Birthday Week (and more!)

Well, there are a lot of pictures here but I just had to share them. Today was birthday girl week. We have celebrated her birthday-no kidding-every day this week!!

Here are some pictures of playing in the leaves today and towards the end are some random pictures from the last couple of weeks.

So we (mostly me) swept the leaves off our driveway into the little rain drain ditch. The girls had such a BLAST. This little one was really getting into it. She would even run and jump. It was cold outside but that did not stop us from having some fun :)

This is my favorite one (even though I cut her head off) Look at the air she is getting!!This little cutie had a little different approach- but she still had fun!

Our puppies are 2 weeks old now and little missy just LOVES to give them kisses!!

For our big 3 year olds birthday (actual day) we went to McDonald's with the arch card from Granny-Granny and got to play on the toys!

Having Fun on the toys...

Wishing she could have fun on the toys...

Thursday was her true birthday, but Daddy was leaving for Idaho on Wednesday morning so we celebrated it Tuesday nightShe was SO excited-She had been waiting for this for a WHOLE YEAR :)

And she wanted nothing more than a pink cake!Granny got both the girls sunglasses!!
I want to say thank you to everyone that send cards and packages. It was so fun for the birthday girl to get presents and cards in the mail. She loved it.

It was kind of weird not being with family. We miss you all!!

This was from a couple weeks ago. I was so happy to see them both sitting on the couch together happily watching TV without fighting!

This is like a really random picture but its the only one I took of our trip to TULSA!! This was right before the big game, all of us went to McDonald's all PROUDLY wearing our BSU gear. After that the big boys and kids went to the game. Me and the girls went back to the hotel and watched the game and went swimming during half time. It was so fun to drive there sporting our BSU flags on our beautiful blue van. This Oklahoma state trooper even waved at us! Sometimes it feels so weird to think that we are so far away--I would have never thought we would be going to a BSU game in Oklahoma!

These pictures are for those of you that have not been to or seen the Oklahoma City Temple. We drove to Tulsa on Wednesday for the BSU game (3 hour drive) and then drove home on Thursday morning. Then on Friday we drove to Oklahoma City (almost 3 hours) to attend the temple for our stake fill the temple day. A big thanks to Dennis and Erica who watched our kids. It was great to be able to go to the temple. It is a really small temple, but beautiful.

What-Matters-Most

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved"
President Thomas S. Monson
This is an amazing message from our prophet:
What-Matters-Most

He's Home!!

Yeah! 2 weeks before he arrived my parents were here helping out with the business here. They took the girls home with them for 10 days. It was so crazy, sad, fun, and lonley without my little girls. The day before he came home I flew into Boise. He was supposed to come home around 8:00 but his flight from Germany was delayed and thus he missed his connection in Denver. Luckely there was another flight two hours later! There was lots of family and friends to welcome him home, it was quite an event!!

Little miss naughty wanted nothing to do with me when I got to Idaho. All she wanted was her Nanny! Its like she didn't even need me anymore!! It was so sad!She also did not want anything to do with him. She was like who on earth is this guy The princess here LOVED him. She just kept talking and talking and talking--which is nothing new--I don't know where she gets it...:) She did not want to leave his side. It was great to see them pick up right where they left off.

We all stayed up late to hear our RM tell stories every night.

Don't you just love the Russian hats!

I took the kids to the school on one of the days to let them have a change to play and run around. The girls loved the swings! She looks scared but she actually was having so much fun with her favorite Aunt and did not want to get off.

We had a great time with the family and had the oppurtunity to hear a lot of great stories. It was a blast to be with the family and enjoy the homecoming of one of our favorite missionaries!!

Our New Life in KANSAS

I have been wanting to post some pictures for some time now but I couldn't find the box with my camera cord in it! Now that it has been found, I'm going to give just a little update. We left our home sweet home in IDAHO on Friday August 14 and headed on a LONG move to Kansas. We gave ourselves two days to travel and both days were just driving ALL DAY LONG!! Part of the reason it took so long was the moving truck was so slow. We stayed in a hotel in Laramie WY Friday night and then got back up and headed out Saturday morning to finish the other half of the drive. Monte called our new Bishop to let him know we were on our way and he said he would have people ready for us. When we arrived at 8 that night we had 6 ready and willing men from the ward there to help us. It was so great. We were exhausted from such a long drive and it would have taken us forever to unload that massive truck.

Sunday church started at 8:30 which was 7:30 Idaho time!! It was a killer! But church was great and there were lots of friendly people. One Sister came up to me after church and asked if we had a fridge-which we didn't- and offered to bring us dinner. It was so nice.

Anyway, I could go on, but I would be up all night. Here are some pictures of our house and what we have been up to the last couple of weeks.

Monte got a NEW GRILL from my parents for his birthday!! Its been fun great to have-we have used it 3 times already this week!

Mindy playing with the dogs on the porch

Dads Apartment in Wichita

Our HUGE back yard

The girls love being outside. It is so nice to just let them play and not worry they will wonder off or fall into a ditch.

Our "Cowboy" living room

living room looking towards the front door

GAME DAY!!

Makayla is such a fun, cute and good little girl. I cannot believe how much she is looking like a toddler now. I miss my little baby! She is getting so good at saying little words. This week she learned how to say "Nanny"

We have been super busy with work since we got here but things are supposed to start slowing down here soon. Its been crazy learning everything and getting all the office work done! We enjoy Kansas so far and hope to have a great and successful future here!

All because two people fell in love...

Last Tuesday morning Mindy was asking me questions about the temple. She asked some questions like what color it is and was talking about getting married in the temple. I did not have anything particularly planned that day so, I decided to take the girls to the temple. It was a beautiful experience. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and in full bloom. It was extremely hot outside so we didn't stay out there for long. When we were in the front looking at the flowers the gardener came up and gave us a flower and said it was a one day lilly so it would only bloom for that one day and then die so he thought we would enjoy it. It was so sweet and thoughtful. We also went inside and Aunt Judy gave Mindy her own picture of the temple and a temple coloring page. She sang "I love to see the temple" several times in the waiting area and all of the "grandmas and grandpas" were smiling at her. It was such a sweet experience. I'm so happy we had the opportunity to go and enjoy such a special blessing Heavenly Father has given us. The Boise Temple will always have a special place in my heart.

Matching Girls

I saw these skirts at Carters and I just HAD to get them. The girls look so CUTE and I love it when they match!!

This the cutest picture of the girls together out of the bunch, but most look like.....

Makayla's Birthday

I have been so bad lately about updating my blog so here are some pictures of Makayla on her first birthday May 23.

I cannot believe it has been a year!! It feels like we have always had baby Iya!! We love her so much! When we brought her home Mindy was 19 months and couldn't say Makayla but rather "I-ya"

I was so scared that Mindy would hurt her.....now its a daily occurrence :)

This is a picture of the girls both under a week old. Below is a picture of me wearing the same outfit after I was born. Makayla wore it 21 years later.

Here are some pictures of Makayla's Birthday Party. Makayla looked so cute!! Both the girls were matching and we had a blast at the snow shack.