pierced!

Audrey decided that she wanted to have her ears pierced for her tenth birthday. But she was a little nervous about it. We told her we could go whenever she was ready, and yesterday, she was! She polled her friends about the best place to go for the job (and made sure they said it didn't hurt), picked out cute little aquarmarine studs (her birthstone), held on to Daddy's hand, and didn't flinch a bit! 

I think it looks so cute.

Grateful Sunday

Parker's first at-bat of the season. Go Tigers!

Today, I'm grateful for:

• elbow grease. We cleaned out our garage, rearranged our storage unit o'antiques, cleared up part of our patio that had about 7 years' worth of leaves layered upon it (thanks, previous homeowners), and detailed Neal's car on Saturday. Still can't decide which was the most work! But it all felt great.
• a successful fireside tonight. We had our Great to Be Eight program, celebrating and educating the 7 & 8 year old children who will be baptized this year. We have 11 kids in our ward who were involved (one of them is Parker), and they are all wonderful in their own ways. I'm grateful for everyone that pitched in to help.
• a visit from my mom this week, even though it was short!
• my dad, who celebrated his birthday yesterday. We love our Pa. See some cute Pa photos here.
• our friends, the Walkers, who had us over for dinner this weekend. We always have fun and leave saying, "why don't we do this more often?" I'm happy they moved here.

Fridays

Fridays are great around here. Neal's office closes at 12:30, so Miles and I usually meet Neal for lunch, or he brings lunch home to us. Then when the big kids get home, we do things like replant our front yard, which we are in the process of rehauling.

It's going to take a while, but step one: Elephant Ears.

Miles loves Fluffy Doggie.

Grateful Sunday

Audrey, Neal and Trooper on one of our evening walks down the street. Our weather has been perfect this week!

This has been a great week, I love when the kids are out of school. Time seems to slow down and I think we all feel less stressed out. Today, I'm grateful for:

• the plumber who came this week and fixed a couple of things in our house, and then threw in a shower head installation at no charge.
• the little bookmark that I found that I thought was lost for good. I had just purchased it and was so sad when it went missing! But, it appeared in my car a few days later. Yay, I hate losing things.
• friends who do temple names for me. Neal and I did baptisms yesterday while a couple of friends did an endowment session with some of our family names. Always helpful.
• our wonderful babysitter, Jordan, who doesn't charge us when we go to the temple, but cheerfully spends time with our children. We love Jordan, and she calls our kids "her gingers." Too cute.
• healthy, active kids. I feel so blessed that they can do whatever they want to do and aren't limited by illness or handicap.

Birthday Girl

Our sweet little red-haired girl turns ten today. I really can't believe that ten years have passed since that beautiful Sunday when we became parents. My heart just overflows with love and gratitude for our Audrey Mae, for the girl she is and for all of her strengths. She is so talented, so beautiful, and has a tender spirit. I am so happy that we can spend eternity together with her and that she is ours forever. 

When I think about the day of her birth in 2001, I'm taken back to a time when our family was small, Dental School seemed never-ending, life was slower, Neal's mom would come and spend time with us, and every day, we learned something new about our little girl and what it meant to be a mom and dad.

Happy Birthday, Audrey!

I've been blogging for a long time. Here are her other birthday posts:

5

6

7

8

9

friends in town

Rebecca, Cater and Callie came through town this week. We decided to make an event of it and had a little birthday dinner for Audrey, and then went to the chocolate shop, as we always do after we have hibachi dinner. It's conveniently located across the street.

The next day, the girls went to an art class, and then we dragged them all to Anthropologie so Rebecca and I could shop.

They sat like nice little children, reading their books on the display furniture.

Come again soon!

Grateful Sunday

The Birthday Dog, on his big day, on Thursday. He's now one.

This has been a week filled with worry. Many of our friends and family are going through struggles that make us feel very far away and rather helpless. I am thankful for the peace that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to our lives, especially in times of distress.

I'm thankful that:

• Stella is back home and on the mend after her hospital stay this weekend. I wished so much that I could have been there to help Stephanie and Mike so they could focus on getting Stella better, but I tried to be the best cheerleader I could via phone.
• I was able to donate to help my friend, Kim's family. Kim, a high school friend of mine, and mother of five, passed away tragically, last week. Her family is in a lot of pain at her loss, and I'm glad I could help, even in a small way. To read more and donate, too, click here.
• our friends, the Itos, in Osaka, and that Emily and her family (other friends of friends), in Misawa, are okay. They live far enough from the major devastation, but are definitely feeling the aftershocks and dealing with power loss, etc. Surely they are worried with the rest of us about how their country will recover from such a tragedy.
• Neal found a good vet in Mesa, Arizona, who has been caring for our tortoise, Bruiser. Bruiser wasn't recovering from some trouble in his abdomen, and had to be put to sleep this weekend. He was twenty years old, and though we've only had him since last summer, we were quite attached to the little guy. We are sad that he won't be coming home.
• it's Spring Break, though somehow it is all of sudden kind of booked up.

It's rubbing off on her.

It seems like all I ever blog about is baseball, but, really, that is all the boys do in their spare time. It's either playing catch or practicing batting, talking about and trying on gear, or buying baseball cards off eBay with their own money. Now that a new baseball season is upon us, we'll be cheering on Parker's team, The Tigers, and Miles' team, The Angels! Well, what do you know, Audrey is thinking about softball in the fall and step one on that path is her very own glove. See the pink stripes? She's on her way!

Grateful Sunday

Crazies on the trampoline, just moments ago. It makes me super nervous that our net is gone (ahem, Dog), but I'm shopping for a new one this week.

Today, I'm grateful for:

• fasting. Though I'm completely terrible at it, I know that it is powerful. Today, my thoughts and prayers were with my friend from my high school years, Kim, a mother of five who is fighting for her life today. I hope that the collective faith of hundreds of people fasting and praying in her behalf will work miracles in her life.
• Jack, my nephew, who celebrates his birthday today. I'm glad that he and Parker are just weeks apart and hope that they can be good examples for each other all through their lives (BYU roomates?)! Miss you, Jack!
• my closet overhaul, which I accomplished yesterday after a trip to Ikea and a solo dresser-building session. I should have done that months ago!
• Neal's mom, who passed away eight years ago this week. I miss her so much, and long for her presence in our family's life. It will be such a happy moment when we get to see her again.
• the words to the hymn, O God, the Eternal Father, especially this part, which helped me feel the spirit strongly today:

How infinite that wisdom, The plan of holiness,

That made salvation perfect And veiled the Lord in flesh,

To walk upon his footstool And be like man, almost,

In his exalted station, And die, or all was lost.

• I am thankful that all is not lost, because of Jesus' atonement for me and all of us.