Living or are we "Living"

James and I had not one but 2 friends pass away this last week both from Cancer. Oh how I hate cancer! But when those that are close to you pass away it does make you reflect on the things that are really important. Our friend Ryan passed away at the very young age of 30, he has 2 adorable boys and a very brave and strong wife. In such a short time on this earth he was able to leave a legacy to his two young boys. It has been a good reminder that life is short, Jordan loves to walk herself into daycare and into the stores, so many times I have carried her in because she doesn't walk very fast, she likes to stop and pick up the rocks, and look at the flowers and wave to the neighbors, etc. This last week we have left just a few minutes earlier so that she can walk! I realized that these years and moments are precious and I need to enjoy them, not hurry them along. I have realized that dishes wait until morning, its more important to snuggle on the sofa with my husband I can do the dishes later when he isn't home. Ryan had just a few short months to tell his family and his friends how he felt, and he did. Our other friend Gus was diagnosed and passed away 6 days later, such a tragedy but I learned at the funeral that Gus always told his friends and family how he felt,he left nothing unsaid, how fortunate that he had no regrets in his final hours. I am so blessed to have the family that I have, I just pray that I don't forget to "LIVE" because we don't know how long we are here.

Red Fish Lake!

I love Redfish, I have gone their every year my whole life and it so awesome to be able to take my family there now. Jordan loved camping, loved the tent, loved the beach, loved not taking any naps, loved the freezing cold water, loved playing with her cousins and her gramie and papa and aunts and uncles. It was a lot of work chasing her around but it was so worth it. I love that we can spend the time with my family. We love being together. The weather couldn't have been better 80 degree's sure beats the 103 we were getting at home!

Jordan's Birthday Party

I know I am a little late posting pictures of her birthday party but I wanted to make sure I have them for my memory bank. We had a great Lady bug birthday party, lots of friends and family. It was so hot that we pulled out the pool and the slip n slide to cool off. Aunt Lindsey bought her this little diva outfit. So cute!!! Can you tell that she has boys!! Jordan had so much fun and got so many great gifts including 19 new outfits! It was like having another baby shower for me!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl.

Wow I can not believe how fast the year has gone by. I just keep thinking about where we were a year ago and how excited we were to finally bring her into the world. We had a little bit of a struggle the first few months with her being alergic to milk and a little bit colic (probably from the milk). But everyday has been such a joy with her. She is always full of smiles, people come up to her when we are shopping because she is always smiling or waving to everyone she see's. She is so good and so smart I love watching her learn and knowing that her little brain is always trying to figure things out, even when we are not sure what she is trying to figure out. She started walking 3 weeks ago and is now all over the place. She can say Dadda, Mamma, Dog, quack, Kyla, Papa, No, and Ya. She still loves books and loves to dance to any kind of music. She loves her bike trailer, we go for long bike rides almost everyday. So far she is not really interested in "real" toys, she loves tuperware, pots and pans, lotion and shampoo bottles and my cell phone! She is such good help loading and unloading the dishwasher =) and she loves the Vacuum. She is seems to be doing good drinking Goats milk, so we are hoping that eventully we will be able to get her on other dairy milk and foods. Her favorite food is Peas, Corn, gram crackers, and Cheeto's. I love being a mom more than anything in the world. I want to spend every minute with her. She is an absolute Joy! I love you baby girl, Happy Birthday.

11 months

I know I don't blog as much as I use to, my laptop is having some serious issues and I hate to start anything knowing it may freeze up. Jordan is now 11 months old, WOW time flies. She is so fun, her little personality is really starting to come out. She loves to fake cough and fake laugh. She quacks like a duck, says Uh-oh and she is learning sign language. She is picking up on it really fast. She took her first three steps last week but now she only wants to walk if she has your hand or with her toy, hopefully she get the courage to try again. She is very independent and does things her way or the highway! I love it. We took her camping a couple of weeks ago and she was in heaven, so was I (she slept in until 9 or 10 every morning). I do have to say camping with an 11 month old is much easier than camping last summer with a three week old! We bought her a used bike trailer on craigs list so we go on lots of bike rides now. She loves to be outside, always has, must have something to do with being a summer baby. We are getting excited to celebrate her 1st birthday next month although I still can't believe it has been a year since we had her.

K K Ka Karma

Several years ago, close to twenty years ago. My sister got this lovely mermaid doll for Christmas. She loved the doll and every time you would squeeze it, it would sing..ah ah ahhhh! It was a beautiful sound for a five year old. But for my brother and I it was total annoyance. It was so loud and after hearing it sing all day and night for several days. We decided something needed to be done, so we carefully removed the battery. For a couple hours we had peace and quiet again. Although it didn't take long for Lindsey to figure it out and with the help of my parents the battery was replaced. So again we heard the irritating ahh ahhh ahhhh. After several weeks of this, Ryan and I decided to end the sound once and for all. With a pair of cheap scissors we took the mermaid and clipped the wires and told Lindsey that the doll was broken. Well this did not go over well.. she cried and cried and for years we never told her that we were responsible for the loss. She has never forgiven us even 20 years later. Every year at Christmas time we are reminded of how cruel we were. This year we were reminded again of how horrible we were to our sister and our "little girls" were given matching gifts from Aunt Lindsey....

The dreaded doll was Jordan and Kambree's to take home. After bidding for months on Ebay and paying far to much, Lindsey was able to find three of the magic mermaid dolls one for Jordan, one for Kambree and one for her! She knew that there was no way we would deny our girls of the doll. Jordan loves the mermaid and so does Kambree. I guess you have to be careful, karma comes around and bites you hard!

okay okay...I am back to blogging!

Wow, life is always so busy it seems like I am not taking the time to Blog as much. But I know that it is important for Jordan's journal to be updated.

We enjoyed having all of my family in town for the weekend. Dallin was playing in the State Basketball tournament. (great Job Mackay!) Dustin and Lindsey and boys were able to come out and stay with us. Dustin installed new carpet in our bedroom, it is so nice! (thank you so much Dustin) We took all the kids to the McDonalds play land in Caldwell, we have a favorite one that we always go to, the kids love to play on it. Kambree even managed to put some kid in time-out for "2 minutes", I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Jordan got another tooth and is crawling all over the place. She has been able to get around for a couple of months now so I wondered if she would ever actually crawl. But she has it figured out now! Time to move the DVD's and everything else that she has managed to pull out daily. I started coaching club volleyball, Jordan comes to practice with me she loves to ride in the ball cart and she hands the girls balls when they come over to her. I have yet to get a picture of this but I need to because it is so funny.

Jordan is growing up so fast, it is hard to believe that she is already 8 months old. She likes to give high five and clap her hands. She is very busy so I am sure we have our hands full will her now that she is moving.

Along with new carpet we put in a fence around our yard. We love having a private back yard and our dogs love it. (even though they are digging holes in our yard now!) We are excited for spring, I love spring I have some tulips popping up and I am always excited for my cherry tree to bloom, if we ever move, I am going to have to find a way to take the tree with us! I love this picture of Braxten and Jordie in the tub. She loves the boys so much, Braxten couldn't get away from her. She would slide right up to him so that she was touching him the whole time!