Cornerstone Ceremony at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Me with my cute little girlies after the ceremony was over. What a neat experience to be able to sing in the Cornerstone Choir at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Once in a lifetime experience. There was such an amazing spirit there and I will remember it forever.




My hubby was able to get this great picture of President Monson near the cornertone. It also happened to be his birthday today. He was so great and even let some of the children come up and help seal the cornerstone. Ah! The Spirit was so amazing!

I don't know if you can spot me in this picture, but I'm almost exactly in the middle of the picture, on the second row, right behind the woman in tan with the short blonde hair.

Flaming Gorge

Here is my cute little fam hanging out in the hammock. It is a must to bring and everyone not-so-patiently awaits their turn. As you can see, Mike was even trying to study while camping. He took one of the sections of the CPA exam the Monday after camping. The girls love to be with their dad, and do so every chance they get.

Abby having a cookie for breakfast. By the way, it was Grandma who gave it to her, but I guess it's okay since we were camping. All the rules go out the window when camping. Maybe that's why we love camping so much.

Feeding the duckies and fishies at the nearby pond. A favorite pasttime of ours when we stay at Greens Lake. That's my cute little Emily in the navy blue hoodie.

I just love this picture. Abby on daddy's shoulders.

We also did a lot of boating, wakeboarding, skiing, and some of us knee boarded. We had a great time at the annual Hunt Family camping trip up at the Gorge.

Girls Trip Summer 2009

My friend Julie and I were in need of a break so we decided to plan a trip, just the two of us. We decided on Boulder, Colorado and decided we wanted to go river rafting and skydiving, but we did not tell anyone we were going skydiving. You see, Mike told Julie that there was no way that she could get me to go skydiving. And well, Julie loves a challenge. So we thought it would be fun to just go do it, and tell everyone after.

So we left for Boulder on Thursday, July 30th and after checking in to our hotel we went to dinner at Pasta Jay's on Pearl Street and then walked up and down Pearl Street (the main attraction for tourists in Boulder, which aren't many). We saw many tree huggers, and more people with dreds than without. What a great place to people watch.

The next day was river rafting with the friendly, funny people at Mountain Whitewater Descents. We had such a great time, and rode down the river with some fun people. Plus, our guide also happened to be the owner of the company. He was great! And even gave us our pictures of the whole trip for FREE! Mike's favorite word! Then we headed back to the hotel to get showered and such. Then we hit the local outlet mall and some other place (similar to Jordan Landing) for dinner and more shopping and a movie.

Saturday, the dreaded day of skydiving. I had been dreading this day for two months now and was excited and scared all rolled into one. I even checked the sky right after waking up to see what the weather was like. Sunny and clear. There was no way they would cancel it. So we headed to the little airport where Mile Hi Skydiving is located. Just as we pulled up, we saw people attached to parachutes floating towards the ground. I got a little more nervous. We filled out the five page paperwork and paid our money. No turning back now. Can't waste money when you're married to Mike Dawes. We got our jumpsuits on and then our harnesses. And waited for our names to be called. They were called much more quickly than I thought they would be. I met my jumpmaster/tandem partner and my videographer/photographer (yes we documented this moment, who knows, I may not have made it). We walked right over to the trailer they use to shuttle people back and forth from the plane. Then before we knew it, we were walking over to the plane. Onto the plane. And it started down the runway. We were only about 1,000 feet in the air when someone opened the door. I immediately asked why the door was opened already. One of the jumpmasters said that it gets hot in the plane and that is how they cool it off. I was still nervous because I happened to be sitting right next to it. Well, we reached the appropriate elevation (about 12,500 ft.) and the first girl with her jumpmaster walked over to the door, and a split second later had jumped out and were falling through the sky. This is the moment I really freaked! I yelled out, "I can't do this!" My jumpmaster said, "yes you can, stand up." So up I stood, following his commands, we walked over to the door and all of a sudden it was our turn to fall through the sky. It doesn't feel like you are falling, it feels like floating. You are up so high that the ground doesn't look like it is coming at you. We fell for about a minute, and then the rip cord was pulled releasing the parachute, which opened (thank you). Then it was the most amazing feeling. It is the most quiet you have ever heard (or not heard?) I was so busy looking at the mountains and Denver way off in the distance that I still didn't notice the ground coming up. A few minutes later I was told to lift up my legs because we were going to slide in on our butts. We did and it was a soft landing. My camera guy came running over to us and asked me some more questions for my video. I basically said, "it was awesome!" And "I would totally do it again!" Also, "it was amazing, amazing!!" This is the craziest thing I've ever done in my life and I would totally do it again! Every time I hear a small plane overhead I get all excited again.

So after skydiving, we went and got massages. We deserved it. Got some dinner at Pasta Jay's again (we loved it, what can I say?). And walked down Pearl Street some more.

The next day was packing up and checking out and driving home. We were so sad to leave Boulder and get back to reality, but we did miss our children and our husbands (who were so awesome and took care of the kids while we were gone without incident, thanks guys).

What an awesome trip and a great experience. We are already talking about what we want to do next year!

(for some reason my computer won't read my cd's with all the pics on them, so I will post them later, sorry about that)

Funny KoolAid

Okay, so I have to explain something about the title. When Emily started preschool last year we got a packet of stuff that included a recipe for making your own play dough. And the way you color the play dough is with a Koolaid packet. Emily and I have made play dough a couple of times and she loves to play with it.

The next part of the story is that a little while ago I took the girls with me to Hobby Lobby and while we were in the check out line I grabbed some Silly Putty for Emily to play with. I loved it when I was a kid, so I thought it would be fun for her to have some, too. Plus it was like a dollar. Anyway, the other day Emily asks me if I've seen her Funny Koolaid. It took me a moment to realize what she was asking for. Then it hit me that she was asking for her Silly Putty, but in her cute little mind she had come up with the term Funny Koolaid. We still call it that because I think it is so cute that I don't want to correct her.

I know this probably isn't as funny to you as it is to me, but hey, this is my blog afterall. I just love the things she says sometimes.

Emily's Dance Recital

Emily had her dance recital last week. Her class performed two numbers. One was tap and the other ballet. The theme was Around the World in 60 Minutes. Each class represented a different country. Emily's class was France for both numbers. They were so adorable and did so well.

Emily is the second from the left in both pictures.

Our cute little ballerina posing in costume at home.

I know it's been a while since I last posted, but in my defense, I received a new church calling a week after my last post, and it has kept me pretty busy.

We did the Race for the Cure for breast cancer in May. Here are a coule of pictures of us. We personally don't have any family affected by breast cancer, but Mike really wanted to do it because of us three girls in his life and what the future could hold. Anyway, it was really fun and he even paid for us to have lunch at California Pizza Kitchen afterward. What a neat experience.

Abby's First Birthday

This is Abby just staring at her cake. We had to re-light the candle three times because her cousin Madi (almost 3 years old) kept blowing the candle out. It was hilarious. Her cake is a colorful ladybug. It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

I thought that Abby would get down and dirty with her cake, but she ate like a lady. I was a little disappointed. When Emily turned one, she just poked at her cake a couple of times and was done. Abby has a much more aggressive personality, so I thought she would tear it apart, but I guess I have to have a boy for that to happen.

Emily's 4th Birthday

I know these are late because Emily's birthday was last month, but come on. When do I ever do anything on time?

Here she is blowing the candles out on her Tinkerbell cake. If you'll notice, the eyes are closed to make the chances of blowing out all four candles all the more great.

Emily wanted nothing more than to have a "bride dress" (or as everyone else calls them, wedding dresses) for her birthday. Her cousin Audree got one for her birthday in February, and Emily usually wants everything Audree has. She just adores her cousin. So, in this picture Emily and Abby are rocking out the music we are playing. They love to dance!

Emily is turning 4 tomorrow

This morning I went in to wake up Emily and reminded her that her birthday is tomorrow. She says what number am I? Which if you speak Emily, it means, how old am I? I tell her she is three, but will be four tomorrow. She then says, I don't know how to be four. I try my best not to laugh and tell her that she just has to be herself, and that she can do everything she did when she was three, but that she will be learning many more things as a four-year-old. The things she says sometimes.

A Result of Having an Accountant for a Father

Last week I was over at my brother's house hanging out with my mom who was watching my brother's kids. Everyone was in school but their littlest, Madi. I had just picked up Emily from school. Emily was playing in Madi's room and I told Madi to go get Emily for lunch. A couple seconds later they both come down the hall, and as soon as Emily sees me she says, "I was just doing my taxes on the computer." You see everynight Mike gets home from work, he sits down to do other peoples' taxes on our computer in the office. The rest of mine and Emily's conversation went like this:

Mom: "Oh, did you finish them?"

Emily: "Yes"

Mom: "Are you getting any money back?"

Emily: "Yes"

Mom: "How much?"

Emily: (holding up five fingers)

Mom: "Five dollars?"

Emily: "Yes" (and yes, she really does say yes instead of yeah or uh-huh, it's really cute)

Mom: "That's great. That means your withholdings were practically perfect for the year."

Emily: "Yep" (okay, so sometimes she doesn't say yes)

I mean what other three-year-old pretends to do taxes for fun? A three-year-old that idolizes her dad, that's who.

Emily's First Haircut

Here is a shot of her hair before the cut.

Here she is at Aunt Stephanee's salon in the middle of getting her hair cut.

Aunt Steph is doing some more cutting and layering. Steph said that Emily was one of her best clients because she sat so still the whole time.

These are the results. I think it is a very cute haircut, and Emily is very pleased. She said she wanted her hair cut like mommy's, and Aunt Steph did a great job. She looks so grown up now.

Playing in the Snow

These pictures were taken around the time that we got all that snow fall. Emily's favorite thing is to make a snow angel. You will notice that I am not in any of the pictures. These two are the snow lovers in our family, and I'm sure Abby will join them one day, but I prefer to be warm and dry.

Right after she finished she got tackled by Dad.
Emily and Mike making a snowman.

The finished product. A snowshoeing snowman with ski goggles and a carrot nose.

Halloween and Boo at the Zoo 2008

I know these pictures are old, but they have been stuck on my camera for awhile. I think we all know how that goes. Anyway, I still wanted to post them and show off my cute trick-or-treaters.

Here we are at a pumpkin patch picking out the perfect pumpkins for carving. Mike is really into pumpkin carving, but the rest of us humor him and carve pumpkins, too.

Here is our little lady bug, Abby.

This is our little Cinderella princess Emily sporting her spider ring. A must-have-accessory for any princess.

We had a great time at Boo at the Zoo. The weather was great and they scored lots of candy. We got a lot of people commenting on "the ladybug". We have to admit we think our girls are pretty stinkin' cute.

A couple weeks ago we went up the canyon with our friends the Stauffer's and took some pictures of us with the beautiful fall leaves behind us. Here are just a few. Enjoy!

A Day at This is the Place Heritage Park

Emily with her cousin Claire sticking their tongues out.









Emily sticking her head out the window of one of the playhouses there.










Emily, Audree, and Emma hanging out and showing off their homemade pinwheels.










The goat that was not in its cage and decided to come play with us. It didn't seem to care we were there. We just made sure we didn't bend over. :)

Emily's First Day of PreSchool

Emily on her first day of preschool. She was so excited to be going to school. She was a little upset for a while because she didn't get to take the bus to school. At our old house there was a school bus stop right in front of our house, and she used to watch the kids get on and off the bus everyday. She will just have to settle for being shuttled around by BJ, Becky, and Momma.

Here are some more recent pictures of my Googamoo. Isn't she adorable?

A picture of us in front of our new house in West Jordan. Cute Emily wanted to hold the "Sold" sign. We moved Labor Day weekend. The whole ordeal was a little chaotic, but it all worked out as it should have in the end.

We went to Flaming Gorge in July with the Hunt family. Emily is getting ready to take her dad for a ride around the lake. She just loves getting out on the boat and the waverunners.

Dimples

Here is a cute picture of our growin' baby girl. She's got her daddy's dimples, as you can see. She is getting so big so fast.