11 years and going strong!!

Yesterday Travis and I "celebrated" our 11 year anniversary. I say "celebrated" because Thursday is our BUSIEST and most chaotic day of the week. So, we did squeeze in a 2 minute conversation during lunch, I saw him briefly over a soup dinner and then last night we both had about a 5 minute or less conversation on the couch before we both fell asleep (yes, on the couch) holding hands. And that was our day. But, it wasn't a bad day. There is nobody in this world that I would rather fall asleep holding hands on the couch with. Squeezing in a 2 minute lunch conversation is a highlight to my days.

Travis and I were married 11 years ago and it has been the most amazing 11 years. Travis and I have both changed into better people. And isn't that what marriage is all about? Being with someone who makes you better. Someone who makes you want to do better. To grow and change. That is what Travis does for me. Sometimes I cringe when I think of the girl I was when I got married. I was desperate for approval and tried constantly to be something I never was. NowI am proud of who I am, where I came from and what I am becoming. Together we strive every day to be better than what we were. I love sitting with Travis and talking to him about all of my dreams and hopes and having him help me see that my dreams can be reality.

In our marriage we have brought 4 wonderful children into our family, and hope to bring a few more in, eventually. We love our family. We are each others best friends. We play together and joke together and work together. Our family is my pride and joy. We are so so so blessed.

I am thankful every minute of every day for the wonderful man that I call my husband. He is patient and kind and hard working and the perfect person for me. Happy Anniversary, babe. I love ya!!

Gloria Turn's 9!!

Gloria turned 9 years old this month. Gloria is such a special girl. She is amazing. I am so thankful to be her mom. I am so in awe of her. There are so many wonderful things about Gloria. Gloria is naturally a peace maker. She is so sweet and kind and everyone is drawn to her sweet personality. She is such a great big sister and I am thankful that she is our oldest child because she is such a great example to her little brother and sister. She is so fun. Her siblings all love playing with her. She is very popular in our house. Everyone looks up to her and adores her. Gloria is very talented. Right now she is taking guitar, voice and piano lessons and is excelling at all 3 things. She has a beautiful voice and is always on key. She seems to just know where to put her fingers on the guitar strings and on the piano keys. She enjoys playing and singing. She is also VERY good at soccer. This year she has really started to be the star of the team. She can dribble the ball so fast (she does have very long legs) and she is not afraid to fight to get the ball from the other team. She is very smart. She is in the gifted program here and her test scores from their yearly tests are always in the top 10% in the nation. She is very spiritual. She loves her Heavenly Father and you can see it in her actions and feel it in her prayers. She is a great example to me. I feel like I am bragging about her, and I guess I am. But there is nothing bad to say about my sweet girl. I remember when she was little I would always say that if I could have 25 more just like her then we would have 25 more!! She is so easy and so eager to help out. She is so excited to be old enough to babysit. She practices all the time with our friends, the Geyers. She loves to help out with their kids, and with ours. She is truly a joy to have around and to have for a daughter. I love her so much and my life would be very incomplete without her sweet spirit around. Happy 9th Birthday, Gloria. Stay sweet.

Livie's Blankie

Olivia has had this special blankie since the day she was born. One side is satiny soft and one side is brown and pink fuzzy. It is her special blankie. We have no spare blankie. That is bad. She cannot sleep without it. Sometimes it is gross and dirty and we have to use it. I had a brilliant idea to buy another one. But I could not find another one like it. So, I bought one that FELT the same, but was just purple. I presented it to Olivia. She threw it across the room. She will not even be in the same room as the purple one. So, I put it in a closet and forgot about it.

Last week Olivia was ready for bed and we could not find her blankie!!! I was panicked!! Then I remembered the purple "fake" blankie. I turned out all the lights in the house and made sure everything was pitch black. then I went into her room to give her the blankie. She asked me a few times to turn the light on so she could see it. I told her 'No". She eventually accepted that it was her blankie and went to sleep. I had meant to find her blankie in the night and go in and pull a switcheroo. But I forgot. IN the morning she came running into our bedroom shouting "mommy!! Look!!! My blankie changed colors in the night!" Sweet. Now her blankie often changes color in the night.... whenever we need to wash one or can't find one. It was a perfect solution.

I feel so.... mortal.

Two weeks ago, on Labor Day, my family and another family decided to spend the day at the lake. The lake that is in our backyard is getting a little low, so we decided to try another lake that is about an hour from our home. It is a little out of the way and not very crowded. The water is clear and cold, there are bridges to jump from and turtles to play with. It sounded nice and we decided to head out.

The drive to the lake was very windy and on tiny roads with big rock walls on both sides or cliffs on the sides. We drove our big 10 passenger van and we were towing our boat. So, we weren't going super fast on these small, windy roads. A group of people on motorcycles came up behind us. They all started passing us, even though we were about to turn a corner that we could not see around because of the big rock walls. Travis and I were horrified that they were going to fast and passing on a double yellow! Travis tried to pull over to the side of the road as much as he could as they finished passing.

As we rounded the next corner a lady came running toward us, franticly waving her arms and yelling for us to stop. As we slowed down and rounded the corner we saw the reason why. One of the motorcylists had run head-on into a motorhome. He was laying on the ground. There was a lot of blood. Travis stopped the van and immediately jumped out and ran to the man. The lady from the motorhome had dialed 9-1-1 and was on the line with them.

I will spare you the gory details, and they are very gory. It was a tramatic event. We grabbed our kids spare clothing and we tried to stop his bleeding. Travis did CPR for close to 40 minutes with some other men who had arrived on scene after we did. The man was badly injured. Our kids were in the van praying. The police had a hard time locating a signal and could not find us... finally someone who was waiting in the long line of cars that had started to form, drove home and called 9-1-1 from a land line so that they could locate where we were. It took the life flight helicopter almost an hour to reach us. The paramedics arrived at the same time as life flight. It was surreal. After all Travis's hard work and all our time, after working on the man for another 20 minutes or so, the doctor called it. It was over. I cried. The kids cried. We talked about what had happened, why it happened, why the prayer was not answered the way we wanted it to be.... The kids still talk about it. Livie still talks about her "friend" who had to go to the doctor to be fixed- she doesn't understand- but she could see how bad it was.

I had debated whether or not to post this. I decided that this is something that I want to remember. I have never been with someone as they died. I have never been a part of a rescue operation like that before. It was scary. I think that the reason that I want to remember it is because Travis and I have both been changed from being there. We both keep thinking about how this man passed us on his motorcycle and 30 seconds later he was laying on the ground dying. I know that Travis and I keep trying to make memories with our kids, more that we used to. Bed times aren't so strict. Reading and cuddling for a few more minutes is important. HAving a clean house, not so terribly important. throwing pillows all over the living room and jumping on the them is more important. It's the little things that these kids are going to remember and if it is all over tomorrow, what do I want them to remember? do I want them to remember that our laundry was put away and closets were organized? (yes, I do), but more importantly, I want them to remember that I put the laundry off until later so that I could jump on the trampoline with them, because that is more important!!

I don't know, I don't want to say I am depressed, but I almost feel that way. I feel like I am looking at life through a magnifying glass. Travis and I had a trip planned to Italy in October. 10 days of Italy! Last week we decided to cancel it. We just want to spend time with our family.

Gloria's 9th Birthday Party!!

I love this age of girls... it is so much fun to play with these girls and so easy to have a good time. It feels like we are hanging out and having a good time- compared to younger kids when you feel like you are a constant referee!!! So, we had a lot of fun for Gloria's birthday. Here is a breakdown of how the birthday girl spent her day.

6:00am. Dad wakes up the birthday girl (on a Saturday) and gets her and her brother and sister dressed for a Birthday Surprise Horse ride. They drove (2 hours) up to the High mountains and went for a 2 hour tour on horse back. They went around a lake and had a really nice time. Then they drove the 2 hours back. Meanwhile, I stay at home with Livie (she's too little to take on the horse ride) and ready the house for the party that will start at 2:00. Dad takes the kids out to lunch and to play while I finish getting ready for the party at home.

2:00pm. Kids start arriving for the party. 15 girls, to be exact. THANKFULLY I have a really good friend who showed up and told me that Grayson did not need to be involved in such a girly party and whisked him away for the day (and night) to play with her son. Grayson was VERY thankful and I know he had more fun there than here.
We started out by giving each of the girls their very own cake to frost and decorate. I gave them a little sample lesson and then had a few cakes that they could try their techniques on before they put them on their own cakes. We learned to make flowers, leaves, and borders and I showed them how to make clowns.... but no one wanted to try the clowns. The heads were put straight into the cake and the girls were fine with that!! The girls did a great job with their cakes.

Then we sent the girls outside to swim with Travis as the lifeguard on duty!! The girls had a GREAT time swimming and it felt great on a HOT day. We let them swim for about an hour while my friends (Kellie and Jill) and I cleaned up the mess inside and prepared the items for our next project..... braclets!! The girls loved making bracelets and they all looked so nice. Poor Kellie and Jill ended up putting the clasps on all the girls bracelets while we were doing cake and doing presents!! It took a long time, but I am so thankful to them for doing that for me, it would have taken me too long- Thanks Jill and Kellie!!

After bracelets we ate our cakes that we tried out our decorating techniques on and that way all the girls were able to take their whole cake home as a party favor :)

Then we did presents and with the last 15 minutes we let the girls swim or play a game (Guesstures) until parents came.

It was a huge success.

After everyone left the party (6:30) Gloria and 2 of her friends and I went out to dinner (Gloria ended up getting sick at dinner..... ewwwwwww) and then we came home and had a sleep over. It was a great day and a great party. I am so thankful for my wonderful 9 year old, Gloria.