Happy Anniversary Stephen

Wedding Picture above and engagement picture below!!
It was 8 yrs ago today that I married the man that I love so much!!! I first met Stephen (Oct 2000) at the young adult ward and I saw him with his adorable daughter (Reilee) and I knew that I needed to meet him. We talked over the phone for a few months and then had our first date in April of 2001. We spent every day seeing each other and then in June of 2001 Stephen proposed. We were then married in the Las Vegas temple and it was the happiest day of my life!!!
Stephen, I love you soooooo much! You make me so happy and I am the luckiest girl in the world. You are am amazing husband and father! I will never forget this day as I looked at you in the temple and knew that my heavenly father loved me so much to bless my life with you in it. I will forever love you, support you and be here for you!!! Thank you for giving me the best 8 years of my life. I look forward to forever with you :)

Ella Turns 7

Here is some of the goodies I made for Ella's birthday party. I made chocolate covered marshmallows dipped in sprinkles and then topped with an m&m. They were really yummy!!

I made this cute banner that is hanging up with the help from my friend Sara. It is made of fabric and ric rac. I sewed it all by myself. It was really cute and I was so excited. As a party favor for the girls Sara made cute hair clips made out of the same fabric. The girls loved them.

Ella with her new arm warmers that she got for her birthday. She is in heaven wearing them and hasn't taken them off. I also made the shirt that she is wearing with the help from Sara. I did do all the work she was there to coach me. :)
Here are the girls eating the marshmallows and holding the flowers that they made. We also played Bingo and played name that tune.
Ella, just being cute
Here were the cute girls that came to her party. Starting from the Top: left to right: Kaeley, Corine, Greenlee, Raistlyn, Jennifer, Allison. Bottom Row: Left to right: Makayla, Ashlyn, Ella and Addi!!! The girls were just so cute and my house was just full of excitement!!
Reilee, holding Ella at the hospital. She was so happy to have a little sister. :) Reilee is 4 almost 5 in this picture.


It was 7 years ago that I went into labor to have our precious daughter Ella. I will never forget that moment when I looked at her for the first time I was overwhelmed with so much love for her and knew that Heavenly Father had blessed our life with such a special little girl. Ella, you have been such a blessing to us and we are so lucky to have you for a daughter. I love that you are so happy and full of energy and that you laugh all the time. I love that you sing all the time from primary music to Hanna Montana. I love that you touch your upper lip and rub it when you are sleepy and when you wake up. You are such a peace maker and show so much concern for others. I love you with all my heart and know that I made the right decision to be a mom. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Thanks for being such a beautiful daughter inside and out and for making my life such an adventure!!! You are such a fancy, fun loving, fabulous, magnificent, one of a kind little girl and I am lucky to be your mother :) :) :)

Happy Birthday Stephen!!!!

Steve, after putting together his new Nurf gun! He had a smile from ear to ear. This is seriously what he wanted. He also got socks and things.



Today is my sweethearts birthday! He just turned 36 and here are 36 reason why I love him:
We went to dinner at the "Happy Mexican" here in Kirksville and they bring out a hat and then they rub your face with whipping cream! So... here is the picture that I took of Steve and the white stuff is the cream. lol hahaha It was fun! Ella got one too but I will post that in a few days when it is her birthday!!! Well... here it is!!!

1. Best Husband and father to our girls
2. watches girly movies with me
3. very hard worker
4. loves his family
5. makes me smile
6. has the best sense of humor
7. loves to be a kid
8. smiles when he gets to play with NURF guns
9. honors his priesthood
10. smarty pants
11. when we watch a movie and I fall asleep, he takes me by the hand and leads me to bed without ever complaining :)
12. takes our girls on daddy daughter dates
13. teaches our girls to do things.. ride bikes etc
14. studies really hard
15. can cook like no other (when he wants to)
16. he makes me laugh when sometimes it is hard to (cause I am so serious)
17. Understands me and loves me just the same :)
18. can quote any movie
19. has pillow fights with Ella and Reilee when she is with us
20. loves pets
21. very adventurous
22. humble
23. has extreme hobbies and lives them
24. protector to our family
25. loves to read
26. sweet and gentle when he is not under too much stress
27. would do anything for anyone
28. loves the same food i do and never complains about what i make
29. patient with my moods
30. let's Ella and Reilee put bows and clips in his hair
31. makes me a better person
33. never says anything when I have my melt downs (looks like I have trained him well) :) lol
34. helps me with photography and teaches me new things
35. things that are hard to understand, makes them easy to understand
36. most honest, trust worthy person in the world

Stephen, I love you and I hope you had a fabulous birthday!!! We are here for you and support you 100%

Love you forever!!!!!

Daisy's

I love daisy's! I had a friend that showed me how to do this to the photo and I am loving it!!!!!

Sad Face

I actually told Ella to give me a sad face and boy she did just that!!! Everyone that knows her knows that she isn't a sad little girl in fact she is the opposite! After taking this picture she started laughing really hard. It does look like me however! lol :) At least I know what I look like when I have a sad look on my face! lol!!!

Two Little Hands

"I have two little hands folded snugly and tight, they are tiny and weak yet they know what is right, during all the long hours till daylight is through there are plenty of things for my two hands to do"
I love that primary song and after taking this picture of Ella's hands it reminded me of that song. She still has tiny hands but they do know what is right!!!

This Picture Tells a lot of Stories!!!!

When you look at this picture what do you think? Is she dreaming? Is she praying? Did something make her smile that day? Or is she just plain Happy??? A picture can tell a thousand stories!!! I wish sometimes I knew what little children were thinking! Ella, was just sitting there while we were camping and closed her eyes and smiled!!!!

Ella's MIssingTeeth

Well... here we have it!!! 4 missing teeth all at once and 6 total that she has lost. She is so excited about all her missing teeth. We were at some friends for Family Night and she pulled one out at their home. Their daughter wanted to pull a tooth out too but her's are not ready and her parents told her that she would have to wait a while. She was very sad!!! Ella is ready for the tooth fairy to come. I think if this keeps happening the tooth fairy is going to be broke Oh wait she already is :) :) :)

Ella's 2nd day of 1st Grade

Here is Ella on her 2nd day of 1st grade!! She came home today and said "mom, I just love school it is so much fun" I told her that I was so glad and happy that she liked school. I was thinking to myself "I hope it lasts" Her teacher took a picture of all the kids in front of a measuring chart and it looks like Ella is 50 inches!!!

Ella is in the 1st Grade

Can you believe my baby is in the 1st grade!!! I can't. She was so excited to start school today!!! She wanted to ride the bus today and we are so excited because Frank is the bus driver again. It was really weird though because Ella rode the bus with 3 other children that lived on our street and now she is the only one. Frank (bus driver) said that he will still come down our street to pick up Ella even though she is the only one now! So sad :(
She could not sleep last night at all and so we wrote down some things that she was thinking of about starting school and here is what she wrote:
1. My teacher is the bestest!
2. I like her a lot
3. Excited
4.Can't stop smiling
5. I like my new backpack and excited to have it!
6. Can't wait to fill backpack
7. Can't wait to wear new school clothes
8. I was so excited to see my Kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Williams)
9. Can't wait to meet new friends and likes the friends that I have already

Yesterday was "meet your teacher day" Mrs. Roberts is Ella's new teacher and she was so sweet to Ella and I know that this is going to be a great year for her.
Here is the picture that Ella drew of herself today!!!
Ella, Mom and Dad love you so much and we are so proud of you. I want you to know that spending time with you this summer was the greatest thing in the world. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I know that you will do great this year. We love you so much!!! Good Luck our little Ella Bella Cinderella :)

Swimming Lessons

Ella starting taking swimming lessons this summer. It started out in Utah with my Niece Chelsea (thank you Chelsea) who spent 1 full week everyday for 30 min or more teaching Ella how to swim. Ella, did a really good job and I was so excited to see her get excited about swimming because it has been a big fear of mine and so I am not about to let Ella feel the same so I am making sure she sticks to it!!! Well, here in Kirksville they have red cross swimming lessons and I jumped all over it and put her in. She watched this little girl in her 1st lesson and by the time that 1st lesson was done Ella was swimming like a little fish! I could tell that she wanted to swim like that girl and I knew that she would just go fo it so she did and did great! She passed the 2nd level and went on the the 3rd. The 3rd is the hardest to pass because of all back and front strokes that they have to do so the instructors did not pass any of the children. We are ok with that because level 4 is all laps without standing or stopping and Ella is ok with doing level 3 over so that she gets really good. The lessons start back on Sept 15th and she can't wait!!! I should do swimming lessons too but don't want to :)

Nauvoo Pageant!!

Every year they have a pageant in Nauvoo and we were able to go with some friends! It is a really neat experience. Before the pageant they have all sorts of activities that you can participate in and so we went around and did a few of them. Stephen and Ella made this game out of a button and then they both did braiding! I couldn't believe it but Stephen is really talented at braiding. Even the people watching him braid couldn't believe it. I think he has been hiding out when he could have helped me braid the girls hair lol :) Ella learned how to quilt and we just had a lot of fun! They turn out the lights to the temple and then at the end they light it up and man you could really feel the spirit. It was a really neat experience for us all. We were thankful for the friends that went with us (McClures) becasue on the way home we were getting tired and they watched out for us. Besides there was a lot of deer on the side of the road and everytime they saw one they would slow down so Thank you, thank you so much!!!!

Summer Full of Fun!!!!!

Well... Where do I begin!!! We had a blast this summer. From water fights, rock climbing, Steve riding a John Deer lawn mower and wishing :) meeting new friends, I was able to see my best friend Angie this summer. We have been friends since the 3rd grade!!! That is a very long time ago but it was sure fun seeing her and spending time with her! 4th of July, going to the zoo, lemonade stands, swimming, boating, the girls making their own grocery store, our dog lacy going into heat on our way home, spending time with Steve's family and Julie's family, Ella getting a new quilt from her Aunt Gina which she just loves to pieces, being able to go the the new temple open house which was just awesome. My girls loved going in all of the rooms and thought that the mirrors were just so beautiful. Ella, said "I can see a lot of me way down there!" It was really special to be able to talk to the girls about the temple and how special it is!! After explaining to them a few things they are so excited that they get to go there for real someday!!! It is never an easy thing to say good-bye but we knew that the trip needed to end sometime but we can't wait to see them again!!! I think one of the hardest things for us was saying good-bye to Reilee. We had to drop her off at the airport and every time we do we just bawl our eyes out!!! Oh how we miss her but we are looking forward to seeing her for Christmas! Yeah!!!!