22 to 30

Grandparents I was so blessed with incredible grandparents. Some of my greatest childhood memories include trips to see my grandparents. They are/were all so great in their own individual ways. Gpa DeMille (mom's dad) I actually don't know a ton about my grandpa DeMille...he is definitely the one that i had the least amount of contact with. I actually only remember meeting him twice in my life. he died when i was around 12 years old of Aids. Later in life he made some decisions that we didn't necessarily agree with but that doesn't change the great man he was and the loving father he was to my mom. he served a mission when he was married and had 3 young children and i can only imagine how hard that was for him. he worked for BYU and moved his family to Saudi Arabia for a couple of years and gave them some great experiences in the process. he made his yards GORGEOUS...he was obsessed with gardening and i've seen some pictures of his creations and they are incredible. i know he loved my mom very much.

Gma DeMille (mom's mom) I had a lot of contact with my grandma DeMille from around the age of 15 up until she died a few years ago because she always lived by us. when i think of her i think about what a sweet and gentle spirit she had about her. she loved music...loved to play and loved to listen to her grandchildren play and sing. i remember she'd always sit with her eyes closed with a smile on her face when we would sing like she was soaking it all in. she endured a lot of hardship in her life. she supported her husband and her children when he left for 2 years to serve a mission. she dealt with some blows later in life in regards to her marriage that i just can't imagine and yet she was strong. she was truly sweet and we actually got to visit her a few hours before she passed away and she was so strong and ready and looking forward to meeting her Maker. she was awesome.

Gpa Wardwell (dad's dad) I actually saw grandpa wardwell less than a year ago when he came out for a wedding. he is my only living grandparent though as i write this he is dealing with a lot of health issues. he is hilarious and is very open with his choice of words :) all i need to say about him is that he is not actually my dad's biological father. my biological gpa was an abusive drunk who my dad remembers beating my grandma in front of him. he then left her to raise 6 children on her own. my grandpa wardwell came into the story and adopted them and took care of them and became the dad they all deserved. i can't imagine the love he must have felt for my grandma and her children to do such a thing. what an incredible man.

Gma Wardwell (dad's mom) I put some thoughts down about her in a previous post when she passed away. It's been a few years and i still am tearing up right now as i think about her. she truly was everything you want in a grandparent. she was so involved. she followed everything we did and cared and asked and attended and if we were playing in mud then she'd get down and play in mud. she endured an abusive husband and a time when she was alone raising 6 young children. i just can't say enough. i love these pics of grams because it is truly her in her element. this is what she'd do with us...she'd play and she'd play whatever we wanted to play. i love that you can see diet rite in one of these pics because that's their beverage of choice. i really miss her.

23 to 30

My religious beliefs I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those that don't know what that means, the nickname for the LDS church is Mormons. For me, this defines everything that I do in my life and every choice that I make. There are so many misconceptions in the world about my faith. Let me clarify some things in case some of you are curious. What do I believe? First and foremost I believe that Jesus Christ came to this earth and lived a perfect life. He is the only one to ever do so. I believe that in the Garden of Gethsemane He atoned for all the sins of the world including mine. I believe that He was crucified and then rose from the grave making it possible that we will all one day be resurrected and that if we live worthily we will live again with our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ and all of our loved ones. I believe that if I live worthily and use the Atonement to repent of my constant sins that I will live with my family after this life. I know this is what my Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ want for us. I also believe that when Christ was on the earth he called apostles and he bestowed the priesthood upon those apostles. After his crucifiction the apostles were also killed off and there was eventually an apostacy that the Bible refers to and that the priesthood (the authority to act for God)and the church that Christ had established was no longer on the earth. I believe that the earth remained in this dark state until a young man named Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet and RESTORE the same church that Christ had designed back to the earth. I believe the priesthood was restored and that I now belong to the same church that Christ organized. Christ is the head and governs His church through his mouthpiece on the earth in the form of a modern day prophet. Currently, that prophet is Thomas S. Monson. As a member of this church I am expected to live with certain standards and by living those standards I have been given more "freedom" and then I could ever imagine. Some of those standards are...I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't watch R rated movies, I was abstinent until I was married, my husband and I are faithful to eachother in every possible way, I try to be honest, I dress modestly, and many more. These are my beliefs and I believe them with every fiber of my soul. I also believe that everyone has a right to believe and belong to whatever church they so choose. I believe that Christ loves all of us, no matter what our imperfections are. If anyone wants to know more about what I believe visit www.mormon.org

24 to 30

Sleep Sleeping is at the top of my hobby list. I love to play sports, i love to read, i love movies...and i really really love to sleep. obviously, as a parent i don't get the sleep that i once did but i still cherish those hours and i still make sunday naps a priority...as mike will tell you...do NOT get in the way of my Sunday nap...it will not go over well. and, from the looks of the pictures below this obsession extends to some of my siblings as well :)

25 to 30

Hollywood When I was little and through most of my adolesence i was really obsessed with all things "Hollywood". my room as a teenager was covered with pictures of celebrities...i was so into the way they looked and the money they made. i read every magazine that was published that contained anything about stars. my dream was to go to hollywood and become a famous celebrity but the best part of that is that i didn't act or do anything that would ever get me there. i even would daydream about walking red carpets and doing interviews. i have a journal entry that i wrote about how mad i was because my sister, carrie, told me that i'd never make it to hollywood and i was for sure going to prove her wrong...i'm not dead yet so i guess there's still time :) it is funny, though, how life perspective changes. sure, i'd still love to have the money they do but they glamor and everything else now seems so much less appealing.

26 to 30

UCONN Susie Shelnut, I have you to thank for this obsession and yes, it is indeed an obsession. it's ironic that i'm writing this now because last night Uconn actually lost in the final four and i'm pretty depressed about it :( in the year 2000 my friend, susie, was a big Tennessee women's bball fan and they were playing Uconn for the national title...i hate Tennessee and so i just cheered for Uconn...it was love at first sight. they destroyed Tennessee in that title game and i've been obsessed ever since. i can tell you everything you want to know or don't want to know about Uconn. i can tell you everything about all the players past and present. i LOVE geno auriemma and on a side note, i find him very attractive :) i love the intensity that they play with at all times, in all seasons and in all games, even when they're destroying people by 40 or 50. i've had some great opportunities to meet geno, and several players including the incredible maya moore and tina charles...i've also had something checked off my bucket list because a few years ago i got to fly to connecticut and see them play on their home floor...my cousin played for stanford and so she got me court side seats for one of the highlights of my life. it truly has been a big part of my life and i think there's nothing wrong to have a team that you idolize...it's all in good fun and while i'm upset that they lost last night my life doesn't stop because of it...therefore, it's a healthy obsession :)

27 to 30

Wedding At first, Mike and I had planned to get married in the Spring of 2006 because he was in school and also worked for the U of Utah women's basketball team so he only had about 3 days of break over the Christmas holiday...it soon became apparent, though, that we couldn't wait that long and so we decided to get married on December 23rd. I was thinking i wanted to do it in the Manti, Utah temple where my parents were married but then because i knew it would be in the winter i didn't want traveling in the snow to be an issue so instead we decided to do the Salt Lake temple which was great because it truly is like a castle. our sealing was around 10 or 11 in the morning. i remember sleeping in my bedroom the night before on the floor because my bed was already in our new apartment and laying there all night with the normal pre-wedding thoughts..."this is the last night i'm single" "i am signing up for eternity :)", etc. the next morning i got up and got my hair done and then drove with my parents to the temple. mike was waiting in the lobby for me...he looked so calm and collected. they took us in and signed all the paperwork and all that stuff and then we got in our temple clothes and went and waited in the Celestial Room. I remember sitting in there next to mike, holding his hand, and we looked at each other and i said "i'll go through with it if you do"...it was a great moment :). to be honest, i don't remember much about our actual sealing but i remember coming out of the temple as husband and wife and seeing all our friends and family waiting there to greet us. it was dec 23rd in utah but the weather was fantastic...it wasn't cold at all...i had short sleeves on my dress and i was pretty much fine...we did tons of pictures and then went back into the temple to change and headed over to Rodigio for a family luncheon. on the way there, mike and i made some funny comments to each other that can only be shared between husband and wife :) the food was great and we left right from there to go up to Park City. again, because of mike's schedule we really couldn't "go" anywhere for a honeymoon but park city was great and beautiful and it allowed us to come down over the next few days and still spend some of Christmas with our families. we were there for like 4 days and then went home to our new apartment and new life together. i was so glad that we had decided to do our reception a week later. we actually did that on the 29th and it was so awesome. my parents really went all out and spent a ton of money on my wedding and reception and it truly was a fairytale...i loved everything! my cake, my dress, my flowers, the tables, the decor...it was all awesome! we had the reception in alpine, utah at an arts center and it was so nice to be able to enjoy it rather than thinking about how tired i was or other stuff because we didn't do it right after the sealing. it truly was a fairy tale time for us.

28 to 30

Baths I have an obsession with baths. For obvious reasons, I have no pictures to post with this :). I've always like baths but when I was pregnant with Kayhlen I became obsessed. My nausea was always so much better when I was in the bath. I get cold a lot and I love jumping in the bath to warm up. I really love to keep the water running. I've never been into the salts or any of that crap but I have become so obsessed that I usually take at least one bath 4 days a week. I love to end my days with a bath and I love to read during my baths. As I said, these have just become a part of my life and I don't see them going away anytime in the near future.

29 to 30

Michael George Lee I thought it appropriate to begin with the thing i'm most thankful for...my husband, Mike. I think it's pretty common to take our spouses for granted and to forget (as time goes by) the amazing journey we've had and the beginning when it all started. Life gets monontonous and it's so great for me to look back at how it all began. Mike and I met through my cousin and also my sister. It was the spring of 2005 and I remember at some family function my aunt asked me if I was seeing anybody...I was and so she said "well when you guys break up let me know because I think you'd go really well with Tyler's (my cousin) friend, Mike". At the time I was pretty caught up in my current relationship and so I didn't think much of it. Low and behold a few weeks later we broke up. My sister, Missy, was hanging out with Tyler a lot and so she had met Mike and she began to get in on the conversations and she decided a cool way to get us to meet. Together, we organized a wiffle ball (a Wardwell family favorite) game and invited a bunch of friends from our singles ward as well as Tyler and Mike to come over and play. I remember thinking that Mike was cute but it was actually pretty awkward of a situation because a guy that I had casually been dating showed up and didn't leave my side the whole night and another guy that something had kinda gone on with (you know those, the ones where you don't know how to describe it but it was something) was also there...therefore, Mike and I actually didn't hardly speak to eachother. Missy asked me if I thought he was cute, I said yes and that was that. The next day I'm at work and I get this text message from someone whose number I don't know. It's just asking me how i'm doing, etc. I respond with "who is this" and i get this almost panicked message back "oh, i'm really sorry, your sister told me you wanted me to text you". turns out it was mike. he was at efy (as a counselor) that week and so we spent the whole week texting back and forth. he asked me out for saturday and i had already made plans to go 4wheeling with some friends so i invited him to come with us. we went up American Fork canyon and spent a few hours riding 4 wheelers up the trails. i remember he kept trying to turn around and converse with me but i couldn't hear him and it was funny. This was june 17th. we got high up in the mountains where there was still snow and came across a car stuck in it. mike and the other guys all helped to push it out and i was standing with the girls watching. at one point we heard something break and mike turned away from us. i walked over closer to him and saw that the snow around him was covered in blood. he turned around and i almost panicked when i saw the amount of blood there was on his hand and arm. my friend was a nurse and she packed snow on it and then one of the guys took his shirt off and wrapped it around his hand and we put him in a passing by jeep and all booked it down the mountain. it took us about 45 minutes to get to the mouth of the canyon and i still remember riding behind mike and he kept turning around and waving at me with this goofy grin (i know that grin well now) in a way of reassuring me he was fine. we took him to the emergency room and i had to call his parents to get all his insurance info, etc...this was our first date! the nurses all joked about what a great story it would be if things worked out. turns out, he severed 2 tendons in his finger and it was barely hanging on at that point. he had surgery 2 days later. after that, we spent pretty much every day together. the next friday we went to the Lehi Roundup and that's where he first held my hand and later that night had our first kiss. he actually told me he loved me on the 4th of july. we both realized it was crazy that it was so fast but i think we both knew this was right after the first couple of days. he proposed on September 11th and we had planned to get married the following May but decided we couldn't wait and moved it up to December 23rd. i had so much fun dating mike. he gave me butterflies. i loathed the end of the night when we had to go our seperate ways. we spent numerous nights laying outside on my trampoline looking up at the stars and talking. we loved to drive up the mountains to look out spots. he worked for the bball team at the U of U and we spent countless hours together doing laundry and other managerial chores...just because we wanted to be together. i remember the first flowers he sent me. i actually got in trouble at work because i would always leave early because i wanted to go see him. i remember the details surrounding our first fight (thank you myspace :)) i remember spending countless hours texting at all hours of the night. i remember missing him so much when he went on vacation with his parents because those were the only days we didn't see each other during that whole time. i remember how excited we were to go camping with some friends for his birthday because we got to "sleep" together. i remember going to look at engagement rings. i remember him faking me out and making me think he was going to propose one night but actually did it a few days later. i remember being so excited that i got to spend eternity with my best friend. i love you mike!

30 to 30

I saw this on someone's blog and i thought it was a great idea. as of today i am 30 days away from turning 30 years old. to be honest, i haven't thought about it a ton but when i do i really start to freak out and that's why i thought this would be a great thing to do. i'm going to spend the next 29 days focusing on something great about my life from the first 30 years. i think this will help me to realize how much good i have had and not focus on the bad. like most, there is so much that i haven't accomplished yet that i wish i had but there is also so much that i have done and can be proud of. i think the scariest part for me is just the unknown...getting older means so much unknown that's going to come. what are my children going to be like as teens? when will i start to get wrinkles? will we ever feel financially secure? will i be alive when the 2nd coming happens? what kind of grandma will i be? how old will i be when i die? it's all of that stuff that scares me about turning 30. yes, i am scared. i think this blog thing is going to be a great way for me to relieve some worries. so, here's to the next 29 days!

Snow

It took until the beginning of March but we finally got enough snow where we could go out and enjoy it...it didn't last long though. It's now 70 degrees but we atleast had fun for the 2 days it was here. Mommy got really tired being the "reindeer" and having to pull the sled all over the place.

Valentines Day

Holidays are so fun now that the kids are older. For Valentines they both got new shirts with some yummy goodies and we enjoyed a breakfast of red pancakes, bacon and strawberry milk. Love my little family.

Christmas 2012

What a great Christmas we had. We spent Christmas Eve with Gma Lee and Great Gma and Gpa Lee. We then came home and did the nativity with the Wardwell family and opened new jammies and ornaments. Christmas morning we let the kids open their present from Santa and then we got to go to church before coming home to open the rest of the presents from mommy and daddy and then Gma Lee came over later that night to bring even more presents. To say my kids are spoiled would be an understatement. Presents from Great Gma and Gpa Lee

Wise"man" Kayhlen, shepherd Logan and Mary Kennedy

Shepherd Daxten

New Jammies

New Ornaments

Leaving cookies and milk out on Christmas Eve

Santa ATE the cookies!

Santa brought a mater wagon for dax

Santa brought Kay an art table

New chairs from mommy and daddy

Lots of presents

More presents from gma Lee

Gingerbread Houses

Santa

We took the kids on our own to see Santa and Kayhlen would not even go near him. A week later my parents took the whole family out to dinner and to see Santa again and this time Kayhlen got to see her cousins go first and therefore she was totally psyched and happy as could be to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Waiting in line

Dax didn't enjoy himself so much the second time