Please let us know if you plan on coming

Life lessons we should learn

Life is a unique experience for every single person. Everyone has their own memories, their own perspective, and their own take on the world. While much of life can only be experienced, below are a few lessons that seem to stand true in a majority of people's lives.

In Yourself

• You shouldn't compare yourself to the best others can do.
• It takes a long time to become the person you want to be.
• Either you control your attitude or it controls you.
• It isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
• Your background and circumstances may have influenced who you are, but you are responsible for who you become.
• Credentials on the wall do not make a decent human being.

In Relationships

• You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.
• No matter how much you care, some people just don't care back.
• It takes years to build up trust and only seconds to destroy it.
• It's not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts.
• True friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. The same goes for true love.
• Just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.
• Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
• You should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
• The people you care most about in life are always taken from you too soon.
• Even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

In Life

• You can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.
• Heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.
• Sometimes when you're angry, you have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give you the right to be cruel.
• No matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.
• You shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.
• Two people can look at the exact same thing and see completely different things.
• No matter how you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you will hurt in the process.
• Your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.
• It's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.
• You can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better know something.

Lessons Learned from Dogs

Man's best friend may lead a simple life of food, sleep, shelter, and the occasional frolic, but if you've ever noticed, your dog is almost always happy. Give him a little attention and he basks in it for as long as possible. Time to eat? Great! Just a treat? Even better (that means more food later)! Anything and everything you do (with the possible exception of scolding) brings great joy to your dog.

It kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? It also seems a bit unfair. Here you are, worrying about life and it's many problems while your dog is sitting right by your side, enjoying life to its fullest.

People try to teach their dogs to sit, lie down, play dead, speak, and stay, but it may be wise to turn the tables (because dogs don't know how). Learn a thing or two from your dog. The lessons your dog can teach you may bring you peace of mind and newfound joy to your life.

The Lessons

• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• Allow the experience of fresh air and wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• Spend as much time as possible with the ones you love.
• When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.
• Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
• Take naps and stretch before rising.
• Run, romp, and play daily.
• Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you've had enough.
• Be loyal.
• Never pretend to be something you're not.
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle him or her gently.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• On warm days, stop to lie on your back in the grass.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
• When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into guilt and pout…run right back and make friends.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Magic Show

So like I was saying. Dallen went up on stage with Dirk Arthur to perform some magic tricks. I wish we could have taken a bunch of pictures (because I get pretty camera happy). But we had to buy these two and here's what we got. The girls were like "Dallen met a famous person!!!" Haha, they are so cute. And in case we haven't said it enough; Happy early birthday, Breanna and Happy belated birthday, Kaeley. We love you guys so much. Congrats on another year older.

Fun spontaneous birthday weekend!

So I was pretty disappointed I wasn't going to be back to Utah in time for the girls birthday. So Thursday night Josh and I were talking and we decided to meet up in Vegas for the weekend. So I booked the hotel, magic show and dinner reservations. Josh and the kids didn't make it to the hotel until 11:00 vegas time. And I had a small store bought cake waiting for each of the girls and their presents from us.

We sang happy birthday to the girls as soon as they got to the room and they blew out their candles and opened their presents. We got the girls each a "real" purse, big girl style, a wallet. And new clothes. I even had a gift waiting for Dallen, all clothes and a sleeping bag (haha, cause he had to sleep on the floor). My mom sent down money for the girls and Grandma Watkins sent down a birthday card for the girls and Grandma wall sent both the girls a hoodie and a journal for bre and drawing pad w/markers for Kaeley.

Humpty Dumpty didn't fall off this time...


This look is funny
So, this is our new 10 years old (On Tuesday)... who honestly looks about 14 here! She got $70 dollars for her birthday (Kaeley got $70 too) and Bre and I went shopping at the fashion show and she bought, earring, necklace, hat, bracelets, shirt, socks and shoes and a new webkinz. I think she did pretty well spending her money. Kaeley went to Toys-r-us and got three big toys. A littlest pet shop house, Polly Pocket boat and a barbie pool.

Pirate ship by Treasure Island, they actually have two.

They were pretty amazed with this hotel.

The girls walked into the Venetian.. and the whole time they were like "Wow.. this is soo beautiful...." Dallen didn't seem fased.. boy thing I guess

Birthday dinner at a Tempanyaki restaurant. I still love the tempanyaki restaurant in Clearfield out of all the ones I've been too.

This picture was taken inside the Tiffany Theater at the Tropicana... this is where we saw Xtreme Magic by Dirk Arthur... this story gets even better... Josh and I were pretty unimpressed by alot of the magic because after that one magician spilled all the magic secrets I've been looking for a real wizard. But the kids were glued! Anyway it still gets better. The magician used alot of animals in his show, a lion, tiger, liger (yes, they are real) and some other big cat. At one point in the show the Magician needed a kid volunteer. So he picked Dallen!!! I swear we were the only parents who brought their kids to the show. So Dallen, looking all handsome, goes on stage and the magician puts a magic cloak on him and puts his hands through the cloak to look like dallen's. And he does some magic tricks like making a square turn to a circle, and hankerchifs change colors and a rope stand perfectly straight. At the end he brought out a blank piece of white paper and put it threw a roller and it turned into a poster of the show and he signed it to Dallen from him and gave him a $30 white snow tiger. Dallen was just gleeming up there, but being as smart as he is he was like I knew how he did those tricks... smarty pants. But him going up on stage made his day. And after the show we bought picture of him on stage (cause there was no photography of our own). So as soon as I can get that scanned I'll put that on here.
Dallen watching the unicyclist. There were some really tall unicycles I was afraid he'd fall.

So we went to Circus Circus and they have circus shows every half hour, so we saw the unicyclist and juggler. Then we hit the kids casino (aka- Arcade/games). And we played all the dollar games and we made sure we played the games that was guaranteed a winner every time and if only our family was playing then we were guaranteed something. We ended up winning 5 stuffed animals! Josh won me a bear. It looks like an antique bear so I named it Annabear. The kids seriously left Vegas with about 8 more stuffed animals than they came down with (total between all of them).
This was an amazing weekend. I'm so glad we could finally take the kids to Vegas and spend some time with them looking around. It'll be a memory of theirs for long to come. There will still be a family party for the girls the next weekend they come down to Layton, so for anyone who plans on coming it'll be October 4, standby on a time.

Ground Zero

About 2.5 years ago Josh and I took a trip to NYC, and part of what we saw was what remained of ground Zero...
I left a single rose at the fence of the WTC site

The attacks happened today... 2001...

I enlisted in the Air Force 2 years later, immediately after High School graduation.

To those with their boots on the ground

My last unit from Utah, 729 ACS are all deployed right now to Balad Air Base, Iraq since May and a friend of mine at the 607 ACS (where I'm at now) is deployed to Balad with them as well. These pictures are from them and in memory of Patriots day and letting people know we're still kickin ass over there.

When they first got to Balad

Zent, who says people don't have fun deployed....

Balad Air Base

Showing their patriotism

I love you Lacey

Lacey, SHMILY :)
It will be ok, I love and adore you. Soon enough this will all be behind us and seem like it all happened in the blink of an eye. Love you -Josh

My Rant

I'm so aggravated, I'm so tense, I'm so irritable, I'm so depressed. And I hate being this way, so I will choose not to. But it takes so much intention to chose this way. It seems much easier to just allow myself to be negative. I'm frustrated because I am still waiting on my orders, I have no idea when I'm leaving (although I know it's sometime soon). I know I won't be home in time for the girl's birthday, which makes me so angry, and I wanna be angry at my higher ups for sitting on my separation paperwork... but what good will it do me to blame... won't change the fact that I can't be home in time.

So I wait here... waiting and waiting.... like I've been doing for the past year.... waiting for something to change.... waiting to receive notification. I am at the mercy at everyone but myself, and I don't like the feeling of being trapped with invisible handcuffs, I wish I could have just quit and left... but nothing is ever on my time is it... so it made me start thinking.Who am I? I know I am not alone in asking this question. We know for sure that between birth and death there is an experience called life. But am I the experience or the experiencer? Am I this body? Am I my faults? Am I a wife, mother, Airman? I am none of these things. I am not my mistakes, my body or my roles or titles. There is an authenticity we were born with, have lived with, and will die with. When you see the dying we no longer see those faults, mistakes or diseases that we focused on before. Now we see only them. Because at the end of life they become more genuine, more honest, more themselves just like young children and infants.

Are we only able to see who we really are at life's beginnings and endings? Do extreme circumstances reveal ordinary truths? Are we otherwise blind to our genuine selves? Most of us play many roles in our lifetimes. Each of us contains the potential to be anything from Ghandi to Hitler. Most of us don't like to hear the idea that we contain a Hitler though. We often look to others to define us. And we mistakenly define ourselves by the clothes we wear, the car we drive, our job, our relationships. But strip all that away. You are what you are left with, not by the clothes you wear, not what you do. Life is about being not doing.

Ask yourself. What would you do if no one was looking? If you could do anything you wanted, without consequences, what would it be? Your answer to that question reveals alot about who you are, or at least whats in your way. So you strip away all these roles, we are what's left. I like people who are more real that those who hide their true selves under layers of artificial niceties. Always trying to look like the good guy, making people like them.

The grandest kind of perfection of who we are includes being honest first with ourselves and then with the other about our dark sides and imperfections. C'mon, we're not all saints. Don't try and fool anyone, everyone is transparent. We give a piece of ourselves to our parents, our loves, we give a piece to our friends and to our careers. And at the end some people forget having not saved a piece for themselves, and don't know what kind of pie they are. But here's the secret .. are you ready. You don't have to wait until you are dying to find out what flavor you are .... and I'm gonna say I'm chocolate.

Caleb's Family Day

Today we piled into Dad's Duramax and drove 5 hours to Boise for Caleb's family day. Its the one day that they open up the Marine's area and show off the tanks, wreckers, hummers, etc. As we walked in we saw a giant flag and decided Dallen needed to do a Patton pose to show off his toughness...


We also walked past a bunch of old equipment and Dad, Caleb and Dallen were walking together, which gave me a good photo...


I was born in Ogden, Utah while my Dad worked on a pipeline over the mountain. Everyday he had to commute to work in a helicopter. At the time most of the pilots were fresh from Vietnam and they would fly so low and fast that the tops of trees were often found in the skids when they landed on the top of the mountain...


The rest of the photos were taken in and around the tanks. Caleb is an accomplished M1A1 driver and this year set the record for his battalion on the firing range. I have heard rumors that he may have set a new record for the Corp, if not he came real close. He can't hit anything with his rifle (That's right Caleb I said it..), but he can hit a fly 10 miles away with that 120mm cannon, go figure! We had a lot of fun and it was great to be able to show our support for Caleb, his unit and the Corp! We are a military family, Matthew, Lacey and Caleb all are serving right now. We are damn proud of all of them and their service!

This is for you baby

Can't wait to see the pictures of Caleb's family day. Hope to be home soon.... Love you.

Breanna's new glasses

A little while back Breanna fell and seriously trashed her glasses. That was sad, both Bre and I loved the way they looked. So today we went and checked out Lenscrafters for a new pair. We tried on almost every pair there before she found the right one. So here are a couple quick pics of the new glasses. Its hard to see, but there are really cute flowers along the side and of course they have the lenses that turn into sunglasses.

The inspirational story

My grandparents were married for over half a century, and played their own special game from the time they had met each other. The goal of their game was to write the word "shmily" in a surprise place for the other to find. They took turns leaving "shmily" around the house, and as soon as one of them discovered it, it was their turn to hide it once more.

They dragged "shmily" with their fingers through the sugar and flour containers to await whoever was preparing the next meal. They smeared it in the dew on the windows overlooking the patio where my grandma always fed us warm, homemade pudding with blue food coloring. "Shmily"was written in the steam left on the mirror after a hot shower, where it would reappear bath after bath. At one point, my grandmother even unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper to leave "shmily" on the very last sheet. There was no end to the places "shmily" would pop up. Little notes with "shmily" scribbled hurriedly were found on dashboards and car seats, or taped to steering wheels. The notes were stuffed inside shoes and left under pillows. "Shmily" was written in the dust upon the mantel and traced in the ashes of the fireplace. This mysterious word was as much a part of my grandparents' house as the furniture.

It took me a long time before I was able to fully appreciate my grandparents' game. Skepticism has kept me from believing in true love-one that is pure and enduring. However, I never doubted my grandparents' relationship. They had love down pat. It was more than their flirtatious little games; it was a way of life. Their relationship was based on a devotion and passionate affection which not everyone is lucky experience.

Grandma and Grandpa held hands every chance they could. They stole kisses as they bumped into each other in their tiny kitchen. They finished each other's sentences and shared the daily crossword puzzle and word jumble. My grandma whispered to me about how cute my grandpa was, how handsome and old he had grown to be. She claimed that she really knew "how to pick 'em."Before every meal they bowed their heads and gave thanks, marveling at their blessings: a wonderful family, good fortune, and each other.

But there was a dark cloud in my grandparents' life: my grandmother had breast cancer. The disease had first appeared ten years earlier. As always, Grandpa was with her every step of the way. He comforted her in their yellow room, painted that way so that she could always be surrounded by sunshine, even when she was too sick to go outside.

Now the cancer was again attacking her body. With the help of a cane and my grandfather's steady hand, they went to church every morning. But my grandmother grew steadily weaker until, finally, she could not leave the house anymore. For a while, Grandpa would go to church alone, praying to God to watch over his wife. Then one day, what we all dreaded finally happened.Grandma was gone.

"Shmily." It was scrawled in yellow on the pink ribbons of my grandmother's funeral bouquet. As the crowd thinned and the last mourners turned to leave, my aunts, uncles, cousins and other family members came forward and gathered around Grandma one last time. Grandpa stepped up to my grandmother's casket and, taking a shaky breath, he began to sing to her. Through his tears and grief, the song came, a deep and throaty lullaby.Shaking with my own sorrow, I will never forget that moment. For I knew that, although I couldn't begin to fathom the depth of their love, I had been privileged to witness its unmatched beauty.

S-h-m-i-l-y: See How Much I Love You.

S.H.M.I.L.Y

Lacey, I finally caught the shmily in your post the other day. Sorry for the delay my love. For anyone out there wondering what it is, it comes from an old story about a married couple who would hide notes and messages for each other. All the message would say is See How Much I Love You, or shmily for short. Lace and I have been playing the game for a while now and its a fun way to leave love notes. Maybe Lace will post a blog with the story sometime.

And I just wanted to tell my wonderful aunt Barb- Get better and we love you! You just cant win with that leg can you? Much love to all of my extented family, you are in our hearts and minds always.