Happy to be a Mom!

I love this thought from President David O. McKay

"She, who can paint a masterpiece or write a book that will influence millions -- deserves the admiration and the plaudits of man. But she who rears a family of beautiful sons and daughters, whose influence will be felt through generations to come, long after paintings have faded, and books have been destroyed she deserves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God. In her high duty and service to humanity, she is co-partner with the Creator himself."


Monday, September 6, 2010

Horse Back Riding in Idaho



My neighbors (the people that live 2 miles away) own lots of horse and let us all come down and ride around. I haven't ridden horses
in years and was so excited to get on.
Ben and Jonathan, and Sharon and Spencer
Mommy and Spencer
Katie- Anne and my cousins oldest girl, she was the horse rider of the whole group
Ben helping Spencer and Cousin getting the hang of it.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Idaho Luau Prepping

Getting Ready for the Luau, yes those are real pigs on a spit, we had three little ones (pictured) and the two big ones are in the Umu (underground oven)
All the grandkids in their Hawaiian outfits with Grandma and Grandpa

Spencer and Mckay hanging out
Marianne with Aunt Erin showing off her Hawaiian outfit.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Idaho and Smith Family

My cousins Becca and her three kids and Sharon came up to visit

Cambria, Brynn, and Spencer playing in the pool

Marianne and her aunt Katie-Anne


Cousins hanging out together

the kids in the kitchen sink

Hanging out with Katie and her friend Joseph so fun to watch my cute little sister grow up.


Spencer is helping Grandpa mow the lawn

Beautiful Lunch that Katie and I put together for my friend Megan

My mom's kitchen and us having a little luncheon

My friends Heidi and Danny, and Lisa and Brian coming over for dinner. And also here is my mom's new Kitchen, so pretty!

Bye to the Philippines

Here we are, all the bags, strollers, carseats, and people. By the time we got to SFO we had gone through 11 points of security and were thrilled to be home.

Elder Jacobs came over to see Devin just before we left.

My darling friend Cora came over and helped me clean my house. Thanks so much


Unis and Lea also helping clean and get ready.
What we will miss: Amazing customer service, our dear friends especially the Cadizal family, friendly people, beautiful land, Mangos, Pineapple
What we are looking forward to: Hot Showers, Milk, Cheese,


Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Traveling . . . Still

We got home a few weeks ago and since then have been Road Warriors. We got to Sacramento July 25 and spent about 10 hours at Devin's Parents house to recoup and then drove 9 hours to Idaho and spent a week and a half with my family, then drove 9 hours back to Devin's parents house and are here now. We are headed back to Utah (another 10 hourse) Next Monday or Tuesday. We are looking forward to being back to our cute little house which will feel like a mansion to us. It is the same house that we lived in last time in Provo for those who are wondering.

Small Updates:

Marianne is about a week away from sitting up and cut her first tooth yesterday! She is Just about 6 months old! Thank goodness for Ibuprophen. She is darling and sweet and has the biggest smiles.

Spencer is running everywhere he goes and is adorable. He copies everything we say and uses it in his own way. This past week he told Devin to "keep your hands to yourself", and told Grandpa "No Teasing me Grandpa", and instead of saying "No" to a question he responds "Not Today". We love this little guy and all his energy.

Pictures will come Soon!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Nick Name Extreme

The Philippinos take nick names to a whole new level. It pretty much just becomes your new name, it kind of cracks me up since some of them are pretty interesting. example.

Real Name: Nick Name that they go by
Rufrino Junior: June (so after Junior) :)
Gazalem: Guzzy
Shiblon: Bon Bon
Aliahana: Iana
Laurie-Jewell: Jewell
Abish: Abby
Nimrod: Nimrod
Eunice: Yeng
Corazon: Cora
Bisho's Wife: Princess (people really call her princess- thats is my kind of nick name- I don't even know her real name).

Monday, July 19, 2010

Our Little Lady

Here is a picture of Spencer at 5 months and Marianne at 5 months, i think they have similarities but definitly have their own look.




Marianne just loves the cute baby in the mirror, it always smiles at her every time :)



She has officially got the Roll down, she has been rolling from her back to her stomach for about a month giving herself lots of tummy time. She will get her bum into the air and look like the beginnings of crawling. And just in the last few days has mastered the art of rolling from her stomach back to her back, so now she can do the full roll at 5 months. Watch out Mommy here I come. I can't wait to be able to lay her on the floor (ours is all tile) instead of the bed and see where she goes.



Getting ready



On to my stomach





And I'm spent

Here is a video of Marianne giggling at 5 month, I had one of Spencer at 6 months and just love it.






Saturday, July 17, 2010

Singapore

Devin went Singapore this week for a job interview with O'Melveny & Myers- we won't know anything about it for at least a month. But he got to spend a little time in the city and really enjoyed it. Singapore is like the Switzerland of Asia very clean and pristine. Its about the size of Rhode Island and has about 4 million people. Two Rolles Royce, Two Mercedes, and a Porches
Big White Church St.Andrews

in the background you can see three sky scrapers on top they built this yaht for big events. Kind of cool

The metro check out how clean it is.
Circulor Hotel
The Fountain of Wealth: Must Do Steps for the Good Things from the Fountain

Stretch out your right hand and touch the wall
Make a silent wish
Follow the directional sign
Walk around three times

Well Devin wished for a job so we'll see if it works.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Typhoon Conson

A Trip to the Philippines, is just not complete without living through a Typhoon, ( ) n. A tropical cyclone occurring in the western Pacific or Indian oceans. So yep we can now check that one off the list. Tuesday Morning, my friend Cora comes by to ask if we have enough food, because there is probably going to be a Typhoon coming into night. Rain Dance? Definitly not needed !

Tuesday afternoon it started pouring, which occured for a while and then stopped, but then about 11pm the wind picked up, it was the most incredible wind I have ever heard. I thought the windows just might shatter. I couldn't sleep through it, Devin woke up after I had been listening to it for like an hour- and siad "I gues the wind is blowing", yep sure is don't know how you have been missing it.
Then Spencer woke up about 1 am after the power got turned off due to telephone lines being blown down. So we watched the wind, we live on the 15th floor and saw all the lights everywhere had been cut. Pretty interesting.
Then the power went off leaving us in hot and humidness for 24 hours, not very fun to say the least. We couldn't cook, so we had PB and J for Breakfast and Lunch, and then spent the rest of the day at Market Market, and had Pizza for dinner. The power still wasn't on when we went to bed and just as I was about to fall asleep in the hot humid room with not even a fan -the Heavens blessed us and our part of the city got power, I have never been so thankful for air conditioning and electric fans in my life. Do they make fans with batteries? They should!

Playing at Market Market for the day!


We even made the news- thats kind of cool:

MANILA (Reports) – Typhoon Conson sliced through the Philippines' main island of Luzon, killing 22 people, felling trees and snapping transmission lines that could leave millions without power for at least two days, officials said on Wednesday.
Twelve people were injured and 57 reported missing as the storm packing winds of 95 kph (59 mph) roared off toward China.

Haircuts, Cushions, Perm ...

New Haircuts for my cute boys, Devin is going to Singapore tomorrow for an interview with a big firm, so he wanted to look his best, good luck Honey! And Spencer was looking a bit shaggy so while we waited for the power to turn back on we entertained our selves at Market Market!

We build Cushion forts at least once a day, We build, spencer knocks it down, and we build again adn spencer knocks it down, and then we build again . . . and you get the idea (video below)

Our favorite family over for dinner.


So I decide to go out on a limb and get my hair permed, so this is the after picture. I am enjoying it, but I did get a littl enervous when I sat down and the hair dresser started and acted like she hadn't done one of these before-- which could be true cause no philippinos have curly hair. So I might have been a little too brave for my own good, oh well, at least it was way cheaper to do it here than in the US.
I hope you can tell that I purposely tried to look terrible in the before picture :)