Steve's brother has my fantasy backyard!

Happy birthday Brendan!

Today is my nephew Brendan's 6th birthday. He is such a great kid! I wish I could describe his personality adequately because he is so cute. He can be shy when you talk to him (especially if you try to take his picture) but then you will see a big smile on his face. He has such a big heart and I am so glad he is my nephew. Happy birthday Brendan! I love you!

I want to be more like this

Steve and I just arrived in Buffalo. We are here to visit his brother and family who moved here a few years ago. Just as we sat down on the plane, a baby started to cry in the row in front of us. I tensed up and started thinking that we were unlucky to be by the crying baby. I closed my eyes and tried to wish the noise away. All the sudden I heard the cutest laughing. The baby was giggling! At Steve! Steve was making funny faces at him and the baby loved it. Soon everyone around us was watching Steve and this adorable baby making funny faces at each other. The father kept saying thank you to Steve. It was such a cute moment and really made me think about what a difference a positive way of approaching a situation can make, which is a reminder I seem to need often. Thank you Steve!

Mt. Air

Now that's a piece of cake!

Steve and I went to his niece Sarah's 5th birthday party today. She was very excited about her Wall-e cake and wanted to have the piece with Wall-e on it. So her grandma actually cut out the whole middle of the cake and gave it to her! She and her brother Jeffrey attacked it together and did some good damage to it. I think her Uncle Steve gave her the coolest present- a Sponge Bob snow cone maker!

This smile makes me smile!

One of the great things about Boston in the summer!

I finally made it to my favorite beach in MA today- Wingershaek beach in Gloucester. I love the view there. It was the perfect day to go to the beach which means it was very crowded, but I'm glad I went. This summer went by so fast! It seems like it just started.

I might be missing the football gene...

but it is still fun to go see the Patriots play. The stadium is very nice and it's always amazing to see that many people in one place. Steve's boss gave him tickets to the game tonight so that is how we ended up going. The game was awful so thank goodness it was a pre-season game! Whenever I am at a football game I think of my dad and the great memories I have of going to BYU football games with him. You would think from that I would have a love for BYU and football, but instead I just loved spending time with my dad. I love you dad!

A fun distraction!

This is a mosaic created from the answers to some questions below. I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun!



Here are my answers:
1. Christina 2. Grande Non-fat Caramel Macchiato (this counts as food, right?!?) 3. West Jordan 4. Yellow 5. Jacoby Ellsbury 6. Diet Coke 7. Barbados 8. Cheesecake 9. Happy 10. Family 11. Pensive 12. Dogs

YOU CAN PLAY TOO!
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search at www.flickr.com
b. Using only the first page, pick an image
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into the mosaic maker at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you
12. Your favorite animal

Advice for a friend of mine- you know who you are! :)

Thanks Steve for the great dinner!

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Today is my nephew Jordan's 9th birthday! I can't believe he is growing up so fast. Jordan is such a great kid and is very smart. I had so much fun with him when I visited Utah last month. He and his brothers are my nephews with the cool pets (snake, frog, dog... you never know what will be next!).

Jordan, I hope you have a great birthday! I'm so glad you are my nephew and I love you!

Good question! :)

Happy Birthday Grandpa Davies!

Today is my Grandpa Davies 87th birthday! I am so thankful that he is my grandpa! He has been a special person to me throughout my life. I have always felt so much love from him and that has been a great blessing to me. I also admire my grandpa a lot for the way he has lived his life. His mom passed away when he was young, he grew up working hard on a farm, then fought in WW2 and when he returned raised 9 children! After retiring, he served two missions for the LDS church with my grandma. And through all of this he has lived his life very honorably. Throughout any challenges in his life I have never heard him complain. He and my grandma are very cute together, I can't imagine them not being together. My grandpa is talented at cross-stitching and has made many beautiful pictures which decorate his house and the homes of his large family. I have a picture that he made in my apartment and it makes me smile every time I see it. I mentioned before that my grandpa makes the world's best cookies and this is true! He will always give you a cookie with a twinkle in his eye when you visit him. On my last visit he gave me a zip lock bag with four cookies in it to take with me on my trip back. It was so great to feel like he was with me on the plane ride and the next day when I was feeling blue and missing my family. Sometimes when I see my grandpa I think I am going to drive him crazy from hugging him too much because I don't know when to stop! :) A few years ago he told me that he knows I love him, that he can tell when he sees me. I wish I would have written down exactly what he said because I can't explain it right now. But it meant a lot to me and I couldn't think of a better thing to hear from him.

Happy Birthday Grandpa! I hope you are having a good day. I love you!

Happy Birthday Linda!

Today is my sister Linda's birthday. She is just two years younger than me so had to put up with me a lot throughout the time we were growing up. If you talk to Linda about me she will be happy to tell you about what a mean older sister I was. :) I think I was a great older sister (of course!) but there was the time... When Linda, Lisa and I shared a room in Wyoming, my dad made a cool bunkbed for us that had my bed on top and Linda and Lisa's on the bottom (the two bottom beds faced outward from the top bunk). Around the time I was 8 and Linda was 6, I started asking her to bring me a glass of water at night when we were both already in bed. I think she did it for a while without saying anything, but then she realized that she was always doing it for me but I wasn't doing anything for her. So she told me that she didn't think that was fair. I told her it was only because I was in the top bunk- if I were below then I would bring her water. She must have been a really nice sister because she still brought me water. Then one night we traded beds. Of course Linda asked me to bring her a glass of water. Only fair, right?!? Sadly, I refused to bring her the water! :( I don't even remember what reason I gave her, but I do remember stubbornly refusing to bring it to her. I have a feeling I will never hear the end of this. :)

Anyway, sorry Linda! And thanks for all the glasses of water that you brought to me, and for being a great sister. One thing I always remember about you is that you were always very generous with sharing your things with your siblings. I remember times when you would get a special treat from mom and would immediately share it all with everyone. I know we sometimes fought but I always knew that you loved me and I hope that you know that I love you a lot too. As an adult I really admire your creativity and passion to make things that I could never dream of, like your cool sprinkler creations that you made last summer. I'm so glad that you are my sister. I hope you have a great day and that this is a wonderful year for you.

A smile for today!

This is one of my favorite pictures!  I just came across it and wanted to post it so that hopefully it will make everyone else smile like it did for me.  Bella, thanks for bringing so many smiles to our family!  Lisa, thanks for sharing this picture with me!  I hope you don't mind me posting it.  :)

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Happy 8th Birthday! I hope you have a great day! I had so much fun with you last week. You are so kind and thoughtful and I'm so glad you are my niece. I can't wait to see you again so you can read another book to me! I love you!

Happy Birthday Paul!

I know you aren't reading this but I have been thinking about you today. I am thankful for the role you played in my life- I learned so much from you and I respect you a lot. I hope you are having a wonderful birthday, and that this is a great year for you!

Happy 8/8/08! Where did the past 20 years go?!?

My boss and I were talking yesterday about today being 8/8/08 and now I am feeling very old. On 8/8/88, my best friend Christie and I celebrated the day by doing a bunch of things related to 8s. We made a joke of it all day and had fun with it, so it is a day that sticks out in my memory. I can't believe it was 20 years ago!! 10, maybe! Not 20! It is strange to be at the age when you can suddenly recall that something that seems like yesterday was 20 years ago. I remember as a kid my grandma saying that she hadn't seen someone for 15 years and I couldn't even imagine that. Now I'm one of those old people that can talk about how it was a"back then," before CDs and cell phones and email and Internet and on and on and on. :) I even had to walk to middle school! Uphill both ways! In the snow!

Thanks Mom!

This is a picture of my sister Linda, me, and my brother Robert. My mom took it at the celebration of my Grandpa Breitling's birthday last week. We didn't want her to take this picture (this was her third take) and I guess we rolled our eyes and grumbled at her, but you can't tell by looking at it and I'm happy to have it now. So thank you Mom! You were right as usual. :)

I got to hold one of my nephews' cool pets!

When I visited my brother Robert, his son Jordan showed me his pet garter snake right away. I actually liked holding it! Because Andrea is such a cool mom, my nephews got to bring home a snake and a huge frog from their camping trip! When I saw Jordan at our family's cabin a few days later he had his snake catching gear so he was prepared to catch new pets! He was hoping for a lizard since there are lots of them up there. He didn't find a lizard but I think he caught a few yummy bugs for the snake. It was so fun to see my nephews!

Happy Birthday Charlene!

Today is my niece Charlene's 8th birthday! She is growing up so fast! These are some of my favorite old pictures of her, the first is from Christmas when she was 4 and the second is from a visit to Utah when she was 5. When Charlene was younger people used to tell us that she looked like me and that was such a great compliment to me! She is such a sweet person and I'm happy to have such a wonderful niece.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Breitling!

Today is my Grandpa Breitling's 80th birthday. We had a celebration for his birthday last night at our family's cabin at Mt. Air. It was such a great night and I am so glad I was able to be there.

My Grandpa Breitling is a very special person. He is an amazing example to our family. He is the happiest person I know and brings smiles to eveyone around him. I think a big part of why he is so joyful is that he spends most of his time helping others. He shows so much love to our family and countless others through service to them. As we celebrated my Grandpa's birthday it really made me think about how well he has lived his life and how much I want to be like him. I love you Grandpa!

My #1 Rad Dad!