In my shoes

I have small panic attacks when I think of my girls growing up to be just like me (yikes!), but my Lovey, the wonderful husband and father that he is, always comforts me and manages to put my fears to rest. For now, anyways, the girls have emitted the better part of me in my pendulum of personalities (thank goodness!), and they seem to share my love of shoes. It is a good day when I enter my closet and see shoes strewn on the ground - paired with others - and when I see my babies waltzing in "their" stilettos.

And although they may "walk in my shoes" in some instances, I'm grateful to know that I will be able comfort them and help them. Just like my Savior does for me.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Rebecca, always fashionable even @ 8 o'clock in the morning

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Mary-Gail in her dress-up heels and butterfly wings

Mary-Gail & Rebecca are wearing the shirts Jessica gave them in February. So cute!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Rebecca in my NY shoes striking a pose

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Rebecca in my "sparkly" high-heeled sandals

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Mary-Gail's little nubs in my sandals

Rebecca, again, in my NY shoes. (These are her favorites)

Mormon Miracle Pageant

Saturday afternoon we shimmied on down to Manti, UT, for the Mormon Miracle Pageant. I remember going to this pageant with my family when I was younger, all of us loaded up in the Custom Deluxe Chevrolet Van. I took Lovey & our girls to see the pageant 2 years ago (he’d never seen the pageant before - being from South Carolina and all), and we were accompanied by his sister, Darleen & her daughter, Stephanie. Plus we met Carol and her kids there. It was a great time and we felt like it was time to go to the pageant again, and saw the last performance of this year.

I have always loved the drive to Manti, but I especially loved the drive this time. I sat in the back of the ‘Burb with the girls, who entertained me & Tony with their laughter and playfulness and questions. Rebecca kept asking us, "Where are we going?" and we would reply, "Manti, to see the pageant." After Rebecca had asked us, "Where are we going?" like a thousand times, Mary-Gail responded and said, "To Manti to see the pageant." At least I know one of my children listens.

Once we neared Ephraim you could see the Manti Temple perched on the hill. The temple glowed against the hillside, which was unusually green due to all the rain we’ve being having. We pointed it out to Rebecca & Mary-Gail who got equally excited to see the temple up close. Manti Temple is my favorite temple, it always has been. I received my Temple Endowments at the Manti Temple, (Lovey & I then took a temple-trip to California and hit the temples on our drive there), and Lovey & I were due to be sealed in Manti, but the weather was sour (it was January) and we didn't want to risk the drive. I shared these special experiences with Rebecca & Mary-Gail as we drove closer to the temple. I got choked up as I thought about my wee-ones getting married in the temple and envisioned me & Lovey being there with them on their special day. Oh, what a vision that was! I told them this, and Tony quickly replied, “That day better not happen for another 20 years!"

We arrived around 7 pm, quickly found a parking spot, unloaded our gear (Lovey was smart and brought a hand-truck to toe everything on), and found our spot from 2 years ago. I loved being on the temple grounds with my loving & devoted husband and my two beautiful daughters. The pageant recently added a new part to the production - Jesus Christ appearing to the American Continent after his resurrection. Very, very, very powerful. When the pageant started (9:30pm) Rebecca kept asking, "What is happening? Oh no! What is happening?!"

The pageant starts with a young couple, Robert & Mary, who are seeking answers to their questions: “Who are we? Where did we come from? And where are we going?" They find their answers through the teachings of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, who restored the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its fullness.

Their story is a side-story to the pageant: As Mary & Robert journey across the plains with the other Mormon Pioneers to Zion (Utah), Mary falls sick and dies. Her husband and young child finish the journey arriving in SLC, UT. They then journey south to Sanpete County, UT, but Robert doesn’t make it – he is hit in the heart by an Indian’s arrow. His faith of eternal families and being reunited with his wife always causes my feelings to overflow to tears. If you haven’t seen the pageant, you must! Go here to find out more: Mormon Miracle Pageant

Our Eternal Family - The Kemp Kuties

Lovey & Me with our angels, our miracle babies

Our set-up for the pageant: two new chaise lounge chairs (from our outing to Cabela's earlier that day), blankets, and a hand-truck to lug it all back to the car!

Rebecca happily eating her Red Vine Licorice (she is my daughter!)

Lovey & Mary-Gail on their way back from the car. Gratefully there weren't that many "protesters" this year (you can see one group on the far left of the picture - he's carrying a cross)

Passing the time: Rebecca rolled on top of Mary-Gail, then stood up, and rolled on her again. This emitted lots of laughter and resulted in lots of smiles from others

Hi my Lovey

Mary-Gail got a new shirt @ Walmart on our way into Manti. She decided to gag herself in the car, which, with Mary-Gail, always results in a throw-upy mess.

Rebecca super excited for her "outdoor show" to start

I dare you not to smile

38seconds

In this video, Mary-Gail was pretending she was sad and was hiding her face; Rebecca was trying to make her happy. I think her efforts were successful.

1min 11seconds

In this video, the girls are playing with Mary-Gail's "tickah" (her blanket). They were so slap silly the entire drive!

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Come here Mommy! Come!

Anytime Lovey says he needs to go to Cabela's, I tell him, "Not without us!" Rebecca & Mary-Gail love Cabela's almost as much as Tony does. For us, going to Cabela's is so much better than visiting the zoo: there are all different sizes and types of animals, they all look "happy" (except for the antelope that has 2 lions attacking her), they don't respond when Rebecca & Mary-Gail are screaming in excitement, you can view them close-up, and they give the girls a chance to see what all different animals look like. Plus, I don't feel guilty when I pay money to see sad, pitiful animals living in pitiful conditions like I do when we visit the zoo.

So we visited Cabela's Saturday morning. Since we're potty training - Mary-Gail is doing GREAT, by the way (more on that later) - we immediately b-lined it for the restrooms. Success! Then the girls & I ditched Tony (or maybe he ditched us?) and we went to look @ the fishes. Cabela's has this awesome fish tunnel with amazingly huge tanks and the biggest fishes. Mary-Gail was so ecstatic when she saw an orange fish - her favorite color is orange. Can a 2 1/2 yr old decide what her favorite color is already? Well, she has!

We moved onto the Safari exhibit, where the above mentioned antelope was. Rebecca said to me, "It's OK Mommy. They're sweeping [sleeping]. Don't get nervous." I had to chuckle because that's what I said to Rebecca many months ago on our first visit to Cabela's. Then off to the Arctic exhibit with Rebecca & Mary-Gail screaming (in excitement, of course), "Come here Mommy! Come! Look at that! Look at that! Oh my goodness!" The Cabela shoppers flashed smiles upon smiles at my girls' exclamations. I know, they're so cute!

And then we visited the Mountain exhibit where the girls run WILD. Deer, porcupines, raccoons, bears, snakes, mountain lions, moose, elk, horses...lots of animals. Rebecca & Mary-Gail correctly identified each animal (with the exception of Elk) and made sounds to go along with the animals (there were some silly sounds for the deers and raccoons). And there were, of course, a lot more "Come here Mommy! Look at that! Oh my goodness!" And of course there were more smiles.

This video was from a previous trip to Cabela's (March 2, 2009). The girls were just barely @ their 2-yr old adjusted age.

43 seconds. Cabela's fish

Lehi Rodeo

This past Friday night Lovey & I took our girls and Mom to the Lehi Rodeo Roundup. The weather was iffy - variating from rain sprinkles to downpour and a mixture of wind. We bundled up in our jackets, brought our umbrellas, and decided to go anyhow.

Lovey & I took Rebecca & Mary-Gail to the Lehi Rodeo Roundup 2 years ago when Aunt DarDar was in town visiting (sadly we didn't bring our camera and neither did anyone else). Aunt Carol, Uncle Jack + kids joined us too. We had seats on the front row and saw the horses, cows, and bulls eye-to-eye. It was a great rodeo and the girls did awesome!

But the weather this year was a huge bummer. We left the rodeo after being there barely over an hour. My umbrella was blown inside out (that's how strong the wind was) and the rain was pellting. But we did get to see cowboys try to saddle and ride wide stallions, lasso & tie baby calves, horse bucking, and little kids dancing to the "Funky Cowboy."

Daddy counts

Tony loves to challenge the girls. And believe me - the girls are always up for his challenges. Tony's been challenging the girls to hang from the single bar on the swingset, and they've both met his challenge of hanging for 30 seconds. Just this week Tony increased the hang-time to a count of 60!

Both Rebecca & Mary-Gail have had to work to complete this challenge, and Rebecca accomplished it on Tuesday! (Mary-Gail still "drops" when Tony reaches 30). But on Tuesday Mary-Gail was cheering Rebecca on right along with Tony - straddling the two-seater swing, and counting with him out loud (up to 10). When Rebecca's right hand slipped, Mary-Gail & Tony encouraged her to hold on and to grab the bar again. Rebecca did, and amist her cries of, "Daddy help me! Daddy help!" she held on for 60 seconds!

Tony said to me:

"Keep deleting pictures? Or pay $20.00 for 10GB of more storage?"

I know - I'm cheap, and I thought that by deleting "old" pictures from Google Picasa would be the way to go to solve my "storage" problem. But the pictures are also deleted from our blog, and what price can you really put on pictures and memories?

I paid the $20.00 for more storage space. Here come the uploads...!

Trying something..

I'm finding out that Blog.Spot is associated with Google Picasa, and Google Picasa only allows 1GB of photo/video storage. Once a picture is uploaded onto Blog.Spot, it is also stored on Google Picasa. I've never "used" Google Picasa for my photo editing or storing (I have a 500GB external hard drive for storage) so I'm going to delete some of the photos that Google Picasa has stored for me when I uploaded them onto my blog. By deleting some of these photos, I hope to open up some free-space which will allow me to continue to upload and post pictures to my blog. (I quickly viewed a couple of the folders in Google Picasa and there were several duplicate pictures, and some that I never posted to blog.spot). However, I also read that in deleting the photos on Google Picasa, the photos would also be deleted from my blog.

So...if that happens, I am stuck with only two options: Pay for more storage, or create a new blog address and start over.

That is unless someone else has heard of this before and has a suggestion?

I have to BUY storage space for photos?

Has anyone seen this before?

There were errors during upload.

The following images were not uploaded.

· P6160069.JPG : You have exceeded your total photo upload quota.

· P6160068.JPG : This image was skipped because of other upload errors.

· P6160065.JPG : This image was skipped because of other upload errors.

· P6160067.JPG : This image was skipped because of other upload errors.

· Rebecca in NY shoes.cropped.jpg : This image was skipped because of other upload errors.

We're sorry, but you have exceeded your photo upload quota. For more information, check out this Blogger help page.

Exceeded my photo upload quota??? I just received this "error" message, so I clicked on the "Blogger help page" and read that I have to buy more storage space for my photos? Otherwise I won't be able to upload photos to my blog. Never heard that before. It says I'm only alloted 1GB of photo storage. Anyone else???

A Farewell To Travis

Oh how we miss our Travi! Last Tuesday morning (6/16), Travi boarded an airplane to Charleston, South Carolina, for 4 months! He is living with Pat & Kim (+ their 3 little brutes) for the summer while he works at a carriage company earning money for his mission. (Travi turns 19 years in March, and will be serving the Lord and preaching His Gospel for 2 years).

Travi came over Monday (6/16) wanting to play with the girls one last time before he left, but I had just put them down for their nap. I told Travi that we were going for a bike ride to Walker's (the local convenience store) to get a treat @ 4:00pm, and he should come with us. I also invited the neighborhood kids to join us, provided they ask their Mom's if it was OK (and I suggested they also ask for some $ so they could buy a treat too). 4:00 pm came and we had quite a crew for our bike ride: Me with R & MG in tow, Travi, Bode, Briggs, Reese, and Jaycee were in our group. Holly brought her two daughters, Lydia & Jill, and another neighborhood gal, Lauren. It was quite a sight seeing these little kids contemplate the treat they were going to buy!

We rode back to our house, broke out the treats, and ate every bite while we lounged on the lawn in the shade of the front tree. Travi, ever the Bug-Guy, found a beetle crawling up the tree and snatched it for a closer look. These are some of the pictures that followed.

Travi finds the beetle-bug-insect-creature-thing

Don't you love Rebecca's cute little hand on top of Travis' as he unveils the beetle he found

Rebecca & Travi share the same facial expression w/their furrowed brows

Travi gave the beetle a kiss, and then Mary-Gail leaned in for a kiss!

Mary-Gail wasn't a bit nervous when she held the beetle

And she even let Travi put it on her shirt! They watched it crawl up before Travi took it off.

Oh - we miss our Travi! No one does "up-a-side-down" like him! Have a great summer kid!!! Lots of love

It's Summer!

Rebecca is washing off their "cool" (sunglasses); Mary-Gail doesn't want the sun to burn her eyes

Oops! The pee-pee came

A neighborhood boy, Reese, came to play with the girls

Did you see me, Reese?

Watch me again!

Rebecca copying Reese

Monday was warm! The girls & I got out our pool, cleaned it out, and filled it partially with water. We were hoping to have more of our neighborhood friends come & play with us, but Reese was the only one around. He didn't hesitate getting in the pool though - even if he was fully dressed.

Rebecca & Mary-Gail have virtually lived in their swimsuits since. Mary-Gail got a jump-start wearing hers: she started wearing her suit when Lovey & I were in Park City