Temple Day

The day after court we were able to take Shalise to the temple to have her sealed to us. It was a such a neat experience and so great to see all my kids there dressed in white. She looked so beautiful and we are so grateful for eternal families, that she can be a part of ours forever. We also had her baby blessing that evening at our church followed by dinner. We had lots of family and friends that attended and are so grateful for their love and support. Some of them traveled a long ways to be there and we are so glad they came out. Thanks to everyone for bringing food and letting us borrow clothes and everything you did to make that day so special for us!

It's Official!

She's a Gillen! We finalized Shalise's adoption today, so for better or worse, she's stuck with us now! :) It's a really neat experience to go to this hearing and have her officially declared a Gillen. We feel really blessed to have her in our home, we love her so much! We're grateful to family and friends that attended to support us. We will be sealing her in the temple to us tomorrow, so there will be more pictures of that later...Here are some pictures from court today:

I Do It!!

These are the three words I hear out of Marcus's mouth all day long, I do it! He has become very independent and insists on doing everything himself. The biggest battle with him right now is eating. He refuses to let me feed him, but he can't quite do it himself with his spoon, so he would rather eat with his hands than have me help him. So I guess what do you do... :) Here is a little video of this:

Grand Canyon Rescue

Some of you may have read about or seen this story on TV, but imagine my suprise to find out that this group of hikers was my brother and his friends... I attached a link to the story and there is also a video clip of the story that was on the news last night on that same page. My brother said it was pretty scary, we're glad that he made it out of there alive!

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4070567

http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=015e87e4-5bab-4af3-8824-f48c219e401a

Cabin Weekend

We had a really fun weekend with my family at the cabin. We watched movies, played games, ate smores, saw a moose and went on lots of fun 4wheeler rides.

One of the evenings we looked out and saw a moose right outside our cabin, here is a video clip of it:

Splash Park

We have sure enjoyed the splash park behind our house this summer. I don't know what my kids are going to do when it closes in a couple weeks. My mom brought my nephews up yesterday and we took all the kids there to play. They had a great time!

Happy Birthday Carson!

I guess when you are 3 years old, it means you get to have a 3-day birthday! Or it falls over a weekend and ends up being a 3 day event...talk about spoiled! It started out with his little party. He had friends and family over to play at the splash park and he had a great time. Thanks to all those who came and for the gifts, he is in toy heaven right now! Then we decided to let him open his presents a day early because Jake and I were both home and we thought it would be nice for him to be able to play with them with Jake and I, and then Jake was around to help me put toys together. :) Then by the time his actual birthday came around, we had almost changed our mind about taking him to ChuckECheese since he had already had so many birthday things, but we had told him that we were going to take him, so we decided to take him anyway. He was freaking out! It's the first time that he's been there, and I have heard about nothing else since then. So it ended up being quite an eventful couple of days for him. He still sings "Happy Birthday" to himself, I'm sure he thinks that every day is his birthday now...

And at this milestone, I thought it would be fun to record some of his favorite things and some things that I just adore about him:

--He loves his daddy and wants to be just like him. I love watching him follow Jake around with tools, or a shovel or whatever is required for the current project.

--He absolutely is obsessed with all things 4Wheeler! He would ride them every day if he could!

--He is really good at learning the words to songs, he has such a good memory. I love to hear him in the other room singing songs to himself when he thinks we aren't listening and sometimes he even sings to Marcus or Shalise, so cute. :)

--Carson loves trucks, trailers, cars, pretty much anything that has wheels. He always has something in his hand that he riding on the furniture in our house and of course making appropriate sound effects.

--I love that Carson is such a great helper with Marcus & Shalise and always wants to know where they are. He is so concerned about them if they are not around.

--I love Carson's energy, his smile and his laugh, it is so contagious. Nothing makes me happier than to hear him hysterical with laugher! Happy 3rd Birthday, we love you!!

Funny Marcus

I heard Marcus the other day just giggling away and looked to see what he was doing and this is what I saw:

We was standing on his head trying to let go with his hands and laughing like he had just discovered the funnest thing he has ever done. It was cute, he does the funniest things!

What's wrong babe?

The other day I wasn't feeling very well and was laying down resting. Carson came running in and saw me and came and sat down next to me, put his hand on my arm and with the most concerned look said, "What's wrong babe?" (Probably something he's heard Jake say to me.) Then he said, "You sick mommy?" I started laughing because hearing a 3 year old asking me, "What's wrong babe?" was pretty funny. I told him that I was sick and then he leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and ran off to tell Jake that "Mommy babe is sick, she's resting." It was so cute. So I guess in the middle of him running around like the energizer bunny, he does have his moments where he can sit down for you know, 5 seconds, and say the cutest things!

The Backyard

Have I mentioned how much I love our backyard? Especially with the new swingset Jake put in this year. We have been outside pretty much every single day since Jake finished it and the kids have so much fun. Shalise is finally big enough to put in the baby swing and she just loves it! And Carson's new thing is to jump off of our retaining wall and see how high he can go. Here are some pictures of spending time in our backyard a few days ago: