Alyssa's Soccer Game

Last weekend we went down to my parents house to hang out with the family and see Anna more before she went back to Utah. We had a weekend full of fun. Saturday afternoon we all were able to go to Alyssa's soccer game. Meaning, we ALL went. All 11 of us. I can't imagine what the other girls on the team were thinking, as well as their families. I think we out numbered them all, but it was fun to be there to support Alyssa and she did so well!

GO #42!



Tommy entertained himself by running up and down the dirt hill

Cute Caitlin

Grammy and Kayden, playing with string

Making the tunnel for the team to run through. They tied 1-1. Way to go Alyssa! After the game we all went to McDonald's for lunch before hitting up the corn maze and pumpkin patch. More pictures to come!

Visitors

Last week Anna and Kayden came from Utah to visit. We were able to convince them to come to Roseville to spend one night with us and we had so much fun. Here are a few pictures from that night.





Here Anna is chasing Kayden and tickling him. His laugh is contagious.
Kayden has grown so much since the last time we saw him and is such a cute little boy. He had a minor surgery while he was in town and he handled it so well. When most babies would be grumpy, he continued to be the happy boy that he is. We wish they would move back to California!

NieNie

Like so many of you, I have become enthralled in the story of Christian and Stephanie Nielson after finding the link on Krista's blog. They are a darling young LDS family living in Arizona. Stephanie, or NieNie, became well known through her blogging and has become a great example of love and faith as she documents her life with her children and her husband. Over the last month I have read each of her posts and have found myself feeling an increased desire to love more and to live life to the fullest. Stephanie's ability to inspire is incredible.
On August 16th Stephanie and Christian were in a private plane crash and sustained severe injuries. Stephanie is in a medically-induced coma and is being treated for burns over 80% of her body. Christian is no longer in a medically-induced coma but he has a long road of therapy ahead of him. There are many opportunities to donate to the recovery of Christian and Stephanie through auctions and fundraisers. I have put a link on the side of my blog so that you can check out what you can do to help.
To learn more about Stephanie and Christian you can also visit their blog http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com or visit Stephanie's sister, Courtney's, blog for updates http://blog.cjanerun.com Courtney is currently taking care of three of their four children.

11 days

For the past two years my brother, Don, has been serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Portugal. He is coming home in just 11 days on the 15th of October and I can't describe how excited we are to see him. So much has happened in the last 2 years and it has been incredible to see Don change and grow. He has had some incredible experiences that I know he will never forget and have helped shape him into the man he is.
The following story is just one example of the type of experiences he has been having and what his focus has been for the past 2 years. Don has set such a great example for us as his family and friends. I was so touched by this story and am grateful for the reminder to remember my Savior, Jesus Christ, and to let Him shape me.

"I've been doing SO much walking looking for all sorts of random objects, but that's not the story. While I was out on madeira I left my pair of brown shoes on the continent and so now that I'm back I've really been trying to get good use out of them. Not to mention...my black pair aren't usable at the moment. So I haven't been doing to good at shining the brown ones, I'm out of polish and a brush and everything, but that's not the story. While I was walking a ton today in the city of porto- in the corner of my eye I saw one of those old guys with a little stool set up shinning shoes!!! I thought, "Now's my chance!" So I approached the man and asked how much it would be, two euros---I jumped on it! The man did the best job I've ever seen! I think he spent about twenty minutes straight being sure not to miss a spot. One coat he applied with a rag...the second coat, after a dry and polish, he applied with his old worn out fingers. I can't express how impressed I was. The expertise he had in a job he'd been doing more than 40 years...I asked. This man would brush one side of my shoe and then transition sides, and hands, with out missing a beat. "How could a man so good at his job ask so little a price?", I wondered. It was because of how humble he was, and then it hit me. I remembered another story I heard a while back. Another missionary getting his shoes shinned by a humble man when he remembered a humble man named Jesus Christ using His fingers to carefully bring something worn out and tired, back to life asking almost nothing in return. I had to fight back tears thinking about our Savior and the price He asks and the job He'll do if we'll let Him. When I stood up I shaked the mans hands and felt how worn out they were. I was SO grateful for the job he had done. I then began to think, "If I felt that good about my shoe shinning, how much better I'm I going to feel if I can reach the presence of my Heavenly father and Savior Jesus Christ who'll make my "shine" if I take the time to stop my "busy" life and pay the more than fair price...."

I'm grateful for the eternal perspective and reminders every week in emails from Don about what our focus should be in this life: Jesus Christ and sharing the message of His restored Gospel.

Here are just a few pictures of Don on the mission.





We love you Don and can't wait to see you!

How Long Could You Survive?

I could survive for 57 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Liz's Baby Shower

This last Thursday we had a baby shower for Liz at Janice Darby's home. I was in charge of decorating the cupcakes and I was very excited about this at first. I could picture in my head how cute these baby boy cupcakes would be but when it came time for the decorating I had such a hard time. I never realized how difficult decorating cupcakes could be! After much time and with a lot of help from Aaron, we finally did it and here is the end result.



Janice did a great job of decorating the table and made a perfect spot for the cupcakes to go.
Here are just a few other pictures from the shower.

Opening presents

The Belly

Mother and Daughter

Jillian, me and Liz

San Diego

On August 21st I flew down to San Diego (my first trip without Aaron since we've been married) and met up with 6 of my very best friends. These are girls that I have known my whole life and it was so great to be able to spend 3 days non-stop with them. I've put off blogging this fun weekend because I haven't known how to sum up such a grand adventure. So I decided to steal Mandy's great summary of the weekend and post a bunch of pictures. Enjoy!

"We all arrived at various times on Thursday and stayed up talking until ~3am. Then on Friday morning, after breakfast, we went to play at Pacifica beach. The beach was beautiful and the waves were big and so fun to play in. For lunch we had In N' Out burger, if you haven't eaten there it is not worth missing. Later that night we walked around Old Town San Diego. Saturday we went to Coronada island, which is beautiful. We rented bikes and rode around the island. On the route we saw a crepe and gelato shop so we stopped in for lunch. After lunch we hung out the beach. Later that night we went out to dinner at a great place that was right on the water and we could the San Diego cityscape from our table. As we were finishing up dinner there was a firework show in the distance which was great to watch. On Sunday we all went our seperate ways."
Thanks for wrapping it up so well Mandy!
And here are some of my favorite pictures. I know, there's a lot.



At the beach








We rented two cars, matching white PT Cruisers.



The bike ride, perhaps my favorite part of the trip. Too bad we didn't get a picture of Mel crashing the bike that her, Mandy, Lauren and Aubrey were riding!

Then we stopped at the gelato and crepe restaurant for lunch. Divine.




Here's a little video of dinner on the water




Our last night we roasted marshmallow's on the stove. The original plan was to go to the beach but it was so much easier this way.

Since we had such a great time, we decided to make a tradition. We're going on a cruise in 2011! I can't wait! Miss you girls!