Happy Mother's Day Abby!

I am a very blessed man! I have the best wife in the world and I wanted to pay tribute to my wonderful wife on this Mother's Day! As I went back looking through old pictures to illustrate what my wife means to me and my family, I think it's no surprise that in most of the pictures all you see is a piece of Abby. I know this is because she would rather have her children be the focus NOT herself.











A true tribute to one of the REAL beauties of Motherhood...selflessness! I'm SOO GRATEFUL that my girls have someone as selfless as their mother to model for them all the wonderful attributes of motherhood. Abby give's her ALL to her girls and they know it! When they don't feel well...they would ALWAYS prefer Mom over Dad anyday!





I'm truly grateful to Abby for being the mother of my children, for giving me the most beautiful girls in the world. She goes everywhere with them and NEVER uses having so many little ones as an excuse for not attending events and (for the most part) my girls are very well behaved...ALL a tribute to their Mother...anyone who knows us knows that my girls get all their craziness from me and goodness from her.























Another thing about my wife that I love is the fact that she makes sure EVERY single one of the girlies know that they are special to her by spending special Mommy time with each of them!













Thanks Abby for all that you do as the Mother of my children. I hope you have the BEST day...because you definitely deserve it! Here's my lame attempt to pay tribute to the GREATNESS of my wife and Mother of my children through picture. Happy Mother's Day Abby!

Fancy Feet

I realized that I still have some pics from around Easter that I never blogged about. This year we did Easter toes instead of dresses! They each got a new color of toe nail polish, and we had great fun getting out the sandals to wear to church so that we could show our newly painted toenails. Can you tell who's feet are whose?

Easter fun with the Maile family

This year the Maile family decided that we would get together for our Easter festivities on Saturday. We were more than a little surprised when Kyra and Tiera walked in with two live little chicks!

Misty said that it's a good thing they're nocturnal, because those little chicks sure can chirp, or peep, or whatever it's called when they make their cute little noises. Grandma was great with keeping the girlies busy in the kitchen. Grandpa had recently returned from Florida and he'd brought back with him these gorgeous shells. Grandma was helping all the girls hot glue the shells onto brown ribbon to make their own chokers. I don't get her in many pictures, so I was thrilled to capture Grandma with some of the girls. I especially love these pictures, because of the similarities between her face compared to the girls' faces.


Grandpa cooked all of the food for us and it was so good! I don't get him in pictures very much either. Apparently these guys are camera shy. But here he is in the kitchen.

We had a lot of fun with the Easter egg hunt. It ended up being held inside the house since it was still raining that day. We split the kids up so that it was more fair for all. The big kids' eggs were hidden downstairs by all the uncles, and the big kids hid the little kids' eggs upstairs in the living room. At some point in the afternoon, someone got hold of my camera. Here is some of their work.



Thanks for a great Easter afternoon, everyone.

Wordless Wednesday, one day late

St. George, our last day, Sunday

It's hard to look at the whole weekend and pick a favorite part, but if hard pressed this would definitely be it for me. . . Sunday at church. It was quite the nostalgic experience for me, and on looking back, I think it was because it reminded me of growing up with the church in small wards and branches compared to the church that I experience now in Utah. Both are strong and vital to the church's growth, but there is something unique in the Sunday church meeting experience when you're meeting in the old buildings with small congregations, and yet hear the same message and the same doctrine that you would in modern buildings with overflowing congregations. I loved Sunday morning on our vacation. The weather at the cabin, because of the elevation, was always several degrees cooler than St. George, but on this particular morning we all could feel the warming spring in the air. We woke and got ready for church and then started packing up so that after Sacrament Meeting we would be able to pull out and hit the road. Naki had a fireside that he was singing in that evening back at home so we wanted to give ourselves enough time to get back. Naki got a couple pics of the outside of the cabin.

Church was a unique experience because the size of the "chapel" was about my kitchen and living room together.

It was hardwood floors and every sound seemed to be amplified. When we walked in you can imagine the stir we made. There was not a single other child in the room. Apparently the community doesn't sport many young babes. This is a picture of the town map. (The town map is the one on the left.)

Actually, when we walked up to the chapel we were given the option to let the kids run around in the overflow below or sit in the chapel above. I really wanted to have the chapel experience, but it really was no place for little babies. Any squeak they made seemed such an interruption to the meeting. So, after the sacrament, here's where the babies ended up.


Eva passed out too. All the big kids found her bundled up in this blanket taking a little nap.


Naki and Kolei while watching the little ones outside found this plaque and I just had to take a picture of it. I'm not sure if you can read it, or if you can make the picture bigger, but it tells some really neat things. One of which is that the wood from the yellow pine trees from Pine Valley were cut down and hauled all the way to Salt Lake for the organ pipes in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. We were just so amazed at all the history.

Before we took off we took some more pictures just for memory's sake. Notice the grass on the side of the sidewalk? That was the parking lot. We were parked in the grass!



The whole Sunday morning experience was the icing on the cake of a perfect getaway with our St. George Cousins. Thanks again you guys for making it so memorable. We love you!

St. George, the rest of Saturday April 18th

Well, after the babes woke from their much needed nap, we loaded up and headed out to Baker Dam (I think that's the name...I've been trying to search my memory, and I think that's the name of the Dam). Brooks was so dang cute, helping Eva walk down the shore to the edge of the water, especially because she probably took the longest to get there. He didn't seem to mind at all.We spent some time trying to skip rocks. Apparently the big boys are the pros. Must be all of those Scout Camping trips from their youth.

This picture I found some personal humor in. It reminded me of my so athletically capable dad who tried endlessly and patiently to teach me skill after skill, and I never could get it. But Naki was explaining to the girls the proper way to skip a rock. They all tried...I was a innocent bystander who got whacked with a rock that accidentally slipped out of their hand as they were pulling back their arm to let it rip. It didn't hurt, but once again, made me think of me as a child trying so desperately to learn some new physical skill...unsuccessfully!

We loaded up from here and then followed Kolei and Nisi into St. George, where they surprised us with an unexpected stop at Judd's Ice Cream, a quaint ice cream shop that has been on that same site since 1865 and in the same building, an old adobe, that we were in since 1911. (looked that tidbit up on line!) Thanks for the treat, guys.


One person loved the ice cream so much, that later on that night, after this individual spoke up and said that they wanted to go back for more, Nisi took this un-named individual on an unplanned trip to the grocery store to try and find the very same flavor. (much to un-named individual's embarrassment!) We were unsuccessful in finding the same flavor, but don't worry, this person found the same flavor and brand at Macey's grocery store as soon as we got back. On our drive down from the cabin we were in awe of the scenery. Line had the camera and was snapping pictures out of her window. I was terrified she'd drop it out of the window and break it, but I shouldn't have worried so much. I dropped it at the park last week and broke it myself instead!


After ice cream we headed over to see the St. George Temple. I don't think I've ever seen a Temple so white! It was stunning.


Ane was loving the grass. (not quite sure how her ponytail that started out mostly on the side of her head ended up smack in the middle of her head sticking straight up, but really, I'm at the point where I'm just glad to know that I got her hair done at all.)


Here is a little video clip of her loving the soft grass on the Temple grounds.



We then headed over to the park right by the temple where we met up with Naki's Uncle Seti his daughter Tisa, (Kolei's sister) and her two boys, Samuela and Seti. Thank you Tisa for dinner! Sadly, I didn't take a single picture at the park. But it was so great to see everyone there. We eventually packed up and headed over to Kolei and Nisi's house to bathe the babes since we were having some hot water technicalities at the cabin. (Side note - if you ever wondered if you can get brain freeze any other way than the common way, just try and take a cold shower in a cabin with no hot water. That mountain water is c-c-c-c-cold!) Once again, I just loved seeing all the cousins playing together. After baths we drove back up to the cabin where we ate some more yummy smores and had a dance off with Kolei, Brooks, and the girlies. Okay, not really a dance off, but all the kids danced and Kolei was such a good sport to show us his moves, too. I'm just so relieved that I didn't have to get in on the action. Don't get me wrong. . . love to dance with the girlies at home, but it's a private showing, only! I videoed Brooks, and when we watched it at home Malia was disappointed that I didn't get his legs in the recording. Sorry Malia!



We finally wound down and got some much needed sleep. Ane accepted her port-a-crib fate much better that night, and so we ALL got some good sleep. Next post will be about Sunday morning, which we all loved!

St. George, Saturday Morning

Well, Saturday morning came way too soon for me. AneBoo had decided that she was extremely unhappy with her port-a-crib and missed her own crib to sleep much. She was so loud I was afraid that she would wake everyone up! and so decided to make our way outside for a morning walk. And considering how late we all went to sleep, I wanted everyone to sleep as long as possible so we didn't have a bunch of grouchie-pants on our hands for the rest of the trip. Lucky for me, I had thought to stick my running shoes in my bag...no workout clothes, just the shoes. Otherwise my toesies would have most definitely frozen on our little walk. You know, it's funny. I really hate waking up, the entire process. But once I'm up I'm really glad to be awake. However, on the days when I don't have to wake up and I sleep in, I spend the rest of the entire day feeling behind on everything. I'm such a geek. On this particular morning I definitely resented having to wake up, or rather, never really sleep. But once my feet hit the dirt road, I smelled that early morning fresh mountain air, and heard the early morning silence (with the exception of Ane's occasional chirp) I was in heaven. It reminded me of when I used to deliver newspapers at 3 in the morning. I really really really really hated waking up that early. But once I was out there, in the brisk air with silence surrounding me, I don't know. I just felt such a sense of peace. That's the way I felt Saturday morning walking with Ane. Upon first arriving I was in awe with my surroundings in nature. I think the peace of the early morning came from feeling that Heavenly Father loves me so entirely, just like the beauty I'm surrounded by. I am part of that beauty, His creations, not separate from it. I returned from our morning walk having done a complete 180. I'd left frustrated that Naki had snored so soundly cuddled with Eva while I was up and down, up and down, in and out of the covers, burping, feeding, changing, and shushing Ane, and returned thrilled with my opportunity to see such sweet faces upon my return.
The others were slowly waking up when we returned, so we eventually all got dressed, made beds, and ate some yummy oatmeal. (That's right, I said yummy. I've overcome my horrid relationship that I had with oatmeal as a child, Mom.)

I'm not sure when this happened, I must have been getting ready. But I'm not surprised to see Eva with baby Dylan. . . we all know she has a honing device that directs her to any baby in her proximity.

The kids and I then had so much fun. Nisi had a showing that morning, so while she was gone I thought it might be fun for them to experience much of what I had earlier, and took them on a walk. Not just any walk, but an "I Spy" walk. During my early morning walk with Ane I had noticed some unusual things that we don't typically see in Orem and also some of the regular things, too. So we made a fun list that the kids had to spy while we were walking. If they spotted something they got to have a Skittle. It was so much fun. Brooks made a homemade snow-cone and the girls befriended a neighbor dog and some REALLY cute puppies. When we got back they all broke out their nerf guns. Those things are so much fun! Here they all are...Naki wanted to get a picture of them, and so told them all to aim for the camera.





After the nerf guns we had some good ole' peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and then took a wonderful nap. The next post will get us up to date about what we did Saturday afternoon.