joe gets a visit from an old friend

Joe's childhood friend ~ Ann (Anderson) Esquibel ~ happens to live only about 45 minutes away from us and was able to bring her family for dinner recently. We had tried a few times over the past year but with sickie kids we have had to postpone a few times. Ann hasn't aged a bit! It was fun to catch up and meet her cute family. The are expecting another little girl in a few months. Can't get any more perfect than that if you ask me (2 boys and 2 girls).

I tried my hand at making a Cafe Rio pork salad and I thought it turned out pretty darn good!

cruisin'

ryland & his best buddy blake enjoying a nice day in february - it was just fun to watch!

wakely gets his braces off

Wakely got his braces taken off on the 18th after having them almost a year. He now wears a retainer and still wears his head gear at night. I am really loving his smile!!

braces

no braces

retainer

fallen off

Well, I am attempting to get back on the wagon as my blog has been quite neglected. Please be patient... I will get there. Especially since we have a nikon d90 on it's way here as we speak... i am pretty excited to say the least. I just attached a note to the door saying "UPS ~ We ARE home so please ring many times... the vacuum might be going". Hurry up driver!!

the naughty list

We had our ward Christmas party on Friday night that included a special guest appearance by Santa himself. It just so happened that on this same morning the boys discovered that "elfy" had brought a naughty/nice list with him to let them know how they were doing. Elfy is Santa's little helper that comes and watches the boys everyday in December ~ he reports back to Santa during the night and then magically reappears in a different location every morning. He is already gone til next year and i didnt think of trying to snatch a picture of him :o(
The list was as follows and didn't go over well with Bridger.

Wakely ~ Nice
Bridger ~ Naughty
Ryland ~ Naughty

I left to pick my sister LE up from the airport but I had heard later that Bridger got right on Santas lap and said something to the effect of "why did you put me on your naughty list?" Well , Santa informed him that he was not on his naughty list and Bridger said "yes I am ~ look"... and pulled the list out from his pocket!!! The people around him were thinking it was a list of what he wanted for Christmas and I think that Santa was a little caught off guard. He reassured him that he wasn't on it and I think that made Bridger feel much better. I so wish that I could have been there to see it. He is such a funny funny kid!

coincidence?

I don't think so but you can judge for yourself...

This happened a few nights ago and I am still reeling over it. Joe was getting ready to retire for the evening and just decided to go in and give ryland a kiss goodnight (he was fast asleep, of course). Well, to his surprise he felt something hard in his cheek. He was able to move it over and get it out without waking him but can you believe what he found was a MARBLE?! The kid went to sleep with a marble in his mouth!!! Ahhhh! Just the thought of what the outcome could have been...

I honestly felt that Joe was inspired to go in there
as that is not something he does every night.
I am just very thankful that he did.

testimony mtg

I just wanted to share something that happened at church on Sunday. It was the first of the month so it was testimony meeting. A few months ago Bridger found out that he too could go up to the pulpit so we talked a bit about it and I was actually quite impressed with what he told me he would say if he did go up.
So, on Sunday when there was a bit of a lull I whispered to him that he could go up if he wanted to but like I had told him before it had to be all him, we would not be going up with him (which didn't seem to be a problem). I told him that I wanted to talk about it with him first but before I knew it he was already walking up there. Joe gave me a look like 'get up there' and to be honest I think that I just kinda froze... that was until I saw this sweet little boy bow his head and start to pray. I hustled on up and helped him give a brief testimony.
He really is such a brave boy and who can really blame him as people always end their testimony just like a prayer. It was pretty sweet.

love this idea...