Shoe Fetish

Okay I know what you are thinking..."why is she taking the picture instead of getting that disgusting thing out of her mouth!" Well I had to get a record of this ongoing battle at our house. If there are shoes anywhere around, she is sucking on the bottom of them! I have to constantly make sure the closet doors are closed and also the door to the laundry room where we often take off shoes. I also have to kick my habit of coming in through the garage and taking my shoes off in the kitchen on the tile next to the carpet. She gets them everytime. I had to take the picture. Besides when she's 16 and yelling at me, "YOU'RE SO NOT COOL, MOM!" I can yell back "AT LEAST I DON'T EAT MY SHOES!"

P.S. For the record this particular shoe was only in her mouth for a few seconds since my camera has been always out and ready latley! ....I know that doesn't make you feel any better.

Needed: Disneyland Tips

Okay so we are going to Disneyland the first week in March and I need your tips! I've only been there once when I was about 22 so I need help. Do you have any good ideas for me?

Photo of the Day

Not Just Another Day...

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and when I was looking in the newspaper yesterday I was also reminded that it is also a day of service. I've really felt the responsibility lately to do better at giving my children the opportunity to serve both big and small. Today was just the push I needed to to get going. I saw in the paper that they were having a fresh produce food drive from 10-2 today among other things and they also encouraged you to think of your own service to do. We decided that we could go shopping for some food to drop off and then take some pictures around to the care center where Chad works. Last night I printed some pictures (a rainbow and a dove-symbols of peace) and this morning the kids colored eight pictures for the care center residents. They really worked hard on them. Then we went shopping and they had a great time picking out a bunch of fruits and vegetables to drop off at the United Way. After we dropped off the food we were even able to drop off a few things at Deseret Industries. We then took lunch to Chad and then walked around delivering the pictures they colored and visiting with some of the residents at the care center. They loved the pictures and put them on their walls right away. Afterwards Madelyn told me that she was a little scared to give out the pictures but that if felt good to do it. Yeah! I've blogged about this because I hope I can be reminded of this day and continue to search out opportunities to serve. I know many of you already do it when you watch your friend's children, take dinner to the neighbors, serve at church, or just by giving someone a call. I needed another push. After we were done at the care center we stopped by the book store and bought a picture book about Martin Luther King Jr. (I can't believe I didn't have one at home already) and Barack Obama. So we could look at more pictures of the men we've been talking about lately.

It has been a good day and I feel I need to say thank you Martin Luther King Jr. Thank you for your vision of hope and peace and justice. Thank you for your encouragement of service and for your dream of a better future for your children. I have that dream too.

I'm including a few words of his famous speech.

"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline"....."As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back"....."I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.".....
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day......little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.

I See Dead People....

So this is really brave for me...sharing this not very flattering picture of me, but I thought I'd share about my photo of the day for yesterday. For date night Chad and I went to the Body Worlds 3 Exibit. It's the last weekend and we'd been wanting to go see it so it was now or never. A little info on it.. It's an exhibit of REAL human bodies that have been preserved by plastination. They take the fluids out of the body and preserve them with this plastic like substance. The bodies were posed in different ways showing different aspects and parts and functions of the body. The skin was also taken off of the bodies showing the bones, muscles, organs, etc. They also had many organs and separated parts of the body displayed, as well as an embryo and fetus room which was very sad to see. Our bodies are AMAZING! Some of you are probably grossed out by this but I thought it was quite interesting. Now to explain the picture a little more....since it was the last weekend, there were a ton of people there! We bought tickets to enter the exhibit at 7:30 and still had to wait TWO HOURS to get in. It was also very crowded once you were in there and very hot! We got home at 12:45 and our backs, legs, and feet were killing us...so this is me waiting in line just before getting into the exhibit. Chad took this picture with his cell phone since you can't take cameras in. p.s. did you know it takes a red blood cell 20 seconds to circumvent your whole body.

I had to share my photo of the day. I'm attempting to take at least one picture a day that I'm going to put together in an album. It's called Project365. I know I might miss at times but it's worth a try. Here's Ethan and Haylee playing in all the snow we keep getting. Notice the smiles on both of them. :)

Baptism Day!

Madelyn was baptized on Saturday! She looked so beautiful in white. We had a few minor glitches in the day but overall it was a great day. I realized right before Madelyn was going to go into the baptismal font that I had left the card to my camera in the computer at home so the pictures I had been taking weren't really there. I had to find someone with a camera to take a picture before she was baptized. There were two other girls getting baptized at that time so they were waiting for us. I can't believe I did that. O-well, we did get a picture. It really made me think of my baptism since she was baptized in the exact same font that I was. She was so excited and nervous. After she was baptized she kept saying "that was kind of awesome mom, that was kind of awesome." Oh and Jenna gave the talk on baptism for us and she did a great job. Thank you Jenna! Afterwards we celebrated her birthday and baptism with some cake and ice cream. What a great way to start the new year!





Madelyn wanted her hair in french braids. I hadn't braided her hair like that in ages, since it's been short. I tried it a few days ago and it went ok so I decided to give it a try. It did add a little stress to the morning since I had to start over about 4 or 5 times (I'm not very good) but eventually it all worked out and was nice for after she was baptized.