My Little Shadow

In the almost eight years

of being a Mother,

I have had the best

moments of my life.

With that said,

I have had some of my

most frustrating moments as well.

Moments I have felt like

I am going to explode,

due to my frustration.

Many of those moments have come from

dealing with my spicy little Avery.

It seems every child comes

with their own personality

and some just need to push

a little harder than others.

Here is the thing....

during many of these HARD moments

in dealing with Avery,

I look at her,

and feel like I am looking

back at myself at her age.

I think to myself,

how would I want to be treated?

I found this picture of me

when I was going through all my old pictures

a few weeks ago.

I definitely see

some similarities in us.

I think Heavenly Father

sent me Avery

to teach me patience,

and to make sure I treat her

the way she should be treated.

The way I would want to be treated

even when I was being a stinker!

LAS VEGAS

I wanted to start this post by

THANKING some fabulous ladies

that not only gave me

a great birthday lunch,

but helped make it possible for me to leave for a few days.

The day after my birthday I flew to Las Vegas

and met up with Laurie at the airport,

who flew in from Colorado Springs.

We stayed at my sister,

Missy's house for the first night.

It was so great to see where she lives and how big her kids have gotten.

It was my first time meeting

my sweet little niece, Aynsley.

We went to Avatar

with Laurie's friend Britton and then

met up with Karla,

who had driven down from Salt Lake.

LET THE SHOPPING BEGIN...

THESE OUTFITS HAD TO STAY IN VEGAS.

Here we are at CAFE RIO!!!

My favorite fast food!!!

We spent the next two nights at

Planet Hollywood.

Planet Hollywood has a entire

mile of shopping attached,

making it hard to even leave our hotel.

LAURIE, ME, & KARLA

To spend a few days with no stress of day to day life was HEAVEN.

Between us four girls their were 14 kids

that had to be taken care.

So thank you to our husbands

for letting us go

and for all the others who made it possible.

My 1st Guest Post

Well today I got to contribute to one of my FAVORITE BLOGS,

"Or So She Says..."

Not really sure why you picked me,

Mariel, but thanks for the opportunity,

It was fun.

Click HERE to check it out.

30 TODAY! TAKE A LOOK BACK...

Today I turned 30!

And decided to take a look back through the years,

to a life before marriage & kids.

I am the "BABY" of five, two brothers & two sisters.

And as you can tell by this picture, I had plenty of love growing-up.

In almost all my baby pictures my mouth is wide open.

The classic 80's family picture, 1983 I think.

Me and my big sisters, Missy & Christy.

Go BYU! This was in front of my Grandparents house in Provo, Utah.

My Dad taught accounting at BYU

until I was in 3rd grade.

Notice the fine cut job to my bangs,

and pleasant smile.

Preschool picture 1984

Oh, those wonderful day of having a FRIZZY perm,

too bad I had MANY of those days.

The annual Christmas party

The Great Salt lake Stars

Can I tell you how much I appreciate those years and the money my parents spent

on dance & gymnastics

now that I have started to pay for my girls.

Thanks Mom & Dad.

Karla & me in 7th grade

Eighth grade picture; first time wearing eyeliner.

Here again, a beautiful perm with braces, lovely days.

Senior year 1998

BHS CHEERLEADING

(I am the fourth from the right, on bottom)

Snowboarding trip to Targhee

Senior Prom friends picture

Graduation 1998

Me, Sindey, Karla, Libby, & Jennie

making our way into the world after high school.

SNOW DAY!

This morning we had a great automated morning call...

NO SCHOOL!!!!

Growing up in Utah, I can't remember a day being cancelled from snow.

But they seem to plow the road there too.

We have had a fun filled day of hot chocolate, games, & playing in the snow.

We can all use a snow day once in awhile!

Hope everyone had a

Merry Christmas!

Going through all the pictures,

trying to decide what to share got overwhelming.

I settled with just sharing this one.

Now on to 2010!

The girls started their much anticipated

Ballet Class yesterday.

They have been waiting for this day for a long time

and they loved every minute of it!

They both ended up being in

the same spot for their class.

What?

Okay, I have debated back and forth about this post and I decided I have the patience to type right now so here it goes...

Saturday night we went to Spencer's Endo Department Christmas Party and stayed up a little late making us a little lazy Sunday morning. We were still in bed when the phone rang and I answered it trying not to sound like I just woke-up. The gentleman said who he was, which I didn't know, and said he was from the stake presidency, and then asked to speak to Spencer. He proceeded to talk for a few minutes and then got off the phone. A few minutes later he mentioned we were going to have a visitor in the next half hour from the Stake.

WHAT?

I rushed around the house waking and then dressing my kids and myself , all in the mean time wondering what this was all about! Our visitor came and after chatting for a few minutes he offered Spencer a new calling... and we never in a MILLION YEARS would have guessed what it would be. And then he spoke the words...

Second Counselor in the Bishopric!

Spencer and I looked at each other like he had just spoken another language because there is no way he just said what we thought he said.

Here are the reasons why

1- We didn't know the Second Counselor had moved and needed to be replaced.

2- We are going to only live here for 21 more months.

3- There are SO many amazing people in our ward, no offense to Spencer, but as far as qualifications... who knows.

4- Out of all the wards we have lived in, this one seemed the one we would most likely fly under the radar for the 27 months we would be here.

I guess the Lord has his own plan for us. And I wouldn't want it to be any other way. I know this will be a great opportunity for Spencer and our family. I am sure we will learn a LOT, like how to get Evan to sit through sacrament.

Two hours after Spencer was asked if he would accept this calling he was sitting up on the podium with the rest of the Bishopric and Evan kept pointing and saying "DAAADDDDYYYYY!"

Spencer I am proud that you are the person you are and worthy and willing to accept this calling.

I love you!