I miss her!

And its as simple as that. One year ago today was my mommies last day on this earth and I miss her. I thought a lot this week about the wonderful woman she was and is. She was always there to lend a shoulder to cry on and she always had a way of making things seem ok, even if they weren't. She was gentle, caring, and the best grandma. My kids loved her sooo much. It's been hard this week to explain to Trace that when we go to see Papa Black, Grandma won't be there. He keeps asking me if we can go to Heaven and see her. And the only answer I have is "of course!" Not today or tomorrow of course, but we do what we need to and we love eachother and I know we'll all get there. Let me tell you that is a day that I look forward to, when we can all hold and love and be together FOREVER! What a glorious plan our Father in Heaven has set up for his children.

Going Green!

So Cory and I don't hug our trees, we definately are not environmentalists, and we are not convinced that global warming is going to kill us all by 2012! We do however feel like there are some things that we can do that will help old Mother Earth along. We bought some canvas bags to carry our groceries home in (Laurie I thought you'd like that one) and we switched to green cleaners. We buy the clorox green works cleaners. They are comprable in price and they smell so much better. We buying some bricks tonight to put in the tank of our toilet (voila, instant water savings without buying a new toilet) and we'll be switching out our old bulbs as the die with the energy efficient ones. And did you know that the average American uses 3 times more water then their lawn actually needs. Heres an easy fix. Get an old Tuna can (clean of course). Water your lawn until the can is full and you dont need to water again until its empty (we're totally gonna do this one as well). Plus if you let your lawn grow and stay at 3 inches, it holds in water almost twice as long. And I think it looks plusher as well!

I don't want to get preachy. I don't believe that this earth is going to give out on us before the Savior comes again, and I don't think that we all need to go organic and start wearing burlap sacks instead of blended fabrics, but weren't we given this Earth to be stewards over it. I know its not much, but Cory and I are going to start trying to be better about doing our part to be GOOD stewards of this Earth. We hope it makes a difference.

Mother Nature missed the memo!

All this spring we've tried to be positive. A long winter means a cool summer right? But this, well this is ridiculous. Some one should let Mother Nature in on the date!

Spring has sprung...

...at least for today! With all the cold weather we've had, and all the cold weather it seems is to come, we thought we'd better take advantage of the warm weather. We went in to Evanston this morning and bought a swing for our deck and a sandbox for the kiddos, along with some simple outdoor toys (balls and such). Then we came home and played all day! It was wonderful. Then this evening we had some good friends over for a BBQ. Our kids love their kids and they played and played and played. Here's the picture to prove it!

Between popsicles and sandboxes, these two ended up nothing but dirt from head to toe. In fact, when we took off Traces pants for a bath this evening, we ended up vacuuming the floor as well. They were full of leaves and dirt! Ah, to be a kid again!

I'm FINISHED!!!

With just minor amounts of enthusiasm I proudly declare that I AM FINISHED. I officially passed my last paper this morning and am done with my first term. That means one down and only 12 left to go. WOO HOO!

Sweet hat! (literally)

I just thought I'd share with you what I believe will be the hottest fashion trend of '08. Enjoy!

What a big girl!

Today our sweet Kenadee turns 2 and I can hardly believe how the time has passed. She's such a doll and a great addition to our family. We had her birthday party yesterday and she got so much stuff I'm not sure where we'll put it all. But we had a good time and she loved it.

Our kids are darn cute!

I just can't get over how cute our kids have been the last few days. Jax is finally sitting on his own and it's made pictures of the three of them much easier.