If You Want To....

step outside of yourself and stop feeling sorry for yourself read this book 'The Road Of Lost Innocence'. My sister Dana brought it over and I read it in 2 days. She read it in 4 hours. It is about sexual trafficking.

This woman, Somaly Mam, who wrote the book was sold to a brothel at the age of 15. She wrote about girls as young as 6, yes 6, who are sold to brothels. She has helped more than 5,000 women and children escape.

This is based in Cambodia, but is a problem in many parts of the world. It is really a heartbreaking story. Definitely worth reading. It makes me think about the love God has for children and I know that justice will someday be served.

She has a website as well www.somaly.org

1 year anniversary

So it has been a year today since we left our house. I had a dream about it last night. WHY we ever did this I don't know. Hindsight is 20/20. I can't wait to just be in my own place. I miss our ward! :-( There is good and bad in everything, which is what I am trying to focus on....the good I mean. :-)

Flashback Friday

I found some pics in a folder I haven't looked at in awhile. The top one is G & A in St. George 2 years ago. We stayed at Ryan's sister's second home she has down there. It was nice! The other 2 are just of Grace. Pic 2 is SO ugly. I crack up everytime I look at it.

Anyway Gracie and I have been having a good time writing notes back and forth to each other, since she is learning so much at school. This was the note I got from her on Sunday.

G: Mommy I do not wont to go to church.
M: Why?
G: Cus it is boreg.
M: It does not have to be fun. We are there to learn about Jesus.
G: I like Jesus but I do not wont to go.
M: Ok you can stay home alone. (I knew there was no way she would)
G: Ow wot efer (oh whatever). I will go to sacrumet but I will not go to primere.
M: Ok you can walk home.
G: I will go with grama. (Grandma was going to come home and start a roast)
M: Forget it!
G: I will. (She must have meant I will forget it cause it never happened.)

Another one she wrote me a few days ago was "Mommy I see your toshe (tushy). You have a babe in your bele that is how your butt got big." ( If only that was the reason my butt is big)

Ava was our "letter carrier" the other day and was taking a note downstairs to Gracie and then upstairs to me. I love watching both of the girls learn so much at school. It is amazing what Gracie can read now. Kids grow so fast.

Miscommunication = Disneyland

I don't know about you gals (I'm assuming guys never read my blog) but Ryan and I seem to have some communication problems here and there in our marriage. I think I am right. He thinks he is right. Who is right? ME. But oh well right?

So Gracie happened to mention the bounce house to Ryan and he acted like this was not something we had agreed on. He said "I would rather pay for Disneyland than pack a bounce house around!!!! It will always be you saying Go ask dad to set it up if you want to jump." I agreed and told him that was the beauty of a bounce house. Pawn it off on Ryan and then have him do his dad thing and jump with the kids. So I told Gracie "Well it looks like we are going to Disneyland instead." She was actually disappointed for a few minutes (until I profusely reminded her that I didn't even know what Disneyland was as a kid let alone a bounce house....kids are spoiled aren't they?) but man have the girls warmed up to the idea. They want to pack already, but we won't be going til the end of April and I actually need clothes for them to wear in the meantime.

I have been looking up the rides on Youtube to try and keep the girls occupied while we wait. I found this ONE of the Pirates ride and was SO pleasantly surprised to see Johnny Depp himself riding the ride. He looks good. Eye candy for me...maybe you won't agree. So anyway if you are bored click on the word "one" and watch the first minute of this video to behold the lovely view.

Anyway, so Ryan's sister Marianne was kind enough to come over (being the Disney vacation guru that she is) and help us plan the whole thing. What a relief! We are going through Costco travel which will save us some money. The only two things I care about is a pool at the hotel and having breakfast with the princesses and we get both, so I am happy!

We are driving which I said I would NEVER do, but we will stop in Vegas the first night and it shouldn't be too bad. I want to get the Junie B. Jones book on CD for the way down. I think the girls will enjoy that. Prepare yourself for a long oration when I get back....this was long enough and we haven't even left the house.

By the way it looks like G & A will get to ride pretty much everything (even space mountain) so that is great. The pregnant lady and the 2 year old will have to sit some of it out.

Flashback Friday

I took this idea from my friend Amelia's blog. You take a picture from the past and put it up on Fridays.

I had to put this pic up to let you know just how much I miss my house! My OWN green grass, my OWN red brick, my OWN porch! Of course the kids are ok too. Can't wait to get back there someday......:-(

Our "Other" Disneyland

Ryan's bonus comes in March, along with taxes in February, and of course we always have ways in which we want to use the money...not always bad....sometimes paying off debt or saving. The girls are old enough that they have been bugging us about Disneyland. It is SO expensive! I cannot justify it right now, so we decided to do a few other things closer to home.

We bought 2 bikes, a trailer, and a co-pilot bike as part of our not-so-Disneyland plan. We will also buy a bounce house, which I'm sure I will post about when it happens. Breck spent his time chasing the bike and giving Mommy kisses while Daddy took the girls out. I get about 20 kisses a day from Breck. He is such a lovey boy. I rarely ask. He just comes up and plants one on both cheeks.

Ava

I found some pics of Ava as a baby. I wanted to tell you two funny things Ava has said lately.

1. She dropped her CTR ring on the driveway as we were leaving. She couldn't find it, so she ran over and said "Oh well. That's okay. I know how to choose the right anyway, except when I scratch Gracie." (She had drew blood from Gracie's back earlier).

2. Her preschool teacher had to be gone for jury duty for a few days. Today she said "Mom I know where my teacher went, she told us. Tutti Frutti." I said "Tutti Frutti? Are you sure she didn't say jury duty?" She was so embarrassed and kind of laughed. lol.

The way she talks (with her lisp) just tops it off. J's are always "gr". So this morning she is singing "Gringle bells, gringle bells, gringle all the way..." So funny!

What Could Be More Beautiful Than My Children?

My children in a blog book. I cannot put into words the joy and elation I felt as I found this glorious package arrive at my doorstep on Monday. Happy day!

This is a picture of the back.

A picture of the dedication page.

These are extra pages at the back where you can include as many pictures as you want. I think I have like 8 of them. I just picked pictures that I liked from the 2 years that I have been blogging.

A few things I would suggest while blogging ( if you want a better blog book):

1. No videos-I had to go through and save every single video as a draft before having the blog slurped into book format. I still haven't went back and published them all.

2. Don't write under specific pictures like I have done in this post (ha ha) because that is not how it will lay out on your pages. It will just gather all the pics and then all of the text separately. Then it won't make sense when you read "The above picture....." and there is no picture above to look at.

This book was the most expensive book I have ever bought at $84.00, but that's the beauty of tax season right, and well worth the money I'd say. It ended up being about 157 pages or so.

I made my book by going to http://www.cutestblogontheblock.com/ and on the left hand side at the bottom it says blog book. Literally about all you have to do is type in your blog address and it slurps your entire blog in. It is WAY easier then a few others I have tried and given up on. They make you select all pictures individually and stuff. Too complicated.

I can't sign off without thanking Jackie for getting me started on this blog thing in the first place. Thank you!

Sister Missionaries

Gracie and Ava went to a primary activity at the church on Saturday. It was called 'I hope they call me on a mission." They loved it! Gracie said "It made me want to go on a mission, but I thought they would actually fly us somewhere and back." :-) Gracie got called to the Russia mission (can't remember where), and Ava got called to the Lima, Peru mission.

I must admit that Ava and I compromised and she ended up wearing a dress with Breck's church tie clipped on the front, instead of Breck's church suit like she wanted. Thank heavens when I came to pick her up it looked like she had never taken her coat off so no one saw the tie (cross my fingers)! Gracie was embarrassed. She's all "I don't want people to think that I have a tie too!"

Gender Issues

About 3-4 times a month Breck brings me things like swimsuits, tutus, girl shoes etc.... to put on him. I humor him because frankly I think it is hilarious. This is his most recent ensemble.

On the other hand, Ava insists that she is a boy. If you say something like "That's ok if you want to say your a boy Ava." She will say "I'm not just saying I'm a boy. Heavenly Father made me a boy and my name is Michael." She gets really mad about it. She was crying the other day because I told her I refuse to buy her boy clothes. I told her when she grows up if she wants to buy boy clothes that is fine, but I will not buy boy clothes for my little girl. I explained to her that a lot of girls are Tomboys and that is fine. She got mad and said she is NOT a Tomboy she is an actual boy. She wore Breck's pajamas to bed last night. Ryan threatened to cut her hair like Breck's and she didn't take it as a threat!

How much longer do I have to endure this insanity?