Sweet Assurances

This weekend was marvelous.  Amazing, Beautiful, the answer to prayers.  Wow, that's a lot for 2 days to live up to.  I must put in a plug.  If you have the opportunity to attend Time Out for Women in 2010 (tickets go on sale soon) then GO!  My Grandmother and aunts try to attend every year together and make a weekend of it.  This year they came to Salt Lake City, we rented a hotel room and had a blast.  That was great, but not what I mean by life altering wonderful.  Friday night Sister Nelson (Russel M. Nelsons wife) spoke to us, followed by Sheri Dew.  They had such strong messages about being women, mothers and sisters today, in the final leg of the race.  The theme was What do you Know....despite everything else, what do you know...what sweet assurance do you have that the Lord loves you.  The talks touched my heart, and gave many answers to prayers I have repeated over and over for months.  Saturday Sister Dew spoke again, Hillary Weeks played beautiful music, and Michael Wilcox gave us examples from the scriptures that I had never before pondered.  Sister Belcher, blind from cancer recently, gave us a heartwarming assurance that no matter what we'll be okay if we walk with the Lord.  Mary Ellen Edmunds talked about our Life Assurance Policy, it was hillarious and touching.  The weekend had me laughing, crying, and relaxed.  It gave me answers I was seeking, and a reaffirmation the Lord loves me through the sweet whispering of the spirit that sometimes get's lost in the hustle and bustle of 3 children.  Again, I know this is a plug, but GO!  It was just what I needed, as well as the 3300 other women there that day.  Love ya!

Nakie!

So, for the past few nights Shawn has woken up in the middle of the night crying, and soaking wet and cold.  Poor kid, so I change him, and the whole bed, but we only own 2 pairs of PJ's (the carts footie jamies-warm!) so I've been putting him in sweats and a shirt.  At 6am he wakes up, I walk in the room and he immedietly throws the blanket over his head.  I look at my 14 month old completly naked!  Fortunatly there is no number 2 anywhere to be found.  That would have been too much.  Not that it hasn't been too much already!  So, needless to say, we're off to buy more footie jamies today!  I don't mind the nature baby, it's the looming doom of a crib full of....yuck...anyway....onto much happier moments.  Haley is turning 5 on the 10th, this is surreal for me for some reason.  Mark turned 7 in September and I almost keeled over!  She wants a princess party, I told her she can only have 2 friends (she wants to take them to a movie for her birthday, and that's all that will fit in my car!)  She also informed me that she wants to change her middle name to Ginger....why?.....we'll never know.   Well, we're off to run in the graveyard, very quiet there...perfect opening to a  grand day!

ER

Can't Buy Me LOVE!

I'm trying my hand at videos so I can get more pictures for less work! It was fun!

We like em big, we like em chunky, we like em....er....short? and skinny? huh?

Well, we had Shawns 1 year the other day. Poor kid is the runt of the litter. 30th percent for his weight (21.4 pounds) and 45th for his height (29 inches). He did exceed expectations in the head department a whopping 90%! (that's no suprise!) He'll definetly be the smallest of the bunch. Marky's was the same day. He's 4'3" and 57 pounds. He is definetly the 95th % for everything. He stands a head taller then almost everyone in class, there is however a girl who shall remain nameless (Megan) who is just as tall, and who he giggles and blushes about when you ask him about her. :) We took some pictures last night on our walk, I'll post them when math homework is finished!

Love ya!

Me

September Happenings

So here is mark's first day of school picture, Haley was very proud of him!

Here is our completed living room, and Haley watching cartoons..The floors look like laminate but are vinyle, much more durable. Overall we love it!

This is where it all began, the bathroom...yikes!

This is the kitchen they had to take up 2 layers of subfloor here where the water had made it soft..yuck!

Here is the hallway, they took up most of the wood in the hall, the water had soaked the underside and made it buckle...I wish I had a picture of the celing falling in downstairs.

September went by fast, and it was VERY busy! Our house went from being destroyed in the flood to repaired, almost....Marky had his first day of the first grade and turned 7! Shawn turned 1 and is too smart for me....

Shawn's 1!

Shawn turned 1 on the 2nd! Here is one of his cakes at grandma bev's. Unfortunatly we didn't get his first cake experience at Amy's with Nana. You can see that he likes it though!

40 days and 40 nights? Took us 2 hours!

Well, when it rains, check the toilet! I took the kids school shopping yesterday and when I returned it was to a small flood. Apparently the toilet overflowed while we were gone and was stuck running. I managed to get the toilet to stop running and started throwing every towel we had on hand on the floor. We used them all up and ran for the neighboors shop vac to no avail. Our bedroom carpet was soaked the laminate in the hallway had water running under it. The water had made it's way into the kitchen and it was raining toilet water into the basement. Part of the carpet was soaked the insullation all had to be pulled and the air conditioner shut off so it wouldn' t short out. So, it was 7pm by this time. I called our homeowners insurance and they sent over a 24 hour disaster clean up crew, thank goodness they came out last night. They managed to pull up the floor in the hall, the tile in the bathroom is cracking and the floor is bending, the bedroom carpet was pulled partially up and the pad removed. The insullation was pulled out of the celing in the basement and about 45 high intensity dehumidifiers/dryers were put in the house. We set up a tent in the backyard and camped for the night. Lisa, bless her heart, is going to take Haley and Mark for me today while I supervise the demolition of my house. They are going to have to take 4 inches up the wall board, and all my baseboards off. So, it will take 3-5 days to dry, then Monday the adjuster comes to estimate damages. Life just got a little more complicated, but then as Mark said last night, "It's just stuff. It can be replaced. It could have been worse. We could have been sleeping and a fire broke out." So, I guess there is always a bright side! We'll be moving into my Grandma's house for the time being. So you can reach me on my cell 801-678-2916. Love ya all! Check your toilets before you walk out the door!

More pictures.....again

Marky's Cool dude face....
Shawn played frisbee with us

Haley and Kara being swallowed by a shark.

Shawn loved to suck on this rock for some reason.

Sandcastles are hours of fun.