Guess Who's Going on a Mission (Take Two)

My brother Zach got his mission call this weekend. It was kind of funny because we thought it would come on Thursday like it always does and when it didn't, my mom thought for sure it would come on Friday and it was just late because of President's Day. Well, it didn't come Friday so Zach decided not to come home from school (Utah State) for the weekend. And guess what we found in the mail on Saturday. Yep, you guessed it. Zach's mission call. He drove up from Logan the second we called him. And where is he going you ask? He is going to the Baltic Mission. Where is the Baltic Mission? That is the same thing that went through my head as Zach read his call. I made a little map for you below showing where the Baltic mission is. It's pretty much Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. Zach will be speaking Russian. Wow. And it also gets -22 Degrees Fahrenheit in the winter! Cold!! Zach leaves for the MTC June 16th. It will be weird having two missionaries out as you may remember my sister left for her mission to Germany last month. I am so jealous of the wonderful experiences they will have. I know Zach will be a great missionary. Love you Zach!

Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Guess who's goin' on a mission

Click here to find out.

A few things I love about this video:

1- all the cell phones with family members on the other end
2- when we all scream after we hear where Katie is going. I tried to figure out who started the screaming and I think it was "Chad's Katie." Can you confirm or deny this.
3- I LOVE my sister!! She will be such an awesome missionary.

We went through the Twin Falls temple for Katie's endowment on Saturday and it was so neat to have everyone there. We are getting closer to our family goal of having all members of our family in the temple. Only three more years!! Anyway, we are so proud of Katie and I will miss her so much when she leaves!!

Thanksgiving Top Ten

Thanksgiving was such a blast and I am so ready for Christmas. I loved spending time with all my family. Here were my top ten favorite parts of my Thanksgiving vacation.

1. Pumpkin Rolls with Maple Streusel Filling
2. Sweet n' Sour Meatballs and BBQ Weiners
   
3. Pecan Pie
4. Homemade Stuffing
   
5. The Twilight Movie with all my sisters
6. Playing board games every day! A new one we played that was fun - Hit or Miss
7. Not having to entertain Gordon all day long, in fact not having to entertain Gordon at all!
8. Girl Talk with my sisters
9. Making crafts and projects with my sisters; my favorite-this book bag for GordonAnd getting the new books my mom gave Gordon for his birthday. We love reading them!
   
10. Getting myself a sewing machine for Christmas at the Black Friday sales!
    

Twin Falls Temple

Another wonderful thing we got to participate in while we were staying at my parents house was the open house of the Twin Falls Temple. There are a lot of people in my parents ward that are involved in it so it is kind of all everyone talks about. Chris and I were even able to be ushers inside the temple for one of the days. My mom thought it would be special if everyone in my family could come and go to the open house together. It was very special, especially chaotic! No, I'm mostly kidding. It was just a little crazy with so many children with us. There were 26 people in the group with just my family and then there were a few other people. It really was a neat thing to have us all together in the Celestial room. So gorgeous!

My sister-in-law insisted that we all get pictures in front of the temple. I'm glad she did.
There we all are. What a crazy, big group huh!? What are familys for anyway but to keep getting bigger and spread the love around. Love all you guys!

Grandma's House in Pictures

Gordon loves his Grandma's house. There is just so much for him to do. Now that we are home, he tells me at least twice a day that he is going back to Papa's house and he's not coming back till Sunday.

Here are just a few of the things we did all summer long:

The four-wheeler was Gordon's favorite thing. He would relentlessly ask for rides all day long. When I couldn't find him in the house, this was the first place I checked outside.
Gordon loves his Papa; probably because of the four-wheeler. And other reasons I'm sure! =)
Gordon got to play with his cousins Spencer and Ashlynn for a whole week. They had a lot of fun playing in the water.
Gordon and Spencer thought it was funny to put on the helmet and then hit eachother in the head. They were laughing like crazy. Those silly kids.

Gordon also got to play with his cousin Fisher for a few days. Ashlynn left her bike, which was a good thing for Gordon because he loves to ride bikes.

This is Gordon at "work". He would say, "Bye, I'm going to work." And then he would come in all covered in dirt saying, "I got so dirty at work." He wants to be like his dad so much its cute.

Another of his favorite things at Grandma's house is Max, their dog. I would look outside and Gordon would be walking along with his arm around Max just talking to him. He really is man's best friend, or at least a boy's.

We certainly did have a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house but I am so glad to be back. School starts on Monday and I am sorry to say that I am happy summer is over and we get to have our husband and father back!

I'm Back...For Reals This Time

Okay, so I know I have been slacking but so much has been going on this summer. And I decided I didn't want to forget it all so I am going back in time to blog about all of it.

Every two years we have a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. This year we went up to Swan Valley (near Jackson Hole, Wyoming). It was so gorgeous up there. It was so funny because we were driving forever through Idaho and then all the sudden you hit Swan Valley and it is so green and beautiful and we were all thinking, "Is this Idaho?" Our lodge had a great view which I did get a picture of but I can't find the cord that connects my camera to my computer so I am stealing these off my sister-in-law's blog.
See that massive slide. It looks a whole lot more daunting when you are sitting on top trying to make yourself go down. It took several in the family the whole week to muster up the courage to go down. No matter how many times I went down that slide, I still squealed like a little girl. It was a lot of fun. Gordon loved playing with all his cousins. It was great because he would play so hard all day that he fell asleep so fast at night and then we could stay up and play games all night. Chris got to go white water rafting and I got to go to a melodrama in Jackson. (We have to trade off doing things so that the other can watch the kiddos.) It was a lot of fun but I am sure glad to be back.

Happy Mother's Day

I have the best mother in the whole world. Being a mother myself has really opened my eyes to how wonderful and selfless my mother really is. Motherhood is more than a full time job it is your whole life. My mom got married at nineteen and had her first baby less than a year later. Eight more kids and thirty years later, she is still being an awesome mother and the best grandmother. It comforts me to know that she went through a lot of the same things I am going through right now. She had two kids while my dad was still in school and working. She went through a lot of difficult times raising a young family while my dad was traveling a lot for work but never once did she regret being a mother. My mom has taught me that being a mother is a wonderful calling in life and that it is something to be treasured not wishing it away or holding on until the kids are grown up and gone. I know my mom feels like she could have been a better mother but I honestly think she is the perfect mother for our family. Being a mother is such a selfless job and I am not very good at it yet but I am lucky that I have such a good example to follow. Whenever I am confronted with a problem concerning raising my family I always try to think what my mom would do. I know I can always count on my mom to be there for me. Thank you for everything mom; I love you!

Happy (Late) Easter

I know this post is a little late but my camera battery died and so I was waiting on my sister-in-law to send me some pictures. I had my family down for a little Easter fun on Saturday. Everyone was able to make it except for Jake and Lexie (who we terribly missed!) It was a lot of fun. We flew kites and had an Easter egg hunt. The guys were glued to the TV seeing as how its March Madness but the girls and the kids had fun talking and playing. Gordon absolutely loves his cousins!
This is Ellie, Gordon, Spencer, and Ashlynn. The oldest one (Ashlynn) turned three last month, Ellie turns three next week, and Spencer and Gordon are three months apart so they are all really close in age and for the most part play really well together. It is so much fun.
Ashlynn is my brother Ryan's daughter. She is making such a sassy face here!
Spencer is my brother Chad's son and he is such a little rascal. He and Gordon never got along very well when they were younger but they had tons of fun on Saturday so there is still hope for them in the future!
Gordon had so much fun finding the eggs. He was so distracted, he couldn't even look away for two seconds to pose for a picture!
Ellie is my sister Sarah's daughter and I think she would want me to tell you that she did have her hair up really cute earlier in the day but she took it out and wouldn't even hear about anyone touching it.
This is my brother Ryan with his son Owen. Can you believe this little guy is only 7 months! He is so cute.
And this is Fisher; he is my brother Brett's little boy. It is always so fun to have family together. Thanks everyone for coming!

As a side note: It snowed last night! It melted by the afternoon but still...will spring never come?! Mother Nature sure is a tease!

Crazy Christmas

This year our little family spent Christmas (and a whole week and a half) at my parents house in Idaho. Twenty-five people in one house, that includes four toddlers and four babies! Christmas Eve we all get new PJs and I think this is the only picture with all of us in it. It is always fun to be together with everyone but I will say it was very loud and very crazy. Gordon had a blast with his cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course his Papa and GramGram. Here is a picture of Ellie, Ashlynn, Gordon and Spencer in their new pajamas.

My parents have always had a real tree but last year they got a fake one and my mom swore they would never do a real tree again (we are talking about a 12 - 15 foot tree here that almost fell through the window a few years ago.) Well, Chris gave my mom a hard time about it and threatened he would not come for Christmas unless there was a real tree. So when we showed up and saw this......we were quite surprised. My mom told us she cursed Chris's name everytime she watered the thing. =) We had a lot of fun activities planned: caroling, talent show, candy making contest, cross-country skiing, snowboarding (the last two I did not participate in on account that I am seven months pregnant), playing lots and lots of board games, and making gingerbread houses. Here is a picture of the houses we made. Mine and Katie's is the one in the front; Chris's is the second from the left. It was really fun and we all got into it.

Christmas morning was very chaotic; each individual little family was opening presents at the same time so there was a lot going on at once. I thought having Gordon open his "Cars" bedspread first was a good idea since he couldn't really play with it and wouldn't get distracted. I was wrong--he loved it and wanted to open it and sit and snuggle with it. He was eating some candy (I know, nice breakfast) while we were taking this picture and he was trying to smile. We saved his favorite gift for the end, his prized vacuum. He was so excited it was so funny. I was going to post a video clip of him opening his "ban-yoo" but it won't work. I am not very computer literate.

Gordon really liked to play with all the babies and he was so cute with them; it gives me hope for when our little one arrives. Gordon was reading a book to Fisher and I thought it was so precious.We also spent some time with Chris's family, who live in the same town as my parents. We went sledding, played games, and had a gift exchange. It was all very fun but we were glad to come home in the end. I speak for Chris and I; Gordon has been asking for "Menin (Maren), Bett (Brett), Fishis (Fisher), Ashin (Ashlynn), Papa, GramGram, and Eh-ie (Ellie)" since we left.