5 Year Anniversary

Keith and I have been married for FIVE YEARS! Ok I know that to some of you that is nothing but to me I can't believe that five years has already come and gone. It seem like yesterday that Keith and I just got married. I guess the saying is really true that time does fly when you are having fun! I know for me that these past five years have been the best years of my life and that only makes me hopeful for the future to know that the best is yet to come.

Ok enough mush! I will tell you a little about the fun that Keith planed for our anniversary trip for the weekend. We were able to drop our kids off at Judy and Bob's house on Friday and then headed out to a great cabin in Dubois that Keith found to stay in that was very nice and so cozy. Then he and our friends from church, Noah and Holly let us borrow their snowmobiles and we spent all Saturday playing and having fun in the snow with them. It was great! The really nice thing was that they took it easy on us since we were beginners and they are old pros. By the end of the day though they did have us doing some fun tricks and that is were my problem lies. I forgot to pack a camera! How silly was that! So I was going to try and wait to write about this fun trip after our friends got us the pictures and video they took. What I will do is as soon as I get that I will post it and tell a little more about the day we had. For now though the pictures I am going to share are some of our wedding photos. Enjoy!

So Fashionable

I know, I know I am posting ANOTHER blog! I have a lot of pictures that I took a few weeks ago that I am trying to catch up on. These pictures I had to post because they are so cute. This outfit was given to us from my Mom and Dad who are serving a mission in France right now. So Mckenna is now all up to date on the latest French style!

She got away from me with only the first half of her outfit on but look at that smile. She is really proud of herself.

Eating her hair bow. So much for that idea.

Pirate Mckenna

Do French kids really ware these?

That's better.

Eli's Songs

So I have been singing some primary songs to Eli and Mckenna because really those are the only songs I know. Eli has learned a few of them but there are two songs I am so proud of him learning. They are songs that are part of the primary program this year so when I learned them I started teaching them to him. One day I heard him singing them to himself and my heart just melted! So of course I had to get him on video because he sounds so cute and I wanted to share it with all of you. Sorry about the camera moving Mckenna was trying to help.

Britney's Good News

Most of my family knows my high school friend Britney but for those of you who don't or may not know her story let me tell you a bit about her. She was married not soon after high school to a great guy named Brett Knight. What is really crazy to think about is that was about 11 years ago. So for about 8 of those years she and her husband have been trying to have a baby. Sadly she has had a few miscarriages and one that happened in her third trimester. That was a really hard time for them and talking to her was a hard thing to do knowing that I had one kid at the time and another on the way. She was so strong though and every time made my faith stronger by her testimony through it all.
So the next step for them was to get serious about adoption. As anyone who has gone through with that knows that after you fill out all the paper work it is just a waiting game from there. I am happy to say that the waiting paid off. In November they talked to a girl who wanted them to adopt her baby. So on Friday the 27th of February she brought home a beautiful baby girl that they named Haiden. When I talked to her on the phone I could feel her joy at having something so wonderful and precious in her life that she has wanted for a very long time. I also wanted to share with all of you what she said to me on the phone that really impressed me. She told me that through everything that they have gone through she has felt the Lord's hand in it all. With every person they have meet and then having them place her new baby in her arms she said she could feel the spirit so strong. I am so impressed with her unwavering faith and I am also so happy for her and her husband because now the best is yet to come!

Projects

I have a very handy husband. When we first moved into the house he was working with Kevin Allred building houses and they were building a few houses next to ours. Well when a counter top came to them broken they were just going to throw it away when Keith asked if he could have it. So here is a picture of what he made for me with that counter top. My very own work space.

He also built his own work bench as well. See the difference between our work areas. He has reloading, fly tying and coyote pelts. I have a sewing machine (thanks to Mom), scrapbook stuff (thanks to Judy), and of course my Beatles poster. Well, this isn't my big reason for blogging but I thought I would tell you what these pictures were all about. It is really dark down in our basement with only the few lights we have so Keith got the idea to put lights over our work areas. So I wanted to show how great my work area looked with all the light I have now.
Now with a new light I have set to work doing the projects that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Judy, Heather and I went to the fabric store when I was pregnant with Mckenna to get some fleece to make a car seat cover for her when she was born. I told both of them I am so glad that I have lots of time to make this. I even had time after she was born because she was born in May and she wouldn't need it until October when it would be cold. But did I do it then? NO! I waited until January and lets just say she is now a little too big for it. When I put her in it to try it out she was about crawling out of the hole for her head. Well at least I have one made and I will have it if I need it for another baby or if a friend might need to borrow it.

I also have to thank Judy for helping me because if any of you know me you know I have little if any sewing experience. She was very patient with me and showed me how great of a sewer she is because we spent months looking for patterns and we couldn't find any. So we did this all by ourselves. I think it looks really good for just guessing. :^)

Last but not least Mom I finally got the back of my chair fixed! Before Mom and Dad left on their mission and Mom brought me this sewing machine she and I picked out some fabric so that I could fix the back of my chair. She got the sewing machine all set up for me and we started working on this project. We weren't able to finish it and do you think I finished it the next day? NO! I waited until January to finish it as well. Maybe it was Keith installing the new light or maybe now I just have the sewing bug. Either way I am happy with what I have done and more sewing projects are to come.

So much fun

I have wanted to put Mckenna's hair up in pigtails ever since she arrived with that full head of hair. So the other day while I was at the store I saw some good hair bands. I couldn't resist and just had to get them so that I could finally do it. The pictures of her in her pigtails are how she looked on Sunday and then Tuesday I had to try it again and I did the Pebble's look. Sorry Dad I couldn't help but torture my daughter. (= You have to admit though that she looks pretty darn cute. The best part was I had so much fun doing it. It's fun having a girl.

Eli the big boy!

So I said I would write about Eli and his potty training and so here it is! On the 3rd of January Eli and I got to take a trip to Wal-Mart for his new underwear. We made it a special trip with just him and Mom. A few days before I kept asking him what kind of underwear he wanted and he would tell me he wanted Bob the Builder underwear. I hoped they would have some but I knew if they didn't they would have Cars underwear and that would be just as good. So when we got to the store as I thought there was no Bob but plenty of Lighting McQueen and Thomas the Train. That was good enough for Eli, so good in fact that he wanted to hold them the whole time we were in Wal-Mart. I took him over to the toys to see if there were any King cars (he is one of the cars in the movie "Cars"). We didn't see any and that was the one car he didn't have that he really wanted and that I thought could be really good incentive for him. So it was off to Target to see if by chance they would have Bob underwear and The King. Once we got there we went right for the underwear and they had the same thing as Wal-Mart so no reason the get more of the same thing. So we were off to check the toys. I got to the cars and of course there were lots of McQueen and Ramone but no King. I was really worried because I didn't know what else to get him that would help him be excited about going potty. As we were about to leave I noticed a bunch of "Cars" cars in a really strange spot and there at the very back was, THE KING! It was great to see Eli's face when he saw the car and it worked like magic to tell him he couldn't have it until he had learned to go potty.

So on Monday January 5th was the start of our potty training experience. I got the idea of a potty chart from a friends blog (thanks AJ) and put suckers and the King on it. Eli picked Fillmore as his game piece to move around the board and when he did good at going potty he would move a space but if he had an accident he would have to move back. The first day was awful! We didn't even get past Start! The next day wasn't bad but still not great but by the third day he was doing wonderful. I couldn't believe how fast he picked up on it and I think it helped when he really started to understand that when he got to move Fillmore he was getting closer to the KING! What was really funny was to see him go over to the chart and touch the King and talk about how he was getting closer to having him. By the time he got the King he was doing great at going potty and it took him no time at all to finally have his big prize at the end, A SWIM PARTY! I have to say Keith and I are so proud of him for being such a big kid!