You know your baby is growing up when she's cleaning her room, listening to teenage girl music like Taylor Swift with the door closed so her sister won't come in. It's pretty crazy how fast she's growing up. I think she's beginning to look like me, what do you think?

Abbie is FIVE!!!

Here are some birthday highlights. We went to build a bear and medieval times, I gotta get back to work, but I thought I'd add these :) It took her about 5 puffs to blow out all the candles, but she did it. I told Brad she was only supposed to have 5 candles, but he wanted to go all out. I took these pics and videos with my new iphone :) Brad dropped my old one twice so I was forced to upgrade, bummer ;)

She's OKAY, Its just a BEETLE!!!

Speaking of Everything is bigger in Texas, I've been meaning to blog about the 4th of July. Last year was a train wreck, we never ended up getting able to see the fireworks. This year we got two nights straight of great location, great fireworks, a fun pool party, and loads of fun. I had a blogworthy moment however on the 4th of July. We were staked out on the lawn of a chase bank about 2 minutes left until the fireworks. It was dark, there were people and policemen EVERYWHERE. We're having a nice chat with our friends when all of the sudden, this DEATHLY SCREAM comes from MY CHILD of course. Yes, Tori is screaming like she's facing the grim reaper himself, it sounded like a siren, AHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHHH, almost steady like a siren, I think she had to breath in there, thus the quick pauses. I was thinking to myself, "WHAT THE HECK!?!" So I got up quickly of course and went over to where she was sitting to find out what caused her to create such a loud scene that EVERYONE was watching now, including the police men. It was a beetle. I picked her up, and she STILL continued to SCREAM! My instant reaction was to cover her mouth so as to mute the sound and then I realized that hundreds of people (and policemen) are now watching me holding up my child with my hand over her mouth as they are listening to muted screaming... I said loudly in my defense, "She's Okay, Its just a beetle!!!" And as I predicted, a quick chuckle was heard throughout the area, and we were back to business as the fireworks started. I'll tell you what, that child has a SET OF LUNGS!!!

Everything's Bigger in TEXAS

Woke up this morning to a nice visitor, Everything's bigger in Texas. Nuff said.

Happy Father's Day Brad!!!

What do you get for a guy that has more clothes than his wife for Father's Day? Well, I did get him an awesome blue t-shirt that said, "I'm pretty much the best Dad in the World." That was good. I also bought him a new sweater that J Hilburn is coming out with in September. But we recently (this last week) bought a Wii ($100 off on Amazon for an open box unit, what a deal!) so I told him that was his Father's Day Gift this year. I think its a pretty good one we can all enjoy. I did want to just brag a little about how amazing Brad is as a Dad though. We were driving a lot today running errands and such, and he had a great talk with Victoria about her personal testimony of Christ and the church and how she needs to find out for herself, and we shared some personal experiences with her, and just had a great talk with her, and I just sat back in my chair and just kinda took a deep breath and a sigh of relief that I ended up with such an amazing man as my husband and Father of my children. I got a priesthood blessing when I was 17 that spoke about a lot of things in my life to come, including my future husband (patriarchal blessing). It said, "You will marry a man who has a strong testimony of the gospel." I was hoping for an exact description of him, maybe a name, hair/eye color, or something to tip me off, so that I'd know him when I found him... little did I know I already knew him, I just didn't realize it yet. But as I struggled with the little amount of information that I was given, I realized that that was all that mattered. If I could find a man who had a testimony of the gospel, everything else would come in that package as well. And its true. He has such a high patience level, and knows how to really help the girls when I can't. I hope his Father's Day is a memorable one. Happy Father's Day Brad!!!

Patience is a Virtue

We've been trying to teach the girls (Tori especially) about how important it is to be patient and wait until Mom and Dad are done talking with each other or on the phone before they ask us a question, because we constantly get the "MOM... mom... MOM Mom MOM mom.... MOM... mom..." You get the picture... so we had a good talk with Tori about this a few days ago and every day is a work in progress. Today we were all in the car waiting for her to get her shoes on and come out to come with us to go pick up a computer from a guy on Craigslist (we seriously got a mac today for $6.00, no joke) and Tori tells me this in such a matter of fact voice, "Mom, if I'm learning how to wait, you can too." I couldn't stop laughing. I thought it was a good point. So, I waited. ehehehe. Love that girl!

PICTURES!!!

Just got a gorgeous pic of Abbie back from my favorite photographer, more to come!