Way to go Breje!

Breje had her first piano recital tonight. She was wonderful! It was fun to watch her play and see how much she has learned during her first year of piano lessons.

Afterwards, she received a certificate for her Superior rating at Festival and her teacher even gave her a Symphony bar for doing so well! We were very proud of her!

Happy Birthday Brielle!

I can't believe you are already a whole year old! You have greatly blessed our lives in the short time that you have been with us. We have watched as you got taller, your hair got lighter, you learned to sit up, crawl, and even walk! Your smile seems to get bigger every day! Happy Birthday sweet little girl!

Groovin'

This is what I call a Sunday afternoon! Jody has spent countless hours trying to turn a large portion of our tumbleweed-ridden lot into a yard. He finally got to enjoy it a bit today! We topped-off our lazy afternoon with some of Jody's famous homemade shakes. Perfection!

A Bittersweet Weekend

"Thus nature has no love for solitude, and always leans, as it were, on some support; and the sweetest support is found in the most intimate friendship."- Cicero


This quote pretty much sums up a very emotional weekend for us. Last weekend was one of those weekends that emphasizes how blessed we are to have the friends and family we have -- and how much we really need them. Our trip to Utah involved attending the funeral of a close friend of ours and it was overwhelming to witness the outpouring of support and love for his beautiful family. Major Brad Funk was killed when his jet crashed while he was instructing a student. The funeral was heartbreaking, but very spiritual and the military service was especially moving --a beautiful experience which I hope I don't have to witness again for a very, very long time!
At the other end of the emotional spectrum, this tragic experience brought about a reunion for us with a group of very close friends from Florida. Sharing our grief and happy memories made the day equally more difficult and more bearable. I am truly grateful that we were able to spend this time together.We were also able to spend the remainder of our time with both of our families. Although the time was extremely short, it was very healing to watch the kids play with their cousins, and show their grandmothers how much they love them! Jody and Trayson caught a brief moment with Brielle and her sweet cousin, Ryan, who is nearly 4 months YOUNGER than her but looks 4 months older!

Kutter was able to have a rare sleepover of his own! It's not difficult to see how he felt about that!

Grandma Linda taught Brielle how to snuggle long enough to fall asleep. Now, if she would only teach me all her secrets!

The entire weekend is such a blur of emotions -- hugs, tears, prayers, and even a little laughter. I think I'm still recovering, but I think Brad would be pleased to know that we all took something away from the experience. Mostly -- to treasure each other, lean on each other, and live each moment to it's fullest!

Mistakes

A friend and I were talking about how often, as mothers, we make little mistakes throughout each day, then beat ourselves up over them even if they were no big deal. We started comparing stories and realized that most of them, shared out loud, were mostly just funny --sometimes even useful learning experiences. Here's a couple of my lfavorite examples from this week. I Hope it helps you all to stop and laugh at your mistakes every once-in-awhile!

I made a huge mess of my oven the other day. Baked potatos leaking butter all over the place and, when I realized this, I had just enough time to throw a cookie sheet on the bottom rack to catch the last of it. It drove me nuts that I'd created such a mess preparing one of those "I'm having a busy day so we're not having a real dinner" meals. I was, however, extremely proud of myself when I remembered to flip the oven to self clean the next day. (It usually takes me several days, if not weeks, of a smelly oven before I remember to do this). The only problem is that I had forgotten about the cookie sheet and my whole house smoked and smelled even worse than it usually does during the self-cleaning process. The silver lining?
This is basically what my sad old pan looked like when I put it into the oven to catch butter.














This is what it looks like NOW!
Who knew?













Then, yesterday, I decided to try having a shower, even though Brielle was refusing to take a nap. I've been very hesitant to do that ever since she became mobile. She is just too good at getting into trouble, but I really had no choice. It was one of the fastest showers in history (at least mine!) but this is what I discovered when I got out!
Usually I would've freaked at the mess, but no one was hurt so I started laughing and ran for the camera instead. Do you see how blurry her arms are in the picture? As soon as she saw me coming, she started ripping as fast as she could!

Twilight Trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31KM7jERfI4

I had to share this with all my fellow "Twilight" fans, just because finding it brightened my day today!

Happy Birthday MOM!

My top ten favorite things about my mom!

10. The woman can cook! Seriously! She usually makes enough to feed an army -- a daunting enough task-- but what is especially amazing is that each meal is "the best ever"!

9. She always manages to make every occasion special for everyone else. Even her birthday and mother's day. Last year, she begged for a swingset -- Yeah, she is good to her grandchildren! She couldn't think of one thing she wanted just for herself. She even refuses to go on vacations unless we can all come!

8. She's that person who not only thinks of doing something to brighten someone's day, she actually does it. She has a sixth sense for knowing who is having an extra rough day and really needs a little pick-me-up. She also usually knows exactly what that would entail.

7. She can make ANYTHING! She cooks, paints, sews, whatever you need. I once told a school teacher that my mom sewed my entire wardrobe -- even my underwear. Yup, my mom is awesome!

6. She's incredibly strong. She had a tough childhood, but used it to make herself a better person, instead of giving in to that and giving up.

5. She taught me that you can't just wait for life to be happy, you have to have the courage and determination to make that happen. She made sure that we learned from her tough childhood, while giving us a happy one!

4. She picked my Dad!

3. She still makes her kids her priority, even though we are all grown up (more or less!)

2. She's always been one of my closest friend! I'm only just learning how much work that involved on her part!

1. I've discovered that she has always actually believed all of the nice things she said about me, even when I didn't think that was possible!

Thanks, Mom, for being the very best! I love you and miss you!

She's getting SO good at this!

While it breaks my heart to see Brielle getting so big, I can't help but be proud of her wobbly little strut! She usually walks around applauding herself, but she REFUSES to do that for the camera. Oh well. ENJOY!