Katie's good deed.

There are moments in a parents life when they know that they are doing something right. Tonight I was so proud of my little Katie girl. We were at Wal-mart getting her a dress because she is growing so dang fast that her old one was too short. As we were leaving Katie noticed a man drop a dollar bill and picked it up and ran to give it to him. He wouldn't have noticed it missing and I'm sure many wouldn't have made the effort and just kept it but not my sweetie. I'm so proud of her. Yeah I think I may be doing this right. LOL

Remember a great man!

Father's Day is really a great day. I love to think of all the things that make it awesome. Family traditions help us to keep close to the past as we go forward into the future. We have a wonderful tradition of making breakfast in bed. I remember doing this for my Daddy and now my darling children do it for theirs. We will be having pancakes with raspberries and blackberries in the morning. David will love it.
It is also a sad day for me because I can't go give my Daddy a hug. I can't tell him Happy Father's day anymore and I can't sit on his lap and tell him I love him. However, I can also remember the things that I can do.... I can think of him and remember him for the awesome person he was. He loved his children very much and only wanted what was best for them. He was by no means perfect but he was perfect to me. He loved me so much. He taught me the gospel, how to be the best person i can be. He wanted his kids to be better than he. In fact, he never really felt worthy of the Love of our Savior and yet he was truly a man of God. I wish that I could sit on his lap and twist his tie tack again, I wish that my children had an opportunity to know him more than they did and I wish that he was standing in front of me right now so that I could tell him that he is my hero, and then wrap my arms around him in a hug that will never end. I am thankful that I know that we will be together again. He is watching over his children and grandchildren and rooting us on. I miss you Daddy.
I thought about writing some of my memories of Daddy and wanted to put down my fondest but how in the world do I do that they were all wonderful. Daddy made me a wonderful kitchen set to play with when I was little, he taught me to love music we used to sit together for hours singing and listening to music he was my biggest fan. He taught me to love family. We did so much together we worked together and played together. He took us camping and swimming. He loved to watch us experience new things. He taught me to love learning, I remember when I was learning to write I didn't have the best penmanship. He had me write poems every night to help me get better. He taught me to love God. I love you Daddy.

Just hanging out

Goodness, it has been a little quiet without Brandon and Alecia this week. Notice I only say a little. Well the other 5 crazies are here and they make quite a bit of noise, however I can still feel that my two oldest are gone. (Could it be that they are my best helpers LOL) Well anyway I miss them and can't wait for my babies to come home.

Happy Anniversary to Me!!!

Wow!!! David and I have been married for 16 years today!!!! I am having a hard time believing that we have been together that long. Time sure flies when your having fun. It seems like only yesterday that we were driving to Salt Lake to be married. Ahhh the fun of traveling with your family. Anyway the story of our wedding will be another post but for now I want everyone to know that I have the most awesome husband in the whole world!!! I love you bunches David.

Camp!!!

Well it is almost here the time of year that the kids look forward to. Next week Brandon will be going to Scout camp and Alecia will be going to YW camp. I will not be going this year and am a little sad that I won't. I have gone for the past 3 years and this will be Alecia's first year to go without me. I am sure that she will have fun but I am going to miss going. Hopefully I will get to go next year when Katie goes for the first time.

Looking Back: Part 3- The Year of Engagement

Okay so we were now engaged but I had to tell my Daddy! Yikes! I was such a Daddy's girl and I had no idea how he was going to take this so I have to admit that I was shaking in my shoes. I know that I had told him about David and I had told him about my experience so he was expecting eventually but I knew that he was not expecting it this soon. So I call him up and ask if it was okay to bring David home with me. The catch was that we would have to bring him back to Shreveport because he didn't have a car yet. So Daddy said yes and I brought David home to meet the family. Oh boy, was that an experience. Daddy was very nice and he asked if we would please give him a year and of course I said yes(being the total Daddy's girl that I am). David on the other hand would have preferred a shorter engagement period but hey he had to wait. Don't they say that "good things come to those who wait". So we were engaged for the next year. It was a time of learning and growth and much patience from both of us. David seemed to have doubts quite a lot. But to be fair to him I didn't let him take me out on real dates very often. I was very engrossed in school and didn't do anything except for on weekends and Daddy had told me that he wanted me home on weekend because all he had was one year left. Needless to say I kind of felt stuck in between the two men that I loved the most but since I was 19 and still felt that it was very important to give Daddy what he wanted ....... I went home almost every weekend. I brought David with me a lot but this still was not the kind of dating he was expecting. Now .... that does not mean we didn't spend a lot of time together, before any of you start thinking my wonderfull Daddy was weird let me tell you that he paid for David's first year of college at NSU (It was a loan that we paid back when we took over the payments of my student loan). He did this so that David and I could be together more. He thought that we were dating during the week. We did get together a lot and ate almost every meal together I felt like it was awesome and loved every minute of it!!!! However I think David would have enjoyed more real dates that consisted of going out adn not just going on walks around campus and talking alot. It was wonderful and we grew a lot. There was a small group of LDS students at NSU and we had a lot of wonderful moments. David was our resident priesthood holder and gave many blessings and pep talks throughout that year. It was Awesome and what didn't kill David made him stronger LOL... to be cont.

Ryan's Home!!!!!

Well after two long years we now have my very dear little brother home from his mission!!!! It was a day that was well worth the wait but we are all glad that the waiting is over. We are all so proud of his achievements and we know that he was where the Lord wanted him at the time. For those of you who do not know which I really don't think it could be many, my little brother was on his mission in Michigan. Poor thing he was verrry cold in the winter. Yikes Any way here are some of the pictures that I took. I took a whole lot more but these are the ones that I wanted to share. As you can see Momma was so excited that Ryan was finally going to be back. She could seem to stop smiling and she just glowed!

Momma wanted to have a huge group there to greet Ryan when he got off the plane and she asked David to make a banner. Of course David said two was better than one and made two. Momma also got some balloons and filled them with helium. Oh what fun. We were almost all there. Momma and Russell, Ray and Chelle and their kids Tori and Wesley (Trey was in VA and Riley had to work), Me and David and all of ours, Ron and Theresa with Reighn and Becky, Sandy (Jake was off shore), We also had a lot of awesome friends there, Sis Laughlin, Dawn TeSam and her girls, Kimberly, Natalie and Rachal, Shannan, Jonathan, and Jessica and Daniel Curiel, Brother and Sister Pinegar and their adopted daughter Tiffany, and the Funderburks. It was awesome to have sooooo many people there to welcome Ryan home but I think we did overwhelm him a little.

Momma was there with a big hug when he first got off the plane!!

And of course it lasted a while since she hadn't been able to hug him for two years!!!

Ryan and Momma

The whole family minus four! We missed you Jake, Trey, Stephanie, and Riley!

After we left the airport we all went to Ryan's Family Steak House and ate dinner. We took up one of the whole back party area's. We ran the poor waitress off her feet. It was a lot of fun and wonderful to be able to sit and be together. All of my siblings were there Ahhhhh It is a great feeling. I love you Ryan and am glad that you are back. ( the picture above is of Ryan and Jonathan Laughlin his life long friend)

Looking Back- Part 2 Getting Engaged!

Okay so I left off with giving my Daddy a heart attack. HeHeHe Anyway, David and I started calling each other and talked for long periods of time. It was great fun. Our first Date was May 29, 1992 I remember the exact date because it was his birthday. I drove 2 hours to see him and went to a dance at his stake. It was great fun, after the dance we walked to McDonald's for dinner. When it was time to go we didn't want to leave and it took us a while to say goodbye. I had got into my car and started searching for my keys. David was standing outside and laughing at me it took me a while to realize why he was laughing the darn keys were still in the door where I had stuck them to unlock the car. LOL Well before I left David stuck his head in through the window and gave me a quick kiss (aww how sweet our first kiss).
We continued to talk to one another on the phone and had a wonderful time getting to know one another. The next time we got to see each other was at the YSA conference held at Northwestern. It was a very important time in our little life. We spent sooo much time together talking and laughing and just plain enjoying one anther's company. Ahhh the memories. Anyway, we went to one of the dances and of course we danced together. While we were dancing David decided to ask me some questions Yeah it was like an are you good enough to be my wife interview Hehehe. So what were the questions? First he asked me what I felt about kissing!!!!! Okay this sounded like one of those "you can't win" questions and I really didn't want to tell him that I had always felt that the first really majorly awesome kiss should be across the alter at the temple (especially since I had already messed up a little on that goal) so I threw the question back at him and said what do you think about it. I was amazed when he said the same thing. Yeah the Lord knew who to put together. It was great. So we continue to dance and then he asks me this question, are you ready for this, boy did this take guts. Okay already here's the question. He asked me if I had ever thought that he might not be The One and I said no. It was automatic because by then I really knew that he was the one that I was going to marry. I didn't know when or how I just knew it was going to happen. He asked me how I knew that and I told him that I would tell him in a couple of months. There was nooooo way that I was going to tell him about my awesome spiritual experience while standing in the middle of a whole bunch of people dancing and I felt we needed to have some more time to get to know each other better before I told him. So we left it at that. I had a great time and we went out to a table and had a mini scripture study with each other man was I smitten. He was just what I wanted, spiritual and handsome. Cool So we stayed up really late and were tired the next day. We missed getting to ride the boat that was scheduled for that day but still had a great time. We walked back to campus and while we were walking and were really close to our spot David told me about his experience the day we had met. Now It is not quite as romantic as mine. He wasn't praying, driving or anything. He was washing his hands after using the restroom and looking in the mirror and thought "I just met my wife." Yeah that's kind of odd but hey you can't question the spirit. So after he told me his experience I felt the spirit very strongly, you know the feeling of love and comfort and I felt like I just had to tell him about my experience. So I did and I think I really blew his mind because now he really knew what we were feeling was heading in a direction that was new territory. So we go to the rest of our meetings and then we go back to our table to pray and read scriptures, sooo cool I really loved that about him. Anyway while we were there David sat for a very long time quietly and then he asked me if I knew what most people would do at this point (he was really into those leading questions, but Hey I knew how to handle them I just sent them right back to him LOL) He said that most people would get engaged! Oh my! Well then he asked me to pray with him. David always has has a hard time making decisions so I begin to pray with him and he asked me to keep on praying when the verbal prayer was over so that is just what I did. While I was praying David asked me what I was doing. Okay so he asked me to pray and not to stop so that is what I did and then he wants to know what I'm doing come on. So I just said I'm still praying. Aww it was soooooo sweet. David pulls me up to where he was and then he looks into my eyes. I can't tell you what that was like but I'm going to try. It was like looking into a window and seeing all the happy things that would happen between us. It was like Christmas morning It was awesome! Then finally David looks me deep in the eyes and asks me to marry him! Yay I was so excited and yet scarred and all sorts of feelings all rolled into one and I said yes!! After knowing each other for only three weeks we were engaged. Oh boy how am I going to tell Daddy this!!!! To be continued