When Someone you love becomes a memory...

When someone
you love becomes
a memory... that
memory becomes a
treasure

That somebody I love is my Dad. I can't believe that today the 31st will be the 2 year mark of when he died. 2 years? It feels like an eternity. I love my daddy so much, and miss him so much. It's getting easier not having him around, but it is still super duper hard. I'm finally to the point where I don't dwell on it, and let it consume me. Yes I still think about him, and that's why I love this saying so much. He is a memory that I will always treasure. For Christmas my Mom gave each of us that saying. She made it for a relief society Super Saturday project. This is what it looks like:

I'm going to use my sister Kate's idea and put a bunch of pictures of my dad under this saying. I happen to have the perfect frame for it! Here are some of the pictures I'm using, or would like to use. This one is a very special, and very sentimental. My Dad used to give all of us kids wheel barrel rides around the block. We still have the wheel barrel!
We had a barn growing up, and a big pasture. We had Lot's of goats! I have Lot's of good memories of my Dad and the goats.
Me on my Baptism day. I'm so glad my Dad was able to be the one to baptise me!
My Dad and I at a Merry Miss Daddy Daughter activity. We had a fun time!My Dad was famous for trying to blow out other peoples birthday candles. He was a big tease! So here I am on my birthday(I think I was 14) covering my Dad's mouth so he can't blow out MY CANDLES! LOL =)My Dad loved to try new things. He decided that we were going to breed beagles. Here he is holding one of the beagle pups. I think it's really sweet!My Dad and McKenzie when she was about 9 months. He was really good with her, and she loved her Papa Kotter! She still does.I love this picture of my Mom and Dad, and Kenzie. We had gone on a hike together up to Donut falls. Fun times!!!

Dad I miss you, but I know that we will be together again. Love you with all my heart.

Can you say Holy Sugar?!?

Today we(the girls and I) went on a field trip with McKenzie's preschool to the Sweets Candy Factory. They have been looking forward to go going for the whole week. So here are some pictures before we left:

Madisynn couldn't or wouldn't keep her eyes open so I took multiple shots. I love McKenzie's face in all of them. She is the warden and is making sure Madisynn keeps her eyes open! So here they are:

But finally the only way to get her eyes to stay open was our favorite pic to do together is sticking our tongues out:So finally after that shot we were able to get into the car and go. We were already running late, and I wasn't exactly sure where the factory was. We made it just in time though! We had to hang our coats up, check in our purses, cameras, cell phones, jewelry, and we had to wear hair nets. The kids were all so excited to wear them! They looked like a bunch of Umpa Lumpas! We got to see some interesting things. A couple of them were: how to make salt water taffy, and chocolate covered raspberry sticks. Something else that was interesting was they have chocolate flowing through pipes all throughout the building. Someone asked the question what do they do with the chocolate in the pipes when they were done. The tour guide said they never shut down because the factory runs 24/7. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to break open one of those pipes and drink the chocolate? Yum!

I think the best part of the tour were the samples. The kids devoured them! Madisynn shoved a whole piece of chocolate in her mouth, followed by a chocolate raspberry stick. She had chocolate all over her mouth. She enjoyed it immensely!!! Kenzie says her favorite parts of the tour were seeing the taffy, and of course getting candy! I wish I could say the best part of the tour was getting the samples, but I didn't try any. I've decided to go without candy this year. It was so hard, but I said no. It smelled wonderful though! My favorite part was watching how they stretched the taffy. At the end of the tour, McKenzie's teacher had ordered little packets of Salt water taffy for all of the kids. So I took home 2 sugar crazed kiddos!

Here are some pictures of the Umpa Lumpas:

McKenzie had a little bit of chocolate left on her face from her samples:Madisynn well she had a lot of chocolate left over from her samples!:And lastly one last picture of the 3 Umpa Lumpas:I so wish Matt was able to come. He missed out on all of the action! I told him we would have to go again with just our family. He was totally all for that! The best part it's free!!! =)

Our little girl is...................

doing so awesome in her preschool! She absolutely loves it! She gets along with all of the kids, and she can't wait till the next time she goes! It is definitely worth every penny for McKenzie to go to preschool, it has helped her tremendously. She amazes me! This month in Preschool they focused a lot on snowmen. Last week she came home with this picture and craft both of snowmen. Here they are:

Aren't they both so cute! She did an awesome job. When she was explaining to me what she drew in the picture I started to laugh and gave her a hug because it was so cute. She was so Happy! So anyways on the right of the picture is her snowman, her very tall snowman. On the left of the snowman it looks like a tornado, but she says it is an earthquake. Hilarious huh? Kids imaginations are great! I love her little snowman craft too. She helped glue the nose and scarf on, and of course she drew the eyes and the mouth. I also work with her on her writing and numbers and Alphabet. Today she actually spelled her name right. She usually spells it McKneize and today she did this:

She is getting smarter and smarter each day, and is growing up so fast. She is so ready for Kindergarten. She asks all of the time if she is going to the big school soon. I love that she is so excited!

A Beautiful start to the day....NOT

So this morning I was pulled out of a deep peaceful sleep by the ringing of the phone. I instantly knew that it was Matt by looking at the time on the alarm clock, which said 7 A.M. As I answered I was hoping for good news, but no my hopes were shattered by him telling me the car wouldn't start. Lovely.... I didn't get mad, I was actually pretty calm. It wasn't Matt's fault the car wouldn't start. It was a dead battery. We should have taken the car in a couple of weeks ago because it was having a hard time starting up. We both thought it was the cold that was making the car not want to start up, but actually I think I was the one in denial otherwise I would have brought it up to Matt. I just didn't want to face anymore car problems.
Anyways Matt was able to find someone at work to help him jump start the car. Thank goodness it started up. Matt drove to the Auto zone that is just a couple of blocks away from us and saw that they were about to open. He turned the car off, and tried turning it on again, but it wouldn't start. So he waited for about a half hr. and they changed the battery. I can't believe how expensive car batteries are! It cost us $97.75 total out the door. I'm grateful that it didn't cost anymore than that. I'm also thankful that we got payed today, so that we didn't have to pull from our savings. The car starts up wonderfully now, and I'm grateful for that! I'm grateful that Matt wasn't hurt, and he is so wonderful to take it to be fixed so I wouldn't have too. Yeah so our day didn't start out so swell, but we will have a good rest of the day, as I hope you do as well. =) Think positive!

Fantastic Fabulous Freaking Fun Girls Day Out!

I have the greatest friends! I love all of you so much!!!! I got to spend time yesterday with 2 of them. They are so sweet so me, and I will always treasure their friendship. So real quick we went to the Jordan Commons ordered some grub from the Mayan express to take into the movie. This is the movie we went to see:

It is such a funny movie! I absolutely loved it! All of you girls out there you need to go and see it! Thank you girls you know who you are for the fun day and spoiling me. =)

The Mom Song

A good friend sent this to me, so if you want a good laugh watch it!!! I thought it was hilarious. Thanks Jacoy. =)
I know that I've said or heard every one of the phrases many times before! Let me know what you think. =)

Decompressing Faith: The Mom Song


Here are the Lyrics to the song:

"What I have done is I have figured out what a mom would say in a 24 hour period, and I have condensed it to 2 minutes, 55 seconds. So strap on your seat belt, here we go.
Get up now, get up now, get up out of bed Wash your face, brush your teeth, comb your sleepy head Here's your clothes and your shoes, hear the words I said Get up now! Get up and make your bed. Are you hot? Are you cold? Are you wearing that? Where's your books and your lunch and your homework at? Grab your coat and your gloves and your scarf and hat Don't forget! You got to feed the cat.

Eat your breakfast! The experts tell us it's the most important meal of all Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall. Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at three today. Don't forget your piano lesson is this afternoon, so you must play.

Don't shovel, chew slowly, but hurry, the bus is here. Be careful, come back here, did you wash behind your ears? Play outside, don't play rough, would you just play fair? Be polite, make a friend, don't forget to share Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare Get along, don't make me come down there Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day? Were you born in a barn?, would you like some hay Can you even hear a word I say?

Answer the phone! Get Off the phone! Don't sit so close! Turn it down! No texting at the table! No more computer time tonight! Your iPod's my iPod if you don't listen up!

Where you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home? Saying thank you, please, excuse me, makes you welcome everywhere you roam. You'll appreciate my wisdom someday when you're older and you're grown. Can't wait 'til you have a couple little children of your own.


You'll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly But right now I thank you NOT to roll your eyes at me.

Close your mouth when you chew, would appreciate Take a bite, maybe two of the stuff you hate Use your fork, do not you burp, or I'll set you straight Eat the food I put upon your plate Get an A, Get the door, don't get smart with me Get a Grip, get in here I'll count to 3 Get a job, get a life, get a PhD Get a dose of reality.


I don't care who started it! You're grounded until your 36! Get your story straight, and tell the truth for once for heaven's sake! And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump too? If I've said it once, I've said at least a thousand times before that:You're too old to act this way! It must be your father's DNA! Look at me when I am talking. Stand up straighter when you walk. A place for everything, and everything must be in place. Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about! Oh!


Brush your teeth, wash your face, get your PJs on. Get in bed, get a hug, say a prayer with Mom. Don't forgetI love you**KISS**And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's work never ends! You don't need the reason why! Because! Because! Because! Because! I said so! I said so! I said so! I said so! I'm the Mom! The mom! The mom! The mom! The mom!

Ta-da!"

Look Mom.....

So I started braiding both of the girls' hair awhile ago. One day after we took the braids out and brushed their hair kenzie says look Mom I have Scribbles in my hair! I just started laughing. I never heard that one before. I thought it was worth sharing! I hope you got a laugh out of it like we did! =)

Here is a picture of the scribbles: