me, brooke, and taylor swift.

its hard being taylor swift's biggest fan.

being brooke's sister and her being dustin's wife sure makes it a lot easier. how nice is dustin for getting her tickets for mothers day? how nice is brooke for taking me? the nicest. 

last night brooke and i enjoyed taylor's concert from a 15 feet away.....

yes.... we were that close.

taylor swift is totally adorable and put on an amazing show. i cannot believe that this girl is only 19.... she is incredible.

she plays the guitar like a mad woman.

we were so close we touched her when she walked by...... and then it got me thinking, i think i am a little old to be as big of a fan as i am. its a little embarrassing. the crowd was mostly 13-18 year olds and brooke and i decided that after we first rushed the stage that maybe we should sit back and let the kids enjoy themselves. we may have fit in better had we brought our daughters.....

we did however THOROUGHLY enjoy ourselves and are so glad that we could be her #1 fans in the young mom category. when we slipped into that category i don't know. i thought i was still young. oh well, we sung along better than most of her younger fans. we are so much cooler and knew more words to songs. so there!

singing "love story" she looked so lovely herself.

taylor we love you! 

thanks again brookie for taking me.... taylor's biggest fan.

memories of memorial day

memorial day weekend was so delightful this year. usually we head down south for memorial day weekend to celebrate this one's birthday but this year did not fall on her birthday so we stayed home. the best part about this weekend is that it was 100% our little family time. we visited both of our families both dead and alive. it was so relaxing. we may have to spend all of our holiday weekends like this.... together.

i didn't bring our camera to the farmington cemetery but i did manage to bring it to see my family. my grandpa and uncle jeff are both buried at the east lawn cemetery in provo. i am pretty sure it is the prettiest cemetery in these here parts and if wasn't so far away i probably buy a few plots today.

this is my grandpa glenn's final resting place. he died when i was 9 from prostate cancer. i don't remember much about him but what i do remember is that he was the NICEST person i had ever met. its funny the things you do remember about someone.... i remember the way he smelled, how he always wore dickie coveralls, the way he was always tinkering around in his shed, the way he looked without his hair piece on, how he always bent down, slapped his knees and put out his arms to hug you whenever he saw you, but most of all i remember how he adored my grandma. i miss him and am sad that i pretty much grew up without a grandpa. i am lucky however to have his history/life story by my bedside that i can read whenever i want and i am lucky to hear stories of him from his adoring children and wife. arthur glenn williams was a great man.

this is my uncle jeff, my dad's little brother. even though i was not much older when he died i sure do remember a lot about him. jeff was a homosexual and died of aids. i remember clearly understanding aids and homosexuality at a very young age. we grew up with a tolerance and love for homosexuals, we had to, we had 2 gay uncles that we adored (and still do... love love love my uncle lee). i am not your typical mormon when it comes to my views on homosexuality. i won't get into it but all you need to know is that its very personal to me and don't think everything is black and white.

 jeff was the most peculiar funny man i have ever met. he LOVED us, his nieces and nephews. he had names for all of us girls.... robyn was baby moses, i was ol' moline and even had my own song, brooke was daphne, and paige was gleeglock. he used to eat bugs from our hair and tell us dazzling stories of his travels (he was a flight attendant or as he called them a "studatrix"). i remember him being so very sick and going to visit him up in the avenues as he was struggling to live. even as he was dying he still had stories for us and loved to make us giggle. luckily we have video and cassette recording of most of his stories and i love to bust them out still to this day, his "old melreba taylor" and "pigs are brown" still gets me rolling. i am forever sad that this wonderful man did not get to live any longer. i really do miss him and am sad that my children didn't get to be loved by him. its good to know that you are not forgotten after we leave this life. i won't forget any of my loved ones.

after wards we decided to "liven" up the cemetery a bit with some high fashion modeling and a little bouncing. sometimes we are too much fun for our own good. 

don't be hatin'...

G.L.A.M.O.R.O.U.S.

oh girl...

even the kiddies couldn't help themselves from a little fierceness.

trevan however was not interested in our shananigins. 

sour puss.

go lone peak knights!

go go G.O. bears lets go!

(i still cannot believe i didn't make 9th grade cheer. look at the form!)

minie is bound to be a cheerleader, its in her blood.

miss louise and dad

not to be out done, here is miss prets enjoying a little daddie toss.

and of course my dad had to get in a picture. i love when he has picture request of himself. he's so amazing.

hope your memorial day was as fantabulous as ours!

first hike of the summer

to kick of memorial day weekend we took a hike up bells canyon. trevan's work bff joey met us and off we went. i have done this hike before and knowing that i had done it before i knew i could do it again. it is a beautiful short hike but its pretty steep and rocky. i was glad that joey was there so i couldn't complain to trevan too much (i am a big baby and TOTALLY out of shape). the best part of it all is that jude hiked the whole thing by himself! he was my hero that day. i was amazed he did it, he of course whined quite a bit but with a little distraction and a few stops, my tiny little trooper made it up that mountain. this was the first time he's had to hike by himself and he did great. now that we have gretsie she takes priority in the backpack. after we were done jude told us "next time we can go on baby hike for me. okay?". like i said, it was a little steeper than i remember but he did it.

joey, prets, and trev.

greta loved every minute of being in that backpack, as she should!

the 2 big babies that made it to the top! 

i am SO proud of my little jude.

the anti-home body

not much to update about. things have been relatively slow around these parts. yesterday i stayed home all day and it may have been really hard for me. does anyone else out there hate being home? (i wonder if that says something about me.) everyday i try to get out whether it be the park, target, nannie's, the mall, the grocery store, or even just to get lunch. i love my home and all but being here all day is no good for kenna. i did however manage to deep clean 1/2 of my house which is a feat if you know me. here's what else is going on....

jude is in an awkward stage... he is between napping and not napping. i know i am lucky that he has napped consistently this long but i really loved those 2 hours of silence, mostly because i would nap too. i did wind up enrolling him in pre-school and look forward to that in the fall. jude seems really excited about going to applebee's (as he calls it) and i think some social interaction with peers his age will do wonders for him. i am trying to convince myself that i do actually like my own 3 year old most the time. love yes, like who knows, depends on the hour of the day. we are however best friends.

greta is a crazy woman. she is known around these parts as "party girl", she is the paris hilton of white city. she is still the sweetest baby in northern america but when she wants to party you better be ready. most of the time she wants to party around 1:30am and although her kicking legs, bouncing body, and squeals are adorable it's starting to get a little old. her sleep schedule is out of control and she is up through out the night and when i say up, i mean up and ready for a party. greta loves her dad and no one can make her squeal in delight quite like he can. i love my little angel party girl. she is making HUGE strides with her development. she is now bearing weight on her legs, will get into the hands and knees crawling position, backwards scoots, and will sit alone doing a balancing act on her horse toy. i am thrilled to the gills and cannot wait to see what she does next. 

oh and these girls? they have got nothing on grets when it comes to flexibility, nothing!

us grownup's are hanging in there. in marriage (as you know) you have ups and downs. right now we are in between that. i never knew having kids would be so good for your marriage and so bad that the same time. i feel that most of the time i am a better mother than a wife and trevan is a better husband than a father. senor is a wonderful man and i am lucky to call him my own. the other day when a certain sibling of mine was fighting with their spouse and probably the in-law spouse was to blame, i told my mom that i was the problem in our marriage. i start most fights, complain the most, and my medicated emotional state can sometimes get out of hand. sweet trevan is always there to calm me down and be one my side. senor is like a river always constant and knows the direction to go. i am more like the ocean sometimes calm with my ebbs and flows and other times i am a tsunami. he is not perfect but is the far more perfect mate in our equation. so, i am sorry senor. stupid financial woes are always the reason for our fighting and i wish that it wasn't the case. we are working hard at doing everything right and hopefully it pays off. the good news is that we are in this thing together and i for one would not want to be in it with anyone else.

so that fellow bloggers is what is new for the day.

our mother's...

... are simply the greatest. i know everyone says that of their mother's but of course i think mine and trevan's truly are the best. we were both lucky enough to grow up in homes with mothers that loved their children with everything that they were. our mom's 'mothering techniques' were quite the same. both terri and my mom loved being mothers and didn't let anything come in the way of them raising their children. between them they raised 11 amazing children that all adore their mothers.

of course, i am a little partial to my mother. she is nannie after all, everyone loves nannie. my biggest nightmare in life is losing her. i need my mom, sometimes even more than my children and husband. she is my beacon of light and strength. she is a forever optimist when it comes to us kids and is always our biggest advocate (please do not do something to hurt her children for your own safety). she is always on our side even when we are wrong. as children my mom let be whoever we wanted to be from dance, to soccer, to baseball, to karate (thanks robyn), to harp, to art classes, to acting, to debate, to piano, to anything else we showed an interest in. she did whatever possible to make our dreams happen for us. i can honestly say growing up i never wanted for anything and that is because of this woman's love and of course my dad's support. through out the last year her role in my life has become even more important, with greta's struggles sometimes the only arms i want to hold me is my mother's. something about her loving arms and quiet understanding soothes me like no other. my mom is amazing, i adore her. she is my best friend and she is beautiful inside and out. 

yaya.... she is so adorable. i remember when i was first dating trevan i was so afraid to meet is mother. they way he talked about her and spent time with her, i was afraid she would hate me and that to trevan i would never be as wonderful as his mother. it was the relief of my life when i met the gregory's. i instantly fell in love (almost faster than i did with their son) with them. rog and terri are the perfect balance of all things wonderful. terri is so selfless when it comes to her kids, she does everything and anything they ask. the lunch dates and "bumming around" that the gregory's children do with terri is priceless to them. i am afraid none of them will ever leave the nest with their mother because life is so perfect there. i only got trevan out by marrying him and telling him that "no, we can not live in their basement.". still to this day its hard to pull trevan away from there.... fine, its hard to pull myself away, we just want to be with these people. my mom always jokes that i am more gregory than williams and frankly i think i am, i love the greg's. i can honestly say there is no better mother in-law than my terni. i can easily call her one of my best friends and i love to spend time with her (probably to her chagrin i am sure). i am forever grateful to call her my own.

so happy belated mother's day you two lovelies....

liberty park or bust....

oh summer.... how wonderful it is to feel you creeping on in. 

 the usual crowd (nannie, brooke, and myself) went to liberty park yesterday to enjoy the weather and let the kids play. nannie is watching the williams girls while their parents are on vacation so we had some extra peeps to watch over. liberty park is amazing and i don't even mind driving 25 minutes to get there, its so worth it. we came unprepared for playing in the water so we became white-trash once again.... it seems i have been that a lot lately. the good news is that at liberty park there are always people there who make you feel world class (ie. strippers, hippies, homeless people, and a butt naked 2 year old boy who was making everyone uncomfortable), oh well, it was a fantabulous day.

greta and bella are 3 months apart and have been in love with each other from the day they met.

these two are nothing but trouble and it makes these outings so much more enjoyable.

beautiful gabi was d-o-w-n for a little diaper slash time.

as i have said before.... no words.

  

bella fae

poor grets. she hates anything that has to do with playing at the park. she loves to watch and squeal but put her in a swing or set her on a slide and she goes ballistic. i have been told to work on in this with her from her vision and physical therapists because she needs to be able to handle uncontrolled motion but is terribly hard for little gigi. she HATES it but she sure loves to watch everyone play and be in the sunshine. she is pretty much an observer at this point but she's itching to start participating. i love this girl.

 bye bye.

an early mothers day present

did you know i love taylor swift? i know i have, but i almost more than love her. she is beyond amazing. 

the song "best day" is beyond words. i bought this CD a week before we had the fiasco with greta and found this song and fell in love. after the news of her diagnosis i listened to this song over and over and over again, this song crushed me because all i ever wanted in life was to be greta's mom, to have the chance to be the mother talks about in the song and more to greta. when we received the news that it was a misdiagnosis this song became my happy place, because i was given the chance to be that, i get to be greta's mom..... no matter what her life may bring us. from that day forward i was given a chance to be the best mom to my daughter (and son) and i knew i couldn't mess up as long as i loved them with everything that i am.

at the same time this song has a double meaning because i did have that mom growing up. my mom is the most beautiful person in the whole wide world. she is everything to me, to everyone. no one could ask for a better mother and i was glad taytay (as we so lovingly call her) could put it down in words for me. 

so get out your kleenex and enjoy.....

a st. george break

we just got home from an amazing weekend in st. george for this beautiful boy's baptism. have i ever mentioned that i need to live in st. george (santa clara to be exact)? my sisters life is so ideal, i want her neighborhood, her kids, her friends (you know who you are), and her weather. i keep telling trevan that i need a warm climate but that climate must include my mom and sisters. turns out st. george has part of that package now if only we could find a job down in utah's dixie. 

mostly this weekend was so fabulous because i got to be with my husband and kids. i decided i love my family and my life is wonderful. of course it didn't hurt that brookie and co. we're in an adjoining room and we partied from dawn til dusk. minie and jude are the BEST of friends and i hope they stay that way forever. i didn't take any pictures but brooke sure did and if you want a taste of our weekend click here. 

i love you st. george.... call me.