June Summer Fun

We've had a fun summer so far! We've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to update our blog. 

We've spent some time at the park with our cousins.

Passed out on the couch.

Spent some more time at the park with more cousins.

Took out one of the RZR's from Dallas' work out with Dallas' mission companion and his family.

The Abrams

The Egberts

We drove from Rexburg to Kelly Canyon and Amaya kept asking, "When are we getting to Kelly's house?"

Elder Egbert and Elder Abrams all grown up!

Oaklie passed out--down-set-hike!

Amaya got into the closet, put on her winter coat and passed out. It was like an oven in her room. I have no idea how she slept in that.

More time at the park

Our ward put a team together for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. I'd never been but it was so fun and such a neat, hopeful experience.

The ladies in my ward who have had cancer (one of them isn't in this picture)

Drawing our luminary bag. They dedicate bags to people who have had cancer and at nightfall, light them around the track.

Customized by Amaya and Oaklie

Cousin Jackson

Emily and I. She came and hung out with me the whole time!

They lit off lanterns at nightfall in honor of those who have passed away from cancer. They played a song from "Tangled" and Amaya was AMAZED! It was like a Disney movie that came to life.

Oaklie fell asleep while she was eating a cupcake.

A couple of days before the Relay we got the BEST news of the summer. I had another biopsy done. When I woke up, my surgeon gave me great news. He had seen so sign of cancer, scar tissue, or anything unusual. A few days later, my results came back that I am cancer free! Words cannot express how it felt to have such a huge burden lifted off of my shoulders. I know that our family was blessed with a miracle and that my cancer-free status is thanks to lots of prayers offered on our behalf. I've already got some nice peach fuzz going on and only have check-ups until my next biopsy in September.

Amaya took this picture. She did a great job!

More posts to follow!

Amaya-isms and Okie-ese

A good chunk of my day I spend listening to my kids chatter and then making fun of them. Oaklie is starting to talk more and more. She used to jibber like a martian, but now she is saying lots of silly things.

That kid has more variations of her name than anyone I know. Amaya and most of the cousins call her "Okie", some call her "Oakwie", Paxton calls her "Oakie-Oakie!" and she called herself, "Gokie!" 

Like most almost 2 year olds, everything is, "MY!" If I point to something and ask her what it is (i.e. a ball) she just says, "My-mine!" Everything is, "MY-ah baby!", "MY-MY shoes!",  and "MY-pa-pad". (my i-pad). Her other favorite word is "Nyo" or "Nope."

Mom: Do you want a banana?
Oaklie: Nyo.
Mom: Do you want an apple?
Oaklie (sinister voice): Nyope.
Mom: Do you want a cookie?
Oaklie: Nyope.
Mom: Do you want to go to Disneyland?
Oaklie: Nope.

She likes to sing songs songs like, "wo, wo, wo is-a-bow" (Row, Row, Row Your Boat) and Called to Serve, "alled to erve our KEEEN!"

"Nee" is Uncle Nate, "Non" is Uncle John, and "Paps" is cousin Paxton.

Oaklie is starting to go in the potty sometimes. She has a little potty seat that goes on our toilet because her bum is so tiny she can't sit on the regular seat. It has little ducks on it and hangs on a hook on our wall when it's not in use. Oaklie thinks it's the neatest thing ever. "MY guck pawee," she says. Last night when she was supposed to be sleeping, she came downstairs buck naked. I took her upstairs, she'd taken her dirty diaper off, so I cleaned her up and sent her back to bed. Later, when Dallas went to use the bathroom, there was a half a roll of toilet paper in the bowl and poop smeared all over the seat and Oaklie's potty seat. The sick part was that she'd hung her toilet seat back up on the wall.

Saturday Oaklie came out of her bedroom and went crying to Dallas, saying, "Owee! Owee! Owee!" and pointed to these red marks on her arm, then dissolved in tears. It was ketchup. I'd missed one of her arms after lunch.

Amaya is starting to have quite the imagination. She loves to tell me stories. She has a birthday coming up and we were talking about presents and what she wanted for her birthday. This is what she said, "Um, like a doll, and she haves red hair like me, and it's kinda long like this, and then she haves cancer and her hair go all gone, and then she wear a scarf like this." I haven't heard of any dolls like that for sale, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Amaya is starting to understand family relations i.e. Nanna is Mom's mom, Uncle Tyson is Dad's brother, Great-Grandma Baxter is Grandma's Mom, etc.  She always tells me that she is AbbyJo's mom (that's her baby doll) and I am AbbyJo's Nana. Last night she told me she had a new mom named "Olga" (she always makes up the weirdest names). A new NICE mom (ouch, right?) and that I was her aunt. It was painful to hear, but the real salt in the wound was when she said that Olga was AbbyJo's new Nana, not me. When I put her to bed, she brought up her new NICE mom, Olga, and I told her if she got a new mom I would be sad. She'd have to go to a new house and leave all of her toys at our house. Mom, Dad, and Oaklie would all stay here and we would miss her. I would be really sad and I would miss my Amaya a lot. She looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and said, "You can be the aunt."

The other day I told her to go get her shoes in her room. Then I said, "Actually, your shoes are downstairs." She turned to me, laughed, and said, "I'm not Ashley! I'm Amaya nerd!"

Last week I told her we were going to run some errands. "Why we going to Erin's house?" she asked. "We're not going to Erin's house, we're running errands." I said (I don't even know anyone named Erin). Pouty face, "But I wanted to go to Erin's house!" I explained to her that running errands meant we were going to the grocery store, the bank, and dropping off invitations to my activity day girls. Errands is just a word that means you are going places to get jobs done. She nodded and seemed to grasp the concept. I told her she needed to go to the bathroom before we left. "It's okay," she said "I'll just go potty at Erin's house."

I've got some updates I still need to finish...pictures from Kelly Canyon when we drove side-by-sides over to have a picnic, relay for life, and Nate's farewell.

Memorial Day Weekend

Last year, I posted a little bit about Memorial Day. This year, it was great to have Dallas home. Sunday, we went to Preston for Dallas' cousin's homecoming talk.  It was such a beautiful meeting, it made me so excited for my brother, Nathan, who leaves next month for his mission to Florida. We were able to go visit Dallas' Grandpa Abrams' grave, as well of some of his other family members' graves who are buried in Preston. It was really neat, the cemetery was beautiful and there was such a special spirit there. Dallas explained to Amaya that these people's bodies were buried there, but their spirits were in heaven with Heavenly Father. I could tell that she understood what Dallas said, in her own child-like way. Like Dallas said, sometimes we underestimate our children and how much they really understand. It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes by Elder Groberg. "There is a connection between heaven and earth. Finding that connection gives meaning to everything, including death. Missing it makes everything meaningless, including life."

On our way back to Rexburg, we stopped at Pocatello's Field of Heroes. Each year, volunteers  put up a cross for each of our soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan since 9/11.

"On Memorial Day weekend, the fields at Century High School in Pocatello, Idaho are transformed into a memorial resembling Arlington National Cemetery located in Washington DC. Each wooden cross is handmade and affixed with the name, rank and the date of death of an American Serviceman or Servicewoman who paid the ultimate price in the name of freedom. The crosses are then carefully spaced and placed into the ground. Once the field is complete it is consecrated as hallowed ground and opened to the public for those who wish to come pay their respects."

It was pouring rain, which was actually very fitting.

It was so sobering to see the rows and rows of crosses. Each one represented an American Soldier. Each soldier sacrificed their life for our freedoms. Each cross represented a family, a future cut short to early. Many of these young men and women were younger than I am when they died. I wish my pictures could express the vastness of the crosses or the solemnness of the spirit there. There were over 6,000 crosses. 

It broke my heart to think of the amount of pain caused by the evil men who are determined to cause pain and chaos in the world. There are so many wonderful people who have had to sacrifice so much to right the wrongs done by those who follow Satan's plan. As Dallas noted, it all began with a war and it will all end with one. As Joseph Smith said, "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great 

Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

 “Satan wants to claim our souls and those of our children. He want our marriages and our families to fail. He wants darkness to reign. Despite this, we needn't worry or back away from our duty to our family (present or future), our community, or others, for God will always support and bless us in our honest efforts to do His will. He wants us to suceed more than 
Satan wants us to fail- and God is always more powerful.” --Elder John H. Groberg


On Memorial Day Monday, we took the kiddos to my parents' house and Dallas and I went on a motorcycle ride. I've always had a thing for motorcycles :)

Oaklie and Uncle Nate (soon to be Elder Clark!)

Oaklie and Amaya have a thing for motorcycles too :)

While the girls rode on the lawnmower and jumped on the tramp, Dallas and I went and picked up lunch at Gator Jack's and drove up to Heise Hot Springs for a picnic. It was SUCH a beautiful day! We loved riding through the countryside, enjoying the sights and smells of such a beautiful day. We passed almost a hundred American flags blowing in the breeze on our drive up. I feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful country, and to have so many little joys in my life.

Dallas enjoying our picnic. Isn't he so handsome in this picture?

Heise is one of my very favorite places. It's where we went on one of our first dates and Dallas proposed to me on a rock just like this one down by the water.

We're going to have to come back up this summer and camp with the girls up at Heise.

I think a good way to sum up our Memorial Day Weekend would be the lyrics to the song, "Home" by Dierks Bentley.

West, on a plane bound west
I see her stretching out below
Land, blessed mother land
The place where I was born

Scars, yeah she’s got her scars
Sometimes it starts to worry me
Cause lose, I don’t wanna lose
Sight of who we are

From the mountains high
To the wave crashed coast
There’s a way to find
Better days I know

It’s been a long hard ride
Got a ways to go
But this is still the place
That we all call home

Free, nothing feels like free
Though it sometimes means we don’t get along
Cause same, no we're not the same
But that’s what makes us strong

Brave, gotta call it brave
To chase that dream across the sea
Names, and they signed their names
For something they believed

Red, how the blood ran red
And we laid our dead in sacred ground
Just think, wonder what they think
If they could see us now

It’s been a long hard ride
Got a ways to go
But this is still the place
That we all call home

It’s been a long hard ride
And I won’t lose hope
This is still the place
That we all call home

Also, I forgot to take pictures, but I had a birthday last week. I turned 22, but I feel like I should be at least  twice that age sometimes :) Dallas was gone the last two years for my birthday, and I loved getting to spend it with him. We went on a date to the temple, then had sushi at Da Pineapple Grill in Rexburg. Yum! Dallas and I both love, love sushi, and it was delish. We had ice cream afterwards and picked up a new printer for me at Walmart. I know it sounds super boring, but it was my favorite birthday ever. I loved getting to spend the day with Dallas and our little girls. Thanks Tyson and Meagan for babysitting while we went on a date! Later in the week we had a little party for me and Nathan at my parent's house. (Nate and mine's birthdays are only two days apart, so we've had a lot of combined parties over the years.) I was feeling pretty sick that day, so I wasn't the funnest party guest, but we still had a great time.

Wesley's Warriors

Rexburg Motor Sports, Dallas' summer employer, hosted a motorcycle wish ride for an adorable little boy with cancer. You can read more about it here. Dallas rode his motorcycle in it and we had a great time cheering him on!

Waving at the bikers.

There's Dad!

Isn't my friend Kristen the most adorable pregnant girl ever?

All the bikes after the race.

It was so heartwarming to see the amazing amount of support this little boy and his family had. 

St. George

We had a crazy, busy, fun month of May. I finished up my cancer treatment the end of April (you can read more about it on my cancer blog). We've been enjoying the in-between time for lots of fun.

At the beginning of May, we went to St. George for a few days with my family. Holy cow! It was so nice down there, Dallas and I are already planning to retire down there :)
We celebrated Mother's Day and my sister's birthday in St. George. It was so fun!

 The house we were staying at had an awesome park, splash park, and pool attached.

My cute nephew "Paps" and I

Zion's National Park

Oaklie and I looking stylin' in our sunglasses.

Amaya and her Nana

Dallas and Kory with the kiddos

I just love this picture! Thanks Hailey for being on the ball about taking pictures :)

I can't figure out how to get our pictures back in order, but this is Amaya passed out on our ride down to St. George.

Oaklie loved the splash park! She kept kicking her legs and saying "Mo! Mo!"

More pictures from Zion's

Enjoying a nice lunch after a long day.

Back at the pool.

I married him for his fashion sense.

I can't wait to get these little nerds in swim lessons this summer!

Gotta love these Daddy's Girls!

Thanks Mom and Dad for an awesome trip!