Wyatt's First Hike

My husband and I both love the outdoors. And our babies have inherited that passion...although I need to insert here that EVERY kid is born with the love of the outdoors. It's up to us to keep that flame alive. So in November we decided to take Wyatt for his first official hike! LOTS of pictures here...

                             

I think the above picture was the only time when Wyatt was grouchy. The reason??...being held. He just wanted to be free and run! So we put him back down to find rocks. And eat them.

Then throw them. 

I love this next picture because by the position of Wy's hand you would imagine the rock being straight out in front of him....but then you see the shadow of the rock over Wyatt's shadow-head. Do you see the rock now?

One of my favorite shots of the day!

Charlotte loved this little hike. It's at hole in the rock, and Char called it Rhinoceros mountain for some reason. Maybe because it's right next to our zoo??? Or because Rhinoceros' are cool.

After having a snacky, Matt manned the camera. And thank heavens he did! 

Pretty sure this is my favorite picture I have with my little gal. Oh, she's sweet!

Happy Hiking!

Time's a' Turnin'

My last blog was six...SIX months ago. And in that six months, a great many things have happened that made me think "Hey! I need to blog about this!" And not a single one made it to my blog. Until NOW!

BAM!

Hahaha...I hope I don't get verbally slapped for putting that picture so prominently on my blog. This blog is going to be about my church and the aMAzing gals that I work with. And maybe some cupcakes will work their way in here somewhere... 

These photos are pretty old, so some of my favorite ladies aren't featured...they missed out on this one. But I love this group of women so much! Here they are:

Hopefully the "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" tipped you off on our Dr. Seuss theme (if not...go get a copy of "The Cat in the Hat", PRONTO! For this particular church activity, we threw a Dr. Seuss party for our brand new girls (age 11 turning 12) with lots of fun stuff and some spiritual/churchy stuff. In my church (I'm a Mormon, aka LDS) we have something called "Young Women's" and the best thing I can compare it to is girl scouts. We have our own sunday school on sundays for all the girls ages 12-18 and we go to a girl's camp in June and do TONS of other fun things...as you can see. I love it because since I am one of the leaders over these girls, I get to eat yummy food, and get dressed up in floral pants with a black afro wig. Holla!

See...I told you there would be cupcakes. I LOVE watching people eat my cake! I think it's quickly becoming one of my new favorite pastimes (notice Madison's epic photo-bomb). And you know what??...i'm gettin' good! Now, my cakes don't just look pretty, they taste great! It's taken me a while to get those two in tandem.

These cupcakes had so much cream cheese frosting on them, the girl's were in a coma when they went home. I got the inspiration for these babies here. 

One more close-up:

Whoo! I feel so much better now that I got that off my chest. I think i'm out of practice because i'm reading through this and it seems a little random and sporadic. Oh well!

With Hope, The Odds Don't Matter

Heather Von St. James is a Mesothelioma survivor. Mesothelioma is a form of lung cancer and is most commonly caused by exposure to asbestos. If you do some research, you will learn that the survival rate is very low...as it is for most forms of cancer.

Heather is a survivor. She contacted me and shared her story, and in turn i'd like to share it with you. Heather was diagnosed with mesothelioma at age 36, when her daughter was 3&1/2 months old.  She is now a 7-year survivor and works toward building the awareness of mesothelioma, and most of all, inspiring people to fight and never give up hope. Here's a link to her full story.

Since Heather contacted a couple days ago, I have been thinking a lot about how grateful I am for my and my family's health. I could never imagine anything happening to my children or husband and feel extremely blessed to be living what is truly a charmed life. These feelings of gratitude make me more sensitive to those who do suffer from illness or disease of any kind.

I hope and pray that my family never experiences the kind of trial that Heather Von St. James and her family did. But if for some reason, its in God's plan for us...I hope even more that we grow closer together as a result. Whatever the outcome.

So for today, my thoughts and prayers are with those suffering the effects of Mesothelioma. Keep up your spirits, send up your prayers, and never give up hope.

Btw...the ribbon color for Mesothelioma is Pearl. My Charlotte and I decorated these cupcakes with that in mind.