Robyn's Baptism.

Robyn was baptized on Saturday! Congratulations Robyn. Before she was confirmed, all the cousins and Robyn sang "I am a Child of God"...or at least stood up there and smiled!

Here is Robyn in her pretty dress and the girls!
Silly girls...they had so much fun socializing afterwards.
I couldn't decide which picture was cuter...so I posted them both.
While waiting for Robyn to finish talking with other family members the girls decided to dance.
This is Tori's cutest smile!
The girls with Justin...although he would only stand by them for just about one picture and he was off!
They also played "Ring around the Rosies".
"We all fall down"!
And then get back up and play it again!

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Squeak-a-peep!

Sophie is always squeaking at us...so we call her a little squeak-a-peep. She has also started to giggle a little bit. It is so cute. She is much more interested in her toys now and likes to grab onto things. At dinner time we always put her in her new high chair so she can be a part of the family. She loves to add in her "two cents" while we are all talking. So this is just a bit of Sophie's dinner conversation.

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Where does Jesus live?

Last night, Sydney, Sophie and I decided to walk down to the park. Sydney climbed on her bike and was heading down the driveway when she spotted the moon up in the sky. I was putting Sophie in the stroller and Sydney was apparently starring up at the moon. All of the sudden she says, "Mom, does Jesus live on the Moon?" Hmmm....I supose that is a reasonable possibility for her to think up, since I'm sure most kids have pretty vague ideas where heavenly beings might reside. I admit I laughed and said I didn't think he lived there (why would anyone want to live on the Moon???). Then I ran in the house to get Mark so he could explain where Jesus lived and I could finish getting us all ready to go to the park!

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Preschool.

Here's Sydney on her first day of preschool. She started the day after Labor Day. I can't believe she is finally big enought to go to preschool. Sydney LOVES preschool and is usually ready to leave an hour before it is time to go. She loves having a backpack to bring home all the things she makes.

Each week they focus on a different letter of the alphabet. So last week was the letter A. They read lots of books about things having to do with A's and played games and of course made crafts and art projects. This was her apple tree she made. I wanted to take a picture of the airplane she made but after being played with all day for several days...the airplane was retired (to the trash). Oh well, I'll have to take pictures of stuff right when she gets home next time. I love it when she comes home and she will talk non-stop about everything she did. It is also nice to have one less child to haul around on errands.

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Tagged!

This is such a fun way to get to know our story a little bit better. Robyn "tagged" me so now I have to answer the questions about us! Then at the end I can tag other people to post a blog similar to this one.

1. Where did you meet your husband?

We were in the same ward and apartment building (Jamestown at Liberty Square) at BYU. We knew each other for a year before we really started hanging out all the time. Mark had a cool group of guys that me and a few friends used to go hang out with lots. We would go watch their Ultimate Frisbee games or "dunk ball" games. But mostly we spent time with all of "Saus" (that's what everyone called the Mark's friends) watching basketball and other sports and hanging out with them.

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband?

I have no idea??? Probably...something about how tall he was! (actually, I think the first time I ever met Mark, Robyn was there...and since he had just returned from Venezuela, Robyn and him were probably talking Spanish or talking about how he spoke Spanish! At least that's what I vaguely remember)

3. Where was your first date?

This one makes me laugh...because Mark and I honestly never really went on "dates"...at least none that I can really recall. We always just hung out with all of Saus. Well ok, sometimes, they would plan a big group date and we would go along on those. Actually I have plenty of memories of going to see "Testaments" at the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg. in Salt Lake for Saus dates. I can't even begin to count how many times we went and saw "Testaments"...probably because the guys always thought this would impress the girl of the week they were currently dating!

4. Where was your first kiss?

Hmmm...we (as in all of Saus and most of our ward) had all gone up to Brock's cabin up one of the canyons in the Salt Lake area. Actually it was always gorgeous up there and I have so many memories of all the fun games we used to play up there and hiking to Doughnut Falls (I think that is what it was called). Anyway, the sun was setting and Mark and I were sitting on top of Weiss' car...and a side note, everyone was watching either from through the trees, or from the hammock, or up in the cabin!

5. Did you seem to have a long or short engagement?

I think it went by pretty fast. We were engaged for about three and a half months. I guess with school and work and wedding plans it went by fast. Plus it was my last semester of having the most fun with all my girls!

6. Where did you get engaged?

Mark proposed to me out on the soccer fields behind Brigham's Landing (the fields where I played lots of intramural soccer games and Mark played lots of Ultimate Frisbee and softball). This was really special to me because I have always loved soccer and it was really important to me.

7. Where were you married?

We were married in the San Diego Temple, May 4 2001. It was beautiful there and San Diego still remains one of my most favorite places to visit.

8. How was the reception?

We ended up having a reception in Redding, CA and also one in Forest Lake, MN. Both were fun and had lots of yummy food. It was fun to see lots of old friends and family.

9. Where did you go on your honeymoon?

We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for seven days! We stayed at a beautiful resort right on the beach. Some of the fun things we did were going on quads for a few hours through the jungle. We had stopped in this tiny village and these little kids had this burro that Mark climbed on so I could take his picture. Another day we took this boat to this island and hiked in to this waterfall and swimming hole. Mark and I climbed up the cliffs and jumped off. I cut my forehead really bad. Apparently, I was wearing my ring and when I hit the water, somehow my hand grazed the side of my face and cut open my forehead. Then when I got out I had blood streaming down my face. Everyone was all worried but of course I had no idea what had happened. Good thing someone had a baby wipe for me to clean off my face. (We were back in the middle of no where on this island) Then my most favorite thing we did was one evening we took another boat to this other island and had a really romantic dinner on the beach with tiki torches lit all around. Afterwards we saw this show at an outdoor theater. Ahhh...good memories! I can definitely say I am looking forward to the next time Mark and I can escape somewhere without kids!

Well that is how we met and now I have to tag someone else to post on their blog or website. I'm going to tag Catherine and Auralee and Heather (because I don't think they have done this yet on their blogs...well maybe Heather has, so Heather you don't have to if you already did this). I guess I don't know that many people that blog or have websites (and those that I do, have already done something like this!)

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Minnesota.

Last week Mark and I boarded an airplane to fly back to Minnesota for my sister's wedding. We survived the flight there and back and I think they should give some kind of refund to parents who must sit on planes for longer than two hours with kids. It was very stressful to keep the kids happy and QUIET. If you think it might be easy...try sitting at your kitchen table for over three hours with a few snacks, a DVD player, and maybe a few things to do. Make sure everyone is pretty quiet! You can get up once in awhile to go to the bathroom but otherwise, you just sit there and worry that the kids might start crying, etc...that is what it is like to fly with kids. The weather in Minnesota was perfect. It was about 75 degrees everyday and it cooled down at night. Sydney had so much fun playing outside. She told us she wanted to go back to Minnesota once we were home because it was cooler there...however, I reminded her that it entails a very long plane trip (which she decided against). While we were there we managed to fit in Mall of America and the indoor amusement park there. Sydney had so much fun on all the rides.

As you can see from this picture, Mark doesn't fit on the kiddie roller coaster. He had to squish his knees in and the bar didn't go down far enough to keep Sydney in (so she just slid all over during this ride). Then I decided to let Mark take the pictures and I went on rides with Sydney.
Here we are on the race cars. Actually this ride wasn't too bad! It whipped us around the curves and we were both laughing!
Congratulations Ben and Auralee! They were married in the St. Paul Temple, August 31st. This was also the day the Dave and Jilynn's baby girl was born and it was Mark's Mom's birthday! Ben and Auralee will be leaving soon to move to Columbus, Ohio so that Ben can complete a Masters in accounting at Ohio State. Good luck newlyweds in your new state!
Here is a cute picture of both of my Grandma's at the reception. I think they enjoyed chatting with each other at all the wedding events.
Sydney was getting a little bored during pictures at the temple...so she gathered all these sticks up and decided to make a pretend bonfire. Mark and Ben came over and pretended to roast pink and chocolate marshmellows with her. Of course she was delighted.
That night we decided to have a real bonfire and make s'mores. This was so much fun for all of us. We can't build bonfires anywhere in AZ so we all enjoyed this, plus who can resist yummy s'mores. We put one of Auralee's shirts on Sydney so the mosquitos wouldn't bite her...but it turned out that they just weren't that bad anyway.
Here is the sticky remains.
The next day we went to the "beach" on the lake by my parents house. Again this was another beautiful day and it felt so good to be outside breathing air that had lots of oxygen in it (as opposed to dust and smog). Everything is so green and beautiful there. Sydney had fun making sandcastles and hunting for rocks in the water...since there were no seashells on this beach!

Look at that view...who wouldn't want to live in a place like this!


These are the rocks Sydney wanted to take home, but I told her I would just take a picture of them instead...since I can't imagine how we would haul them home! We loved being in Minnesota and it was fun to see Auralee and Ben and get to know him. I can't deny that we loved the weather there and the lack of traffic and all the green grass and trees. When we landed in Phoenix, the pilot announced that it was a cool 104 degrees (at about 8:30 pm). We just laughed because of course that is cool for here!

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