Lots of Smiles

WOW! Life has been BuSy! I thought being a stay-at-home mom would be easy!! and that things would slow down a bit! I'm so glad that I'm at home full-time now. I don't have any idea how ladies work and have kids. We've had so much fun the last month and have been super-busy! I just got back from girls camp. I took Silver Dawn with me to camp - which was a huge adventure. Having a baby at girls camp for 4 days completely wore me out. You know the scripture that says to give your whole heart, might, mind and strength to the Lord? I gave all my strength to the Lord last week, and I haven't recovered yet :) I was so blessed to have such a great baby at camp. Silver was amazingly calm and quiet most all of camp (except for at nights). A huge blessing.

Overall, I'm really happy with how camp turned out. It wasn't perfect and there are a lot of things that I learned from this camp. We did our best with the situation and had a lot of fun along the way. The girls really came together in a spirit of unity and love. They were planning pranks on each other - especially the new girls coming in. We decided no pranks in our camp this year. It is a church camp and not a summer camp. We explained to them the reasons why no pranks would be allowed: The spirit thrives on unity, not contention. Ours is a gospel of love and service, not fear and exclusion. The girls understood this and worked together to bless other camps in our stake with surprise messages like "You are bee-utiful" and heart attacks. We learned the power of a thank-you when someone does something thoughtful for you and of service.

River and Silver have been growing up so fast lately. Here are some cute things that they've been doing lately:

Silver LOVES to laugh!!! She laughs all the time and has such a great attitude most all the time.

River loves Silver and they get a long so great!

Here is River eating her first lemon:

I love her facial expressions.

River also got a chick from Paca for her 3rd birthday. She named him Celery and we got to bring home his brother to keep Celery company. The 2nd chick is named Popcorn.

River loves animals and takes out her chicks at least a dozen times a day. River is also getting very brave these days: She rode on Paca's wheelbarrow with hay in it and held onto the hay straps. We also go swimming all the time at the Kanab pool. Before this year River would only dip her toes in the water. The first time we went swimming this year She told me she only wanted to get the water up to her knees but didn't want to get her suit wet. A boy ran passed and spashed water on her. She was pretty disgusted. He later ran by and splashed her again, she got scared and fell into the water. After that, since she was all wet already she really enjoyed the water. Now when we go she is usually up to her neck in the water all the time.

I've felt bad lately that I'm so busy that I can't do some things. Like my brother Mike wanted me to read over his Business school application and I just could not get to it to read it. There is a problem when you're so busy that important things just can't get done. I'd like to change so that I can smell the roses and be available to my family when they need me.