This was Valentine's Day 4 years ago. These are the only Valentine's Day pictures I have ever had. Well, I haven't gone through my non-digital pictures yet. Either way--aren't these the cutest little Valentine's ever?! Again, Kierra is being left out. We are in desperate need of new pictures, however this week we have all been very under the weather. Matt hasn't gotten sick, probably because he was already on antibiotics from his surgery, but he hasn't been able to get around like usual. Everyone else has had high fevers and colds this week and we are hoping it's done. We missed school, literacy center, choir, gymnastics, and fun! Luckily the girls were better for their Valentine's Day parties today. Maybe Matt and I can actually make it out for a date this weekend!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

Love Story

This has been our favorite song here for at least a month. There are many days in the kitchen where it will just keep repeating on my ipod. The girls know every word and love it even more now, wanting to know if on Thursday Uncle Jackson knelt down when he asked Morgan. (of course he did!) We also think that, yes it's cool he asked her dad first, but how awesome that he asked Dylan first too. We are so excited to have Morgan and Dylan officially in our family! We love you all! You are such a cute, fun family!!

(this is a picture DJ took of them last summer at Estes Park, CO)

The rest of our lives might seem kinda boring compared to a wedding proposal. Actually Matt did have surgery on his foot yesterday which was "exciting" I guess. So, anyone with a queezy stomach (or if you hate feet (sorry Tiff)) don't scroll to the bottom of this blog.

Anyway, things have been busy as usual. I did notice though that I have no pictures of Emily or Kierra on today's blog. I will have to make up for that later. Kaylee got her ears pierced. Taylor's teeth are falling out (once again at G & G Hoopes'). Taylor finally got her backwalkover! And we got to go to Laramie last weekend to see baby Oakley and see Uncle Dale get his Eagle Scout Award. (the picture of the brothers was also taken by DJ--seriously, someone needs to just hire her!) We had a ton of fun in Laramie as usual. Well, except for Taylor throwing up at the Eagle court of honor. At least she waited until we were off of carpet and into the gym. The poor girl had been complaining of an upset stomach all night--that was one of those mom moments when I wish I had listened better. Luckily that was it though because the next day we had to travel the 6 hours back home without Daddy. I was so nervous about having puking kids in a van driving across Wyoming winter roads by myself, but the weather was GREAT and the girls were THE BEST!

Anyway, Matt stayed behind to work, hang out with my parents, eat their food, take them out to dinner, sit on the floor, center court at a great UW girls basketball game, ya know...do everything I would enjoy doing. He came back late Thursday night and went into surgery early Friday morning. He's had this nasty wart on the bottom of his foot forever and so hopefully they dug deep enough to get it out. While they had him under they removed some other moles and "a dark spot" from his back. They'll do a biopsy on a couple of those, but hopefully it is all just fine. He has slept quite a bit yesterday and today, but seems to be just fine. He said the couple of stitches under his lip bug him more than the crater in his foot. It's been fun to just sit around and hang out with him.

So that's been our life lately. Enjoy the pictures (even the last 2) and Taylor's video!

***QUEEZY STOMACH PEOPLE STOP HERE ;) ***

Happiness!!

And here we are, quickly back to a happy blog!! Thank you all so much for reading my previous post and for all of your amazing comments. I really have had a great day (other than missing some sleep last night). I am so glad to know every one of you and to have been able to learn and grow with you and from you. I am so blessed to have my junior high/high school friends, UW friends and Utah friends all on here! I love blogging!!

These girls have too much fun off of our back step!

I really do need to hire someone to come in and decorate my home. The problem is that I really don't want to take down any of the other pictures of the girls from when they were smaller. Too many memories! Way too cute! How can I just box them up?! So far I still have wall space though for fun collages like this! How many more times am I allowed to post these amazing pictures on my blog?! ;)

Things have slowed down quite a bit since Christmas! I loved vacation, but I love a routine. Now that Emily is 4 she gets to go to the Literacy Center twice a week to start reading. It is a free program and Kaylee and Taylor got so much out of it. So here is Emily's "first day of school" photo and then Kaylee preparing Kierra for when she gets to go.

As I mentioned the program is free, but every year they do a Green Eggs and Ham fundraiser that is now a tradition for us on Martin Luther King day. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the green eggs! The girls LOVE them! I did get pictures of Kaylee and Taylor in their pjs singing at it with the Children's Choir. They are both in the front row--Taylor is 2nd from the left and Kaylee is 4th from the right.

"BIG BAD SQUIRRELS"

And last but not least our Kierra happiness!! Eating Daddy's birthday cake and squeezing her cute chubby feet into her black Sunday shoes. You might have to click on that one to get the full effect of those legs!

What am I thinking--this is last but not least!! My little sister's new baby boy. I hope she doesn't mind me stealing this picture. I know some on my facebook were wondering if she had even had him yet. They got home yesterday and even slept pretty well last night. I cannot wait to hold him!!

This is one of those times that I wish I could be as eloquent of a blogger as many of my friends are, because this has been quite the week of mixed thoughts and emotions and I wish I knew how to get them from my heart onto paper.

It has been a very fun week of anticipating new arrivals of my sister's baby boy, a dear friend's baby boy and then last night seeing another friend's little 4 week old boy. We are now 15 weeks pregnant and very excited!! But is everyone taking all of the baby boys? Actually, we know how girls work, we have the pink, why change anything at this point?! Of course, we are just excited to have a new happy, healthy addition to our family; pink or blue. 1 or 2.....

And there is where the contemplating and the tears begin. How I long to hold those sweet twins that we lost 3 years ago this week. How I long to have that privlege and honor of being trusted to raise two babies. I know that sentence may not make sense or even be fair. I know we are so blessed to have the 4 beautiful girls that we do have, but for so long I did beat myself up saying, "He must've known I couldn't have handled two." This week has been a little bit of a tough one for me as we are now exactly as far along as we were 3 years ago and with each pregnancy since then I have hoped, even prayed for that special opportunity. This week especially I really had my hopes up for 2 babies.

I am pregnant with 1!! How exciting is that though?! The nurse even asked Matt to be the one to try to find the heartbeat this time. That was an odd request--one that we have never had before, but it was fun! A little nerve-wracking because it took him a little while, but then fun!

The girls are extremely excited!! And very protective :)! Remember that basketball game at Christmas? We could not decide if we should tell anyone (especially the radio announcer) before or after the game. Within minutes of getting into Laramie my brother in law was going around with big hulk holgan gloves beating up the little kids, and right away Emily said something about not hurting the baby in mommy's tummy. When everyone started laughing and getting so excited she started crying of course, but it was the best announcement yet! It sure took the pressure off of us deciding when to announce it.

It really has been a great week! I am so excited for my baby sister and my new little nephew. It is fun to think that she has a baby that will be older than one of my babies. They will have so much fun together!!

Today will be a little bit tough though. It is now 4:30 in the morning and I haven't slept much at all thinking about the many things we went through 3 years ago. There are so many personal experiences that I am glad I had written down; mostly because I see how far I have come and I also see names of so many people that helped me through those hard times. My testimony of prayer and faith went through a lot at that time, but most of all it was strengthened.

I do know that we are so blessed to have 4 such beautiful girls. I love them love them LOVE them. I have almost kept them home from everything this week, because I have just wanted to be with them all of the time.

I am very blessed to have a husband who has put up with my crazy emotions. He was and is always there for me. The willow tree statue above was something he gave me for Mother's Day that year, and it meant a lot to me! During that time when I was really very up and down he seemed to always knew what I needed; what words to say and maybe even when not to say anything at all. (that is a picture the girls actually took during one of there take pictures of everything in the house moments)

Anyway, sorry to ramble on so much about such personal things in a public blog. I usually try to do way more pictures than writing for fear of putting myself out there too much like I've done today. There were so many other things I was planning on saying, but I'll do that in my journal later.

I do have some fun video and cute pictures that I need to post soon--once I remember how my new camera works.

I am very blessed with family and friends that are such wonderful examples to me. I am blessed to always feel their love and support! I am so happy! We are very happy and having so much fun together as a family! Love you all!!

(really quick I have to explain the song "I Can Only Imagine". About a week after we lost the twins, a friend of mine lost her little boy after about 22 weeks of a very difficult pregnancy. I struggled through that funeral, but it was very uplifting and hopeful at the same time. This song was on a video of that little boy with his family. It brings back so many thoughts and memories and has helped me so much)

Happy Birthday Matt!

We love you! I love you! Thanks for being the best daddy and husband ever!