A Major Update (Dedicated to Mrs. Mower)

This post is dedicated to Mrs. Jessica Mower for mocking me about not ever updating my blog :)

Mel and I got to spend a fun sister's weekend in Salt Lake with Jamie. We have so much fun when we are together! We ate, shopped, and just enjoyed being together.

Brandon ordered a red, full-body spandex suit which he loves. It is so funny! He wears it all too frequently :)

We spent the weekend of the 4th fishing at the ponds! Getting up at 5:00 a.m. to head up to the ponds can make us a little bit silly! We started naming the fish and Mom even started talking to the worm on her hook! haha. We have a wonderful time!

Dad said that he would pay $5 to the person who caught the first fish of the morning. Well, you can imagine how thrilled I was when shortly after that my line wiggled! I named him Buck :)

...Don't ask.
Brandon tried putting a fruit snack on the end of his hook. Needless to say it didn't work!

Fishing up at the ponds in the early morning hours reminds me of how beautiful our area really is! I am grateful to live here.

On the 4th we went to the parade, then spent the afternoon with relatives in Idaho Falls and watched the I.F. fireworks. They were beautiful once again!

Mom brought some glow sticks for the kids... haha. Yeah, he's probably the biggest kid of all!

A week or so ago, Mom, Dad, Mel, Brandon and I got to go to the American Idol tour in Salt Lake! It is kind of our family show and we love watching it together. This is the second Idol tour we have been able to go to and we LOVED it! We even had great seats.
Our excited faces.
Haley Reinhart (Brandon's crush) and Casey Abrams
Lauren Alaina
And best of all, Scotty McCreery! I love him!
Two of my very best friends. I'm so glad we got to have this fun adventure together!
To top off these amazing couple of weeks, we got to meet up with Jamie and spend a day at Lagoon. It was fun to run from ride to ride and hit as many as we could while the lines were short. We also got to spend a few hours at Lagoon A Beach to cool off from being in the hot sun!

The Rocket. It is so much better of a ride if you take your shoes off :)
Our most recent adventure is Mom having both of her wrists operated on due to carpal tunnel. She has been having severe pain in her wrists for quite a while and decided that it was time to get it taken care of. So we have been able to serve her lots this past week as she can't do anything. It is a nice change because she spends all of her time serving everybody else, so I am glad that she has been able to relax and rest. However, I do wonder if she might be relaxing a bit too much because yesterday she said, "It's the drugs man! It's a great life!" haha. She is the best!

The Big 17th!

No no, it wasn't MY 17th birthday. We celebrated Brandon's big 17th year on March 11th. How crazy that our baby boy is so old (and big!). Mom has always made our birthdays fun from the minute we wake up. She decorates the table and we have a fun celebration breakfast to begin the special day!

Here is the birthday boy :) haha. He is such a ham!

We always get to choose a birthday cereal!

I just wanted to take one nice picture of Mel and Brandon.....

After several attempts to get Brandon to smile nicely, Mel had given up on our picture.

He really is such a great kid! He constantly makes us laugh and is so kind and sweet to everyone.

Happy birthday, Brandon Boy!

My New Hobby

I learned how to make hair bows at one of our FHE activities at the beginning of the month, and lately I have been obsessed with this new hobby! I am not very crafty, nor do I enjoy crafty activities that much, but for some reason I have loved making these bows!

I was able to make a bunch for some friends and relatives and it has been a lot of fun!

Halloween Fun

Skeleton cupcakes at our preschool party! (Made by one of the parents)

My preschool pirate costume.

Hippy Brandon! haha. He wore this to the high school dance.

Titan, me, Mel, and Wuendy. We all went to a

regional single's Halloween dance and had a great time!

My outfit for my single's ward party.

I Can Do Hard Things

Recently, a dear friend of mine lost her young daughter. It broke my heart to see her go through the grief and pain that accompanied this loss, but I was also touched by the strength and faith she demonstrated throughout it all. A few weeks after the funeral, she created a post on her blog entitled: I Can Do Hard Things. It was a beautiful expression of her strength to carry on and to tackle the hard and scary things that are a part of our lives.

For the past couple of months, since reading that tender post, that phrase has stuck with me and come to mind on many occasions: I can do hard things. I was so touched by my friend's strength and courage that I have adopted the phrase as my new motto for life. So, these past 2 months or so, I have done several things that I once feared. They aren't life changing things--in fact, you might think that they are silly, but they have helped me to realize that we have more strength inside of us than we even know.

I finally chopped my hair really short. (It was almost at my shoulders when I started.) I have always had short haircuts, but this time I wasn't going to let my hesitations keep me from trying the cut that I have wanted to try for a long time. I have been so happy with it!

After years of hearing about the Walker family hikes to Tablerock, I decided it was time for me to give it a try. I am not a hiker and I am not in the best of shape, but I made it! It was invigorating to reach the top and to look down over the valley.

Two weeks ago, Bryan and I sang a duet in Sacrament Meeting. I was SO nervous! The last time I sang a song in church was 10 years ago when Bryan was going on his mission. But again, it was a fear that I knew I had to overcome.

I have found a place where I get to dance like a wild woman and shake my booty! Mel and I joined a Zumba class and it has been quite an adventure!

Lastly, I have finally conquered my fear of the Skycoaster at Lagoon! I have been wanting to go on this ride for years, but I have always been too chicken. Can you blame me? You are strapped to 2 other people and hoisted up 150 feet in the air by some cables, only to be released in a face-first swing across the park. Bryan and I went to Lagoon just over a week ago and this time, after fighting with myself for most of the afternoon, I rushed to the counter and paid for my ticket so that I could not get out of going. It was so incredible! I loved swinging over the park and I was amazed to find out that it wasn't as scary as I had anticipated! What a rush!

So, the moral of the story--we really can do hard things! We don't need to let fears and doubts hinder us any longer because we have been blessed with inner strength and courage that only needs to be discovered. Thanks to my sweet friend for her example of this strength! It has blessed my life immensely.

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7