Vacation!!!

I had enough of the heat and decided to journey to my Aunt Katie's house in SLC. We got up unnaturally early and hit the road!! This is Ella at 5ish AM. Not super thrilled to be awake!! She was SOOOOO GOOD the whole trip!! No whining in the car. No fit throwing at my Auntie's house. No melt downs while we shopped... and shopped.... and shopped!!

This is Ella at breakfast. She decided to eat her toast that morning all natural!! I don't know what inspired this nakedness. But my Aunt had 5 sons. 3 of which still live at home!! I'm glad they were sleeping in, because I think they would have been scarred for life!!

This is Mac, the coolest dog ever!! He is a pug. I think while we were there, he slept 22 hours out of every day!! My kind of dog! He was so friendly and so mellow!! Ella chased and petted and basically tortured him for 4 days and he didn't even care!! As you can tell, he loves to cuddle!

We went to Gardeners Village in South Jordan, just a few miles from my Auntie's house. I shopped in their AWESOME home stores. It's an outside mall and was put in an old sugar mill. It's themed to be old world and so cute. They have a petting zoo on the lot. Ella wasn't interested in this goat.

But she LOVED the pony rides!!! She wanted to go over and over and I think we could have spent a whole day there. However, I was in sandals, tromping through the pony corral. Yeah, nothin' like a little manure between your toes!! :)

After her love for the ponies, and her love of Mac, I told Brent we are getting a pet!! He can give into a pony or a puppy!!! He is currently thinking!! :)

We had so much fun!!! My mom came with us and was my co pilot for the drive!! My truck is big so I needed help knowing when to move over in busy SLC traffic. I thought squashing a Honda during our journey might put a damper on things.

We missed Brent but it was hard to leave!! My Aunt's house is GORGEOUS and she has a picture perfect yard. We all spent hours out there, playing and laying on a blanket. Clouds came up and it rained a little and the weather was so nice!! We were a little depressed when we came into the valley and the temperature gage read 105. I know that's cool for this time of year but it was 85 in SLC.

We had so much fun and we have a standing date for next July!!! I'm so grateful my Auntie Katie let us invade her house for 4 days!! Yay for vacation.....booooo for all the laundry I have to do!!

Happy Birthday Ella!!

Getting ready for the party!! She looks scared to death but she actually enjoys the diffuser! Her hair is naturally curly (love this) and I usually just put a little mousse in it to keep it nice. But on special days we froo froo it up!!

I think this was her favorite present! Grandma and Papa got her a SLIDE!! Ella loves slides! And now she has her very own!

They also got her this adorable poodle. She was so excited for "a puppy!" But I whisked it away for her to open another present before she got properly acquainted. Don't worry poodle, you will be properly mauled soon!

Brent and I got her a Little People's Village. She opened it and screamed, "Wow!! A house!!" She loves doll houses and also got one of those today! (She's not spoiled at all.....)

She got tons of other stuff too! 3 cute outfits, a power wheels motorcycle, puzzles, books, and a cute dollie. She was a little over whelmed but there are plenty of days for her to break them all in!

She was so worn out, and had so much fun, this was her 15 minutes after the last person left her party!

Ella's birthday is actually the 12th. But we celebrated today so everyone could come. My whole fam came, plus Brent's sister and her husband and baby, and they brought his mom and sister. They were really sweet and it was fun to meet them! We had a lot of fun! Babies make things SO FUN!!

While I was cuddling Ella after she fell asleep, it hit me: she just isn't a baby anymore!! She walks, talks, argues, gets mad, gets happy and everything in between! She is getting SO big SO fast!! I can't believe she is 2 today! It seems like we just barely celebrated her first birthday!! I love her so much!! I don't know how a little girl can be so sweet, and so deceptively evil at the same time!! She is wonderful and I am so glad she is mine!! Happy birthday to my little girl!! I love you!!

4th Of July

Ella ready for the fireworks to start. She thought it was great she got to stay up AND be outside!

Uncle Hiss getting ready for the show. My Dad was really sick so Hiss and Grandma came alone.

Still very excited!!

NOT excited for a picture!!

The day was so fun!! I went for a run and bike ride in the morning. It was very refreshing, except for the part where a dog mistook me for his morning snack! I narrowly escaped!

We BBQed in the evening. Brent made the BEST ribs! He is getting really good at the grill. We then played at the Bowler's house until sundown.

My family made it a tradition 7 years ago to meet at the elementary school and sit on the lawn to watch the fireworks. It's nice and cool in the grass and we aren't so close that sparks fall on us! Ella was startled at first by the loud booms but she got over it. She kept pointing at the fireworks and saying, "Big, big stars!" Then I taught her to howl like a coyote and that was very cute! She took turns going from me, to Brent, to Grandma, to Uncle Hiss to make sure she had someone to cuddle her at all times.

It was a fun day!!

My Weekend Of Glory

Today heralds the 26th year of my birth. And as I am famous for saying: I am now one year closer to death!! For celebration, we reserved the Warm Springs pool and had a party!! Everyone came, we ate too much food and had lots of fun!!

Shellie, Nathan and their little girl Charlotte
Above: Ella LOVED being hurled through the air from person to person. It was a complete argument trying to convince her leave when the party was over.

My sister sporting her really cool bandanna. She has ear issues and couldn't get them wet. My dad's awesome camo hat was protection from the sun. They look gooooooood. Jack Jack has some form of water assault weapon and was too afraid of the water,so he rode in the fish boat.

Ella didn't want a picture. BUT TOO BAD!!!

This is my gift from Brent. I am soooooo excited!! I didn't get to ride it until later. As you can tell, Ella was very excited and thought it was for her. We had to push her up and down our street a hundred times,before we finally peeled her off and hid it in the garage! I am so excited to take it for a real ride!!

Sunday the Church gave me the present of Stake Conference!! Yay!! In my house hold, stake conference means: no church that day!! I love going to church,and I love the gospel, but 3 hours of trying to tell my almost 2 year old to be reverent wears on me. Oh and did I mention I'm in nursery? Yeah, a break was nice.

Today (Monday) Is my official birthday!! Happy Birthday to me! Hopefully I have a few more years to grow closer to death!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the father of my beautiful child. We love you and I am so glad we are raising a family together!! Thank you for all you do for us!!

Weekend Visitors

This is Dr. Heckle. A Siamese mix

This is Mr. Hyde. He is also a Siamese mix, but obviously does not have the markings.

They were teeny tiny, itty bitty, little mews!! They are brothers and belong to my sister. She was out of town for the weekend and I graciously offered to cat-sit. :) We were so excited!! Ella was thoroughly entertained. She would sneak up behind them and yell, "Boo cat!!"and scare the little things to death!! We had fun playing with them and letting them roam our house for a few days.

My Love Story

I saw this on my friend Tara's blog and thought I give it a whirl!! All my posts have been about sickness lately, so I thought I should have a happy post!!

Brent and I grew up together. We knew of each other but he was a grade older than me so we never really interacted. My dad was his 8th grade basketball coach and I thought he was cute. When I was a sophomore and he was a junior, my friend Victoria and I were taking someone home from school and drove past his house. He was laying in a hammock in his front yard. We both commented and how cute he was. Victoria knew him better and told me how quiet and nice he was. I started keeping an eye for him!!
Then my other friend Emily went to prom with him that year. She told me how funny he was. I started to notice him a little more. :)
THEN I went to a track meet with Emily and saw this HOT runner waiting at the starting blocks. He had these grown man muscles, not the skinny boy ones. I asked her who it was because we were looking at him from behind. (Also a pretty good view:) ) And she got this big smile on her face and told me Brent Bowler! I was stunned. I watched him run and was mesmerized by his athleticism. I was (am) very shallow and it was (is) very important to me to be involved with someone who played football and was athletic. I asked Emily if he played and she told me he had gone to state with the team as a sophomore.
I was sold. I spent all summer trying to catch glimpses of him around town and day dreaming about his track shorts!!
School started and I decided to ask him to reverse. We had such a fun day. He was funny and cute and I loved his smile. He was easy to talk to. We started the whole, 'wave, say hi, smile game' until homecoming. Oh the magic of homecoming!! Where an influx of high school relationships begin! We 'hooked up' and decided to be 'exclusive'.
Brent was thoughtful and patient and just sweet. He never tried any stupid boy games I had came to know. He helped me pack for my Thanksgiving trip and all the cheerleaders were jealous :)
He graduated high school and we survived that separation. Our relationship was really good. He went on his mission and I did really well until September.
THEN the serpent beguiled me and I was lonely and succumbed to words of the deceptive serpent. Flash forward 10 month later: I LEFT the serpent and found myself home again, recovering and putting myself back together.
A few month later, I sat down in single's ward Sunday school and who should walk in..... Brent Bowler!!! I felt my heart drop. He looked into my eyes for a long moment and then sat down across the room. I didn't hear any of the lesson. I was stunned and my heart was pounding. I kept telling myself, he doesn't have that much effect on me, I'm just surprised. Well, he was blocking the door when it was time to leave and I couldn't walk by him with out saying something. So I said the typical hi how are you, little bit of small talk. Suddenly out of my mouth I said. If your ever bored call!
I walked away, shamed. Like he would ever call!! But a few days later... he did. We talked for about an hour. I hung up, so confused on what to think. I got and my knees and prayed to understand. I got a deep and sure feeling of, everything is going to be alright and I left it at that.
Brent and I became genuine friends. Who talked and laughed and went running together. We actually talked about other people we were interested in. We fought the inexplicable draw we had to one another.
We then became 'special friends who kiss sometimes'. (hey don't judge)
Then we gave up and made a commitment to each other. We dated for WAY to long. I worried about if I was being beguiled again. I wanted to make sure getting married was what I wanted. Then he worried about his family attitude toward me. That's always uncomfortable!
Finally we went to President Robison and said we're getting married. That's it.
Brent asked me to marry him and I started to cry. I knew this was the man I had been waiting for my whole life. That faceless groom in my wedding dreams. That imaginary husband in my happy family fantasies, was this man.
We were married on May 7, 2005. We have a beautiful daughter, cute home and a life together. I love Brent. He is my champion, my companion and my best friend. He is my perfect match. We kiss and play and laugh and yell and do all the other things a marriage is about!! I am in love with him. I may bust his butt every day of the week!!! But I could not live with out him. He my anchor. He's my whole life. I am so grateful for him!!