Happy First Birthday Cameron!

Austin and Brooke were SOOO excited to celebrate Cameron's first birthday with him!

Lucky for them, their super fun and wonderful Aunt Melanie was there to help them make a cake for their little brother and they were very excited to do it.

They picked the frosting color, and helped make it, out of lots and lots of powdered sugar! :-) They also chose the decorations for the cake, which they had fun arranging in a pattern around the edges. We had mini marshmallows, candy kisses and a nice variety of sprinkles, of course. Yummy!
We were so glad Aunt Melanie could be there to celebrate with us and had lots of fun playing, visiting and making cakes with her.
Cameron was thrilled to have a personal little cake of his own to celebrate with

and chow down on. . .

which of course, he did!

Apparently it was VERY delicious!

and a little bit messy, so we had a quick "birthday bath" in the kitchen sink.
Then it was on to the presents. . . it's sure great to be one!

We love you Cameron! We sure have enjoyed playing with you and watching you grow this past year. Our family wouldn't be complete without you.

Happy First Birthday!

Go Brookie go!

Brookie had a fun time attending a one day "Cheer camp" with the LT high school cheer leaders recently. I wasn't able to stay with her, because I had rehearsal to go to, but she stayed and was happy the whole time. That was a big deal for us! It was the first time I have been able to take her to an activity like that and leave her. It was resassuring to see that she is getting more mature and will probably ease into kindergarten nicely.

Brooke is in the center, toward the back in this picture in the pink skirt. She had a great time hanging out with the girls. It helped of course that she attended with her friend Sidney, who invited us to go with them. They are good little buddies. It also helped that our friend Melissa was one of the coaches and Brooke had already spent several days at her house that week. :-)

SOTW Success!

Wow! The day actually came and now it's over. This Friday and Saturday we had 4 performances of our Savior of the World production and it was a great success. I am very pleased with how it turned out and judging from the 3 hour testimony meeting that we had with the youth this evening, they did too. Yay! Many lives were touched and for that I am grateful.

The cast presented our directors committee with beautiful signed plaques from the show and roses at the final show last night. That was so nice of them and fun for us to get. I came home and hung it right up. I formed some close relationships and had experiences that I will carry with me throughout my life. It was a great thing to be a part of.

Now, I will get back to getting my life back in order. That will be a bit of a challenge for a while, but I'm gonna give it my best effort! :-)

I'll post some pictures from the show soon. Hopefully when I get back from vacation.

Austin and Melanie left today. It was a sad day for me. I get to see so little of Mel to begin with and goodbyes are always tearful with her. It was particularly hard today to send her off with Austin. He was eager and excited, but I was a little hesitant, and of course, emotional. Brooke was sad to see her brother go as well. It will be fun to meet up with them this week when we head off for Grandma Jan's 80th birthday party in Colorado. That should be fun.

Well, that's the update for now. I'm gonna get some sleep!!

down time ?

It's been weeks since I've had a few minutes to chill out with my kids, do the dishes or fold some laundry, much less post to my blog, so sorry for the long delay.

I have been assistant director of this production for over a year now and we are in our final stretch. Amazingly enough the show is THIS WEEK! It's a really busy week, to say the least, but then it's over. I know I'll miss the involvement, overall, it's been a fabulous opportunity. I am just getting really worn out and feel so bad about being gone from my family for so long.

This week my baby turns one! I won't see himn that day, because that is the opening day of our show and I'll be gone all day and night. :-( It's a little sad, but he won't know the difference. We're going to celebrate with his little cake and stuff on Sunday, after the show is finished. I'll be sure to post some pics of the cake eating!

I'm so excited that Melanie is coming for a short but much anticipated visit this week! She's doing me the honor of attending the SOTW production on Saturday with my family. Then she gets to be here for our little bday celebration on Sunday. That's so exciting!

Then, she will be taking Austin back with her for a little visit with the boys, which he is SOOO excited about! It'll be an eventful week. :-)

Gotta go for now, more again soon, I hope.

Gratitude

Happy 4th of July! I was having this little talk with my kids today about Independence day and what it's about. We talked about gratitude and all the blessings that we have and sometimes take for granted. We talked about our healthy bodies, free country, safe home, family that loves us, etc. It's always important to have those talks, to remind them of their blessings. Sometimes it's easier to have the talks then it is to walk the walk. . .

It's so easy to explain about the glass being 1/2 full and not 1/2 empty. I talked to them about how we should be grateful for what we have and not complain about what we don't have. It's a lot easier to talk about than it is to live. :-) We expect so much from our little kids and I realized this afternoon that it is much easier said than done. I realized this afternoon that I am guilty of not always having this attitude myself.

We get busy and irritated with the little (or big) things in life and sometimes it gets the better of us. Specifically, I feel like I do that with my husband. I can be so critical of him and expect so much, all the time. I know I am not always as encouraging and supportive as I could be. This afternoon a neighbor called to thank me for one of John's random acts of kindness and it reminded me of what a wonderful man I am married to. Our neighbor fell a few days ago while mowing his lawn. He was taken to the hospital to get checked out and ended up being there for a couple of days. Thankfully, he is home now and doing well, which is wonderful. He called a little while ago to express his gratitude to my husband for finishing the lawn mowing that he had started when he got hurt. He really appreciated it and wanted to thank us. John isn't home and I told him I'd relay the message. I hung up and thought about how often John performs these kind acts, usually unbeknownst to me or anyone else. It hadn't even crossed my mind to go moe w their lawn. But John went right out and did it first thing, without being asked or talking about it. He does these types of things all the time. He doesn't tell me he's going to do it. He doesn't tell people after he does it. I often don't know unless I find out in other ways. He doesn't do it to be praised. He just sees needs and tries to fill them with kind acts. I am grateful for his example of kindness and selfless service and I thought it was worthy of a post. I guess I should probably tell him too. So, I'll make a point to do that when he gets home. :-)