Butterfly

Many of you know of my friend who's daughter was stricken with cancer a few months ago. On July 21, 2009 Taylor returned home to her Father in Heaven. She is now free from pain and has accomplished her mission in this life. Her family held the most beautiful service celebrating her life. The music was touching and the speakers were uplifting. I have a better appreciation and fondness for the beauty of a butterfly. Whenever I see one I will think of sweet Taylor!

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

Girls-Only Weekend!

I took Alex and Rachel to California a couple of weekends ago. One last hoorah before school starts! We had so much fun hanging out together. We sang to the Wicked soundtrack all the way to California and all the way home. Twelve hours of girls singing — ok, screaming — to Wicked and trying to hit those high notes. It's a good thing no one could hear us! We stayed with our friends, the Batts, and went to the beach, ate good food, splurged on ice cream everyday, went to the Los Angeles Temple. The girls swam everyday and we visited with old friends and family. Rachel even met her future husband, whom she doesn't plan on marrying until she's 21! (Hint: he might be in one of the photos … future eagle scout, missionary and BYU alumnus.)

At Long Last...

I finally got to see Wicked! My friend Lucinda went with me and I took Alex and Rachel. We had a great time. Wicked was AMAZING!!! I have always loved going to the theater and I'm so thrilled that my girls are excited about the theater now. They want to go back and see Phantom of The Opera and Annie. Alex and Rachel were so cute when we got home they stayed up to watch the Wizard of Oz.

Girls Night

Last Sunday I decided to have a "girls night" with Rachel and Alex. We retreated to my bedroom after dinner with half a dozen chocolate chip cookies and lit some candles. We started our evening off with some "girl talk". We discussed some serious issues and then moved on to the silly light hearted girl talk. We listened to the soundtrack from Wicked while we did each others make-up. We went night swimming and ended the evening with facials. It was fun spending time with them and just hanging out! They had a lot of fun too!

It's Always Nice to Try New Things?

We struggled with what to do for the 4th of July this year. We decided to take the kids to Tempe Town Lake to watch fireworks. We started the day off with a late breakfast, swam in the pool and went to Mill Ave. for some window shopping and had dinner at PF Changs. We walked over to Tempe Town Lake and it was really hot and not a lot of fun to be out in the heat. Thank goodness dinner was good and the fireworks were great! We can now mark Tempe Town Lake off our list as "Done That"!

June

Where has June gone? It came and went in a flash!! The kids are on summer break having fun hanging out with friends and doing absolutely nothing. We celebrated Seth's 41st birthday. The kids wanted to buy him a watch for his birthday and had a lot of fun picking one out for him. I attempted to make Seth a cake which I think came out pretty good. He requested whip creme frosting with a raspberry mouse filling, made from my home made raspberry jam I might add! A week latter we celebrated Fathers Day. Rachel and I made Seth a big chocolate chip cookie to celebrate his day!

Alex decided to be daring and got her hair cut with long bangs. She looks very cute and grown up. She also went to see her dad in California and meet her new baby brother Ashton.