sweet girl!

Just a few things that I don't want to forget and need to record somewhere:

the other night we were saying prayers with Colee before bed and she likes to say them alone with no help, well the first two lines anyway and then she will say, "now what"? Well the past week she has had a very bad asthma flare up and was coughing so badly whenever she would lay down and each night Mike or myself would pray for her to not cough so she could sleep. This night, Mike was helping her with her prayer and he started to say, "in the name of..." and Colee started to talk right over him and said, "and please bless Colee to not cough". It was the sweetest thing EVER! She totally gets it and I love it. She loves to talk to us about Jesus. We think she had a dream about him one night because she will often bring up the time that Jesus walked her home.

For the last few days Colee has for some reason insisted that we all call her London. Not only is she London (my niece) but she will call me Mama aunt sher bear and Mike is sometimes referred to as daddy aunt shawn (London's dad). It is so funny yet so annoying after the fiftieth time of her saying "um, mama aunt sher bear..." and if I don't say "yes London" than she will keep saying it over and over and over again!

Now that she sleeps in her big girl bed and wakes up ever so early...she will lay in bed and yell, "mama mia, I want to get down". The first time she said it I just layed in bed laughing so hard because we have absolutely no idea where she got this from.

Happy 4th of July!!

We had so much fun this 4th of July!
We started our day off with our traditional french toast breakfast from Kneaders Bakery..Delicious!! We were hoping to wake up early enough to get to see the hot air balloons but we missed them by about 35 minutes, maybe next year.
Then we had a family nap which was heavenly!! That was right before our bbq at the farm. There were lots of little great grand kids this year and Colee was able to branch out and play with some friends, Olivia, Camry and I think she even played with Drumer Doo without freaking out (grandpa's big dog). We had hotdogs and lots of yummy salads to choose from. Then aunt Mille made balloon animals and Colee requested a giraffe. She played the cake walk game, wrote on the sidewalk with chalk, and watched the big kids play volley ball. We love this party.
We were thinking we would have a great view of the Thanksgiving Point fireworks but we were so wrong!! But, Colee wanted nothing to do with the fireworks anyway so we went inside.
It was just great to be together as a family!!
The 4th is truly one of my favorite holidays. I am so very grateful to live in this country and have our incredible blessings.

Clarkston '09

One of my absolute favorite family vacations is ALWAYS to go and visit Regan and Robin and company in Clarkston, Wa. and I just could not wait for Mike to experience it too. And this year we got to see Isaac, Lea and baby Colt also!!
Aside from the horrendous 13 hr. drive it was WONDERFUL!!
The Hansen's have the perfect play ground for kids and adults alike at their house!! Huge pool all to ourselves, swing set, b-ball court, table tennis matches, hot tub, boating on the awesome snake river right in their back yard, x-box..ps3..and any movie you would possibly want to view on a HUGE flat screen. It is heaven!!
This year we went with my parents and Sher and the Brems. We had an absolute ball. Thank you Robin for being the most amazing hostess EVER!!
Baby Colt was of course our families high light. He is so darling and growing so much! He didn't mind all of the attention one bit I don't think.
Colee made some big advancements while we were gone.
1. She is no longer afraid in the pool and will now swim on her own with water wings! It is so darling and she really does do a good job.
2. She will now watch more than just Zack and Cody or the Santa Clause...we have graduated to Dora. Robin gave us her private Dora collection for the ride home and it was a HUGE hit! I have tried numerous times to get her to watch Dora at home but I guess being confined to the car she had no choice but to watch and enjoy and now that is all she wants to watch.

This was such a great trip, thank you everyone for such great memories!!