Harper Grace

Every now and then I have a few

FAMILY and FRIENDS

who ask me to take a few "professional" pictures for them.

I'm super uncomfortable with it since my only photography class I've ever taken...lasted only 4 hours.

But when my stepdaughter Britni asked me to take pictures of her sweet baby...

Harper Grace

I couldn't refuse.

In fact I felt honored.

It took us longer to get things "set up" and for baby Harper to settle into a "deep" sleep...

soooo....
we didn't get all the poses and positions

we were hoping for but who really cares when you are photographing

a beautiful subject such as our sweet baby Harper!

 Isn't she gorgeous?!?

I think I will take her picture anyday!

In honor of Rachel

This week my beautiful baby girl...

 RACHEL MARIE

turned 15 years old.

I remember when she was first born that she had the "fullest" head of hair and dark skin. 
She was an angel and a beautiful baby girl.

I remember on the way to the hospital to give birth to her and thinking I could never love anyone has much as I loved her older brother Christopher...until the moment she was born.

Then I knew how a mother could love ALL her children the same!

I remember when she was eighteen months old and we were heading to the mall to shop...

when I went to get her out of her car seat she was so excited I could barely keep her in my arms...

I knew then that she was a girl that would always love to shop!

And she does!

I remember when she was five years old and ready to start kindergarten that she would be one SMART kid and that I would never have to worry about her BEING somebody!

I remember when she was eight years old and she got baptized a member of Christ's church...

she wore a beautiful white dress and had her hair in a beautiful braid her Aunt Donna had done up for her and I knew she would always love the Gospel and have a desire to Choose the Right.

And she does!

I remember when she told me she REALLY liked a boy and he had asked her to "go out" with her...

she said yes until the first time he tried to hug her and she realized she wasn't ready to "go out" with boy's yet!

I remember this summer when at the age of fourteen she got to go on her first overnight coed Church camp...

and she called me in tears, crying about the testimonies she had heard and realizing for the first time,

"Mom, I DO have a testimony!"

So in honor of your 15th birthday...

and so that you always remember at least ONE thing from your mother...

you were ALWAYS wanted...

you have ALWAYS been my world (just like your siblings)...

you will ALWAYS be loved by ME no matter what!

And you keep on being the SILLY, STRONG-SPIRITED, VIVACIOUS, BEAUTIFUL, TALENTED, SMART, AND FUNNY young woman you have always been...

because I will never forget any of it!

Doing Brave Things...Part 2

  I can't believe that almost two weeks has

GONE BY

since we got home from our vacation.

I can't believe how little time I have during the week to post pictures and to work on my blog.

I can't believe that I was lucky enough to wake up early EVERY morning this week to take

these beautiful girls to EARLY morning school.

Only 5 out of the 8...but aren't these girls all so beautiful?

This has made my bedtime be about an hour

earlier than usual and the time I usually use to blog.

As I mentioned before...

we spent one of our most MEMORABLE days in Cancun

in the jungle

doing brave things.

One of the main reasons we choose to go to Cancun
 (besides the beaches)
 was to see the ancient MAYAN ruins.

We had no idea when we got to

CANCUN

that we would not only get to go see the Mayan ruins...

but Repel, Zip Line, Canoe and

take part in an ancient Mayan ceremony.

Heck ya...we are TOTALLY in for this type of an adventure.

After driving 90 miles

we arrived at this beautiful location and began our hike into the jungle.

It was absolutely beautiful.

 So many strange and beautiful creatures.

We participated in an ancient MAYAN ritual with one of the leaders of the Mayan community.

We were taken to the CENOTE where we got to experience the

Repelling adventure I spoke about earlier.

That was just the beginning of our adventure.

We GOT TO zip line.
One of my absolute favorites!

Still can't believe my kids all did it...

and without hesitation!

Once you crossed the lakes there was only one way out...

and that was to CANOE

our way back.

 Waiting for us on the other side was an amazing lunch filled with authentic Mayan foods.

 We ate like KINGS and QUEENS

and we were so impressed at how clean they kept there 
meager homes.

 They took such good care of so little!

And FINALLY we made it to Coba to see the Mayan Ruins!

We started at Grupo Coba.

The 2nd largest temple in Coba.

 But this was not what we had come here to see.

We came to hike the BIG one...Nohoc Mul.

After hiking for more than 3 miles we arrived at

Nohoc Mul...

 the largest pyramid at Coba standing at

130 feet tall.

And yes we definitely were going to hike to the top of this one.

But not without taking care of some business first.

Someone had to ask a girl to Homecoming first!

Hiking to the top felt so good!

Coming down is the scary part!

This day turned out just the way we hoped it would...

and I got to watch my

family ENJOY every minute...

every "scary" or "brave" experience...

knowing that they were having a chance of a lifetime

and wanting to savor every moment of it!

We also learned just how fortunate and blessed we truly are.

I don't think ANY of us will ever forget this day...

at least not anytime soon!

To be TAN again...

One of the unexpected

GIFTS

of our vacation was...

the gift to be TAN again (or red for some of us).

Since we spent SEVEN days...

and all of those days during daylight hours...

in the sun

we got to come back from FALL break the envy of our friends.

Seriously...

we showed up to church the day after we got home and you could tell from our skin color alone that

we had just experienced

some major

FUN in the SUN!

 

 But when the week was all said and done we all decided that 

KATIE

got the best TAN of them all...

 and well...

Christopher stayed a nice shade of RED!

  

Either way...

we will take whatever "color" we can get to have had

this experience together. 

Doing Brave Things

 Doing Brave Things Part 1:

One of the first things we got to do on this adventure was

REPEL into a Cenote.

So what is a Cenote?

"It is a natural pit, or sinkhole resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath."

Or in other words...

a cave with water!

 The only one of us who had ever done anything like this was Christopher and he made it look easy.

 You can see from this picture the inner tubes below that were waiting for us!

So proud of Katie and Rachel for not being intimidated...

 and loving the adventure!

 Jacob told us there was 

NO WAY

he was going to do it...

but I'm really proud of him for changing his mind.

Once he saw everyone else do it...

he jumped on board.

 Enjoying the cool water of the Cenote...

okay RON loved it,

the kids enjoyed it,

and I just stayed tucked inside my tube trying to stay warm!

 There are TWO ways out of the Cenote...

the adventurous "climb 60 feet" out of the cave up a swinging ladder...

 Me, Christopher, Ron and Katie did this!

or the fun way out...

you let them pull you out!

Jacob and Rachel choose this!

Either way this was so much FUN!

Whenever we ask our kids what their favorite thing they got to do on this trip...

they always say it was the DAY

we spent in the Jungle...

doing brave things!

This was just the beginning of those adventures!

P.S. If you really look at the pictures closely you can see the MANY bats lining the cave walls.  We could "sort of" see them in the cave flying around us but we had no idea until we saw the pictures just how many bats we were actually surrounded by!

If my kids had known about the amount of bats I'm not sure they would have been so BRAVE!