4th of July!

Our 4th of July was wonderful!! It is my favorite holiday, so as you can imagine - I was so excited to share it with little Sasha! We were invited to spend the day with some friends, so we went to their house where we had a BBQ, home made root beer (YUM!) and played games.

Later that day we went swimming. Sasha had a really good time and kept wanting to put her face in the water! She is such a water baby!

When we got to TTL to watch the fire works, I busted out some glow sticks to see if they would keep Sasha entertained till the fireworks started. They did!! We put them around both legs, both wrists, and one around her bottle! She played with them the whole night!

I can't imagine what it would be like if we didn't live in a country where we were allowed to exercise our free agency. I am forever grateful for the people that have made it this way, and I truly feel blessed to live here, to raise a family here, and to say that I am an American!! Hope you all had a good 4th!

My baby can swim!

The last few weeks we've had such a neat opportunity to put Sasha into Infant Swim Resource - a baby survival swim class. We're not talking the back stroke or freestyle here (although that would be cool, huh?) - this is if Sasha was to fall into a pool, or pond or something - she would know how to roll over and stay afloat until someone was able to get her out!! Wow!! She still has one more week till she graduates, so maybe I'll post something then also. She doesn't like to keep her one arm out all the time....

After they have learned how to maintain a stable float, they are tested in pajamas, regular clothes, and winter clothes. Today was winter clothes day - the heaviest day - and she did great! Here is a clip of her doing a "Flip-de-doodle"!

If you want more information about this amazing program, visit http://mysafeswimmer.com/ (our instructor's site) or http://www.infantswim.com/ (national website). They do children from 6 months to 6 years - so take a look! Especially here in AZ, where kids live in the pools during the summer, I thought it was so important. :)

Father's Day Weekend

Sunday we had a great Father's Day!! Mark truly is a wonderful Dad, and it was a lot of fun celebrating with him!! (This was us after dinner!) Sasha was in a crazy mood, and since she wasn't really in the mood for pictures earlier (See pictures in dress with no smile...) I thought I'd grab the camera!


She sure loves her da-da!


We made Mark a tie with pictures of Sasha on it! It turned out great! Sasha really didn't want to smile too much after church though, she was tired...having 12:00 church is a rough time for her!


This was before church, more smiles, crappy lighting! :)

Okay, here is the fun part! We went camping for Father's day. It was a short trip, since we went up late Friday and came home Saturday, but it was Sasha's first time, and my first time...kind of. If you count girls camp, then it wasn't my first time...but Mark says girls camp really isn't camping...

It rained the entire night, which (I think) helped keep Sasha asleep the whole night! She slept like a log! I, on the other hand, kept waking up, wondering if Sasha was warm enough, etc., but it all turned out fine!

As soon as Sasha woke up, she was eager to get out of the pack-n-play and hop into our sleeping bags!

(This is the sight I woke up to!) I turned over and she was just smiling at us!! It was adorable!

He always sleeps really well when he is camping too - was I the only one waking up all night?!

My little love bug cuddling with me in my super warm bag!!

FREE nursing covers - HURRY

I just wanted to pass on a little bit of Free-Ness to my fellow mothers. If you aren't currently nursing - these make GREAT baby shower gifts!!

www.uddercovers.com is doing a brand new promotion where you can get one nursing cover (regularly $32.00) for free! You just pay the shipping ($8.45)!!

Once you get on the site, click on "Shop Now" and it will ask you for the promotional code. Type in "babies" and it will take you to what you are eligible to purchase. They do have some gift sets for a few dollars more, or the nursing covers of course!

Hope it helps someone out there save a little bit of money! Hurry though...they are going quickly.

My New Brother

June 2nd was such a special day for us!! Joey, our foster brother was sealed to us in the Idaho Falls Temple! **And do you know what made the day even more special? Joey was sealed to us in the same sealing room Mark and I were married in!!!) He looked so handsome in his little suit and was so excited to go to the temple. My parents decided to change his name to Koree (since all six of us have "K" names - but kept Joseph since that is what every one knows him by.
Kaitlin was adamant about sitting with Sasha and Korban - so she refused to be in the picture - but she was there, and she did so well in the temple, I was so proud of her. Mark was the only one who couldn't be there, which was really sad, but my brother Korth (the handsome lad next to me) said he would be my stand in husband! He even opened the doors for me and everything, it was hilarious!

Update from Idaho

The wedding was beautiful - the bride looked elated and the groom...well he is just hilarious!! The weather in Boise was wonderful, and it was a wonderful couple of days!! (For those of you that don't know, Autumn is Mark's little sister!)

We got to go through a session with Autumn and Josh - which was our first time through the Boise temple! I love seeing how each temple is a little different inside.

We met most of Josh's family there also, they are all great. Such a lively bunch! I don't think Mark is capable of posing for a nice picture, so I just started giving in....so romantic, huh?

This was at the reception. They made Sasha a beautiful dress to match the colors...too bad she slept through most of it (awesome bed head!)

Sasha is TERRIFIED of grass. Funny thing is that I was too when I was a baby! If you set her down she will keep all unnecessary appendages off the grass and just sob. It's so sad! :(


This is my brother Korth! Sasha has had so much fun playing with the dog and all her aunts and uncles!

And yesterday we spent the day at Lava enjoying their water park. And this little munchkin on my lap is Joey! He was officially adopted into my family on the 28th and we are getting sealed to him on the 2nd! He kept running away from us, so he got the leg lock and was forced to sit on my lap long enough for a picture!

Autumn and Josh

Tomorrow I leave to go to my sister-in-law's wedding! I have so many other things to write about, but you'll just have to wait. When I get a free moment in Idaho, I'll upload some more pictures and tell you all about it!! My brother Joey is getting his adoption finalized on the 28th, and we are all being sealed while I am up there too! I am so excited! :) I'll let you know more when I get a chance! Hope you all have a great week!!!

Beautiful Blue and Swimming Too!

So the other day I was sitting on the couch watching Sasha play, when my eyes locked on her little tutu. I looked from Sasha, to the tutu, then back at Sasha.....hmm....this could be fun!!! I hopped up, and this is what happened!

Saturday was a fun day. Mark had been doing homework all day in preparation of finals - and I was able to convince him to take a break for us to go swimming. It was such a nice afternoon, so the three of us ventured over to the pool. Sasha loved it until Mark put her in the "back float" position and after that she was a grump. So I got her out of the pool and we both sat and watched Mark swim for a little while, but it was so nice to enjoy the weather before it gets too hot!

Dear Mr. Tooth,

Dear Mr. Tooth,
It's Tuesday, and I am a little uneasy about the way you are handling your relationship with my daughter. It has been two whole days of you nagging her, annoying her, and hurting her. Your twin made his entrance weeks ago, being the best little front tooth any baby could ask for, so why can't you just come and join the party? You'd be able to experience delicious food, fingers, toes, yummy juice, and best of all - my camera...but instead you are sitting there in her gums, 2.4 mm away from becoming an important part of her childhood. Thanks alot....

The Mom :)

This weekend

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister Kourtney!!! The big 21!!! :) This weekend Sasha and I went to a friends birthday party. It was funny to see Sasha react to the grass (crawling on it), and she is just starting to get very timid around strangers - which is so the opposite of what she has done her whole life!

Yeah for beautiful girls on beautiful GREEN grass! :)


And I don't think Sasha could handle herself if it wasn't for "Mums". She eats those things like they are candy. Thanks Grammy for introducing her to them! She LOVES them! :)

A little shout out to Mark - (if you read this! :) I hope your final goes well today!! I love you and know you'll do great!!! I am excited for summer break - I might get to see you every once in a while! :)

So - this is random - so feel free to skip the rest of this post - but do you know who you are?

You could be thinking:
"Of course I do...I am a wife and a mother."
"I am a sister"
"I am the ruler of the world."
"I am a gym-o-phobic"
"I love to read"
etc...

But I mean....REALLY know who you are?

I am on this new road to discovering who I am. I am 25 years old, and have always thought I knew who I was, my purpose, my likes, my dislikes - but over the past few months as I have been learning to be more authentic with myself and others, I have realized that some of the things I disliked was only because I feared it....and some of the things I thought I liked - I only liked because others liked it. Have you ever felt that way?

I am going to be posting about this a little more as I find things that are interesting enough to blog about - but come join me! Have you taken a step back from motherhood, or being a wonderful wife, mother, sister, father, friend, etc - to see who you really are? Leave me posts and let me know how you find yourself - and we can all get to know each other better.

I am also going to be doing a giveaway...watch for details soon!!!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Easter and Crawling

She did it! She crawled yesterday for the first time - she has made some awesome tries, but she was determined to get my cell phone yesterday and actually crawled to it!! It was awesome. I was telling one of my friends today that as I was jumping up and down cheering her on (and looking crazy) I was thinking, "Does it get any better than this?" There have been multiple times this week where the joy of having her in my home has brought me to tears. Almost like I can't express to her how much she means to me - is that normal?

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, I know we sure did!

Easter Bunny

Mark and I helped out at a community fund raiser in Mesa last weekend and while I was at our booth, Mark took Sasha over to have her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Here are a few of the shots!

Mesa Temple Easter Pageant

Last night we had the opportunity to go to the Easter Pageant with some of our friends. It has become a little family tradition since we've lived in Arizona, and we sure love it. I wasn't sure how Sasha was going to do with it since it started right at her bedtime, but as soon as it started she was clapping, bouncing and smiling the rest of the time. She fell asleep about 30 minutes before it ended, but she saw a good majority of it!! This picture we took right before we left. She was laughing at herself, so I took a picture!