Temple Work is Tiring Work

This morning Andie and I were up at 4:00 a.m. so she could attend the temple with her Beehive class. She left at 4:30, got home at 7:30 and now is doing this:

Oreo is real tired too, he was up early with us.

And then Brookie got up at 6:00 and was out the door at 6:30 to do temple work with her Mia Maid class.

I think somewhere in there Haley left to go to work at the fields.

It's only 8:28 a.m. here and already the house is up and running. Except for me. I'm still in my jammies.

Brynn and Andie

While their older sisters were off having fun at EFY this week, Brynn and Andie were having some of their own!

There was lots of swimming, movie watching, Barbies and X-box.

We're so grateful for cousins!

EFY

Yesterday these two cuties left for EFY in Provo, Utah.

I miss Brookie (and Ellie) already! They were very excited.

This was also Brooke's first time on a plane! I asked Steve to take pictures.

He didn't.

But Rylee did send this from good ole' Provo to verify their safe arrival.

Yay, they made it!

Have a super fun week Brooke and Ellie! We love you!

Happy Anniversary!

Last week my mom and dad celebrated their wedding anniversary. I love my parents. I'm glad they're my parents.

So we are going to take a stroll down memory lane. Get ready for picture overload. Where convenient (and by that I mean where I can remember) pictures will be explained.

This is the day I graduated from college. She's cute!

This is also the day I graduated. I know this isn't a picture of mom and dad but boy do I look young. Just sayin'.

Yep, graduation. Okay, enough of that.

This is mom and dad at Steve's graduation.

Steve graduating. Yay Steve! Not sure what Rylee was looking at.

Rylee and her best pal, grandma.

She likes grandpa too.

1993. I believe this was taken at Brecken's blessing.

1993. Somewhere in Colorado I think?

1997. Christmas and Brookie's blessing.

1999.

2000.

2001. The infamous first day of school breakfast. Miss those!

2002. Happy fourth and happy birthday Andie!

2003. Gainey Ranch.

2004. Gainey Ranch and the gondola ride! Miss that too.

2004. This was when we had our little family reunion and went to the Homestead for brunch. So fun. The following picture is not of grandma and grandpa but it was too cute to pass up.

2005. Fun times in Moab!

2006. First day of school!

2007. Christmas.

2008. New Pool!

2009. Andie's baptism. I cannot figure out how to get this the right way. I will keep working on it but it had to make an appearance.

Sadly, the pictures seem to end here. I guess we'll just have to keep taking more when mom and dad return to the valley!

Happy anniversary!

I love to see the temple, I'm going there TODAY!

This 12-year-old got her temple recommend Sunday! 

And so today, July 11th, we headed off to the Mesa Arizona temple so Andie could perform baptisms for the dead. Nate, her good friend, and the Thornton cousins came along. It was fun for Brynn and Andie to attend the temple their first time together.

A group of good looking kids!

He's cute too!

This is the tree our wonderful primary planted almost five years ago when I was first called to serve as primary president. It's still alive!

The wonderful morning ended with visiting with our stake president and his wife as they were leaving the temple and then donuts at Bosa's! A sweet tradition.

Where Does Time Go?

I was sitting at my computer this morning before my walk and this picture flashed across my screen.

One is getting ready to attend her first mutual activity tonight. The other is getting ready for her first flight to Utah to attend EFY with her cousin.

And they're both taller.

Beauty School, Swimming and I Love You's

As I was looking out my window the other day this is what I saw:

Haley and Andie washing each other's hair. After a nice (warm) swim the girls like to wash their hair outside rather than take a full on shower in the middle of the day. So, we have a hose out back and some shampoo that the girls use to clean up after a swim.

The other night during a family swim, Haley was trying to take Andie away from Brooke (it's a constant battle here sometimes.) Andie turned to Brooke and put her arms around her neck so Haley couldn't take her. The look on Brooke's face was priceless. It looked like she had just won the lottery! To have Andie favor her over Haley, now that's saying something!

I also noticed the other night after Rylee and Haley were done talking on the phone (we miss Rylee!) that they said "I love you" to each other.

I couldn't ask for more.

A Lego Temple

The other day Julie and Andie were hanging out at our house (I'm not allowed to say "play" anymore.)

Eventually they got bored so I said, "Why don't you two make the Gilbert temple out of Legos?"

So, off they went and designed their own Gilbert temple. Pretty impressive!

Complete with Moroni and all! At one point, the roof kept caving in so Andie and I built a "foundation" in the middle of the temple to keep it upright. Andie said, "Now I know why they always tell us to build a foundation. I will never build something without a foundation."

So not only are Legos creatively stimulating, they teach gospel lessons too!

The 5th Of July

This is what's happening in the Carling home on the ever important day, the 5th of July.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 (Haley calls waking up early my disease.) I read my scriptures and said my prayers. A great start to any day!

I put on my walking clothes and headed out into the lovely, hot, muggy weather that is Gilbert, Arizona. Oreo had a rough night with all of the fireworks so he decided to stay home and not go walking with me.

I came home, put laundry in (holidays really mess me up, Thursday is normally laundry day), cleaned up the kitchen, straightened the back patio, folded the whites, and sat down to have breakfast.

I then went to my computer to see what bing.com had up today. Andie and I love to visit bing.com each day, they almost always have a really neat landscape or amazing wildlife on their site. For example, Wednesday's picture was of Gettysburg, PA and now acts as my wallpaper. Yesterday was a cool picture of a city center in Colorado lit up red, white and blue. Today it's a Kermode bear in Canada. Check it out! It's awesome.

Of course no morning would be complete without checking emails, missionary blogs and FB. Here's what greeted me on FB.

They're cute. Brooke is getting very creative with her new camera. We should have put "Rylee" in the picture too but we can't find her face. Of course on FB Brooke also posted pictures of me and I'm not really sure I like having pictures of me posted on FB. All pictures must be approved before they make an appearance and they rarely are. Oh well.

As I reflect on yesterday's events (we had a really nice day) I can't help but think of something Haley said yesterday morning as Andie was opening her presents. I was admiring the lovely streamers Haley and Brooke had put up (staying up until 1:30 a.m. to do so while Steve and I slept.) I thanked the girls and Haley said, "Well I was feeling like Andie was losing her childhood since I heard her say the other night that she would have to wait for the tooth fairy to go to the bank before she put her newly lost tooth under her pillow. So I decorated for her birthday, you guys used to do that for us."

Ouch.

At first I felt like a failure but then I realized it's okay for siblings to step up and serve each other. Andie knows I love her, it's important for her to know her sisters love her too. Haley and Brooke took the time to make her birthday special. Brooke even made her her requested ice cream birthday cake.

The other night Andie wanted to play on the Wii and so Brooke accommodated, here they are playing Just Dance.

More than anything on this day I am grateful for the blessings we have as a family. I am grateful for my family. Things aren't always perfect but I am learning to count my blessings and be content and happy with the things I do have. The proof  is in the pictures!