the sun!!!

we have sun today!! i have lived in colder climate my whole life. hence the desire to move to texas. well central texas is a little different weather-wise compared to other parts of texas. i know it's wintertime, and it should be cold, however. when you think it's going to be warmer, it's a long and cold day when it's not. it has been grey skies for sooo loonng. i cannot believe the lack of motivation when the sky is grey. it's "sit on your couch and do nothing all day" weather.
so here's to the first of many sunny days!!

he's going to kill me......

but i just simply can not live without him. brad, my hubby.

i met brad on his mission. he was serving in the singles ward, which i rarely attended, in our stake. i was struggling with my testimony, and had a real negative attitude. i was really 'hard' with my tats and tounge ring, but elder herkimer wasn't put off.

one time, my parents were having a missionary's open house and the elders were invited. elder herkimer told me a story about his childhood in michigan. he told me he saved his allowance to buy two puppies. when he did he took them often in the mountains for walks etc. well in a few years, the female dog was attacked by a mountain lion and died. then the boy dog was so grief stricken he later died where the girl dog was burried. "to this day a red fern grows there."

sound familar?? he got me. i had never heard that story, and totally believed him!! little skunk. at that moment, i knew he'd have a role in my life.

well fast forward ten years and here we are. several moves, a new career, 3 children, and the list goes on. he is my absolute everything, and i am so thankful for him. he knows everything about me, and is okay with it.

i love you lt. herkimer.

isabelle chloe

as i moved away from my family 10 years ago, i was so twitterpated i never thought of what i'd miss. my sister gillian got married 2 months after i did, and i didn't have the documents to go across the border. so i missed her wedding. then the following feb she had a baby girl. isabelle chloe. missed that too. so the following june my sister leah got married and i had recieved my visa so i was able to go and be a bridesmaid at her wedding. that week i was up was the first time i'd get to hold, kiss and cuddle my new little niece. sadly it was the last as well. isabelle died peacefully in her sleep the following month. what heartbreak for my sister. i dropped everything to be by her side through this trial.

today is her birthday, and she would be 9. i can honestly say not a day goes by when i don't think of her and her mother. i am so grateful for the plan of salvation that allows us to be together forever. i am also grateful for gillian and her strength, and example of carrying on even on the toughest days.

i know she is watching over her mom, dad and brother, and in some ways, all of us. i think of the saying "Because someone we love is in heaven, we feel a little bit of heaven in our home." and the comfort it can bring.

we love and miss you dearly isabelle.

a year of blessings

a dear friend of mine, whom i miss dearly and really try to emulate, last year did her blog about all her blessings. i thought i would try it this year seeing i do have so much to be thankful for. it will really help me stay postive each week seeing what little things i am blessed with in my life. there is so much i take for granted. so each week i will post a blessing that i have in my life. i hope it's not too boring for you all!
my first blessing is family dinners. one thing growing up is we always had dinner together as a family. i actually thought everyone did until i got married and saw that some families are just "too busy" to eat together. thanks mom for enstilling this value in my life to pass down to my children.

laundry

one thing us mothers know is the laundry in never ending. it a "joke" in our house that we do a dark load, a white load and a pink load. here's the proof!!

breonna

only fair that i do a post for our breezy too! it's not hard to rant and rave about her. she was such a surprise in our lives. we had planned for her later than sooner, but with her we realize that we really have no say in the matter. she came, what seemed at the time like the worst time, but rather at the best time. i am so grateful for my mom and sister who were a graet help for me being a single mom for a bit while brad was gone. i couldn't have done it without them. i sure miss them and wish we could be closer:(

here are some cute pictures of our little cutester. she is a perfect mix of both hannah and ainnsley. i will be exciting to see who she morphs into over these years.

ainnsley

ainnsley is my funny lil' pumpkin. she has instantly grown up since breonna was born. i'm sure a lot of moms experience this. she does however she still "need" her sooie (binky), but we've been really good with only giving it to her at bedtime. i know, i know. i totally agree that i need it more than she does. it's another item that goes in the "worry about it later" file in my brain.

ainnsley has always been completely opposite from hannah. even in my tummy. then, brad and i didn't find out what sex our babies were before we had them, but i was so certain we were having a boy. my energy was different, my cravings, my morning sickness, everything was opposite. so naturally the sex should be opposite, right?? wrong! we had never been more shocked when the dr said she was a girl. i was thrilled. i immediately thought of all the cute clothes that she could wear.

ainns has always been funny. as a baby she hilarious. playing games with her eyes, laughing a lot. she was so content as well. she really needed to be seeing she wore a corrective helmet for her first year. what a trial for me. it was a lot of money, but if we could get insurance to cover it it would only be 20% of the cost. well we were denied because they thought she has "flathead" which can be avoided. ainnsley had a rare condition in which her head plates weren't fusing together. so we appealed and a friend recommended we call his lawyer friend who represented us... for free!! what a blessing!! with his help we won the appeal, and ainnsley's head was being shaped correctly. at that time i was sure there was no end in sight. looking back, it was just a blink of an eye.


we are so blessed to have our ainnsler's in our family. she knows she's funny, so we never know what hilarious thing will fly out of her mouth, at any given moment. don't get me wrong, she can be a super -grump at any given moment as well. the picture above is a rare moment where her and breonna were getting along. she means well with breonna, but her curiosity almost always ends up with breonna crying. we love you ainnslers!!