Sawyer Crawling

I'm done nursing so that's all for now

Cheerios

Test Sadie's Worries

Hey Y'all- that's for you Chels

First of all, thank you for all of Sadie's B-day wishes. She LOVED them. Next, if you scroll down to Mike's post and link over to Sundry Seven there are several videos on there- 2 of Sadie and 2 of Sawyer. Mike was going to put them on all of our blogs but he is having computer issues. I will try to figure it out after Sadie's b-day party tomorrow. Until then I have tunnel vision.

Mom, I will call you when I find the Moose keys. Until then you are dead to me:)

Sadie's worries

Brooke, i really really really need you to post "sadie's worries" from sundry seven onto our blog. i discovered it this morning and since have shown it to brind, julia, meags, cory and the kids. it is so dang funny! i'm going to call jason tonight and make him watch it too. i think the whole family would love to have that little insight into sadie's thinking.

by wil

from wilohm   

to jackson we are best friends

Bavaria

Memorial Day Weekend
We just had a wonderful weekend. The kind that makes leaving Germany really hard. Friday night we met my friend Ann-Christin and her family and some other families from the Bamberg ward at the Rabenstein Castle for their Middle Ages Festival. Everyone dresses in their "Middle Ages" clothing. They have all sorts of tents with crafts that any good "granola" would love and other tents where they demonstrate skills and ways of life from oh so long ago. Then they put on a mock fight in the middle of a field and at the end they let all the kids come in and "attack" the soldiers. Of course there is also some great food. We drove through beautiful little villages to get there as well and had a wonderful afternoon/evening. Then we made it back by 8:30, in time for Jane to go to a "campout" at our friend's house. Saturday we did some work, got the oil changed, went for a walk, and then Saturday night the girls' favorite babysitter, a young woman from our ward, came over and I went out with some girlfriends to a little Biergarten for dinner. It was a fabulous evening, very relaxing. Sunday we had friends over for dinner, a little on the chaotic side, but still fun. Then yesterday we went to Playmobil with a huge group of families. I brought my babysitter with me again, which was the smartest thing I've done all month. Jane got to play with all of her friends, Ashley and I took Ellyn, Sawyer and Sadie around. There were quite a few times that Ellyn and Sawyer would both be happy and busy and then one of us would get to go play with Sadie. She also had a million friends there as well so everyone was feeling the love. We came home exhausted and happy. I loved that Jane could just play without any responsibilities, she needed it. I think I am going to have to kidnap Ashley when we move. My kids love her.

So school began again. It is getting harder and harder to stay on a schedule. It just got dark and it is 10:30. With soccer we rarely eat our actual dinner until 7:30. Speaking of soccer. Jane is going to be goalie at the next game. The two goalies that
we had are leaving to go train on a traveling team and the coach has been trying out different kids and wants Jane to do it. She has been goal keeper a few times and has done pretty well. I just hate all the balls aimed at her.

Other news. I had a dentist appt. today. My first since right after I had Ellyn and yes- I have no cavities. Oh what a lovely feeling. Sadie has her top front tooth dangling from her mouth right now. The little girl smile will be gone forever. That is kind of a sad feeling. On the other hand, Sawyer's first tooth poked through this weekend. Way sooner than any of my other kids. He is also crawling and he pulled himself up to a standing position. He is so strong. He is also a huge flirt. He smiles and coos at everyone. My neighbor is in love with him. She held him for almost an hour yesterday. He even fell asleep on her chest. He makes us all so happy.

Well I have got to go to bed. I am pooped and I have so much to do this week. Why I chose to have Sadie's b-day at the house I know not. I'm insane. On that note I will end.

Happy Birthday Sadie!

Sadie, I hope you have a great Birthday! I know you and Isaac would be best buddies. Hopefully someday soon you will get to meet!

Love,
Chels

My Beautiful Sadie

Happy Birthday, Sadie!!

Sadie, we hope your birthday is "wunderbar auf Deutch". We love you and can't wait to see you.
Love,
Punkle Adam, Mindi, Sierra, Kaia and Tristan

happy birthday sadie jean

hey little sadie g'ma misses you. i haven't talked to you since i left germany, but i think about you and jane, ellyn and sawyer all the time. i miss you. wish i could have seen you dance in your recital. i wish i could be there to celebrate your birthday some more!!!

i remember when you were born. your dad had just come home from afganistan with a broken leg.  meagan  and cory were in europe with adam and mindi and i was supposed to be babysitting.  your mom called and said she could really use my help.  benny and i flew out and we spent 2 weeks waiting for you to come. the doctor had promised he would start your mom, but now all of a sudden they were short handed. 

we drove to savanna on your due date. it was so beautiful and hot and humid i thought your mom and dad would die. your dad's leg was itching like crazy in the heat. we walked through a few of the squares, saw the proctors walk and finally gave up all pretense of sightseeing. i teased your dad and mom and told them how fun it was trying to see savanna with "hobble and wobble."  we got in  the wonderfully air conditioned car and went to my favorite place to eat sea food " The Crab Shack"  no not the chain. this place is amazing. we ate till we were about to pop. and then drove home.

still no sadie.

finally your mom was desperate enough to ask mark to deliver you the day before i left!!! i wasn't worried because i knew your dad would take good care of all of you!!!

guess who just walked in the door and surprised me---elly----wahooooo!!!!!!

i love you my little sadiekins. have a fun b'day and tell your mom to call me before she goes on my almost permanent pooop list!!!! 

love, g'ma

ps. one of these days i will learn how to e mail.

Our camping weekend

We went camping Sunday night with some friends from our old ward. One of the couple's parents own 100 acres right outside of Charlottesville. It was INCREDIBLE, to say the least. I was so in love. Cole (as you can see from the pic) was more than excited, and Dayne (from the pic below), felt so good and carefree that she dropped her pants wherever she was to pee. Yes, we need to work on that.

Geof. loves and adores our little June bug. He can't get enough kisses in. And on a side note, doesn't he look more than good in this pic??

We feel so blessed to have already made such good friends out here and are sad to leave. We know it's not long term (maybe, you never know), but we'll miss our Virginia. Fortunately, we have one of the most beautiful states and wonderful family to look forward to. Here we come Washington!

More Pictures!

Seattle Trip!!!!

It was a wonderful trip!! Starting out with the whole plane clapping for Paula when they announced that it was her Birthday! We were picked up at the airport and taken to a wonderful Korean restaurant that was to die for! Then to the hotel when the sisters and Meagan then went to the Temple. Great first day. Breakfast at 9 then to Pike’s Market at 10, fish for lunch and then a walk around a golf course, and then a short swim for the kids that night. Another great day! Church for some at 9, I volunteered to stay and make sure that nothing got taken from our room! Breakfast and checked out of the hotel and then meet Shelli, Brian and Madi at Red Robin for lunch at the last minute. It was so nice of them to come and see us! Then to the airport. It was great, Meagan your kids are wonderful and you and Cory. Thanks again LeAnne and Ellery, it was great and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful family, when you think of families that are a lot closer then we are that don’t keep in touch, I think that we are doing a pretty good job of it being as far apart as we are! Yes I know that Washington people and Denver and Virginia and German do more then we do! Thanks again Paula and Bill for the tickets and hotel and LeAnne and family for the tour and shuttle!!! And to Joan as a bed partner, but I think that I will keep Kev!!! Love you all! Aunt Jack

Mike Iraq update

Family, I would post here too but I am going to redirect you to www.sundryseven.blogspot.com so that I do not have to repost all the pics on this slow connection.

Mike

Happy Birthday Clo Bug...

Today Chloe turned 5.

I can't believe it has already been five years.

I can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.  I was able to watch her birth and it was the most amazing thing I had ever witnessed.

Since she was a little girl Chloe has been all sass but she can also be a total sweetheart.  I called to wish her a happy birthday and it was like having a conversation with an adult.  I can't believe how grown up she is.

I love you Clo Clo.  I hope you have a great day.

Post Script:

Happy Birthday Paula.

I hope you are having a wonderful time with your sisters.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!

Happy Birthday Paula!
Happy Birthday Chloe!
Happy Birthday Jordan!
Happy Birthday Michelle!

Happy long weekend everyone! Joe and I are camping tonight and going to Wendover from Sunday to Monday. Hopefully we can win it big and all retire. :) Cross your fingers...

~Chels

PS - Can you tell work is slowing down? I've turned into a blogging maniac.

Check this out!

My friend Megan just sent this to me-

My friend told me about this and I just had the funnest time. Go to this link - http://www.eyeslipsface.com/shop.asp

Apparently Nordstrom bought out this company and they’re selling everything really cheap (most stuff is only $1) because they need to repackage. At check out type in CAROLINA for the coupon code and get 7.50 off!

Jane and I just did our makeup shopping for the next 10 years, okay maybe 5. The bath products are 3 for 10 even though it doesn't say so until after you order.

Mom, I had to ship it to your house:)

Chels- Happy Late Birthday! Everyone loves being stationed in San Antonio by the way. They have an Army Medical Program down there and I have never heard anything but good. Also, it is kind of fun living Oklahoma/Texas style. We had good friends that showed us many great things. Embrace it!

Love,
Brooke

Thank you so so much for my Birthday wishes, I had a great day! I did not go to work so I got to sleep in. I met Joey and my Mom for lunch at the Bun Basket. It is a really great sandwich/bakery up in Fruit Heights. It was funny because every time I want to go there Joey says no because only girls go there. This time he was right, I think there was maybe one guy in there besides him.

Joey took the afternoon off of work. After lunch he gave me a card with a really sweet note. Inside there was also a picture of my gift, my very own laptop! It was supposed to be delivered to Joe on the 20th, but he got an email saying it was on back order. It will be here next week, I am thrilled! And the best part, it is PINK!! My letter also told me that we were going on a shopping spree all afternoon. It was so much fun having most of the day together with not a care in the world. I didn't leave one store empty handed and I definitely got more than I deserve.

We met my family at my favorite restaurant in downtown Salt Lake called Al Forno's. It is Italian and it is delicious. Everyone gave me more than enough there as well. They made the excuse and said I got so much just because we are moving away.* Lindsey also gave me a purple top-hat with a purple monkey and a purple balloon tied to it. She tried to insist that I wear it all during dinner but that was not the case. I did allow a few pictures to be snapped with it on. If you see any of those on Cortney's blog, don't judge me. :)It was a great day, thanks again for all of the wishes!

*Things may change, I am yet to give any details because things may change again. Just stay tuned. :)

~Chels

birthday wishes

chelsea marie, wow happy birthday!  hope you have had a great day and that you have a great night.  i'm sure you will be spoiled like you should be because you have such a great husband, mom and sisters (and brother in law)!  we are thinking of you and are excited for your big move!.

love..............me

chels Happy birthday

i remember your mom showing up at the airport i think it was with you in her arms. you weren't supposed to born till after g'ma arlene got home from her trip. what a surprise. you have always been a great surprise. san antonio will be fun. we at least will get to hear from you on the blog wahooooo!!!

heroes

i finally took time out to catch up on the blog, you are all my heroes. i am so grateful for each of you. your stories of your everyday lives and how you are trying to weather the storms big and little are awesome.  you are an amazing group and your mom/aunt Le Anne loves you.

i can hardly wait for the weekend.  i texted the other night and said the only thing i can figure out is that "the host" has taken over the bodies of my sisters.  really? 2 visits in 7 months!!! unheard of.  we will have fun in seatle.  wish you could all come.

we did have so much fun in europe.  i do love to travel!  janie, sadie, ellyn (she cries when you try to get her out of the car)  and sawyer are incredible travelers. i will miss having brooke in germany and geof. and darla in richmond but it will be so good to have them closer to home. bet i still find someplace to go. here's me hoping that they don't cut that little benefit for parents of pilots.  i'm thinking they won't because it only costs them 15 or so peanuts a flight and i'm willing to give those up if i have to.

read an article in the newspaper the other day about the current summer crop of flawed superheroes.   in 8th grade the teacher had me do "independent studies" for a semester for the sake of both the other kids in the class and me. i went to the library everyday and read everything i could about the greek, roman and some nordic gods. i was confused because they were supposed to be "gods" that these people worshipped. they were really good at some things- superhuman in fact and yet they were capable of doing some really horrible things when you thought about it. my teacher explained that the people made their gods bigger than life people. everything about them was exagerated--bigger than life--really good/really bad.

the newspaper article went on to say that "superman is conventionally and traditionally a boy scout and that's often what makes him very difficult to relate with."  we will be better able to relate to these flawed heroes this summer. 

i'm wondering if in fact what we need to do as a society is to look for heroes not so we can relate to them and their flaws, but heroes  we can look up to as examples. why have superheroes that make us feel comfortable doing things we shouldn't do.  i think that was a prime reason mitt romney didn't get the nomination. any way  

don't get me wrong i will be there at the movies this summer with indiana jones, etc. i can hardly wait, but frankly i'm going to stick with the super boy scout hero as my role model--Pres. Monson. and all my children and my sisters' children and grandchildren.

love ya, mom, aka aunt Le Anne

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Chelsea, we hope your birthday is wonderful!!!!

Seattle Bennett living in Colorado

Jason where ever you got that pillow and I'm just saying this cause it looks like a boppy (those things girls use when nursing that wrap them or the baby whatever) just see if they have one of those bouncing vibrating hammock chairs that i can only find that fit babies but my size.

oh and Chelsea people in Colorado make fun of Texans but its usually just the hunters but a lot of Texans come to Colorado for vacation I hope you do too unless we move than you should just come to where ever i am for vacation

Happy Birthday Chels!!!

It is a week full of birthdays and yours is starting it all out.

We hope you have a great day. Hopefully you are not at work today and you are going to do something fun tonight. Let us know what you do.

We love you and are going to miss you when you move to San Antone so we need to play a lot before July.

Love Jess, Ton and Ind

my posts on breezy

Some more...

To go along with my essay..

isn't he cute?

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Whole World According to Jane

I didn't know what to think when we found out it was a boy. I was excited, but another thought ran through my head, "Will daddy want to play with his boy more than us girls?" I realize now that my dad loves us all equally. I am so blessed to have such a good little brother. the little tyke laughs, smiles, coos, crawls, and so much more. I am so proud of Sawyer. I am homeschooling and every once in a while I go to the bus stop to greet my friends when they get home from school. One time, in fact the first time I took him out with me. The moment all my friends had hurtled off the bus they came excitedly over. Once again, I felt so proud of Sawyer. He is the kind of baby that everybody loves. For a moment Sawyer thought he had died and gone to heaven. We were almost immediately surrounded by, "OH! SO CUTE!", and, "What a PRECIOUS baby!" Smiles and coos greeted all of them for the next ten minutes. WHAT A FLIRT! Sawyer is still funny to this day. He is so handsome. He was born with a lot of dark hair, but his hair started to fall out when my dad was home for R&R. We decided to shave it. What we meant to do was totally the opposite of what we did. WE SHAVED IT BALD. I felt like it wasn't the Sawyer that I knew. Now that his hair has almost grown back we are fine and his RED. So now I have the most spoiled, cute, brown eyed, red haired, only brother ever. Sawyer Micheal Stinchfield is the best brother in the entire world and I love him.

Multimedia message

Ellynn's new pillow. Yes, it's that huge white thing wrapped around her. it's a "maternity" pillow and her new favorite thing.

Washington bennett in Utah

Thanks for all the pictures guys! love to see those. it makes all the reading so much easier on me... and probably meagan too, lets face it. he he just kiddin meags.

so the other night we went to jessica's (jason's little sister) dance recital. it was the same night as benny's and i was wishing the whole time i could see my little princess dance. anyway that wasn't part of the story. we got home from the recital and regan was making homemade pork and beans. i don't know what was in the pot at that point but i walked in the house and walked directly out on the verge of puking. i'm not kidding. i'm getting a little queezy just thinking about the smell. so i go out back and sit on the swing and make jason bring dinner outside to me. regan decided it would be fun to set up the t.v. and sound system outside and watch a movie on the deck. we watched "the game plan" with the rock. kinda cheezy but over all a cute movie. it was the perfect night for it. the weather was beautiful, not too windy. just perfect! so i decided after the movie instead of braving the smell, i would just sleep on the trampoline. it was so heavenly! i'm ready to move my bed outside! i layed there for about 15 minutes before i passed out thinking "i love being outside. i love being outside. i'm going to live outside. i need a bini. i love being outside. i have to pee. i love being outsi.....". (that was me falling asleep). honestly one of the best nights sleep i have had it weeks. i didn't even mind the birds waking me up at 5.30. jason almost shot them but i didn't mind. i had to get up to go pee anyway and then fell right back to sleep.

For mother's day i asked jason for a body pillow. i was just thinking like a $15 one from target or something. no, no. jason gets on line and finds this $60 one that is like a bed in and of itself. it's freaking amazing! i will definately have jason post a picture of it tonight. the only problem with it is that i can't get to jason with that thing around me. you'll understand when i post the picture. now the only question is do i dare use the pillow when i sleep on the trampoline? i think it will fit in the giant double sleeping bag with me, i'm just not sure jason will....

Camping and golfing!

We did our first camp trip of the year at Plymouth again this year and had a blast! Chloe, came with us and was our driver golfing. She is very good, a little fast but for a 4 year old she is a great driver. (Yes I know that she will be 5 in a couple of days, but 4 sounds so much more impressive!) LKev, Alicia and Mad came up the next day and then Nick and Lyd came up on Sunday. The pools there are heated by the hot springs and was almost too hot, but beautiful. Jess, Tony and Indie were in Green River with Tony's family. Fun, fun times! Love you all Aunt Jack

P.S.

I forgot to mention our sweet FHE. Yesterday, I was set apart as the RS secretary in our new ward. Of course all the kids were there for the setting apart. Cole really wanted to help Dad and the bishopric member "bless" me, and was pretty angry when we didn't let him and we didn't have the time at the moment to explain. So tonight Geof. talked about authority and the priesthood, and blessings, and then Cole asked Geof. if he'd give him a blessing. It was really sweet. Cole was so excited and sat there so reverently and quietly with his eyes closed (yes, I peeked). It was a very sweet father's blessing. I love my family.

FHE

It's about 95% certain that we'll be moving to Battle Ground for the next 6 months or so. I'm sure Geof. will be angry that I'm even posting this, but oh well. (: We took the van in today to get washed and vacuumed since we're thinking of possibly (or probably) selling it before we go out. Dayne always freaks out in the car wash. She doesn't like loud noises. Funny, because her screaming/crying could possibly be the loudest thing any ear has ever heard.

June was quite entertained with her foot through the whole cleaning process.

Dayne got the umbrella stroller out of the back and tried opening it herself so she could sit in it while the rest of us labored. (: It kept closing up on her and she was so mad that I'm positive most of the other people there thought we were torturing her. She's such a stinker!

Cole was obsessed with vacuuming all by himself. He was extremely happy to help in any way.

Sunday night walk

Geof. went out with the missionaries last night, so the kids and I decided to take a walk at one of favorite parks. It was sooo beautiful. The kids were in heaven and so was I. I wish the weather was like the all year round. 70, 75 degrees. Perfect.

Here's June at 7:30 pm after only having a 45 minute nap the entire day. Don't you love Sundays? Better yet, don't you love those lips?

I was trying to get this pic at a cool angle, but my camera can only do so much..., and I was afraid June would topple off the side of the roots onto the ground.

Cole wanted to take a pic of me and I think he did a pretty good job.

Pacman Jones, Barry Bonds.... and Willie Bloomquist?

Check it, Beecher-bred M's fans. The recent wave of sports criminals has finally reached our beloved and stellar Mariners... and a sad day it is indeed. Just goes to show that even blue-blooded, apple-pie eaters from Bremerton can't escape the wicked pressures of today's society. And you were my hero, Willie. I hope that last clam went down easy. At least you've got three stolen bases...

SA, TX

Wow, I don't even want to discuss how long it has been since I have posted. I dare say it was pre-wedding! Ridiculous...

Much is happening as you may have heard. Joey and I will be moving to Texas at some point this summer. We will have full custody of the boys and they will primarily be living with us. It will be such a better situation for everyone, especially Keaton and Isaac. They do not know of our plans because we are holding off so we can tell them in person. They come out for part of the summer in less than 3 weeks, June 6th to be exact. :) Then we will all go back together.

We will be living just north of San Antonio in a suburb called Helotes. Joe and I went down there in April for a long weekend and fell in love with the place. We of course crammed in as much fun as we could for three full days with the boys. It was so much fun, but saying goodbye becomes next to impossible. As all of you with children can imagine, it is seriously heart wrenching. A long distance relationship for a father and a son really isn't an option anymore. In result, Texas is our option.

I am really excited to start a new adventure. I'm not going to lie, I find myself in a midst of anxiety at certian parts of the day, mostly thinking about all of the chores that come along with moving out of state. Who knew it was so expensive? Not me, I think I'll choose to blame it on gas prices. Any cheap/smart tips from any of you fellow movers would be much appreciated.

There is still a ton to do and not much finalized other than our minds being made up. Joe is making some changes at his current company and may be able to do sales for them in Texas. I will try and keep you up on the news. I promise to be better. I will be joining the blogging world and starting one of our own before we leave.

Quick update on the girls:

Ashley is graduating High School and will be working through the summer. She recently started at Zions Bank as a teller. In the fall she will be moving to Provo to go to school with a handful of her girlfriends at UVSC (UVC now?)

Lindsey finished out her softball season at Davis High and loved every minute of it. Unfortunately her team really didn't do the greatest, but oh well, right? :) She is working at the local baseball field keeping scores for different leagues.

It's 4:59 right now and I'm still at work, I've gotta go. I refuse to stay past 5pm. I'm serious.

~Chels

Bavaria

Hi Fambily, I hope you are all doing well. I have just had one of those days where you are pretty tempted to put your kids to bed at 6 but you can't because they still haven't eaten dinner. Actually, I had dinner ready and cooking while we were at soccer practice but then Jane and her friend rode home from soccer on their bikes and Maddie's mom wasn't home yet and so the girls were playing in the backyard and then Sue came over to get Maddie and stayed and talked for about an hour. I would have offered to feed them too but I didn't have enough and now with this everything fresh or frozen thing it isn't like I can just whip it up in two seconds. It was good to talk to her, we just didn't eat until oh 7:45 and then went straight in to scriptures and stories. The story part was cut short because I have the biggest punk you can possibly have for an almost 6 year old without that child being an actual juvenile delinquent. Also, Ellyn has had a cold for almost a week now which has resulted in temper tantrums several times a day, lethargy the rest of the day, and who can blame the kid? She's miserable and now so am I. Okay, I am going to stop venting now.

Just so you all know and in case you care, our reassignment packet is in. Mike's commander has signed it and now it is moving up the chain. I really don't quite know when we will hear back. So please keep that in your prayers.

Geof. and Darla, I am so sorry to hear the news. I know something will work. You all are in our prayers.

So I had an interesting experience on Friday that I thought I'd post. I put it on Sundry Seven with the intention of posting it right away on here and on Breezy but I just never got the chance so here goes-

Friday the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen came to Vilseck to talk to all of us here. It was at 2:30 and I wasn't going to go. Ellyn is home sick with allergies and I found out about it too late to get a sitter. But then Jane and I were at the PX getting some printer paper and I saw this huge entourage and I thought that if they were coming to address issues and I had an issue and if I could be the only one to say something than I had better go.

So...it was at the movie theatre on post. I nursed Sawyer and put in a movie for Ellyn, I put the phone on vibrate, and told Jane to ring as soon as either of them made a peep and I could be home in 5 minutes. By the way, no one knew who our distinguished visitor was going to be. Well I sat there debating when or how or if I would say anything when a woman raised her hand and she asked about improving the screening process for EFMP, ADM. Mullen asked what she meant and if she could give an example. She said "I don't know, like autism." and then kind of petered out and you could tell she didn't really want to say anymore or that she didn't know what to say. So I raised my hand and they brought over the mic (not intimidating at all) and I said I could give an example. Then I told a VERY brief story of our family and calling before we got here and being assured of the services and what we faced when we got here and that now we were forced to ask for reassignment. Then ADM. Mullen asked what services there should have been and I told him and I told him that Ellyn's teacher had told me just a few days before that she had interviewed about 10 new families that week and she could tell that several of them were going to end up with a diagnosis of autism. Then his wife stood up and asked if she could have my name and e-mail address, that she worked with a woman that was heading up the autism issues within the military and that she knew she would like to hear our story and have my input. I'm not saying all that to brag but because I'm really happy that I went and got to put our story out there and hopefully make a difference. When Mike and I debated me moving home for the deployment I felt like I should stay, despite the obvious lack of services. One of the reasons I thought maybe I should stay was that I might be able to say things and do things that maybe younger, enlisted families might not be able to. The sad fact is that they will listen to an Officer's family much more willingly than enlisted. Plus they know you, you go to meetings and social functions together. This year I have been able to say quite a bit in a few different situations and now I feel comfortable moving:) Anyway about 10 minutes later my phone buzzed and I had to leave.

I think I'm off to bed now, actually I take that back, Mike just got on i-chat. I love you all.
Brooke

my bro's wedding

This is a panorama of the Luncheon. There was a lot of pink...

Ellynn making good use of an oversized flower. She's craving anything cheesy lately and those are cheese-its she brought to the reception.

ColoradoBennett

Cory! The oil in our wok shaped itself into a heart. Similar to the smiley face of juice you posted while Meagan was gone. I think it represents love and ensuing world peace.

Well, we have to move out of our house in August, so we decided to move here. Ha. This is the 11,000 sq. ft. house that the Winter's daughter, Jami, was married in on Friday. The home belongs to a friend of a friend's sister or something like that, and it has a basketball court inside. See below.

The food was fabulous. Sierra must have eaten more than her share of cream puffs and brownies.
Here is the happy couple, Jami and Samuel.

On Saturday evening we met up with my parents for the Erie Town Fair. My parents woke up at 6 a.m. that morning to watch 60 hot air balloons take off from the golf course. We got to see three that night then watched the fireworks. We took one of my young women with us; she'd never been to a fireworks show before!

aaarrrrrghghghrhghghrhgh

congrats you've arrived. NOT. thanks wayne campbell. the roller coaster of aviation took a beautiful arc swing from apex to trough in a 24 hr. period. i arrived back from st. louis and that same night received a call telling me i was being down graded. 22 captains being demoted. possible furloughs for the jr. first officers. for those of you who plan on travelling buy your tickets now. prices will just go up as airlines stop flying many less profitable routes. hopefully you're elite so you can continue to travel in the future. if you are elite welcome aboard you're in 3c. the family is good we're just beating our head against the wall for the weekend wondering what we want to do.

bglife

i just read jessie's blog about her home improvements and saw how nice everything turned out and then their the bbq and thought, "wow they have really made it."  full grown adults with a very successful life!  we have all been so blessed.  i am sitting in my little dream house with air conditioning that actually works watching my babies jumping on their trampoline in our beautiful back yard with the sprinkler system on and i think, "i don't deserve all of these blessings!"  i always wanted all of this, (and in my ungrateful kind of way thought i would have it), but when i sit back and really look at it i am blown away.  Heavenly Father has blessed us so much!  i am so grateful and amazed by all that He has given to us.  as i look at all my siblings and cousins i am in awe.  reading court's blog about lindsey being grateful for joani's rules and chels and joey turning their lives upside down so that they can be with their boys.  jess  feeling so blessed to be a mommy and to such a sweet and special girl.  ellynn being so sick, but still wanting to be a mother and brooke, you guys if you only knew what a saint we have among us.  (maybe you do.  i was just reminded as i spent time watching her!)  those are just to name a few.  wait, how about mindi walking one of her young women home after tutoring her and being a little afraid, but it didn't stop her, and darla supporting her hard working geoffrey and doing the mommy thing alone something that i could not do!  granny and our Heavenly Father are  grateful to have such good children on this earth.

VA

My kids say the funniest things. Yesterday morning I made some german pancakes for Cole before school. Cole either hates you or loves you, there's not a lot of in between. He just happened to love me yesterday for making the pancakes and said,
"Oh mom, I love you. I don't want you to ever get old and die." (he's been pretty concerned lately with the whole old thing). To which I replied,
"It's okay Cole. We all get old and we all die someday. But we're all resurrected and then we have perfect, healthy bodies." And just to be funny I added,
"Even Daddy will have all his hair!" Cole frowned and then responded with,
"Mom! I don't want Daddy to have hair! If he has hair I'm just gonna have to shave it all off!"
It was so funny. We love our balding little Daddy. (:
Geof. and I were doing the dishes this afternoon when we heard Dayne in the other room saying,
"It's okay Jesus. I'll only have to hurt you sometimes (I know, kind of funny in a morbid way). She had the Book of Mormon open like she was reading it. She rambled off a few other "he said, she said" stuff and then pointed to the pic of Jesus in the front "look Mommy, it's Jesus!". We had to laugh because Dayne is the biggest rambler on earth. Most of the time she makes no sense at all, but I guess we should be happy that she's at least somewhat listening to us when we read scriptures and gets something...out of it.

Some pics of my Ellie