The Three's Tag

Three Joys:
1. My family
2. A Good Book
3. Summer Evenings

Three Fears:
1. Any kind of situation where my kids are trapped in my car in an emergency. (water, fire, cliff...)
2. Bad dreams. Thank goodness I can smoosh next to Del when I wake up from these.
3. Heights

Three Goals:
1. Re-memorize the Articles of Faith. (It has been a while since I graduated from primary.)
2. Read the Doctrine and Covenants.
3. Be better at having a "House Of Order" (Getting the whole self-reliant thing down pat.)

Three Obsessions:
1. My new swim suit from ModBe. Isn't is cute? Too bad it doesn't look as good on me!


2. Shannon Hale's books. This one was my favorite so far. But I really enjoy all her writing.


3. Scrap booking supplies from "My Minds Eye". They are a company of guys out of Utah, and their paper and supplies are irresistible! Even for a "scrappy" challenged girl like me!

I especially love the "Wild Asparagus" line.


Three Surprising Facts About Me:
Seeing as I am neither mysterious or exotic, I am skipping this one for now. I can't think of anything and when I asked Del for help his answers were either down right pathetic, or bordering on TMI. Surprise, I'm pretty predictable. How sad.

Three People I am Tagging"
1. Staci
2. Kelley
3. Shelley

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Today is Lauren's birthday. I hope you have a great day! I love you, and think that you are an amazing person. I admire all your energy and your love for everyone in our family! I still remember when you were born, and how excited we all were for another sister. You had lots of dark hair, and when Grandpa Clark held you for the first time he sang a silly little song that made us all laugh. (It is driving me crazy that I can't remember the words to his little tune... help Emily or Mom?) Anyway, I also remember your first steps and how I didn't want to go to school because we all thought is was so cute that you were trying to walk. I remember when at one of your softball games a fly went straight in your mouth and you swallowed it. (I don't know why she swallowed that fly, perhaps she'll die.) I have lots of memories of you being a sweet little sister and you still are. It is even nicer now, to have someone that is a friend and not just a "little sister," I love you, and wish you another great year!

(p.s. I stole this picture from your blog because most of mine older pictures are still on my other computer. But you and Hailey just look so good in it.)

Nauvoo

Over the Fourth of July weekend, we decided to take a family trip to Nauvoo. Del needed to make a drive to Missouri to work with one of his reps, so I followed him down with the kids, and we spent a couple of nights in the City of Joseph. It is always such a good experience to get a feel for all the pioneer heritage, and a boost to my testimony to walk the streets of Nauvoo. I love this city, and hope that my kids will have a glimmer of a memory of the times we have spent there.
On the way down, we ran into lots of flooding from the Mississippi, so we were driving on some "way back," back roads to get there. It is not like there is a direct route to Nauvoo to begin with, so we were in the middle of nowhere. I was nervous about driving back by myself after that, but good old Miss GPS got us home safely.

We went to a musical put on by the BYU summer entertainers, and President Uchtdorf and his sons came in and sat behind us. Of course we had to leave in the middle of the show, so hopefully we didn't disrupt him too much, but it was so fun to see him in person!
Nauvoo has endless favorites for me, I got pictures of only a few. It is a definite must see place to visit if you get a chance. The Nauvoo Temple is absolutely beautiful! Thank you Del, for watching the kids while I attended a temple session!

The early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were truly and amazing people. The sacrifices and endurance of being denied all rights in this country, and still continuing on faithfully, really puts a lot into perspective for me. They built and organized again, and again, and always answered the call of our Heavenly Father. I want to live my life in keeping with their spirit. They have established the way, and I need to follow after them. This tiny city of one for reflection and definitely for appreciation of those who came before!

The Nauvoo Temple.


Our kids LOVED these log cabins. There was a lot of crying when we had to leave. The service missionaries warned us we wouldn't get Georgia out of there without a fight, little did they know how sad our boys would be to leave!

Little Mama Georgia. She kept putting the baby in her own stroller. It was so cute, and surprised me how observant she is. We went and got her a little baby stroller when we got home, we thought it was so sweet.

Making dinner, taking care of babies and cleaning up? Whose children are these?


Carthage Jail


Wilford Woodruf home.


Heber C. Kimball home.


The Mansion House.


The Red Brick Store.

It is swimming lesson time again at our house. Wally is yet again, a little fish, and has no fear of diving under the water. His greatest challenge is listening to the instruction from the teachers. This is not unheard of for Wally, so I have to remind him to pay attention, a lot, but he LOVES swimming!

It is Will that is cracking me up this year. The first day he was so hesitant about the whole situation, and now that he is more used to it, he will get in the water, but is ALWAYS in the one shady spot in the pool. He yells, "Sun, I told you to go down!" when it is shining brightly in his eyes. So no matter if he is completely alone over there, he is made in the shade.
Will and his class testing the water

Everyone in the pool! Except Will. He will not be part of the group.

Hanging out all alone in the shade.

Swim buddies

We've Got A Walker!

This week, Georgia decided she is a walker! It is so cute!

She does pretty well toddling around...


But still ends up in this position... a lot!

We Caught A Frog!

During the summer months we have so many little frogs around our yard. The boys LOVE it when we are able to catch one. The poor little frogs don't know what hit them when they find themselves in the care of these two! Wally told me that he and Will were going to take care of this frog, so we would be the daddy and Will would be the mommy. Unfortunately, the little guy hopped out of Wally's hands just a few minutes later and we lost him. Wally went to bed pretty upset about that. That frog doesn't know how lucky he got!

I'm Sick

Sick inside that is. You probably all remember "Baby." Wally's little stuffed elephant friend. We can't find Baby anywhere. The last sighting I remember of Baby was at the post office with Wally rubbing the poor thing all over the floor. But now, just gone, I called the post office... nothing. Wally asks about Baby a lot, but I think deep down he knows that Baby is gone. It has been a while too, I just kept hoping Baby would turn up. It feels like the end of an era. Part of me can't believe Wally let Baby out of his sights long enough to get left behind, but maybe that is a sign that it will be alright and he has out grown Baby a little. He has started to carry other animals around occasionally, but it is nothing like before. I would have liked to keep Baby at least in a box somewhere just to remember the love and comfort Wally found in the mangled elephant. Truth be told, I am more upset by it than Wally.

You won't believe this, but while I am sitting here typing Wally has just come and asked me where Baby is because he made a shirt and cape out of paper for Baby to wear. I had to tell him Baby is still lost. I think I have to go cry now. I am going to think about offering a reward. I could hang up a wanted poster at the post office. Baby, wherever you are, we love you!!!

The Luncheon

Lacey and I hosted a ladies luncheon at my house on Saturday. It was a lot of fun to get together with good friends and get to know new people better. Thanks to everyone who came and made it so much fun! I wish I had gotten more pictures of the guests. I wasn't concentrating on that at the time, so thanks Lois Jean for making us snap the few pictures we got! Thanks for all your help Lacey! You are so great, and my kitchen would have looked like a hurricane hit when the guests arrived, if not for you!

One Big Fat Lip

It is pretty rare that Wally gets hurt badly. But yesterday he had a crash and burn into the curb. I was working outside and didn't see it happen even though he was only about twenty yards away, and didn't hear anything, because when Wally does get hurt he is not much of a crier. It took Will telling me "Wally sad." to know that anything happened. When I got over to Wally there was blood all over him and on the sidewalk, and he was crying quietly. But he did tell me that it hurt really bad and to make it stop. Poor guy. He walked around the grocery store with his hand over his mouth today so the people wouldn't laugh at him. I don't know where the self consciousness comes from, but I do feel bad for our fat lipped little boy.

T-Ball

Wally started T-Ball a couple of weeks ago and has been so excited to get out there and hit the ball. The minute we arrived on the field for the first practice he ran all the bases and he has been pretty good at getting the hang of the whole thing. The only problem has been his getting bored in the outfield, but he is not the only one by a long shot. Kids are wandering or staring off into the distance all over the place out there. It is so cute to watch these little ones run the wrong direction, sit down and play in the dirt, or as one little boy did, throw the ball at the fans in the bleachers instead of to home plate. Luckily we were all good at ducking.

Wally gets hot and tired by the time the last few innings come around, so we have to give him pep talks to finish the game, and of course, we couldn't get through the game without Will running out on the field and me having to chase him down. It was so sad because then he laid his head down and kept saying, "I wanna play into the baseball game." In a few years bud!

The Astros number one player.

Batting...

Running...

The Astros number one fan.