Animal Noises

Francine is so much fun! She is growing so fast and learning so much stuff. I want her to stay a baby forever, yet at the same time it is such a joy to watch her learn and progress. She makes me absolutely LOVE being a mommy! She is currently learning some animal sounds.

I'm not sure if I'm prejudice, or if Francine really is the most adorable baby ever! She makes me laugh all the time. She's such a happy, out going baby. She waves to everybody she sees and of course I am her favorite person. She gets pretty excited to see her daddy, too.

Beauty, Brains & Manners

This is awesome! Kya will be 2 in august and I must say she is VERY smart! Check this out...

listen to the last few seconds of this video... she's also got some manners!

Swingin' & Slidin'

What a great day at the park! We went to Jensen's Grove and met up with some of the family to watch our favorite little people explore the playground.

This was Francine's first time to the park and of course she loved it!

Kya was there with her grandma aka: Aunt Chrissy & her mommy.

Francine loved going down the slides with Ben & Andy

Chelsee & Nakia are both as beautiful as ever!!!

Francine didn't want to quit playing on the big toys so Angelea got to take a turn with her.

There was only one baby swing so Francine & Kya had to take turns, which was a little difficult for them to understand.

We were there for about 4 hours and we all managed to get a little more sun than we had hoped for. That night when we got home I was worried Francine would be miserable, she looked pretty red. But by morning she had a nice tan going!

GROSE!

Well, I made another disgusting dinner. This one really upsets me because I wasted A LOT of vegetables! If only my mom was here to give me step by step instructions, grrrrr....
All I wanted to do was make a yummy stir fry like mom always does, but I've never actually asked her how she makes it. But heck, how hard could it be? Cook up a bunch of chopped up veggies in a wok (don't have a wok so I used a frying pan), cooked in oil, (I'm on a diet and Marlo said you can cook fajitas in tomato juice instead of oil to cut back on the fat, so it would only make sense to cook stir fry in vegetable juice as well, the main problem however is that I couldn't find any vegetable juice so I reasoned that since the main ingredient in vegetable juice is tomatoes then tomato soup should work just the same) add some strips of meat, (but I left that part out, the chicken is step 2 of this dinner gone bad.) Let's just say that although I did eat a couple spoon fulls of this disgusting little concoction, as did Tello & Andy (through gritted teeth) I am SOOOO not a person who can just throw something together. I need step by step instructions, and forget a recipe if it says a pinch of this and a dab of that. If it doesn't have exact measurements, I'll ruin it somehow. Which brings me to the chicken portion of our dinner.
Tello is an amazing cook, and I have yet to see him follow a recipe. So when I called him to ask how to make his yummy version of shake and bake, he said "chop up some cheerios and add some spices, salt pepper, cinnamon & sugar (that might sound odd, but dang it's good....when he makes it) So I'm spending a couple hours in the kitchen that is now over heating, slaving over what I envision as a gourmet meal. Finally it's time to eat, I already described the veggie catastrophe & the chicken was bloody, grrrr. So all that was left to be desired was 2 cups of rice (I used the last of the box) & some cans of soda!
Where's my mom when I need her? Oh ya, RUSSIA

HAPPY FATHERS DAY GRANDPA!

We knew you couldn't take anything extra with you, so we got together and had the grandkids sing your favorite song to you. We Love you!!!

Grandma & Grandpa are going away on a mission

The time has finally arrived. Mom & Dad are leaving for 18 months to Russia. I'm excited for them. They will make great missionaries. They sure do make cute missionaries!

Me, Marlo, Jerry & Chris went to Salt Lake on Friday night so we could meet Mom & Dad saturday morning to go to the temple then spend the day with them. Saturday was their P-Day.

Me & Marlo stayed the night with Linda. I had Francine, I have a hard time leaving her overnight & Jonathan & Jamie said they would watch her while we went to the temple. Francine really loves her bed, but she really doesn't love other people's bed. So Marlo opted for the couch but me, Francine, Linda & Dogee all piled into Linda's bed. After 2 hours of Francine running her fingers viciously thru my hair and kicking me, I finally took her to the floor and managed to get a couple hours of sleep.

We met Mom & Dad at Jonathan's house, dropped off Francine & headed to the temple for the 9am session where we met up with Jerry & Chris.

The Temple is always a nice experience, I guess a little more so when you go with missionaries!

Mom & Dads missionary tags were totally undecipherable, but mom gave it an honest effort.

After the temple we met Jonathan & Jamie (they said Francince was a perfect little angel, ofcourse!) Shay, Austin & Liz (who had some exciting news for us) at "Red Rock" for lunch. Interesting choice of restraunts. Mom & Dad were a little freaked out to be wearing their missionary tags in a brew & pub. But the food was good and the company was even better!

After dinner we went back to Jonathan & Jamies for some last minute details.....

Dad needed a missionary cut..

And mom needed a little more help figuring out gmail so we can stay in touch...

And Jerry realized that Rock Band really is fun! shhhh.. don't tell his kids.

On our way to take mom & dad back to the MTC we stopped and looked at Linda's really big million dollar house. WOW!
If anybody knows anyone who wants a FANCY house near Provo, UT for a really good price, let me know. I can totally hook you up!

We took mom and dad to indulge at Cold Stone before we dropped them off at the MTC. It was great tasting, but both of them felt sick after eating so much ice cream! Marlo convinced them both to get the "love it" size because of some wacked out justification she has about anything you eat in the name of the church doesn't count against your diet and it won't make you sick. WHATEVER, that's Marlos world for ya!

Then we said our final good-byes. They leave for Russia monday and the next time we see them (unless we go visit) will be in 18 months!

I Love you guys! You are such a good example. You are going to be WONDERFUL missionaries.

4th Anniversary

Today was our 4th anniversary. We went to the Idaho Falls Temple and did sealings.....

Then Tello had a limo pick us up and we went to dinner.

Hair do gone bad!

Andy wanted his hair colored blue and wouldn't leave me alone about it. He kept whining and boobing until I gave in & colored his hair.... He learned a good lesson that time, If mom says she doesn't know how to do something and doesn't have the patience to figure it out, she's not kidding!! I finally rubbed some blue dye around in his hair, told him to wait 10 minutes then go take a shower. That's not the correct way to wash dye out of your hair (incase anyone else didn't know that).

We spent the rest of the evening cleaning the shower, walls, floor & his body with rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. The kids at school started calling him "Blue Berry New Shoes" (he went to school the next day with new shoes and his cool blue hair)

LOTS OF LILAC BUSHES

WOW! This time of year is so beautiful. This is our second year at this home and I must have really been out of it last year because I do not remember the breathtaking beauty I see all around me this year. I have been feeling unsettled lately, wanting to move & looking for something "better" to cure all my problems. Maybe God is opening my eyes to that which I have and shouldn't take for granted. Last year I spent most of my time inside with my 3 month old baby. I also was completely exhausted and basically out of commission. Actually I was pretty much worthless. My kids had to take care of them self and Tello was so busy with the office he either didn't realize it or turned a blind eye to it. I still feel run down and tired but NOTHING like last year. I still feel like I'm far from feeling normal, but then again, what really is normal anyways?

These pictures don't even begin to show the beauty that I see. Our whole property is surrounded by different shades of lilac bushes and there are 5 crabapple trees that were bright pink when they were in bloom last week.

Pony Kicker

Nakia, aka: Pony Kicker, and her horse Brandy

Keeping up with the Jones's

I decided I would start a blog since that is the IN thing to do these days. & there are lots of cute things my kids do that I intend to write down so I can look back on someday to laugh about but never get around to writing it. I've never been one to keep a journal, infact the short period of time in jr. high/ high school that I did keep a journal, is soooooo pathetic I can't handle reading it. I might have chucked it in fact, probably best if I did.
Mom and Dad are leaving for the MTC next monday. They are going to serve their mission in Russia. I've been a bit emotional all day. It started with Sacrament mtg. Sometimes fast and testimony meeting can be a bit redundant and lots of people can get a quick nap in, today was actually one of those very spiritual mtgs though.
Ted Binghams boy Collin bore his testimony. He's around 9 yrs. old I think. He was so cute, he said how he was glad his brother graduated so he could move out then he immediately burst into tears and said how much he loves him and how much he'll miss him when he leaves on his mission. It was so touching.
Then Janae Crook took Lillyan up to the pulpit. Lilly is around 3 yrs old and has some major deformities. Janae said that after her husband came up Lilly was so insistant to come talk so she said we'll give it a shot. Everyone was dead silent as Lilly said "I love you, I love Jesus, amen." I know I wasn't the only one who was touched by the spirit. I still get teary eyed when I think about it. That was so beautiful.
Normally after church we head out to mom and dad's for dinner and visiting. But since they live over 2 hours away in Challis we can't just run out for a few hours, and although I really enjoyed Ned & Dessa's company for dinner tonight, I really got to missing my parents. Maybe a blog spot isn't the best thing for me right now, writing down how I feel and stuff is getting me a bit too emotional..... so on a funnier note...
Tello went into wake Franny up this morning and this is what he saw


She some how managed to get her diaper half way off. She is also snoring like a bear!