Introducing Paul and Katylyn Lethbridge

So as many of you know, my sister, Katylyn got married last weekend!! We flew to South Carolina for the event and it was WONDERFUL!!

Lucas LOVES planes so he was in heaven as soon as we got to the airport!


Plus, we got to see the COOLEST plane EVER!! Can it get any better than a Tinkerbell plane?? Emma was so EXCITED!! Too bad that excitement didn't last through the 6 hour flight but I think we all did pretty good....for the most part.

Saturday, March 20 was the big day. I was excited to meet Paul for the first time. I am happy to say that he is a great guy!


The chapel before the ceremony.

One of the many beautiful stained glass windows in the chapel.

Getting ready...

Isn't she gorgeous???

I love the "take my picture and die" look that she is giving me. Little did she know that this was just the beginning! Between all the cameras, I think we got over 2,000 pictures.

Lighting the unity candle.

They had their hands bound together during the ceremony.

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!

Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery died so you'll have to wait until I get the pictures we took of the family and just Kat and Paul from Joel.

The cake (which I thought was beautiful and very yummy!)

The rings

The bride and the flower girl.

The happy couple


Ummm...Katylyn, this is your reception...you might want to put the phone away...

The car before....

...and the car after. We were really nice, I promise!

The reaction to the car. Paul was pretty funny. He pulled his keys out and set off the car alarm which made everyone jump!

The mothers

Right after I took this picture I noticed that Lucas had drooled all down Katylyn's back! Nothing like a little drool to make your wedding day complete!!

I even let Katylyn take a break from all the pictures of her to snap a family picture of us. This is the first one we've had taken since Malia was born.

Congrats Paul and Katylyn!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

New Beginnings

For New beginnings this year, I wanted to take a little less of a serious approach and let the girls have some fun! So we did a circus theme. It was AWESOME!!

When they all got there, I told them that the circus had gotten lost so we would be doing some "clown training" so that they could be in the circus. I had them break into 4 groups so they could rotate through each station to complete their clown training. The first task was learning how to hula hoop.

I was VERY impressed with the Bishop's skills!!




Next was face painting. They couldn't look to see what was getting painted on their faces and they couldn't tell each other what was on them.

Then they had to build a house for a clown car using Duplo's.

After that came learning how to blow up and tie off balloons.

Here's how I tied it all in to YW.....when you hula hoop, you find yourself moving in ways you might not have expected to get things done. You have to trust the person who is painting you face just like you have to learn how to trust the Lord and other people. The house for your clown car has to have a strong foundation otherwise it will fall down. I couldn't think of anything for blowing up balloons so someone else said that sometimes you have to blow off some hot air.

Then I had the "class clowns" (the class presidents) come up and talk about each class and what the motto was. My Beehive President just got reactivated and I was so proud of her for giving her first talk!

After that, we talked about the new Personal Progress program and all the changes. Then was the fun part. I got this idea off sugardoodle.net. I had all the girls sit on the front row. I put a bowl of gum balls that had all the value colors in it in front of them. Then they answered a question about which Personal Progress goal they would be more likely to do and they picked the gumball color that corresponded with the answer. For example...Which Personal Progress goal would you more likely to choose? Bear your testimony (take a white gumball) or baby-sit for free (take a yellow gumball). At the end, they had to count all their gumballs and the color they had the least of was the value they needed to concentrate the most on. Then I challenged them to work on that value for Young Women in Excellence in the fall. It worked really well and they loved it!

That following Sunday, I got released. I knew it was coming but it didn't make it any easier on me or the girls. I have loved serving with them and getting to know each of them. They are all so unique! I am very grateful that the Lord trusted me enough to let me teach and guide them. I am going to miss playing and laughing with them!

A Tribute to a Great Man

My Grandpa Wilstead passed away yesterday. He was an amazing man and I am going to miss him so much.


He LOVED children!! Anytime any of the great-grandkids came over, he would want to love on them for hours. He couldn't get enough loves from those kids!!


When Emma heard the news she said, "You mean the one who gives me all the jelly beans?" Grandpa always had a hand full of jelly beans for the kids. He was a big man and it kind of intimidated Emma so that was how he would tempt her into his lap.


I had Lucas wear his overalls just for this picture with Grandpa. He always wore overalls!

When we were kids, Grandpa used to take us for rides up into the mountains in his Jeep. We would be giggling in the back seat and yell for him to go faster. He would always look back and smile while he turned the country music up louder making us think that he had in fact put the pedal to the medal!


We all used to love going on camping trips in the motor home. I can remember more than one family reunion up Huntington Canyon when we would all fight over who got to sleep in the motor home above the cab. I think that Grandpa was the one who taught me how to play poker too. He always had a deck of cards nearby and taught all of us how to properly shuffle a deck.

I loved going and hearing all his crazy stories about him and his brothers terrorizing the county when they were younger. He didn't talk about WWII very much, but when he did, the stories were amazing.

It's hard for me to imagine not knowing that I will have the chance to see my Grandpa again someday. I am so grateful that our family is sealed together and we don't have to worry about being separated by death. Even though I am sad that he is gone from this life, I am so grateful that the Spirit can bring my family and I comfort and peace right now. He has been in poor health for a long time now and I am glad that he is finally at peace and pain free.

The NOSE incident

WARNING: This is a very gross story so quit reading right now if you are easily nauseated!!

Right around the time that Malia was born, Lucas started getting stinky. At first, I thought it was just bad breath from a cold but by mid-February, he smelled so bad that nobody wanted to pick him up. I couldn't figure out what to do. Finally, the thought came to my mind that maybe it wasn't his breath or mouth....maybe it was his nose. So one night, I got Malia's nose suction thing and started to attempt to suck Lucas' brain out thru his nose. One side was so blocked that I couldn't even get any air thru it. So I tipped his head back and peered into his nose....there was something there but I couldn't tell what it was. I called Michael to come in and hog tie Lucas down, grabbed a pair of tweezers (plastic ones from the kid's toys) and pulled out the most disgusting thing I have ever seen!! He had a blanket that he loved to chew on. We would go into his room after his nap and find the whole room covered in scraps of his blanket. Well, apparently those scraps were just too tempting and he shoved a HUGE chunk of it up his nose! Seriously, the MOST DISGUSTING thing I have EVER seen in my whole life!! He instantly smelled better and we could finally give him some loves without gagging from the stench. So, for all you parents out there, if your kid starts to stink and you can't figure out why...look in their nose!

What we've been up to...

We have had LOTS of snuggling time with Malia.

Emma lost another tooth....
This is the right before it came out picture.

My Dad and Nanette came for a quick weekend visit.

Nanette and Lucas

He LOVED my Dad's hat!

So did Emma...

We took pity on Lucas and bought him a pillow so
he didn't have to use his stuffed animals anymore...

Emma and Lucas have both become REALLY good helpers in the kitchen. Lucas loves to empty the dishwasher for me. He does pretty good and can put the silverware away all by himself. However, I have learned to not put any knives into the dishwasher until I am ready to run it...

Lucas has discovered the computer! He loves to get on it and start pushing all sorts of buttons. He has pulled up things that Michael and I don't even know how to get to.

He is also learning how to be gentle with his little sister. He is figuring out the whole kissing thing and loves to snuggle with her. He is also really good at blowing raspberries on her belly!

We went to the Boat and RV Show a few weekends ago. The kids absolutely love to go thru the RV's and check them all out.

Emma let me curl her hair for church! It turned out so cute! However, she is her mother's daughter and it was no longer curly by the time we got home...(sigh)

Michael took this picture of me and Malia. He was making dinner and came in the living room to find me sacked out on the couch. Hey, I gotta take what I can get! ;-)

Sisters

Malia keeps growing and growing. We did find out a few weeks ago that she has reflux so that has been an adjustment while we try to figure out what is going to work for her. She has started to smile and be more awake during the day too. I am finally getting her on a schedule (a little more each day) so things are starting to be more calm around our house. At least as calm as they can be!!

Bathtime!!

A few days after Malia came home, we decided that she was in desperate need of a bath. This cute little bundle of joy had some of the WORST gas I have EVER smelled in my life!! And considering my family, that is saying something! It was seriously like someone had set off a sulfur bomb! Anyway, Emma was so excited to help!

1. 

Malia on the other hand, was not excited to be Emma's bath toy...

However, as soon as I picked her up and snuggled her into a towel, she was a happy little camper and went right to sleep.

Just a few days ago, we threw all the kids into the tub together. I was a little worried about how they would all do but Lucas was surprisingly gentle and only splashed a little. Malia absolutely loved it! She didn't even flinch when Lucas splashed her right in the eyes. She didn't cry the entire time she was in the bath, but as soon as I took her out, she started to wail. I gave her a bath by herself last night, and she hated it and cried the entire time. I guess that means that she like her siblings!!

Malia Ann

Last Thursday, I was feeling pretty crappy and had been having contractions off and on all day. It really wasn't that unusual because I had been getting good contractions off and on for almost two weeks. The frustrating part was that I wasn't dilating with all those contractions so I was in a bad mood and ready to be done being pregnant. Anyway, Thursday night at about 10:30, they started to pick up. By midnight, they were coming every 5-7 minutes while I was laying down (but they had been going that good before and stopped as soon as I stood up) but when I got up and started moving, they went down to 3-5 minutes apart. We headed off to the hospital to see if this was the real deal or not. When the nurse checked to see how far along I was, I was shocked to hear her say, "You're at a 6, probably a 7." We were admitted at 1:12 am and Malia joined us at 5:12 am so it went really quickly. I was so happy that I didn't have to be induced and I never had to have any pitocin at all!! We had a moment of panic when my mom, Michael and I all realized that we had forgotten our cameras! Luckily, Damon was up to bringing his to the hospital at 5 am so we could document the event.



Malia weighed in at 8 lbs even and was 20 inches long. She was definitely over-baked because her skin is super dry (her ankles have actually cracked and bled). She is a great baby! Her first night home was pretty rough while she got adjusted to life on the outside but last night went great so we are all crossing our fingers.



Emma is VERY excited to have a little sister! We actually narrowed the names down to either Marissa or Malia and Emma got to make the final decision. Michael was actually the one to come up with Malia and we found out later that Barack Obama's daughter is named Malia so I guess that's where he heard it. Ann is after Michael's mother, Susan Ann, who passed away from cancer 4 years ago.

I can't believe we have three kids!! HOLY CRAP!!! We are VERY excited but VERY glad that Grandma is here for a few days to help with the transition.