New Background!!

I couldn't wait to clean up all the decorations from Christmas around my house.  I enjoyed Christmas but I am so glad it's over.  The kids wanted to put out every single decoration we have collected over the years and though it looked good and was enjoyable I was feeling cluttered!  So just as fast as it came-it's gone!  Doesn't it always feel a little sad after all the work it's over just like that!  So on with the clean-up,  I didn't want a Christmas blog anymore.  I have to say I'm sick of Christmas music also.  So my new background!  I think it is really cute and just wanted to share with you where it came from.  Cori Carpenter is a sister in our ward and she is  very creative and has her own website for backgrounds.  She has a very cute blog also.  Her website is 

Scrap-e-blog.blogspot.com   Also the music is all from the Twilight soundtrack which is Mackenzie's favorite right now.  Sorry if you don't like it just pause the i-pod :)

Taylor's Sunday Sixx;;

One. Finals are over.! I think I did pretty good.

Two. Winter Brake. No school for two weeks.! (no alarm at 4:30)

Three. Friends. Gotta love em.

Four. Got grounded :/ and then got ungrounded after mom saw things my way (:

Five. Going to the mall at Christmas time. lines 50 people long.

Sixx. Music. I love music.

My Sunday Six!

(1) Cold weather. It's so nice to have a break from the sun. It's been gray and cold and in the morning Ava can see her breath. It's so true without the gray skies we wouldn't appreciate the clear ones. With out the cold air we wouldn't know how great the sun feels.

(2) Taylor and Mackenzie both had babysitting jobs this weekend and I realized how great it is for the girls to have this experience. We probably wouldn't have this oppurtunity somewhere else. We have alot of small kids and worn out parents in this Stake so the demand for babysitting is high:) Also they get to tend for really great families with super sweet kids-which makes it even better. It's so fun to see them being responsible and taking on their first jobs. Plus it's fun to hear their stories when they come home with of what they did with the kids they were tending. It's also fun to see these kids that they have tended get so excited to see the girls when we run into them somewhere or at church. They're going to be great mother's.

(3) Preston's dish week. Each week the kids rotate kitchen duties. It's their most favorite fun chore to do and look forward to their week. Ya RIGHT! They hate it and sometimes it's like pulling teeth. It was Preston's week this past week and he did such a great job. He didn't have to be constantly reminded and he did such a great job it looked as good as when I do it.

(4) Holiday Candy!! Orange Sticks from Sweets Co. out of SLC, Jolly Rancher Candy Canes, peppermint Hersey Kisses, chocolate covered nuts raisins, chocolate coin candy, See's chocolates etc....................................................

(5) My Sunday morning helpers. Sunday's mornings can be such a blur. We have to be there by 7:45 and it can be challenging. All the kids know their rolls on Sunday and they do all of it without complaining. From ironing to getting Ava's tights and shoes on to getting scriptures round up and all of my things I need to bring for Primary. Then when we get to church I have helpers saving seats and watching Ava and helpers putting up class signs and putting the rolls into the classrooms and helping to set up the things I need to for Primary. Then after church there is rounding up all the things that were set up. Getting Ava picked up & collecting all my Primary stuff. Thanks Taylor, Mackenzie, Preston & Ava.

(6) The Ensign. Every month I find an article or story that really touches me and I feel was just what I needed to hear. I love to hear of all the wonderful things that are happening with the saints all over the world. Yummy feast for the soul.

"Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The Spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world's busy life and become more interested in people than things. To catch the real meaning of the 'spirit of Christmas' , we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the 'Spirit of Christ.'"

-President Thomas S. Monson

My Sunday SIx!

As I was blog stalking a few months ago I came across Kori's sister's blog. She does a weekly blog called the "Sunday Six." I was really excited about doing this on my blog because it made me realize how great it would be to sit down and reflect on your past week and actually write down the things you are grateful for. Months went by and I kind of forgot about it, until now. Now I really need to focus on how blessed I am, and I'm going to start by posting my "Sunday Six." So here we go.

(1) Preston's getting baptized! It's finally here. Preston has been anxiously waiting for his eight birthday. He has been memorizing the Articles of Faith, praying in private daily, reading his scriptures and is ready to go! He always reminds us to have family prayer and knows that Monday night to get out his scriptures for FHE. He's such an obedient boy and I am so truly blessed to have him here to keep me on my toes.

(2) Preston's getting baptized---by his Dad! This is so amazing I can't even describe how much this means to me and to Preston. I am so blessed to have Rob as an eternal companion. He is adored by the kids and is a great parent. I'm truly thankful that Rob has accepted the gospel and blesses our home and family with the Priesthood.

(3) My extended Brooks family. They hosted and invited me and my family all to Thanksgiving this year in St. George. The made sure we all felt welcomed and feed us well! The food was really good, they're all great cooks. I was excited to finally meet Bennet, he was super nice. I've heard so much about him. His son was adorable testing out all the food and licking the gravy ladel clean. Doreen managed the food assignments and I'm sure much more, all very well. With 50+ people everyone had plenty and then some. Anyway's I just love them all and feel very blessed that they are a part of my life.

(4) Rob's job. It has taken him away from us for way to long, I can't stand how there is no real schedule and I can't ever count on ever knowing his days off, he has to work long days leaving Rob sore and tired when he does get home. But I am SO thankful that because of his job I have been able to always be home on Sunday's to go to church and keep the Sabbath day holy, I get to drop off the kids every morning and be there to pick them up in the afternoon. I have been able to be home with Ava, she is not fond of daycare:) to give her all she needs during the day. I am there every afternoon to help with homework and hear the stories of their day. I get to cook dinner every night and sometimes have an afterschool snack waiting for the kids-they love this. Because of Rob's job we have health and dental insurance. So we are all truly blessed because of his hard work and blessed that he has this job. Oh, and I forgot to mention that for the most part he actually really loves what he does. Happy husband is good.

(5) Maricopa!? I know it's shocking because I'm always quick to complain about it here. It's taken me awhile but I am loving Copa! It's great to be in a small town again. We have a comfy home and now that I have quit being such a brat, I have gone out and made friends with my neighbors and actually really like them. I love the friends I've made here and really feel blessed that they are in my life. It was hard at first to feel a part of the constantly growing and changing ward-but I really know that I have a great ward family that we are blessed because of that. The stinky cow smell is still not so charming but other than that I'm very pleased that I feel pleased with Copa :)

(6) Decorating the house for Christmas. I love to see the kids get so excited when we turn up the Christmas songs and pull out the decorations. This year we decorated 3 trees. One is the main tree that is a hand me down from Uncle David & Aunt Tiffani, when they lived here when we did for a month. (thanks again:) It has our cute new decor that we got at IKEA last year. Then we bought a 2 or 3 ft little tree at a garage sell and we put all the old sentimental ornaments. This one is our fav-there's all the little hand made from school ornaments and the special ones we've received from friends through the years. Then we have a little on top of the table size tree that we have put our 12 days of Christmas ornaments. When we lived in Las Vegas we had an amazing secret Santa and one of the gifts was a really pretty collection of twelve ball ornanments with painted pictures of each day from the song. We love these-they so cute. It was fun to pull out the nativties that we've collected over the years. The kids arranged and re arranged them all the time. It is such a great time of year when Christ is celebrated. I love it and I love the spirit it brings to my home.

CHRISTMAS TIME!

So I know we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving yet but everywhere I look it sure seems like it Christmas. Does it happen a little earlier every year or what! Some of my neighbors already have lights up and blow up Christmas yard ornaments. Oh well I guess I'll decorate my blog and on with the Christmas music even if it is early :) Now go Elf your family & post it on your blog.....I want to laugh :)

Go Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Farm Day in Copa!

Farm Day in Copa! What could be more fun. Actually it sounded pretty boring, but the girls went to help Awnya sell cotton candy and we had a great time. They had fun exhibits all throught out that showed the operations of the farm. It's owned by ASU and they do research there on the soil, the bugs that are in AZ-which all seem to be creepy-, plants, watering levels, cotton, owls the list went on :) Anyways heres some pics of the rocking day at the farm.

Taylor at the cotton candy booth.

Kenzie is quite the sales lady :) Taylor trying to be funny-pretending to sleep in this shot.

This is cotton. Hehe :) Ava wanted to taste this kind, this "white kind of cotton candy."

They got to pick the cotton from the bush, feel the hard seeds in it and then watch it go through the ginning process where it comes out soft and fluffy.

Then off to the Bug Petting presentation. GROSS!! This is a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach! So gross. We were informed that the hissing is part of their mating ritual. "Mom what's a mating ritual." This guy who said this laughed-thanks!

Close up- gag -----

Here is my beautiful little pink princess saying "I want a turn too." Ew-have I mentioned GROSS yet.

This was a millipede. He dropped it and screamed and I stepped on it 20 times and squished it everywhere!

Or at least I wanted to :) Again Ava wanted to be like a gross boy. (JK:)

This was so cool. She was able to see how the determine the DNA of plants and animals bugs etc. This was a strawberry and it was really interesting. Ava liked it cause it was pink. Good girl....

This lady was one of Mimi's cotton candy customers. Hope you can read her shirt. Something tells me she didn't appreciate me taken her picture. This totally cracked me up.

Hope everyone can come on out next year and join us at Farm Day here in fabulous Maricopa! Peace out and have a great week.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Here's Mackezie as a woodland fairy.


Then we have the alway's scary Preston as "Scream" with bloody face.

We had a great time at the Stakes "Truck or Treat" event with all the chili and cornbread you could eat! Each ward's Primary had crafts set up for the kids to work on. Relief Society had the old cake walk lit up with orange lights. Then the YW had a big movie projecter and played Halloween movies, and then the YM had a balloon/dart game that was a hit with the kids. They came home with so much candy, it's so gross how much sugar was consumed last night. One of my favorite costume's I saw was a little three year old with a homemade Chewbacca (sp?) furry head to toe suit on. It was so cute. Also a cute lady in her 20's was Sarah Palin. You have to admit-she does her hair super cute. Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Let the countdown begin for Thanksgiving!! 26 days

Of course Ava rocked the Cinderella look again! Maybe next year it will be a new Princess.



p.s. apparently Taylor was too cool for Halloween this year :)

What's for dinner??

BBQ Steaks! Yummy, but not something we eat often. So Ava wasn't familiar with the pile of meat at the dinner table. "Mom-can I have some chicken" "It's not chicken Ava" "Oh, well, then can I have some of that black, chicken Mom?" "It's not black chicken Ava, it's steak." "Oh!--then can I please have some snake?"

MACKENZIE IS 12!!!!

I really can't beleive she's already 12. I forgot how great life is at 12. She graduates from Primary (so sad I'll miss be around her so much on Sundays) and starts Young Women. With this comes Personal Progress and Mutual. I think this time in church is when your testimony is really growing in more ways than before. You start to recognize the spirit more often and search to have it with you. And then of course are the other things:[ She has her first Stake dance in a couple of weeks!! They let them go to dances here at age 12...........not really liking that at all. She also had her first dance at middle school. Mackenzie had a blast at that dance. She came out of the dance with pink checks and frizzy hair (humidity) and danced almost every song. I'm so glad she enjoys life the way she does! Always finding happiness whatever the surroundings. I'm so happy as I sit here and remenis about her all these years. Mackenzie has brought us all a lot of joy. Even as an infant and toddler she was always sweet, happy and up for anything. I remember going to parks or McD's playland and her making friends everywhere we'd go. Telling complete strangers where we lived so they could come by sometime to play at her house. Still to this day people love to be around her. She loves to help the Mom's at church with their baby's. She always finds ways to be helpful. Love you Mimi!! Keep smiling and being sweet. Keep writing your great stories and singing your favorite songs. Enjoy being 12:)

So I wrote this post the day before Mackenzie's birthday and then after taking pictures I was going to post it, but I haven't been feeling too hot. I've been waking up daily with horrible headaches that don't respond to Advil, Excedrine Migraine or Tylenol. My neck and shoulders ache and staring a the computer seems to make them get worse-to the point of feeling dizzy etc.. so really Mimi I am so sorry for being a slaker on your birthday post:} We had a great day at the Mall (Me & Mimi) shopping for school clothes a new jacket and a new church outfit. She looked cute in everything. This is what she wanted for her birthday-clothes and shoes. Then we went out to have a steak and ribs. On the weekend she had a good friend sleepover and they made yummy carmel apples. I love you Mackenzie--Happy Birthday!!

Ava turns 4!!!

Happy Birthday to Ava Elizabeth! She had so much fun opening her presents. Her favorite thing is her Ava size table and chairs. She loves to play pretend with her dolls and sets up little parties for them on it.

It was Ava's choice for dinner. She was told she could have anything she wanted-and of course she wanted McDonalds. She loved it!



This is purely the evidence of teenagers in the house!! They told her to put shove her face in the cake. She said no, so the cake got shoved onto her face. She had a lot of fun.

Sleepytime :\

During the summer no one ever want's to go to bed-they want to stay up late. Getting my kids to stick to a bedtime in the summer just usually doesn't happen. Now that school is back in session and they are waking up at 5 a.m, riding the bus for 20 minutes and sitting in school for 7 hours it's a different story.

When they were babies I loved it when they would fall asleep. They looked so sweet and innocent,like little angels. I would take pictures of them to forever capture that sweetnest. Now that they are older when they crash out it just cracks me up! Capturing them to laugh at in the morning.

Happy Birthday Rob! Love you forever!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!!!

Ava said,"I miss you and I love you and I love you and I love you. I really like your birthday and I am going to get you lots of presents. Ilike you and miss you."

Preston said," Happy Birthday Dad. I want to get you a new gun and breakfast in bed-oh and for you could come home."

Mackenzie said,"Happy Birthday Dad! If you were home right now I would give you a foot massage for your birthday. I hope you have a good day-sorry we aren't with you!"

Taylor said,"Happy Birthday Daddy! I wish you were here and we would take you out for dinner. I love you and we will have a party when you get home."

Funny story from church:)

So today Taylor was the youth speaker in Sacrament Meeting. Very proud of her-she did a great job! I'm so glad that she always accepts responsibilties at church and does them well. Anyways her talk was on Humility. During her talk she shared a story about a young lady that listen to Pres. Hinkley's counsel about being humble. The story was written in 1st person. So as Taylor read it she started by saying "One young women found that being Humble helped her relationship with her brother." Then she told the YW's story. "As I (being the YW in the story-not Taylor) was sitting there listening to Pres Hinkley, I was sitting next to my brother who was preparing for a mission." So the story goes on and the girl uses humility to forgive and get along better with her brother.



So she finishes her talk and the Bishops counsler said, "I'm so glad you get along with you brother." It still makes me laugh as I'm typing it. Taylor said "thanks" and walked away.



Then as I am cruising the hallways going about my secretary jobs-a Sister stops me to say "Taylor did a great job! I can't believe you have a daughter that age, you look too young to have a 14yr old yet alone a son on a mission!"

08/08/08 is a day we will all remember forever.! It was such a great day for us. I am so grateful that my kids were so excited and understand that this was a most important step we needed to take as a family. I was so impressed that my children did so well when they interviewed with the Stake President Brother Lewis. He commented on Taylor and Mackenzie's sweet spirits and there honesty and understanding of the seriousness of the Temple. I am truly proud of their worthiness to enter the Temple. President Lewis also told me that when he meet Robert he felt such a strong spirit in the room. He told me they spoke about Rob not being able to attend his Sunday meetings for so long-5 in a row, and how that concerned him. Rob explained how busy they were and how they only let him have a day off at certain times and requesting Sunday's off would be near impossible. President Lewis said he jumped out of his seat and hurried over to Robert to shake his hand the next Sunday as Robert, to every one's disbelief was at church, and the Sunday after that and the Sunday after that! President Lewis said I was so amazed by is obedience I went home and wrote about him in my journal. He then asked if he could attend the sealing that he really wanted to be there. That same day he became a Grandpa and was unable to attend. I know this because he said how sad he was to miss our sealing during ward conference. How sweet! I also appreciate the amazing things Preston did and said in preparation to go. On realizing that one Sunday evening Robert would be leaving the next morning and there wouldn't be a FHE with us all together he told me we should have FHE Sunday evening and it should be about our the Temple because Dad will be gone tomorrow night. How sweet his desire for the gospel understanding at age 7. The kids said it was totally different than they had imagined. They loved the Temple workers that assisted them. Mackenzie told me that the Sister that dressed Ava was crying as she dressed her in her pretty white dress. Upon us leaving the children's center the Sister's invited us to come back with the kids and do baptisms together next month when Mackenzie turns 12. I was really glad they got to feel the amazing sweet spirit that is in the Temple. We of course wish we would have done it right the first time, but what an amazing opportunity to have your children there with you to kneel together and be sealed for time and all eternity.

Then afterwards the great feelings continued as we all meet at Cafe Rio. I ran in to tell the st orders together so I could pay. She looked at me weird and said "It had already been taken care of" Wow! Thank you so much Mom! That was an amazing gift for us and we REALLY appreciated being able to treat our friends to that fun dinner. These friends had a lot to do with us being where we were and I really wanted to be able to do this, so THANK YOU, THANK YOU for making that happen.

It was really fun to have all the adorable kids in our new home. The kids had so much fun. It was so cute seeing Ava and Gracie play house together. They would even had Rob babysitting and if he moved he'd be in trouble. The "BOYS ONLY ROOM" was a haven of video game playing. To have Macy and Samantha around was pure bliss for Mackenzie. (me too) It was so much fun and I really appreciate all the sacrifices made to be there. Jill had to rent a car to be able to travel, and just giving up a relaxing weekend home tending to your own things to be with us for a crazy exhausting, long drive (YUCK) was so great of you all. Thanks for being there making memories with us. Love everyone so much!

Don't blink! 14 yrs goes by faster than you think.....

Happy Birthday to Taylor. I can't believe how old she is. It really blows my mind how fast she has gone from a colicky infant to a sweet fun toddler to an amazing high schooler. It's so fun to see what a great person she is becoming. We all really enjoy being around her and having her in our lives. She makes us laugh with her witty comments. She makes us think-pondering the things she comes up with. She makes us happy with her fun spirit. She motivates us with her constant willingness to serve. She's always there to help any of us when we are in need. She always makes friends whereever she goes, she has more friends than I ever had.

Her birthday always happens to be around back to school time. She starts her freshmen year at Mountain Pointe this year. So for her birthday she got back to school clothes, mani and pedicure, and some new things for her room. We had a great time together going to Scottsdale Mall and to the nail salon and then lunch. I LOVE YOU TAYLOR!!