happy 5th birthday...

happy 5th birthday to my beautiful madeline....

i love you more then words can say!

happy birthday 5th....

happy 5th birthday to my beautiful madeline....

i love you more then words can say!

happy birthday 5th birthday!

happy 5th birthday to my beautiful madeline....

i love you more then words can say!

i am back...

wow... where have i been since i have last blogged!?!  so much has happened....  the last time i left off in my last post we had just been to disneyland....

here i am with 5 of my beautiful nieces @ disneyland (they are all sisters)

love them all...

madeline made the pic...

here is the whole bunch that went to disneyland... my whole fam was there except for 2 of my brothers and there fam... we missed them so much!

i have soooo many photos from disneyland... maybe next time...:)

me & shawn went to lots of byu games in the fall...

always a good time!

miss elisabeth turned the big "3" october 14th...

i love her so....

the blessed day was october 28th that my beautiful sister anna got married.... it was such a wonderful... beautiful day!  

here we are... all 6 siblings...

i couldn't have been happier that day....

the parkinson bunch...

 then there was halloween....

not the best pic~ but you get the idea... LOL! 

shawn was batman & i was robin~

madeline was rapunzel & tibby was dorothy...

parkinson fam is always good for a little dressing up...

LOL!

then there was christmas...

that was a quick look back of a few months... but you get the idea...

and here we are in a new year... 2012

i have always loved a new year and the hope and desire to becoming a better person.  i had such an amazing year of 2011.  i have had so many different challenges & changes, i have suffered in silence since 2007 with some health issues, i have had many up's & down's...  but through it all i truly have had a change of heart in so many different areas of my life.  it's amazing how heavenly father gets you right where he needs you to change and to rely on him.  never in my life have i ever had such a knowledge and more of an understanding of the atonement and that it can mend relationships and make things whole.  i feel so blessed for the challenges that have come my way.  i have more faith in my heavenly father and truly know that he is guiding my life.  i am blessed mother, i am a blessed wife, i am a blessed daughter, and i am a blessed child of god... i am blessed!

the beach...

i can't even get over how much i am loving the pictures i took of us at the beach while we were in california.  as much as i loved disneyland... i think the day at the beach was equally as fun.  it was the time to be together as a family... no hurry to get anywhere and to spend time one on one and enjoy the beauty that surrounded us...

really... i am loving these pictures of miss madeline and her dad.  he is the most patient loving dad and my girls adore him... one day madeline will look back and these pictures will be so priceless to her... it makes me very emotional even looking at these pictures... priceless!

this picture is worth a thousand words...

i am speechless...

madeline loved.... loved the ocean...

just like her mama...

and where was tibby!?!  far... far.. away from the water.  she was more happy making sand castles with her cousins...

some of my most favorite people...

ashley, jocelyn, olivia, celeste, anna and my beautiful mama...

madeline couldn't get enough of the water...

my favorite people...

this day was the beginning of our trip... it was a trip that will go down in the history books as one of the greatest trips i have ever been on. why!?!  because i am with my most favorite people that i love very most!!!!

more pictures to come....

on the go....

oh... where have we been!?!  on the go...   we spent a week in the sunny skies of california!  here we are at the pacific ocean... if you know me, i love... love the beach!!! the ocean was so beautiful!  we spent 4 days at disneyland with my side of my family.  it was so much fun!

many... many.... pictures to come!!!

i'm happy to be home to get settled down and get back into the routine of life... 

i love this girl....

what can i say... i love this little 4 year old of mine.... miss madeline is 4 months shy of turning the big "5" which means that i have one more year before she starts kindergarten... tear!  i'm so glad i have another year to prepare for that.  i decided to put madeline into a preschool that is just right around the corner from our house.  i must say that as a little girl i never went to preschool... my feelings are that each child is different and have different needs.  this little madeline of mine has major anxiety when it comes to being away from her mama.... she doesn't like going anywhere without her mom.  going to friends house, primary and even staying at her grandparents without me is a struggle.... let just say she is a "mini me" where she tends to worry a lot...  

all summer madeline would tell me... "i'm not going to preschool".... i would just leave it at that and not push the issue.  so the day before she was supposed to start preschool i brought it up... i took her over to "miss lindsay's" house to check it out where her preschool would be.  she was very timid and shy but slowly started to open up.  as we were walking back to the car.... madeline said... "ya, i want to go"  she was so excited and talked it about it the rest of the evening.  we went and bought madeline her very first backpack... "hello kitty" was her choice.

this morning madeline was so excited to go... before we left we said a prayer together.  those moments of just praying one on one together are such precious moments...  i was fighting back the tears.  i dropped miss madeline off and she was as happy as can be.  as i walked away i was so proud of her that she was so brave to go...  how far we have come! when i picked up madeline she told me all about her day!

let's just say... her first day at preschool was a "success" and as her mother i couldn't have been more proud of her.  i love this madeline of mine more then words can say....