4th of July, 2012- Good times!!!

Ah, yes. The 4th of July in Prescott, AZ. The first time Cade told me about how amazing it was, we were dating. He couldn't tell me enough how special and amazing the 4th is in the town he grew up in. And now we have gone I believe 5years in a row (I could be wrong, but it's been several). I do have to say after making this such a great family tradition...I LOVE IT! It really is such a fun and amazing place to be for this particular holiday and this year was no exception.

I just had gotten back from girls camp Friday at noon.  Then Cade finished up at work, we packed up, and headed to Prescott! We stopped in Vegas for a few hours and Tara and Johnny's place, then got to our destination at 7:30. The parade started at 9:00 a.m. I wasn't quite as "out of it" as I thought I'd be. We had a great time at the parade and we had a lot of family on both sides that were there! It was so fun! Then at night we went to a country dance and it was so great! Cade and I used to dance a lot when we were dating. In fact one of my first memories of Cade and I the summer we started dating was when he took me out to the parking lot at Liberty Square (the apts where I lived) and he turned country music on in his car and taught me how to country swing dance. Since being married we haven't gotten out to dance very much so this night was especially fun. I got to re-live some dating moments :).

The rest of the week in AZ was SO great because EVERYONE had the whole week off! Even Tammy and Dale. We spent lots of time hanging out at the house, shopping, going out to eat, taking the kiddos to fun places like the zoo, etc. This was probably the most enjoyable trip I have ever had in Arizona...ever! It was fun every single day. Emma and Ashur had so much fun together and they play so well together too. They played outside in the backyard most of the time.

I am so grateful to my in-laws for always making it so special and fun when we come to visit. We had such a great time and Emma was very sad to come back to our house. We loved spending so much time all together with NO WORK! Yay! Thank you again for giving us such great memories!

Dale went at 3:00 am to save our parade spots! First row. Awesome seats and awesome father-in-law:

Cousin Mikayla and Aunt Rosie with my girls

Tamara and Eric. I love being able to spend time with those two.

Cousins Casey and Ehren! It had been WAY too long since we had seen them. It was so fun to catch up with them!

 

Emma and Ashur ran in the boot race again. This time Emma did not have a fever. She smiled the whole time and thought it was great!

Going dancing with Tara and Johnny and Tamara and Eric!

Of course a 4th of July holiday is not complete without marshmellow wars!

 

On the actual 4th, we went to Johnny's parents house and they have 4-wheelers that we got to play with! We had dinner with them and it was a great treat to be there. As you can see, Emma sure thought that was a fun treat!

 John and Marisel Vizzard joined us for the 4th. We got to spend the whole day with them. We took them around downtown Prescott, joined us for dinner and four-wheeling and fireworks and Ladder Ball at night. It was so much fun to meet and get to know Marisel. Hopefully we'll be able to see them soon.

On our trip we traveled up to Flagstaff to see some more of the extended family. This is a picture with  cousin Mikael.  It's fun that we can stay in touch through Instagram and Facebook. It was fun to talk in person and get to know her even better!

Guys time out! How appropriate...gun shooting. They seemed to enjoy themselves :).

The guys also took Emma and Ashur to Home Depot for a craft day. They made their very own moving trucks out of wood. They loved it.

Reese getting her giddy-up on. She makes a cute cow-girl!

Family Picture on Cade's 30th birthday. I sure LOVE my family.

Emma's ABC's

Emma sings the ABC's all the time. Especially at the store...at the top of her lungs :). It's her favorite.

I love this video cause she just loves singing and playing the piano. Listen to how good the two go together :). It's fun to see her love of music and that she loves to sing. I sure hope she keeps it up!!!

Emma also got a guitar from her daddy when he visited Nashville for work. I caught her the other day pretending to play it while singing "I'm trying to be like Jesus...". It was so dang cute! Glad that the electric guitar could be so spiritual for her :). You never know what kids pick up on, do you? So cute!

Happy 30th, Cade!

 My wonderful husband left the "decade of decisions" and is an old man now :). I wanted to make this birthday especially special so I made some plans. First I got a hold of 30 of his closest friends and family members and asked them what one of their favorite things is about Cade. I took each of those responses and put them in balloons and had them blown up with helium. While we were in AZ we celebrated with German chocolate cake and butter pecan ice cream- two of Cade's favorites! He opened some gifts (one from all of us was a new computer for his road bike) and I brought up the balloons and he read all of the responses from people that love him. A lot of common ones were they love his humor, how he is so good to his family, and the spiritual giant he is. My favorite thing about him is his patience. If he weren't so patient we would not have ended up together. He was patient through our relationship before marriage and he has been extremely patient after. And I am forever grateful for him!!!

After our AZ trip we met up with some close friends who will most likely be moving soon- Matt and Kelsey Egan. We both got babysitters and went to Olive Garden together! It was one of the first times in a LONG time hanging out without children. We could actually talk and talk! We love them and will miss them when they move!!

Then my family came over the following Saturday and we had J-dawgs, watermelon, corn on the cob and ice cream cake. Some of Cade's other favorite things! We had SO much fun...that I forgot to take any pictures :(. But it was very yummy food and very fun company.

I am grateful for my old man :). I am a better person because of knowing him. I love him and grateful for his 30 years of life!!!

Swim Lessons Disaster

Well...let's just say that $40 went down the tube. I was so excited to put Emma in swim lessons. She LOVES the water and loves going to the pool! So perfect combination, right? Well, I don't know if it's because it was a male teacher, or if I couldn't get in with her, or it was a new pool- or all of the above! But the first day Emma would NOT get in the pool without me no matter how much I tried. finally by the end she sat in the water on the stairs. The second day I decided to just hand her to the instructor and she and the other little kiddies went around the lazy river together...Emma screamed the entire time! Really, the entire time. So needless to say, the third day she would not even get close to the water. As soon as we got to the pool she said "mommy lets go home!"

Well, I guess she wasn't ready. But tons of kids her age and younger love swim lessons. Oh well. Better luck next year!

My little Dancing Monkey :)

I cannot believe Reese is only 7 months old and is ALL OVER the house! She started scooting around in her 5th month and now 2 months later is crawling, climbing stairs, walking along furniture and walls and is into EVERYTHING! I have to try to keep up with her and make sure she is not going to hurt herself. She climbed the entire flight of stairs a couple weeks ago...and she didn't even seem tired! She got to the top and immediately took off into the room of her choice. Crazy girl! Reese just LOVES to get around and explore. I do love how she is so good at playing and entertaining herself. I mean, she does want to be around me and cries if she is left alone for a while (which I can't do anymore since she is so mobile), but she can play by herself a lot longer than Emma ever would.

Reese also loves Emma. She laughs at her and follows her around. She wants to be in her wake and follow what she is doing. I love seeing them together and Emma is really good with her too. Emma is a good big sister and helps show Reese the course. Sometimes I catch Emma trying to be the mom already though. It can be pretty funny. Reese will start chewing on a shoe and Emma runs over there saying,  "eeeww Reese! Eeeeewww!! Yucky! Put that down!" Or "Reese, that's my toy, don't touch!" And it's funny how Emma is all of a sudden so interested in toys that she hasn't touched in over a year :).

Another thing I LOVE about Reese is her smooth dance moves! It started in her high chair where she would start wiggling around when I was trying to feed her and it was so cute but at the same time made it hard to get the food in her mouth! Then she started doing it while sitting on the ground. Now whenever she hears music, she just wiggles her little body all around and it is SOOOOO cute! She can really get her dance on! I took her shopping today and she heard music over the intercom and she immediately started dancing in the cart! Oh, cute girl!

Emma is also a HUGE trooper as we try to get Reese to sleep all the way through the night. We tried having them share a room however at the same time we were trying to get Reese to sleep through the night....it didn't work. So now we may try again since...Reese sleeps 11-12 hours straight now! Hope we can keep it up!!!! (Please, please, please!) She has slept through the night for almost a week now!!!

My cute girls! Oh, I love them! And it's much easier to love them when I've gotten a full nights sleep :).

Mutual with my wondeful girls!

I have now been the Young Women's President in this ward a couple months shy of 2 years. And I LOVE IT! The first year was definitely trial and error in a lot of ways because it was my first time for many things- girls camp, New Beginnings, learning how to be a leader, teaching lessons a couple times a month, etc. I have definitely learned much from these wonderful girls! There have been stressful times and a lot to do all the time, but once I learned how to get organized and delegate I could really start enjoying the relationship I can have with these girls. I have become so close to many of them and love being able to spend so much time with them.

These are just some pictures from some of our activities. I will post soon about girls camp (which could not have gone better in any way. It was wonderful- nothing shy of miraculous!). I love these girls!

Going to the temple:

Mother's Day strawberry dipping for our Girls Camp fundraiser:

Sarah Robinson, one of my very best friends and my Laurel advisor. I've loved getting to know her so well over the past couple years and grateful for her friendship!

Our annual Lip Sync. Us leaders did "I Say a Little Prayer for You":

 

Visiting the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, going to City Creek for ice cream and pizza, then walking through temple square. Such a fun, fun night!

 

Man, I sure LOVE these girls!

(Kenedii and T'naiha Williams)

 (Melissa Walker. SO sad she had to graduate and move on)

(Krista Clark, Madie Horton, and Emilee Gonzalez)

 Our Where's Waldo activity. We went to the mall and had members of our ward dressed up in disguises. The youth were in groups and had to find all the members of our ward. Then we talked about being ourselves and loving who we are and not letting the world change us but being our best selves. This was last October (as you can see me VERY great with child) and we're doing it again this coming October.

 

 

Bishop Anderson and his old lady :).

Cade was one of the hardest for the youth to find cause he looked like a normal person but no one could recognize him! They are so used to seeing him clean shaven, short hair, and in a suit on Sunday :). (Wow- my belly is huge!)

We have SUCH a great time at activities! Sometimes it's hard coming up with a different activity EVERY week, but aside from the stress, it is so much fun!

Jen's Baby Shower

I got to throw a good friend in my ward a baby shower. Jen and David got chosen by a birth mom to be parents to a baby girl! The shower I threw was for our ward members and 50 of the 80 people invited came! It was so much fun and I had a lot of help from all the lovely ladies in my ward. We just held it at my house, but it turned out so fun. It was low key. Just lots of treat and ice cream sundaes. It was so wonderful to see how many supportive people we have in our ward. I hope Jen felt loved because she is!

 

 

These are wonderful ladies I have had the opportunity to work with in the Young Women's. Ruth (the shortest one :)) just happened to be in town from Boston! We got to hang out some and I loved seeing her!

Now they just got back from picking up their baby girl a couple weeks ago. We are SO happy for them because they have been waiting for this time for years! They are going to be such great parents! It's a great reminder to NEVER EVER take for granted the opportunity to be a parent! We are very, very blessed!