Shaving cream

We were a little too bored last week and had to break out the shaving cream. (if you are a mom- you should always have a can of mens shaving cream around)

Seriously- your kids will be rolling with laughter and you will smell Gillette fresh for hours.


Totally blurry- but well worth it. I am practicing some new things with my camera.

E's self photo

While waiting for our train ride I gave El the camera to keep himself occupied. I love these shots! Photographer of the year worthy!

We will rock you

Elliott has a love for music. As of recently he has become a fan of Queen- in particular this little number. Sorry it's long- I couldn't help myself- he's got some good moves- they are pretty sporadic so be patient- they are worth it. And....he didn't want me to record him- that is why it is a pretty terrible recording- I was trying not to let him know it was recording- I thought I had it positioned correctly- wrong. Anyway- enjoy- I love when kids dance.

What does Proposition 8 (Protect Marriage Act) mean to me?

I feel it is our duty as citizens of a free nation to vote- to exercise the freedoms that so many other people do not have. We do not all agree on politics or certain ideas- however, one should take the opportunity given to go and put forth an effort to support whatever it is that he/she believes to be true and right.

In November of this year I plan to vote YES on proposition 8- the Protect Marriage Act. This is a touchy subject among many in California at this time. Many think those that are for prop 8 are against gay/lesbian relationships- I have friends/family who have chosen to live an alternative lifestyle whom I love and want nothing more but the best for them.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a proclamation that was written by the first presidency of our church - The Family: A Proclamation to the World -and it states-

"We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children."

I believe that marriage IS ordained of God and it IS designed ONLY for a man and a woman. I believe that if that changes and a man can marry a man or a woman can marry a woman then it demoralizes our society and the plan that was given us well before we came to this earth. It will give our children, their children, and so on and so forth- no sort of guide for morality and continuity. It may not seem (if Prop 8 fails) at first that anything has changed- but I think we would see things in the future change- for the worse. I will NOT have my child going to a school where he is taught things that go against the plan of my Heavenly Father.

In the end- He will be the judge of us all and how we have chosen to live our lives and how we chose to stand for things that we believed in that made us a stronger people.

How many times in the scriptures does it say- "Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence"?


Here are some facts from www.protectmarriage.com- you can of course decide for yourself.



Proposition 8 protects the people’s will and overturns activist judges.
In 2000 over 61% of Californians voted in favor of Proposition 22 to reaffirm that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. However, because this language wasn’t put into the state Constitution when it was approved, four activist judges from San Francisco wrongly overturned the people’s vote. In November 2008, Proposition 8 gives California voters the opportunity to reverse the court’s decision and restore the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman in the state Constitution.

Proposition 8 is simple and straightforward.
Proposition 8 contains the same 14 words that were previously approved in 2000 by over 61% of California voters: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” By putting these words directly into the state Constitution, the court cannot strike them down as unconstitutional.

Proposition 8 is about preserving marriage; it’s not an attack on the gay lifestyle.
Proposition 8 doesn’t take away any rights or benefits from gay or lesbian domestic partners. Under California law, “domestic partners shall have the same rights, protections and benefits” as married spouses. (Family Code §297.5.) There are no exceptions to this. Proposition 8 will not change this.

Proposition 8 protects our children.
Proposition 8 protects our children from being taught in public schools that same-sex marriage is the same as traditional marriage. In health education classes, state law requires teachers to instruct children as young as kindergarteners about marriage. (Education Code §51890.) If the same-sex marriage ruling is not overturned, teachers will be required to teach young children that there is no difference between gay marriage and traditional marriage.

Proposition 8 protects marriage as an essential institution of society.
Proposition 8 protects marriage and the important role of a traditional family. While death, divorce or other circumstances may prevent the ideal, the best situation for a child is to be raised by a married mother and father.

YES on Proposition 8 does three simple things.
It restores the definition of marriage to what the vast majority of California voters already approved and human history has understood marriage to be.

It overturns the outrageous decision of four activist Supreme Court judges who ignored the will of the people.

It protects our children from being taught in public schools that “same-sex marriage” is the same as traditional marriage.

Butterflies

Everywhere I look- I see butterflies lately. I am in heaven, of course. So is Elliott. However, the only thing we seem to be able to catch are the silly little orange moths- E (for some reason) calls them skippers. Every day for the past week you can find us out catching whatever we can. I intend to capture one of these- I think this is what I am seeing (swallowtail). Also a few monarch here and there- just lovely. Don't worry- we have a catch a release sort of policy- unless E's hands get a little to- handsy.

3 Things- Tag

The 3's-


Three Joys-

My boys
A good breathing day
My families

Three Fears-

A bad breathing day
E being lonely
Craig dying

Three Current Obsessions-

Jewelry making
Butterfly catching with E
Blogs/Facebook

Jen, Kimberly G., and Celeste- your it. Copy and paste and pass along.

Matthew

I have a friend- Karlea- I feel like I have known her forever. We have more in common than many friends do- or should. She has the sweetest little guy- Matthew. Elliott adores Matthew. We spent a late afternoon with them this last week and decided it is a once a weeker. Elliott and Matthew get along so well and have a great time together- this (if you have little ones) is hard to find sometimes. They tend to be quite patient with one another and that makes all the difference at their age.

A date with momma

After playing all morning with Elliott the other day- he says to me "Momma- can we something fun today?"- I was like-seriously- so I decided that every week we are going to do one special little outing for just the two of us. This week we took the bus to an outdoor mall area- played with the puppies in the pet store (for an hour), fed the Koi fish, met up with Dad for lunch, rode the carousel and then took the bus home. It really was a fun little day for the two of us. Elliott loves a good bus ride.


I can't get over these little houses- they are play houses for kids back yards- seriously. Every year they auction them off for a charity- they go for a ton of money. They had one that was "green"- it was so funny. My picture was lame but it was hilarious.

The things he says-

E's prayer last night-

dear kind Heavenly Father
thank you that mom and dad and carly and elliott are safe
thank you we had a good day no hitting...
no kicking... no punching...
thank you we can be healthy and strong
in the name of Jesus Christ, amen

Space fish

We have this fish costume- Elliott puts it on the other day and decides it looks like a astronaut. Good imagination. This is his space man costume- it is no longer a fish.

A week in review

Labor Day- when E was born it didn't even strike me that he was being born near Labor Day- Cute guy gets to share his birthday with one of the busiest weekend holidays. We had quite a weekend and the party continued all week.


Elliott with his Spiderman pinata- it was a last minute birthday add-on. Elliott couldn't put him down in the car he was so excited. He even had to hug him and tell him "I love you, Spiderman" when we left him in the car to go into his little party. He cracks me up.



Elliott has a love of gaming. All kinds of games- he was introduced to Chuck-E-Cheese last year (cursed Chuck-E-Cheese) and since then he constantly talks about going. Well- I despise Chuck-E-Cheese but wanted to do something he would love- so I had a little compromise with myself- Nickel! Nickel!- it is the BEST- well, compared to the Cheese. It is smaller, wasn't crowded and everything is a nickel. The kids had a great time and really that was all that mattered.




Cute Luke playing basketball- he was loving it- look at his cute little hand follow through.



This picture of Nate cracks me up because his tongue is so involved.




Shelly and Cute Collin- watching the pinata.




End of the week- it was Papa Dave's birthday. We got him all to ourselves (mostly Elliott to himself) for the afternoon. Elliott's pick for Papa's birthday? Bowling and Go Carts. Happy Birthday Papa Dave! Thanks for, as usual, doing all that Elliott's little heart desired.

Etsy- Jewelry

I just wanted to let everyone know about my etsy site. My sister-in-law Mandy (she is who got me into making jewelry in the first place) and I started Elilu Designs. It is a fun jewelry shop.

We will be having a jewelry show in November so stay tuned.....

There is also a link to the right---

Happy 4th Birthday Elliott!

4 years ago my life changed. Craig and I adopted our little Elliott- well, little then. That was a good day- In my mind I have a list of the 3 best days of my life.
1- Day I married Craig
2- Day we brought Elliott home
3- see below

3rd best day- the day Elliott was sealed to us.


When we were told that we'd be adopting our children- I knew that we would be sent the right one. I knew Heavenly Father knew Craig and I well enough to find a way to get a special person to us. I now know even better than I did before that He knows me better than I know myself- because he sent me Elliott. Whether I would have given birth to him or adopted him- I believe this same little person would have been mine. I'm the lucky one that got to have my baby in a "miracle" way. We always tell him he is our miracle.

Elliott is the greatest guy. He is full of life and full of creativity. I can't keep up with him half of the time. He has such a tender heart and a passion for life. He is feisty, determined and stubborn. He is wonderful and perfect. He is funny and makes us laugh hours after he has done something. He is charming and intuitive. He loves animals and babies and- well way too many things to go into great detail!!!
. I think he will go on to do great things in his life- big or small- they will be great to me,
I'm his momma.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY ELLIOTT!!!

Perfect beach day

Yesterday was the PERFECT beach day. It was beautiful, hot and perfect. We met up with my sister and her family at our favorite beach.

Yes- that is a practically florescent rash guard my child is wearing- it is awful- an awful color. However, I can ALWAYS spot him. With a ton of children running around one must make their child stick out a little- that way they will always be spotable.

I also always think I take a ton of pictures at the beach. I hardly have any of Shelly and her family. I did get this cute one of Collin. He is so cute. He is always hanging out going with the flow- I love that about him.

J, J and A

Jessica my cousin and her cute little family- husband Jason and baby Avery have been here this summer working. We have hardly seen them- but will miss them. Elliott adored cute Avery- almost a little too much- he liked to maul her a bit. Maybe again next summer??

Preshcool days

Elliott' s little buddy Wesley- we love Wes- there is NEVER a dull moment when Elliott and Wesley are with each other.


Elliott started preschool last week. He loves preschool. He has many friends in his class- there is always something exciting going on.

He is getting way too big and way too far away from being my baby.

Home sweet Idaho and Welcome Home Josh

We took a vacation last week to Idaho. My little brother had just returned from serving a mission in Florida for our church. Welcome home Joshua! It was a bit of a whirlwind- I feel like we hardly got to know how Josh's mission was- there was so much going on.





If you have never seen our bridge in Idaho here it is- quite legendary at present (I.B. Perrine Bridge)- it is the only bridge in the US that you can base jump off of legally. It is also a beautiful sight to see.




One of the reasons we went home was to take a tour of the new Twin Falls Temple for our church- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I wish I had taken pictures of it- it was beautiful- I was able to be there with almost all of my family- hopefully not the last time. My mom arranged the whole thing- we even had some of our aunts and uncles and cousins there- some I had never met before- too bad we didn't get to visit with them for very long.




Elliott on a little walk the first morning we were there- he was so stoked to be in Idaho. We talk about it so much- it was finally something real and actually happening.




We did a little boating on my brother Curtis' boat- strangely- I have no pictures of Curtis- hum.






The kids were so excited about my dads cows. It was so fun to see something-that to me growing up was an everyday thing- become something exciting and fun. They got to feed them some corn- Scott named two of the cows- Hamburger and Sirloin (or something like that)- it was funny hearing the kids call one of them Hamburger all week.










And of course- what would a trip to the country be without animals. Elliott was in heaven. He was constantly following one of my dad's animals around. This was the first time we have ever had a hard time getting him to come inside to eat dinner- he would have preferred to be outside the whole day.



Papa's tractor- Papa let him go in the field and steer it himself- he was so thrilled- it was hilarious. Poor cows- E almost ran them over a couple of times.







A fishing trip with Papa, Sally and the gang. Papa was looking in the water for something and Elliott was all over him.


Kenyon's first reeled in fish- she didn't want to handle it.



Shelly and Collin- there was so much going on and cute Collin just rolled with the punches- he is such a good baby.






Grandma Arlee (as Elliott calls her) took us on a little hike to a waterfall- it was beautiful and different for the kids.



Of course- what would vacation be without a few people getting sick? El and Craig got the flu while we were gone- it was a total BUMMER- it kept us in for a few of our vacation days.










Elliott has been so excited to see Papa's airplane. He built it himself. When E found out that he was going to get to sit in it and have the propeller on- he could hardly handle it- seriously- squeals were coming out. I wish the pictures were better- they hardly show how excited the kids were to be in Papa's plane- he even took them on the runway a bit. As soon as the plane started moving Elliott asked Craig if they were going to get to go up and fly.








We met up with some of Craig's family for a bit on our way back through Utah. Some live there and some were in town for his cousins wedding reception. We went to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur Museum- again- E was totally stoked.



And---what is a vacation through Utah without going to Cabella's- (in my mind it is a fine vacation- but the boys think otherwise- I was happy to oblige.) They have a little target shooting thing- Elliott is a master marksman.





Funny- they only pictures I took at Brandon (Craig's cousins) reception. Elliott was breaking it down on the dance floor with Avery (Jennifer's boyfriend's neice). They were awesome!







Last- we went to see Spencer's new apartment- sans furniture- except the TOTAL GYM. Elliott was working on his muscles with the total gym.


It was a great trip- too short. I was really sad to be leaving Idaho. I don't get home enough- it isn't the easiest place to get to- especially with kids. I guess it will always be something to look forward to in the future. I know Elliott hasn't stopped talking about Idaho since we left......