Family Vacation

We just got home from a family vacation, can you call it a family vacation when 1/4 of your family doesn't go? We left this little angel home with Grandma Sue and my sisters, which was hard but sadly it made the vacation a little more of a vacation. She was spoiled and did very well while we were gone. We left Thursday the 24th and stayed with our friends the Kotters in Salt Lake, and then drove 11 hours to Phoenix to visit Jared, McKenna, and their new baby Anna.


We had so much fun with them. We were bummed that Jared had to work, but we were able to spend most of the time with McKenna and Anna touring the city and enjoying the smokin' hot weather of 110 degrees!! Brynly was fascinated with the cactus and Trent found his new favorite store-- we had to go there twice!!

Anna is such a doll and is one lucky girl to have such good loving parents!! While we were there the Miller family joined us and the Gardners for pizza and a swim in the pool. The Miller family consists of Adam and Ashlee(Brynly's birthmom) and their two kids Cameron 3, and Patrick 10 months. We had Pizza and tried to cool off in the pool.
We had a fantastic time in Phoenix thanks guys for your hospitality!!

NEXT STOP--- ONE WEEK AT LAKE POWELL
We left Phoenix for Lake Powell on Sunday, it was a four hour drive to Page, Arizona where we spent the week on this for our yearly Lake Powell trip having a whole lot of fun! We spent the week with our Dabell Family-- Chad, Kathryn, Skyler & Liza Dabell, and Bart and Sheila Davis' Family ( minus Zach & Holly and Josh & Amber who we missed!!) We had a fantastic week of doing nothing but playing! Trent diving off the slide.
What more could a kid want than floating in the Lake having a sucker...
Catching a catfish...
Riding this...
And hanging out with grandma... She had so much fun with her new friend Carter!! They got along so well, it was fun having some one to play with! Brynly was a soooo good the entire time. We couldn't have asked her to be any better. She didn't complain once during the 28 hours of driving except one the way home today when we got to Salt Lake and she said her tummy hurt and then started throwing up...oops! A little car sick maybe???

We had a great time with our family and the Davis Clan, THANKS GUYS!!! After being gone for nine days it is so nice to be home and hug Emry!

Birthday Pictures

Brynly had a fabulous birthday!! She woke up in the morning to this...
we copied the Murdock's idea of the balloon fairy. Then she had five friends for a birthday party (Anna Celner, Faith Carter, Tanner Hart, Talen Murdock and Cameron Gardner) they decorated cupcakes...
then they played in the water, broke a pinata, and played some games. Brynly had a BALL!!!
Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Dabell's for a BBQ with all of our family. This is her cake, she wanted a GIANT cupcake cake(thanks Janet for the pan!!)with a cherry on top...
and this is all the loot she got from her grandparents and great grandparents (she had 9 of them there) and her aunts and uncles. She got that cute toy box, fish and aquarium, lots of coloring and art things, toys, and cute clothes!!! She was spoiled to say the least!!!!
Little Emry was enjoying herself at the party eatting her corn on the cob with a little dirt mixed in...hummmm interesting combination. We did find out she LOVES corn on the cob and it keeps her still for a few seconds. Brynly hardly stopped smiling all day long....I think it is safe to day she had a wonderful 4th birthday!!

The day we met Brynly...

Today is Brynly's 4th birthday!!!! Today and everything about this day four years ago brings so many emotions to the surface, I can hardly talk/think about it without getting weepy. This is when I have felt the hand of Heavenly Father in my life more than any other. While camping Memorial Weekend 2004, Trent woke up and told me that he had a dream we adopted a baby girl and she had lots of dark hair and looked like him. I felt an urgency to finish our papers and we were approved for adoption June 26. We got a call July 15th from LDS Family Services that our baby girl was born the night before and we needed to pick her up in Twin Falls the following day! We were in shock since our papers had only been in for about 2 1/2 weeks and we were told it would be a minimum of 6 to 12 months or even years! After calling everyone we could think of to share the exciting news we hurried to get everything ready for our new arrival! Our family and friends were ecstatic to say the least...it was a day we had all prayed for!!! We were so excited and nervous we could hardly think straight! The moment that I held my daughter in my arms for the first time I knew that she was mine and the instant incredible feelings of love were indescribable. The placement of Brynly was truly one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. Brynly's birth family are amazing people, we felt an instant connection to them. The gift they have given us was something we could not do for ourselves, there is no way we will ever ever be able to show our true appreciation for this selfless act. I longed to be a mother since....childhood! Girls aways pretend to be mommies and being pregnant and that is what I wanted most, after my amazing husband! Trent was so excited to be a daddy, he wanted to start having kids before I did. We were completely crushed to find out that I may never be pregnant, but I must say that now we wouldn't change a thing...we are so LUCKY! Brynly is literally the daughter of our dreams we love her so much and can't imagine our life without her in it! We are so thankful to our Heavenly Father, and to Ashlee for your faith and the incredible sacrifice you made--- We love you! Happy Birthday sweet Brynly you are nothing short of a miracle to us, we love you sooooo much!
This was Brynly's birthday picture from last year, birthday party pictures from today coming soon....

Our 4th of July Weeked!!!

We went camping for the weekend up Indian Creek (with many many many other campers!) and spent the day on Palisades Lake. It was a gorgeous weekend! I was very sad that we missed Idaho Falls' fireworks, but we had a great weekend with my family!
We LOVE to go tubing! Brynly has loved tubing since she was two, Emry got her first taste of it and really likes it!
Enjoying the sunshine!
Taking a snooze!
Grandpa and Brynly Loungin'
Trent takes his smore making seriously, it is one of the highlights of camping!
Emry and my nephew Kyler bathing in the trailer and loving it!
Best Buddies...dirt and all!!
Brynly Dancing-- what a doll she is!!!

Happy Birthday Angie!!

Happy Birthday sweet sister! We love you so much!!!

A few things we have been doing lately....

For the past several weeks every night when Brynly is going to bed she says, "Tonight I am going to dream about playing T-Ball". So Trent did what every loving sportsaholic father would do...he got together some kids her age (since they are all too young to play on other teams) to play on Wednesday nights for a couple weeks. Tonight was the first night and it was entertaining! We had a lot of fun watching the kids try to figure out how to play. They did a great job! Here are a few of the pictures I got of them playing. If you have a 3-4 year old that wants to come play let me know.

Brynly and Talen

Tanner Hart

What A Cute Baby!!!

If you are wondering if your eyes are deceiving you, they're not, it really is Amberlee. This is the first time in her adult life hitting a baseball and she hit it on the first try! Watch out Idaho Falls Chuckers, here comes Am! We think it would be fun to get a group of friends together and play, anyone interested?

Trying to get these two girls sitting, holding still, and looking at the camera is a serious challenge! This is as close as we could get! These are their matching red, white and blue dresses.


Cameron and Katie Dennett have a volleyball net set up in their back yard during the summer so we love to go have a BBQ and play volleyball. Some of us are better than others, some of us were not born with athletic abilities, I try. Here are what the cute kids are doing after they got tired of playing in the water! We had so much fun!


WE LOVE SUMMER!! Happy 4th of July!!

Welcome Baby Anna

After 43 hours of heroic labor, my sister-in-law McKenna gave birth to their first baby...a little girl name Anna Elise Gardner. She was born today at 11:30 am in Mesa, AZ. She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. and 19 inches long and was three weeks early. We are so excited to welcome her to our family!!! Way to go McKenna & Jared-- what a beautiful baby!!

Our Weekend "Camping"

We went to Island Park for the weekend, we were supposed to go camping but due to our lack of good weather we decided to go to the cabin and "camp" instead. For those of you who don't live close by, we haven't really had summer yet-- it snowed last week!! These are my two fisherman, Brynly had to wear her "fishing hat", but it didn't give her any luck in the fishing department. Trent on the other had caught two good sized fish! Way to go!! We had a great time!!





Emry was obsessed with pinecones. Everytime she saw one she would smell it and then try to collect them, then she would get so frustrated when she would drop them!!!

Happy Birthday Missy!!

(Missy & Emry)


Happy 23rd Birthday! You are an amazing person! You are the most generous and kind hearted person! I am so thankful to have a sister & friend like you!!

Adoption is like a trip to Australia...

My friend Janeal had this analogy on her blog that I love.

Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You've heard it's a wonderful place; you've read many guide-books and feel certain you're ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip. So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you'll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait --- and wait --- and wait. Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, "Relax. You'll get on a flight soon." Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, "It's no fair!" After a long time the ticket agent tells you, "I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat." "By BOAT!" you say. "Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane." So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat. It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends and family have flown back and forth to Australia two or three more times, marveling about each trip. Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air. People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was horrible; traveling by sea is so easy." You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.
You could really apply this to lots of different trials we have in our lives. I am so very grateful that I could go "to Austraila by boat" because I have the most beautiful, amazing, special girls in the world!!! I wouldn't trade them for anything in the entire world!

Gettin' BIG!!

Emry is growing so fast and has just started saying a few words (bye,uh oh, all gone, baby, more, and a few others) and just becoming more of a toddler that a baby. It is so sad for me to watch my kids growing so fast, and yet they are so much fun at the different stages of their lives. Sunday I was finally able to put her hair in pig tails instead of just the two little paint brush's on top of her head. I was so excited to be able to do something different with her hair. She sat so still-- probably thanks to the good example of her sister!! In one of the pictures where you can see she has her fingers kind of crossed, she has done that with her fingers since she was a tiny baby...it is so cute!! Emry is the sweetest little girl, but a very very busy girl!!!

Gone Fishin'

Today Trent took Brynly to a kids fishing thing at Freeman Park, Brynly was so excited to go and even more excited that she caught a fish!! She wasn't very excited about holding for this picture because it is sticky and slimy, look at the size of that fish!!!

Singin' in Rain

This umbrella has to come out every time it rains--- which is a lot lately!! She love love loves it!!!

One Word Tag

1. Where is your cell phone?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Purse
2. Your significant other? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Amazing
3. Your hair? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brownish
4. Your mother? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Incredible
5. Your father? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Loving
6. Your favorite thing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Snuggling
7. Your dream last night? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Water
9. Your dream/goal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Forever
10. The room you're in? . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .Family
11. Your hobby? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reading
12. Your fear? . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Loss
13. Where do you want to be in six years? . . . . . . . . . . . . Happy
14. Where were you last night? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Home
15. What you're not? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creative
16. Muffins? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . Blueberry
17. One of your wish list items? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Children
18. Where you grew up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Iona
19. The last thing you did? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bedtime
20. What are you wearing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sweats
21. Your tv? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . On
22. Your pets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Outside
23. Your computer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nice
24. Your life? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Remarkable
25. Your mood? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Happy
26. Missing someone? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brother
27. Your car? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Avalon
28. Something your not wearing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Socks
29. Favorite store? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Target
30. Your summer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cold
31. Like someone? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Everyone
32. Your favorite color? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Red
33. When was the last time you laughed?. . . . . . . . . . . . . Today
34. Last time you cried? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yesterday (reading a book)
35. Who will do this? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tagged

I tag Liza, Amberlee, Mindy, Cassie, McKenna, Britney, Christina, Ashlee, Janeal, and Nichelle.

Another Funny Brynly Moment
The other night at dinner we were just sitting around the table talking and Brynly says "this sure is cumbersome" We were a little caught off guard that she would use that word, but we asked her what it meant and she said, "bulky,too heavy". WOW, what a vocabulary she has! We have laughed about it ever since. The things this girl comes up with, she never ceases to amaze me!