Nauvoo!

This past week I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Nauvoo with some of my family to visit my Grandma on her mission. What an experience! I loved seeing her hard at work and so happy. Eve and Adi came with me and they did really well traveling and everything. Charity, Felicia, and me and my girls flew out early Saturday morning.

Saturday night my Grandma's group was in the Sunset by the Mississippi, what a treat! We all commented afterward that if that was all we were to see in Nauvoo we would be happy. But the fun had only just begun!

This is the gravestone of Seymour Brunson, he is mention in D&C 124:132. Grandma informed us as we pulled up to the cemetery that he is her great great grandfather.

Sunday afternoon we went over to Carthage Jail. Grandma was nice enough to watch Eve and Adi while we went through the tour.

In the room where Hyrum and Joseph Smith were killed, after the tour was over.

Carthage Jail. The upper story window is the one Joseph fell out of.

Eve and Adi were so good for great Grandma May.

Monday we went through the Visitor's Center, and the Relief Society Gardens.

We also went for a couple of wagon rides, one pulled by horses. Eve loved meeting Rambo the horse.

And one pulled by oxen, I had to keep Adia from putting her mouth on Duke the ox.

We also took the time to go through lots of the Old Nauvoo shops. We got to see how they made shoes, printed newspapers, built guns, how the post office worked, and the blacksmith shop. It was really interesting and educating.

Adia fell asleep on Grandpa at one of the shows. I really can't believe how good they were for this trip.

Getting ready to go to the Nauvoo Pageant. We were hoping the rain and mist would let up so me and the girls could go but it never did so we just had a nice, quiet, dry evening at the motel.

The Nauvoo Temple is gorgeous! I was so glad we had the opportunity to go to a session while we were there. I can't even begin to describe the spirit that I felt there. This picture is taken from the "Trail of Hope" on Parley St. The same street the saints used to cross the Mississippi and leave Nauvoo and their beautiful temple behind, never to see it again in their lifetime. Its absolutely mind boggling to think of this little Nauvoo town once had the population of Chicago today.

The end of Parley St. takes you right up the banks of the Mississippi River where the saints crossed into Iowa.

Before we left Nauvoo we made one final stop at the grave sights of Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith Jr., and Emma Hale Smith. This sight is now owned by the RLDS or Community of Christ Church, along with Joseph Smith's home, and The Red Brick Store, but hopefully one day the will finally sell them to the LDS Church.

On our way to Kansas City where we would catch our flights home the next day we stopped at Adam-ondi-Ahman and Liberty Jail.

I am so happy I got to have this experience and to learn so much about myself and the the early saints. I feel like my testimony has been strengthened and I know that experiences like these are few and far between.

First Piggies!

I spent the day yesterday at Charity's house, her daughter Sydnie always pulls her hair out during her nap. So I was up in the bathroom holding Eve while she fixed Sydnie's hair. After she was done she decided to try and do Eve's hair too. I didn't think she would be able to but she did it. She put a little bow in it and it just looked so stinkin cute! So of course we had to do Adia's hair too. She has a little more hair then Evelyn so she did 2 piggies.

Eve after taking out her hair and getting ready for bed. Gotta love that she's got her dinner all over her face as well.

Adia being silly before bed.

I thought they looked just so stinkin cute with their hair in bows that I went right out and got the stuff to make some of my own. Its kinda fun little project, not too hard, and you don't have to be super crafty or creative to make "tute bows".

A Quick Visit

Neil's family came and spent a few days in Utah this last weekend. It was great! We had lots of fun, and plenty of time to just chat while they enjoyed getting to know Eve and Adi again. Luckily it won't be too long before we see them again, we're planning to spent a couple of weeks in Washington in August.

Below is Auntie Christy on floor playing with Adia.

It obviously didn't take Adia too long to warm up to everyone. Here she is snuggling up for a nap in Uncle Gary's arms.

Evelyn was having a rough week, she was very sociable but just wasn't herself.

This week...

This week has been a fun week, and I even feel like I got a lot accomplished as well. Tuesday I needed a break so Neil watched the girls while my sister Charity and I went to dinner and a movie. The Proposal was absolutely hilarious! We also managed to squeeze in a little shopping between the dinner and the movie. I'm so grateful to have a sister close by to save my sanity when needed. The picture below was taken by Neil while I was at the grocery store. Yes, Evelyn in laying on the sack of potatoes, but gladly enough only a few potatoes managed to escape before they were caught by Daddy.

Wednesday night Charity met Randy and Daisie in Beaver, so that Daisie and her kids could come spend the weekend at Charity's while Randy went off to California to go deep sea fishing with some friends. So naturally Thursday became a small family reunion at Charity's house. It was a blast! It was so cute to see how much Houston age 7 and Peyton age 5 (Daisie's boys) just loved playing with Adia and Evelyn and carrying them around. Of course Eve and Adi loved the attention. Below is Kaylee(Felicia's) holding Adia.

When I got over to Charity's I asked who else would be showing up. The only other person who had mentioned coming up that day was Chavonne with her 2 kids. When she finally arrived Mom, Corinne, and Felicia and her 2 kids had decided to come along. So that made for a very pleasant surprise. It was so fun to watch all the nieces and nephews play together. Below is Kaylee(Felicia's) and Sydnie(Charity's) lounging in Eve's and Adi's car seats. I guess they decided they looked pretty comfortable.

oh and those binkies are also Eve's and Adi's

Adia was pretty excited when Aunt Corinne decided to put her up on this rocking horse she had not left along since we got there.

Dinner time! The table was completely full of grandkids, and this is only 8 of 14. Brynn 4(Charity's), Kaylee 2(Felicia's), Houston 7(Daiseis), Dusty 3(Felicia's), Sienna 2(Daisie's), Jaycee 6(Charity's) and Peyton 5(Daisie's), and you can kind of see Wyatt 2(Chavonne's) standing behind Jaycee's chair. The ones who were there but aren't in the picture are Sydnie 1(Charity's), Misty 1- or will be tomorrow(Chavonne's) and mine; Evelyn and Adia 9 months.

It was so great to get to see so many of my sisters. We all missed seeing Erika and Tiffany but 6 out of 8 is pretty good anyhow, hopefully it won't be too long before we all can get together again. Now to the fun that has yet to begin... Neil's family is current en route to Utah. His youngest brother Gary is going into the MTC on Wednesday so they decided to come down and spend a little time. We are SO excited to see them! We haven't seen Grandma Kathy and Auntie Christy since February and Grandpa Van and Uncle Gary we last down in March. I am seriously counting down the hours til they get here. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and to have married into a such a wonderful family as well.

Our very favorite!

What's Adi's favorite?

What's Eve's favorite?

Their Daddy, of course!

Eve and Adi were playing in their room, and I was in the front room listening to them jabber away at each other when Neil came home from work. I got my customary "I missed you" kiss and a "How are you?" and the jabber in the next room stopped. Next thing we know Adia is crawling as fast as her little self could go into the room with Eve right on her heels. Daddy was home! And they weren't about to wait for him to come to them. So Neil laid down on the floor so his daughters could greet him properly, by climbing all over him. It melts my heart to see how much they love their Daddy. Thanks for being such a wonderful dad to my precious little girls Neil, I love you.

4th of July

Happy Independence Day!

Grandma Kathy sent some cute stuff for Evelyn and Adia for the 4th of July.

Adia showing off her "Baby's first fourth" bid and "red, white, & cute" socks

Evelyn in her bib and socks, thanks Grandma! Daddy is off to the side trying to get her to smile.

My little yoga baby. I am constantly catching Eve doing her "downward facing dog", if I'm lucky I'll catch her with her head on the floor as well, like she's about to do a summer salt.

Evelyn bonking heads with Daddy.

My view of Adia, I loved this face, mid-jabber.

Lately

I been pretty busy so I feel the need to catch up on the fun things I been doing the past couple of weeks.

On one of Neil's days off we had a family day out, it was great. It was so nice to be out and Eve and Adi loved it too. They are just a couple of social butterflies that love people. We went and walked around the mall for while we set the girls in the same chair, I thought it was pretty cute. They loved the pond/waterfall.

The weather has finally started to resemble summer time, so we grilled some hamburgers on the barbeque.

Some friends of ours were in town for a couple of days. We were lucky enough to spend some time with them. This is Adia playing with little Finn. He is such a cutie, he crawls really well and uses things to pull himself up to standing. Ever since their visit Adia has be trying to pull herself up on everything.

Jason, please don't kill me. This is Ellynn holding her little boy Finn. He had a blow out so he had to borrow a sleeper. This was the least girlie one we had. Jason wasn't too thrilled about his son wearing girl clothes. Jason and Ellynn served in Finland with Neil and then Ellynn and I went to hair school together. Talk about a friendship that is meant to be. Our due dates were about 2 weeks apart, of course the girls came weeks early and Finn came 2 weeks late. Hopefully they will be moving back to Utah sometime soon, and close by.

I had the chance to go down to Moapa for my cousin's wedding. I didn't get very many pictures, so I'm kinda bummed about that. But it had been over a year since I had been down there last. It was so great to see my sisters and the rest of the family. My mom let Chavonne, Felicia, and I borrow her suburban so we could all fit. We still had to send Chavonne's little boy Wyatt with my mom and dad but we had a good time. Below is Misty, Adia, and Evelyn slepping, crammed in the very backseat of the suburban.

After the wedding in Las Vegas all the family headed back to Moapa for the luncheon. I was sitting next to my cousin Krista when she pointed out that the table next to us was completely full of little kids. It made us laugh cause it reminded us of when we were that age.

I had to post this picture because I finally got a picture of Adia where she doesn't have the "deer in the head lights" look on her face.

One of Evelyn's very favorite things is to be on her Daddy's shoulders. She seriously has a permanent grin on her face the whole time she is up there. I love how much my girls love their Daddy.