Jumping Bean

We bought a jumper today. We had borrowed one with Parker and he LOVED it! Parker would spend hours just jumping away. This photo of Parker was actually clipped from a video, so that's why it's such poor quality. Jason enjoys his new jumper already. He doesn't quite have the jump part down, but he played in it for about 20 minutes before I took him out- still happy! Parker thought Jason was so funny trying to jump. In the little video clip, Parker is heartily laughing.

On an unrelated note, a few weeks ago Parker planted a little bean seed in nursery at church. It has been thriving, so we needed to transplant it from it's cup. We planted it in one of our little flower boxes and it has continued to do well. We'll see how it goes.

Update From South Africa

As some of you may know, my sister Angie is currently in South Africa doing humanitarian service. She has been living in a township near Port Elizabeth and teaching English and art to 3-5 graders. She had a little bit of time volunteering in the kindergarten class as well.
She has been there for over a month, but hasn't been able to get internet access very frequently, so I only have a few pictures. We have, however, been able to talk to her on the phone fairly regularly. Here are just a few pictures of her experiences over there.
This first one is of some of the students at her school. They were outside weeding the "field". At the school things are going really well. She said the children are enjoying her. She helps them feel comfortable with speaking English by trying to speak some of the Xhosa that she knows. Some of their names are quite difficult, especially the clicks, but she attempts to say them. The children laugh at her and thus don’t worry about their English pronunciation.
This second photo shows one of the neighborhoods that attends her school. As you can see, they are make-shift shacks. (It reminds me very much of some of the homes in Bolivia.) There are also larger houses in the area, like the one that is hosting Angie, but most everyone is quite poor. On the weekends Angie has been able to do some cool exploring of the country. She was able to take a trip up to Pretoria last weekend. Ealier she went on a safari at the Amakhala Game Reserve. This last photo was taken from the jeep on the safari as they past a lioness. We have missed Angie the last month, but we are so glad that she is having a good time in Africa. It is inspiring that she would spend her time and money to go serve others. Thanks, Angie, for being a great example! We look forward to seeing you in July!

"Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time"

There are so many challenges in the world today. It seems that every one of has has their share of challenges at some point in life. I really liked Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk about trials. I am so glad that the Church has created a video to accompany some of it. Check it out!

Vegas Vacation!

We were lucky enough to go to Las Vegas for the weekend and visit my brother Pete and sister Julie and her family. We loved visiting with them and had a great time!

This is the first photo taken of the five cousins together, since baby Dylan has only been around for six weeks.Dylan sure is a cutie. Although he has grown, he hasn't lost his newborn look.Parker, Heidi and Ali had a great time playing around! They wanted to get started a little too early each morning.

Heidi and Ali also loved trying to make Jason laugh.

It was fun to let the kids play together, since they hadn't seen each other since Christmas time. We got to go to Red Rock for the first time and take a hike with the kids.

The babies enjoyed the ride, but the kids were troopers for the most part.

It was fun to spend time hiking in the desert.

Here we are resting in the shade. It was about 104 degrees; a bit hotter than I prefer for hiking.

We were glad that Scott was able to take the morning off work to join us.

These cactus flowers were along the trail.What a beautiful place!

In the evening we went to Pete's place for a swim.

Jason loved his first exerpience swimming! He actually had a lot of firsts on our trip. He went on his first vacation, first hike, his first swim and got his first two teeth!

It was a bit warm for hiking, but perfect for swimming!

We didn't catch it well in the pictures, but Jason laughed most of the time in the pool.

Heidi & Ali loved swimming with their cousins!

We had a great time on our vacation to Las Vegas! Thanks Julie, Scott, Heidi, Dylan and Pete! We look forward to coming again soon!

In the last ten minutes of our long drive, we came across this beautiful rainbow. What a great end to our vacation.

Playing Around

Here are a bunch of random photos from the last month that never made it into a post.

Three cute cousins sitting on the bench on Mother's Day!

Playing at the park

Our little sailor

Swim party
Drooling and enjoying this tummy time mat for the first time

Chasing bubbles
Family photo

Women I Want to Emulate

I am such a lucky girl to have so many amazing women in my life, especially those with whom I'm related. Over the last two weekends we were able to visit with my mom, my mother-in-law and all four of Parker and Jason's great grandmothers. My boys don't know how lucky they are to have all of them living and close enough to visit somewhat regularly. All of these women are so selfless and generous. I hope that I can grow up to be just like them!









Besides being lucky enough to spend time with my mothers and grandmothers, I was also pampered on Mother's Day. Parker gave me a sun catcher he made. Brad cooked a delicious breakfast and helped out with the kids all day! That's a luxury that hasn't been available on Sundays, but all Brad's bishopric meetings were canceled for the day. Instead of sleeping in and taking advantage of his time off, he spent it doing things for me. Like I said, I'm a lucky girl!

Can I just say that I love, love, love motherhood! Parker and Jason bring me more joy than I could have imagined! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father entrusted them to our family. I'll say it again, I LOVE being a mother! My boys teach me so much. I've had so much fun staying home with them. I'm so glad that I can!

Like every mother out there, it's hard to have patience with the whiny, disobedient hooligans that sometimes appear, but I wouldn't trade motherhood for anything. I think even the hooligans are good for helping make a better me.

Well, I hope that all of you women, mothers or not, had a fantastic weekend! Men, it will be your turn soon!

Has It Really Been That Long?

At the end of this month is will be eight years since I returned from my mission in Bolivia. Crazy how time flies. We're having a big mission reunion next month. Apparently even some of the missionaries from South America are making the trip- Yay! Anyway, we had to send in a few photos for the reunion, so I took the opportunity to scan in some of my mission photos. This first one is with President and Sister Shumway, who are currently serving in the Seventy. What an amazing couple they are!

Here are my companions, not counting the MTC. I absolutely LOVED the MTC! I had the coolest district.

I was such a lucky missionary to serve with so many incredible missionaries throughtout my mission. Nearly all of my companions were from South America. I wish that I was still in contact with more of them, because they all mean so much to me. This is a picture from the CCM in Lima, Peru. Herman Escanta was from Ecuador and wore these cute tribal clothes. She was kind enough to let me try some on.

It rained and rained and rained during the rainy season. Sometimes we would walk around in water to our knees. The two pictures below were taken immediately after this one. Yes, we walked around in gross water with cockroach floaties. Somehow I survived anyway.

You got to love the special effects that light can give, especially before digital cameras. I am grinding some corn into meal in the photo, but I look kind of angelic.

On P-Days we would do really fun things. On this day we went to a zoo of sorts in the middle of the jungle. There were leopards kept in small chain link cages, monkeys and large birds roaming free and snakes and lizards that you can hold.

That leopard knocked the volleyball out of my hands. It seems so not safe, but really sad. Those poor animals trapped in such tiny cages. :( In this lower picture the tall Elder is holding a baby caiman on my head.

I couldn't possibly do my mission any justice, even if I showed you all the pictures of the wonderful people I served. A while ago I wrote a post about one of the happiest moments in my life. I can't resist sharing just one quick example. One of my sweet companions, Hermana Perez, was from Cochabamba, Bolivia. She met the missionaries at 13 and knew the church was true. Her father wasn't very excited about the idea of her getting baptized, so he told her she could only if she did a long list of things every Sunday before going to her 8:30 a.m. church. She promised and was baptized. From that week until the week she left on her mission, she got up at 3:30 a.m. every Sunday morning, so that she could finish all of her chores before church. What dedication! As you might imagine, she was an amazing missionary! And I got to be her companion!
My mission brought me so much joy. Knowing that you are doing exactly what the Lord wants you to do every day for eighteen months is a pretty good feeling. The spirit is so strong when you are doing missionary work. I learned so much from my companions, the other missionaries, the members and investigators. To anyone who is contemplating serving a mission, I highly recommend it.

May Photo Shoot

Last week I tried to get some cute photos pf the boys to give as part of our Mother's Day gift to our grandmothers. The first few were taken on the Ogden Temple grounds. Jason wasn't especially cheery, but a few worked out well. The others were just taken at home in front of a blanket. (I uploaded them in high quality for those family members who may want copies.) I got at least a few good ones, but I think we'll have to have another photo session in the near future.