Together, Forever, Sealed with Love

"it is within our families that we learn unconditional love, which can come to us and draw us very close to God's love. it is within families that values are taught and character is built. father and mother are callings from which we will never be released, and there is no more important stewardship than the responsibility we have for God's spirit children who come into our families." - m. russell ballard

my greatest joy is my family, my most treasured memories are shared with ryan and elizabeth, i yearn for both of them when i am not with them. i am so lucky that our home is filled with love, kindness, consideration, happiness, and laughter.

Poncho Warrior Prince

we have a new addition to our family! we went to a few animal shelters, but when ryan saw him, he knew that this little guy was the one. he is the most trusting and loving little fella and has truly stolen a piece of my heart.
we are so glad that he has taken to our little family so well. although we miss sugar dearly, we loved her so so much. ryan and i just felt like we were suppose to go to a shelter and give a much needed dog a home filled with love.
the shelter doesn't have any past history on the dog, but they saved him from a pound in Los Angeles that was going to euthanize him. i tease that he had a head transplant because he looks like his head was photo shopped onto his body, haha.
ryan named him poncho because his entire body is white, so he looks like he's wearing a poncho. i call him warrior prince because he defeated the battle of being put down, and prince because he is the most cuddly loving dog.
it's a wonderful feeling having a little 4 legged friend back in our home! it's even more reassuring when elizabeth says, "mom, i think Sugar would have liked him".

The Love of Swinging

i know that i say this all the time, but elizabeth loves the playground! i can't help that when she loves something, she REALLY LOVES it, haha.
we have a little playground in our backyard, but to be honest, it's ryan and i that usually need a new scenery. plus, elizabeth is always pointing out when she sees a playground. she used to be petrified of the swings but now she can't get enough of them. she giggles when she goes high, she kept saying,'mom, i think i can touch those clouds'.

I'm going shopping...

elizabeth is so funny. she found a bag i hadn't put away, and she climbed into and told me to take her on my trip. when i told her i wasn't going on a trip, she told me that she was going to use it to go shopping...smart girl!
she told me that she was taking george & sally shopping with her.(george & sally are papa's hands that are spiders. george is mean, because he tickles and sally is nice because she doesn't tickle. my dad used to do this to us when we were little.) elizabeth is always telling me how george and sally go with her everywhere, it's so funny.

Elizabeth & Brighton

elizabeth loves her friends! i mean, like really LOVES them! she prays for them each by name morning and night. she always looks forward to playing with her friend brighton, she says to me 'i like to play with brighton because she is a gil (girl) like me.'

don't you just love how she lined up her princess dolls and how their arms are around the baby princess. ryan and i thought it was so cute!

Bunny Noel

elizabeth loves animals! if it was up to her, we would have a zoo in our home! she is such a good little helper when it comes to taking care of her pets too. santa brought her a bunny that we names noel for christmas, and elizabeth is always helping us feed noel. she loves taking noel outside for a walk on her lease. she has so much love to give.

Lava Hot Springs

my girls planned a overnight get away, which came at the perfect time. i have been struggling with the loss of sugar, and it was so nice to be with good friends and just laugh.
i love these girls to death! they are more like my sisters than friends. we all get along so well and we had such a great time. we seriously stayed up all night giggling like kids!
i love you girls and thanks again for an awesome weekend!!

Fort Building Fun

elizabeth loves building things! to keep her occupied, papa let elizabeth and her friend micheal build a fort in the front yard. they had a lot of fun.

Winnie's Caramel Sugar

all those who know our little family, know that we adore our baby of the family. i'm not talking about cute elizabeth, i'm talking about our little 4 legged sugar.
i had a love and connection with sugar from the moment I held her has a puppy. she had a ruff start, because she was the runt and she was having a hard time keeping food down. the vet told us that she probably wouldn't live that long. my mom and i were determined to keep her with us. we bottle fed her, burped her like a baby, and smothered her with our love. it wasn't hard to love her, she had a sweetness about her that you could see when you looked into her eyes. i believe our love we gave her the strength so she was able to stay with us.
sugar had a very special connection with elizabeth as well. elizabeth was only born two months before sugar. when elizabeth was a baby, sugar would snuggle in her bed by her head all the time. which continued to do every night. elizabeth and sugar were great buddies.
sugar was such a loyal friend. i felt like she really understood me. whenever anyone of us were sad or ill, she wouldn't leave our side. she was my little protector and really loved us and she was such a big part of our family. she was our baby, she was just sweet as sugar.
i regret to say that on april 12,10 sugar was hit by a car and killed. it has been a great loss to our family, and we miss her so much.
i do believe though that Christ gives us certain traits that we come to earth with, and we keep after we return to him. i'm sure that it's no different for our animals. dogs are a man's best friend, and i believe sugar's loyalty will forever continue until we see her again.
i'm sure that sugar is bringing much joy to all those in heaven.
elizabeth was praying the other night and said "bless sugar in heaven that she is having fun, and that Jesus is throwing her tennis ball."
we will miss our beautiful winnie's caramel sugar because she brought so much happiness to our live, but i'm sure she is happy.
may 17, 2007 - april 12, 2010

Lily's 2nd Birthday

it was elizabeth's friend lily 2nd birthday, so we all went to the zoo to celebrate. the girls had so much fun seeing all the animals.
happy birthday lily!

Jerusalem Dinner

the turners had left town for easter, so we did the jerusalem dinner a little late, but we all still had so much fun together!

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time. ~Martin Luther

recently ryan and i took a teaching course,'teaching, no greater calling' for church. it was such a eye opener in teaching by the spirit and so many other essential teaching tools.
towards the end of the course, i felt such gratitude towards our Savior. he was is our greatest example as a teacher, he leads us on the right path, and I'm so grateful for his love for me.
i'm so glad that we were able to spend Easter with family.

If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly

every year my parents have all the grandkids come over and dye eggs and then we have a big easter egg hunt. the turners decided to go on vacation for spring break and the taintors are living out of state,so it was just elizabeth. we invited a couple of her favorite friends, michael,kaylie and emmie. even my cousin jon came over for the easter egg experience. we had bought some monster egg decorations, and we all got really into it. it was quite funny. we were really impressed with elizabeth, she colored the eggs all by herself.
it was so funny watching the kids hunt for the eggs! thre was so much candy, but only 4 kids. elizabeth was running all the yard. she would gather up five eggs at a time and run back to her basket and throw them in. her basket was overflowing, to where she went inside and got another basket to continue to fill up. it was to funny! i'm glad the kids had a good time, elizabeth was super excited to eat some of her chocolate as soon as the hunt was over.

Happy Birthday Holly

when i used to watch the tv show 'i love lucy', lucille ball said, "the secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age."
i love you so much and had fun celebrating your birthday with the family.