Here are a couple of pics that we liked from this summer. They have a couple of great FREE "waterparks" here in Bloomington. As the kids play they step on buttons on the floor mats and the water continues to flow. They are great, she loves them and it's nice to get out and do something besides just play in the pool all summer!
This is a painting that they have hanging in Winter Quarters that I've never seen before. And it just so happened that the family with us on tour knew the painter, Clark Kelley Price. It is an amazing painting that I wish the church used more. But we were told that it is a one of a kind and it cannot be found anywhere else except the Winter Quarters Vistors Center!! If you look closely you can see that he painted the Salt Lake Temple below Joseph Smith Jr.'s hand.
Here are some pictures from Martin's cove in Wyoming. It was really emotional watching the videos and just being in Martin's Cove. We really got a sense of what the pioneers did for us and their sacrafice. The fact that they were willing to use carts like this and literally walk from Illinois to Utah is beyond my imagination! We pulled Rachel around for a while with nothing but her in the hand cart and it was HARD! I could not fathom doing this in the mud and snow and the cold...WOW!! And to bathe in such a lovely bath...not going to happen! I was born in this day and age for a reason! At the end of this crazy long day we were able to stay with a wonderful friend Sara. Who cooked us amazing meals, especially after driving all day! This is her adorable little toe head, Lynden. Rachel and him really had a blast playing on the swings together!
We had such a great time at this temple. It was so nice to be able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house as a family! We love this picture of Rachel and hope you do too!!
So here are some pictures of Rachel from her first birthday back in May! She really liked playing in her cake, but didn't eat much of it. I (the the help of the AMAZING Kami) made Rachel a Little Einstien cake. It looked good, but it was a pain to make and it took a lot of time! Next year we're thinking Elmo, should be interesting! 
We have some beautiful leaves out here in the fall and one day we took advantage of them! There is a park close to our house and tons of leaves. I asked a little old lady who lives by the park if we could steal her bench for some pictures and this is how they turned out!! I can hardly believe how big she is!!
So we haven't posted in forever and we have a lot of catching up to do, but this will have to do so we can try to squeeze as many photos of Rachel as possible! These are all from when we went to the apple farm and the pumpkin patch with some great friends!
Here is Rachel's first pumpkin carving experience. She wasn't as big of fan of the guts as we'd hoped she'd be, but she liked it! She really really loves pumpkins, so we'd have to give them a hug and say good night to them everynight and was devistated when we finally threw them out!!
One of the nice part about being in Central Illinois is that we are close to Church history. This day we traveled to Carthage Jail. For those that don't know, this is the place that Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot and killed. In the door, you can see two bullet holes. The one in the middle of the door, is the one that killed Hyrum. Joseph fell out the upper window of the building when he was shot. The prison cell (where Rachel is desperatly trying to get into) is where they keep Joseph and Hyrum, along with others before moving them into the other room because of the extreme heat.
We took Rachel to her first game at Wrigley Field and it wasn't quite what we had expected. First off, I had been to over 5 games at Wrigley this year and had never had a problem getting tickets. Add in that they were playing the Reds and that they were giving away stuffed bears, we were in for a treat finding tickets. I walked around for over an hour trying to find tickets, only to find nothing. We ended up buying standing room only tickets. We moved a lot that game until the 4th inning when we saw two ladies leave with 2 kids. Come to find out, one of the ladies was returning and those were the season tickets of her father who was still sitting there. After seeing Rachel, he allowed us to sit there the rest of the game. Rachel loved the game and her cubbies. 
We are officially back online thanks to a neighbor who has unsecured wireless. It has been forever since we updated our blog. We will try not to overwhelm you all with what we have been doing. We love you all and miss you a ton.
So here we have SNOW in HOUSTON!!! Rachel's first snow and then days later on our way to Cali, she had a seat all to herself and she loved watching her Little Einstien!
Most people know by now, but our family has not been together since Christmas day when I returned to Houston and drove to Bloomington, IL to start my new job. A week before Christmas, while Amber and Rachel were in California, I was fired and had to find a new job. I won't explain everything that happened, but I believe I was given the short end of the stick. Determine to not let it get me down, I turned to an old friend, Jarrod Skalde, who was working with the Bloomington Prairie Thunder, as the head coach. He offered me a job as his equipment manager. Due to the timing of everything that happened, Amber and Rachel returned home to Utah after their stay in California and are living in our house. Amber is watching our neice and nephew to help make up a little for our change in income, while I work in Bloomington.
This has been hard for all three of us, but it is a challenge that we have to go thru at this time in our lives. Thanks to all you our family and friends we are able to get by.
I spend lots of time at the rink keeping myself busy. Our team is currently in 5th place out of six teams. The top 4 make the playoffs and right now we are 12 pts back. We just ended a stretch where we went 8-0-3. We hope to continue and make the playoffs. The game has become fun again and I enjoy working with such a great coach. It is great to feel appreciated again. We have had our struggles as does every minor league team. Here is a picture of our locker room on a game day taken from my phone. 
I am determined to work my way back up and eventually land in the NHL. I am grateful for Amber and all the support that she shows me. She is such a great wife and mother. Happy Valentines Day!
Here's Rachel crawling across the floor like a speed racer! She's playing in her duck that we use in the bathtub! If you listen when I ask her if she's funny she responds by saying, "Ha!" It's so fun, I ask her if she's funny and ask her to say Daddy all the time and then she gets excited at herself!! We've yet to find the stairs so we should be okay for at least another couple of weeks...hopefully!
Mark here's your little girl saying Da-Da! She's really cute now and when she wakes up in the morning she looks at your picture and waves and says, Da-Da! We miss you so much! Yes, at the end she almost rolls off the bed!!
Mark this video is for you, sorry it took me so long to get it posted! This is Rachel's latest and greatest. You can hear Rick on the video asking Rachel how big she is and then you can see her response with her arms straight up in the air! She is so funny, she loves doing this, but sometimes she's tired or "lazy" and only puts one hand in the air. Which always changes my reaction from, "SOOOO Big!" to "Oh, only a little big!?!" She's been so much fun, it's crazy to see how much she's grown in just the five weeks since we've been here!
