My sweet cousin, Allisa Berry, passed away this morning after fighting a very courageous battle with cancer. I find myself being so grateful for her and her family's incredible example of faith and hope in a difficult and painful situation. They have strengthened my faith in eternal families and the Plan of Salvation. What a blessing to know Allisa's mission continues on.

If you'd like to read about her journey, you can go to their website at http://hopeforallisa.com/ . Or, you can go there to learn what you can do for others in Cache Valley who continue their fight against cancer.

Surprise!

We're adding another princess to our family!

To be honest, we couldn't be happier!

Due to attend her first ball in March 2012

Labor Day Weekend

The Saturday of Memorial weekend, we decided to head on up to Tony Grove with my sister and her family and my parents.

If I had a picture of what Cameron was really like during much of the drive up and the time spent at the lake, it would be of him either whining or crying. Ah, the joys. To his credit, he did have a cold, was in much need of some good ol' fashioned sleep, and it was super chilly.

We had a great time, especially in hindsight. Sometimes these outings seem to be less than ideal and I find myself getting frustrated, but in reality, I'm just glad we get to do some fun things and make memories as a family.

Before heading up to Tony Grove we ventured out the American West Heritage Center to watch Mark's brothers run in their cross country race. They both did great and actually ended up coming in 5th and 6th super close to each other.
Aggie cross country sees improvements - The Herald Journal: Sports:
So fun to watch them compete, particularly after knowing how much time and energy they put into training.

A Toddler's Birthday

Cameron turned two!
(Yes, we do in fact, love this kid)

We had a blast with all the family that could make it. Cam the man was sufficiently (mmm...exceedingly...) spoiled and enjoyed every minute of it. Nearly a month later, he's still singing 'Happy Birthday' to himself.

The Rest of Our Summer...So Far

Oh boy, we've both been pretty busy this summer. There's not a lot of pictures, so no proof, but we really have been :)



Mark decided to go to school this summer which turned out surprisingly great and didn't make summer as dull as I thought it would be. He's sure is an excellent student, and I'm so glad he's been enjoying it so much-makes me feel a lot less badly for him since he likes doing his homework so much. He's learned a lot about HTML and all that kind of stuff which I've made him talk about when I can't sleep so it will put me into a coma.

Last week he was able to spend half the week with the guys in his family up in the Uinta's riding horses, hiking, and fishing. From what I hear about it, they had a blast. On Thursday, the women of the family went up to join them. I was not as happy about the flocks of mosquitoes and the cold at night, but it was beautiful and great to be out camping. Not to mention, Mark's parents spoiled us completely and fixed some of the best meals EVER! I even got some fishing in; if you know me, you know that there were no fish involved in this activity.

Mark's uncle brought his Ranger up and Cameron would have been content to sit in that thing "driving" with his cousin Russell for weeks on end. No joke, he was in heaven.

I feel like I'm finally taking a break this August. The end of June I had Youth Conference and then a week later we regrouped and headed out to Girl's Camp at Camp Hunt (west side of Bear Lake). I have no pictures of these events since one of our leaders was the designated picture-taker. She was great and very dedicated, but now I'm sad I didn't take more of my own. Both YC and GC were such great experiences and I feel so blessed to have been able to go with our Young Women. We have wonderful Young Women in our ward and it was amazing to see them interacting together and the respect and love they showed towards not only everyone in our group but the other groups at the camp. There was no drama so often associated with girls and being together for longer than 2 days. I was so impressed by this and the spirit it brought to our camp. I feel like it really created an atmosphere where the spirit could be and testimonies fostered.

In between YC and GC, we slipped a little 4th of July holiday in.

Logan Fireworks-my awesome mom entertaining multitudes

Yes, Cameron really is as nervous as he looks. Diamond Rio was amazing but oh so loud! Notice the earplugs.

Aww, finally a smile. His nerves calmed down by the time the fireworks started and he ended up loving them as long as my arms were firmly around him.

A couple of weeks ago, an awesome couple in the ward invited us to go on a carriage ride with them and took us for an hour around Hyde Park.


It was so fun because we saw not only the horses but also dogs, cows, sheep, and a couple other animals that entertained the Cam Man.

Happy Summer y'all!

Spending Our Anniversary With Our Cousins, The Monkeys

For Mark and my 5th anniversary, he had a surprise up his sleeve and took us to Hogle Zoo. I hadn't been since I was a kid and it was fun to experience it again through a child. Cam loved it even though in all the pictures we took, he really doesn't look it because he was exhausted by that time! Cracks me up that the only picture he doesn't look completely out of it is that last one where he probably thinks he's doing a "no no" and is therefore very gleeful.

I think his favorite was the giraffe since that's what he's talked most about since, but anything in the monkey family was a close second (probably because they are so closely related).

Now, I know we all think this about our husbands, but even so, he's the best! It was such a fun day spending it with with both my guys.

Why We Needed Grass...

Our spring and first of summer was CONSUMED with raking, weed killing, shaping and anything else related to "grass-getting". It took us much longer than it probably should have, especially when including all the work Mark did last year getting the sprinklers in. Although it did take us a long time, looking back now, we'd have to say we actually had fun! Yeah, kind of like women that look back on labor and think about how fun it was because they've actually forgotten. I say we had fun mostly because of this little kid below. Everyday I would go out to rake some more and he would be right next to me with his shovel and rake helping. If I was loading dirt in the wheelbarrow, he was too. If I was going to get completely dirty, heck, he wasn't one to be left out. I cannot even tell the amount of laundry we have gone through (although if you have any boys in your life, whether husband/brother/child, I'm sure you can imagine).

Children falling in the mud and trying to get rid of it by wiping it in their hair (while gut-laughingly funny) is a definite reason to plant grass.

A little shot of part of the backyard (added bonus of a garden preview).
No, all that garden is not ours -thankfully-

Anyway, we now have glorious grass, and we sure appreciate it after all the work put into it. We will never pass someone putting in a yard without having a lot of empathy from here on out. So, COME PLAY!