Fast as a speeding bullet...

{Sorry about the small pictures, for some reason my computer is acting up and I can't make them big.}

Ryan ran the St. George Marathon for his 4th time last week. It was his 4th marathon this year and 8th all together. We were so excited Ryan did this thing called the Grand Slam. You run 4 Utah races and you are automatically put into St. George. After each race Ogden, Utah Valley and Park City Ryan was still in first place for the Grand Slam. We couldn't wait to see what happened after that.

Brooklynn and I made some signs the night before we left to show our support for her Daddy. Brooklynn told me what to write on them. One said "Go Daddy We ♥ You." The second said "Run Daddy Run." and the last one that she wanted said "Win a Prize."

Brooklynn was so good at cheering Daddy on. She kept asking me if he was coming yet. I was nervous about getting two kids clothed, fed, out of the motel, parking and being there in time to see him finish all by myself. But I did it with 30 minutes to spare. Needless to say we got to see a lot of people finish.

Cameron got a lot of attention holding this sign. Everyone around us thought it was so cute. And he held on as if his life depended on it. In 30 minutes he only dropped it once. That's my boy!

Well he did it! He beat his own personal time. Qualified for Boston for the 8th time and he got 70th place out of over 6,000 people. Way to go RyRy!

Brooklynn is a big time Daddy's girl and when he finished she followed him around everywhere. It was so cute. She was so proud of her daddy.

There is a cute picture of my Ry. I am just so proud of him.

Cameron was such a good boy. We got to the race at 9am and hung out for a bit went back to the hotel at 11 so Ryan could shower and went back to the awards and were there until almost 2pm. Cameron didn't cry and get upset once.

Brooklynn also did so good. She wasn't feeling too good and had a pretty bad cough so while we were at the awards she just layed down. But she was so good in St. George that she even got to pick out a new necklace and Bracelet at the outlets.

Aside from getting in the top 1% of the marathon. Ryan also got 1st place in the Grand Slam. Now we can say all that hard work really paid off, all the hours of training and many miles he ran. Go Ryan!

There is my sassy girl. She kept pulling this face because I told her she was eating my candy apple. She is the female version of Jim Carrey. She makes hilarious faces. I love my little girl.

Cam's favorite part of the trip was laying on the bed and playing with the remote. He is such a boy. Also we discovered that Cameron can open the hotel door. Ryan was laying on the bed and Brooklynn and I went out to get ice. I shut the door tight so he would stay in. After we got ice he was in the hallway looking for us. The rest of the stay we kept chain locked on the door.

Last picture I promise. This is all of Ryan's medals and trophy's he has gotten this year.

Muffin Tin Monday- All about me...

The theme for MTM was All about me. So when I talked to Brooklynn about what she wanted to do this is some of her favorite things. She had a cheese quesadilla shaped like Minnie Mouse. Her number one favorite character is Minnie Mouse. Fishy pretzels because she loves to swim. Her absolute favorite singer is Taylor Swift. She loves her songs, sings them and even pretends like she is her. One day her Grandparents were over for dinner and Brooklynn was Taylor Swift and Grandma Oldroyd was Kelly Pickler. She saw them sing together watching the CMT Awards and ever since always talks about them. So the applesauce has a music note for Taylor Swift. Her favorite color is pink so she had pink yogurt. And like me she loves Cinderella, so she had some candy in Cinderella's glass slipper.

She has been a pretty picky eater lately and she ate every last bite. Way to go Berkie!

We had this super cute book called What I Like about Me! We read it and she loved going back through and opening flaps and looking at all the pictures again. Brooklynn has a really good memory and remembered most of the story and read it to herself while she finished up her lunch. Brooklynn also loves to help mommy do anything and has loved cooking and baking lately.

Cameron participated in MTM lunch today and his favorite foods are bananas, fishy crackers, yogurt and Ritz crackers. YUM!!! He also LOVES spagetti and loves to see how much of a mess he can make. Which is why I didn't make him spagetti today.

He really can make a mess eating anything. Cameron also loves to dance, and cracks us up watching him. He loves to bug his sissy and get into everything. Cam loves balls and loves to hit his golf ball with his cute little baby clubs. His favorite toys right now is remote controls and he lost our clicker for over a week. We found it under his sisters bed.

To see more Muffin Tin Monday lunches click HERE.

20 Years ago...

20 years ago this past Sunday was a very special day for my family. I know a lot of people reading this know the story already, but I couldn't pass up writing about it. September 22, 1989 my older brother Joshua Dennis was 10 years old and went missing in a mine. He got seperated from the other scouts and leaders and didn't have a light and couldn't find his way back out. Family, friends, Tooele police and Search and Rescue scoured the mountain and mine for 5 long days. Wednesday September 27th the last day of the search, the mine was to be closed and sealed to prevent this from happening again. John Skinner knew where to find Josh, he dreamt about it. After being turned away day after day, finally they let him have one last look. John along with two search and rescue workers went in for our final hope. Just over an hour Josh was brought out to the light safetly. To read the whole story that I wrote last year click HERE.

This was the first picture taken after bringing him out of the mine. That is my uncle RD who is with him.

Helping Josh adjust are some of the Search and Rescue. My mom still has the coat that Josh wore in the mine.

Josh in the hospital with the two Search and Rescue Ray Guyman and Gary Christensen. They were both the last ones in mine with John Skinner who found Josh.

This is a picture of Joshua in the hospital surrounded by ballons and gifts. This was not even half of what he received from family, friends and many strangers.


John Skinner pushing Josh out the the BYU field during a game.

This was the day Josh left the hospital and came home. His poor frostbitten feet.

I love this picture of myself, Terra and Jacob. This was a year after he was found, we were up at the mine celebrating.

This was on Sunday, we had a family dinner and surprised Josh. We watched the video slideshow that is always played at the many firesides that he speaks at. It was very emotional watching it and remembering this event. Although I was only 7 years old, I remember so much and it changed my life. My testimony and faith really became it's own at this time. As a young girl I had some other amazing experiences proving to me that with faith miracles do happen. Life is hard and has many challenges. I truly can attest that through the power of prayer anything is possible.

We had some left over balloons from a bridal shower that we let go. (we wished we had yellow balloons, but these would have to do.) As we explained it to Brooklynn and Caleb, we were sending these to say thank you to Heavenly Father and Jesus for protecting Josh and bringing him back to us.

Brooklynn is a very special little girl and so sensitive and spiritual. The whole day she really took in everything. When watching the video her eyes were all teary. She is such a little sweetheart and I hope that she always remembers this and knows that we can get through anything.

My siblings and me. I love my family. I found an article online about Josh's story. As I read it I found something that I had never heard before. At Thanksgiving, while Josh was still in the MTC, he wrote John Skinner a letter. "I've been pondering in my mind all day," said Josh, "the things that I'm thankful for, and the list never ends. I thought of you when I read this scripture in Mosiah 7:12, 'I am very thankful before God this day that I am yet alive, and am permitted to speak and I will endeavor to speak with boldness.' P.S.," Josh ended the letter, "I'm glad you know what it means to search."
Reading this really made me thinking about my family, and my life in general. Some times we will be rescued and sometimes we will be the rescuers. I know I need to be rescued more often than I like. We need to remember to be open, listen to the spirit so we will know our purpose at every moment. Joshie Washie, I love you and am so glad you are here and my big brother.

I ♥ Faces

Well I love to go to different photo sites and browse. I have seen this site a lot but never added a picture. Today while Cam was napping I saw the theme was blue. My first thought is Brooklynn's eyes. She has the most beautiful/unique eyes I have ever seen. One eye is completely blue and the other is half blue and half brown. Over the years the blue has gotten brighter and more beautiful and the brown is becoming more significant too. So I thought I would take a quick picture of her eyes. She is funny, she gets so sick of pictures that she always just acts silly. I told her I needed to take pictures of her eyes and she just kept putting her hands around her eyes like binoculars so I thought it was cute and kept it. Here is a look of how her eyes have changed over the years. To enter the contest or to see more entries in the I ♥ faces contest go here.

Catch up...

I still have more pictures and posts on their way... But just a few of what we have been up to.

Just a couple cute pics of the kids in the sandbox. Cameron LOVES it now. He also likes to taste the sand. NASTY! He gets better every time we go out, but still has to get a taste just to make sure that it is still yucky. Brooklynn hate getting dirty EXCEPT in the sandbox, it is her favorite. She would play in it forever if I would let her.


My cute neice Gracie just celebrated her 2 year birthday. She shares her birthday with her daddy. So cool that she was born on the same day. Happy birthday Girlie. I didn't take very many pictures, but we had a lot of fun. All the kids Tye dyed shirts. One of these days I will have to get a picture with all the kids in their shirts.



Friday we went to the zoo with some friends. It was so fun. I miss not having my season pass. I think for sure next year I will get a pass again. Thanks Bella and Chase for inviting us.


We got to see the baby elephant, baby giraffe and baby tigers. They were adorable. Also one of the giraffes got really close. I just had my point and shoot camera so my pictures aren't great and I could only zoom so far. So you can imagine how close we were. It was fun.

Muffin Tin- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

This week the theme for Muffin Tin Monday was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I was so excited, I requested the book from the library and there was a few on the list ahead of me, so I didn't think I would get it in time. Well I did. Wahoo! So we did this Muffin Tin Monday last Friday and made a yummy dinner out of it. Brooklynn loved helping me make the meatballs. (They don't look pretty but they really were yummy. Probably the best ones that I have made.) So we read the story and Brooklynn thought it was so funny. "Ha, that is crazy." So I let her choose aside from Spagetti and Meatballs some of her favorite things that she wished fell from the sky to eat. She chose Capri Sun, yogurt, Her C cookie she made at school and cereal. (cookie crisp). She would eat cereal for Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks if I let her. Well we had fun joining in on MTM and as you can see so did Cameron. Spagetti is his favorite, but it is not my favorite to clean up.

Ryan and Cam while we were cooking. My cute boys, I sure love them.

On Sunday at church Brooklynn would not tell us what she learned about in class. She came right home and disapeared. Soon after we found these cute love notes that she left us on our pillows. It was so cute.

She even put one in Cameron's bed. What a sweet big sister. I love my girl!

Muffin Tin Monday- Apples

I had big plans for Muffin Tin Monday but Brooklynn was sick and so I didn't make it to the store to get some stuff on Saturday. So we made it work with what we had. So she had two kinds of applesauce, apple juice, dried apples,apple jack cereal, an apple cereal bar, and sunflower seeds (we pretended they were apple seeds). And of course read one of my all time favorite books. The Giving Tree By Shel Silverstein.

Brooklynn always enjoys MTM. This time she brought her little puppy that she named Candy. Also notice her cute apple shirt she is wearing. Click to see other fun Muffin Tins

Wahoo!

I was 277 on the list at the library and the book came out last Tuesday. I already got my copy. I am so excited and we'll see what I dream about this time.

Brooklynn's Prayer

Brooklynn is getting really good at saying prayers. The other day at dinner she said the cutest prayer ever...

"Dear Heavenly Father and Jesus, Oh wait, Heavenly Father. Please bless us, Hmmm. Bless our mommy, daddy, Cameron, family, friends. Um bless us to have our hair grow long. And Mom, what else? Oh bless our food, help us healthy and strong. Love you so much. Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father Amen."

Preschool and more...

This week Brooklynn started Preschool. Some neighbors and I are doing a co-op preschool so there are 4 kids,so I only have to teach once a month just Tuesday and Thursday. I think it will be great for Brooklynn to get to go out to preschool, but I can still be a part of it too. So far she had a blast. She wanted to walk by herself (with out me). Her and Ashlyn, her friend, walked over together and us mom's toted along behind them. It was nice that it was just across the street. This week she learned about the letter A, number 1 and color red. Brooklynn showed me everything she got and all about the activities she did. When I got in the door from dropping her off, I walked over to Ryan and I said "I can't believe my little ..... Waaaaaaaa!" I started crying, it wasn't a bad cry. Just a Time flies way too fast cry. I feel better now, it is just crazy. My little girl really is so big. Especially today when we were buying her new shoes and she said. "Oh mom, these shoes are style." It was so cute.


Last Sunday we were out at Ryan's parents and the sunset was amazing. It was florescent pink. I had my camera and tried to get a picture, but this doesn't do it justice. I just couldn't get it right, on top of that I was on a ladder. Yikes I hate ladders. But this is the best I could get. It was so incredible.


I just had to show off my delicious donuts that I made. I have had a lot of fun making treats lately and today just made a ton of donut holes for Monday. YUM YUM! They were good.


Whenever the kids take a bath they have so much fun. Well last night Brooklynn got out her goggles and I knew I had to get an embarrassing picture for later on.


Cameron loves to splash and stand up and fall back down. (It scares me so bad) But he is a boy and I am learning that he just does this kind of stuff. But I got this cute picture of him splashing away in the tub.


They are so silly. Brooklynn loves singing Ariel in the tub and Cameron tries to copy her and just yells. They are so fun. I know I am bias but I have the cutest kids ever.