Temple Trip

Three weekends ago we took some advice from General Conference (Elder Stevenson's talk Sunday afternoon) and took Isis to go see the temple. We had her "touch the temple so it could touch [her]."

It was a nice day and we enjoyed strolling around the temple grounds.

It was neat being there together as a family... and at the same temple Jeremy and I were sealed in almost 5 years ago. :)

This picture captures well what I hope to teach Isis (and our other childrend): to always be looking toward the temple.
What a blessing to have the temple so close!

Still Awesome!

Even this time around I think the ultrasound is so cool! Even at 2.5 cm this little baby has a heartbeat and little arm and leg "buds." How neat I get to be alive now and have the opportunity to see this! Seeing the baby made me excited all over again. :)
Gwin baby #2's EDA is December 23...

TWO YEARS!! Wow!

My little Isis just turned TWO!!! That time has just flown by... but it seems she's always been part of our family. Here's the teenie, tiny 19 inch, 5 pounds 7 ounces of a little girl we brought home two years ago.

so little!

I think she looks like a baby doll in this one.

And here she is on her 2nd birthday - 28 pounds and 34 inches tall. How she's grown!!

Quite the happy birthday girl.

What inexplicable joy this sweet little girl has brought to our family. I am so blessed and so lucky to be the mother to this angel child. She really is the happiest, sweetest little girl I've ever known. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISIS!!!

FYI

Isis just wanted to tell everyone something. :)

One Little Monkey...

Isis was in the backyard with me while I was pruning the garden on Thursday. Only a minute after I had moved to another planter box I heard, "Mommy!" I turned around and found this:

How did she do that?!

I was quite impressed with her balance and coordination and she was quite pleased with herself. She definitely didn't want to get down. What a little monkey!!

Here she is "explaining" herself.



Man, this girl cracks me up!

Trip to Tucson

Being the oldest of six kids I was lucky enough to have my entire family come to pretty much everything I did. Now that I'm out of the house (as well as two other siblings) I realized that a crowd of at least seven supporters isn't usually an option. Realizing this, I strongly felt the necessity to be supportive and "there" as much as possible.

SO, at the end of April we were able to travel down to Tucson to see my brother Stephen in a college production of "The Crucible." He played Reverend Hale and did AWESOME. It was a great performance.

Isis also got to go to the Tucson Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa and had a grand time. Jeremy and I were pretty impressed with the little zoo. It was nice that this time Isis was actually interested in seeing the animals and not just all the kids running around.

That weekend it also happened that my great-aunt Mona's funeral was that weekend and I drove up with my parents for that. This is my grandpa the oldest of the last 6 Willis siblings of 12.There's always something nice about going to Grandpa and Grandma's house. And some things will ALWAYS belong in their house, and that's nice to know.

(He looks pretty good for 91 don't you think?)

I cannot get the pictures to move where I want them on the blog so for more pictures (and commentary) on our fun weekend click here.

Just a little bit longer...

I know how it is when I keep checking to see if friends have written anything new and alas it has been a whole THREE DAYS since anyone posted. So my apologies if anticipation of my awesome posting has caused any devastating disappointment. I've just been too tired to go through my pictures and think of anything to say. But never fear, posts are on the way and they're good... But not until after church. :) Stay tuned....

Jeremy is just thinking... darn brain!

So I have 2 things to talk about that are on my mind.
1.) What's up with water boarding? Is it really the worst thing imaginable like our great Democratic leaders are suggesting? How should we interrogate murderers now? I suggest tickling. But if that doesn't make them talk, a nice warm bed with some fresh cookies and milk ought to do the trick. Honestly though, have we lost sight of the end goal of "interrogation methods"? It is to make people talk so we thwart, spoil, or disrupt their plan to KILL US!!! It seems the media or the crazy democrats (not all are crazy mind you) have really spinned this concept. I am not sure why... I think the intelligence agencies will have to quit pretty soon because they will have no way to DO THEIR JOB.
2.) Miss California... bless her 20 year old, 100 lb frame. She said something "unconscionable" on national TV, she actually had an opinion! Who knew, as a United States citizen, you had the RIGHT to voice an opinion that the majority of Americans share. Congrats to her because she had an opinion, but I am sorry that her beauty queen days are over... with ideas and convictions like hers, she is destined to be a wife and not on the cover of Playboy.
Love,
Jeremy
P.S. Is that how you end a blog? I have no idea.

To Start Your Own Tradition

...or just for fun you can click HERE for the website I ordered my Ukrainian Easter egg stuff from. Go to the egg decorating... you'll want the "Super Color Kit w/derlin." This has EVERYTHING you need to get started. (The kit below it is the same but has traditional handmade kistky.) You'll also need to get an egg blower. I got the Blas-Fix egg blower and it works great. My friend Jacqueline (the wonder woman who taught me all this) also said that you don't need to replace your dyes every year. You can keep and reuse them up to three years, just add more vinegar (except to the orange) when you get them out each year. Oh, and you'll need candles too.
If you have any other questions let me know! And have fun! I LOVE doing these!

Adventures in Gardening

Six posts in two days?! I'm on a roll!! :)

I just had to share something amazing about our garden... it's GROWING!! Hooray!

This is when we first planted it about the second week of March. New zucchini plants at the same time.

The zucchini plants now... only a month later!! Now we're just hoping we actually get to harvest some zucchini.
Some almost bell peppers.

Out-of-control oregano

We might just get to eat these before the birds do...

I'm super excited that I have three tomato balls! My tomato plants did nothing last year.

And my rose plants from Valentine's Day have finally bloomed. They are BEAUTIFUL!

One more Easter Tradition

I had to show off the Ukrainian Easter eggs we did over the weekend. I love the ones Jeremy did this year:

This was his symbolic egg with symbols representing Christ, resurrection, eternal life, and family.

So Jeremy... :)

His very awesome, detailed turtle egg. I was impressed.

and the back of it (notice the seaweed and the rolling waves on the side); who knew he was such an artist! :)Mine turned out alright but I like some of the ones I did last year better.

Unexpected Help

So.... we've had some serious issues with neighborhood kids TRAMPLING and demolishing our front yard plants. We've replaced them and changed them and replaced them again, just to have them mutilated by bike wheels and countless pairs of feet. So feeling like the grouchily old neighbor I didn't want to BE the nagging neighbor lady.
Deciding on a different course of action I visited our local nursery again. I asked for a desert plant. You know, one that is poky and sharp. She showed me one. Not good enough. I explained I needed one that had teeth... something that would reach out and snatch you. I found two that were just right.
When I set out to plant them I started moving the rocks in the front yard. One of the neighbor kids came over and asked what I was doing.
"Moving the rocks so I can plant these new plants."
"Can I help?"
"Sure."
So we pushed aside the rocks and two more kids came over. "What are you guys doing?"
"Planting these plants," the first kid replied.
"Can we help?"
Within 5 minutes I had ten of the neighborhood kids moving rocks, digging holes, and removing dirt.
The only work I did was mediate fighting over the shovels and actually placing the plants in the holes. What would have taken me at least an hour turned into a 30 minute job. It was awesome.
The very kids I was trying to keep out of my yard with the poky plants were the ones helping me plant them! The irony.
During the process I had a couple thoughts. The first was that it was a great neighborhood bonding activity. Second, that it probably wouldn't be the sharp edges keeping the kids off the plants but the knowledge that THEY were the ones who planted them. (A thought I reminded them of once we were done with the job.) Third, this was a great way to get the job done and not be the mean neighbor. (I also gave them popsicles afterwards.)
I had a pretty good laugh over the whole situation. Hopefully, everything works out for the best.

Here's the neighborhood work crew. (They were quite excited to get their picture taken.) :)

Happy Easter!

Isis got to dye Easter eggs this year. She really liked it. We just had to work on being gentle with the eggs. :)

The Easter egg hunt with Isis this year was a lot of fun because she got SO excited when she found the eggs. Jeremy did a "practice" egg hunt so she'd be ready for the "real" one on Sunday. The ones Jeremy put on the ground in plain sight Isis didn't pick up because they weren't hidden! As always, there are many pictures, mostly for the benefit of my family but you're more than welcome to check them out.

Happy Easter from the Gwins!!

Yester year...

Last week my good friend Sean and his wife Ginger came to visit on their way up to Utah. (A nice perk of living in Vegas is that we get to have a lot of visitors.) This was my first time meeting Ginger and she was SO nice. As I've said before, it is always nice to know (or find out) that the people you care about marry well. :)
It was a good visit, too short of course. Seeing friends from a long time ago is always a funny thing to me. Good memories come flooding back... but then I also feel so old. Those memories are from a such a long time ago. None the less, I am always one who is very happy to take a stroll down memory lane.
Thanks for coming to visit Sean & Ginger!!
We'd love to see anyone else who happens to be our way.

Well, if we're staying....

I guess I've come to grips (kind of) with the fact that we'll probably be here a while. So I decided to paint our guest bathroom and re-paint our bathroom.

The guest bathroom before...

And after.....

I tried to be crafty and display some seashells we've collected. They didn't turn out too bad and they match the bathroom.

From the Adriatic Sea... :)


I loved the color so much that I just had to replace the ugly green in our bathroom.

It looked good in there too!

I REALLY love the color. But almost anything was better than that green.

And of course I had a great helper. :)