Our dear sweet Prophet.....Till we meet again...

Well, as most of you have heard by now, our Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - Gordon B. Hinckley, died last night. I am saddened, because I will really miss him, yet I know he is happy to be with his beloved wife again. I can only imagine the reunions in heaven right now. I felt such a connection with President Hinckley because he used humor - those of you who know me, know that this is how I deal. He was so sincere and I KNOW without a doubt that he loved me - and in return, I hope I can make him proud, by living a Christlike life, repenting of my sins, and making a better effort to grow closer to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful for the life that President Hinckley lived. You all should check out Angie Whitman's blog, she has so many awesome quotes on it, and I couldn't remember him any better than what she's written. She's on my friends link to the right - so check it out, you will feel the Spirit and it will testify that he was a true Prophet. So, he will be missed and loved by so many. I can't wait to see him again someday!

The Year of the HORSE!

As previously mentioned, this was the year of the horse for Annalise. She has probably 12-15 horses - all different sizes and types. Well, she has this one horse, appropriately named "Spirit". She sleeps with it, eats with it, and pretty much does everything with it. Well, everything would have to include PRAYING right? So family prayer time comes around and she asks if Spirit can say the prayer. She was serious the whole time, and it went something like this:

Annalise's voice, "Dear Heavenly Father"

Spirit's voice, "Neigh, Neigh"

Annalise's voice, "Thank you for our blessings"

Spirit's voice, "Neigh .....neigh.neigh.....neigh"

Annalise's voice, "Please bless us be safe"

Spirit's voice, "Neigh, neigh"

Annalise's voice, "Jesus Christ, Amen"

Spirit's voice, "Neigh".

It was hilarious!!

Okay, so some more funny things lately are:

1. We went into the girls restroom at church. And, lets just say there much have been a stinky diaper recently b/c it really stunk bad! Annalise immediately notices and says," Ew, it stinks bad.....there must be a boy in here!"

2. While in the bath tub, I tell Ava she's a little fishy. Then I ask Annalise is she's a fishy too. She says, "No , I'm a shark,, and sharks eat fish." :-)

3. At the dinner table she announces "Ava eats like a human".

Annalise - we sure love how fun you are to be with!

My Sweet Annalise

Annalise has been so sweet lately. One morning I was still working out, and Ava had just woken up and was a little grumpy. I heard Annalise ask her if she was hungry. And when I came into the kitchen a few minutes later - there was Ava - up in a big chair, with a bib on, eating a yogurt! My sweet little girl made "breakfast" for her little sister - and even remembered to put a bib on her! It was so precious. And yesterday morning she did it again - but opened yogurts for all of us and set the table with spoons and everything. I can't believe how old she is getting. Almost four! It blows my mind!

Ava - the independent eater

Oh, Mercy! Ava is the most independent eater ever! She refused to let me feed her, so alas I have many messes each day. This day was especially bad. I stripped her down, right there at the table, then dumped her into the tub. This picture doesn't even demonstrate just how bad it was. I rinsed her body, then had to drain the water because there were soooo many floaties. Yuck! After the second bath, she finally looked and smelted like my sweet little girl again!

3 1/2 year old - BAD HAIR DAY

I guess you're never too young to start having bad hair days! When Annalise woke up that morning, I just couldn't resist a picture. Oh Annalise, if you only knew how many days like this are ahead of you! :-)

Christmas Highlights

Well - we had an awesome Christmas. Lots of time with family, a visit from Santa, and plenty of treats made this Mama really happy! Some of the highlights were a new laptop for Alisa, horses, horses and more horses for the girls, and a HUGE world map for Joe's office. Needless to say, we were all really SPOILED! This has been my favorite Christmas so far in our family. Not just the presents, but seeing how excited our girls were. Plus, I have new toys I can threaten to take away if they're feeling naughty! :-) We hope you all had a wonderful 2007!

Joe getting beef jerky :-)