Masquerade 2015 ~ Kenz

Kenz & Riley

I love this picture!  Their faces are so cute:)

The whole gang!  They were lumberjacks and I'm pretty sure they all had a really great time.  I'm so glad that our kids have such great friends and that they are making fun memories together!

Last Game

Spencer got to squeeze in a tiny bit of game time during the last football game.  That darn broken arm of his put him out for almost the entire season.  He was thrilled to be on the field for a few short plays.  Luckily his arm healed well and hopefully next year there will be no injuries so that he'll be able to enjoy a full season of play.  

Nieces and Nephew

I love family!  I love living close to family!  These cuties live super close to us and I love spending time with them.  I wish it was more, but some is better than none.

Little Miss Penny is SOOO cute!

They came to a football game to watch Kenzie dance

 Baby Marshall, love him!

Playground Fun!

Homecoming 2015

Tanner & Kenzie both went to Homecoming and had a great time!!

Tanner's group went to the Provo Beach Resort where they played laser tag, ate lunch, and played games.  Then home, pictures, dinner at Dalton's Steak House, the dance, and then went to a friends' house to watch the end of the BYU football game.  It was a successful night for him!

Kenzie's group went to the Alpine Slide and ate lunch at a burger place.  Then, they came home, got ready, did pictures, ate at Texas Roadhouse, went to the dance, and then finished the night watching a movie.  She also had a blast and said it was the perfect first date!

I know I may be a little biased, but I think Tanner & Kenzie both look super amazing!

Booked!

We booked our cruise for April!!!

CAN NOT WAIT!

Waiting Patiently

I walked out of my room Sunday morning and saw this.  Ry was home from his meeting and the boys had just finished collecting fast offerings.  They were patiently waiting on the couch, watching their phones intently, until the rest of us were  ready for church.  Isn't that a good looking group of guys?!

His Last First Day

Wow!  I can't believe he is off on his last first day of school.  I remember his first, first day of school.  It doesn't seem that long ago that I was sending my Tanner off to Kindergarten and now he's a big bad senior. He's got a pretty sweet schedule this year, just the way he wants it.  I sure love this kid.   

Tanner is really interested in the medical field and so he decided to take a
CNA course.  I think he'll really enjoy it,  Doesn't he look super cute in his scrubs?

Back to School 2015

Summer went by way too fast and so we find ourselves at the first day of school.  I was not ready for it and either were the kids.  None-the-less, they went, and all had a pretty good day.  We are jumping in full force with practices starting, homework, jobs, bedtime, and all the other joys that come with back to school.  Here's to hoping they all have a successful year!

DIY Fence and Shed

Our fence and shed have been a pretty big eye sore from the day we moved in.  We are finally able and ready to do something about it.  So, the demolition has begun.  I'm excited to get this done and to make the outside of our house look a little bit nicer.

Tanner and Ry tore the fence down pretty quickly.  Next on the list is moving the sprinkler, making the ground even and packing it down.  Then we can start on building the shed!  

Fiesta Days Parade 2015

Kenz was in the parade for the drill team.  They took turns dancing on top of the trailer and then walking.  I was lucky and got a picture of her doing both.  This girl of mine LOVES to dance and be on the drill team.  It is a huge commitment, but she is loving it.

Love these two!

Bubble Ball

Fiesta Days are always a fun time of year for us.  This year I didn't seem to get to enjoy them as much as I'd like.  We always love to go eat dinner there at least once.  After we ate one night Jo really wanted to go do the bubble ball activity.  Spencer joined her and they had a blast.  This was of course pre-broken arm for Spencer.  He looked like a little mouse running round and round in that thing.

Jo had a fun time too.  Not sure how much I would've liked something like that.  I think I might feel slightly claustrophobic.  But, the kids had a blast and really that's all that matters.

Longboarding Accident

Spencer fell off his longboard the other night.  After a couple frantic phone calls from the girls, we raced home to find a crying, broken, road rashed, boy.  We took him to the ER and they cleaned him all up and reset his bone.  He broke his radius pretty bad.  He's been in a lot of pain.  I feel really really bad for him.  One of the worst parts is that he's been practicing all spring and summer for football, and now he's out for the season right before the first game.  We went to see a surgeon on Monday and he thinks the bone will heal fine without surgery, we're crossing our fingers.  We go back next Monday to hopefully get a cast and not have surgery.  After we got that news, we thought we were in the clear, but the dr. found a broken bone in his hand.  He's going to show the x-rays to a hand surgeon.  So now we are also crossing our toes that he doesn't need hand surgery.  It's been quite the adventure for my Spencer.


He's trying to be super tough here.  You can see just a little bit of his road rash on his hip bone.  

Baby Malachi

My new nephew Malachi!  He's so cute and so tiny and so perfect!
I'm already in love!

Beehive Swimming

My friend is the Beehive Advisor and asked me if I would go with them for their swimming activity.  I was happy to go, I love swimming.  These girls were super cute together and it was fun to see them interacting and being crazy.  I'm so grateful that my kids have such wonderful youth leaders that plan fun activities and that also help them to learn and grow in the gospel!

Reservoir Fun

We went to the reservoir with some friends a little bit ago.  Her kids are much younger than mine, but we still have so much fun together.  My friend snapped this picture and it's probably one of my favorites of Tanner.  He has always been super good with younger kids and even babies.  They just seem to migrate towards him.  I'm lovin' this shot of these 2 boys!

Happy Sweet 16 Kenzie

This cute, fun, adorable turned 16!!  Boy am I in trouble now.  I sure love her and am so proud of the person she is becoming.  16 things I love about my Kenz:

~she's kind

~she's smart

~she's a good worker

~she has a testimony

~she sends me cute text messages

~she always kisses me goodnight

~she's a great dancer

~she has a lot of friends

~she has a great sense of humor

~she dresses cute

~she's well loved

~she's friendly

~she is dedicated

~she has a good heart

~she reads her scriptures

~she's my beautiful daughter

My 2 Oldest

M is turning 16 and T asked her out on her first date.  Someone had asked her and then ended up bailing, so he felt bad for her.  He put together a cute puzzle for her to do.  She was thrilled!  

T relaxin' and trying to keep cool when we were camping.

M at her first job!

John Wesley Powell River Museum

In hopes of escaping the heat for a little bit, we drove into the thriving town of Green River and went to the museum.  I'm sure they didn't know what to do with themselves when all 25 of us came in at once. It was a wonderful break from the heat.  We stayed in that tiny museum for much longer than we probably would have on any other day.  

The kids were all thrilled that I wanted to snap some photos!

A little family selfie.

Spencer and a man in a boat.

Happy girls with Grandma:)

Love these boys!

We are looking oh so lovely!

They also had a small dinosaur exhibit.

Green River State Park

Ry and I were in charge of the family reunion this year.  We went camping at Green River State Park.  It was so flippin' hot!  Like 104-105 degrees hot.  Too hot really to do much.  We had some games planned, but really everyone just wanted to sit and try to keep cool.  We had spray bottles, lots and lots of cold water, and soaked our bandanas in cold water to try to keep cool.  We still enjoyed ourselves and hope the others did as well.  

The kids didn't mind the yucky, muddy water because it kept them cool.  I got in once and it did feel nice, but it was too yuck for me to get back in.  I prefer water where I can see at least a little bit of what's underneath me.  In this picture the kids are taking the mud, which was kind of clay like, and rubbing it all over their bodies.  Definitely an activity I was ok to skip.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Although my children are much older than the ones depicted in this picture and I'm not as thin as the mother even though I'd like to be, this is how my life feels right now.  I can't believe how busy life has been.  Here's a little of what's been going on in the last month:

~Ry and boys gone to Scout Camp

~yard sale to earn drill $$$

~dentist appointments

~cheer for Jo on Mondays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays

~Church callings

~5:15 a.m. wake up time for Kenzie for drill

~a new job for Kenzie

~football every morning for Spencer

~orthodontist appointments

~50th Anniversary celebration for Mom & Dad

~family get togethers

~Father's Day

~graveyard shifts

~a new job for Tanner 

~staff meetings

~Girls Camp

~drill retreat

~surgery follow-up for Tanner (he's released to do activities!)

~family reunion

~shopping, laundry, cleaning house

~Em's baby shower

~Youth Conference planning meetings

What happened to summer slowing down?  It's been super busy around our parts. We are trying to squeeze in the fun stuff too like, swimming, going to the reservoir, family hikes, game nights, and that might be all we can handle for now!

FHE~The Difference One Can Make

We've been listening to a talk on CD for FHE.  It's a really good one that talks about the positive influence we can be in a person's life.  It tells about a kid who was super amazing, kind of unbelievably amazing and what a difference he made to the people he came in contact with.  It's been fun to listen to it together.  We are almost done, hopefully tomorrow we will finish it.  I think it's really made the kids stop and think about the things in their own lives and how they are affecting others.  I hope they can follow the example of them extraordinary boy in the talk!

Mom & Dad's 50th Anniversary

Mom & Dad celebrated their Golden Anniversary- 50 Years!!!

Andrea put together a wonderful party for them.  Everything turned out so nice.  The decorations were lovely, the food was delicious, friends came, the dancing was fun, but mostly it was so wonderful to be able to celebrate their marriage and the love they share and the amazing parents they've been.  We love you Mom & Dad!!

Lana surprised everyone and showed up to celebrate with us.  It was so nice to have everyone altogether for the celebration.  Once again I was reminded how much I would really love for everyone to live right here, right together.  So lucky to be a part of this crazy wonderful family!

Fill the World with Love

With the Payson Temple being built and dedicated, the youth in our stake, and all stakes in the Payson Temple District, were invited to participate in a celebration event.  The kids have been learning songs and dances for the past 3 months.  It's been a lot of time and a lot of practice including a 6 hour practice at the stadium on time.  When the night of the celebration came everyone was excited and ready to go.  There were to be several members of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles attending.  Thousands of people came to celebrate the building and dedication of the Payson Temple!  And then it started to rain.  And it rained some more and more.  It was heavy rain and then lightning came.  We were told the program was to be temporarily postponed.  There were so many people gathering under the bleachers trying to stay warm and crossing fingers and toes that the celebration would be "back" on.  Finally the rain stopped and we were told we could return to the bleachers so that the program would be able to commence.

Despite the rain and the delay, the program turned out lovely.  The boys were able to participate in a Helamen's March.  It was pretty amazing to see all those boys standing on the field.  It's hard not to think about my boys and sending them off to fight.  How incredibly hard would that be?  The girls were in a beautiful dance to "I Know That My Redeemer Lives".  There were some special parts that kids could audition for.  Kenzie auditioned to be a lyrical dancer.  She \made it and they made up a little song and a dance.  That dance was beautiful!  During the last number all the youth, around 10,000 of them, sang a song.  As they were singing, those in red were the first to go, they opened their shirts to reveal the colors.  It was by far my favorite number.  All the colors were so bright and beautiful.  I'm so glad our kids were able to participate in this once in a lifetime celebration.

After the rain, always comes the rainbow!!!!

Fun in Mom's Wedding Dress

Kenz came downstairs the other day dressed in my wedding dress.  It was a little too big for her, but she had fun prancing around in it anyways.  She is a silly girl.  As I was watching her I couldn't help but look into the future.  It might not be too long until she is wearing her very own wedding gown.  I hope and pray that she and all the other kids will find a spouse worthy to go to the temple with to be sealed for time and all eternity.  There is nothing better than the knowledge of an eternal companion, one that you can have an eternal family with.  

Grandma Carnival

I really lucked out in the in-law department. I have a wonderful mother-in-law who never creates problems for us.  She's kind, fun, loving, and I feel lucky to be a part of their family.  She had all the grandkids over for a giant sleepover one night.  That's 15 grandkids and only 1 grandma.  The kids were all excited to go.  They had a great sleepover.  Saturday morning, the got ready for the carnival.  She thought it would be fun for the kids to put on a carnival for the parents.  They spent the morning and most of the afternoon prepping, cooking, decorating, and practicing.  When we got there everything was set up super cute and they were all waiting for us.

We really had a great time.  There was a popcorn stand, a kissing booth, a nail painting station, face painting, match the duck, foot massages, a fortune teller, water gun shoot, bean bag toss, spam tasting station, cotton candy, snow cones, skeet ball, fresh cookies, and bounce the ball into a cup of water.  The kids put a lot of effort into it and were excited to do this for their parents.  Even the teenagers were good sports and had a fun time.  After the carnival was over we ate lunch: hot dogs and nachos.  The carnival ended with a song by the kids that my MIL made up and had the kids sing to us.  I have a copy and will have to post it later.  It was hilarious about the things the kids can and cannot do.  

What a super fun time the kids had making memories with their grandma that they'll never forget!

Payson Temple Open House

So blessed to live so close to the temple!

Love Him

I love this hubby of mine.  He always makes me laugh.  There is never a dull moment around our house.  I'm so glad we can have fun together, we can talk to each other, we can be serious, we talk about our problems, he's my best friend!

Went for a nice walk one evening.  The weather has been so nice and the kids were all gone, so we figured it was the perfect night for a walk.

Love him!