FAITHS 1ST DADDY DAUGHTER HUNTING TRIP

My little Faithy then & now


Friday Ronnie and Faith went to "Little Red" for the weekend, just the two of them. I closed my eyes and crossed my fingers that Faith would make it back in one piece. I still haven't gotten over me coming home from work when Faith was only three months old and finding her home ALONE! That's right, not a typo, Ronnie left our baby home alone.(Sorry Ronnie) Anyhow, this was their first alone trip together and yes she is home safe and sound tonight. Few! This was a much needed trip for Faith, from the very beginning Faith has been a daddy's girl! From what I hear they had a great time visiting with my sister and her two little kids in Show Low, riding on our Ranger, eating all our favorite restaurants, hunting today with Jesse and his little boy Colby and even shooting a coyote! I enjoyed a little quiet time and ran some errands that I have put off for months because its too hard dragging two kids around.

MY FIRST PONYTAIL

Monday was an exciting day, I was finally able to squeeze some hair into a rubber band and Jaylee got to sport her first little ponytail! Yeah! Last night I was standing at the sink doing the dishes and I see Faith run by me with one of her brushes from her beauty shop set and its dripping wet. I follow her to the toy room to see what mess I have in store for me. There I find our cute little Jay Bird with the worst forward comb ever! Faith says "isn't she beautiful mom"? I ran for my camera because it was too funny.

BABY OF MINE

About three weeks ago Ronnie bought out his partners half of the landscaping company. Now we are the sole owners of Supercuts Landscaping. Along with that I have become the sole accountant for a 25 employee company which entails a lot of hours in the office on the computer. In my defense though, it really wasn't that late. It was only 7:30pm and I was trying to get her to hold out until 8:00pm so she wouldn't wake up a few hours later or wake up super early in the morning. When Ronnie and I turned around from the computer to find her passed out on her saucer and milk dripping down her face it made me feel SOooo guilty. Partly because I feel like this is the result of a stressful couple of weeks and I think everybody in our house feels the way Jaylee looks. Lately I find myself wishing for more hours in the day to spend QUALITY time with my kids and my hubby(who is ALWAYS working). If only....

YOU FIND OUT WHO YOUR FREINDS ARE

Call me crazy....another post about music...but I cant help it. I was driving home alone tonight (which means I can blast my radio) and this song came on. I came home and played it for Ronnie and asked him what it reminded him of? And we both agreed... THANK YOU RON & LYDIA and CHRIS & BAILEY for all your SUPPORT with our business endeavors! This song is for you

TAG...IM IT

My Junior and Senior year I started to rebel against my parents and my church. I was wild and participating in things that absolutely were against everything I had been taught. Looking back now I realize I wasn't only rebellious in my actions but also in my heart and without any particular cause. Towards the end of my senior year I really started to slip into a deep depression. I attribute this to the lack of the holly ghost and also immense guilt.
During this time In my life I really started to pray. I prayed for months and months for some relief from my depression and guilt. One day I had stayed home from school and I was home alone. I was in my bed and praying harder than I had ever prayed in my entire life. I felt hopeless and I was doubting that there was any value to my life. I can honestly say that this was one of the three darkest days of my life. Then an answer to my prayers came. There was a knock on my door. When I answered the door there stood my bishop (bishop Flaherty). He explained to me that he had passed by my house on the way to his own home and that something had told him to turn his car around and knock on our door. He said that he felt funny and didn't know why he was there, but there he was. Wow. I just stood there in tears and disbelief for a minute. I asked him to come in and I explained how I had been feeling for the last several months. I told him that when he knocked on my door I had been praying for any reason at all to keeping living.
I have always heard how people have there own personal confirmation of the scriptures or of their testimonies. I never believed I could be worthy of one of my own especially during that time in my life, nor was I looking for any confirmations. That day I gained an undeniable testimony of the power of prayer. I learned that Heavenly Father hears prayers, any ones and every ones and does answer them. I also gained a testimony of our church leaders. Had my bishop not been in tune with the spirit and inspired to knock on my door that day, I would have forever missed out on this vital testimony. Not only did I gain those two important confirmations, through my bishops help I was able to put my life back in the right direction.
In the last ten years prayer has seen me through some extremely tough trials in my life. Sometimes the answer to my prayers are not as obvious as my bishop knocking on my front door but my personal testimony of prayer always reminds me that my heavenly father is listening.
When Ashleigh tagged me I thought and thought about a cute or funny story and I just couldn't think of any that I hadn't already shared or that were worth sharing. I hesitated to share this story only because I wouldn't want to take away the reverence in it by posting it on my blog. However now that I am done writing about it I am glad. Ronnie and I are making some crucial decisions with his landscaping company right now and I really needed this reminder. Thank you for letting me share. I tag Bailey & Lydia. Check Ashleigh's blog for directions

BIG party at "Little Red"

Aunt Coleen crawling into the entrance of Harris Caves

intire group after exploring the caves...and yes the dog went in too

bet you didn't know Faith had a big sister! Faith & (twin cousin) Sadie at the Homestead. Enlarge picture, too crazy

Uncle Chris teaching Faith how to ride a REAL 4 wheeler all by herself

Faith having a blast..... mom having anxiety attack

Chance, Me, Jaylee, Faith & Aunt Coleen

Jaylee playing with butterfly

Ronnie loving on Faith before we sent her back home with Aunt Coleen a day early because she was sick:(

What a fun weekend! We left Thursday night with our four nephews who live in Utah for "Little Red". We went up for Ronnie's cousins wedding reception in Show Low Friday night. Saturday was such a blast. There was 30 of us (all family) who met at "Little Red" to ride 4 wheelers. We road to Harris Caves which was only about 5 minutes away from our cabin. Harris Caves are actually underground taverns. You have to crawl through a little space and then eventually it opened up into a big muddy underground cave. Most everyone went in (not me) and had a great time. Later that night we went to Show Low for a fun double date with Gerald and Allison (and Jason). We ate Japanese food and went to the movies. We saw License to Wed. I laughed too hard it was too funny! Thanks for the babysitter guys and the great night out!

P.S. Just had to add...I love this song, it just describes how we feel about our life. Every time we leave our little slice of heaven we just come home so grateful for everything we have. Including our family and great friends. I really appreciate all of you who are so wonderful to our kids. Thanks Penny, Whitney & Shane for treating my kids like your own fam. To Uncle Chris and Aunt Bailey and to my Aunt for bringing Faith home and aiding her! Thanks to my little sis for saving our lives Thursday night! Thanks we really are lucky!

Random Cali Pics

Back to the real world....Well we got home Sunday evening and I was hit with a blast of reality when I stepped out of my Tahoe and my feet and legs started burning from the heat off the asphalt. It has been none stop since then, with family birthday parties, doctors appointments, dirty cloths and unpacking. Thank you grandma and Aunt Coleen for coming over Sunday night and helping me hang up cloths for several hours!I am so grateful that we were able to vacation for so long in San Diego this summer. Ronnie works so hard, long and late hours in our home office that it was WONDERFUL to spend so much time together. Faith will surely miss all the time together and Jaylee went from crying when Ronnie picked her up to crying when he doesnt pick her up. We had such a great time that we rented our condo for a month again next June. I sure will miss eating french fries at the fry shop, rolled tacos at Taco Surf, the beach and playing in the sand with my feet. The way I look at it is this...I only have to live here 11 more months.

DISNEYLAND

Faith gets her funny faces from her father

the things we do to entertain our children while waiting in long lines

Tyson, Faith & Ethan

even Jaylee enjoyed the rides. Its a Small world was her favorite


Yesterday we went to Disneyland. It was a long day. We woke up early and drove about an hour and half we got there about 9:30am. I was really excited because I havent been there since I was eight or nine. It was better than I remembered. It was HOT and the lines were sooo long but it was worth it. I even road on the Indiana Jones ride and it was scary. I am such a chicken I never ever ride any rides. The last ride I was on was at Amazing Jakes pizza, the Frog Hopper. I screamed so loud for them to let me off that I freeked Faith out too and we were both screaming. They had to stop the ride and let us off. People were staring, not cool.Saturday my sister in law Heather and her two oldest kids Tyson and Ethan flew in from Utah to stay our last week. Faith had a blast with her cousins. We got home around 12:30am. The days are flying by now, I cant believe we leave on Sunday:(

U.S.S. Midway

Grandma Lydia & Faith

Last week we toured the U.S.S. Midway a retired aircraft carrier. It was cool to see how our men live for months on end. The planes were really cool to see too.

FUN AT SEA WORLD

Faith feeding the dolphins

Faith petting the starfish

Yes that is Penny who used to work in the front office at Highland(Ronnie's brother married her daughter). They are all soaked from riding on the Ship Wreck Rapids ride.

Faith was so happy she was finally tall enough to ride this year



Yesterday we went to Sea World. It was HOT but the shows were great and we all had a good time.

MY Family Comes To Visit

Chance & Faith and their sand Sea Turtle

Ronnie's giant shell

Mariah, Chance, Faith & Jaylee dressed like pioneers at the Mormon Battalion


Every summer we come to Capri here in San Diego with Ronnie's family and his extended family probably 50+ people. Finally after all the years of coming and trying to talk my family into coming out too they finally did. They came for a short weekend trip. We had a lot of fun in one day. Faith had fun on the beach with her cousin Chance. While we were all in the ocean looking for sea shells to decorate their sea turtle's shell, Ronnie found a huge shell. Later we made my brave Aunt Coleen pry it open to see if there was a pearl inside. There wasn't, bummer. Later that evening we went to visit the Mormon Battalion in Old Town San Diego and then we ate yummy mexican food there. After that we drove to see the San Diego Temple. There is nothing like seeing this temple at night, my picture doesn't do it any justice either. It was a fun visit thanks for coming guys!

MY FIRST TOOTH!

Finally... I got my first tooth on June 10th, 2007. If you expand the picture you will see that my bottom right tooth finally pushed through! Yea :):)

MY 1ST TIME AT THE BEACH

MY 1st TIME SWIMMING

MY SUN BATHING BEAUTIES

Today has been perfect beach weather, sunny and warm all day. It was Jaylee's first time ever at the beach and swimming and she loved both. She had so much fun splashing the water in the pool with her hands. Its so much fun watching your children experiance things for the first time, its almost as great as if I were living it again for the first time.

June Gloom

We made it to San Diego late Friday night. It has been cloudy every day except Sunday and we dont go down to the beach on Sundays:( Faith is dying to get down there. Thats the greatest thing about staying right on the beach, you can beach it as you please. I have enjoyed eating all my favorite places that I havent been too since last summer.Today Ronnie bought a month membership to a jiu jitsu place so he can train while were here. Thats about it for now, just enjoying the ocean...

our Memorial weekend

My family has a tradition that every Memorial weekend we go up to the Whiting Homestead and spring clean our family cabin. All the other Whiting family members go up and all of us families spring clean around the homestead. This year Ronnie got to show off his landscaping skills by trimming the trees. I was impressed he did a great job. This was also the first year that Faith was old enough that I could just let her roam around the homestead with her cousins. She had the time of her life!

Of course it wouldn't be an exciting weekend for Ronnie unless he got to shoot something...poor fox:(


We had fun at the park in Show Low with my sister Lindsey and her two kids Shanay and Matthew.


What could be more fun than going to the carnival in the Safeway parking lot in Springerville? Even Ronnie and my brother Jay had fun sliding down the giant slide with Faith.


Sunday my whole family went to St Johns to clean around my dads grave site and leave some flowers. The picture with Jaylee and my brother Jay is very special to me because this was the first time Jaylee has visited her grandpa Jay who she was named after. This by far was my favorite day of our trip. We left on Wednesday and got home tonight. It was a long trip in the mountains but Ronnie had to satisfy his craving because we leave on Friday for San Diego and wont be home until July 1st. Ill post pictures of our Cali vacation from our laptop while were there.