God bless the USA

We ended the holiday with a barbeque with our friends. We had TONS of delicious food and a firework show that was quite spectacular! All we needed was the "Stadium of Fire" song and it would have felt like the real thing. There aren't illegal fireworks in Missouri, so people had bought huge huge fireworks and Lots of them! It really was awesome and was so fun to eat, play games, and relax with our friends. Just looking at these pictures get me choked up thinking about how much I'll miss these girls! We've all had an incredible medical school experience together. I love them all!



Some of the kiddos...


Yesterday Scott put together a softball team to play in the city tournament. They played 6 games in a row so lets just say they are all a little sore. They had fun reliving the glory days though! Scott was cute out there! The girls and I joined lots of other wives and kids to watch the game.

Happy Fourth!

This was the first fourth of July in a long time that we didn't go to Oakley with the fam for the parade and rodeo. Holidays always make me feel homesick, but we had such a fun time here with friends that have become our family! We started off the day with a ward pancake breakfast. The girls were looking very festive for the occasion. (Yes, these are the same shirts they wore for the fourth of July last year!! I swear they are growing!)


Later in the afternoon we went to the parade downtown. No offense to our little Kirksville, but the parade was pretty weak! We asked Maddie what she thought of the parade and she said, "Parade had trucks!" That about sums it up... No marching bands, no real floats. It is a good thing it was an election year because if it weren't then there couldn't have been a parade! It was mostly people who were running for things passing out flyers. :) We all still enjoyed it though.

Take time to smell the flowers

I had to post Tobey's beautiful pictures of the girls in front of the temple. They love flowers. Aren't they gorgeous little girls? We think so!


Maddie


Bella


Bella

Nauvoo

We got to go to our temple one last time before we move. It has been an incredible to go to the historic Nauvoo temple every month. We have such an appreciation for those early saints and all the sacrifices they made to build the original temple. We have loved having such wonderful experiences in Nauvoo the past two years. The temple inside is so unique and beautiful. We'll miss it.


Luckily I know this photographer who got some great pictures of our family in front of the temple! (Thanks Tobey!)


We went with our friends the Roos' and Wilkins' so we could trade off babysitting the kids while we went to the temple. Here are the twins, Liberty, and Addie enjoying some PB&J.


"Painting" (with water) It is one of our favorite activities. If you get colored paper and just use water the kids think they are actually painting. Thanks to Tobey again for that great idea!

Middle Names

We have decided to give our girls middle names. That may seem strange since they are almost two years old, but here is the story. When they were born we went back and forth a lot with the idea of giving them middle names. We eventually just couldn't really come up with two that fit for them, so we opted for no middle names. A few months ago I got thinking about it again and for some reason felt strongly that I wanted my girls to have a family name to carry on. Family is one of the most important things to me and I think there is something so special about having the name of one of your forbears. It gives you a special connection with that person and it gives you someone to look to as an example and a reminder of where you came from. I love both of our girls names and think that they have definitely grown into them just perfectly. I wanted to name Madelyn "Maddie Sue" after her grandma. Then it hit me that Bella should be named after my aunt- my mom's only sister, Joan. As I thought about these two names I really felt a type of spiritual confirmation that they should have them. I wrote the girls a letter that they'll someday read that explains why these two sisters are the perfect namesakes for them. My mom (Sue) and her sister (Joan) are two of the greatest women I know. They are both generous, loving, service oriented, enduring, and most of all they have a great relationship with each other. I want all of these same things for my girls. I could go on and on about these two wonderful women. I hope that my girls will have opportunities to learn from them and get to know them well. I love you both!
We officially changed the girls' names on their birth certificates, so we now have a Maddie Sue and a Bella Joan. They know those are their names and they love to say them! They point to each other and say their full name and giggle and repeat them over and over. We feel so good about our decision to add these middle names. It just fits for our girls and we are so grateful for Grandma Sue and Aunt Joan.

Joan and Sue (age 9 and 4)

The girls with Aunt Joan and Grandma Sue in Utah.

The girls didn't want their pictures taken so we had to bribe them with Jelly beans- that is why they are making the funny faces!

Random...

Today after another sunday of working in the nursery I came home EXHAUSTIFIED! (I know that isn't a word... still one of my favorites.) We had 14 kids in a small confined space for two hours today and I just realized how much I miss "Church." I know that we all sacrifice and take our turns in these types of callings, but it isn't easy! I spend every day of the week with my cute girls singing songs, playing with toys, having snacks, overcoming tantrums, etc etc, and then sunday comes and I miss out on that spiritual boost I desperately need as a young mom. I am so preoccupied keeping my girls entertained and quiet during sacrament that I'm lucky to even have some clue of what the speaker is talking about. When we finish that battle I head off to keep everyone else's kids happy for two more hours. It is a constant juggle to keep everyone from stealing toys, pushing other kids, escaping out the door, spilling snacks, having meltdowns... WOW! We're moving in two weeks and I've only been in nursery a couple of months, so I really can't even complain. There are lots of people who do it forever! They are real heros! When we move to Cleveland I' m just praying that my girls will suddenly get over this "mommy clinginess" and stay in nursery alone! (yeah right!) You'd think they'd do okay since they have each other... not these two. What parenting mistakes have I made to make these girls so clingy?
Okay, now I'm done being a complainer... thank heavens the girls are napping right now! I get 2 to 3 hours everyday alone while they nap! It is so nice! How can I complain about that?

We have had some CRAZY thunderstorms lately. I've never heard anything like it. The other night the thunder was so loud it felt like our whole house was shaking. The lighting was nonstop too. I'd watch out the window and the whole street was lit up over and over. The rain has been pouring down. I can't remember the last time I actually felt scared during a thunderstorm. I laid awake until 3 am the other night because it was impossible to fall asleep (of course not for my narcoleptic husband or my girls who slept right through it.) We've experiened some pretty crazy weather here in the midwest. It is sad to see all the flooding going on in some of these small towns right around us. We've been blessed to avoid all the tornadoes and floods that have hit this area so frequently the past couple of years.

We had a good and busy weekend. We've started packing, and our move will be here before we know it. We played games with friends on friday and we always have fun with Scott's study buddies and their families. The girls and I went to this little museum with some friends and the got to pet a snake and a turtle. We went to the farmer's market, and the big "moving away" student garage sell. We went to Maeva's darling bubble birthday party. We watched Addie and Noah so the Roos' could go out for Tobey's Birthday. (We love you Tobey! Hope you had a great day!) Things are hopping around here and life is fun. The next few weeks will be equally busy as we try to finish things up around here and start a new adventure in Ohio. It is definitely bittersweet!

SCOTT!

After all these fun travels and great vacation time the girls and I have had, how could I not pay a little tribute to my cute Scott? All I can say is he is a CHAMP! Seriously amazing. He has been studying like crazy for months and months. All day every day he has worked so hard and I just don't know how he does it. The boards were last week and HOORAY that they are over. We felt bad to leave him all alone for a few weeks, but knew that it was good for him to be able to really focus. I'm so happy for him that his first two years are nearly over. He's done an incredible job of balancing his priorities and making time for all his responsiblities. He has done great in school and I'm such a proud wife. I'm excited for him to get out of the books these next couple of years and start doing rotations. We got home so late the night before father's day that I didn't get a chance to give him the credit he deserves. We had a great father's day just being together as a family though. The girls have been so happy to play with him. I couldn't ask for a better father for my girls. He's a wonderful example to me as well. He is the best and I love you to the moon Scottie Hottie! :)

Had to post these cute trip pics

Arabesque

High fives.

Playing with John and Sydney's cute kids! Its so fun to have them right next door. We got to see Sarah and her family quite a bit as well and I've just realized I don't have any pictures with them! Hopefully she does. We had fun times with the Bradley's in their yard, the park, the pool, the zoo (okay well we got totally poured on at the zoo, but still). It was SO great to be with my sisters. We loved being with all of you.
We had the best trip and were spoiled as always! Thank you to all of you for being so good to us. We were happy to come home to Scott but miss our wonderful families already.

Sun Fun

We got to see the Hinton's a couple of times! Leash and I go way back. Her kids are darling. We all loved swimming in Grandma's pool.

Maddie!

Taking a drink break.

Taking turns is hard!

Still more pictures

We went to the Dinosaur park in Ogden with my mom and sisters Sarah and her kids, and Christine and her kids. The girls loved it.

Here they are coloring with their cousins. They were really more worried about collecting all the colors of crayons than anything else.

We headed up to play with the Jackman's in Logan and here is the crew loaded up in the car. We loved seeing all our cousins and it was great to spend time with Christine and Jeff. Ashley and the girls were doing some great cheerleading routines! We went to this little Zoo/Park and that was a highlight.

More travel pics

We went to the Hilton's house in Temecula California and loved seeing all the cute Hilton girls. Maddie and Bella had a ball dancing with the girls and copying whatever they did. Maddie had fun talking on the phone with Jessie.

We were so lucky to be in California for Annie's baptism. It was such a special day. She was darling. Maddie and Bella have been talking about Annie getting baptized ever since. They even were telling this guy on the airplane all about it. It was funny.

This is a picture of Maddie's first black eye. She was having a blast jumping on the trampoline with her cousins and got a little bump.

We got to go visit Grandma Rynearson. What a great lady. She gave the girls some little bears and they adored them. We were so glad we could see Grandma.

Where have we been?

We have been all over the place the last month! We had the greatest time visiting Utah and California the past few weeks. Scott studied his brains out for the boards (which were last week), so the girls and I headed on a trip to see family. We were gone for quite a while, but as always the trip flew by! We crammed so many things into our vacation and we loved it! The girls are still talking about their grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. They did great on the airplanes as well. They are such good travelers and I'm so grateful for that. This was my first time flying alone with them and since we had a direct flight it really wasn't bad. I was relieved. A big bag of new toys, treats and surprises always does the trick!

We got to hang out with all our family and some friends as well. It was such a treat. I love being in Utah. It just feels like home. It is so familiar and comfortable. It gets me excited to someday live closer to family. It was great!


We made a stop at the BYU bookstore and got the girls their first creamery ice cream! They devoured it of course.

We headed down to St. George for a fun weekend with the Rynearson's. We swam in their beautiful new pool and jacuzzi and the girls loved it. We had a great time hanging out with Scott's family. Thanks Lace for driving down with us! Here are the girls feeding Dora the turtle at the neighbor's house. (Rynearsons- can I have copies of some of your pictures? You are all so good about taking lots of pictures so I never take enough when I'm with you all! I just figure I'll get copies of them all later, but I know that is a pain! But, I want some of the girls with all of you and the ones by the pool etc.)

We went with Grandma Sue and Grandpa for a day at the beach in Camp Pendleton. The beach there is gorgeous and the girls loved swimming and playing in the sand. They were covered from head to toe! Isn't that cute of Grandma and Bella?

There was a great area for swimming that didn't have a current or waves so the girls loved that.