Rachel's Birthday

Today is Rachel's birthday! We got up early to make her breakfast and blew up a lot of balloons. I think Mercedes thought they were for her. We spent half hour this morning just running through them.

Here is the birthday girl!


I tried out my cake decorating skills on Rachel


Mercedes loved eating the scraps.

Family Pictures

This last week we had family pictures taken. Family pictures are always fun and stressful at the same time. Ours was more stressful this year because it rained for most of the day. Well after sitting in the car for almost a half hour the rain slowed down enough for us to take pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

Mercedes Happenings

Mercedes has now learned how to open doors. You can only imagine how much more interesting this makes life (let's just say that Mercedes doesn't want you to get lonely while using the bathroom).

She also thinks it's hilarious to put her jacket on her head and run around.

Mercedes misses her cousins and wishes that she had some nearby. This video was taken when we stopped at the Dallas Trayner's home on our way home from Georgia. This one is for you mom.

Interesting Quote

Brittney and I were organizing our collection of books last night and I came across a paper that I had inserted into The Chosen. I read the book when I first got home from my mission and loved it. Apparently, I liked a quote from the book so much that I wrote it down on a piece of paper and placed it at the front of the book. Hope you enjoy.

Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man that lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant . . . . A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning . . . . A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest.