Blessed

That's probably the best way to describe how I feel about Grace.

From the moment I held her in my arms,

I knew I was blessed to have her

as my daughter.

But even more blessed 

to be her mother.

We celebrated her 8 years by going to Cafe Rio.

She is very blessed with some sweet friends!

A couple of weeks later we were blessed to see her be 

baptized and confirmed a member of 

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

We were blessed to have some of our family and friends come and support her.

(we dearly missed those who could not make it)

I'm so proud of this little girl.

She is such a sweet example to her younger siblings,

and to me!

Her desire to do what is right,

is a great blessing to her father and I.

We love you Grace!

in a galaxy not too far away...

some little guys had a party!

 the birthday boys

a party just isn't complete without getting some frosting on the face 

and some jedi training

 jedi training complete!

"Who's behind?"

MINE!

Do you ever get so far behind on something,

you have no idea where to begin?

That's exactly how I feel right now.

Where to begin?

I carefully hand-selected  photos to show

all the fun that has been had this summer...

but for whatever reason it only uploaded 5.

So lucky you, 

you get the really sweet and condensed version 

(not be mistaken with the milk:)

  Snowbird

 Bear Lake

 learned to ride 

...and air-bend!

And there you have it.

No worries,

we'll being seeing a lot more of each other.

Blog Worthy

p.s.

(Yes Andy,

this is definitely blog worthy)

We are fast approaching our 3rd year here

in good old SoCal.

Which means the end of Andy's contract

at Sony.

Much to their chagrin,

he decided to move on 

to work for...

DreamWorks!

We are looking forward to this change,

and all that it entails.

Happy Trails to you!

Sunday Sampler

And, I'm back.

for good!

Yesterday,

we finally did something

we've talked about for

a couple of months.

We moved all the kids into

one room.

They are packed in there

nice and tight like sardines.

We were tired of not being able to

use our computer during

nap and bed time.

Now I can

update our blog more frequently.

(this is the part where you jump for joy:)

So to continue on with tradition,

here is a recent video

of Elder Jeffery R. Holland speaking at

Harvard University

about our beliefs.

Take a look.

mormonism 101

Andy

I know I know
I usually blog about the kids...
but I really need to do make a shout out
to the
father,
husband,
breadwinner.
And by far the most talented
person I know.

He recently entered a little
art competition.

More than 1,150 artists entered
and only 198 pieces were selected to be on display.

If you care to see his art work
click here.
His is the 8th in.
Feel free to vote for it as well!

I couldn't be more proud of him.
Way to go Andy!

Seven years in the making

Finally!!

something to blog about.

Grammy came to town last week.

(here are some of the highlights)

In honor of presidents' day..

we hiked to the Hollywood sign.

Actually you can only hike

up and behind the sign.

(not a very glamorous sign don't you think?)

(in route)

Jumping ahead to Friday.

The real reason for Grammy's visit...

my baby is now

seven.

How did that happen!?!

In honor of the birthday girl,

we threw the fanciest party around!

Since I was playing the "hostess with the mostest"

I neglected to take pictures of the

pretty tea cups and set up.

Luckily Andy had his whits about him

and took some shots.

my favorite part of all was doing a book exchange.

Everyone left with a 'new' book

and we didn't come home to a bunch of new stuff.

the lone boys