Basketball

Caleb played basketball this year. He had a lot of fun playing with some of his friends and even made some great shots. Mark and Caleb got to go to a Jazz game last night. So, while they were gone Brynli, Mercedes and I were looking at some old pictures of when Caleb was a baby and when Brynli was a baby. So cute! Mercedes and Brynli were pretty sure the pictures of Brynli when she was two were actually Mercedes.  It was so fun seeing all the pictures and videos we took. Here's one of them. It's amazing how fast they grow up. I miss that little baby boy, but he sure is fun now too!

Cuties

I have to share how sweet and cute our kids are. People have been saying they keep checking our blog hoping it's updated. I realized we haven't taken as many pictures lately - probably because I really don't like the pictures our camera takes and I haven't been blogging, so I guess I haven't thought about it as much. But I need to because these kids of ours are at an adorable, fun age. . . so here's a little update. And I will most likely go back and post some of the things we've been up to because it will be so fun to look back later on . . .

Ballerina Beauty

Hawaiian Beauty

Caleb reading to his sisters.

p.s. Thanks to those of you in our family that fasted for us on Sunday.

Happenings

We're being s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d in lots of ways right now, but that's good. It's more important to reach our full capacity and ability and know our Savior and His love and power more deeply than not. I feel like my faith muscle has just done the equivalent of about 600 pull ups or something over the last several months. So thankful for prayer, the temple, fasting, scriptures, running, the Spirit, my awesome husband, my sweet children who always spontaneously tell me how much they love me, and for people who love and care about us. Here's some fun pictures of some of the things we've been up to lately.

Daddy with his girls.

Imagine if this was in our house. We would have constant drumming. He loved playing these. I would love to have something like a djembe or bongos. That'd be so fun! Maybe someday I'll do music therapy and have all the awesome drums out there.

How much Caleb loves math. I've been doing a lot of math problems with him lately and he just loves it - so much he falls asleep still doing it. ha. What an awesome boy.

My baby turns one tomorrow!!!

She adds so much joy and fun to our lives. It's amazing how the cute things she does and her smiles and cuddles brighten all of our days.

My Grandma's funeral was really nice. My grandma had a great love for music. I'm thankful I could play my violin for her funeral and honor her that way. She always enjoyed having Mark and I play for her when we would visit her.

Nice enough to be outside without shoes, etc. in January. I love St. George!

So do these little bee boppers

Brynli loves to play with play dough. Not sure Mark likes it because of the potential mess, but it's worth it. :)

So excited for tomorrow! Pictures to follow.

Update

We really enjoy sledding on our sledding hill with our zipfies. :)

Caleb has lost his first two teeth! He was very excited when he came home and told me he had lost his tooth. He told me every day how excited he was that he had two loose teeth and made sure I was excited too. Which I was. He's getting big so fast.

Two Beautiful Princess Sisters

It's starting. . .

She's starting to really explore. It's so funny when you find her because she knows she's getting into stuff and she laughs when I find her.

Sweet baby girl. She's starting to walk on her own! She's taken around 7-10 steps several times. She has really good balance so has been standing for a while and now she's starting to walk.

Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Talent show at family Christmas party

Look at this cutie! We Love her.

Halloween pictures

Here's my cuties for Halloween. Some of these were taken today so we could get some pictures of what they were for Halloween this year. I'll have to take some of Mark and I. I had a pretty creative costume this time. Mercedes was a cute pumpkin, Brynli was a snow princess and Caleb was a robot.

Doulas

We have our new camera so I will be posting pictures soon. :) I am excited about life. I have the feeling that this is going to be a really great year for me. It's exciting.

This is a new video about doulas. It's what I do. Mothers, babies, families, and birth. I'm passionate about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u792CxDT7cE

Happy

5 Things I'm grateful for Today:

1. I'm getting my endurance & strength back. Yeah! I'm getting ready to start an exercise program for myself that I think I'll Love.

2. I get to play Volleyball tonight. Can hardly wait.

3. We have a dishwasher again, which is so fantastic after not having one for a few months.

(Awesome blessing. Our control panel stopped working on our dishwasher a few months ago. I had a small impression to wait to buy a new one. I was kind of bummed we were going to have to spend some of our savings on something we already had, but broke. So, I followed the feeling and just decided to wait for a little while to buy a new one and we just did dishes by hand. After a few months I was ready to just buy a new one. Then, the weekend I started researching and planning to get a new one, a man from church came up to us and asked if we needed a dishwasher. They were moving and planning to buy a really fancy schmancy one I think. When they moved they gave us the dishwasher - only 3 years old and black, so it matches our kitchen! Awesome. Heavenly Father is so amazing.

4. Mercedes' tooth broke through so we have a much happier camper and she's starting to crawl, which is fun for her. It's amazing how much joy it brings when my children accomplish something. Even though I have 3 kids, seeing Mercedes sit up and crawl still brings so much delight.

5. I get to be with these cute little people everyday! And my sweet husband tonight!

Regret is one of the worst feelings. A close person in my life was having her first baby and I had the prompting to call her yesterday. I knew she was in labor or going to be shortly. I felt like I needed to call her and didn't. I didn't do it right away and then I forgot with all the day's activities. The labor was difficult and the baby had a hard time when she was born and so did the parents. I regret bitterly I didn't call her and assist her.

Dates with Caleb & Brynli

We took Caleb and Brynli on special one on one dates a couple weeks ago. We had a fantastic time. Mark took Caleb miniature golfing, which Caleb had never done. He loves golf and he thought this was the coolest thing. He keeps telling me everyday he wants to go again and he wants to show me. I took Brynli to the library, we snuggled up on a big bean bag and I read her tons of books. It was so great to just sit and be with her for a long time. Then, we sat by the fountain on the big bench swings.

I don't know what happened to our camera. This is how the pictures look. It looks kind of cool in the picture of Brynli, so I decided to post it anyway. Guess we need to look for a new camera.
My cutie Mercedes. We are having so much fun with her!

4th & 24th

We had an awesome time at the stadium of fire. Amazing. Well, Mark and I did at least. ha ha. Caleb has always been scared of the loud noises of fireworks, more like terrified, and his fear kind of influenced Brynli as well. They really didn't like the fireworks at all - too loud and they were tired by then. So, if we go again I think it will just be Mark and I. :) But the night was amazing with Carrie Underwood and Jenny Oaks Baker. Fantastic. I really like both of them so it was so fun to see them live. Mark just wishes he would have won one of the motorcycles they gave away. And sweet Mercedes was the happiest one of the night. Didn't ever cry and actually took a little nap during the concert. Such a sweet baby!

We had such a great family reunion over the 24th (of July). Filled with boating, fantastic volleyball, games and seeing my awesome family - is there anything better?

We had a volleyball challenge between my family and my Aunt's family. It was quite the fun volleyball game. And we won! Woot!

There was a nice grassy area enclosed by the apartments that the kids could just run around freely and play together. They had so much fun together.

Group hug! Caleb with his cousins. They were giving each other a group hug and falling over laughing. So cute.

Thanksgiving Point

Yay! Thanksgiving point!

Mercedes was a great sport. She just took a nap in the trailer and was happy enjoying the ride.

We loved walking around seeing all the beautiful plants and flowers. I kept wishing I could live in a place like this. Caleb & Brynli got pretty tired walking at the end, but they really enjoyed the children's garden.