Youth Conference, The AMAZING RACE

Hula-hooping during the amazing race

Our group before the service project

Waiting for breakfast

Chillin at the dance

Cute girls in our country of Mexico

Aimee getting Mexico ready

Caitlin and Morgan

Group photo of both stakes

Me, Brenda, Rachel, Caitlin, Morgan, Raquel, Lexi, Katrina, Brittney

and Alisha before testimony meeting.

Last weekend I attended Youth Conference with our young women. We combined with the Odessa/Midland Stake and they hosted. They did a great job. We had 2 dances, the amazing race through different "countries", a service project, a BBQ and swimming party, 2 speakers and a testimony meeting. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed spending time with the girls and the other leaders. We have such great girls in our ward and they were so sweet. We stayed at the Grandparents home of one of our girls and it was so comfortable. The girls stayed up late listening to music and talking and we(the leaders) went to bed. It's so nice to have trustworthy girls!

It was nice to feel the spirit and hear the testimonies of such strong youth. I feel blessed to be a leader in young womens program and I really love all our girls!

Sushi

During the summer we have more free time and Douglas is trying not to go crazy at home, so he started making sushi once a week. He's perfecting his skills and I'm grateful to reap the benefits of his culinary talents and hard work.

Week one: Crunchy Roll (tuna, avocado,cucumber and tempura crunchies),

Spider roll (soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber, unagi sauce)

Tempura Tuna Roll (tuna, avocado, wasabi mayo,)

Tuna Tadaki(My favorite! Seared tuna with green onions, crunchy fried garlic, Soy citrus sauce)

In the last month we have been eating a lot of Japanese food and we found out that Gracie loves it!!!!! She keeps asking if we can go to "that yummy sushi place" in Dallas and we have to explain to her that it is pretty far away. Luckily, Douglas makes all her favorites: Miso soup with tofu, sticky rice, shrimp and veggie tempura and chicken teriyaki. She hasn't tried the sushi yet, but she likes pickled ginger and she's great at using chopsticks.

Marley insists on using "Chapsticks" just like everyone else. He's a big boy!

Week Two: Clockwise from the top

California Roll (crab, avocado, cucmber, rolled inside out) & Shrimp Sashimi

Crab Roll (marinated crab, shrimp tempura)

Onigiri roll with smoked salmon wrapped in soy wrappers

Crab & Cream Cheese Roll with cucumber wrapper

Shrimp tempura roll (shrimp tempura, avocado, sriracha mayo in a soy wrapper) & Shrimp & crab roll (My favorite this week! tempura shrimp, crab, cucumber, masago sauce, and sesame seeds)

It's fun to watch Douglas take a few different ingredients and produce so many different flavors and combinations. This week he tried making cucumber wrappers for the first time. He takes his chef knife and cuts it so thin that he can wrap the rice and fish inside it. It was delicious and he did a great job.

Crab and shrimp roll

This was my favorite! The rolls were amazing and so was the sauce that made the amazing design.

California Roll and Shrimp Sashimi

So happy to have yummy sushi! You did great Douglas!

Gracie loved eating the tempura shrimp and hanging the tail out of her mouth.

Family Time

Celsee and Breje at our Beehive breakfast last saturday.

We had crepes and breakfast casserole. Yum!

My battle with the weeds. I like hiding in the tomatillos!

Ooooh...bubbles!

Sweet Gracie

We were trying to keep the kids outside while we worked in the garden.

The bubble machine worked like a charm!

Marley's new favorite, "skiptures"

Marley loves his Elmo slippers!

Marley loves saying prayers. He started saying his own. So cute!!!

Froggie Girl

Gracie is terrified of the vacuum! She saved all the unsuspecting toys from their death.

Church was a little rough today. Both kids were really active and loud and I wasn't very patient towards the end. So, after church as we were changing into play clothes I apologized to the kids for being an impatient mommy. Gracie replied "It's okay mommy, we're not mad at you!" then Marley said "Kay Mom, I duh doo."(I love you) and then he blew me a kiss. So Sweet! I felt so much better and I feel grateful that kids are so forgiving even when I don't do the best job.

Now that we have had food and naps I figure it's good time to catch up the blog.

We've had a few weeks at home and it's been so nice. It's nice to enjoy our home and little family. We've worked in the yard and the garden alot and we're finally starting to catch up to the weeds. We have more cucumbers than we know what to do with and we picked our first melons, corn, and tomatoes. Yeah!!! I understand why my Mom loved being in the garden so much when I was little. It's so peaceful and you can really think and feel the spirit. It's also very gratifying to reap what you sow.

We are trying to beat the heat and we've been doing a lot of puzzles which are Gracie's new favorite. We've gotten together with several families in our ward and we even got to go boating with the Skidmore family. We all piled into their boat (4 adults 6 kids) and went wake boarding, tubing and knee boarding. Gracie loved the tube and wanted to stay on it the whole time. Douglas did really good on the wake board, especially for only going a few times before. It is so nice to have a lake so close! It's nice to have friends in San Angelo and we are loving the slow pace of the summer. We know it's going to be crazy once Douglas and Gracie start school!

Here are a few random pictures of what we've been up to.

4 years ago really?!!

So happy to be home!

Getting ready to leave the hospital as a family!

There are certain dates throughout the year that just stick out and today is one of them. Four years ago today we brought Gracie home from the hospital. Finally! We didn't expect it because it was a Saturday(they didn't usually release patients on Saturday) and the day before the neonatologist had told us no. We were all set to take her home and she had a bradycardia episode where her heart rate and breathing dropped so low that the monitor she was hooked up to started beeping to tell us that she was in trouble. In that situation we had to massage her or pat on her back to stimulate her breathing again or give her oxygen. So because she had an episode, they told us that she would have to be in the hospital for another week. Unfortunately, Douglas was leaving in 4 days to go work in Alaska for the summer and I was terrified to take this tiny, fragile infant home alone.

We showed up to the hospital on Saturday morning totally ready for another week in the hospital. But there was a new saintly neonatologist on for the weekend and he said we could definitely take her home. What!? We were so surprised and excited. This was the day we'd been waiting for for 13 weeks. Gracie passed her car seat test and we filled out all the paperwork, took all her bags to the car, said goodbye to all our favorite nurses and friends and headed out the door.

It was a little scary to know that we were in control now and that there weren't any nurses around to help. Gracie slept most of the day but we did have a few stressful moments and Douglas rushed to Wal-mart at 1 am to pick up a baby swing.

We've learned a lot since then and we're so grateful to have such a healthy daughter. These four years have passed so fast and we love Gracie so much. How crazy it would have been to be able to look forward 4 years and see her now. What a different girl she is now.

Independance Day

Douglas and his first watermelon from our garden. It tasted delicious!

Marley loved the watermelon so much he even ate the
nasty part all the way down to the rind.

Marley didn't want to leave my arms for the first hour so we snuggled and I covered his ears.

Grandpa Riley and Marley

Gracie loves fireworks, but she was a little scared after being burned last time.

A little blurry but this is the fire that broke out behind us. There were several trucks watching for fires and they got it under control pretty quick. We started a few small ones of our own, but were able to stamp them out. Talk about adrenaline rush!

Douglas playing with fireworks on his favorite holiday.

Our friends Steph and Sam

Marley lit his first firework and wasn't quite sure about the results.

Isaac shooting roman candles with his dad, Daylin and brother, Joseph.

I love pictures of fireworks!

This one is especially cool!

Steph nervously lit this one and it turned out beautiful!

I love the crackly bursts.

What a beautiful day to celebrate our country's freedom! The day was sunny and hot and we started off right with a flag ceremony and pancake breakfast at the church. It was nice to talk to so many people from the ward outside of our regular meetings. Grandma and Grandpa Williams and Uncle Leroy joined us and we spent the day making food and anticipating fireworks. Thanks to Douglas and Riley we had great ribs, pasta salad, cantaloupe, watermelon from our garden, potato salad, baked beans, key lime pie and peach cobbler. Yum!

When it finally got dark we headed out to pop fireworks. It was so nice to see so many people out celebrating and the skies were filled with bright colored fireworks. It made me feel all warm inside and I'm so grateful to live in a country that has been built on good morals and faith in God. Thank you to all those who sacrifice to serve our country. Especially my brother Dan who is deployed in Mosul right now. Thank you for having the courage to leave the comforts of everyday life to provide service on foreign soil. We love you and your family and you are all amazing!

My father in law and his friend Jim provided a truck full of fireworks for us to enjoy. Our friends Joseph, Victoria, Gavin and the Myers family joined us. We played for about 2 hours until the fireworks were gone and everyone was too tired to keep their eyes open. Thanks to everyone for joining us. It was a great holiday!

Horse therapy

When we told Gracie that we were going to Sea World, she said "No, I want to go to hor-see world!" So, Douglas called his friend from school, Matthew who he had loaned his microbiology book to and asked for a favor in exchange for using the book. Matthew and Donna, his wife take care of the feeding and up keep of the horses and stables where they keep their own horses. So we visited them while they did their chores and helped them feed the horses. They introduced us to all the horses and the kids loved feeding them carrots. Gracie was in heaven and Marley was fearless! I think we are in big trouble with Gracie because she absolutely LOVED the horses. Donna let Gracie sit on Savannah, a retired pony and they walked around the stables. She didn't want to get down! It was such a great experience and she was so happy and relaxed. She loved playing with the Horses mane and didn't pull her own hair at all! We are planning to have her take some lessons and hope that it will be therapeutic. We tried to put Marley on too, but he wasn't quite ready. I think we'll be visiting again soon. Maybe he'll do it next time.

I think this picture is SO sweet!!

She was so excited to put on the helmet and get on a real horse.

Gracie and Savannah

She loved playing with her mane.

Such a happy girl!!

Her first ride. Thanks so much to Matthew, Donna and Savannah!

The whole time Gracie was on, Marley was reaching and asking to get on. When we actually put him on he freaked out! He dug his fingernails into me and wouldn't let go. Maybe next time.