Birthday Girls

My baby girls are four!

Four wonderful years of glitter and glistening lip gloss, bows and babies, skirts and twirls, tap shoes and tutus, braids and Barbies, princesses and nail polish, purple and pink, and PURE BLISS!

These girls have me in the palm of their dainty, pretty hands.

They are my constant buddies, little mamas and my ultimate shopping partners. They find delight in things my boys simply do not. Whether it be Target, Wal-mart, the mall or just a drive thru dash for lunch or meal in the cafeteria, they love to GO!

They squeal, smile and find the good in everything. They are happy, bubbly, constant gabbers and the sweetest things around.

I have loved and cherished every day with these two angels. They give back so much more than I give. They have been blessings that keeping on giving.

Kaitlyn and Brynn. Miss K and Miss B. You are beautiful, amazing, smart, good, funny, clever, stylish, sweet, honest, silly, adorable, thoughtful and unique.

March 25 is a special day for all of us. It's the day my life was more complete because you both were finally in it.

And everyday since, I thank my Heavenly Father everyday that you are MINE!

Happy Birthday girls.

I love you, love you, love you, love you, love you.... forever.

Birthday Fun

The decorations The presents The birthday girlsThe trip to Build-A-Bear Brynn selected a gray cat she named Ella. Kaitlyn picked a purple iCarly bear she appropriately named Carly.Happy Meals at McDonald's Party time with Dad and the brothersKaitlyn's Dora Cake Brynn's Sleeping Beauty cakeOpening giftsUmbrellas and rain jackets from Grandma and Grandpa Blackhair (Rich's parents)Princess dress up from my parents. Brynn- Ariel Kaitlyn- Belle Off to the ice skating show!

Disney's Princesses on Ice

Thursday, March 25, 2010Brynn and Kaitlyn's birthday also just happened to be opening night of Disney's Princesses on Ice held at Rupp Arena. Rich happily took the boys so the girls and I could have a perfect princess night together on their special day.I bought the tickets back in January after I received a postcard letting me purchase them before the public. Since it was opening night all tickets were only $14.00. What a deal! I was shocked when we arrived and discovered our seats were on row 5! I didn't realize row EE was so low when I bought them.The girls wore the princess costumes my parents mailed to them for their birthday. Brynn was Ariel. Kaitlyn was Belle. It was raining outside, so they also got to wear the adorable Minnie raincoats Rich's parents sent them. This was the first time we had done anything like this, and the girls loved every single second. The show featured every Disney princess. Since we love all things Disney around here, the girls were familiar with them all.Jasmine and AladdinGenieAriel and Prince EricBelle and the BeastMulan and MushuSnow White and the Seven DwarfsSleeping Beauty and Prince PhillipMinnie and MickeyTinkerbellAfter the intermission, the final part was all about Cinderella.The finaleWhat a memorable night. I just don't how I'll be able to top it next year!

The Splintering of America

Jeffrey T. Kuhner
The Washington Times

President Obama is splintering America. The passage of Obamacare was a historic victory for liberal governance. Yet, its true cost may be that it triggers the eventual breakup of the country.

Mr. Obama has achieved what his liberal predecessors - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Bill Clinton - could only dream of: nationalized health care. Obamacare signifies the government take-over of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. It has dealt a mortal blow to traditional America. We are now a European-style socialist welfare state. The inevitable permanent tax hikes, massive public bureaucracy and liberal ruling elites will stifle competition and initiative.

Socialism is the road to economic ruin and fiscal bankruptcy. It subverts democracy, threatening the very future of our constitutional republic. Socialist states degenerate into some form of autocracy or technocratic neo-feudalism, whereby the productive class is taxed and exploited to sustain a growing dependent class. Factions are pitted against each other; groups vie for handouts at the expense of their fellow citizens. The bonds of economic union and national solidarity slowly dissolve.

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not," warned Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was right: Redistributionist welfare policies are undermining our democracy. The resentments in America are growing. Tea Partiers believe that their government no longer represents their interests or values. The heartland is becoming dangerously alienated from the political class, whom it feels has betrayed them.

Ultimately, a country is not simply its geographical borders with the people inside of it. It is something more - and deeper. A nation must share a common heritage, language, culture, faith and myths. Once upon a time, Americans celebrated the same heroes, sang the same patriotic songs, read the same history and literature, and gloried in its exceptional nature: a city upon a hill, with liberty and freedom for all. It was understood that, for all of our different ethnic and religious backgrounds, America is a product of English and Christian civilization. Those days are long gone.

Instead, we are going the way our Founding Fathers warned us against: increasing balkanization and sectionalism. A constitutional republic - unlike an empire - is only as strong as its national cohesion. It is based not on imperial coercion but civic consent. Mr. Obama is recklessly pulling at the strings of unity, further polarizing us.

Comment by Jaeger:

The nations is divided as never before. Ad hominem attacks against those who are trying to point out this reality don't change the facts of today. Many moderate, pragmatic, and independent people voted into office this President because they thought, somehow, that Barack Obama would be someone like them. Instead, America has gotten a hardline leftwing radical ideologue in the White House. When there is such a wide disparity between what was advertised by the Obama Campaign and the realities of 2009-2010, polarization and bitterness are bound to result. Telling the public that this is because they are befuddled and stupid may make the leftists feel good, but it doesn't change the realities that America IS divided and weakened as never before since the Civil War. Many Americans look for alternatives, and expect their state governments to do what they can to advocate for them in the way that their federal politicians and judges do not and will not. That's a road map for more sectionalism, but these fractures will continue so long as this White House and this Congress continue on their destructive hell bound course.

New Year's Eve

DECEMBER 31, 2009

Salem, UtahTripoloy!