one year

I can't believe it's been one year. I was driving home from work and it hit me that it's been one year since I received a call from Cheyenne telling me that Sr Airman Mark Forester was killed serving our country. I cried on the way home. I cried for the loss of my friend, cried for his family, and cried for what might have been in store. Followed behind those tears was an overwhelming sense of love and pride for what Mark did for us, for Mark living his life, and dying, doing what he felt was his duty, and was what he felt God wanted him to do. My thoughts and prayers are with my friend Thad, with his family. I hope I can always teach my children of the sacrifices, the selflessness of so many who are better examples then I.

New design

Big thanks to Sara Archi for helping me fix my blog! I'm a bit technology challenged and she help....but "she" lost my blog list.(just kidding).... rather blogger is silly so if y'all don't mind leaving me your blog addresses again. Most I should be able to find again, but just in case.

So Thanks Sara!! And now I can weed out some blogs that seem to be dead...or just never updated... :)

September 11

I am humbled and honored this day. Humbled for the obvious, so many people were victimized, so many died, so many injured and hearts still ache, tears still fall and lives were forever changed. I am honored to be an American. Honored to live in the same country where thousands are selfless enough to run into burning buildings, to search for hours, days for survivors. Honored to be served by those are willing to fight for our country overseas, to give their lives to try and save ours.

I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing, like everyone else. Today we tried to teach Isabel about why we keep this day a sober one. We watched a bit of the tributes, explained about the planes and towers. Why people would want to hurt us. As much as her little self could understand. When she seemed a bit overwhelmed we turned it off. I hope she can learn to appreciate the freedoms we have, the country we live in, and the giving on ones self that our country displayed that day. For those who died, for those who fought against the hijackers and changed the route of the plane etc.

God Bless us all.

first day of school!! first day of school!!!

"dad, wake up! First day of school, first day of school!"
I thought of Nemo when Isabel woke up last Wednesday for her first day. She was so excited to get out there and really be a big girl. She wanted to ride and I really wanted to take her, so a deal was struck, if she let me drive her to drop her off, I would let her ride the bus home. She was good with that. So off she went with her back pack and her lunch all packed. She was so excited! My 5 year old is getting so big!
Mommy walk me in!


Public transportation is our friend.


Reunited and it feels so good!

Ahoy!

Love these two photos!

July 4th, birthday week and Pioneer day

Now that we're on our way to celebrating Labor day, I thought I would finally post about July 4th. We started out our 4th with a pancake breakfast at the church, (yum!), followed by the parade, the girls loved it but then we left when the rain really started coming down. Mike's best friend Cameron, his wife Annette and their cute kids were in town for Annette's family reunion. So we to to hang out with them. We headed to the Science Center for most of the day with the kiddos before heading down to the arch grounds to watch the fire works. Let me just say that spending 4 hrs by the arch with approx 12 adults and 12 children is SO much more fun then just having the 4 of us. The kids had a great time dancing until there were so many people there was just no room. Watching the fireworks was great, the kids had a blast with it.




Then we celebrated birthday week (or in this case it was drawn out for two). Mike has his favorite peanut butter chocolate chip cheesecake, I had a yummy key lime pie. And we both had more candles then we really wanted. :) Mike's mom also had us over and man I love my two girls!




And for pioneer day, we attended our ward activity and played with friends sat in the shade on a crazy hot day. It was good times with good friends. Mike participated in the pie eating contest, although he didn't win, he did stay the cleanest...I think he deserved a shout out. :)

Our last offically summer before school!

We ended summer the same way we started.. on a high note with lots of family time. We took the girls to the history museum, Izzy has been dying to go there, thanks to Ben Stiller and night at the museum.


Isabel loved looking at the exhibit of the 1904 World's Fair here in St Louis. I learned that the first bread maker was showcased here, the carpet broom, ice cream, and more stuff that I have forgotten in the last couple weeks. Izzy also went to a salon for a hair cut. She was so excited to sit in the chair and get her hair cut! I of course forgot my camera.

We then went swimming last week as a final hurrah. Isabel made some new friends, Stella loved the slide and enjoyed crawling in the water. I was of course worried that she would face plant and drown. When I would put my hand under her to make sure she didn't fall she would stop crawling and toss my hand out of the way.






Izzy sliding, Stella sleeping, and Izzy pouting because we need to leave. Ended a great day at the pool!