I had a particularly rough night last week with Jayci, as she did not want to go to bed. Jess had taken Jack camping and I was really looking forward to bed time so I could tackle my to-do list. The bottles, binkies, and blankets just didn't have their usual charm, so I finally just resorted to letting her cry herself to sleep. Exhausted, I decided to put off mopping and catch up on blogs instead. As I read my cousin's blog, she talked about an inspirational blog she had read, and directed her readers to the site. I went to the site and read the journalings of a woman who's little girl, just a couple months younger than Jayci, was involved in a tragic drowning accident last month. Never in my life have I read anything quite like it. I'm astounded by this woman's faith, and I find myself constantly thinking of her and her daughter, and Heavenly Father's plan for them. What a wonderful and perfect gospel we are a part of; a plan that allows one to find peace, blessings, and even joy through painful trails comes only from a loving and merciful God!

With tears pouring down my face, I read two entries that had a strong spiritual impact on me, and have changed the way that I look at my children. The first was written on Saturday, June 21, the day of her baby's funeral, titled "Blessings, Blessings, Blessings". The second paragraph in this entry is such a powerful testament of His Atonement and the plan of salvation.

However, I was touched even more when I read her entry titled, "Behold Your Little Ones". How sad and selfish I felt that I was so stuck in my routine of dinner, books, bedtime, me-time, that I couldn't be patient enough to take a few extra minutes to hold Jayci, to rock her or comfort her. My children are my whole world, my reason for existing, bringing meaning to EVERYTHING that I do, yet I still give in to my worldly cravings and sometimes think only of myself. This particular entry was something that I desperately needed to read, but didn't realize until after I read it. When I finished this post I set aside my to-do list, turned off the computer, went and got my sleeping baby out of her crib and just held her and rocked her. These past few days I have been more patient and loving. I have stopped to give more hugs and kisses. I have slowed down and paid attention to the small details. I love the innocence of my children and it breaks my heart that I won't be with them for the next five days. I encourage all who read my blog take a minute and read these entries. The site is adailyscoop.blogspot.com.

Now, like I said in my last post, I have alot to catch up on. Since I'm nearly out of time (I'm leaving in just a few hours on a 17 hour drive to Oklahoma for an Usborne convention), I will mainly just post pictures with brief explanations.

For Father's Day I arranged a baby sitter for a weekend (it was a couple weeks after Father's Day, I'm not that far behind!) and Jess and I went camping, just the two of us! It was such an amazing trip! We got to take 'Frank', our new, very old motor-home! It's so retro, we love it! We cooked gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches and yummy campbell's soup!

Ooops! (for once this wasn't my fault!) We enjoyed some gorgeous scenery This picture is hilarious! Here's Jess, watching a movie on the "big screen"! Can you even see the TV? It's there! We did some off-roadin Here's the Mineral Basin road we were driving up. Isn't it gorgeous?

There was still a ton of snow in late June So we decided to slide down it Here's our sweet ride!

Next came the kid's first trip to the zoo (I know, it's about time!). We went with Kayli and the boys, and the kids had fun time!

They especially loved the giraffes

Here's our amazing Fourth of July. What a fun holiday! The kids had such a fun day. We started it off very early, and saw all the hot-air balloons lift off. I love this picture of Jayci with my mom! So Cute! We went to the parade, but I was obviously not in the picture-taking mood, due to some tension with some really not-so-smart man trying to kick us off of the parade route (that's a-whole-nother long story that I won't get into)

We spent the evening at my parents for a bbq and fireworks! Here's Jack waving a flag, unfortunatly not the right flag for the fourth, but that's ok because he prefered it over the sparklers!

Jayci like hers a little too much and burned a hole in her dress!

The kids ended their day with their favorite treats...

Ice cream for Jack...

...and binkies for Jayci! (This is how she goes to bed every night. She's obsessed!) Don't worry, we're doing all that we can to break this habit! This is Jesse's good friends' daughter. She's such a doll! We got to spend alot of time with them last Sunday YUMMY! here are the kids once again enjoying ice-cream cones with Jesse's family.