Quincy's sweet testimony

I wanted to write this down before I forgot. Several months ago in fast and testimony meeting Quincy leaned over to me about 5 minutes before the meeting would end and told me that she wanted to go up there. I was shocked and instantly panicked, because I knew that would also require me to go with her! She is braver than I am and I was not planning to bear my testimony this day. I asked her if she had in mind what she wanted to say and we talked for a few minutes...a few too many minutes because then the counselor in the bishopric stood up and closed the meeting. She was disappointed to say the least. For the next month she asked every week if it was the meeting where she could go up and bear her testimony. It was actually two months later because we were out of town the following fast Sunday. Finally the day came and she marched up there right at the beginning of the meeting. She did it all by herself and bore a very simple sweet testimony. She has gone up every week since, including the week of her baptism while Grandpa and Grandma Southwick were attending church with us. They were impressed with her courage. I know that she does truly have a testimony. Very simple and new, but nonetheless a testimony of her own. For this I am truly grateful.

Cindy's Funeral

In May Cindy passed away. She faught a most courageous and amazing battle with colon cancer for 8 years. I have never witnessed someone with cancer live a more full and active life than she was able to, even right up until the end. She had amazing faith and was always hopeful and positive. She was a great example to all of us and we will definately miss her in our family. My heart goes out to Dave and her girls. So grateful that we have the gospel and know what we do about eternal families.

I love this picture of Quincy, Brinley and Lilly. So cute!!

Everyone except for Mike Corry and John and Debbie's kids were able to come and be there for the four day weekend. We all stayed at the same hotel and it was a fun weekend together in spite of the circumstances we were there for.

The cousins took advantage of the pool at the hotel.

Cindy will definately be missed but we are so happy that we know where she is!!

Family Pictures 2011

We have been trying to get our family pictures done each year. Chris takes them with his camera and he does a great job. This year he added a remote control to his bag of camera toys so we got to have our pictures taken with the click of a button instead of him racing back into position. The only problem was trying to hide the remote. It sneaked itself into a few pictures! We decided this year we wanted to have them taken in our neighbors barn. We asked permission and set the date. All was working well until the wind started blowing. We were all pretty much freezing and had such a hard time holding all of our "girl" hair into place. Unfortunately there was not a super family group picture where the wind wasn't causing problems!! Poor Binley had a hard time keeping all of that long blonde hair out of her face.

The kids being a little bit silly!!!


This was my favorite picture. I think they all look so cute holding hands! Kade thought he was going to die, but he lived through it. You will notice that he really isn't holding Quincy's hand but rather her whole wrist!!

Brinley...our whistling dixie!!

Brinley learned to whistle!! Great accomplishment for a 5 year old!

Chris is the best whistler ever. When we were first married and lived in an apartment we had neighbors above and on both sides of us. They would tease Chris because they could hear him singing "armies of Helamon" in the shower every morning and they could hear him whistling as he came home from school every afternoon. They used to say that they knew it was him coming long before they could see him!! Well, Brinley is growing up to be just like her Daddy. Chris is a very proud papa right now. Our other kids really can't whistle very well, but she is becoming a pro.

The other day we went somewhere and when we got there Brinley had fallen asleep in the backseat of the car. Chris woke her up to get her out. Still half asleep she sat up and started to whistle. She is one funny girl!

Brinley graduates from Pre-School!

This is Brinley's pre-school class. She has attended the USU child development lab on the Brigham City Campus. It has been an awesome pre-school. She loved all of her teachers and made so many new friends.
She carpooled to school with two of our little neighbor kids (Kate and Jackson). They were the only group that came together as a group of 3. They were nicknamed the "three amigos". They were all very proud of this. Brinley was so funny. We saw Kate at Walmart one day and she said, "now if we could just find Jackson we would have all 3 amigos here".

This was supposed to be our photo opp but Brinley wouldn't look up! Her teacher Kelly is giving her a diploma. She is out of school a full month before the other kids. We are both a little worried about how we will fill our days now with just the two of us together all day. She is anxious for the other kids to get out of school too.

Great Job Brinley...you make a cute graduate!!