An Angel in our Family

We have been blessed with an angel in our lives. Mrs. Purcell has been our preschool teacher since Baylee was there 7 years ago! She is such an amazing lady and has made our family better by being a part of my children's life. After Cole's graduation yesterday I was taking the kids back to school and Kade said, "mom, Mrs. Purcell still loves me!" And all my kids feel the same way. She loves them and they know it. Thank you Kris for loving our kids! We love you and we are eternally grateful to have you a part of our lives. You truly are an angel to us!

NYC Girls Trip

Usually once a year all the girls in my family go on a girls trip. This year for Christmas mom had given us tickets to NYC for our girls trip. It was a crazy, chaotic time of year to go but we had an awesome time! We packed about everything possible into 2 days and really had a great time together.

Monday Night the Yankees were playing the Red Sox. We had gone to a play and Cindy and I really wanted to go to the game. But mom and Lanae aren't the biggest baseball fans. But in the end, Cindy, Bay and I went to the baseball game (probably the best game I have ever been to!) And mom, Tori, Lanae, Charlee, and Sami went to see Mary Poppins. I think it turned out good for everyone. The girls loved the play and we loved the game!

The girls first subway ride

Time Square! We walked a million miles in 2 day and everyone was really good sports about it! They didn't complain (hardly at all :)

This was at Battery Park. And as close to the Statue of Libery we could get.

We went to church on Sunday. Not actually, but we did go to the church on Sunday just as the singles ward was getting out. It is on the 3rd floor of the temple in Manhattan (or maybe 2nd floor, but you get the idea). There is nothing like seeing the Manhattan temple! Surrounded by skyscrapers and all of a sudden there is the Angel Moroni! I can't wait to go back and do a session in this temple!
We had very little time and so we wanted to do everything as quickly as possible. So we hired a pedi-bike to take us on a tour thru central park. Little did we know that it was the NYC AIDS Walk that day in Central Park. So about 5 minutes into our tour, our bikes get stopped because there was literally 50,000 people in the park for this walk. So our little biker tour guide, not wanting to lose our money, took us all the way up Madison Ave. and into the park about half way up. We can even say we walked in the NYC AIDS walk, but only about 2 minutes :)
We flew into JFK at about 10:30 at night. By the time we got to our hotel in mid Manhattan and put our stuff in our rooms it was way late and we were way hungry! Outside our hotel there was a food cart with a huge line. We thought if all these people were willing to stand on the street in the middle of the night to get this food, we should too! And Cindy said we shouldn't miss the experience :) We still aren't exactly sure what it was, the only thing we know for sure is that the little container of red sauce is SUPER hot!

Our Baby Is 12!

Wow, I would never have believed that 12 years could go so fast! Bay is an amazing girl, she is better than I would ever have imagined I would deserve as a mom. She was a perfect baby. I remember telling Travis when Bay was 14 months old, we should have another baby because she was so good it would be so easy. And she has always been easy. She is a peacemaker and loves everyone.

The older she gets the better she gets too. This year she has truly excelled. She is on Student Council, Intermediate Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, all accelerated classes, and National Junior Honor Society. She is smart, beautiful, and already has an incredible testimony of the Gospel. I don't know how I was so blessed to get to be her mom, but I am thankful every day for her and the amazing person she is.

I love you Bay, happy 12th birthday!!!