was so excited to dance in Disneyland that there was no way we could say no!

This time was WAY BETTER than last time!  Allison and Chloe did much better on the rides, and only got scared on one ride.  Allison chose not to go on Splash Mountain and they both got scared on Big Thunder Mountain.  But other than that – they were awesome!  Catie and Mary had a wonderful time and other than Mary getting lost at Mickey’s house (more on that in a minute) the only crying we had from them was when Mary had to get OFF of the roller coaster!  They are going to be thrill junkies like their parents!! :)

Here are a few pics!!!

(The entire Dance Studio that attended Disneyland)(Allison’s Starting Pose)

(One of my favorite poses in the dance)         (The end!)

(Allison at the A)

(Chloe at the C)

(Catie at the C)

   (Dad, Catie, Allison & Chloe)

(Catie, Allison & Chloe)

(Allison, Jordan (cousin), Catie & Chloe)

(Jordan & Mary – Jordan was Mary’s ‘best friend’) (Rachel (another cousin)& Catie) (Mary & Catie)

 (Dad, Mary & Catie outside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle) (Catie & Mary in Toon Town – don’t you love Mary’s ‘natural pose’??)

(Seeing Minnie Mouse)

INSIDE MICKY’S HOUSE /  MARY GETS LOST!!

This was an experience!!  We decided to wait in the enormous line to see Mickey since neither Catie nor Mary had every met Mickey.   You get to go through Mickey’s house during the line and see fun things.  It is usually a fun photo opportunity.  We had only gone through 2 rooms and had taken just a few pictures when Mary decided she was enthralled with Mickey’s desk.  It is located just next to a door way that quickly turns the corner.  The line had started moving and Brian, Allison and Catie were already ahead of us.  I had told Mary to get off the seat and come with us and then turned to see where Brian was.  I turned to get Mary and she wasn’t at the desk anymore.  I quickly looked around and figured she slipped by me and went to daddy.  I walked up the line to Brian and he asked where Mary was.  What?!?!  I turned and ran back to the other room and Mary was NOT there.  It was quickly apparent that we had LOST her!  I spent the next 10 minutes running back and forth up and down the line trying to find her.  I had a few parents in the line tell me that they had seen her head backwards towards the front door and outside.  I ran outside and looked.  I could not see her.  There were 2 older teenager boys, both more straggly looking, who asked what Mary looked like.  I quickly described her and said that she was wearing a pink shirt.  One of the boys asked if it had anything on it, and I remembered that it was a 4th of July shirt and it had a flag on it.  They offered to look for her and I ran back inside to talk to Brian.  He was starting to panic too (of course I was already there) and said he was going to get out of line.  I told him ‘no way!’ what if she was still in the building!?  He had to stay there in case she was still inside.  I turned to go back outside and halfway there, I ran into one of the boys from outside.  He told me that they had found her!  A woman had seen her walk out of the Mickey Mouse house looking lost and had picked her up, and they had recognized her and had come to get me!  What good citizens!!!  I went running outside and the minute I saw her I started crying.  Even just typing this up again, makes me cry.  I have never been that scared before.  I was so thankful for good people and the willingness to see a little girl who needed help and to try to help her instead of hurt her and for a Heavenly Father who was watching out for us!

(Inside Mickey’s house) (Mickey’s couch) (Mickey’s Desk – and the last place I saw Mary) (after we found Mary – playing Mickey’s piano) (Allison playing Mickey’s drums) (Catie playing Mickey’s piano) (Catie, Mary & Mickey Mouse) (Dad, Mom, Allison, Catie, Mary & Mickey Mouse) (Mary next to Mickey’s Mailbox – where she was found)(Mary on her favorite ride – the rollercoaster in Toon Town)  

(I didn’t want to get off!! I wanted to go again!! – People kept asking if the ride scared her and we kept having to tell them that she wasn’t scared, she wanted to go again!)   (Mary’s other favorite ride – the carousel) (Dad, Chloe & Allison on the Train)

(Mom, Catie & Allison on the Train)

(Dad, Chloe & Catie riding Splash Mountain – it’s hard to see, but this is really them!)

 

WE HAD A BLAST!!!!

Our Family Vacation – How many temples can you see?

We had the most fabulous family vacation this last week!  For all of you who remember Allison selling the Lehi Roller Mills stuff, she did earn enough to go dance in Disneyland and we finally went last week!

We decided that since we were traveling so far, it would be nice to see the temples that the girls wouldn’t have an opportunity to see otherwise.  It kind of became a mission of ours to see as many temples as possible while we were gone, and we did great!  We visited 7 temples!!

MANTI UTAH TEMPLE

We started with the Manti Utah Temple.  It is so beautiful, and it is right at the entrance to Manti, set on a hill.  Wow! You can definitely imagine Moroni standing on this hill dedicating it someday to be a temple site!

(Manti Utah Temple)  (the girls on the steps of the temple)

ST. GEORGE UTAH TEMPLE

The next temple we stopped at was the St. George Utah Temple.  It was a beautiful day, and it was also Easter.  We were able to go inside the visitor’s center and a sister missionary gave the girls an Easter lesson in front of the Christus statue. 

What a way to spend Easter!

(The girls in front of the Christus Statue)

(The girls listening to the Christus message)

(St. George Utah Temple) (Girls on the steps of the St. George Temple)(The whole family at the St. George Temple)

LAS VEGAS NEVADA TEMPLE

After eating dinner on the strip in Las Vegas, we decided that we definitely needed something better to end our day with than what we saw there.  We were able to find the temple and it was BEAUTIFUL at night with all of the lights on.

(The Las Vegas Nevada Temple) (The whole family) (The girls at the Las Vegas Temple)

LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA TEMPLE

The L.A. Temple is Brian’s favorite temple of all.  So, we couldn’t be this close and not go see it!  It was enormous!! I found out that it is the 2nd largest temple in the world.  You can totally tell when you are there.  We were able to take some great pictures – but I can’t seem to find the ones of the whole family! :( If I find them, I will post them later.

(The L.A. Temple from across the street – that was the only place I could get the whole temple in one shot!)

(The girls outside the L.A. Temple)(More beautiful pictures outside the L.A. Temple)

NEWPORT BEACH CALIFORNIA TEMPLE

This was a pretty cool experience finding this temple.  We didn’t even know there was a temple in Newport Beach!  We were driving to San Diego from L.A. and using Google maps for directions.  Instead of taking the way that we have always taken, we decided to follow the map and take a toll road, thinking that it would get us there faster.  While mom was driving, Brian was looking out the window and in the distance, he saw a building with a lot of lights.  He kind of sat up and leaned out the window and then asked if there was a temple in Orange County.  Neither mom or I knew, but as we got closer we all decided that the beautiful building in the distance looked like a temple.  Pretty soon we could see the spire and Brian said, “That looks like Moroni on top of that spire!” We took the next exit and sure enough, it was a temple!! We would have never seen it if we hadn’t taken that toll road!  We all said a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for leading us to this temple.

(Newport Beach California Temple) (Front view of the temple) (Side view of the temple)

(Tired girls in front of the Newport Beach Temple)

SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA TEMPLE

This was a MUST STOP on our vacation!  In fact, we stopped twice, once in the dark and once in the day!  This is my favorite temple of all time, and I think it is becoming one of mom’s favorite too.  It was a gorgeous day and the girls loved being at the temple.  We were able to talk to a sister missionary who brought out a book of pictures of the inside of the temple to show us.  It was really neat.

(San Diego California Temple) (The girls running and laughing at the temple) (The entire family at the San Diego Temple)

REDLANDS CALIFORNIA TEMPLE

As we were getting ready to leave, we decided that if we came all this way, we better see every temple we could.  We looked and found that the Redlands Temple was only a few miles out of our way, so we of course stopped by!  We were surprised how much smaller this temple was than the others that we had seen, but it was no less beautiful!  It was actually in the low 90’s when we visited this temple, and as soon as we got out of the car we were immediately enveloped with the strongest smell!  It was a mixture of honeysuckle and lilacs.  It was so intoxicating (strange word to use when describing the temple, but true!) that we did not want to leave the temple grounds.

(Redlands California Temple)

(The girls outside the temple)

 (Some of the flowers that created the beautiful smell!)

(The whole family finishing our temple tour outside the Redlands Temple)