Tribute to President Gordon B. Hinckley

I was looking forward to blogging tonight, but since hearing of the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley can think of nothing else. So I decided to share my love, thoughts and feelings for this wonderful man. I was so saddened when I heard of his passing. Even though I know that the Plan of Salvation is real and that he is now reunited with his dear wife, I can't help but feel the loss for me and my family and the rest of the church. He had such an impact in my life. I looked forward to hearing him speak each conference and enjoyed his enthusiasm for life and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was such a dedicated servant of the Lord. I love him, my children love him and he will be sorely missed. Haley has called him prophet Hinckley since she was two years old, and I am sure he will always hold a special place in her heart. She teared up tonight when Scott and I sat on the bed with her and Scotty to tell them the news. Scotty on the other hand proceeded to tell us how Joseph Smith died and how our Savior died. I am not sure he really understood, but could relate in that way. Well, I imagine the the reunion up in heaven was great this evening, maybe even a party! I hope that I have heeded President Hinckley's council and followed his teaching as I know that he is and was a TRUE Prophet of GOD!! We love you President Hinckley!

My SMART child

Sunday morning the kids decided to pull all of my blankets out of the chest and use it as a jack in the box. They had so much fun shutting each other inside. The miracle is that it did not end in contention! They were having a great time. Church is not until 1pm (please feel sorry for me since I have to bear it alone, and it is almost dark by the time we get home) so they had plenty of hours of fun.
Well this blog is about my SWEET and new found SMARTY Pants! Madeline witnessed a very bad Scotty day! Without going into much detail she heard him call me stupid while carrying him to his room for a LONG time out. Well, this happened several times throughout that day. Scotty recovered and has been doing well for a couple of weeks now. But this particular day made quite an impression on Madeline. Every time she gets upset now or seems bored with what we are doing she calls someone Stupid. Apparently she thinks she is smarter than the rest of us. I think she thinks it is a game. When I try to correct her she gets this grin on her face that makes it so hard for me to not roll on the ground laughing. And if you have heard her voice, she can make it really low and gruff when she says these choice words. I think she says it about 50 times a day. It can get really embarrassing, especially when we are out in public. And believe me I know every time she says it because Scotty will come running to me and say"mommy Maddy just said the s word". Yes.... stupid is the "S" word in our family. I can honestly say Scotty has not used that word since his sister adopted it, which is good. I guess we just go from one problem to the next. Any suggestions on how to get my not yet two year old to clean up her language would be much appreciated!
Can you believe that such vulgar language comes out of this adorable girls mouth?
One side note to family. Maddy has replaced her precious piggy with Belle! Sorry Angela! (Belle is Scott's parents pug, this stuffed animal looks just like her and when we returned home from visiting them in Texas, Maddy found it and named it immediately, they have been pals ever since)

Haley 's First Loose Tooth

Haley finally got a loose tooth right before Christmas. This is a huge deal since she was the ONLY one in her Kindergarten class that didn't lose a tooth. Now she is well into her 1st grade year and finally gets a loose tooth. The whole month before Christmas she was singing, "all I want for Christmas is to lose my two front teeth". Well she finally did it. Yesterday when her dad got home from work, they both agreed that her tooth was loose enough to pull out. (Scott has claimed all rights and privileges to pulling out his children's teeth. I think it is pay back for the pain his father put him through as a child pulling out his own teeth.) She sat on his lap and he yanked out her tooth. But from the sound of the scream you would have thought Haley was being tortured. I think it was the taste or sight of the blood that made this instant trauma. Haley ran to the bathroom spitting up blood and yelling at her father. The worst part was that the tooth was not completely out. After about ten minutes of coaxing Scott was finally able to pull the tooth all the way out. And Haley held a wet rag on her mouth for another hour. You will see in the pictures how the drama played out.








Haley realizes that her tooth is still attached






Scott is able to finally convince her that it will not hurt to pull it all the way out.





Scott claims victory! He is holding her tooth and Haley is still in shock. I have to say she looks so different with a big gap in her teeth. Also, many of you have not seen her since she got her bangs cut. That also makes her look WAY different. Here is another story full of drama! She had begged me for weeks to let her cut bangs. So, one day I had a weak moment and gave it. Well, I should have taken her to get them cut, but I did it instead. I cut Scotty's hair...why not! So, we did it...when she saw herself she started to cry and told me to put them back on. Well, of course we couldn't do that so I convinced her that we would pin them back every day until they grew out. I told her that Marianne Bunnell does that sometimes and she is beautiful, so she was ok with it. Well, later that day or the next we went to the Butlers house and sweet Breanna played with her bangs and told her how cute they looked and that she was jealous because she didn't have them. Now Haley loves them! Thank goodness for good friends and family, because no matter how hard I try what I say just isn't good enough!

Nevada Caucus

This morning we got up bright and early to attend our Republican Caucus. For some reason Republicans must like to get up early because our caucus started at 9am, therefore we had to be there latest by 8:45 AM. Scott had to work late and the kids and I did not want to be home alone so we crashed our next door neighbors the Butlers. Needless to say we did not get home and in bed until well after midnight, so we were not so thrilled to get up so early on a Saturday morning. But being the devout Republican that I am I forced my husband and the Butlers to wake up and do our duty to our country. Scott was the least enthused as he realized that there may be lines and for sure would be a lot of people. He gets, well.....should we say ANGRY when he is forced to be with a crowd standing in line. But it went well. We were done in an hour and Scott was rewarded with breakfast at Einsteins Bagel.




A quick note about the Butlers: Robert and Kristen Butler are our next door neighbors and best friends here in Las Vegas. We seriously do not know what we would do with out them. We rely on them so much. They have four beautiful children Ashley (14 and one of my miamaids), Breanna (12), Zach (10 and Scotty's idol), and Jeremy (7). We are so grateful for their friendship and yes they are LDS which is an added bonus! Kristen is the one who to my mothers delight has taught me how to make bread, helped me get into canning and fine tune my sewing skills. She is an amazing person with many hidden talents! I love you Kristen!

My First Blog....

Well, I am starting a blog, probably against my husbands wishes, but one of my new years resolutions is to be better about sending pictures to Grandmas and Grandpas, since we do not live by any of them. And since recieving invites to many of my friends blogs, it dawned on me that this may be the best way to keep this resolution. You all can visit when you want and I will post as many picture of the kids and what they are doing as I can. Hope this will work. Well right now the beautys are fighting so I need to attend to them, but hopefully when they get to bed I will get some photos on and invite you all to visit us!