Our trip to Dallas

The Dallas Temple


Papi and Gracie

Gracie copied the mummy

At the Dallas Museum of Art King Tut exhibit

Little Monkey

Sweet Girl

So excited!!!

I love this picture of Gracie!

She was so excited to go on the carousel!!!

Over spring break we spent a week in Dallas. My mother in law, Darlene had back surgery and we wanted to be there with her. The surgery went well and she's now recovering at our house so I hope we'll be good nurses:) It gave us a good reason to get away and we had an eventful week!
While we were in Dallas we celebrated our 7th Anniversary at a restaurant called Fogo de Chao. It was the nicest restaurant I've ever been to. It's a brazilian restaurant with an amazing salad bar with cheese, breads, salads and vegetables. Then, servers dressed as gaucho's come around with pieces of meat on a spit and carve it for you at the table. It was so delicious and we ate until we were sick. It reminded Douglas of Argentina. They had the yummiest little cheese filled rolls and fried bananas. We even splurged on dessert and had flan and key lime pie. Yum!
On Sunday we went to a church for sacrament meeting and found out it was a singles ward. We were definitely the loudest ones there. Our kids were very good but still interrupted the silence of the meeting.
Monday we stretched our legs at the Dallas Zoo. The kids loved running around and especially enjoyed the carousel. Gracie rode on a horse and Marley rode on a Gorilla. It was so fun! I think I had as much fun as the kids.

Tuesday we went to the Dallas Temple. It was nice to be there because Douglas took out his endowments there over 10 years ago and this was the first time he'd been back. The kids had fun seeing the outside and Grandpa took care of them while we were inside. During the session I passed out for a few minutes. I was pretty embarrassed and we didn't finish the session. I guess I was overtaken by the spirit :) After some rest, I felt fine. I guess the lack of sleep and eating fast food caught up with me.
Wednesday, we went to the Dallas museum of Art to see the King Tut exhibit. It was so cool!! The artifacts were so beautiful and colorful and the kids even enjoyed it. It's amazing that the pieces have been preserved so well for all these years.
After the exhibit we headed home. It's about a 4 hour drive and the kids did so well!
We had such a great trip. The kids were so good and we're all happy to be home.

Midnight Bandit!!

Last night Anita put Gracie to bed then went to take a shower. While Anita was in the shower I was finishing some math homework. While I was doing my homework, Gracie got out of bed. I put her back in bed with a warning that if she got out of bed again she would get a spanking. She said she didn't want a spanking and would stay in bed. I finished my homework and started preparing a lesson to teach today in elders quorum. I was in the dinning room and Anita was still in the shower. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small figure stealing by to our bedroom. Gracie was trying to get mom's help. Apparently Anita could not hear Gracie over the shower. So the little bandit tried to sneak past me back into her bedroom. I was watching for her and as she stealthily tried to sneak by I called her to me with out even looking back at her. She stopped in her tracks and came into the dining room sheepishly. I questioned her why she had gotten out of bed. Her reply was "Because I wanted a spankin'!" I couldn't help but laugh and she began to laugh too. I asked her if she really wanted a spanking and she fessed up and said that she didn't. So, I put her back in bed with no spanking. However, we did agree that if she got out of bed again she would not be able to play with a balloon she had gotten that day. She stayed in bed the rest of the night and played with her balloon first thing this morning!

True Loves Kiss

Lots of kissing at our house.

Marley is waking Gracie up with true loves kiss

Gracie really loves princesses and lately she's been watching Snow white, Sleeping beauty and Enchanted a lot. She loves the idea of true loves kiss. Throughout the day she will bite her "poison" apple and lay on the floor until someone gives her true loves kiss. It's so sweet! Yesterday Marley started acting it out too. He loves to kiss and he runs up to Gracie as she lays on the floor and kisses her and then claps and giggles. Now he just runs around kissing everyone and then claps. It is so stinkin cute!!! I need to get it on video. Here are some pictures of our sweet kids giving true loves kiss.

Biz to the Rescue!

This week I redecorated our bedroom for our 7th Anniversary. So, I took the beautiful hand stitched quilt that my Mom made for us as a wedding present off the bed and washed it. I washed it on gentle cycle in COLD water and when I took it out of the washer I just about passed out. The Red pieces had bled onto the ivory pieces and it was bright pink!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhh!

This quilt is so special and my Mom worked on it for so many hours. I almost cried.

How to fix my problem? When I moved to Texas, my mother in law, Darlene introduced me to a magical detergent called Biz. So, I decided to hold my breath and wash it again with Biz and Tide...........4 times. It worked! Each time I washed it the pink faded until it turned out good as new. I'm sad about washing it so many times because I don't want to wear it out, but I'm SO happy to have my pretty quilt back to its proper state. I hope you can all find Biz in your stores because it's Awesome! Thanks mom for making us such a beautiful quilt. It is a very special keepsake. We love you!

My trip to OZ

It's been forever since I've written, so I'll start back in february. Over valentines weekend Gracie, Marley and I drove to Oklahoma and Kansas to visit family. We got to see my brother, Dan before he got deployed to Iraq. He blessed his new baby daughter, Colette. It was such a beautiful blessing and Colette looked so beautiful in the dress Celeste made for her.
We spent monday at my parents and the kids played all day. They even tied a quilt top that my mom has had for 40 years. Grandpa Sessions did Abra-ca-dabra and dragged the kids around the house. Everyone left tired and happy. We had such a fun time and the kids really hung in there during the car rides. Thank goodness for DVD players in the car!!!!! We drove 1500 miles all together and came home with rug burns, bruises, a black eye and lots of good memories. We had a great weekend and loved seeing family!
We loved coming home to Douglas and a clean house. It was nice to be out of the car. There's no place like home!!!
Below I put together a slide show of our fun trip. This is my first slide show and I couldn't figure out how to turn some of the pictures, so sorry that they're sideways. I hope you enjoy!

Paint Ball Mania

D-Day 2008 Officers and NCOs of 327th Glider Infantry Regiment Me and Anita Here in San Angelo
Me With My Arsenal

As some of you know, I am addicted to paintball. These are just a few pictures we have taken. I play in a very large scale "re-enactment" of the D-Day invasion of WWII. In this game I am a member of the 101st airborne division in the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment. The game is held annually in Oklahoma in June. It is in fact the largest paintball game in the world. The organizers of the game set objectives to accomplish similar to the real objectives of the invasion. Last year there were over 4,500 people that played in the game. The unit I am in is famous (at this game) for their skill and performance. In 2008 the 327th GIR took everyone of our assigned objectives in some cases in record time. D-Day Oklahoma is sponsored by many large international P-Ball companies. I am very excited for this coming year. In the excitement I was on the Internet looking at stuff about D-Day OK. As I searched I came across a companies web site that sponsors the game. I was astonished to find they had pictures of the 327th. I was even more surprised to see a pic of me. I just want to brag a little. This is an international P-Ball company and I am on their website. PRETTY FREAKIN' COOL!!! I of course want everybody to check it out. So if you are interested go to www.jtusa.com/?dday and look at the still photos. The picture of me is on the second row the last picture, I'm givin' a thumbs up. There are two or three pictures with my friend Brandon. Anyway I just wanted to say that this is AWESOME.