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Friday, July 29, 2011

Another Busy Day!

Summer is always so much fun, but always so buys too!  Today was a super busy day!

First I got my hair cut:
This is before, it was just getting so long, and was getting in the way all the time - it was even too long for my curling iron to curl all of it any more


 I love the way it came out - the picture is a little blurry - I cut about 6 inches off, so it is still long, I also got it framed more around my face - again you cannot see it well, but we are going on vacation soon so you will see lots more of it.  I am making it a goal to get out behind the camera a little more.
 I like how Cortney had to stand right by me and do exactly what I was doing!  Cute little girl!
Next we went to the zoo.  Chris works at Rio Tinto and they do this zoo night once a year and it was really fun!  We got a ton of free food and other stuff!  Cortney even got her face painted!

I love this picture I took of Cort on the train!
 Me and Chris on the train
 Me and Cort on the train - you can see my hair a little better here, kind of
 She looks so tired in this picture but she was actually really excited to get her face painted.  When we got home and took a bath she almost started crying when she saw that the panda bear was gone.  So I sat her down and showed her the pictures, and that made her feel better.
 She was out within 5 minutes of being in the car on the way home!
After the zoo we went over to my parents house because it is Spencers birthday today!  Happy  Birthday Spencer!  Cortney painted him a nice picture to give to him, but she was being really shy around him tonight. 

All in all it was  a great day, but I am so tired and ready to go to bed!

C-O-R-T-N-E-Y!

Yesterday, while driving in the car Cortney, out of no where says, "C-O-R-T-N-E-Y, Cortney!"  This marks the first time that she spelled her name out loud without her repeating after me!   I think on of the biggest things that helped her learn her name is the puzzle her Papa Kinville made for her.  We spelled her name a little differently than most people do, so we probably wont ever find anything in stores that spells it right, but my dad made Cortney a puzzle out of wood that she loves to play with, that spells her name the "right" way!  Thanks Papa!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Sleepy Sleepy Little Girl

Today Cortney went in her room for Quiet Time, she usually just plays with her toys, but sometimes, very rarely she takes a nap.  After Quiet Time was all over I went in her room to get her out, and I saw she was asleep in her bed.  I thought, dang I just woke her up, too bad she cant sleep longer.  Her eyes were open and she gave me such a big smile, she looked like she was going to get out of bed, but instead she just feel back asleep.  By the way, she was asleep for another one and a half hours after I went in there!  Nice little break for mom, I was able to get more editing done on the pictures I took yesterday.

I posted a few of them in my photography blog if you want to check them out!

http://nieldphotography.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the break Cortney!  PS you are so cute!

Monday, July 18, 2011

A Prayer of Thanks!

Today for lunch Cortney wanted to say the prayer, which is very normal - she has to say it most of the time.  But this time she talked loud enough for me to understand what she was saying this is what it was:

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you
and thank you
and thank you
and thank you
(I think you get the picture, she kept repeating thank you for about 1 minute before...)
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Such a sweet little girl!  So grateful that she listens when we pray - and she knows to give thanks for just about everything she can think of!  Love you Cortney!

Seven Peaks!

Saturday Chris, Cortney, Jason, Jake, Ryan, and I went to Seven Peaks down in Provo - for those of you who don't know what that is, it is a water park, and it was a lot of fun!  Cortney  loved the water slides, she went of them over and over and over again, the little kid ones of course.  She also liked that the water was shallow enough for her to walk in it alone, since she is so stubbornly independent these days.  Picture time!!!

These are some pictures of before we left.  Love my little girl!

 Cort and her daddy!

 Cort and me - she decided not to smile for this one...
 Ok so I totally forgot to take pictures during so all we have are before and after pictures.  He are the after ones!

Luckily I thought ahead and packed a sandwich for her.  She loves these kinds but only gets them on special occasions, she was very excited to see me take it out of the bag.
 I LOVE this swimsuit we got her.  We went on some kind of sale day and it was supposed to be 40 but we got it for 13, gotta love sales!!!
 Chris making a face - wouldn't be Chris if he didn't make faces!


 Chris and me!

We discovered while we were there that Cortney has discovered the proper way to eat oreos (or as she calls them papa's cookies - my dad has a stash of them at home and every time she comes over they share a treat).  Somehow she learned how to open them up and lick of the white stuff, we all got a kick out of that.

 Jake:
 Ryan: (PS Ryan is officially taller than me now.  Yes I am 24, and yes he is 12 - but I am still taller than Cortney!)
 Jason

 Jake and me doing the Nacho Libre pose
 Everyone but Chris - who was taking the picture - notice how tall Ryan is...
 Didn't look too happy in this one...
 So we decided to take another, but a second before this picture Cortney head butted me - which is why my fave is like that and Chris kind of has a goofy look on too!
It was a fun time! I am glad we went!!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Prophet Came to Our Sacrament Meeting!!!!!



So it was a Sunday like any other, except when we went into the chapel for sacrament meeting it was kind of crowded.  Chris had volunteered to help set up extra chairs in the chapel earlier that day because they were expecting a big crowd. We were able to get a seat near the back and settled down.  I was talking to the people behind me and we figured that something was going on, because in the summer our ward tends to be a lot smaller because of vacations and such.  Chris was helping to pass the sacrament today because we don't have very many young men in our ward.  He came all the way to the back and whispered in my ear that the prophet was going to come to sacrament today, then he went back and sat down.

A couple minutes later we all stood up as he came in the room!  Chris even had a front row view of him for the first half of the meeting.  Chris was sitting in awe - (very grateful for the fact I make him wear suits to church) looking up at him - basically straight across from him on the stand - he even winked at Chris.  Which is really cool itself because that is something we always do to each other, and have since we dated - not many people do that, but we do - and the prophet winked at Chris!  So cool!

So on to the important stuff.  I took notes on what he said and here they are :

Of course he told some awesome stories and I will tell those first. 

The first story he told was about how one time at church there was a boy sitting in the front row who was copying everything he was doing.  He even moved certain ways to see if he would copy him, and of course the boy did.  Then the prophet looked at him and wiggled his ears.  The little boy got excited and told his dad that the prophet was wiggling his ears but by the time the boy and his dad looked back up the prophet had his arms folded giving him that look saying - I don't know what you are talking about.  He said that was probably the worst thing he has ever done at church.

He told another story about when he was in a mission home, and how they had these neighbors that were Jews.  He talked about how the little girl loved coming to the mission home on certain days because they always had ham sandwiches, and she never got those at home, and she just loved them!  Hehe.

The other funny story he talked about was how he would read letters that were written in Spanish by a missionary to the missionaries father.  He said he loved to read the letters in a way that would make the dad cry.  He said he just loved making him cry like that, really loved making him cry like that.

Now on to my notes.  They are just little things he said that I wrote down that really struck me, enjoy!

"We are where we ought to be" - speaking of being at church today.  Really struck me of how important it is to show up every week because you never know who is going to show up!

He encouraged us to be loyal to truth and to honor our parents.

He told us not to live lives of criticism, but of lifting others up so we can be filled with joy.

He told us "There is safety in walking the way Jesus walked, and living the way Jesus lived."

He said, "Others are watching  us and making their decisions, on what we do and what we don't do"

He said to pray and ask "what would Jesus do?"  Then almost as important to do it!

He said that "when we are in the service of the Lord we are safe, and able to sleep well at night"

He strongly encouraged us to be examples of truth to those around us

He talked about how he loves people, and he knows there are so many problems everywhere.  He talked about how one of his favorite things to do is to restore blessing to those who have lost them, then encouraging them to ask "What would Jesus Do?"

He insured us that "Jesus is always on the side of mercy"

He told us to live every day to it's fullest.

And ended by telling us how much he loved us and to begin and end each day in prayer.

Basically the best sacrament meeting ever!  What a wonderful blessing!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Photography?

So I have always been interested in photography, but figured I would never really get a chance to see if I can really take pictures well, at least until recently.  A couple months ago I got a new camera - had to save up a while to get this one.  My sister - who just got engaged asked me to take their engagement pictures (and possibly more down the road if I did a good job - bridals and wedding).  So for a week I studied photography and learned a couple new things about my camera - then I must have looked at about a million engagement pictures, I was seriously so so nervous about taking them.  But after it was all said and done I got home and started editing them and realized I had done a pretty good job, especially for being the first engagement pictures I have taken ever!  Here are a couple of my favorites (some of them are sideways and I am not sure why):









After editing all of them and seeing the end result I am really pleased with them!  Even more so I am pleased that Jenn and Spencer like them, since they are their pictures and all.  But I'm thinking maybe I have stumbled on something that I really like doing!  Like I said before, I never really thought I would ever get a chance to see if I was any good, but now that I have, I am kind of excited to see where it can take me!...anyone want their picture taken??!!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Happy Birthday Makenna

Another one of my cousins had a birthday!  This time it was Makenna!  She turned 7 today!  Just wanted to say happy birthday to her!  We had a fun time at your party Makenna!  Thanks for inviting us!

The UP House!

So yesterday my sister asked us if we wanted to go with them to the UP house today, we didn't get to go inside but it was still pretty cool!  A guess a house company built it here in Utah.

 They even had the mail box!
 It is hard to see but they also had the waterfall picture above the fireplace inside.  We didn't get to go inside but you kind of get to see it here:
 You cant see us well, but that is us in front of the house


 Jenn & Spencer

 Cort's hair was in a single pony tail today - but it didn't hold up well, her hair is just so fine, but it was still super cute!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Watermelon, Strawberries, and Blood

Watermelons, Strawberries, and Blood - that is what Cortney got all over her cute white shirt yesterday.  She had a fun time eating some of her favorite foods then fell on a small table and split her chin open, uh-oh!

About a half hour before we were going to leave for the fireworks Cortney split her chin open, we went to the ER because we thought she might need stitches but because it was on the bottom side of her chin and the skin naturally gets pushed together they just decided to glue it together.  And we even made it out in time for fireworks that night!

Another funny story from the ER - Cortney was playing with this little steering wheel they had in the waiting room, she was saying "drive, drive, drive"  But because she is 2 and doesn't talk that clear it sounded like she was saying "Die, die, die!".  So they we were in the waiting room of the ER and our cute little Miss Cortney was shouting die.  That was one story I didn't want to forget!

Oh yes and don't forget...Jenn got engaged yesterday!  We are all so excited for her!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Cute Cortney Stories from today!

We were at church and Cortney was watching the little boy sitting behind us, he had a cool Spider Man water bottle.  When he started drinking it Cortney said "Mom, look!  He is drinkiling!"  I just loved how she said that!

Tonight we went over to my parents house to hang out and have dinner!  We were looking at some floor plans and everyone was saying what they would changed or little things they would do different and Cortney budged in and pointed to a random spot on the drawing and starting saying something in gibberish - but she sounded like she new exactly what she was saying - maybe we have a little architect in our midst!

Later during the night we were playing phase 10.  As we laid down the cards she likes to say what number we put down.  Pretty soon she grew inpatient waiting for us to put a card down and she would just ask, "What do you have?"  Of course we couldn't tell her - that would ruin the game - silly girl!