The Epps family

Last day of Preschool

2010-05-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

My little princess finished her last day at Preschool today, and Im so SAD about it...It all of the sudden hit me so hard today that she is growing up way too fast! I was trying so hard to hold back the tears as we left today. We loved her school and Teachers SO much. We will miss them ALOT.

Ellie Graduates Preschool!!

2010-05-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

Ellie had her preschool Graduation on Wednesday. It was SO cute to watch. I can't believe how fast the school year went by! We will miss her teachers at Jolley Kids alot. They are the BEST!

She is on the bottom row 3rd from the left

Moab May 2010

2010-05-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

We took Eric's parents to Moab last weekend for their very first time. We had a blast and "think" they did too! They brought their 4 wheeler and followed us on Fins and Things trail, and the next day we took them on the 7 mile rim trail. Then the next day we went to Arches. We never slowed down the whole weekend! We hope we didnt wear them out too bad that they'll want to go again someday. LOTS of great memories were made and Im pretty sure we'll be talking about this trip for a long time!!

Way to FAST...

2010-05-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

This little man of mine is getting too big WAY TO FAST!!! He's already 8 months and I can't believe it. He's PERFECT. I say that all of the time, because he is!.. I love this picture SO much. It really isn't fair that babies have to grow so quick. Here's a few things about KAEL...
He LOVES to JUMP and JUMP pretty much ALL the time.. His legs are like SPRINGS
He Sits and can get into the crawling position, he's just trying to figure out how to make his arms and legs work to get him where he wants to go.
He can wiggle out of his bumbo
He LOVES cheerios
He LOVES Ellie more than ANYONE else
He will only be held facing outward
He obsesses over anything that makes a Krinkly sound
He doesn't have ANY teeth yet
He loves to drink water from a regular cup
He's ALWAYS ready to PLAY
He GRABS everything he can reach and puts it in his mouth
He weighs 15.5 lbs.
He almost always sleeps 12 hours at night
He's always smiling
He LOVES to be put in his crib and TUCKED in
He takes a binky but doesnt love it
The only food he doesnt like is PEAS
Somehow Ellie got him OUT of his crib today. BY HERSELF.. I asked her how she did it as she walked into the room carrying him and she whispered in my ear that she climbed in his crib and got him and put one leg over the side of the crib and held onto him and hopped out and didnt even drop him PHEWWWW! Im glad I didnt see this happen or I might have had a heart attack! Hopefully she wont dare try it again anytime soon!

AND even though I get to see this face 24/7, everytime he smiles or laughs I still get so excited like its the first time he's done it.. I cant get enough.. It melts my heart..I wish he could stay a baby FOREVER.. HE has ALL of us WRAPPED around his finger... He's an ANGEL and we dont know what we would do without him. HAPPY 8 month old Birthday KK!

Spring Break.. MOAB

2010-05-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

We got there Tuesday and got the best camping spot ever!

Kael had so much fun and was such a good baby on the trails!

This is our new favorite trail... 7 mile rim

Me and my BABE

My BOYS!

The whole family

The 3 cutest kids ever!

flying baby under the Uranium Arch on the trail

Zeke and Ellie having a blast at the sand dunes along one of the trails

Zeke on Wipeout Hill!

Kael being the CUTEST BABY EVER! sitting in a high chair at dinner

We had such a good time! Cant wait to go again in 10 MORE DAYS!!!!

The Princess is 5!

2010-04-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

How time flies... I cant believe its been 5 years since My baby girl was born. She turned 5 and all the sudden she seems so grown up.. Ellie has always been my free spirit, hyper girl that never seems to let anything bother her, she gets hurt and you'd never know it, always seems like she's not listening.. and now all of the sudden she's grown up, pays attention to every detail, actually listens, and cares and gets her feelings hurt easily. Its weird.

She wanted a "real" tea party will ALL of her friends. I put all I had into this party.. Eric wondered if I was more excited to have a tea party than she was! I wanted it to be perfect for her, and it was. She wrote the guest list at least 5 times herself.. Its for sure she didnt want my help! She wanted EVERYONE to come, the list had 18 little girls! We had 13 there and it was GREAT.

I pretty much let her decide what she wanted to do at the party.. We made pink and purple sandwiches, mini cookies, cucumbers cheese and grapes on toothpicks and tea (white hot chocolate with food coloring) painted everyone's nails and put makeup on all of them.. played musical chairs, read "my little pony worlds biggest tea party" book, had a visit from the easter bunny, ate cake and icecream and opened presents.

It was fun.. I got to live through her for a moment. I hope she always remembers it. Thank you everyone who came and a BIG thanks to the easter bunny for coming ;)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLIE! LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH

I am Thankful for Fish

2010-03-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

I am already annoyed at having to log into blogger all the time so it's not going to be private anymore. Instead I decided I needed a fresh new start

Today's lesson in our Sunbeam class today is about being thankful for fish. Sometimes I think its impossible to learn anything uplifting when preparing a lesson for 3 year olds and something as simple as FISH and most weeks there is a hidden lesson involved in it for me. While preparing and looking for ideas online this morning on lds.org I came upon some words that I know were meant for me to read this morning:

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world … might be saved” (John 3:17). We have received this plan from the highest authority in the universe, even God, our Heavenly Father. This plan was prepared from before the foundation of the earth. It is a great plan of happiness, a plan of mercy, a plan of redemption, a plan of salvation. This plan enables us to experience a physical existence, including mortality, a time of probation, and to return to the presence of God and live in eternal happiness and glory.

“There shall be no disputations among you. … For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.”
Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals. George Herbert, an early 17th-century poet, wrote these lines: “He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven, for everyone has need of forgiveness."

“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. … For, if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not … neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”
You may be carrying a heavy burden of feeling injured by another who has seriously offended you. Your response to that offense may have distorted your understanding so that you feel justified in waiting for that individual to ask forgiveness so that the pain can leave. The Savior dispelled any such thought when He commanded:

“Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.

“I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.”

Don’t carry the burden of offense any longer. Genuinely ask forgiveness of one that has offended you, even when you consider you have done no wrong. That effort will assuredly bring you peace and will likely begin the healing of serious misunderstandings.

May we ever be exemplary in our homes and faithful in keeping all of the commandments, that we may harbor no hidden wedges but rather remember the Savior’s admonition: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

There has been contention and anger in my heart for the last few weeks and I've wanted it to go away but havent been able to get it to.
3 completely unrelated things have happened in the past few weeks that were starting to consume me, I told Eric just the other morning that I didnt know how I was ever going to get over it until things were made right to us. I had wondered why such bad things and bad feelings were going on in our lives right now that we felt were out of our control and that we could do nothing to fix. The little things that are important to us that we just want to brush off and say oh well it doenst matter anyway we're better off now, were weighing me down. I dont want to look back at my life and wish the little things we chose to stay angry over would have been taken care of a long time ago. I needed to read this today.

On a lighter note... I needed to put some pictures up of the most perfect sweetest baby in the whole world...

5 months old

6 months!

Yep I said it...my precious baby is already a half year old!

He is such a sweetie. Always ALWAYS SMILING. I love this little guy so much.

He had his first ear infection last week and went to the dr. 2 days before his actual half birthday.

He weighs 13 pounds exactly.

He rolls ALL OVER the place

He LOVES to JUMP

He has pulled out alot of mine and Ellie's hair

He sleeps all night (usually ;)

We all call him little K.K.

Mr. KK

Big K

Ellie's ALWAYS says to him "HEY CUTEST THING EVER"

and HE SMILES everytime we look his way

There's NOTHING better than hearing him GIGGLE

F.O.R.E.V.E.R

2010-02-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

I keep typing and deleting... to find the perfect words for this perfect day...

After nine years of working towards this day..

Here we are!

Thank you SO much again Megan for capturing these Special moments for us!

These are OURS Forever.

We are so grateful for everyone who shared this day with us.