There are angels among us!

*It's just THE SMALL and SIMPLE THINGs...*

So... I had a NOT SO great weekend last week and it kinda just carried over until the beginning of this week. To add to it, we took Jade's pacifier away (after 3 years) and it was very hard not to give in, but we didn't. She had a ROUGH time for several nights and is SLOWLY getting better. Nothing terrible happened, but just a few disappointments after another, and I was feeling a little down! So I haven't been the CHEERIEST this week.

I was having a rough time one morning and had to run some errands and was at the grocery store with the girls. It was time for lunch so they weren't the perfect little angels by this time of day... I was hurrying through the store trying to grab what I needed, trying to stop myself from continually saying, "Jade...stop....be good... put that down...sit down in the cart.... don't do that....etc. etc. etc. I was NOT feeling it, and feeling yucky in general. I hadn't showered that morning and I hadn't even put on makeup or anything. I was turned around trying to remember what item I needed next, when I felt this little tap on my shoulder and turned around to see this sweet old woman. She smiled at me and said, "I just want to tell you that you have a BEAUTIFUL family and you are a BEAUTIFUL mom."

What? Are you serious? Has she seen me running through this store all frazzled and crazy? I thanked her and turned around walked towards the checkout.

I realized that sometimes Heavenly Father sends angels to cheer us up when we are feeling down, or to say these simple words that helped me make it through that day and BE GRATEFUL and realize , "YES, I DO have such a wonderful family, and I'm so darn lucky to be their mommy."

Really, that's all. I wonder if that sweet old woman knew how much her words helped me that day. I sure felt Heavenly Fathers love for me.... and that's why I knew that it wasn't on accident or by coincidence!

*HAVE A FABULOUS DAY*

So, does this toilet flush?

Yep, those were Jade's words as she stopped along our hike to take a potty break. She was sitting there FOREVER... first said she had to pee, then it changed to poo poo, and so we sat and waited.... and she looked around and asked, "mommy does this potty have a flush?"

Jade giving a BIG cheezer with Aunt Cassi! Hurray for Cassi finishing her MASTERS in Austin Texas, in Social work. She's amazing and we're sooo proud! Jas was disappointed (jokingly), because she BEAT him! He will be done in March of next year, and her program was only a year and she passed him up!! GO CASSI!

Jade's new favorite thing is wearing goggles! How did she survive without them? It opened a WHOLE new world, literally of underwater exploring!

My cuties flexing their muscles after making it through the scary part.

And This is ALL JAde does now... sticks her head under water and holds her breath FOREVER... (wish she could teach that so my swim lesson kids... )

The best part of camping/vacations in general is spending time with the ones you LOVE!

The hike was sooo awesome. IT was 5 miles of hiking through rivers, crawling, ducking, climbing down little holes and areas to avoid the waterfalls... it was very adventurous!

Lots of fun adventures!! Look how awesome this hike was?

Here I am finally giving in and walking through the river. I tried to avoid it for as long as I could.

Grandpa Scott holding Jade as she was fascinated with the waterfall.

At the start of the hike, I decided to carry Jade because I thought Gracie would be heavy on my shoulders in the front pack... but .... when we switched for a second I had Gracie's 20lbs I decided I liked that much better then Jade with all our GEAR (30lbs).

awe... and this is in our own back country folks! AMAZIN'

Heidi (Jason's aunt) decided it was better to just SLIDE down!

We went to a family reunion on Jason's grandmothers side down in Torrey Utah/ Capital Reef area. It was GORGEOUS! We love the chance the get a way and go hiking! The girls absolutely LOVE to hike with us, even long hikes that take 5 hours and they are stuck in a pack most of the time! They still love it. It's a good thing, because Jas and I are big hikers and enjoy our beautiful Utah surroundings! We're so lucky to have this in our backyard! Who knew? This is 3 1/2 hours away and such a fun place!

Gimme some of that!!

She is such a cheezer!! How can you NOT smile when you see her?

Oh man!

"MUST...

EAT....

NOW!!!!!!"

SLow down there TURBO!! It's not gonna RUN away!! This girl has ALWAYS

known what she wants... and goes for it!!

Happy Birthday to YOU... can't believe it's been a YEAR already! I love her.

Gracie having some fun with my cute MOM in the pool!

FIRST OFF.... CAN SOMEONE more computer literate help me???? My blog is doing WEIRD things.... all the 'sidebar' stuff now is underneath my postings instead of on the right side of the blog!?? What the? It's been doing crazy things lately like when I write my post, it shows it in 'computer lingo' instead of normal words. ANY IDEAS??

GRACE turned ONE on July 8th and I'm finally getting around to updating this blog! So, we had a little one year party at Grandma's with good food, family, and swimming! Here are some pictures that sums up her special DAY.... first time eating a cupcake!! Do you think she liked it??

Are you wondering what to do with all these HEALTHY ingredients?? Make a delicious smoothie! I just dump in all these into a blender and add some ice cubes and a little juice and...

WHALA! You have a VERY healthy smoothie! The strawberries are nice because they mask the green color from the spinach! Seriously, are you having trouble getting your kids to eat spinach? Dump it in a smoothie!! SO healthy and good for you and it tastes delicious!

I'm not a fan of hotdogs, or hamburgers for that matter, and grilling those gets SOOO old! This what we've been eating lately! I marinated chicken in a yummy ginger, garlic sauce and then grilled it with fresh peppers, zucchini, and onions!! YUMMO!! Also, one of our favorites to do with skewers, is marinate chicken in caesar dressing and then grill them on the skewers and make a HUGE caesar salad and add the chicken..... oh my mouth is watering already!! Toast some garlic bread on the GRILL and you've got a restaurant quality meal that's super FAST, light, and perfect for summer!!

I <3>

My most favorite dessert of all time!!! Fruit PIZZA! It's heavenly.

Summer is here and so is the yummy goodness of fresh fruits, and veggies! I can't get enough of this good stuff! I don't know why, but during summer I just Don't FEEL like cooking! Maybe it's the heat, or just being so much outdoors! I don't want to have my oven on! I want to get creative and make fresh, fun things! ummm.... stay tuned because i have discovered this recipe for grilling pizza and it is my NEW FAVORITE thing!!! I will post it in a few days!! Love, love, love, love it! BON APPETIT

Pat his cheeks and Give him WHAT?

A GREAT BIG KISS... MUAH!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful MEN in my life (ok, that sounds kinda bad, but you get the picture, right?)

Just gotta brag about this MAN!

Sorry ladies, YES, he's taken. Without being asked, or even prompted... he enjoys a clean house too and will do whatever it takes to help out!

And the craziest part about Jason, is he actually 'WILLINGLY' and 'knowingly' wanted to MARRY Me!! Yeah, and not just for this life... but E-t-e-r-n-i-t-y!!!!! Crazy man!

I mean, seriously, what man is willing to dress up in 'towels' because his little daughter wants to play 'reinact' the nativity scene complete with dolls, in our living room after dinner?

So our washer decided to break down about a week ago (mucho props to those pioneers)... and one night I was looking for Jason and couldn't find him... and I spot this little spot of BLUE

oh! There he is! He's got to get in there and 'try' to 'check it out'. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, "just checking to see if I can figure it out". Ohh... with all the appliance repair experience he's had and all... haha! JUST LOVE IT! He makes me SMILE! :-)

I mean, come on? What's not to love! He wasn't wanting me to take this picture, but I DID! Such a BABE! No really, I wanted to tell him how amazingly DEDICATED and MOTIVATED he is! He has gone 3 weeks now without ANY sweets because he has a weight goal and he's 2 pounds away! He has been to the gym every morning at 5:30am. for months! :-) Super duper dedicated!
Happy Father's Day! Seriously, why does Gracie call me 'Daddy' all day long? I mean, is it because she WISHES I were really Jason... or is she gender confused? She used to say Momma, just fine. Now, it's only DADDY around here! I guess that's okay, he is a superb father who is absolutely ADORED around this house!

WEDDING # 6 !!! HOLY MOLEY!

Gracie and her cousin Jack! Those two love to wrestle, it's hilarious!

You are seeing correctly! haha!! This picture is awesome! Jenny finally broke out the goggles because our eyes were BURNING from cutting up all the onions! This was the MORNING OF the reception... we had a veggie cutting party! 

Everyone hard at work! The SIXTH wedding, man we SURE got this thing DOWN! Wouldn't it be nice sometimes to cook meals together... then you got ALL these awesome helpers to do all the dirty work! 

Granddad is in the back, Micah is popping his head out (cousin from california), Mike is 'watching us all work', Pam (aunt from california), Bonnie and Katelyn, Uncle Mike (sitting by mom, her oldest brother), and me with the knife... watch out!! 

Uncle Mike never had children, so it's CUTE to see him with Jade, and she liked him! 

Jen with Laura (Uncle Mike's friend/we want her to be more, but whatever), Pam (Uncle Mark's wife).

My Grandad, My Uncle Mark, and Mike (doing the crossword).  Mom's gonna hate me for putting this picture up, but I think she's ALWAYS cute!

Of course my camera battery died the night of the reception so I have NO PICTUREs of that... thanks to my sister HEather, she gave me all these Temple shots. -Outside at the Salt Lake Temple, the kids were anxiously awaiting the bride and groom!

Jade couldn't get enough of Tiffany (she was a princess)! All the girls loved to hold her dress and walked around together (so adorable). 

The ANDREWS CLAN!!  The WHOLE FAMILY!! Can you tell what her favorite flower is??

All the bridesmaids with the happy couple!!

Heather got a snap shot of us before the luncheon! The girls were SO tired and SO hungry and Gracie already ripped her bow out for the GAZILLIONTH time.

You can see Tiffany's dress in this picture... so pretty and unusual.  I loved it. 

I love this picture! Jade just couldn't get enough of Tiffany in her dress, and all of us in our dresses... it was a like a HUGE DAY OF DRESS-UPS and princesses! She was in HEAVEN! 

MIKE got HITCHED! That's right, my little bro got married! IT was a beautiful day, a very special sealing and fun times with the family.  I think I slept like 5 hours in about a week span though! We had too much fun talking until late with family from out of town, playing sequence, baking bread with Jen (and having a 'milkshake' talk with the bride to be)... ya'll can figure that one out! It was a GREAT WEEK and we are excited to add another SISTER to our family! Tiffany and Mike went on their honeymoon to San Diego and left for a 3 day cruise.  FUN!!