Snuggling earling in the morning

One of my favorite parts of the day is first thing in the morning when my kids come in and get in bed with me. They have been doing that a lot lately and this morning it was Spencer who came first and he was being so cute. I love to just snuggle him and squeeze him. It is in that moment with our faces right next to one another, looking into his big brown eyes, that the world stands still, all my worries are gone and nothing else matters It is so precious. We do this thing all the time where we say, "Guess what?" and the kids respond "what?" and then we say, "I love you". This morning Spencer asked me "Guess What" and I responded "what" of course and then he said "I love you" with a big smile and then started laughing as I grabbed him and started to tickle him. A few minutes later he whispered to me "Let's play paper, rock, scissors" I didn't even know he had heard of that. He told me he learned from grandpa. So we played as he made the cutest little scissors with the wrong fingers. These are the moments that keep me going and make life worth living. Children are a gift.

Oakcrest 50th Bday

Oakcrest is a girls camp for girls age 12-14 that i worked at the summer of 1999. I was a counselor and each week I had 8-12 girls in my group. Oakcrest is kinda like an outdoor EFY. We did all kinda of activities all day like playing sports, archery, zipline, hiking, arts and crafts, playing in the river and lots of singing and being silly. We also went on an over night hike each week (it rained almost every time) where we had to build our own latrine, and make our own dutch oven meals. It was exhausting, dirty and amazing. It was probably the greatest job I have ever had. The greatest part was that we were able to have little devotionals with our girls each night and share spiritual thoughts. Whatever I felt i needed to share with them i would. THe spirit of that place is so incredible. I truly felt the lord carrying me and helping me all summer. I also was able to work with the most amazing people. All of the counselors created such a strong bond over that summer and we are still friends. It is so great when you can see someone that you haven't seen for a long time and it is like no time has past. That is what it is like with these women that i worked with. Wow. I know that they want the best for me and would do anything for me and i would do the same for them.
A few of us got together for Oakcrests 50th birthday celebration and drove up together. It is about 30 min south east of Park City. It is so beautiful. It was so great to see everyone. We would be walking around and remembering the good times there and then we would run into another person we knew and we would all throw our arms up and hug everyone. They had a presentation and a photo video of all the years. There was even a lady there that worked there 50 years ago. We sang songs and reminisced. It was a really neat night. I love Oakcrest. It is my dream to create a similar place someday and i hope that it will happen.
The pics are 1) Other counselors and I front of a cabin 2) Me posing for the sunset and my friends husband jumping in the pic, classic! 3) a beautiful sunset just before we left. isn't it amazing.

4th of July

I am back tracking to the 4th. We started the day by handing out flyers for our business in the Ogden parade. Garrett and Ruth were so kind to come down from Logan to help us out. THen we all headed down to American Fork. It is a tradition for my family to meet ever 4th at the park near my Grandma Nilsson's house. We always have a lunch together of fried chicken and all kinds of sides. The best part is the homemade rootbeer. The dry ice slush that is left after the rootbeer is gone is always a hit. We talk for a while and then the waterfight starts. My uncle brings all kinds of water guns and squirt bottles for the kids. It is a lot of fun. Then we also always play frisbee golf around the park. It is a great time. After that fun we hung out at Grandmas for a while so we could talk out of the heat and then we took the kids to Kung Fu Panda. It was a fun show. On our drive home we were lucky enough to be able to pull off the freeway and watch the Thanksgiving point fireworks. We didnt get home until after 11pm and we were exhausted but what a great day. I am so grateful for this country and our freedom.
These pics are of the water fight, us watching fireworks and the kids with my brother Quinn that is going to start living with us.

What a crazy week

Last week was crazy and i am so happy we made it through. I taught an art camp Tues, Wed and Thurs and this one had two sessions. One was 10am-12 and the other was 1pm-3pm. In the morning i had 8 kids that were from 4-8yrs old. In the afternoon I had kids that were from 8-12 yrs old. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of projects. I think some of the favorites were tie dye, paper mache and coil pots made of model magic. It was great, but i do have to say that i don't know if i was do two sessions in a day again. It was very exhausting to me. I couldn't believe how much it wore me out. We also had my Dad here on wed to help us start to finish our downstairs bathroom. So we listened to some banging and hammering that day. To add to the craziness, I also had one of my close high school friends, Megan, stop by on wed during my one hour break since it was the only time we could see each other. It was great to see her and i am so glad we at least had a few minutes to catch up. Then Thurs night after I had fished art classes and rested a little, I cleaned the house and prepared our guest room for a Japanese lady and her 4 yr old son who arrived and are staying with us for 3 weeks. They are very nice and both speak English very well. Luckily my mom, and lifesaver, was here the whole time to help me stay sane and to watch the kids while i taught. She is great and i always love having her here. I couldnt have made it through the week without her. Thanks Mom.
What a great week!!
Pic of Tie Dying and the kids playing bubbles with Daiki the Japanese boy staying with us. They have become good friends

Spencer becomes a member of Star Trek

Spencer woke up the other morning with a bit in the middle of his forehead. It swelled up until allround his eyes were swollen. He actually looked like a cling-On (however you spell that). It wasnt until a day later that i thought of taking a pic so these are not even a bad as it looked the day before. I was so worried it might not go down and he would look silly forever, luckily a few days later it went down. We still dont know what bit him but we hope it doesnt find him again.

Big Cookies

While grocery shopping the other days the kids caught eye of some big cookies that were decorated with lots of yummy frosting and plastic rings with different disney characters on them. I gave in to them wanting them, since it came with a little toy that i thought would be fun. Brinlee picked Snow white and Spencer picked one with Lighting Mcqueen and Mater. They loved them and couldnt even eat the whole thing, and of course the rings were lost or broken before the day was over, but they did enjoy the moment. Here are some fun pics of them taking a bite.

Baby Emberlyn

My little brother Jeffers wife had a baby on monday. They named her Emberlyn and she is darling. She was 7lbs 7 ounces and 19 inches long. She is very healthy. We are so happy to have her in our family. My kids are so excited about the new baby cousin.

My little Spencer

I just have to write about my cute little 2 yr old, toe head boy. In the middle of the night last night he started screaming, "Get it out , get it out. " We jumped out of bed and ran to him to see what could be wrong. I first thought maybe he had thrown up since Brinlee was sick the day before. But that was not the case, we instead found him with his arm stuck between the railings in his toddler bead. He had somehow managed to get it wedged in there. Budd immediately helped him get it unstuck and Spencer looked up at him and in complete sincerity said, "Thanks Dad." It was so sweet. Poor kid was so scared. Spencer has been a great helper lately. Yesterday i was watering the garden(which is looking great and we are already eating peas and spinach) and while watering i started weeding. There were a ton of weeds and they were getting big. We have two little shovels, so i started to weed and next thing I know, Spence is right next to me trying to help, and he was actually pulling some weeds out all by himself. What a great kid. He is really into playing superheros and trying to get the bad guys. He runs around destructing, or trying to attack everything he can. He loves cars and you never see him without one in his hand. He is a true boy full of energy. I love this kid.