Beautiful!

Lila can often be heard singing, "I Love to See the Temple". She sings it while playing, while driving, and in her bed at night. And since we've moved here she's gotten pretty good at picking them out. So we decided it would be fun to take them to Salt lake and let them get a good up close look.














On Saturday we got to go to the Bountiful temple and do sealings. It has been a while since we lived near a temple and far too long since we have served there. It was a wonderful reminder of how beautiful and sacred marriage is, and what a blessing it is to be an eternal family. Truly, there is a feeling there that simply can never be matched.

Anabelle turned FIVE!!

Little Anabelle turned 5 on September 12th. Would somebody please tell her that she's only 5? I think she forgets that. I think I forget that. It's hard to remember a time when I wasn't conversating with her all day. And yet it's only been a few years. There's just so much personality and emotion and brain packed underneath those pigtails.

She requested Shredded Wheat for breakfast, a quesadilla for lunch, and Ravioli for dinner. So basically, nothing different than any other day.

She wisely chose cake balls over cake. There's just something about eating it in a ball rather than a square that changes everything.




Here she is ecstatic over Cody and Jess's gift of a date with them. And who wouldn't be, really? I hope that's what I get for my birthday too.


Meanwhile...little cousin Hank emptied the cupboards and threw back some dish detergent...



Grandma R gave her this Skippy Jon Jones character, from her favorite series of books.

Grandmother Connor hooked her up with some school books which she loves to do, (and which buys me a few minutes of alone time),complete with a CD which we are all really enjoying listening to everyday. I had no idea what a diagraph was. (A diagraph only makes one sound, although two letters are hanging around, that is what I've found). Catchy right? I'll probably be a lot smarter as my kids go through school and teach me stuff. Starting with preschool.

A great day for a great girl.

I love love love my little Anabelly and cherish all the time we spend together.

A shout out to the ONE year old

My Maisey turned one on August 5th. We had been in Utah for just a few days so Aunt Michelle came through for her and got her a cake and a present. She was only mildly interested in either, but greatly enjoyed all Michelle's farm animals. I guess we'll get her a goat when she's two to make up for this year. Also because I don't want to mow the lawn when Braden is deployed.





Reinforcements agree to step in...












She constantly has a mischevious look on her face, like she is into something. That's probably because she usually is. I told Braden just today that she is going to be shocked to find out that her given name is not Rascal.


She will not keep any type of hair band or bow in. Why yes, it does drive me insane, thanks for asking. Her scraggly hair is always hanging in her eyes. Plus I have a lot of really really cute hair bows that would have gone great with that shirt.

Likes to sit with Lila and splash all the water out of the tub. It's one of those situations where I don't want to condone the mess making behavior, but I pretend not to see them because I so enjoy hearing them laugh together over it.



She has four teeth which she uses to eat yogurt, along with the occasional batch of Cheerios.

She has a full head of wild hair, which she prefers be left in its natural state.

She has a fantastic smile which temporarily blocks her vision.

She has THE BEST dance move, guaranteed to make me laugh. It only happens in her car seat. And it's indescribable. You just have to see it. Come over and I'll give you a ride somewhere. And I'll probably only charge a few bucks in gas money, totally a steal considering the show you'll get.

I love to chase her and make her giggle. And I love to kiss her big cheeks, and I absolutely adore her wave.

I love to see her walking around the house, fists and mouth full of treasures she has collected and is in the process of of relocating.

She is a fun one, that's for sure.

So very glad she's mine, forever.

Wrapping up life on the Loop

3778 Kisling Loop, Panama City Florida


We had a great year here. It was stressful for Braden but overall we had a really enjoyable time. I loved living on the beach. I loved living in this new house. Call me crazy but I even loved seeing the alligators in the back yard. I loved our neighbors and we loved Lila's early interventionist, Barb Barb.

Braden came back from SERE on a Sunday, we picked up our moving truck Monday, loaded it Tuesday, and were gone by Wednesday. It was crazy. We had help from several friends, who we absolutely couldn't have done it without. And let me take a minute to write a note to the future me in three years: Never, ever, ever, ever do the checkout clean yourself again. Ever. Yes, you CAN do it. But by all means, write the check and go to breakfast and maintain some sanity. Good grief, you cheapskate, there are limits and now I hope you have acquainted yourself with some of them.

The first night we made it to Mississippi and stayed with Jaime and the kids. We got to see their new digs, eat some of Jaime's homemade jam and rub her little belly. It's always nice to let those little cousins romp together.

And then somewhere in Texas Anabelle said she felt sick. We stopped for lunch and she insisted she wasn't well. And then she threw up twice. And then she was happy. So we wondered if maybe she got carsick. Then we fed Lila a bunch and went on our way. And after we had been in the car for 2 minutes she began to spew. Everywhere. Without ceasing. A frantic call was placed to Braden so that he could begin his duties as official puke cleaner-upper. Bless his soul for that. Poor rear facing Masisey got sprayed as an Innocent by-sitter. So it was no wonder when she started throwing up the next night at midnight. I think by the end of the trip Braden could have had a world record for car seat dis-assembly. And we enjoyed the aroma of Tahitian Breeze Fabreze mingled with a hint of human waste for the next few thousand miles.

We stopped in Texas and stayed the night with Grandma. Braden spent the night at the laundromat washing car seats and laundry because her septic tank was having some problems. Of course when we got there she pulled out all kinds of food that she had been making all day. I tried to take the trash down the lane to the street for her and she absolutely would not let me. I am impressed with how she pushes herself to do things and keep up.

Grandma has a tradition of giving the kids money to walk to the candy store when they come to visit. Since she didn't get to that that to our family growing up, she gave each one of us $2 to go pick out some candy on our way out. It was exciting and it cracked me up that she did that.


Anabelle got a few different candies (like the lamest candy in the whole joint) and Lila could not be talked into buying any candy. "No, tanks. I'll just have some juice".

We stopped in OKC and stayed the night with our college buddies, Nate and Alyson. And it reminded me how much I miss them. It was so so great to see them. So to say thanks we got Maisey and Lila to throw up on all their stuff so that their kids would get sick and then they wouldn't forget us. Yay, us! When can we come again, Al?

This is what I looked at for 3000 miles. Except sometimes there were side rails about an inch away from the trailer which was swaying back and forth. It was a bit nerve-racking to follow actually. And sometimes, when we topped out at 17 miles per hour, it was a different kind of nerve-racking.





All the girls loved to ride in the moving truck. About half way through the trip we let Maisey in there after she had had enough of looking at luggage in the backseat and being puked on. Braden said she just squealed and kicked her feet the whole time. Lila liked it also but asked frequently to ride with me in the van. I told Anabelle about a month before we moved that she would get to take turns riding in the moving van. She was ecstatic about this and would ask about it every few days. When the time came she was disappointed to find out that her dad would be the one driving the truck. Turns out, she was thrilled to be traveling across the country with two strange mover men who she'd never met, but remembered it being that way from our last move. Should we be concerned with her lack of stranger danger?

And now a personal message to those who are concerned with over-population: I invite you to take a road trip across the country to experience the grand expanse of nothingness of parts of Texas. And Oklahoma. Oh and Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah for that matter. Get real people. Let's start worrying about things that actually matter, like the fact that everyone here in the beehive state has feathers tied to their hair. I personally saw plenty of places where a few (jillion) people might fit, if need be. Like here...

Or here...

Or here...

Or here. As I recall, the name of this street is Road 3.

Look at these Oreo cows! Not exactly sure if that is their actual breed name, but if it's not they have very obviously been misnamed. And don't fret, I took all these pictures without looking through the lens. It was a fun game I played to keep me awake.

Then we stopped in Denver for a few hours to reunite with Braden's EFY bud Barbie, who has become my bloggy friend. Because that's how we make friends these days. What a crazy world we live in. So it was great to meet her for the first time even though I totally know her.


Our excitement grew as the mountains kept getting bigger.
...and finally, on day 6 with 2 minutes to spare before housing closed up shop, we made it to Hill.

The kids did great! No DVD players and not once did we hear any request to get out or ask when we would be there. They were troopers for sure. I'm not saying I want to keep driving around with them all day or anything, but they pulled through for us. And they may have actually shot themselves in the foot because I was preparing myself to stop somewhere and buy a DVD player if things got bad. But now it just reinforced my idea that we continue to go old-school and make them sing and count and talk in the car. And sing they did. Boy do they sing. No complaints about the trip, but glad there will be another three years before we do that again.