Independence Day Weekend

I had a fabulous 4th of July weekend! It was seriously perfect. We spent Saturday afternoon at the pool with Gabe, Madison, and David. Gabby and I are getting LOTS of pool time. We go most evenings after work and every Saturday. Utah summers are far too short so you gotta make the most of them! We went to West Jordan and had some all-you-can-eat sushi sans kids. I am not seeing my family as much since the move, so it was good to get lots of time in together.

Gabby is my little fish and getting more fearless in the water.

On Sunday, we had a barbecue at the Torgersons with lots of Arkansas friends. There was tons of food and even more laughter. I have the best family and friends! Pam and I discovered we both loose our ability to grasp things with our hands if we laugh too much. It was wonderful having so many Arkansans under one roof.

4 of 6 siblings together. It's not looking good to having 6 of 6 any time soon.

I had Monday off and Gabby was with her dad. I hiked Stewart Falls with my friend Jessica. We were roommies our freshman year at BYU and have fortunately remained close ever since. Jessica recently moved here and started a new job with me. It's terrific having her here and working with her. The Falls were beautiful and it felt great being out in nature. We spent our afternoon lounging at the pool and reading. As I said, the weekend was perfect!

Camping!

Gabby and I went camping with the Nevers Family on Friday night. We've been trying to go camping together for 2 years now and it just never happened until now. We went to Little Sahara Sand Dunes which are south east of here in the middle of nowhere. I love camping and have really missed going. I am definitely not brave enough to go on my own though. I had the worst night of sleep thanks to the wind and my paranoid thoughts that an animal was trying to get into my tent all night. And some idiots kept driving by our campsite on their four-wheelers. It helped that there were other people there, but Gabby and I definitely won't be taking any camping trips on our own any time soon. I love getting away from everything, even my cell phone service. I love campfires and especially s'mores. Gabby loved it as well, so we'll have to try and go a bit more.

The view to the east of the campgrounds from the top of the dunes. I have to say that my car was most impressive getting through to the campsite and not getting stuck.

Running to dunes. Part of the dunes is fenced off to play on sans ATVs.

I brought Gabby's sled to try out on the dunes and it worked out pretty well.

Going down on the stomach worked well too.

Magnificent sunset!

Tent Sweet Tent! I camp with an air mattress and was most comfortable aside from all my silly fears. It actually gets fairly cool at night (50's) so we were bundled up for the night.

Gabby and I took a slide down together.

Gabby and Ellie.

Gabby and 4 of the 5 Nevers playing near our campsite.

Summer Sledding!

The Year So Far

I know it's been way too long since I blogged, my apologies! It has been a busy year. First off, I was fortunate to find a new job weel before my office closed and I was unemployed. I started 3 months ago and it has been going well. I'm still a claims adjuster, just handling all parts of the claim for auto accidents now for a different company. I've enjoyed my new job and feel very blessed in getting it. The job is in Provo so I moved to Pleasant Grove at the end of March as the commute was not for me over the long term.

I LOVE my new home. I'm still in a townhouse, but it's bigger and newer and I couldn't be happier with it. I have a 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bath, granite counters, 2 pantries, and the most wonderful master bath and closet. I love hanging out in my bathroom and closet, they're so BIG! Needless to say, things are going well. I still get up to the other valley plenty, but it's been great cutting my commute from an hour to 15 minutes. Gabby has done well with the changes. We're enjoying our new neighborhood and she's taken to bike riding almost every evening. Gabby is so friendly that we're meeting plenty of neighbors. She introduces us to everyone we go by. I have a guest bedroom set up (the bedrooms are larger so Gabby's toys almost fit into 1 room) so let me know if anyone ever needs a place to stay!

So it's been so long since I blogged, I forgot how to get pictures to post in the right order so these go from the most recent on back.

Gabby is getting to be at a great age where is she can do more and more. I decided we go for a hike last Saturday. We went to Battle Creek Falls which is just up the road from us. It was fairly easy hike, but Gabby and I both need to get in shape. I'm hoping to go more this summer. Utah is a gorgeous state and has plenty of trails to choose from. Gabby played fetch with this dog at the falls.

She still has a crack problem! Some things never change.

I had Gabby's hair in cute pigtails. She will not leave her hair up for anything. I don't know why I bother putting it up every morning!

The view of Utah Lake from the top.

Post Easter Egg Hunt with cousins and our adopted cousins (the McCabes)

My parents came to visit for General Conference and Easter. It was wonderful to have them here. Gabby loves Grandpa and Grandma.

I love my family! We'll all get together at the same time one of these days, but we take what we can get for now.

The Hunt!

I love my little girl and think she's so beautiful!

Grandma helping with coloring eggs.

We went to Disney on Ice in March. We took Madison and had a fabulous time. This has to do until we can make it back to Disneyland!

Silly Gabby

Gabby would be very upset if she could read this and knew I was calling her silly. Gabby is VERY particular as to what adjectives may be applied to her. She does not like being told that she is funny or silly. She doesn't liked being laughed at, but she likes laughing at everything else. She also doesn't like to be called awesome or cool. She feels those words can only be applied to boys. You wouldn't realize how often you use certain words until your 5 year old starts freaking out when you do.

Gabby had her Tumbling Revue a few weeks ago. She was so excited and did so great. There's a video of it on my Facebook page, but I couldn't get it to my blog. Gabby has my hair for sure. I spent about 20 minutes trying to curl her pigtails. You can see the result below!

Best Cousins!

Gabby and Madison have a lot of fun together and are fearless performers!

We had a "No Talent Show" at my church on Saturday. I didn't sign Gabby or myself up prior to the show. Gabby had other plans once we were there. She was enjoying the emcee, Bro. Patterson's jokes and asked if she could go tell some jokes. I had no idea what jokes she would be telling. Here is the result:

My favorite was her bowing and kisses at the end. Where did she get this confidence? She bore her testimony again this month. Again, I only told her that she had to talk about Jesus and nothing else. I pick her up, hold her to the microphone and she says, "Jesus is great! I love Him so much. I really love learning about Him. I love Him so much and....I really love hearing my voice in the microphone." I ended her testimony at that point. At least she's honest. But that 's what Bro. Patterson refers to at the end of the above video.

In other news, I started my new job last week. It's in Provo with United Insurance Group. I'm still a claims adjuster, but handling all parts of a claim now. I think it's a good fit for me and I've enjoyed it so far. It's different, but I like that there's more to learn and that it's more involved then my last position. I feel so blessed and so relieved to have found another great job well before I lost my last one. I am really blessed in so many ways and so much more than I'd ever deserve. I am just happy. I have some down days but they're so few and far between. I thoroughly enjoy being happy and feeling so peaceful about my life, even with the trials here and there. I still feel grateful about my past struggles and some of the current ones as they make me so much more appreciative to be happy and with my life just as it is. This isn't where I expected to be at this point in my life, but it's good all the same.

Gabby and I will also be moving next month. That's the one downer about my new job, the commute to Provo. I found a fabulous new place and I'll be neighbors with one of my fabulous friends. I am so excited about my new place, it's bigger and nicer. I just hate to leave my ward and friends from there. That's another way I've been really blessed, I've been in the best ward with people who've just accepted me as I am and who appreciate my hilarious daughter.

My apologies for the lack of blogging. I've started lots of posts, but life has just gotten so busy. I'll be trying to get back to regular postings and keeping up with others' blogs, but the next month will be busy as well.

Christmas Vacation

I've spent the last 2 Christmases in Utah. I've missed spending them with my family and was so excited to be back home this year. Unfortunately, my whole family wasn't together for the day, but I was glad to be away and be with some of my family. Gabby and I flew into Dallas which worked out great since I had my new niece, Averi Elizabeth to meet.

Gabby was very excited to meet her newest cousin. She loved holding her and sang her original songs as composed by Gabby.

Me, Averi, and Gabby before church

We spent a few days in Arkansas as well. It was great to be back home. My mom is quite the cook. She makes cinnamon bread wreaths every year to give to friends and let Gabby help her out a bit. They are to die for! Gabe and I could barely let my mom get them iced before tearing into them.

This was Gabe's first Christmas since getting home from his mission. He dug out a fun Christmas project from 2000, still a good fit! We had fun hanging out. He laughed at Gabby an awful lot though. I warned him that those traits he makes most fun of will be sure to turn up in his kids some day. Just ask Pam and Jenny!

My dad had me wrap one of Gabe's gifts one evening while Mom and Gabe were out. Dad didn't know where any labels were so he just had me go redneck and use a marker. Gabby was very offended that such a big gift wasn't for her. She found her own marker and tried to rectify the situation.

We drove back to Dallas on Christmas Eve. The weather prior to this picture was so pleasant. We even hit the 60's and I wore shirt sleeves. We even had a fabulous thunderstorm in Hot Springs on Wednesday night. It rained the whole drive down. Just before we made it to the Andersons, it began to snow. In Dallas, Texas. Y'all, my long-term blog followers, know my feelings about snow. I would have preferred that it stay warm, but it was cool to see how excited the kids and my Southern family was for it.

Gabby and I on Christmas Eve. Our family has the tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve before bedtime

Gabby had been worried about Santa finding her Texas. He came through and this was her Santa pile. We slept in this year until about 6am. My family, that is my siblings, have a tradition of getting up at 4am to open gifts. My parents could usually hold us off until 5am by insisting there was a fire going and they be served hot chocolate. I think that was always my favorite time when I was young at Christmas, the early hours of the morning just before the gifts were open. Marji was usually the first up and would wake us up. We'd run to the tree and I loved that feeling of magic from seeing all those gifts. Gabby is still a little young and I had to actually wake her up, but it was still great.

Gabby's main gift was a Nintendo DS. Madison has one and Gabby begs to play it every time she's over there. She was very happy to get the gift. In all honestly, it was a gift to me as well. Flying home was fabulous! She played her DS the whole flight. I actually was able to sleep and read my book. Gabby normally gets very offended if I sleep when we're flying and insists on seeing my eyeballs.

My parents gave me this gorgeous ring. I love it and am glad for some new bling! Still hate my hands though.

Gabby's Jingle Bell Rendition. Not knowing all the words doesn't stop her.

Gabby opening her DS.

We had a fabulous Christmas and I was glad to see my family and have a week off of work.

The Lists

We took Gabby and Madison to visit Santa last week.

Gabby gave Maddy the reindeer antlers a couple of weeks ago. They entertained each other while we waited in line.

I love how big Gabby smiled in this picture. What happened to my baby though? When did she get so grown up?

I had to laugh a the difference in the length of the girls' lists for Santa

Temple Square

Gabby and I went to Temple Square to see the lights on Friday. I didn't make it there with Gabby last year so it had been 2 years since she'd been. Gabby was really excited to go into the all the buildings there.

The North Visitors' Center has the Christus statue. Gabby was very impressed with it and the mural of the skies. Gabby has also taken up posing for her pictures. She wouldn't let me take any until she got her pose just right. We went and watched a showing of Luke 2. Gabby really enjoyed it. The sister missionaries followed it up by saying that they hoped we enjoyed the short movie. Gabby announced her approbation in a loud voice by saying, "That sure was a great movie!"

Gabby and I outside the temple

This was Gabby's favorite tree since it was all red and more cool poses.

Gabby has much cuter hats than this, but she stole this from me. That hat is actually about 8 years old. Her dad gave it to me after a trip to Yellowstone and then liked it so well, he took it over for himself. Gabby has since commandeered it since it is red and her favorite color and won't have anything to do with pink and purple hats. Hard to imagine where she gets her opionated nature from....