Auntie Kaya's Back!

Kayla graduated with her associates from Snow College last weekend and moved back home for the summer yesterday. She'll be here all summer until she goes up to Logan to school in the fall. She wasted no time in coming to see Madi yesterday evening.

In other exciting news, my brother Austin has joined the National Guard! He will be reporting to basic training in Oklahoma on Aug. 17th. I'll miss him a lot but I'm so proud of him!

St. George

Allen had some work in St. George this past weekend so Madi and I went with him. We stayed with Allen's friend/coworker(/boss?) and his wife, Kari, and baby boy, Beck. The house we were staying at was just a few blocks from the temple so Saturday Kari and I took the babies to see the St. George temple. I'd never been there before. So beautiful!

Visiting cousin Kit

 

Madi got to meet her cousin Kit last week. On Thursday, Kate and Molly drove up and we all met at Jessica's house to see baby Kit and new mommy Jessy!

My beautiful daughter

This girl is gorgeous!

She has recently discovered her feet and thinks they're really fun. We've even caught her sucking her toes once or twice (absolutely LOVE this picture).

TV Monster

I had the best of intentions. My daughter would not watch TV. It is bad for her brain.

It seems Madi doesn't care that it rots her brain.

She's a little addicted.

If I ever leave her alone in the room while the TV is on, I take care to face her away from it. But I usually come back to find something like this. It's almost the only way I can get her to enjoy tummy time.

Laundry Day

So my husband and I have this bad habit. We let all of our laundry build up until it's a huge mountain of wrinkly clothes that need to be folded and put away. So we put in a movie and have a folding party. Madi wanted to play too. :)

As promised, here are the pictures of Madison and me in our matching Easter outfits. You can't see mine very well to tell that it's matching so take my word for it... it is.

And... more hat pictures. Can I say I really like this hat?

Six Months

Last week, my brother's friend brought my mom these flowers. Why would such a sweet kid be bringing my mother gorgeous flowers? And why would they make us all cry? Because last week was the six month anniversary of the worst day of my life. The day I lost my baby brother.

Nate was so special. He was smart, funny, extremely talented, and very tender-hearted. Perhaps a little too tender-hearted. He loved music, art, video games, stupid cartoons, and four wheeling. He had his problems, but I remember the last day I saw him alive he was so happy, goofing around and laughing, making us laugh. That's the way I want to remember my brother. Not the boy who thought this world was too hard, that we'd be better off without him.

Please, PLEASE, if you have loved ones in your life who are struggling, reach out to them. If you haven't told them you love them lately, DO IT. Don't get stuck with the same regrets I did. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him, what I could have done differently, what I would say to him. I so wish that my daughter had gotten to know him. I know she'd love him as much as we do. But I will be forever grateful to the Lord for his plan of happiness, for the knowledge that I will see him again, and to my parents who were faithful and true and were sealed in the temple so that our family can never be parted after this life.

I love you baby brother. Until next time.

Testimony of the Book of Mormon