Ayva's 3 year pics

Thank you all for your sweet comments. It always boost my confidence, so thank you thank you!

I'm sure you are all getting sick of these posts but I'm finally caught up on their pictures. Here are some of Ayva's. She was a good model for me. Her slideshow of the photo shoot is over on the right side too.

Cheyenne's 18 month pics

Here are some of my favorites from her photo shoot but of course I'm a little biased.

On the right side under Cheyenne's 18 month picture is a complete slideshow of her photo shoot. You can click on the slideshow to see them better, if you want.

$12

Last night I ran up to Wal-Mart for a couple items, yah right. The girls were with me and the trip was fine, no problems until of course we get to the check out. My Wal-Mart isn't very good at keeping cashiers on hand, which I can understand because it's not a big town. So I'm always waiting in these big lines and of course Cheyenne decides to explode. I can't really blame her, it's 6pm we have a cart full of food that she wants to eat, mommy is in a hurry and we are in a big line and we haven't had dinner. 

So the cashier is scanning all the items while I'm trying to keep Cheyenne calm, remember there are always lines and all these eyes without kids. 

I decided to pay with the cash I had and put the rest on our debit card-$12. I swiped the card and put it back in my purse, thinking we are good to go, I just want to leave and get these girls out of here. 

At this point Cheyenne is reaching for some of the food and Ayva decides to tease her and keep all the food away from her, telling her "No!" PLEASE GET ME OUT OF HERE!

Instead of seeing the long receipt I expected to get I see him looking down holding a little white piece of paper. Not what I was expecting! He hands it to me saying it was denied, "Do you have another card?" At this point I'm sure I looked panic and for those of you who have witnessed this when I get embarrassed or am on the spot my face turns red and I could feel my face just burning.

We tried running it again and again and he tries running it because I'm certain there is money on it. At this point I could just feel all eyes on me and I'm calling Josh trying to figure out what's going on with the card and the people behind me are all set up to get checked out. They have all there food up, the wife is behind me in line with the food and the husband is on the other side of me with an empty cart waiting for us to leave. I'm panicking because I gave him all the cash I had and only brought the debit card thinking I was safe but No, not the case.

Come to find out from Josh the card had expired the day before.

I've never had one of these humiliating experiences at a store before and it was sooooooooooooo humiliating. I looked at the cashier, I'm sure I looked pathetic, thinking, "Can I just give you back $12 dollars worth of stuff?" To be honest I can't even remember if I was just thinking that or if I started to say that to him or what but the next thing I saw was absolute relief but at the same time, "No, I can't do that!" 

The cashier pulls out his wallet, pulls out his card and discreetly hands me his debit card.

The look on my face now is just---stunned! Reluctantly I took his card and still in shock and hands shaking I swiped his card. Have I been praying to be more humble?

Of course I was going to bring him the $12 dollars but the crazy thing was, he didn't seem to care that I was going to pay him back. He just acted like he was never going to see me again. I still can't get over that.

As I was walking out, hunch over, pride shot to pieces, on the verge of tears and wanting to crawl in a hole Josh calls to find out what happened. I told him and he didn't believe me at first but eventually did by the tone of my voice I'm sure. He said he would meet me up there so we could pay him back.

I gathered myself together, Josh showed up and asked what I wanted to do, I took the money and asked if he would take the girls and groceries home while I endured more humiliation.

I went back in, found the manager on duty and told him about it. Apparently the customer behind us told the manager the whole thing. So I paid the cashier back and again walked out of the store humiliated. 

As much as I felt humiliated Cashier Mike helped to diffuse the situation in a big way.

THANK YOU CASHIER MIKE!!! You have no idea what you did!

Lake Powell Vacation

**Warning**

This post is really long.

Last week we went out to Utah to visit family and spend some time at Lake Powell.

We went up to Provo to do temple work. We didn't have a babysitter so I just stayed with the girls and went to visit my grandparents and we had a good time. The girls loved taking over their home and I forgot to take pictures while we were there, hence no pics of that little visit.

After the temple we all went out to lunch. 

We all had a good time chowin' down!

My battle on this trip was trying to keep Cheyenne's hair done. I would do her hair and seconds later it would be out. I lost that battle!

Ayva had to be holding someone's hand and this trip her favorite person was Ethan.

There were a lot of people at the cemetery. This probably sounds really strange but I've always loved going to cemetery's. It seems very peaceful to me, I just love the feeling I get when I'm there. 

Just like her dad, never wants to look at the camera.

Always with the silly faces.

There was a field with horses next to the cemetery and the kids loved it.

Ayva loves horses.

Doing good so far with the hair that day! Although I think by that point I had fixed it 3 times already.

OOOH, how cute!

Ayva was always hanging around Ethan.

Ayva and Uncle Jimmy. Jimmy is leaving in two days for the MTC! 

Now we are at Lake Powell. This is the house we got to stay at.

Have you noticed, alot of Cheyenne's pictures are of her back side?

And again, with cousin Adam.

Ayva hangin' with the boys.

And all the kids playing in the red dirt.

Here we all are at Bullfrog Marina.

Ayva and daddy looking at the fishies.

Ayva and her pal Ethan.

A front view of Cheyenne, it's rare. Notice the hair.

What a funny girl.

Cheyenne and daddy eating lunch.

The rest of the crew eating lunch.

We rented a boat and found this little cove to play in.

If you'll notice, Natalie and her boys are at the top, they're the ants you see.

Ayva and daddy.

I know, gorgeous picture of me but sometimes I feel bad that we don't have more pics of the four of us so I try to just suck it up and take one. The girls were not fans of getting in the water. It was cold but after a few minutes it was fine.

This is Ayva striking her pose and saying, "What do you think?"

Cheyenne was a little unsure of what she was walking on.

The two of them together in a picture, now that's rare too.

Ayva posing for me.

There's Cheyenne, wondering where her mama went.

Ayva loves exploring. 

Ayva and daddy were playing and chasing the lizards.

I think she's seen one too many episodes of America's Next Top Model with me.

Natalie, Jimmy and Andrew playing with the kid toys. 

Ok, I'll admit, I joined in too. I had the duck ring.

We had so much fun playing in the water.

And this is what happens when you forget to spray your feet and legs with sunscreen and play all day in the sun. Come on, I'm a mom, my first priority is spraying down the girls and making sure they are covered. Then if I get some, it's a bonus. Which, by the way, they did not get burned except a little on Ayva's scalp where her part was. Success!

Yes, it hurt! My feet were swollen and it was hard to walk. Luckily grandma brought some of that "green stuff." Thank you Alisa!!!!

Unfortunately that was the first day so I missed out on the second day.

The girls had fun riding in the carts.

Ayva loved the boat rides, "Are we going on the boat, are we going on the boat?"

Grandma and Cheyenne. Again, the hair.

We got to camp out in a house. No tent....hooray!!!!

More "Lacey pics" of Lake Powell