Friends from Arizona

Sunny, Jack, Angie, Carolyn, and Logan


Cassidy holding Baby Ella


It's been one visitor after another, and we love it! If you're in the neighborhood please stop by. :)

Our friends, the Whitings, were coming to Colorado for a family reunion and even though they had such a short trip they still made time to spend a night with us. We're so glad they did! It was fun to catch-up with my good friend Carolyn (we were roomies in college). And to meet her beautiful family!

When they got here it was so nice outside we decided to walk to dinner and eat at Bird Dog BBQ. After driving all that way, who wouldn't want to exercise those legs. :) The food was delicious. (For you locals you should try it if you haven't yet.)

We had a great time visiting and talking about old times. We know Cassidy had lots of fun just having more kids in the house too.

Grammy came to visit

Over the last week we were able to have some fun with (Derek's Mom) AKA GRAMMY!! We also had some fun with family that live here Derek's Uncles, Aunts, and some cousins. Each day we did something like shopping, BBQ's, Potlucks, Eating out, movie nights, playing at the park, swimming, play tennis, pull weeds :), walks in the neighborhood, watched the fireworks at the Sky Sox stadium, and took a day trip to the Royal Gorge.

It was neat to experience the Royal Gorge, since I've never been there and it has been years since Derek or Grammy have been there. We rode the Aerial tram across the gorge, rode the incline railway down to the bottom, and walked across the suspension bridge (that was scary to me). I had to kiss the ground once we got across. :) Some other attractions were: the Wildlife Park watching buffalo, elk, and sheep. There was also a petting zoo. Cassidy had the chance to play with baby goats and it was so cute to watch them follow her. She also had the chance to ride a donkey named June. It was her first ride. She really enjoyed it. In the park there was also a Western town, a fancy Carousel (we could ride as many times as we wanted), and of course a nice gift shop. We're all glad we went!

Cassidy playing with the goats

No matter what we were doing while Grammy was here we enjoyed each other's company and had a wonderful time. For the last couple of months anytime Cassidy would see an airplane she would think Grammy was in it and would get excited. When the time finally came for Grammy to be here it seemed like it was time to say good-bye. Time went by so fast. As we drove off from dropping Grammy off at the airport today, all Cassidy could do and say was Bye Grammy, miss you, and blow kisses. We definitely will miss her and look forward to her visit again.

Good News...

Kaley is doing so much better and is now in rehab. She is no longer needing to stay in the ICU. Hooray!!! Kaley has made miraculous improvements and hasn't had any brain damage or any other serious conditions like the doctors thought she might. All of our prayers have been answered. It's wonderful news for us all. Thanks again for your love and support. We are so blessed with wonderful families and friends.

You Speak to My Heart

Derek and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary on June 4th. Where does the time go? I'm SO grateful for my MAN, and for all that he is! I'm so blessed to have someone who loves me back and who is so commited to our marriage. He knows how to make me feel special, even in little, silly, ways.

Some more reasons why I love my husband: He makes me laugh, isn't scared to try new things, a handyman (can fix anything), a goal-setter, hard-worker, doesn't take life too seriously, so so SMART (he's my engineer), compassionate, enjoys dancing as much as I do, serenades me with his beautiful voice, always doing random acts of service for others, honors his priesthood, selfless, a great father, I can go on and on...

I have learned so much more about myself and about love since I've married this man, and I'm so excited to continue to strengthen our love and our relationship forever. I know even though we have had some tough times, I couldn't ask for anyone better to face those tough times with. Derek has and will always be the man I was suppose to marry and I'm so glad I did! I'm glad I listened to that still small voice.

I love you Derek, forever and ever!




For our anniversary this year, some friends watched Cassidy, and the two of us went "Restaurant Hopping" kind of like a progressive dinner. We first went to Panera Bread for bread and salad. Since it was a beautiful night and the restaurants were close together next we walked to AI (a Japanese restaurant) for some Sushi and teriyaki chicken. Then finally, Johnny Carino's for yummy chocolate cake with ice cream for dessert. It was so fun to just chat like grown-ups and to hold each other close. We had a wonderful, romantic, evening.

Kaley's Condition

First of all...Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! For all of your prayers!

Mainly over the last week, we have been waiting for Kaley to respond to treatment and to wake up and interact with her loved ones. I talked with Kaley's sister today and found out yesterday Kaley miraculously was taken off life support and out of the ICU. But less than 24 hours later she was having a hard time breathing on her own so they had to take her back to the ICU and put her back on a ventilator. They found some more blood in her lungs but the doctors don't seem to be overly concerned about that, and are taking care of that issue.

She's made progress though, her heart rate isn't as high as it was before around 160-190, but more normal like 80-90, which is wonderful. Before she went back to the ICU she was responsive to her mom and able to talk some, even though she was hallucinating, which doctors said it was normal and will get better. When Kaley woke up she was kind of frustrated and upset. What I thought was so sweet was that Clint (her husband) said, "She can yell or be mad as much as she wants at me, as long as I get to keep her." It was so sweet! Another good thing is that she can move her arms and legs. Yeah!

It seems like Kaley takes 2 steps forward and one step back but little by little she continues to make improvements. We all have hope and faith that she will come around and soon be on her way to recovery even if it's still a journey.

Garden of the Gods

Last Friday Cassidy and I spent a day at Garden of the Gods. It was nice to be able to enjoy some fresh air at such a beautiful park. Cassidy's favorite part of the park was playing on the rocks, and of course watching the rock climbers. The picture above is a picture of a rock climber at the top of the rock. (I tried to highlight him in color) She kept telling me she wanted to climb high too. Who knows maybe she will be some couragous rock climber when she gets bigger. :) For now I'm glad she enjoys the little rocks to climb on.

I was prepared and brought the stroller with me in case Cassie got tired but that girl didn't use it at all. She just helped mommy push it every once in awhile. It was fun to hang out together and then to eat at Fazoli's for lunch afterwards. Definitely girl bonding time.

Here is a video of Cassidy saying "Garden of the Gods" a man walking by said "hi" to Cassidy she just looked at him. All she could say was "bye."

Rice, Rice, and Wheat

Canning at Home

Derek and I decided instead of just talking about our food storage that we should actually work on accumulating a year supply of food storage. It was always something that we knew we needed to do one day, but it always got pushed off.

So last Wednesday, we made it a family date night to take a field trip to our local cannery. It was so much fun! As a family, we canned macaroni. Cassidy did her part too. She was in charge of putting the oxygen packets in the cans. She did a great job! She looked so cute in her hair net, I wish I would have brought my camera. We are definitely planning to go again! We left with more than what we canned of course.

They even let us borrow a portable canning machine so we could can our two 50lb bags of rice and two 50lb bags of hard white wheat. We tackled the project on Friday night and finally finished after we put Cassidy to bed. Once we figured out our system of doing this it went pretty well. I'm glad I have such a wonderful hubby who understands the importance of being prepared, and who took the initiative to do something about it.

We also decided to invest the extra money from Pres. Bush's stimulus plan in a freezer and a special mother's day gift, a Bosch mixer. I'm so excited to now make homemade bread and eventually be able to completely stop buying bread at the store.

Power of Prayer

Our dear friend, Kaley, needs your prayers. She's currently on life support and fighting for her life. Kaley was currently diagnosed with Lupus and she has the worst kind with all the symptoms. We know she's a young woman of strength and a fighter but I know she could really use our help. We love this girl so much and ask you to join us in prayer for her health and for her family. We appreciate all your love and support. Thank You!

Our Motivation

First of all "Kudos" to all of you who exercise and run without any outside help, and with your own determination and motivation.

You see, Derek and I had a gym membership but wouldn't use it consistently, monthly, or even quarterly,(you get the point) and so therefore, lost our privledge of having a gym membership. We were just wasting money.

Well we still agreed we both needed to do something because we weren't exercising as much as we should. So, my brillant husband came up with a fun idea to get us back in shape and healthy. He designed a running chart with some fun, silly pictures of cartoon faces, and picked out some fun stickers, with Cassidy's help, to put on the chart. It's like Kindergarten all over again! :) Hey we have to start somewhere. :)

See how it works is that in order to help motivate us and to reach our exercising goals there's a prize at the end. In order to buy the things we Want and don't really Need we need to run so many times before we can buy it. We're using part of the money from our tax refund to fund the prizes. Right now we're running 15 times for 30 minutes each run. We take turns in the mornings while Cassidy is sleeping. Sometimes if we have a late night I will run with Cassidy in the jogging stroller later in the day. Let me tell ya that's not often. It's a workout though! Eventually we will increase our distance and our time. We've been working on our little system for the last couple of months and have already felt a difference. Like the other night I played basketball with some friends (full court) and actually felt pretty good and not as tired as I use to feel. Some friends were saying, "Wow you're all over the place how can you run so much?" It definitely keeps me going to hear such good things and to have a hubby that's so supportive and proud of me. Of course I'm so grateful for Derek's creative ideas and for supporting such an important goal to get in shape.

By the beginning of next week we will both accomplish our first goal. And I will be getting my curtains! :) Yeah!! I already have them picked out. ;)

Our kids are growing up

Several years ago, we both had the opportunity to work with the youth of our church. Derek was the scout master for the 12-14 year old boys, and Angie worked with the 12-14 year-old girls. Then later, we were able to be the honorary "Ma & Pa" for the pioneer trek that our church stake takes every four years. On the pioneer trek, many of the youth 14-18 treated us like their mom and dad as we pushed a pioneer handcart thru the Wyoming wilderness -- It was a lot of fun and a very memorable experience. That was 3 years ago. This was all before Cassidy was born. The last 3 years have been focused more on learning to live with our wonderful little girl.

Last night, we had the opportunity to go to a special graduation night for the youth in our ward that are graduating from high school. These were our kids! The ones we taught back at age 12. That we encouraged, loved, counselled, hung out with at summer camps, etc.. It was a proud moment to see these same children, as young adults, preparing to head off to college or on missions. We think we felt much like Alma when he saw his old friends after a long absence: "therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord (Alma 17:2)". We are so proud of these kids, and their parents, and that we were able to have a small role in their greatness.