These are a few of my favorite things:

Not all Inclusive, In no particular order:

Family: All definitions of

Missions: Companions, Reunions, Memories

Camping: The Great Outdoors

My Cathy!

This Picture

Disney

How my Brothers make me Laugh

My Paco

The Peanut

Outside: Green, Life, Beautiful

My Sweets: Gentle, Forever, Laughter, Fun

Sea Turtles

Music

My Car: Anakin

My Kitchen: Before and After

Friends: devotion, reliable, always

No More Monkeys Jumping on the BED

‘Succo family fun night’- a designated game night that my mother made up for us kids- was exploded into a week long vacation including any family member that would come to the coast.

we had a lot of Monkeys jumping around , I don't think i've laughed that much at a mini family reunion.

The weather was magnificent nearly all week with blue ocean water, sunny skies and rainless days. which lead to alot of outdoors activities: hiking, walking, swimming, beach combing, and shopping . Shopping . Shopping!

i really love the coast, it is one of my very favorite places to be. there is something about that ocean that demands attention. Funny, I don't think emma noticed.

The only problem with this vacation was how homesick emma and I were

I had a little turtle...I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim

We had great success on round two and three in the pool with Emma . I just wanted to post this update for proof. In Daddy's arms she was fine to get in the water up to her armpits. She loved being in her sea turtle and she loved watching the kids play and splash around her.

Perhaps I can talk to my husband about a small above ground pool for the new house. . . the only problem is even a small pool would use up the whole pack yard!

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth...

I FINALLY got a picture of Emma’s two teeth. I’ve been trying to get a picture for at least a month now. It’s funny, I get a picture of the these first two teeth the moment her third one is coming in.

Time will tell if this one on the top in the middle (her left) will push through for real. We’ve been working on this one for a while now.

She is sneaky with trying to use her pearly whites. She is starting to master picking things up off the floor with her finger and thumb. She promptly sticks whatever she gets into her mouth! I look over while in the middle of something else and see her mouth chomping.

"EMMA! What did you put in there?!"

I go fishing in her mouth but usually whatever she put in there is too small to find.

She has successfully munched a Cheese-it cracker, part of an Apple, part of a Fortune cookie, and some cooked carrots.

I've Got the Whole World In My Hands

This Memorial Day Weekend our family went to visit the Oldfield clan in California. Our newest niece was born about two months ago and was blessed that Sunday.

We were blessed to stay at Grandma Sandi’s house. Unfortunately Grandma was away on vacation in another state.

While at Grandma’s Emma could NOT leave her globe alone. I finally just let her play with it which led to these very cute pictures.

We took Emma to spend some quality time with cousins and all she could think about was electronics. She was practicing her 'please share with the Princess' face on Jacob and it must have worked because here she is in complete control of the Wall.e video game.

Spencer came to play too...we are still working on this whole sharing thing.

Noah was way cute to show Emma how to play the DS. She would scoot her way across the room just to see if Noah would give her the video game.

There was napping, and binky stealing, teasing, laughing, and crying, picture taking, story telling, and picnics at the park. We all had a great time for such a quick weekend.

Spencer kept stealing Rylee’s binky. I can’t tell if Emma is trying to take it back to give to Rylee or trying to steal it for herself!

Besides being turned into a living jungle gym I think even Grandpa enjoyed himself!

Perhaps he was a little warn out, abused, and distraught to see the rest of us sitting on the couch comfortably taking pictures of his adventures, but without a doubt he enjoyed his stay. Not to mention we enjoyed having him there.

Scripture Power, Every Day I Need

Shane and I wanted to find a way to be more consistent with our family goals for scripture reading and prayers. It was my husband's grand idea to make a poster board, similar to seminary, where we can physically see how we are doing individually and as a family. We simply add stickers to our individual and family rows at the end of each day when the task is completed.

Shane thought we needed to spice up the board, give it a little more excitement with color and design.

Thus the need for my very first Cricut Cartridge!!!

Needless to say there was no twisting my arm to get 'Life is a Beach' one of my top 10 favorites.

For those of you who do not know what a Cricut machine is let me take a minute to explain. A Cricut is an electronic scrapbooking machine which cuts out shapes, letters, and anything else your heart desires, in varying sizes too. When I came home with treasures in hand I offered to let Shane try it out first...

...Big mistake! It took me 40 minutes before I finally got a turn! He was so into perfecting each piece, finding the perfect design and color I didn't stand a chance.

Now a short disclaimer: Shane does not do crafts, he simply was suffering from a temporary need for a garage, complete with tools and man projects. The Cricut could be compared to a Jig Saw (not to be confused with a puzzle) and perhaps that's what kept his interest.

All in all we really enjoyed making the project together and it seems to be working perfectly. We will see how this quarter goes, I assume we will be making another one in August!