A Gift for Gabby

My niece Gabriel is one of the sweetest teenagers I know. She is the kind of person who just wants to help everyone and do the best she can all the time. She is such a big help to her mom, always taking care of her younger sister and helping around the house. And she is a HUGE help to me, watching my kids a lot, and often times at the last minute, and never, ever taking any money for it. She is just extremely kind and unselfish and such a great example to me. When I heard that Lady Antebellum was coming in concert with Tim McGraw I knew I had to get Gabby to that concert. She is in love with Charles Kelly (who isn't?) and I will admit I am a huge Tim McGraw fan (again, who isn't?) so it was a win, win situation for me. :)

Lady Antebellum were AWESOME! They are one of my new favorite groups and there isn't a song of theirs I don't love. They put on a great show and it was so fun to watch Gabby get so excited and drool over Charles the whole time. I wish I was rich and we could have sat closer, but he was pretty darn good looking through the binoculars. :)
I have ALWAYS loved Tim McGraw and must admit I was worried about seeing him in concert. The last time I saw a concert was Toby Keith and he is old and was pretty drunk the whole time and I was extremely disappointed. But good Ol' Tim McGraw DID NOT disappoint at all. He was awesome and put on the best show. Again I wish we were closer as he kept touching hands of the people in the audience and even pulled some little girls up on stage with him. He was an amazing performer and this was probably one of my most favorite concerts ever. The only real picture I got the whole night was this one on my cell phone. Gabby and I had so much fun. It was an awesome night. Thanks G-Dawg for all you do for me and everyone. You deserve nights out more often and I am so glad we got to have a night out and enjoy some FINE looking country men together. I will cherish these memories always. I am so glad you are my niece. I love you so much you cute girl!

My Future Olympian?

Tonight as I was running (while pushing the kids in the bike trailer) Kylee INSISTED on getting out of the trailer and running with me for a little while. After many polite and persistence "please" pleads, I finally gave in sure that she would run a few steps, realize how hard it was, and want to get back into the trailer. I was totally SHOCKED that her little legs could keep up with mine (I did slow down a bit) and that she just kept on running. The little stink ran a WHOLE MILE without stopping or complaining once. I was incredibly amazed and proud. I hope this means she will grow up to be much more coordinated and athletic than I am. This little girl seriously amazes me everyday. Cannon, who is such a copy cat, got out and ran too, but he only took a few steps and was tired. I am so thankful for my kids.

Rachel Getting Married

I will admit that when I heard my cute cousin Rachel was getting married in Lubbock, TX (where her and her now hubby both attend Texas Tech), I was very bummed. But it wasn't about the location...it was about the people and their special day and may I just say I am SO glad they decided to stay in Lubbock. It ended up being SO much fun and there were so many fun experiences that we wouldn't have had somewhere else. These are just a small pick of the pictures I took. The rest can be seen on FB.

One of the best experiences was my first ever BACHELORETTE PARTY!!! It was SO much fun. What happens at a bachelorette party stays at the bachelorette party, so I can't go into too many details other than to say I had so much fun and really loved being wild and silly with these cute young girls.

I couldn't help but wear a cowboy hat. I was in Texas after all.
My 2 cute cousins.
As you can tell, as the night went on we got ever more wild and crazier and it was seriously just too much fun.

The next morning it was time to get ready for another big party.
Rachel had decided to do a lot of the flowers herself...which she did a great job of but just ran out of time. So the day of the wedding we still needed the centerpieces done as well as the bouquet and a few other flower arrangements. Luckily my mom is extremely talented and she went to work and put a lot of us to work.

She gave us about a 5 minute tutorial on flower arranging and then put us to work. These are just a bunch of flowers from Wal-Mart.

And I must say we created some kick butt flower arrangements.

Check mine out!! And I TOTALLY suck at these sort of things.

They all looked like they were done by professionals and it made the whole thing that much more special to know each of us contributed an arrangement.

Mine, Rachel's, Leslee's, Kaylee's, Darla's and Grandma's toes. We all recently had pedicures and had to show them off.

This is the beautiful church they were married at. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the ceremony but I snuck this one super quick before it began.

The church they were married at. They had wedding bells ringing as they walked out. It was so pretty and awesome. It reminded me of Cinderella.

2 of my cousins that I don't get to see nearly as often as I would like to.

Rachel and Ty a.k.a Mr. and Mrs. Stolp!

Congratulations guys!

CHEERS!

First dance as husband and wife.

There was lots of dancing.

It was so darn fun.

Most of my mom's family. Missing a few spouses and one brother, but most of them made it. I was sadly the only cousin who made it and I will always cherish the fact that I got to celebrate this awesome day with everyone.

Rachel, my cute Grandma, my Aunt Darla and my Aunt Myrna (Rachel's Mom).

CONGRATULATION MR. and MRS. STOLP!

Slow it Down!

This summer has been SO wonderful. Probably some of the best times of my life in a really long time. I DON'T WANT IT TO END!!! I have really taken advantage of every moment and we have had so many fun adventures and good times and great memories. It's just going by WAY too dang fast.

And my kids....they have grown up instantly over night. I can't believe how grown up they are. I no longer have any cribs or high chairs in my house and don't ever take a stroller anywhere because Cannon always insists on walking anyway. I really want to freeze time and make this last month (before school starts back up) just last as long as possible. Plus they are both at such fun ages...not a day goes by they don't make me laugh or amaze me with something they have learned or observed.

Although I can't freeze time, I am really grateful for my friend Leah who took the time to capture this time in their lives. Pictures are actually the perfect way to freeze time really, and I am loving these pictures of my beautiful kids. (And these are just a few...I posted almost all of them on Facebook if you'd like to see more)

Dang I'm LUCKY!!!

I would be lost without them and probably unable to take the things life has thrown at me. They are the reason I keep going, even when I just don't want to anymore.

That's my kids!

Such a goof.

I had to finally scold her and tell her to give me some pretty smiles.

And of course mom's scoldings always end in a kiss.

And they always work too!

Look at this cute girl!

And I can always count on Cannon for loves.

I seriously love these two little people so much and thank my Heavenly Father every night for them. If only time could slow down, just a little bit. I guess I just have to do all I can to make every moment count and enjoy every second that I can.

Front Runner Fun

Tonight the kids got to experience riding the Front Runner for the first time. We rode down to the Gateway so I could meet up with a friend for dinner. Since I have my free pass from Weber State, and the kids both get to ride for free...it was a very cheap and fun family activity. They both starred out the window pretty much the whole way and were very entertained.

We walked around the Gateway for awhile. The weather has been so nice lately. I'm seriously in love with this summer.

Kylee said the fountain looked cool but that she didn't want to get wet because she didn't have a swim suit or a towel. She is so practical.

Cannon was more interested in playing on the stairs then in the fountain. We played for some time then waited for the train to take us back to our car.

Someone was a little sleepy...but oh so sweet still.

It was a really fun night!