Our Summer so far...

Celebrated Layla's 2nd Birthday

Presley drew a family picture for us. (Ben and I are in the middle) Pretty good for a 3 year old!

Taylor turned 1! This is my Bro Wes and his wife Alicia. (plus Wes finally got out of the hospital!)

The girls play at the pool or water park alot!

They got to take rides with Pop on his 4 wheeler.

We moved to Saint Joseph and celebrated with dinner.

Ben started his Residency at Heartland Health and turned 31!

Went to the dollar movies. Yes we still have to strap Layla in!

Celebrated July 4th and finished redoing the vintage/thriftstore furniture we bought. There are a few pieces of furniture in these photos that used to look like old scraps of junk. (I'll post more on that later).

The girls got bad girl tattoos and watched the fireworks.

The week I never thought I would see!

Ben and I traveled without the girls to Hawaii for his med school graduation. Congrats to Ben, or Dr. Benjamin Cloud (now). He graduated with a Pharm. D degree on May 14th and I couldn't be prouder of him!

Graduation dinner hosted by The University of Hawaii- Hilo

My two favorite Hawaii girl friends. I have missed them so much since we moved from Hawaii, they will never know how lucky I felt to have them as friends while I lived 1000's of miles from home!
Ben and his friend Jason after graduation

Richardsons Beach park- Hilo. I have imagined myself back at these beautiful parks so many times when I was freezing in KC from snow!

Our celebration dinner- Waikiki

My favorite surf town in Oahu

Waiamea Bay- Oahu, one of the best beaches on the island.

More photos of Hale'iwa town

Hawaii, you will always be a part of my life. I already miss you and the great sleep I got without the girls on this long awaited vacation!

And the Residency is............ Saint Joseph Missouri (St. Joe)

We found out last Wed early morning that Ben matched with his first choice in the ASHP Residency match with St. Joe Missouri! We are thrilled because it was more stressful completing the application, interviews and waiting to hear, then we thought it would be! Not to mention we think it's just a darling town and can't wait to move. Here is a link to the town in-case you want to check it out. http://www.stjoemo.info/images/stjoseph.cfm

Congrats to Ben on all of his hard work, I am so proud of him! (Also, he finished his last day of Pharmacy school the same week. What a huge relief for us!)

Pneumonia, Bronchitis and Pre-school

There has been so much going on, but my whole family has been to sick to post anything! So here is a break down:


*Layla gets pneumonia! (really, very scary, we are still taking her in to get chest x-rays just to make sure its gone)

*Presley (they thought it was pneumonia, but its really bad bronchitis and ear infections!)

*Then I get sick with it, actually still sick with it. Probably should go to the Dr but I keep thinking it has to be done soon, its been over a week!

*Then Ben gets it, but not as bad thank goodness because he is doing night rotations and shifts at Wal-Mart.

*Now my brother Wes is at the Mayo Clinic (having surgery tomorrow) on his kidneys. This has been a long time in the making, WE ARE PRAYING FOR YOU WES!


*Then Presley started Pre-school! It was nearly impossible to get her into pre-k when we moved here because it was the middle of the year and all spots were filled EVERYWHERE. Then my friend here e-mailed me and said her daughters school just got an opening and I jumped on it!!!! Can't believe Presley is in pre-school, she seems so young to me. But she LOVES IT! Thank goodness its only 2 times a week, I had a hard time letting her go:( She looks so tiny compared to her big back-pack!

Obsessed with Mormom Mom Bloggs

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs/index.html

Everyone needs to read this link! It's great, it talks about a non-Mormon sub culture who is obsessed with reading Mormon mom's blogs. I died laughing because she has pegged most of the blogs I read and I admit even I could be stereotyped in the same group at times. But regardless if Mormon moms try to portray this picture-perfect, enjoyable, trendy-catalog life, people are reading them and are inspired by the joys of a family life. I say keep blogging! Enjoy:)

I will drive 5000 miles and I will drive 5000 more!

It’s been soo long since I posted but here is a short sum up since we left Hawaii:


*Landed in LA in November, stayed a few days and visited Hollywood, picked up our car from port

*Drove from LA to AZ, saw the Grand Canyon (it was free the day we drove through-- what luck:)

*Drove from AZ to NM, saw monument valley (so beautiful!) (Ben had to be in NM)

*Drove from NM to CO (stopped at the 4 corners and the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings-- really something to see!)

*Then Drove from CO to Missouri (to my parents house), hung out with my family, Ben started work at Wal-mart.

*Then we drove to Branson Missouri to hang out with my family for Thanksgiving. We all stayed in a sweet cabin, it was a lot of fun. (sorry mom and dad, I don’t know why I didn’t get photos of youL…) Ben also met a famous old school boxer when we went out with my sis an bro in law.

*Flew back to LA for a Pharmacy conference, Ben had to meet a few of the residency sites he applied for, made a family vacation of it at DISNEYLAND! (Too bad it was sort of cold and rainy--we look pretty bad in our photos!) But we got to see our good friends Lindsay, Jason and Lily:)

*Then we had to drive back to NM and we drove 1000 miles back!

*1/2 week later drove to Texas and spent Christmas with Ben's family. We had a great time, I was really happy the girls got to see the grandparents, it had been a while.


Now we are back in Missouri and Ben got another call for an interview in OK-- so it looks like we will be back on the road next week! We will keep everyone posted on where we end up.

'a hui hou'

Some of my most precious memories happened on the big island, some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen are in Oahu, and I could never explain the closeness my small family has felt being together so far away, but I have missed the comforts of family and the conveniences of the mainland more times then I like to admit. As we made our final decent on Friday I felt sad, but I also felt extremely happy because this chapter in our life has closed and the possibilities for the next are even more exciting.




We sing this song in Hawaii as a farewell. It is commonly sung at church to dear departing friends. It brings me to tears as I sing along in my head. I will miss you Hawaii!

Aloha `oe

Aloha `oe

E ke onaona noho i ka lipo

One fond embrace

A ho`i a`e au

Until we meet again

Farewell to you, farewell to you
The charming one who dwells in the shaded bowers
One fond embrace,
'Ere I depart
Until we meet again

Pre Halloween Party

Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Meringue at our ward party.





















Playing Halloween games

Strawberry posing. I have no idea where she learned to do this, but all of her pics are like this, sooo funny.

A rest on the big crab on our way home. Lemon Meringue was tired and took off half of her costume.

P turned 3

It seems crazy for me to think my oldest child is a 3 year old! I love this little girl more than words can say, she is so special to me.

Thank you grandparents, aunts, Hawaii aunties, uncles and cousins for all the wonderful gifts. They piled up over the week and we finally let her open them early. Presley felt like it was her birthday all week and LOVED it. Plus Layla liked it too(when P would share) LOL...