Jeremy and Kelly Manwaring

Since we've been home...

2011-05-15T15:43:00.002-06:00

The last post I did was in October. That was also the trip Jeremy asked me if I was ready to go home from the Philippines. Up until that day, he had been talking like we might be there a couple of more years! I was shocked he would mention it. I said yes I was ready, but we both wanted to make sure we had done everything there we could and wouldn't regret later going home at that time. We thought about it for a few weeks, and then tearfully told out decision to Jon and Steph. They were still there and at the time were not planning to come home. That was so hard. We felt like we were abandoning them!
We began selling most of the things we acquired while we were there. We had a yard sale and had our house-help: Junel, Haydee, and Sally sell everything for us. They were wonderful. It was sad to leave them. We said goodbye to the ward, the neighborhood, and the school, and were ready to leave.
We flew out on December 12? and got here Dec. 15?
Jon and Stephanie's family came over when we were finishing packing. They helped us and we took lots of pictures. We had all of our luggage loaded into a van to drive us to the airport. Ajie, Tata, and J came over and road with us too. We stopped and ate some pizza and saw the new S&R store and then went to the airport. The primary president, Sister Lanee, had been waiting at the airport for us. She gave us 5 winter hats that had CEBU written on them. She also gave me and each of the girls a cute purse, plus little souvenirs of guitars with each of our names written on them. She also gave me a little bamboo coin purse. We appreciated her so much. She is a neat lady and a good friend.
Then it was time. Jon and Steph's family, Ajie's family, and our house help walked us to the security point and then waved at us through the glass window as we walked off. We were all bawling. It was so hard to say goodbye!!! We got on our first plane with puffy red eyes and flew to Manila. We slept for a about 5 hours at a hotel and then headed back to the airport. We flew to Tokyo. The girls made friends with another little girl at the airport. It was so cute because the girls didn't speak the same language, but they were still trying to play dolls together and share snacks. Such great experiences for us! Then we flew to California (LA again, I think), made it through the airport, and flew to Salt Lake City. It was not as cold as I was expecting. Brett was there waiting for us with his car and a little trailer for our luggage. We were tired, hungry, and probably stinky :). We drove straight to Brett and Sue's home. All the family was there waiting to welcome us. The kids had made nice welcome signs but we couldn't really see them because it was dark and cold outside by that point. I think we got to their house around 8pm. We were SHOCKED at how much all the kids had grown. Most of them are now at least as tall as me if not taller. It was crazy. I was so worn out but it was great to see everyone.
Then we tried to sleep. Ha ha. Gracie stayed awake ALL night (and kept waking me up). We stayed for a couple of days at Brett and Sue's. It was nice to be there, although I was freezing the entire time. They were so nice and welcoming anyway. I tried to find some warmer clothes, since the ones we wore in the Philippines were absolutely not warm enough!
We quickly moved into the Cummings home. They are a missionary couple from IF serving in the Cebu Temple. Jeremy worked with them each week at the temple. It turns out their house was empty, and they were willing to let us rent it out from them until they return in October. So here we are! It is a townhome-brand new-only a couple of miles from my parents!It's been wonderful here. We also bought the Cumming's little pickup truck. We bought Brett's car for me, and then decided to buy their truck for Jeremy since we needed another car anyway, and would have had to pay to store their truck if we wanted to use the garage. It's all worked out great.
The girls go to Temple View Elementary where my Dad teaches.
They took ice skating lessons from January through March, and they also began singing lessons in January. They take lessons from our old neighbor, Janie Christensen. While we were in the Philippines, her 2 daughters were on America's Got Talent. They did awesome. It was so fun to watch them on TV :).
We have all settled back here so easily. It's just nice to be home. I have had some tough moments, like when I drove by our old house, or when I saw the lady that moved into our old house at Sam's Club...but really, it's been such a blessing to be where we are. The kids have friends, they are doing great in school, the ward is wonderful, and we get to see my parents a lot which has been awesome. Gracie and I started taking guitar lessons from my Dad a couple of months ago and are really enjoying it. Gracie is doing so great!
Jeremy is working hard as always. He did go to a check flight last week so now he is able to fly planes again. He hasn't complained about missing flying, but I'm sure he is eager to get back into the air.
Jon and Stephanie's family moved back in March. They are staying with my parents, so we see a lot of them, too. It probably wouldn't have been so sad and hard on all of us if we had known they would be coming home soon too. ha ha I guess you never know.
We are looking for a house to move into in the next few months, but so far haven't had success. School gets out in 3 weeks, and hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy it outside! (It's been cold here for the most part. A few beautiful days here and there, but mostly cold and windy.)

Shangri-La Paradise Weekend

2010-11-08T18:54:00.010-07:00

The kids had a 2 week long semester break. Lucy's birthday occupied the 1st week, which was super fun, but we also wanted to add a little family getaway while we had the chance. We talked about visiting parts of Jeremy's mission, or hiking at a volcano...for some reason it all seemed like so much effort! Instead we finally settled on the most amazing hotel I've ever been to, which just happens to be a one hour drive away. It's called the Shangri-La. Yes, I am posting a lot of pictures of this place because we LOVED every second of it!!!!! Here we go: This is the sailboat we went for a ride on. I couldn't take a picture of us actually on it because there was nowhere to put a camera! Plus, our waterproof camera's memory card was full :( The highlights: *We swam (it had both a kiddie pool for Sam, 2 large pools including a waterslide for the older 2, and the ocean which was absolutely beautiful and warm!! * a really fun play area with huge slides (one the girls actually had to wear a helmet to go on and Sami was too little for it) *We rode ocean kayaks out to a dock and fed the fish. SO FUN!!! *We went on a sailboat which was awesome, too! Sami fell asleep about halfway through after she requested we go FASTER! :) *We fed the fish right along the shore. The fish were EVERYWHERE. We just watched them jump out of the water all around us. Sami didn't love that part, but the rest of us did. If they got too close to Lucy she would just throw sand on them! *The food was delicious, the room very comfortable, and the TV big. Oh, and of course we ALL loved the luxury of a bathtub!!!!!! *It had a nice pool table/ping pong room. Gracie did great with ping pong! I'm sure she would have done great with pool too, but we didn't try that :) *We played badminton on nice soft grass with a net! Awesome! *There were big, nice hammocks to relax on complete with grass and shade. *The workers brought out free samples of fruit kabobs and juice several times. YUM This is one 5 star hotel that deserves all 5 stars in my book! It was SO fun to spend that time with our family. The fun playroom slide:

Tooth fairy and Halloween

2010-11-08T01:22:00.006-07:00

Lucy had her first loose tooth for at least a month or two. She was very nervous for it to come out. We thought maybe the big day would be her birthday, but that little tooth held on for 3 more days. Finally, the time had come. Daddy had to help a little, but that tooth was ready to come out! Lucy was so excited, and boy does she look cute!! Just in time to carve...coconuts.

Lucy designing her "jack-o-lantern"

Sami was very helpful for all of us!

Jeremy had the idea since there are no pumpkins here, we could carve coconuts for jack-o-lanterns instead. We stopped at a coconut stand and I wish I would have taken pictures there. The guy we bought them from had a big machete he cut one side off of each coconut and then poured out the milk. He made it look so easy!

We got home and began designing our coconuts. Then Jeremy and Junel (he works for us)did pretty much all the hard work-the actual carving. They turned out awesome!! Oh, and yes, we did do one squash which also looked awesome :)

Grace taking her personally designed coconut outside

The final result

One final word of Halloween. No, we didn't dress up in costumes, so I have no pictures of any type of Halloween party or trick-or-treating. They do celebrate Halloween here, but it's much more optional. Our neighborhood kids did come trick-or-treating, but it was Sunday night, so my girls just stayed home with me. Grace did hand out candy we had to the neighborhood kids, and I was impressed that they were so nice they came and brought a lot of their candy over to us since the girls didn't get any. At any rate, we had so much fun with the coconuts it helped make up for the dress up part.

Lucy's Birthday!! 6 Years!!

2010-11-08T00:56:00.007-07:00

I love Lucy. She is one of the coolest people ever. Seriously. She has so many sides to her, it's just fun to get to know her. This year she has grown in a lot of ways. For one, she is much taller. For another, she's experienced so many different situations (school, church, and our home to mention a few) here that I think it has broadened her perspective. Finally, seeing her learn and develop as both a younger sister and an older sister has been neat. She is really quite the little Mommy to Samantha, and a good friend for Grace. She always asks such relevant questions when we discuss things like religion. It always impresses me. She is also so silly and fun! She LOVES to kick back and relax. Yes, I love Lucy.

Okay, Lucy's birthday is on Oct. 27th, but her school started semester break after the 22nd. So, Lucy had a school party on Friday the 22nd and then had a family/neighborhood party on her actual birthday.

This is Lucy's class. When it's your birthday, you walk around the room in a circle holding a globe. THere's a candle in the middle of the globe representing the sun, and you circle one time for each year you've been on the earth. While Lucy was circling the room, I told about what Lucy liked and did each year of her life, and Gracie held up pictures of Lucy. Then, even though Lucy's class only goes half day, on birthdays the birthday child brings lunch for everyone plus cupcakes and gift bags. So we did. It went great and Lucy was happy.

The cupcakes. So yummy!

On Lucy's birthday, Gracie made sure Lucy stayed in bed until she was served breakfast. Yes, those are brownies you see. The nice lady, Haydee, that works for us made them special for Lucy.

The morning of Lucy's real birthday, we headed to SM (the big mall here) to paint ceramics. It was so fun! Even Sami liked it, although hers accidentally broke at the end...The girls did a lovely job painting. We made it home just in time for the party!

The rest of the pictures are from Lucy's party. We had it in our neighborhood by the pool. Lots of kids went swimming until it rained too hard and they had to stop. Then we had donuts, played games, and ate a giant pizza. It was a great time!

10 year anniversary! Sept. 1, 2010

2010-09-19T18:47:00.004-06:00

A boat being built right on the shore. I thought it looked very cool.

We just happened to notice this sign off the side of the road while we were driving. There was no other information about it anywhere, but we decided it must be valid because we haven't seen a fence that nice anywhwere else here.

This is the way cemetaries are here. They can't bury their dead because since it's an island, there's too much water underground. Instead they bury them in cement above ground. Some only have a cement box, while some have very fancy rooms complete with ceiling fans, outlets, and even a bathroom in some. They also put up pictures of the buried person. There's a special holiday when the people go to their loved ones' grave and spend the whole day and possible all night (I can't quite remember for sure) at the gravesite. So, the nice comforts are for the family members that visit.

I'm still missing a couple of pictures from this trip, but I'll add them later. Here's the main idea, anyway:

Jeremy and I went to an island called Malapascua (meaning Unfortunate Christmas...not sure why it's called that) for our anniversary. We left all three girls home and our good friends Tata and Ajie took care of them for us while we were gone. We weren't sure exactly where we were going when we left, we just had a small tourist book of ideas and our car. We drove for a few hours, and decided to head to Malapascua--we were headed that way anyway, so we drove for another couple of hours until we reached the port and could drive no more. Then we hopped on a boat and rode for 45 minutes across the water to the island of Malapascua.

The tourist book we brought described Malapascua as the way Boracay (now a famous resort island) was 10 years ago. I'd say that's right on the nose. We enjoyed an amazingly peaceful, beautful white sand beach along with a laid back attitude of the Filipinos. It was SO nice. The downside? Well, it is still very Filipino. The place we stayed at had a field next door where people were living in a shack and had fires going for cooking most of the time. Also...it took us a good couple of hours right from the get go to find a hotel to stay at that had both hot water and air conditioning. Jeremy was a bit put out with me because we could have had the most amazing view from a room at a neat hotel, but the room had no hot water, so...I decided against it. The guy who owned the hotel was European. He had the whole place set up pretty cool. The food was good and the workers were friendly. We walked along the beach followed by a delicious buffet right on the beach. The restaurant had nice music playing, candlelight, and perfect weather.

Jeremy took me scubadiving the next day. I hadn't ever done it before. We were able to find an instructor, a boat with a crew, and all the equipment for around $60! We went for a couple of hours and it was awesome! I wasn't scared like I thought I would be. We saw lots of fish and HUGE starfish. Nothing too extreme-just the way I like it :)To round out the day we had an in-room massage which I enjoyed, and Jeremy didn't so much. Something about rough hands or the lady was so old or something...
Anyway, the next morning we loaded up and headed home.

It was the perfect experience for our 10 year anniversary. Funny how for the last few years Jeremy talked about us going to a tropical island for our 10 year ann., little did we realize we'd actually be living on one for the whole year! Ha ha.

On a Lighter Note...Randomness

2010-09-16T21:53:00.007-06:00

I really appreciated all the comments left on my last post. It reminded me how blessed I am to have such great friends and family! I decided to show just some small day to day experiences we do here besides the big beach trips.

There are all kinds of interesting fruit here. Some delicious...and some the nastiest stuff I've EVER tasted :). This one is called Marang. I actually haven't tasted this one because it's related to the super stinky/nasty tasting Durian fruit. Even if I don't like ALL the tastes, I still like to look at them! I'll have to do a post specifically on the fruit they have here. It really is neat to have new tastes to try, although I completely miss raspberries, strawberries, peaches, and pears!

My girls all share a bed. They do best that way, not to mention that's all the room we have here :). Most people here are fine with just a mat on the ground to sleep on. Lots of kids sleep on a foam sofabed or mat in their parents room. It kind of seems like a dream that people have fancy decorated rooms just for one child...

This is my friend Tata (her real name is Marijo, but everyone here has nicknames which makes it very confusing to remember who is who!) Anyway, she lives by us. Jeremy baptized her on his mission, we went to her wedding in Manila almost 7 years ago, and now we are neighbors. She helps me one way or another pretty much every day. She's very fun and nice. One day we went running and decided it was time for her to try something new; driving. This was her FIRST time ever!! She did a great job. It's very normal here for people to not own a car or even know how to drive. Jeepneys, taxis, motorcycles, bikes, or walking get the job done for a LOT of people. Way to go, Tata! :)

Opportunities to help

2010-08-22T21:50:00.004-06:00

Okay, I wanted to do a post on some of the less fortunate people we encounter here, but I certainly don't want to seem like we are so selfless and help everyone in the world. I will be very honest in this post and say I do much less to help others than I was hoping to when we first planned to move here. I'm hoping as time continues to go on that I will find more ways to help.

There are so many people here that have absolutely nothing. A drive across town can easily leave me in tears as I look out the window and watch the families trying to live in the median of a highway, or people showering out of a bucket on the sidewalk in the middle of downtown. There are many people who love to shower after or during a good rain when the rain guttars have a steady water flow. It's heartbreaking to see people-especially children-just laying on the sidewalk, not even moving to pass the day away. We are discouraged to give money to any beggars...even children... because they often go buy cleaners and inhale them to curb their hunger pangs.

We try to have extra snacks handy to pass out to those who are hungry as we go about our days. Once in a while we have extra food from McDonalds,and that always brings some big smiles.

One day Jeremy ran into this family as he was going about his day. They were begging pretty aggressively. Jeremy went to leave but couldn't after seeing this little baby's head. So he brought them to our home for a shower, some food, and a doctor's visit for the baby.

When they came in our home I was incredibly disappointed in myself. I was surprisingly very uncomfortable to have them in my home. I wasn't quite prepared for that really, really dirty smell from being homeless for so long. I wasn't sure what to say, with the language barrier not helping either. I was nervous to touch the baby. His head looked horrible. I was sure it was some sort of deadly tumor or super ultra contagious leprousy. Like I said, I was uncomfortale and I wasn't sure what to do. Jeremy, however, was wonderful. He made them all feel right at home and took that little baby in his arms and gave him a blessing.

The only clothes they owned were what they were wearing. They were dirty from head to toe. They showered and ate, while we gathered up clothes, toys, a few books, towels, whatever we could throw into a bag, and then Jeremy took them to the doctor. I waited to hear what the diagnosis was, and was greatly relieved when Jeremy let me know it was a big boil that just needed some antibiotics and clean water. I believe the doctor visit and the medicine together cost less than $10.00. The baby had the boil for over a month. Who knows how long he would have had it, and what else it could have turned into if he hadn't been medically treated.

I learned some lessons from meeting this family. Mostly about myself. I have a much longer way to go than I thought to become charitable. I am incredibly grateful for the comfortable, blessed life I have been given. I am grateful for medicine and for the opportunities we all have to reach out and help others when they are down. Sometimes we come away with more than the people we give to. I am so grateful to Heavenly Father to allow all of us-whatever circumstances we are in-to be able to choose how we act and to be able to learn to be better than what we are. I know Heavenly Father loves each of us. He doesn't love that family any less than He loves mine. We are each given our own set of circumstances to learn and grow and to help each of us individually be better, stronger, and more able to empathize for the rest of our lives and into eternity.

Another beach day (Yay!)

2010-08-08T19:56:00.004-06:00

Yes, I post a lot of pictures of the beach. However, our time on the beach is actually few and far between. The kids didn't have school last Friday, so we decided to enjoy a relaxing day. We drove a couple of hours to a beach we had been to before. It was great. We didn't get there until afternoon, though, so the water was already out pretty far. We found seashells, crabs, played badminton, buried the kids in the sand, and saved Lucy's dolphin (a floaty that tried to make it's way to some real dolphins. Luckily the wind blew it back to us).

Gracie's chick named Chuckie

2010-08-08T19:48:00.004-06:00

Gracie warned me she was bringing home a baby chick from school. Apparently one of her friends had plenty to give away. I told Gracie no, but on Thursday Gracie came home with...you got it. A baby chick. Funny that I don't even have a picture of Gracie by it. Hmmmmm....Okay, she actually has done pretty good taking care of it, but it is stinky and loud. Not sure how long I'll be able to handle it, even though it is cute.

Loud bird and Sami sees crocodile

2010-08-03T01:23:00.000-06:00

Fun at Crocolandia

2010-08-02T23:49:00.003-06:00

We went to Crocolandia with our friends; Tata, Ajie, and J. It was such a neat place! Lots of crocodiles to see, plus birds, lizards, tiny monkeys, deer, snakes...the list goes on. We had a great time.

This was just a cool picture. There's a small frog on the flower.

Sami with a crocodile in the background. Dun dun dunnnn

Cebu City Temple Dedication

2010-08-02T21:06:00.004-06:00

We had the privelege to not only attend the new Cebu City temple dedication, but to also have a part in it. For a month leading up to the dedication day, Jeremy and I helped a few times at the Open House. It was a great experience. We were able to help with giving tours, supervise the youth who were there helping, provide music, whatever they needed us to do. By the last day of the tour, there were so many visitors it was all the temple workers could do to keep the crowds organized and moving through in a timely manner. It was awesome. Since we moved here in January, it really hit me how empty it felt with no temple nearby. I am more appreciative of what a blessing it truly is to live near a temple.
Jeremy and I ended up being able to both sing in the temple dedication choir (along with Tata and Ajie, and Stephanie! There were only 18 choir members total...)I got to stand right by Jeremy while we sang. We came so close to the prophet. It was one of the most wonderful experiences I've ever had. Besides us, during the cornerstone ceremony Jon and both Nick and Jake were called up on the stage. Jake and Nick got a picture with President Monson, and Jon got to put mortar on the cornerstone.
What a day!!!!
The Cebu City temple will always be a special place to me. I am grateful we were able to experience its beginning with the people here.

Finally settled...again

2010-08-02T18:34:00.004-06:00

It is August. Time is flying. We have moved not just once but twice since I last posted. Granted, the second move was only two doors down-same neighborhood-it was still a big undertaking.

The girls are at a Montessori school now. It's not perfect, but it is good. They ride a "carpool" or a mini jeepney with no a/c to and from school everyday. The carpool comes at 7:30am. Lucy and Sami get home by noon, and Gracie gets home around 4:30pm. It works good. We have a lady named Alma that works for us and goes to school with them to make sure Sami is okay. She is nice and works hard for us.

We are happy in this house. Maria Luisa was much too big and expensive. The last house had too many problems the owner wouldn't repair. This house we had to furnish, but for how cheap the rent it per month it was still a good deal. We love the neighborhood and the ward, so it's a good place for us.

I think since I did such a long post last time, I'll do a bunch more pictures for now and try to make it more even from now on.

These pictures are all from April. So long ago! I'll be putting newer ones on next.
Typical fishing boats out on the water:

Such a peaceful beach:

Me and my girls:

Nick at the beach-what a monkey! :)

This was our family on Easter:

Gracie's thoughts about the Philippines

2010-05-20T21:40:00.004-06:00

it is so hot havs brown outs evre one wants to take picers of me it hasa boling stashin it has salans difrend food thay eat rice with evre mil break fest lunch and diner it is way cheper so so so hot it has beches they even sell fans i have a pool thay sell things off the rood even i bot a mine bambo bench. i cach star fish and me and stepine were doing jemnastics yester day. and we did a bunch of things like that and my hol face was red cus it was so hot and they have sheshel neclisis. and clam julre boxs

2010-The Philippines Adventure

2010-03-08T00:09:00.008-07:00

Okay, I wrote this post a couple of months ago, but kept having problems with the computer that has all the pictures I wanted on here. So....once again better late than never :) Here's a first glimpse of what we've been up to:

Nothing like starting a new year off with a bang! We left Jan.3rd to Salt Lake-despite Jeremy having the flu-and drove all night to Salt Lake (it took all night because we were pulling our huge trailer and Jeremy was so sick he had to keep stopping). We waited until late that night to leave so we could be there for Sara Sargent's wedding and reception on the 3rd-which was very nice by the way.
While we were in Salt Lake we had car trouble (we've never had trouble with that car. I was worried it was a bad omen :). The fuel pump went out and we were stranded on the side of the rode, cold and hungry. Luckily Jon and Stephanie came to our rescue, and also Taco Time was in walking distance (hurray!). I figured it was actually a blessing that it happened then and not when we were driving in the middle of the night or when Brett and Sue were driving it. Brett and Sue drove our car back to Idaho for us (thank you!)

It was incredibly hard for me to leave Idaho Falls. Especially when I walked out the door of my house for the last time. We had lived in that house since Gracie was about 8 months old, and we were in the process of having it built while I was pregnant with her, so it really felt like we had raised our kids there (yes I know they're still young-I'm just a bit dramatic). Anyway, it was also VERY VERY VERY hard to say goodbye to friends and family. I'll leave it at that :)

I was nervous for the flight. I'm always a little nervous flying, but this time I was mostly nervous for how our kids would handle the traveling. Especially after the car trouble omen. Gratefully it was wonderful!!! I didn't know kids could be so nice under such circumstances. When we got off the final plane after a full 30 or so hours of traveling, Samantha wanted to get back on a plane! Yes, there must be angels among us.

So we made it! We got there in the evening, and Jeremy left for work early the next morning. We only had 5 days before my sister Stephanie and her family were moving here, too. We wanted to have the business started as much as possible and have a place for their family to stay.

The hotel we were at was awesome! The kids loved the pools-even a waterslide-and it really felt like a vacation-except Jeremy was gone to work of course. The bad thing was the hotel was about an hour away from the office. So we decided not to have Steph's family stay there.
Long story short, we found a house and just moved in the day they arrived, only to find out it had all sorts of problems and we moved out 6 days later. The day before my birthday.

So we moved back to another hotel. The Waterfront. Which is nowhere near the water, but also had very fun pools. It was a great hotel. We stayed for quite a few days. I was ready to get a bit more settled. Living in a hotel with little kids is not the easiest thing I've done.
We found a very beautiful house with a great pool, fully furnished, and we moved in as soon as we could. Jon and Steph moved in with us also. We always had at least one person staying with us downstairs, too. At one point we had three families, 4 individuals, and 3 people who worked at the house all staying there. Pretty crazy.

We had been trying to figure out the school situations for the kids since we moved, but didn't have much luck. Once we were in a house we really hit it hard looking for a school. We found one: B.R.I.G.H.T. Academy. The kids had to be interviewed, then take a test before they could be admitted to the school. This process took about a month. The kids have only been in school now for a couple of weeks. Lucy and Sami have probably been in 3 weeks. They like school. They wear cute uniforms and do lots of neat stuff at school. I think Gracie likes school too, but they are WAY further ahead here academically than back home. It's probably stressing me out as much as Gracie, but she got thrown into a very hard situation. Top that off with the fact that she goes to school here from 7:45-3:15 (back home it was 8:20-2:20)and we end up with one tired little girl. She's a good sport about it all and we are trying hard to catch her up to the class here. She sure misses her class in Idaho. I miss it, too. She had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Reed, and lots of cute and nice friends. They are keeping in touch with her which really helps. Oh, and here she has a different teacher for every subject.

The girls have breakdowns about missing home every now and then, and so do I. But we are also having a good time here and am already grateful for the experiences we've had thus far. The girls really look forward to the weekends when we hire a boat to take us out on the ocean and snorkel. Sometimes we stop at a beach, and sometimes we just stay on the boat all day. My girls are amazing in the water. They snorkel and dive all over the place. They also love to sit or stand at the front of the boat while it's going. Things they could never do back home.

Here are some of the highlights for the last 2 months:

One of many fruit stands on the way to the beach

School Uniform

School Uniform

Fun on the boat!

Lucy and her big bunch of starfish. She worked hard to find them!

Gracie and a seahorse!

Cute sisters

Watch out for the sharks!

Sami liked the pot that is used to wash your feet before you go into your hotel room

Grace's Birthday-Dec. 27th

2010-03-01T00:32:00.005-07:00

My little Grace is my right hand. She is so nice, helpful, and funny too. She is lovely and I am so grateful for how much time we have together. I love you Grace!!!!

Christmas

2010-03-01T00:30:00.006-07:00

Since I'm trying to catch up, I'm going with the philosophy 'a picture's worth a thousand words', so for now I'll limit the words and mostly do pictures.
I will say, though, that my side of the family also did very fun stuff, but for some reason I once again don't have any pictures of it all!

Samantha turned 2!!!...on December 17th ;)

2010-02-11T06:10:00.005-07:00

What did we ever do without Sami???!!! She is the spunkiest, most fun little sweetheart we could ever imagine. She gets lots of mommy's attention, but her sisters love her so much they don't mind (most of the time). Samantha was a stressful pregnancy for me but she was worth every second. Her smile, laugh, and twinkle in her eye are so contagious. She communicates so well and has such a keen sense of humor already. I LOVE her hugs and kisses and hope they never stop coming my way!!!

Thanksgiving AZ style

2010-02-09T07:00:00.014-07:00

We had a great time over Thanksgiving. We parked our motorhome just outside of Josh and Joni's house and pulled a cousin Eddie for the second year in a row (only last year it was at Jon and Rachel's house). Jeremy actually had to be in Arizona the week before Thanksgiving for work anyway, so we tagged along and enjoyed the sunshine while he worked. The next week we had lots of fun with Jeremy around and all the Manwarings as well. It was so fun!! We even climbed Camelback, which I loved! We also ate a TON, since there are many great cooks in the Manwaring family. We held a talent show, which was fantastic, and we went to the temple (Rachel took all the kids to the visitor's center-thanks!)and did sealings. We also went to a carnival at Jaden's school, which was lots of fun for the kiddos. So many neat experiences.

Jackson's Baptism-Yay Jack!

2010-02-09T06:57:00.002-07:00

We are proud of Jackson!!

Halloween is great!

2010-02-09T06:53:00.001-07:00

Lucy's Birthday...yes I'm catching up here!

2010-02-09T06:38:00.005-07:00

Okay so Lucy's birthday was October 27th. Life was too crazy at that moment to blog. So in an overwhelming attempt to catch up, I begin:

When I was pregnant with Lucy, I was sure she was going to be huge. Although I gained the least amount of weight with her, she kicked the heck out of my belly. I remember seeing her sharp little elbow poking me so hard. So I was a bit surprised when she weighed in at only 6lbs. 1 oz. Tiny.
She waited until the day before her due date to arrive. She was born at 4:30 in the morning, and once I was in labor she came so quickly the nurses had to deliver her-the doctor came 15 or so minutes later. She had the cord wrapped around her neck a couple of times and wasn't breathing at first. The nurses did an excellent job and within a matter of minutes she was fine. Such a relief!!!
Lucy walked at 8 months, but didn't get teeth until 12 months. Her body has always been small, but her spirit is huge. She is so stubborn, sweet, and everything in between wrapped up into one amazing person.
I love Lucy.

While they were gone...Lucy learned to ride!!

2009-10-17T20:50:00.003-06:00

Lucy and I decided it would be cool if she learned to ride a bike with no training wheels while Jeremy and Gracie were gone. It only took a few practices and she had it down. She is so small and the bike she was riding was so small that I could literally just walk by her and hold her arm as she rode. It was awesome. Much easier than when Gracie learned!! I will say, however, that Lucy was not very patient with me. She would get so mad when I'd try to help her or explain how to pedal or anything. So it was good she learned so fast :) She FINALLY got to show Dad and Gracie:

October: Gracie and Jeremy's trip to the Philippines!! Part II

2009-10-17T20:39:00.007-06:00

After staying with our friends for the first half of their trip, Jeremy and Gracie got ready and headed to a beach resort called Boracay. It is a very relaxing place and from what I hear they had lots of fun. Gracie ate junk food a lot, they had massages right on the beach, and snorkeled in beautiful water!!

September: Gracie and Jeremy's trip to the Philippines!! Part I

2009-10-17T20:27:00.006-06:00

Gracie and Jeremy left for the Philippines the last week of September. They flew into Manila right during the worst typhoon in at least 50 years, maybe longer. Thankfully, they were able to catch a flight to Cebu (a few hours late, but that's okay) and were not in the worst of it from then on out.

Gracie and Jeremy went outside the hotel and stayed in the typhoon rain for a while to see what it was like. Gracie recovered with a nice hot shower and a bottled water.

These are our friends: Tata, Ajie, and J, who Jeremy and Gracie stayed with during the first half of the trip. They are SO nice and Gracie still talks about them every day.

This is a delicacy in the Philippines. Basically, it's a rotten chick in an egg. As you can see, Gracie did not try it.

Fresh coconut milk straight from the coconut

Happy the turtle. Gracie loved it!

The Cebu temple. It will be completed in December

Gracie got to pick what she wanted to do. She wanted to ride a horse. She liked it so much she went back the next day!

Gracie made friends at church

And yet even more September: The zoo and the fair

2009-10-17T20:13:00.006-06:00

We made it to the zoo a few times this year. The girls especially love to pet the goats. Except when the goats get too aggressive, are too stinky, or try to eat Daddy's shirt. All of the above happened this time, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

Apparently the goats were also the highlight of the fair. Or maybe that's just when they hold the most still for a picture...

These were just cute picture of the girls at home

More September:

2009-10-17T20:03:00.003-06:00

Here is the "gravel pit". I did one post on this before, but these pictures tell how cool it really is! This time Jeremy's family came just for the afternoon. It was great! We have such a great time just playing around on the land and visiting.

Part of September

2009-10-14T21:23:00.005-06:00

Brett and Sue were in charge of the Baldwin reunion this year, so they went with a Scottish theme. Our girls wore their real Scottish outfits given to us from the Whites. We were all split into our family "clans" and even had real bagpipers come and perform! Unfortunately, since Jeremy was the photographer, I couldn't find a picture with him in it!

After a few weeks of perfectly beautiful weather, the cold came. It's warmed up a bit, but nothing as nice as before this day. That's right. The white dots you see are not flowers, but snow!

Under water

2009-09-15T22:31:00.002-06:00

Okay, so Jeremy bought a waterproof camera for the girls recently. We've been dying to test it, so for FHE we finally had the perfect chance. We went for a swim and the Taylors came too. It was so much fun! We found out the kids can pose not just out of the water, but in the water as well! Oh, the fun of technology!

First day of school for Lucy

2009-09-15T15:34:00.004-06:00

Lucy with her super-sized backpack

Lucy with her good friend Maggie

Lucy with Ms. Krista

Lucy getting out of her sweet ride

Sami and baby Wade-so cute!

Lucy has one year left of preschool. She is going to Ms. Krista again, and this time her friend Maggie is in her class, too. She was so excited. She really missed Krista and her class all summer. The day before school started, Lucy hurt her foot, so she wore tennis shoes on the first day, which surpised me. Her foot must have hurt pretty bad :)

First day of school for Gracie

2009-09-15T15:10:00.005-06:00

Gracie with her loyal sidekick Lucy

Here comes the bus!

Not at all nervous

Gone for a whole school day!

I admit I was a bit worried about Gracie being gone all day now that she is in first grade. I even shed a few tears during the first couple of hours she was gone. But somehow around lunch time I realized I was getting a lot done, no one was fighting, and well, I knew Gracie was being taken care of and probably having a lot of fun. Let's just say we are all enjoying the new schedule now.
There was a big setback on the way home from school on the first day for Gracie. She was put on the wrong bus home, waited until the last stop, and got off all by herself and was lost. She was in our neighborhood, but not at all at the right place. She started crying, and luckily a nice neighbor (I don't know who it was and she says she doesn't know who it was) told her the way home. Unfortunately, I had gone to wait at her bus stop and therefore wasn't home when she finally did come home. So there she was, already lost and crying, and to top it off, no one was home!! Lucky for us, we have VERY nice neighbors, the Walkers, who took good care of Gracie until I got to her. She called my cell phone and I hurried home. When I got to the Walkers, she was in having a snack and chatting with the bigger girls and the mom, Karen. What a relief that she was okay!! The rest of the week, I made sure some kids she knew from the ward (Spencer and Hannah Egbert and Jayden Hansen) helped her on the right bus and one of them (Jayden) even walked her home several times. Gracie doesn't seem to be traumatized at all by the whole ordeal, and I'm just happy it ended up okay.

More Summer

2009-09-09T23:16:00.005-06:00

I just recently found out Lucy can do the monkey bars all by herself! She cruises and does it over and over. I can't believe it!

Speaking of monkeys,

The baby monkey grew since last time we were there. So did my little monkeys :)

Fun times at Shamrock Park

That's Gracie clear at the top of the tree...

I'm not sure what brought this on, the girls just got in a "tough" mood

Summer

2009-09-09T23:04:00.003-06:00

Here are some different things we did during the summer.
The Miller's won their County Fair Talent Show. They did a great job. Yay!

Pioneer Day bike parade

Rigby Lake with our friends-Kathy Bailey and her kids

Catch up #3-AZ

2009-09-09T22:46:00.006-06:00

Like I already mentioned, Josh and Joni's family moved to Arizona in July. We couldn't seem to say goodbye, so we followed them down for a while :) We wanted to help them move in a bit. Jeremy and Josh were able to get a lot done, and I was able to...swim in the pool!

We also got to see Jon and Rachel's family a little bit. It was fun to catch up with them, too!

Catch up time 2-Disney

2009-09-09T22:12:00.008-06:00

Josh and Joni moved to Arizona in July. We miss them here SO much, but we sure had fun staying at their new place for a few days. Since we were heading south anyway, we decided to make use of our Disneyland passes that happened to expire the next month. We've made quite a few trips to Disneyland recently, and sad to say, this was probably the last for a while, so I'm going to put LOTS of pictures so we never forget all the fun we've had!!

We did a lot of playing in the water at Disneyland this time. It was awesome!

We also took a ferry to Balboa Island, which we had never done before. It was so neat because you drive your car right onto the ferry (there is one road you can drive onto the "island", but of course the effect isn't the same. We did go that way when we had crying kids in the car.) It only takes a few minutes to get across, but a fun experience.

Farewell to Cali, until we meet again...

Catch up time- 4th of July

2009-09-02T22:25:00.009-06:00

Okay, so my supposedly relaxing summer ended up being pretty busy, and I slacked off from the ol' blog. So, that means I need to do a bit of a recap of at least a few highlights of the summer.

The Firecracker 5k on the 4th of July. It was lots of fun and a great way to start the day.

The parade:

Betsy's birthday party at Josh and Joni's house. Lots of fun and great weather for the kids to get wet!

We also went to the fireworks that night at Grandma Eva's-always a great time!

9 years already?! Happy Anniversary!!

2009-09-01T15:46:00.003-06:00

Well, this is only going to be half the post right now. I'll have to add a picture of the flowers that just got delivered to me from Staker Floral a few minutes ago. They are gorgeous!!! We are getting ready to go to dinner right now, but since I haven't had a chance to write this all day, I thought I'd at least get a little start.
I just want Jeremy to know that every year I think how completely awesome he is and that I am so blessed and life can't get better, and then it does! I don't know how he does it, but Jeremy gets funnier, nicer, and more good looking every year (which is crazy because he was already almost perfect when I met him :).
I love you honey-thanks for everything!

Okay....it's the next day so I can finish this post. Here is a picture of the incredible flowers. They smell so good, too! We went to dinner at the Outback. I hadn't been there for a long time, and it was good to be back :). Then we watched a not-so-great movie, but it was still fun just having a nice date with Jeremy.

Hogle Zoo

2009-07-07T22:29:00.003-06:00

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Jeremy was in Utah for work, and we decided to meet up with him just for a quick trip. We got there about 8pm. The girls LOVED to stay the night in a hotel. We swam in the hot tub and went to bed. The next morning we loaded up and headed to the zoo. It was pretty packed, and hot, but we still had lots of fun. We mostly just walked around and then ended at the bird show. It was awesome. Even Sami loved it!
We got home about 6pm and started to get ready for the next day-the 4th of July...

Sweet Lucy

2009-07-01T23:15:00.002-06:00

Lucy brings me several flowers every day. The flowers in this picture she picked when she went fishing with her dad. (He also took Gracie AND Samantha. I loved it!!)
I just love that she thinks of me and knows I would love a little beautiful flower...or a big vase of beautiful flowers. I hope she never stops.

Oaklee's baptism

2009-07-01T23:09:00.003-06:00

My niece Oaklee turned 8 and got baptized on June 27th. She looked beatiful. Sue and Monicka gave great talks, Jeremy and I took care of the music (and Colby Butler sang a musical number), and Josh baptized Oaklee and Brooks confirmed her. It was just great all around. I know I have more pictures than this that I'm going to want on here, but they're on our new video thing that I don't know how to work yet :) so for now, here are the pics! Congrats,Oaklee!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game(s)

2009-07-01T23:06:00.002-06:00

Lucy is playing t-ball and Gracie is playing machine pitch baseball this summer. It is so fun to go and watch their games. They are both just doing a great job and having fun, too. Lucy played against Jaden (and quite a few other friends, and relative, too!) one day and I had to get a picture with these three in their baseball shirts. They are looking so grown up!

Tea Party

2009-07-01T23:00:00.003-06:00

Granny Sue is home from the mission and is in full force. She put together a fabulous fancy tea party for all the girl cousins. The older girls were the servers/maids and were dressed up beautifully, too! There was fancy food, fancy tables, and fancy dresses. It was lovely.

The "Gravel Pit"

2009-07-01T22:54:00.002-06:00

About a year ago, Jeremy and his partner Chad bought an old gravel pit near St. Anthony. Although when you think of the words "gravel pit" it doesn't immediately get anyone excited to go camping, this gravel pit does. Okay, it hasn't been used for a gravel pit for many years, so there are lots of trees and several ponds on it. It is fun to ride ATVs, canoe, or just roast marshmallows. This was our first family trip there, so we just roasted mallows. The girls loved it-except Sami. The ground was too rocky for her to walk around, so she kept falling and getting frustrated. Not to worry, the next time we went, she liked it much better!

Day at the Zoo

2009-07-01T22:51:00.002-06:00

Before school got out for the summer Gracie's class walked to the zoo for kindergarten. Sami and I met them there. It was a beautiful morning, we got to see lots of animals, and the Docent that helped us was our neighbor. It was just a really fun morning and Gracie learned a lot, too!

Gracie's kindergarten graduation

2009-07-01T22:41:00.006-06:00

This has been very emotional for Gracie. She was so excited for summer, and she said she was excited to not go to school every day, but what she really meant was she was excited to not go to school for a few days :)
She had quite a hard time adjusting when school got out, and even had to send her teacher an email because she kept crying about missing her. She's doing much better now, and I must say, she was awesome at her graduation!!
They had a cute progam where they sang all their "high frequency word" songs, and even watched a DVD they got to each bring home that showed highlights of their year.

Lucy's preschool graduation (for this year)

2009-07-01T22:39:00.001-06:00

Lucy still has one more year of preschool, but they do a really cute "graduation" program each year. Lucy did such a great job. She is just too cute!

2009-07-01T22:35:00.002-06:00

Gracie and Lucy had another successful TaVacci concert. I never get bored of watching these girls sing and dance. They are awesome! This is the last time Morgan and Jaden will be in it with them, since they are moving to AZ, so it was a great grand finale. They all did fantastic.

Primary Activity

2009-07-01T22:32:00.004-06:00

We had a primary activity at the temple. It was so nice...EXCEPT for the WIND!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow it was windy. Gracie was in the older group, but Lucy and Sami stayed together with Jeremy and me. We toured the temple grounds (but went inside early since it was so windy), watched a video, and Jeremy gave a talk to the younger kids. It was a wonderful experience, and all the primary kids sure are sweet. I am especially fond of these two!

Mother's Day

2009-07-01T22:27:00.003-06:00

Okay, this year Mother's Day was so fun because the girls really wanted to make it special for me. Gracie and Lucy both made special presents for me at school. They couldn't stand for me to wait until Sunday, so I opened them Friday pretty much right after school. They were so sweet and I loved every minute of it. Every day is certainly mother's day for this mom!
( As for the picture, Sami just wouldn't hold still :)but I was glad I got this picture because we didn't take any on actual Mother's Day.)

41st Ward Roadshow? No...May 4, 2009 Colonial Theater

2009-05-05T05:45:00.002-06:00

Moon River

2009-05-05T04:55:00.002-06:00

Jer's 33!!

2009-04-30T15:00:00.006-06:00

I've been looking back at all the fun memories our family has had with Jeremy. While I was looking at the pictures, it reaffirmed that Jeremy is consistently an excellent husband and father. He always shows us how much he loves us by making it a priority to spend a lot of time with us. We love him for that! It also helps that he is hilarious!
I wanted to put a few highlights of trips past to remember some of the fun adventures he's taken us on. They aren't in chronological order. I'm not that organized yet. We love it all and can't wait to see what this year with our favorite man will bring!

Gracie and Lucy outside the gate at Tulum near Cancun

A good 'ol snowman right here at home. Lots more fun with Dad!

California sun

Scotland

Also Scotland

California again

Arizona

A sweet town in Europe

The Berlin Wall

Old Faithful

The room the Constitution was born in Philadelphia

Lucy asleep on the soothing 4-wheeler

View from our hotel room in Rocky Point.

Welcome to the "Eater" home

2009-04-21T22:34:00.002-06:00

Okay, so I have this decoration that spells "Easter", and the girls always take down the blocks, hide them, rearrange them, etc. Well, today I walked by it, and noticed it spelled "Eater". It just screamed out at me. I'm afraid it really applies lately. I have been eating so much junk. Maybe I'll leave it up for a day or two, and see if it haunts me enough to stop eating so much...

Just cute pictures

2009-04-21T22:30:00.002-06:00

Sami LOVES to dress up in Gracie's leotards. Everyday.

Jaden and Morgan came and ran in the sprinkler today with Gracie and Lucy after singing class. It was SO NICE outside. I loved every second of it. They did, too :)

Later on Easter...

2009-04-21T22:24:00.004-06:00

We had dinner, a fashion show, and an Easter egg hunt at the Taylors' home after church. It was nice to get together with all the family and celebrate such a special day.

Easter Morning!

2009-04-21T22:18:00.003-06:00

The Easter Bunny stopped by and the girls had a wonderful Easter morning. It is SO fun to have our 3 beatiful girls!!

Easter Egg Hunt time!

2009-04-21T22:11:00.004-06:00

Our annual park Easter egg hunt was super fun this year. The girls had a great time, and Oaklee got to come, too. She lives about 5 minutes away now, which is so nice.

Finally Spring!

2009-04-21T22:06:00.003-06:00

We finally started having some nice weather here, so we met Josh and Joni's family for dinner at Community Park. It was so much fun!! The park was incredibly busy, like Josh likes to say, the "natives were restless" but we still enjoyed it. Here's to many more fun park dinners soon!!

Lucy's new look

2009-04-21T22:03:00.002-06:00

Lucy FINALLY wanted a haircut. WE LOVE IT!! It had been at least a year and a half since her last one. Gracie got bangs at the same time, so then Lucy had to get bangs, too. Luckily, Collette (she cuts my hair and the girls love her, so they only wanted their hair cut from her) was nice enough to ablige.
I don't know why I don't have a picture of Gracie's new look. She went off to play, but there will be some in the next posts.

Winter Wonderland...in March

2009-03-29T22:48:00.002-06:00

Okay, this picture doesn't do justice to what the weather was like today. It was FREEZING, the snow was coming down like crazy, and the wind was...ridiculous.
We didn't get a great spot in the parking lot for church. When it was time to leave, I thought about having the kids wait by the door, and pulling up to get them in the van, but since Jeremy is gone this week, I didn't want to leave them alone. So...I had them run with me all the way to the car. BAD IDEA. I almost didn't make it. I felt so bad for my little girls. They were crying by the time we got in the van, and for once they weren't overreacting.
Oh, well. The "sun will come out, tomorrow", right?

Our Scottish Friends

2009-03-10T12:47:00.005-06:00

Well, last June Jeremy and I went on a wonderful trip to Scotland to visit Jeremy's parents who are on a mission there. We had a fabulous time, saw lots of amazing history, and met really neat people. Doug and Baryl White were among these really neat people.
In January, we had the opportunity for Scotland to come to us :). Baryl's 2 children Jill and Martin, and her daughter-in-law Monika (Martin's wife)came and stayed with us for a week. We had such a fun time with them. It seemed like we had known each other for a long time.
We went to Jeremy's sisters' cabin for a couple of days which was really fun. The Taylors also went. It was so cold, but we played outside anyway and the kids went for rides on a sled behind the 4 wheeler. We also did some puzzles, played Wii Fit, and watched movies. The adults drove to Yellowstone (except me. I was happy relaxing with hot chocolate and playing with the kids)and also to Big Springs.
Another day, Steve (our brother-in-law) hooked us up for a day of skiing at Kelly Canyon. I personally had only skiing for 10 years, and then I only went once and hadn't been for 10 years before that! Really the only time I skiied was when I was little and went with my cousin for a season or two. Jeremy had only been once since we have been married (8 yrs), Jill hadn't been for years, and Monika had never been. Monika took a lesson although she didn't want to. She enjoyed it by the time it was over. We all had a great time, and were impressed with couple of Martin's "wipe-outs". We also saw LOTS of deer on the way there and the way home. It was so fun!!
We also went to a museum and had a couple of family parties while they were here. The day they left, Jeremy was able to take them for a ride in the plane. The weather had been bad the WHOLE week, and luckily it was nice enough for them to go hours before they had to leave.
The girls had a wonderful time with them. They were so nice and patient. We look forward to next time.
Jill just happens to be a wedding photographer in Las Vegas. She provided us with lots of beautiful photos of us all while they were here. THANKS JILL!!

Yay for California!

2009-03-04T13:28:00.005-07:00

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Okay, so Jeremy and I have been talking for a few months about going on a sweet trip somewhere. We discussed Hawaii, Cancun, maybe even Brasil or the Philippines.
Well...on a Sunday morning I am getting everyone ready for church, and Jeremy says, "Hey honey, come read this" while pointing to the computer. I walk over and start reading a confirmation for a hotel in California that starts...tomorrow!!!
So, I start emailing and packing and getting us ready to leave that same night. I had a meeting that didn't finish until 8pm, and by the time we were loaded and driving out of town it was right after 11pm.
We drove all night (mostly Jeremy) and got to our hotel around noon. Since we already bought Disneyland annual passes this year, we headed over there about 2pm or so after a nice refreshing swim in the pool at the hotel.
We did Disneyland quite a bit for the next few days. Jonathan and Rachel (Jeremy's brother) happened to be there at the exact same time, so we were able to get together for lunch with them. It was good to see them and visit for a while. Our kids were especially sad when we had to say goodbye. They love their cousins!
Besides Disneyland, we also took full advantage of the nice indoor pool and hot tub at the hotel, and did a day at the beach.
I love the beach!! It is so fun to go somewhere when it's the middle of winter still at home and see people outside surfing, swimming, biking, running, & all kinds of things out in the beautiful sunshine. It was just nice to have that for a little while. Our poor girls though, they all got sunburned. We did use sunscreen, but it didn't work so well. That was the only downside the whole trip I think.
Oh, and while at Disneyland, Gracie and I were within like 30 feet of one of the Jonas Brothers. I saw him for a second and then ALL of the girls around us started screaming and chasing him. What excitement.

Gracie's favorite ride: Tower of Terror
Lucy's favorite: She says Haunted Mansion, but pretty sure it's more like Small World or Monster's Inc
Sami's favorite: Small World I think, also Whinnie the Pooh
Jeremy's fav: Splash Mountain? I'll have to ask him.
Kelly's fav: All of the big rides. I usually don't get to go on them because I'm usually pregnant! I also love the ones my kids love because I get to watch their faces, and that is REALLY the best part.

One last thing is that Jeremy found the BEST frozen yogurt place close to our hotel. I wish I would have taken a picture of it. The place is called Pinkberry and it is so YUMMY! It's a good thing we don't have one here or I would be addicted :)

ICE SKATING

2009-01-31T16:23:00.002-07:00

Okay, I'm going to have to go back and add more posts in between Gracie's birthday and today. I have been catching up, but there is still A LOT to do. Today Jeremy, Gracie, Lucy, and I went ice skating though, and it was SO fun I just have to get the pictures on here :)

Gracie and Lucy caught right on. It was awesome!

DECEMBER 27TH: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE

2009-01-30T16:36:00.008-07:00

GRACIE STARTED SMILING AT 3 WEEKS OLD AND HAS BEEN A JOY EVER SINCE

I REMEMBER THINKING HOW BIG GRACIE LOOKED IN THIS PICTURE. NOW SHE JUST SEEMS SO TINY AND SWEET IN IT.

NOW THIS SCHOOL PICTURE OF GRACIE LOOKS SO GROWN-UP TO ME.

Gracie has always been a very wise soul. She has always had a very keen sense of humor, and a very good understanding of right and wrong. She loves to tease (wonder where she gets that from?) but she also wants everyone to be happy. She will often tell me I look beautiful even with no makeup on. She tries very hard to obey and do what is right, and she is also a very hard worker. She makes her bed alone almost every day, while Lucy who is supposed to be helping her goes off and plays. She is SUCH A GREAT BIG SISTER. I can always count on her to help, and her sisters love her and follow her around.
Gracie is doing great in kindergarten. She is reading on a first grade level and has just been invited into the advanced learning program.
Gracie is in singing and dance class. She really enjoys both activities. And I enjoy watching her in both, too! She is just awesome in every way.
Most of all, Gracie still likes time with just her and me. Sometimes we like to turn up our music and sing and dance along, and sometimes we like to read a quiet book together. It's just fun to be with her.

YOU GUESSED IT...MORE CHRISTMASTIME

2009-01-28T23:18:00.002-07:00

CHRISTMAS DRESSES

JEREMY THE SHEPHERD WITH SAM THE ANGEL

MORE OF THE CALLISTER NATIVITY

MORE CHRISTMASTIME

2009-01-28T23:12:00.002-07:00

WHAT A NICE DAD

THE GIRLS AT LUCY'S PRESCHOOL PERFORMANCE. GRACIE SANG WITH THEM TOO.

I JUST LOVE THIS PICTURE. WHAT A TINY PRINCESS!

DECEMBER 17TH: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAMANTHA! ONE YEAR OLD

2009-01-28T22:43:00.005-07:00

SAMANTHA WAS PERFECT FROM THE BEGINNING

I ALWAYS LOVED HER CURLS.

FIRST THE CALLISTER FAMILY PARTY

NEXT CAME THE MANWARING FAMILY PARTY

SHE DIDN'T WANT TO MAKE A MESS

OPENING CARD/PRESENT FROM GRANNY SUE AND GRANDPA BRETT

THANKS GRANNY AND GRANDPA!

CHRISTMAS TIME

2009-01-28T22:34:00.003-07:00

WHAT TIME IS IT? TIME TO MAKE WREATH TREATS! YAY!

ALSO GINGERBREAD HOUSE TIME! YAY TOO!

Thanksgiving part IV: The Motorhome

2009-01-28T22:29:00.003-07:00

Our fam

The cousins had lots of fun in the motorhome. Yes we parked right outside Jon and Rachel's house. Cousin Eddie anyone?

The girls loved to play video games. They played for hours and we were happy to let them.

Thanksgiving part III: AZ

2009-01-28T22:18:00.006-07:00

Fun at the museum. Sam and Lucy LOVED the air table

No 'Princess and the Pea' here; Gracie rests on a bed of nails

Beautiful princesses

Here is Samantha with her cute cousin Isabel. Who didn't fix Sam's hair?? Sorry Sami.

Thanksgiving part 2: The beach

2009-01-28T22:10:00.004-07:00

Thanksgiving in CA / AZ part I

2009-01-28T21:31:00.009-07:00

Okay, I am so overwhelmingly behind on my blog, but I just looked through my blog book today and it got me motivated to try to catch up. So it begins.

We start at Disneyland. Yes, we drove the motorhome. It was AWESOME!!!

FUN WITH DADDY AND DUMBO. WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

ONE SERIOUS CAROUSEL RIDE

ON STAGE AT DISNEYLAND. THE BEST PART OF THE SHOW!

WHAT LOVELY LADIES!

BUILD-A-BEAR TIME

A little randomness

2008-12-12T21:17:00.003-07:00

Wow. I'm so far behind on this blog, I am not even going to try to catch up tonight. Well, I guess I sort of am. I got tagged a few months ago (yes, months), and I had the option to change the tag to whatever I wanted pretty much. So for now I am going to do a tag of 7 random things about me. Here they are:

1.I was born in a house on a farm in Howe, ID
2.Jeremy and I own a fish farm in the Philippines
3.Before I was married, I had never been outside the United States. Since being married, we have traveled to: the Bahamas, Philippines, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Belgium (okay, we just drove through this one), Scotland, and many places in the US. (And Jeremy has traveled even more than me!)
4.I learned to do backhand springs when I was 5, and I used to often do as many as 10 in a row! What was I thinking?!
5.I started playing in a band for money with my dad and sister and a couple of Dad’s friends when I was nine. I made enough money to start buying my own school clothes in fifth grade. I blew the rest on Pop and junk food.
6.I knew I was in love with Jeremy when we were dating and I got REALLY sick. I had always just wanted to be home whenever I was that sick, but this particular time I realized it felt more like home with Jeremy than actually going home. He has always taken good care of me ever since-sick or not.
7.I won an art contest in kindergarten. Just goes to show you kindergarten doesn’t determine the rest of your life! Pretty sure I haven’t gotten any better at art since then!
Okay, so now I need to tag Karianne, Kristine, Kate,Krissy,Joni,Rachel,and anyone else who is ready to be tagged!

I will hopefully start catching up on the rest of my life soon...

More Halloween

2008-11-01T19:07:00.003-06:00

Hannah Montana should have been in the back of this photo...but we all had fun anyway!

Our 3 princesses

"Scotty" and Hannah Montana

Gracie and Kadee (my little sister) lookin' good!

Halloween Fun

2008-11-01T18:59:00.003-06:00

At Gracie's kindergarten parade

Tinkerbell "flying"

Gracie, our little photographer took this extra cute shot of Sam

Our Halloween queen

LUCY IS 4 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY!!!

2008-10-27T21:05:00.005-06:00

My little tiny Lucy is not so little anymore. I can't believe she is really 4! We had a busy, fabulous day today.
Her birthday actually kicked off yesterday at dinner with the Callister/Miller party. They came over for a nice dinner and then we had cake (red velvet from Grandma) and ice cream and opened presents. It was a great party.
This morning she woke up and started playing with her new toys right off until she had to go to preschool where she brought treats and a poster about her. She had a great time.
Then she had a party with a few of her friends: Hailey Cardon, Libby and Maggie Bailey, and Julia Urling (Gracie included too)where they went to a beauty salon and had their hair and nails done. They all looked so fancy. We came to our house after the salon and had cupcakes and opened presents. It was so fun. Lucy had a great time.
Then came the Manwaring family party. We ate pizza, opened presents, had cake and ice cream, and Jeremy gave us a very nice lesson for FHE about appreciating your family each day.

I told Lucy and Gracie about when Lucy was born. Lucy wasn't that impressed. I still think it's a good story, though. We went to the hospital at midnight and she was born at 4:30 am. She came so fast, the doctor wasn't there yet, so the nurses delivered her. My mom was there because she came as soon as she found out I was in the hospital. Jeremy's mom, sisters, and my sister-in-law Rachel came EARLY as soon as they found out she was born.
My poor little Lucy had the cord wrapped around her neck twice and wasn't really breathing for a few minutes. It was scary, but at the time we didn't realize just how scary. The nurses did a great job, and after a short time she was breathing all right.
She was so tiny right from the beginning. I thought she would be huge the way she kicked so hard in my tummy, but now I see that is just her personality. Not so much her body.
Lucy is our firecracker. She is so grown up and loving one moment and then goes nuts the next. She knows how to get her way a lot of the time. She is kind of obsessive compulsive. She loves to lay out what clothes and shoes etc. she is going to wear, and if I move anything she gets very upset. She only lets me fix her hair a certain way depending on her mood. On the other hand, if she wants something and understands someone else wants it more, MOST of the time she will let them have it instead. She can obey so well and gives the BEST HUGS and KISSES. She is always excited when she hasn't seen me or any of the family for a little while and they walk in the room.
She is so smart. She can spell a lot of words,and remembers things from a long time ago. She is very coordinated, too. She does gymnastics and always looks so graceful. She naturally points her toes and can move just right. She likes to make friends and help others.
We LOVE HER SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!! Happy birthday, Lucy

Pumpkins

2008-10-27T20:51:00.004-06:00

This year we went to a self-serve "pumpkin patch" which was a yard full of pumpkins that were already picked with the price tag on each one. It was SO FUN. We all got to search for our own pumpkins, and were done within 10 minutes. It was awesome. We even had time to go home and decorate them the same night!

A weekend in Challis, ID

2008-10-27T20:43:00.003-06:00

We had beautiful weather in the middle of October and it was our weekend for the motorhome, so Jeremy booked us a camping spot in Challis.
It was a couple of hours drive, but once we got there it was perfect. We were almost the only campers there, and we walked by the river, sang by the campfire, roasted hot dogs and made smores,and of course soaked in the hot springs there. It was relaxing and a very fun time for our family. We can't wait to go again, but we'll probably hold off until next summer :)

This weekend also happened to be Samantha's 10 month birthday, so I'll add her stats from the doctor while I'm at it:

Weight 17.25 = 11.03%
Length 28in. = 44.32%
Head Cir. 17in. = 15.92%

Yellowstone/Jackson motorhome trip

2008-10-20T10:19:00.003-06:00

Jeremy,his partner/best friend Chad, and another anonymous friend bought a company motorhome. We decided to take it out for a test the day we bought it. The Murdocks were ready to party too, so we quickly packed and loaded all 11 of us into the motorhome. We drove to Island Park for the night. We stopped at Jeremy's sisters' cabin in the morning and said hello to everyone. The kids enjoyed the zipline for a while. Then we continued on and drove through Yellowstone and HOLY COW it was beautiful. We saw buffalo, antelope, and other animals. We stopped and watched Old Faithful, and then kept driving all the way to Jackson. We ate at Pizza Hut and played at a park (it was SO cold though) and then stopped for the night, and came home the next day. It was lots of fun. Chad and Lesa's family are so nice and fun it was great! And yes, we loved the new motorhome.

Gracie's a cheerleader

2008-10-20T10:10:00.004-06:00

Gracie is now a cheerleader. Just ask her. She went to a mini cheer clinic put on by the I.F. cheerleaders (her cousin Sadie Butler is one of those cheerleaders) and had a fabulous time. Several of her cousins also went: Abby and Hally Taylor, Macee and Oaklee Monson, and Casi Manwaring. Lucy was also in the group picture because she would have done the clinic as well if only she were a teensy bit older :)

My "Wee Mormon Girl" is 9 mos. old

2008-09-18T14:04:00.010-06:00

My beautiful baby Samantha is already 9 months old! Time is flying and I would like to take a moment to mention some of the cute things she is doing lately that I know I won't remember in a year or two.
First of all, she does this hilarious head nod. Sometimes she'll do it several times in a row and she looks like a baby rockstar banging her head around.
She also loves to wave hi and goodbye, although sometimes she waits until AFTER the fact and the person has already walked off to do so :).
She LOVES to dance and will move around if any music is on at all. She just started bending her knees and going up and down with a big grin on her face.
Today she started blowing bubbles in her cup through a straw. She can drink out of straws, but for some reason there is only one that I can get her to suck out of every time. It has a big Scottish guy at the top of the straw. I guess she really liked Scotland :)
Sami has gotten a CHEESY smile. She will krinkle up her eyes and just grin a lot.
She wakes up and smiles first thing and smiles most of the day.
Sami REALLY wants to walk, and is very close, but finally decided to crawl a bit to get to where she wants.
She will say "Lablable" if you do it first, and also if you put your finger up to her mouth she will say 'AHHH' while you move your finger back and forth and she loves it.
She loves to hear animal noises and laughs when she hears the real animals making the noise.
She also LOVES to nurse and will laugh when she knows it's time for just her and mom to cuddle and have quiet time.
MOST OF ALL SHE LOVES to have her dad walk with her wherever she wants to go. He will do this for a long time even though it kills his back. She sure loves her daddy.
And of course, she LOVES her big sisters. She loves to play with them and think she is so big, too!

I guess that's all I'll put for now. I know it's a long list, but I would like to do one with each of my children every so often. They do such cute things, and sometimes the phase ends overnight and then it's too easy to forget.

As for the "Wee Mormon Girl" title, that's what a really neat lady from Scotland called her. She was going to write a poem about her. I thought it was very cute.

My neighbor/great photagrapher took these pictures of Sam a couple of days ago. I'm thrilled with how they turned out!

1/2 the story (the other 1/2 is missing)

2008-09-18T14:04:00.004-06:00

When we were in Scotland, an older man who was outside the grocery store stopped me on the way out to the car. At first I kept walking, but glanced over my shoulder and realized he was talking to me. I was holding Samantha in my arms. I apprehensively walked over to him, and was very surprised when he handed me 2 coins totaling a pound-that's $2 for us here in the US :)
He said to put it in a lockbox for the baby because she is such a beautiful girl. I have been meaning to blog this because it's such a sweet story. I'm sure Sami must have given him one of her heart melting smiles over my shoulder. Unfortunately, Gracie and Lucy have gotten into my hiding spot for the 2 coins and there was only one there when I went to post this. I figured I better just get it done and hopefully I'll find the other coin later.
Anyway, as a mom I KNOW my children are beautiful, but it is so nice to hear it from someone else. Especially a stranger in a far away place. I will save the coin (hopefully coins) and give them to Samantha when she is older and tell her the story.

Lucy's first day of preschool

2008-09-04T20:30:00.003-06:00

Lucy my "almost 4 yr. old" as she likes to often point out, is now officially in preschool. She has been so excited to wear her brand new school clothes. She is VERY particular about what she wears and how I can fix her hair. When school was over for the day, I asked her how it went and she replied, "It was pretty cool, mom!"
Our little Lucy is so independent and yet is so needy of mom and dad sometimes. She is our dynamite that keeps us on our toes from one minute to the next, and we love her for it!!

I'd like to give an example of how Lucy's mind works. For a while she was watching "Annie" a lot. The movie says "Oh my >>>" a few times. Well, Lucy caught on to that and started saying it a lot. I tried to explain to her why we don't say that and offer some suggestions of other things we could say instead. She seemed to get the idea pretty well so I dropped it. Until a few days later, I hear her say "Oh my NOT >>>" and as I look at her with a shocked look on my face, she says, Oh, it's okay mom...I said NOT! Oh, it makes perfect sense. What a little smarty-pants :)
(For the record, we DID get it figured out...as far as a I know at least)
We love Lucy so much and appreciate what a great big AND little sister she is.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY-8 YRS

2008-09-01T15:56:00.003-06:00

Jeremy and I are celebrating our 8th anniversary today. It's funny how time flies when you are having fun :). Looking back I can't believe we actually got married as fast as we did. We met in the middle of June of 2000. We got engaged 3 weeks to the day we met, on the 4th of July, and were married Sept. 1st. Now that I have my own daughters, as a mother I would certainly not allow that!! Luckily for us, our parents and families were very supportive. We had a BEAUTIFUL wedding (especially the flowers :)) and now we are going strong 8 years later.
I am so grateful for Jeremy and what a great husband and father he is. Grace, Lucy, and Samantha are such incredible girls that I feel overwhelmed at the blessings they are in my life. I have so much to be thankful for, I can't imagine anything better!
We are so grateful to know that our family can be together forever!!

This is our latest family photo. Mickey Mouse isn't actually related, but if he were I bet he could hook us up with some sweet deals.:)

My BABY is in kindergarten!!!!/Gracie's 1st Day

2008-08-25T13:47:00.003-06:00

Watch out world, our Gracie is in kindergarten. And she is ready. For her 1st day, Jeremy and I came to her class and did a scavenger hunt with her. It only took a half hour. It was fun. Tomorrow is a "real" day. She already knows several kids in her class, so that helps with the nerves. I got a little choked up, but she is just so ready and excited I couldn't help but feel the same way for her.

DISNEYLAND!!

2008-08-25T13:24:00.004-06:00

Jeremy and I have been trying to figure out how to end summer with a bang before Gracie is officially a kindergartner. Well, Jeremy loves a challenge. The Monday before school starts (a week ago today), he shows me a paper with a reservation for a hotel starting the next day (Tues.) until Sat. So,we started packing and stayed up most of the night to get ready. We headed to the airport by 6 am and Jeremy was already there getting the plane ready. We took off by 7am and were in California at the hotel by about 2:30pm. It was a nice smooth flight and we couldn't believe we were really in California already.

We did 3 days at Disneyland. It was very fun, but very busy there, too! We put in good 12 hour days at the park and the girls loved getting their pictures taken with all the characters (and of course, the princesses!) We did the autograph books this time and the girls loved it. We ate at Ariel's Grotto again where the princesses all come to your table while you eat. Much better than standing in line if you ask me!

The last picture here is from Jeremy on Splash Mountain. What a great time. Gracie was on the ride, too, but she's too short to see.

We played on the beach a bit, too. It was so fun! Except when Lucy got stung by a bee...

More Scotland

2008-07-22T21:20:00.001-06:00

Sidenote on Scotland

2008-07-22T21:13:00.005-06:00

We had such a fantastic time. It was SO good to see Granny Sue and Grandpa Brett. It was fun to see them in action as missionaries. They are doing a great job. We are very proud of them. Samantha loved Granny and Grandpa. That was the first time they met her since they left 3 weeks before she was born. We are so glad she had that special one-on-one time with them...and with us for that matter! We feel very blessed for the opportunity to visit Scotland and to see it from a tourist & a missionary perspective, too!
Thanks for another fun traveling experience,Brett & Sue! You made us feel right at home. We were glad to have local tour guides in such a foreign place. Even though they speak English there, we were relieved to have some translation help!!

Twins?! Or just happy to see me?

2008-07-22T20:29:00.003-06:00

Guess we know who Sami looks like...

Samantha is now 7 months old.
She had her 6 month checkup today (she was so sick when she was 2 months, we had to wait for her to get better, and thus we are a month behind)
She weighs 16.44 lbs (36.79%)
She is 26.5 inches long (52.01%)
She Her Head Circ. is 16.5 (17.46 %)

A little FYI...When I took Lucy in to the doctor right after she turned 3, she weighed 17 lbs. Of course, that was with a light cotton dress on and no shoes, but still....
Lucy is probably now 22 or so lbs at 3 and 1/2, and Sami is almost 17 at 7 mos. I guess what I am trying to say is that Sami will probably be carrying Lucy around before Lucy can ever carry Sami :)

SOME SCOTLAND!!!

2008-07-20T08:59:00.002-06:00

Here is a sneak peak of our big trip to Scotland to visit Jeremy's parents who are on their mission. We took Samantha and left Gracie and Lucy with my parents. We had a fabulous time with Brett and Sue and were amazed at the beauty of Scotland.
The top picture is at a castle which was actually a fortified house-a lot smaller than the castles we saw. It was called ClayPots Castle.
The second picture was the "Blue Door". It was crazy. This door was just off the side of the road, and once you go in it, there's a beautiful forest with a rive and a walking path that goes for a few miles. It was just gorgeous and peaceful. I will have to post more pictures of the inside of it.
The last picture is of a castle called "Dunotter". I probably spelled that wrong. But it was awesome. You had to go on a ton of stairs all the way from the main road to the castle. The whole thing was built right on a cliff (as you can see). It is just incredible what these people built and how they lived a thousand or so years ago, and it is also incredible how much the Scottish people know and appreciate their history. It was a very neat experience.
I am planning to post a slideshow or something of more of Scotland, but I am so behind I thought I had better just get SOMETHING up and going for now. So there's a start.

A few of the cousins

2008-07-20T08:54:00.001-06:00

This is one more picture of Isabel with some of the cousins that just happened to be there that night. What a cute bunch of kids!! We love them all.

Sami's Huge!

2008-07-20T08:45:00.002-06:00

This is Samantha and my new niece Isabel-Jon and Rachel's 4th. Rachel had to come to Idaho Falls for a funeral, which was not the best circumstances, but at least it gave us a chance to see this beautiful baby! Samantha is just about 5 months older than Isabel. It is amazing to me how much these little ones grow and learn in such a short time!

Gracie the ballerina

2008-06-14T23:07:00.003-06:00

Gracie is done with ballet! The poor girl had to practice a LOT for this Swan Lake performance, even though she was only in 1 dance. My little sister Kate and my dad were the only ones that came (besides me). My mom watched Samantha, and Jeremy was out of town. The tickets were $10 EACH, so I barely made it there :). Gracie did fantastic and we are glad to be done.

The top pic is Gracie with her teacher. The next pic is me and Grace. The 3rd pic is my little sis Kate and Grace. Sorry for the lack of creativity in the poses. We were crunched on time.

The bottom picture I added just for Jeremy. He loves ballet and especially the male dancers. I'm sure he really regretted missing the entire 2 hour ballet

Zip Line

2008-06-03T23:03:00.001-06:00

Lucy LOVED the zipline at the cabin. This girl has no fear!

Memorial Day camping

2008-06-03T22:47:00.004-06:00

We did a camping weekend. Fun, but wet. The whole time. The girls found some snails which they excitedly took home and added to their fish tank...only to discover they couldn't breathe in it, and one of their big fish was biting off their heads. Very traumatic to me, but Gracie got them all back out by herself and took them outside where they were more happy (except the ones that had their heads...well you know...)

We drove to Island Park to stay at Jeremy's sisters' cabin. We went with Jeremy's sister's family, the Taylors. It was a great time. The kids played with their cousins, we saw big fish, made smores (those things are delicious! Thanks Jeremy for making me "some more" smores every time I asked:) We also did some yoga on the Wii. Talk about quality time!

Butterflies!

2008-05-28T11:42:00.002-06:00

There are 2 butterflies in that bug catcher. Gracie's class watched them go from caterpillars, into cocoons, and FINALLY after watching them day after day after day...it happened! One morning one butterfly was out, and pretty soon out came the other one, too! (Gracie's teacher let Gracie bring home 2-one for Lucy, too). The girls let them free after a couple of days of taking care of them and watching them. It's fun to enjoy experiences like this with my girls!

Gracie Graduated!...from preschool

2008-05-28T11:27:00.002-06:00

Gracie graduated from preschool. Now she is REALLY ready to go to kindergarten :). They had a very cute program with some singing. Gracie did a great job (as usual) and was very fun to watch. When the teacher read what all the kids wanted to be when they grow up, it was no surprise that Gracie's answer was "Hannah Montana!" The picture with just Gracie and the boy is a boy named AJ she was quite fond of. There were only 3 boys and 9 girls in her class, so the boys were a bit fought over. Lucy was able to go to class pretty often with Gracie. Ms. Krista was such a NICE teacher and always included Lucy whenever Lucy wanted to go. As you can see, Lucy fit right in with the class and made some great friends just like Gracie. It's been a wonderful year and I'm a little sad that it's over for Gracie (and sometimes Lucy).

Cute cousins

2008-05-13T13:23:00.001-06:00

This is Sami and Josh and Joni's daughter Sahara. We are so excited that for the next picture Jon and Rachel's daughter Isabel (born yesterday) can be in it, too!

Bed Head

2008-05-13T13:19:00.001-06:00

Here is Samantha first thing in the morning. It is very funny to have such a little baby with so much hair!!

Gracie's concert!

2008-05-11T22:40:00.002-06:00

Here are some getting ready for the concert pictures. We have a routine of doing nails, hair, and makeup before a big show. I think she looks gorgeous!