Havasupai Trip pictures

So, Brian, his dad, brothers and brother-in-law all returned home safely and in one piece! They were all a little sore from the hiking, but enjoyed everything about the trip. Here are a few of the pictures that Bri took. I'm pretty impressed that he took so many pictures. If you know my husband, you know what I mean! :0) I'm not sure all of the names of the falls, so I won't even attempt labeling the pictures. After seeing the pictures, though, I am definitely going to be going there with my hubby!! Enjoy the pics!!

Playing catch-up!!

I have been so bad at posting lately! Sorry, to all the avid readers of my blog! :0) We've been busy as usual and enjoying warmer weather...until yesterday and today, of course! (More on that later!) We've taken a couple trips to visit family, so that's always fun. We were just sad that Brian couldn't come with us during those trips. (He had to make sure he didn't miss any days at work since he's gone until Sunday. He's at Havasupai Falls with his dad, brothers and brother-in-law. How fun does that sound?!?!) April definitely has been a month of traveling, that's for sure!!

I think the best way to do this is just to post some pictures from this last month and comment as I go. Here it goes!!

Snowmobiling with Grandma and Grandpa A. beginning of April

Paige and Austin sittin' in the snow. Paige LOVED all of the huge snowballs!

Paige and Austin "riding" the snowmobile. Paige did not want to even get on it at first, but she soon realized how fun it was to be on it and "Go faster".

Look closely at this picture. Just to the left of the ski. It's a little field mouse that decided it would try to get run over by our snowmachines. It was the tiniest thing! The whole time I saw it the song, "Little Bunny FooFoo" was going through my head. But instead of being "bopped on the head" it wanted to be run over. :0) Don't worry, the field mouse was unharmed on this excursion!

How do YOU say stethescope?!? :0)

Just in case you needed a little lesson on how to kiss. Courtesy of Paige.

The Treehouse in Ogden

We had so much fun at this literary museum! The kids LOVED all of the different areas and we only wish that we could have stayed longer. Enjoy the pics!

I love how Austin is doing his Vrroom sound!

Getting down to business in the Oval Office! It's all about teamwork! :0)

"Granny" is a little freaky, but we had to get a picture anyway! :0)

More cousins!!

Brian's sister, Julie, and her 3 girls made a surprise trip to visit G'ma and G'pa A. They came to our house for an afternoon and it was so fun! Paige absolutely ADORES Natalie and Lauralee. These pictures say it all!

Austin and Ava being sneaky with my wallet. Austin's "look" says it all.

Life is never dull when the cousins get together! Grandpa A. gave all of the kids some gummy worms and Ava happened to be the only one who decided to grab a tissue with sticky hands! This has to be one of the funniest things that happened the few days we were together...and there were many! :0)

Grandpa with Austin and Ava. He isn't a proud grandpa at all, is he?!? ;0)

You have a little something up there, Gramps. I'll get it for you!!

BYU Graduation

Brian's younger brother, John, graduated last weekend from BYU. The kids and I made the trip so we could see more family and hopefully see some of my old professors since John graduated from the same dept. as I did. It was a wonderful trip. We were able to stay with my cousin, Kimberlie, her husband, Taylor, and their son, Tyler. It was so fun getting together with cousins again. We were even able to visit with my cousins, Alecia, Tim, his wife, Katie, and their son, Marcus. Got all that?!? :0) Basically, we saw a lot of family members and had a great time! :0) Here's the proof!

Kimberlie had the funniest apron! Desperate Housewives "Guilty Pleasures". Paige's "guilty pleasure" must have been eating her favorite lunch...pb&j sandwich! :0)

Walking to the graduation with Grandpa.

After the graduation, we went to the Legacy Hall museum. If you haven't been there yet and you're a BYU fan, it's an amazing place to go. There is so much BYU sports memorablia. It was really neat. Paige had a great time. Here she is trying to touch Shawn Bradley's head. You have a little ways to go, sweetheart! :0)

Paige with Uncle John. It was so funny...she refused to let him hold her when he had his graduation robes on, but as soon as he took them off, she was more than happy to oblige! :0)

Warmer weather...at least for a while

We were able to enjoy the out-of-doors early this week. We couldn't believe how warm it was. We were even able to get some of our summer clothing out and wear shorts!

This is Paige's new Sleeping Beauty doll. We've been working on her staying dry all night and getting out of the diapers that she wears at night...or should I say wore. Yes, she is finally staying dry all night long, therefore the doll. Some people might think that bribery is bad, but for things like this, I think it's OK! :0) As you can see, she won't let it out of her sight!

Do you see Austin's forehead and cheek? Our first outing to the park this season resulted in some battlewounds. He fell out of the swing onto the gravel. Surprisingly, he didn't cry that long and was right back into "swing" of things.

Well, that was then...this is what we woke up to this morning. Seriously, it's May 1st!!! At least it's pretty much all gone now. Please say this is the last storm of the season!! :0)

Sorry this post was so long, but it does feel good to be caught up! ;0)

I love my family!

Last weekend, the kids and I were able to go to UT to celebrate my great-grandma's 90th birthday. It was one of the best weekends I've had in quite a long time....and it was all because of my wonderful family. I was able to see so many cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and, best of all, my Mom, Dad and most of my siblings. It was so neat seeing everyone there and enjoying one another's company. I stayed at my cousin, Tammy's, house. My cousin, Lori, and her 4 kids and my Uncle Jessie stayed there also so it was a full house, but it was so fun. Paige had a BLAST with all of the kids (there were 7 kids altogether) and we were all sad to leave.

The birthday party for my Grandma was actually a surprise party, and boy, was she surprised! I'll never forget her face. She had the biggest smile on her face when she saw how many family members and friends were there. It was such a neat experience. We were told not to bring any gifts for her, but I found a book that I HAD to give her.

This book was about the First 100 year-history (1879-1979) of the little town that my great-grandma and great-great-grandma were born in. A friend of mine told me about and let me borrow her copy of it. While I was reading through it, I realized what a treasure it was for our family. It had so much of our family history in it, even an excerpt written by my great-great-grandma in 1979. I was blessed to know my Great-great Grandma Thorne, but since she died when I was young, I don't remember a lot about her. I was in tears when I read how she grew up with Grandpa Thorne and "began to keep company" with him before they were married, how she had to leave her 13-month old son, Ronnie, in the hospital when he had polio and how hard it was for her because the hospital was so far away, and how proud she was of her children, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. Family was very important to her and that is one of the many qualities she has passed down through the generations.

After reading this book, I knew that I had to get one to give to my Great Grandma. My friend actually gave me her book because she knew how much it meant to me. (She's such an amazing woman!!) My cousin, Tammy, and I made little bookmarks to put whenever any of our family was mentioned. Between the Byingtons, Lasleys and Thornes, we had to make over 20 bookmarks. On Saturday, we gave my Grandma the book. As soon as she realized what it was, she put her hand to her mouth and began to cry. Of course, I began to cry when I saw how much it meant to her! One of my uncles told me that she has hardly put the book down since she received it!! I'm just so happy that she treasures this book and it will be able to be passed down through the generations so we can ALL read about our amazing, faithful ancestors and hopefully come to know the people behind the names! Oh, just writing about it all brings all those emotions back!! I am so blessed to be a part of my wonderful family!

My Grandma is in the middle, with her sister, Naomi, and brother, Ronnie, on either side. They're looking at the picture of their family that was taken around 1945.

On Wednesday, Brian, the kids and I went to the little town of Rockland to pick up more books (many family members wanted their own copy once they saw what was in it) and we went to the cemetery to see if we could find my ancestors' graves. I couldn't believe how many were there!! Here are a few pictures of the grave stones. It was cold and beginning so snow, so we only got one picture with the kids, but it's a picture of Grandma Thorne's parents' grave stone....so my great-great-great grandparents. Amazing, isn't it?!?

Isaac Thorne Sr. was my Great-great Grandpa Thorne's grandfather

My Grandpa Thorne's parents

The back of Grandpa Thorne's parents' grave stone. Can you imagine losing 3 of your children (Glen, Vera and Jessie) in 4 days?!? I hope we never have to go through that!

This is Grandma Thorne's maternal grandparents. Sarah Lasley was one of the midwives in Rockland.

April 2008 General Conference

We had a wonderful General Conference!! I felt like so many of the messages were specifically written for me. I guess I really need to work on quite a few things!! A few of the talks that touched me the most were given by Elder Oaks (how to gain and bear a true testimony), Elder Hales (being one in purpose just as our Father in Heaven and our Savior are one...how I'm wanting our family to be!), Elder Ballard (motherhood...what a rewarding job we, as mothers, have.) I have much to work on, but this is what I love about General Conference. The messages don't make me feel guilty for the things I'm doing wrong or not doing, they just give me hope and helps me realize that I CAN be better. What a wonderful opportunity we had as members to sustain Thomas S. Monson as our prophet, seer and revelator. He is an amazing man and I love how he focuses on the one and cares so much about us as individuals who are trying to be more Christ-like and live worthily so we can be with our families forever. We are so blessed to have him leading us at this time!

These pictures are of some of the projects that I printed off for Paige so she could hopefully listen to Conference or at least be quiet enough so Brian and I could really listen to the talks. It works as well as it could for a 3-year-old. :0) She was fascinated by the first pictures of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and their ties. She said Pres. Uchtdorf's tie with the diagonal stripes and continued to draw stripes on almost every tie. Everytime someone else got up to speak, she'd ask me what his tie was like and she would try to draw it. As you can see the stripes were her favorite! :0) Thank you, Tammy, for giving me the link to these projects!!

Easter pictures

We had a good Easter this year. We had the Easter Bunny come on Saturday and he was happy to oblige. Paige and Austin LOVED their presents and had a fun time finding the eggs that the Easter Bunny hid. Luckily it was nice enough weather that we could go outside for the egg hunt. Paige and Austin were pretty funny with the eggs. We had a mixture of real and plastic eggs and they figured out pretty quickly that the plastic eggs had the goods. Austin would shake the eggs to make sure they had something in them and then spend quite a long time opening them. His favorites were the Lifesaver gummies. Yum, yum! Paige would just run to each plastic egg, open it, dump the treats in her basket and then drop the egg back on the ground. She knew what the best part was! Sorry we weren't able to get very many good pictures of the egg hunt. Our camera's batteries were going out and I had to rush to try to get as many pictures as possible.

For those that don't have the "I want to be like Nephi" book, I highly recommend getting it. It is such an amazing book that helps young children relate the scriptures to themselves. I LOVE it!

Sorry about the shadow! See the explanation above.

Here are Austin and Paige's Easter outfits. Aren't they so cute?!? Paige LOVED her dress. She twirled almost non-stop from the instant she put it on until we made her take it off so she could go to bed! She's definitely a girly-girl when it comes to pretty dresses! :0) I couldn't believe she stood still long enough for me to do her hair. I really love that her hair is getting long and thick enough to actually do things with now!

As you can see (kind of), Austin is doing a little walking now. He's been able to do it for a while now, but it definitely has to be his idea. I took him in for his 1 year dr. appointment and asked the doctor about it. He noticed that one leg was shorter than the other and said that that might be a reason for the delay, even though he was still in the normal range for walking. He was worried that his hips might be the cause of it, but the x-ray was clear, so there's not much to worry about. The funny thing was that the next day he walked about 20 steps from the couch to the TV. The little stinker!

Speaking of doctor's appointments. Paige had her 3-year appointment the day after her birthday and he asked if she could say 3-4 word sentences. As soon as the doctor asked the question, Paige went into a whole dialouge about going to see the rabbits for Easter and feed them and try to help them find their mommy. The doctor just looked at me and said, "I don't think she has a problem in this area!" Definitely, NO!

Paige's Birthday Pt. 2

Sorry this is a little late. Things have been a little busy lately. Paige now thinks she gets presents almost every day now that we had to take "shifts" with the opening of presents, Easter, etc. She's a pretty silly girl. Enjoy the pics.Paige loves the butterfly on the outfit, G'ma and G'pa N. gave her. Don't ask me what this facial expression is all about. It's one of her new ones! ;0)
Intently "reading" her new book Goose on the Loose. I can't get over how much this girl LOVES books. I love it!!
Her last birthday outfit. When she tried on the capris, she told me that the pants were too small because they were too short. Once I explained that that's how they were supposed to be, she said, "OH!! They're capris!!!"

A Mouse About the House!!

Can you guess who this "little mouse" could be?!?