6 Sand Junkies!!!

Surprise surprise, we have a cheerleader :)

2012-01-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

Anyone that has known Tori, knows that she was meant to be a cheerleader from the day she was born. She had her first game that she cheered at on January 4th. She was super nervous, which I thought was funny. She has 1 or 2 games every week and is loving it. She is the tumbler on the team and has gotten a lot more comfortable doing back handsprings on the basketball floor. She is also a flyer in their stunts. I am yet to see any stunts, but she promises me she isn't going to get dropped!

Baylee and McKinley are the self proclaimed "back up" cheerleaders. They have been at every game so far and because of that know all the cheers. It's kind of funny, Baylee was teasing her sister about cheering before basketball season and now she says them right along with her.

Visit with Santa

2012-01-06T10:12:00.001-08:00

Santa brought all the girls these cute Panda hats. They loved them.

Family Gift Exchange

2012-01-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

We draw names every year in our family and exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. This year Kade had my name. He kept telling me he got me a Razor. He actually had me slightly convinced! He told me all about it. It was the Robby Gordon one. It had off road suspension. No doors, just like I wanted. I logically knew there was no way we could afford it, but he wouldn't give it up. Well it turns out, I didn't get a Razor of course. But this is the note that Kade gave me with my gift.

It says, "Dear mom and dad, I love you and I did not get you a Razor. It will be way too much money. So I got you a necklace thing. It sounds so boring but it is cool." And the necklace thing is very cool :)

What he (Travis) did give me was so very thoughtful! I had pinned this idea for a necklace holder on Pinterest and Travis saw it. He bought all the stuff for it and hung it up for me. I think that is pretty amazing. I have the best husband in the world! And Kade did a great job NOT telling me what he got me for Christmas lol.

Cole has been the funnest person to give gifts his entire life, and this year was no exception. Tori had his name. She loves to rollerblade and thought that giving Cole roller-skates would give her someone to skate with :)

He was very excited to say the least. This is him "thanking" Tori.

She got him all the stuff to play street hockey as well. He can't really skate, but he sure can pose.

Baylee had Travis's name. She got him a video camera that he can mount on his helmet or 4 wheeler when we are riding. This is a video from when he put it on Bay's helmet. She also made him a super soft blanket for when he is watching TV at 3 in the morning cuz he can't sleep :)

Tori thinks she got the best gift of all. Travis got her her very own refrigerator for her bedroom. She has super important stuff in there. Like a Coke she got for Christmas, an orange and left over chocolate. :)

Cole had Baylee's name, and believe it or not this is actually what he wanted to get her. It has her initials on it. This was the one gift that I honestly did not think was going to get here. We had ordered it December 5th and we never received any shipping confirmations or anything on it. It finally arrived on the 23rd thank goodness!

I had Kade's name. I got him a super cool helmet for riding his 4 wheeler. Unfortunately I don't have one picture of it. But it is way cool, and he really liked it :)

November? Where did you go?!!

2011-12-13T08:29:00.001-08:00

Veterans Day we went to Dumont. We were pretty nervous that it was going to be super busy, but it wasn't :) It was one of the best weekends we have had out there. It was really quiet and the weather was perfect.

Of course Bay and Kade found jumps where ever we were riding.

And Travis's favorite part of the kids riding 90's... them getting stuck. Bay and Kade weren't much help digging Cole out lol.

We couldn't go on a ride without stopping at "Mark's Hill". The kids were kinda sad Wade wasn't there to throw them down it. I don't see how that is fun at all! Trust me, Wade threw me down "Mark's Hill" over Thanksgiving and it really wasn't very fun.

Baylee auditioned for Clark County Middle School Honor Orchestra and was the only one from our school to make it. It was a really good experience for her. It was a pain to get to rehearsals every week at Clark High School, but she had a great time and loved the guest Conductor.

The boys had a Thanksgiving Feast at school. We had to bring a veggie tray which I knew wasn't the most exciting thing to kids at a school feast. So we got an idea from Pinterest and made a veggie turkey. The kids loved it, I don't know if they ate it, but they thought it was pretty cute.

Thanksgiving we went to Dumont! It was one of the absolute best Thanksgivings ever. It was us and Mark and LaNae's family. This is our turkey cooking in the deep fryer.

Bay and Travis waiting for Thanksgiving dinner and listening to the Cowboys game.

We raised the beds and put a couple long tables in our trailer for dinner. It was so fun and super yummy!

This was a picture of the flat. The weather was beautiful and absolutely no wind, not even a breeze! It was pretty busy out there so the dust settled into the flat. It looked beautiful though.

Baylee had her last "official" Deseret Strings concert this year. She was concert master. They played a family concert here at our stake center. They played at the Tabernacle in St. George. Ken and Cindy came to that concert and Baylee and I stayed with them that night. I can't believe that is my little girl, or how dang gorgeous she is :)

Cole started wrestling. It is a lot of work, and he isn't very good lol. But he is learning more every practice and tournament and having fun. I feel right at home at wrestling tournaments too :) Although his daddy may have to be banned from going, he gets a little too crazy! You know that parent jumping up and down and screaming on the mat? Well, that's Travis.

Kade's class did morning opening at school. Of course the amazing Mrs. Rexing went all out. It was about Trustworthiness. We are so blessed to be at a school that teaches kids to value more than just education but also being good people.

This is Kade and his two best friends Max and Will.

Pickles, the Shelf Elf showed up at our house. It has been a lot of fun to see what he does around here while we are sleeping. Cole couldn't believe he drank so much syrup!

Kade is playing baseball for a club ball team. They had their first tournament on December 3rd in Lake Havasu. That was also Cole's first wrestling tournament in Indian Springs and Tori's piano recital so I didn't get to go. Him and Travis went and had so much fun together. He went to a baseball camp at Arbor View HS on the 10th with some other kids from his team. He is still loving to catch and loves being on the field with his dad.

Halloween

2011-11-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

As far as pictures go I totally failed this year. I swore I was going to get pictures of everyone, and their friends they went trick or treating with, and the kids all together, and carving pumpkins, and everyone that came of for chili burgers after. Well...

I did get Baylee with McKinley and Victoria before one of the parties they went to.

And Bay at the Trunk or Treat. I had to steal a picture of her of Facebook last year because I didn't get any of her. So at least this year I got one of her in her Winifred costume.

I did make Tori, Allie, and Chase pose for me. Mom made the girls skirts. Didn't they look fabulous?!

Kade and Tate came up with their costume idea on their own. They were crashed scooter riders. They were tons of fun to dress up and their costumes were really cheap! You can't really see it in the picture, but their helmets had huge cracks in them.

Yup, that's it. Not one picture of Cole. I don't know where he was every time I had the camera out. He was Obi Wan Kenobi for the Trunk or Treat. We tried putting the fake blood on him that night and he turned totally white and got really sick to his stomach. Funny that fake blood made him do that! But by Halloween he sucked it up because he really wanted to be what Kade and Tate were. He still turned white and felt sick while we were making him look like a crashed scooter rider, but he stuck it out.

We did carve pumpkins, but no pictures of the carving or even of the pumpkins! Each of the kids went with a different group of friends trick or treating on Halloween night, but no pictures of any of them! And we had our annual chili burgers with lots of friends after the trick or treating, but not one picture did I take. It makes me so sad I let these events slip through my fingers without documenting them in pictures. We had a really great Halloween though.

Nan turns 40!

2011-10-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

It was Nan's 40th birthday on October 4th, so of course we had to have a party!! Because the weather is so beautiful in October we were just going to have it in our backyard. But it decided to rain all day!! It stopped in the late afternoon so we tried being optimistic and hung up the pictures of Nan we had blown up. But as soon as we did it started raining again. The umbrella over the picture was Tori's idea, and it worked great lol. We still had tons of fun though. We had about 55 people here. I love having our house full of good friends and lots of yummy food, so I was so excited that Scott and Nan let us have a party for her here! We had carne asada and everyone brought yummy mexican food to go with it.

Hopefully Nan had a fantastic 40th birthday!

Baseball Champions

2011-10-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Kade had a really great fall ball season. His team was undefeated until their last game of the season. They ended up in the championship game still though and won. Kade's favorite position is catcher, but they really needed him at 3rd. He made some great plays and was really proud of himself. He works so very hard at baseball. By the end of the season he had the most hits and the best batting average of anyone on the team. Good job son, I'm so proud of you!

Bees

2011-10-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

Kade had to do a project at school and he came up with the idea to do it about bees. Our good friend happens to be a beekeeper so Kade called him to see if he could come interview him. Well, he got to do a lot more than just interview him. He got to wear the whole "bee keeper get up" and smoke the bees so they could take out the honey. He had so much fun and brought us home two jars of fresh honey.

p.s. he got an "A" on his project :)

Mermen

2011-10-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

Our super good friends that lived in our neighborhood moved. Our kids are all best friends and have pretty much grown up at each other's houses. We are so sad that they moved, but thankfully they aren't that far away :)

Anyway, while the girls and I were moving some stuff over to the new house, the boys stayed home and played. This is what I saw when I drove into our neighborhood. They totally cracked me up when I was feeling so sad. They said they are mermen and that that's going to be their Halloween costume. Which is totally fine with me because a garbage bag and some duct tape is CHEAP!!

Veronica

2011-10-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

A friend of Baylee's decided to go to girls camp with our ward this summer. After camp she wanted to take the missionary discussions and we were blessed to get to do them at our house with her. She was baptized on September 7th. We are so proud of her and have absolutely loved having her in our home and see her testimony grow!

Bill

2011-10-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

My brother Jay called my a while back and said he had bought a horse for Baylee. I was a little shocked to say the least! He bought it actually to be a show horse and wanted Bay to be the one to work with him and show him. Of course she was totally on board with the idea! She spent one weekend over there working with him, but has been so busy she hasn't been back. I wish he didn't live so far away so she could be there more! But she loved it and really hopes it's going to work out!

This isn't "Bill" the show horse. This is Bah Rani another one of Jay's horses.

BFF's

2011-10-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

Two of my best friends also happen to have daughters that are Baylee's BFF's. So we decided to take them to Cedar City and see Shakespeare for a quick girls trip. We saw Romeo and Juliet because that is a play they have to read in 9th grade. We had so much fun, I sure love these girls! ( And their moms!)

Lockers

2011-10-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

Tori was SO excited to get a locker. She had all sorts of things to decorate it with. She thought it was so cool and insisted I take a picture of her with her first locker.

Bay, on the other hand didn't think it was so cool! I forced her to let me take her picture with her locker though :)

Ah Panguitch

2011-10-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

Trav did another century bike ride in Panguitch. It was beautiful and I got to be his support. It was super hard and he wanted to quit a few times. But he finished it and I was so proud of him! He did it with Mark Howard and Jacoy and Ben Robinson.

Labor Day

2011-10-07T14:39:00.001-07:00

We got to spend Labor Day at Lake Powell. The weather was perfect and the water was so warm!

We went with Ken, Cindy, and Nick. Mom and Dad, and Wade. Barry and Brittany came for a day with their cute baby too.

It was Cole's turn to learn how to ski this year. Everyone on the houseboat came out to watch the drama. He screamed and cried and absolutely refused to do it. But we tried lol

Not far from where we were camping was the perfect spot to cliff jump.

This is my super cool nephew Nick. He went much higher than any of the other kids dared go.

Mark threatened me if Jake got hurt while he was with us, he could never go again. So I was a little nervous about him cliff jumping :)

Bay is so much more brave than I am!

Kade really wanted to wakeboard this year. He tried and tried but couldn't make it up. Next year for sure he will be awesome!

Baylee is getting so good at wake boarding. It's kind of a sisterly competition between the girls. Tori started going in and out of the wake, so Bay tried really hard to do it too! Tori even tried jumping but couldn't quite get it.

Oh how Bay loves to ride the tube with her cousins. They aren't afraid to be wild on the tube just like Baylee. She is so fearless! At one point they flipped and Bay was doing a handstand. Nick grabbed her and pulled her back down, but she didn't fall off!

Tori, on the other hand, is not nearly as brave as Baylee. She likes it, but only to a point!

And the boys... well Cole rode the tube when we forced him to with Travis, me, and Cindy's dog. We went SO slow and he screamed the entire time! Definitely not a brave kid on the water. Kade isn't a big fan of going fast either thought.

We took Jake with us to Lake Powell. Him and Bay are BFF's and all the kids love having him around!

Student council elections x2

2011-10-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

It has busy around here since school started! Lots and lots of baseball of course. Tori started cheerleading practices 3 days a week after school. Baylee has been preparing for 2 different orchestra auditions. And Cole has been trying to adjust to 1st grade!

This year when student council elections came up, both girls decided to run. So, of course, that was twice the posters lol. Bay ran for historian, Tori for 6th grade rep. Both girls won (thank goodness!) I was secretly really worried about whether or not Tori would win, only because there was 9 6th graders running and only 3 would win. But thankfully her and one of her best friends pulled it off. Bay ran uncontested which was very nice! Not nearly as stressful as in years past.

Now that the girls are on student council they go to school at 7:45 3 days a week. That means for Tori 9 hours at school 3 days a week. I am really proud of my girls and how hard they are working in middle school!

South Carlsbad Beach

2011-09-01T12:27:00.001-07:00

Baylee did a small post about our trip to California this year, but I want to add a few more pictures. We had reserved our site in January, so we had been looking forward to this trip for a long time! We were all so excited, we didn't even mind loading the trailer in 110 degree heat. After a long trip down there, we pulled up to the check in place and the girl proceeds to tell us that our reservation was cancelled the night before. As you can imagine, none of us handled that very well! The campground is booked 6 months and and sold out the entire summer. Travis got really mad and started yelling, the kids were all crying, and I was trying to keep it together and get Travis to calm down. The girl asked us to pulled over to the side and she called the park ranger. Well in the mean time, I called reserve america to try to figure out what in the world happened. When they finally answered I was so upset I could hardly talk, plus I had a cold so I sounded really pathetic lol. But when I finally talked to someone that had an answer for me, they said our credit card had cancelled the reservation back in May. And they had tried to call us the night before we were supposed to check in to tell us that, but we were loading the trailer and getting ready to go so we never spoke to anyone. What had happened was that at Christmas we had some fraud charges on that credit card, so the cc company just cancelled all online charges for that period of time. Which included our online reservation for our campsite. By this time, Travis was completely mad, and said we would sleep in a Walmart parking lot and go home the next day. The park ranger finally showed up, and they had talked to reserve america as well to figure out what happened. I explained about our credit card number getting stolen. An he explained to me how full they campground was and that even if they had an open site, our trailer could only fit in 3 sites. And also, it wasn't their fault but the online reservation company. But we must have looked pretty pitiful, because he told me to give him a minute and he would see if he could do anything. By a miracle, he came back and said that one of the people that was in the campsite we could fit in was willing to move for us. And he moved 3 other reservations for that week and got us a spot for the entire week. And then he told me to stop crying :)

Well, needless to say we were very very grateful to the park ranger and ended up having an incredible vacation!

By the time all the drama was over about the campsite, we didn't do anything else on Saturday. But Sunday we went to Sacrament Meeting in a ward in Carlsbad, then went and visited the San Diego Temple.

The cute Johnson's. Some of our friends that were with us camping.

The Horlacher's. They are the ones that introduced us to such a fun vacation spot.

Our entire week consisted of a few basic things. Boogie boarding, playing in the sand, and sitting on the beach.

This was some of the sand crew. They built something pretty cool every day.

Tori, Chase, and Jordan boogie boarding.

Cole seriously LOVED the water this year. He would beg to get down on the beach as soon as he woke up, and played in the ocean boogie boarding the entire day. I would have to force him to take a break to eat something and get a drink.

More boogie boarding.

On Monday, Baylee and Mckinley seriously boogie boarded the entire day. But Mckinley got sunburned really bad so the Johnson's took the day off from the beach on Tuesday. I think Bay played so hard on Monday, she was exhausted the next day. And Trav sleeps so well next to the ocean :)

All the "big Boys" had a kayaking competition to see who could make it out to a buoy that was in the ocean and back fastest. I think the dad's didn't have a very good chance against the teenagers.

Bay and Mckinley heading out to boogie board. That's Travis in the background on the kayak.

Volleyball is tons of fun on the beach :)

More digging :) They had dug so far down they had hit river rocks. So a couple girls held on to Tori and she went down to dig out the rocks. I can't imagine that was fun, but she seemed to think it was!

This is Bishop Pullan entertaining Allie, Tori, and Cole.

Kade dug and dug and dug some more.

This is some of our "beach camp". Travis stayed pretty close under that shade most of the time :)

How cute is this picture?! They took their chairs and a bag of pretzels and sat there for a long time just talking and watching the waves.

Someone brought a skimboard and Kade thought since Carter could do it, he could too. Of course, Carter is 15. But Kade would ask him to go skim boarding with him and he would sit out there and try over and over again. It looked super hard to me!

Nan and Cole having a little talk walking down the beach.

Spencer decided to get into one of Kade's holes he had dug, so of course he got buried.

We had a super fun week, and can't wait for next year!

Baylee K-8

2011-08-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

Kindergarten @ Darnell Elementary. She had two teachers, Mrs. Bowers and Mrs. Cook.

1st Grade @ Darnell, Mrs. Wilkins was her teacher.

2nd Grade @ Heckethorn Elementary. Mrs. Zeller was her teacher. How in this world do I not have a picture of the first day of her 2nd grade!

3rd Grade @ Kitty Ward Elementary. Mrs. Thurmond

4th Grade with Mr. Cayer

5th grade with Mrs. Lamb

6th grade @ Saville Middle School

7th Grade

8th Grade

First Day of School 2011

2011-08-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

Our baby started 1st grade today. Cole was nervous until he met Mrs. Evans last Thursday. He has so many friends in his class and is super excited to have Mrs. Evans as his teacher. Now if she can just get him to sit still :)

Kade started 3rd grade. He has a rough time with teachers the last couple of years, so we are so excited he is in Mrs. Rexing's class this year. She is phenomenal! He was very concerned about looking good today, and got super embarrassed when his mom kissed him on the playground lol.

The boys start school at 8:00, so Travis and I took them to school before I went home and got the girls ready. They don't start until 9:00. So we didn't get any pictures this year of everyone together :(

This is Max and Will Robinson. They are good friends of Kade's and in his class this year. I think he is the most excited about that!

Cole and "Stage" are in the same class again this year. Her actual name is Sage but he can't seem to say that.

Our 6th grader! Tori did an academy at the Middle School last week and figured it all out so she was more excited than nervous this morning. Although she did say she had butterflies in her tummy on the way to school!

Wow, where did the time go?? How do I have a daughter that looks so grown up! Baylee is starting 8th grade this year. She is one amazing girl and as beautiful on the inside as on the out. She is really looking forward to being "big man on campus" this year. :)

2011-08-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

me and kinley boogie boarding
tori boogie boarding
cole boogie boarding
kade boogie boarding

we spent a week at the beach up at carlsbad. we love it there. we went down there with the Johnsons, Horlachers, Pittsenbargers, Andersons, Glens, Princes, Normans, Cranes, Jones's, and Pullan's. we had so much fun!!! everyone was burned... but wishing that we could've stayed longer!!

2011-08-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

tori loved the little fake news place they had set up. there was a little monitor that she would read off and a camera.
after i got back from retreat... we went to the kids museum in salt lake. they had this rescue helicopter that the boys LOVED.

2011-08-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

this was our adorable counselor rae/callie. each of the counselors each chose a nickname and at the end of the week we got to learn their real names.
i went to this thing called retreat for girls up in logan utah. this was my cute group.

2011-08-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

during the hike we had to cross the rope bridge. victoria was super excited... but mom wasn't to thrilled ;)
i loved doing the rope bridge. mom's excuse not to do it was to take pics. the day that we had to leave she said that that was her day that she was planning on going on it.

by Baylee

2011-08-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

we went camping up at pine valley, and we went to the monument for the Mountain Meadow Massacre. It was super cool and it was a cool story to hear about. But other than that it was a super sad story!

posted by Baylee

2011-08-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

June: The first thing we did this summer was mine and tori's dance recital. every year at bunker we have a recital at the theater behind the baseball field clear across town.our dance teacher, aaron, was a ma zing. we are going to continue taking lessons this upcoming year.

posted by baylee

2011-07-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are very excited for Harry Potter this weekend!

Awards Ceremonies and Graduations

2011-06-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

Our baby graduated from Kindergarten today. It was a bittersweet day. I am sad he is getting so big, but man that half day kindergarten schedule stinks! He had the cutest teacher, we just loved Mrs. Morales!

This is Tori at her 5th Grade dance with some of her cute friends.

We were so proud of Tori and all that she accomplished this year. She was awarded A/B honor roll, Governor's attendance (how in the world did that happen!!), and the Computer Award for her class.

Baylee had Mrs. Lamb for 5th grade as well. She is one incredible lady that truly loves the kids in her class and does everything she possibly can to help each of them succeed. She is such a blessing to our family!

Kade had a rough year (again) this year. His teacher was hit by a car while she was riding her bike and couldn't return to school. She is still in a rehab hospital but seems to be improving. We are keeping her in our prayers, she is such a sweet lady! His permanent sub was Mr. Stucki. Kade got the A/B honor roll, Governor's Attendance Award, and the Computer Award for his class.

This is Baylee and some of her super cute friends. She has had a great 7th grade year.

Baylee with Dr. Lea. We are very blessed to have her at our school. I know she was led to take the job as our principal by inspiration. It's always great to have someone take care of our kids that listens to the Holy Ghost! Baylee got the Presidents Outstanding Academic Achievement award for all A's and B's this year. (she only had 1 B and that was in her advisory class). She was also awarded the Student of the Month in May.

Bring on Summertime!

Orchestra Trip to San Francisco

2011-05-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

For Advanced orchestra Baylee got to go to San Francisco. We left the middle school at 4:30 Thursday morning. No one was happy enough to take pictures that early!

This was Baylee and her friends all "spiffied up" for the San Francisco Symphony Thursday night

Because it had been such a long bus ride, the driver's couldn't take us to the symphony. So we got to ride the subway.

This was Bay on a trolley car. We only had about 2 1/2 hours in downtown S.F. so we didn't have time to ride one. But she sure looked cute standing on it :)

Of course we had the famous sour dough bread!

Her orchestra went to competition on Friday night. They were unbelievably good!

And, of course, Baylee was gorgeous!

On Saturday before we came home we went to Great America Theme Park. They had a 156 foot free fall. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to show my daughter that it's good to do things that scare the pants of you!!! Pretty much the scariest thing I have ever done! But, after I got off Bay asked if she could do it too because she couldn't let me be more brave that her. So I guess it was worth it :)

At the awards ceremony our orchestra won 1st place in their division, but also won Best Overall Orchestra out of all the orchestras in every division! So proud of these kids!

Travis turns 40 :)

2011-05-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to have a surprise party for Travis for his 40th birthday but couldn't figure out what to do. But my friend Jill said we should have it at Tacos El Gordo (she loves it as much as we do hehe). So I thought what would be even better than that would be for Tacos El Gordo to come to us. Bob talked to the manager there, and sure enough, they would do ANYTHING for Bob! (everyone loves him :) When I had originally planned to do it the weather was supposed to be super bad so I decided to wait until the 30th of April thinking that the weather is always nice in Vegas by then right? Well, not so much! It wasn't horrible, just kinda windy and too cold to really be outside the entire night. Mark suggested we have the party at his house because there was no way I would be able to get rid of Trav all afternoon to do it at our house. Baylee and my mom did all the decorating. Wade did pretty much all the running around and organizing. And LaNae and her kids cleaned so we could have a party there. A lot of our friends came and it was a ton of fun! Travis said he was really surprised, I hope he was! The one funny thing though was that day I asked him where he wanted to go to dinner. (we were going on a date he thought) He had got a "bug" in Mexico over Spring Break and had been sick since we got home. He said, "I don't care where we go, just as long as it's not Tacos El Gordo." Well.... surprise honey, that's whatcha got lol

We rented a margarita machine. The guy couldn't understand why we weren't having kids there, but we didn't want alcohol in it!

Bay and mom hung up giant pictures of Trav.

mmmm.... Tacos!

After dinner we played Minute To Win It games in Mark and LaNae's garage. (thanks for sweeping it out for us Charlee :)

And of course Bundt Cakes for dessert!

Easter

2011-05-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

We didn't get home from Playa Del Carmen until 1 in the morning on Easter Sunday. But the Easter Bunny still managed to come through for the kids at Grandma Connie's house. :)

Spring Break in Playa Del Carmen

2011-05-17T09:15:00.001-07:00

For Spring Break we were lucky enough to get to go to Playa Del Carmen with Mark, Lanae and their family and my mom and dad. We can't wait to go back!

This is the resort we stayed at.

Tori should seriously always be on vacation. She does the look so well :)

We rented a van for a day and went "touristing". This was the coolest restaurant I have ever been to. It was on the beach in Akumel where Mark took us to snorkel and eat.

This was the girls in their ziplining gear. I wish I would have taken a picture of Cole's shoes. He had on crocs so the guy taped his shoes on so they wouldn't fall off while he was zip lining. I don't think that would happen here lol. The zip lining was so awesome and definitely one of everyone's favorites of the trip.

Travis was taking a little nap in between touring the caves and zip lining in Akuchen. Apparently this region of Mexico is known for their hammocks. There were hammocks everywhere we went.

This is our tour of the caves. They are not very protective of their stalagmites and stalagtites in Mexico.

The resort had awesome pools. It also had a couple whirlpools that Cole and Uncle Mark would get in every afternoon and be "sharks". I didn't get a picture of those though :(

Can you believe how beautiful that water is!!!

(And those girls are incredibly beautiful as well)

LaNae, Charlee, Baylee, and I decided we would try out scuba diving in the pool to see if we wanted to learn how. It was pretty cool, but I'm still not sure I want to be under the ocean!

We spent lots of time eating of course.

This was Cole bartering with the Mexican salesman. I think he actually got a good deal just because he was cute!

This is where we spent the majority of our time. Sitting under the palapas on the beach!

The Last Spring Showcase

2011-05-17T08:51:00.001-07:00

On April 7th, our school had the last Showcase. Usually the Spring Showcase is just the last one for the year. But this time, it was the LAST one for at least a while. Because of the budget issues our school lost the ability to provide these opportunities for our kids. We have an incredible principal who came up with the concept for our school. We are so blessed to have her and all the teachers and staff that put so much into helping our kids be successful. Kitty Ward E.S. really is the best elementary in the district!

Aubrey is our next door neighbor. She was on Little Wolves.

Jake is one of our friend's little boys. He was on the boys dance team called EXTREME.

I absolutely love this kid!

Chase in Drum Corps.

Tori in W.W. The coaches encourage these faces lol.

Olivia Johnson and Chase in Music Ensemble.

Allie was in Music Ensemble as well.

Tori in the school Choir.

General Conference

2011-04-04T14:24:00.001-07:00

General Conference was amazing this time! The kids are old enough now that they listen to most of it (except Cole, he tries though). The kids have cards with the prophet and apostles pictures that they hang up by whatever their talk is about.

Everyone gets a "word" and when they hear their word in a talk, song, or even the prayer they get a piece of candy. Cole was pretty sure they were saying FAITH whenever he wanted candy though

Kade has the worst headache all day Sunday so he actually stayed and watched the entire conference. His head hurt too bad to fill out his packet though.

I tease Travis that he has slept through Conference his entire life. At this point he wasn't really asleep, just pretending. (Now saturday afternoon on the other hand, he was snoring!)

The kids filling out their conference packets.

March

2011-03-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today I got to go on a Field Trip with Tori's class to the Federal and District Courthouses downtown. This was my cute little group of girls :) Every one of them are in my primary as well. I just love those girls!

Monster Jam 2011

We have taken our kids to some pretty cool stuff. But Cole has never been as excited as he was at this! He was jumping up and down and screaming for "his" truck. It was so much fun to see his excitement for it.

At the last minute we decided to go to Monster Jam. We have been saying for years we were going to go but always ended up doing something else. But because we bought our tickets last minute we had seats at the very top of Sam Boyd Stadium. The seat were fine, but it was SO COLD!! (Bay is practicing one of her teenage looks again in this picture :)

We earned our Wolf in Cub Scouts :) We are having tons of fun doing scouting and Kade is so blessed to have incredible leaders.

When the boys earn a rank advancement the Cubmaster "brands" them. Kade chose to be branded on his forehead.

My beautiful friend Colette is having a baby in April and her family all lives in Cedar. So Michelle, Nan and I threw her a baby shower. I love having baby showers :)

For the shower I made mini cupcakes. They were super yummy :)

Games have finally started. Kade is still loving to catch, and he really loves his new catchers helmet! I forgot to take pictures from Cole's first game. But we are just trying to keep him from picking flowers in the outfield.
Baylee is about a month and a half away from being an official teenager, but she has the "looks" down. She is a pro at the "mom you are so buggy" look. It doesn't bug me though hehe
On March 12th Bay and Kade had a violin recital. Which was actually just a warm up for Junior Festival which was on March 26th. Kade got super super nervous at the recital and forgot some of his one song. Bay did awesome. At Junior Festival they both got superior though! It is so fun to listen Baylee play now. She is SO GOOD! Kade is just glad that is over so now he can move on to different songs lol. Travis and I missed Junior Festival because I was at Cole's first baseball game of the season and Travis had to work. But Grandma Connie took them and loved every second of it! We are so blessed to have our grandmas and grandpas close and their willingness to help us and support our kids!

On March 5th Baylee got to be a part of the Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus and perform THE LAMB OF GOD. She was actually in the choir instead of the orchestra but it was an incredible experience for her. These kids sounded better than any professional group I could imagine. She said when they were singing the one song, she felt like she was 10 feet off the ground. It was such a testimony builder for her.
I don't think I have blogged about Tori's dance team at school she is on. It is called the Wigglin' Wolves and she has loved it this year. It is another blessing from quitting gym, she got to be involved it this instead. I loved gym, but those 14 hours a week really made it so Tori had to sacrifice so much. Now she can do things like be in the school choir and the dance team at school and take piano lessons and actually play with friends. She made a very wise choice! They have performed at a Wranglers Hockey Game, at a UNLV basketball game, some community events and at their school.

NASCAR!!!

2011-03-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Robby Gordon always has some fun with Kade, and always remembers him from last year (It also helps that they are like his only fans =)

Ever since last year Cole has been a big fan of Carl Edwards (He kinda just goes with what mom and dad like though =) He actually doesn't remember his name is Carl Edwards, he calls him AFLAC

This year there were some people that were putting a show on before the race. It was so crazy and fun to watch!

Sitting on the roof watching the race is one of the best parts of going out there!

CARL EDWARDS WON!!!! With 20 laps to go we headed out to watch the celebration in victory lane. Which was really stupid because he did a burn out in front of our trailer. (He remembers us from last year, we waited by his window for 2 hrs for him)

Carl on Victory Lane with Kenny Wallace, Kyle Petty and John Roberts.

After the press conference he came down to sign autographs. recognizing us, he came right over and signed a poster for us and took this great picture with us!!

Another great weekend out at the track, and it made it even better that Carl won the race!!

posted by Bay

On any given night...

2011-03-02T19:27:00.001-08:00

We can be found at one of these places...Baylee at young women's tonight. But she can also be found at the M.S. for orchestra, student council meetings, NJHS meetings, Chamber Orchestra, or dance, or at violin lessons.

Tori serving at volleyball.

Ah, baseball has begun! Kade and Cole will most like be here on any given night. As well as their dad, who is also an assistant coach for BOTH teams!

I do love spring time!

2010

2011-01-10T13:48:00.001-08:00

JANUARY

We were lucky enough to get to spend New Years 2010 at Dumont.
MARCH

NASCAR
For our anniversary we went to Phoenix.
And March also brought Cole's first season of baseball.
APRIL

We spent Spring Break in Southern California. We stayed in Escondido but spent ALOT of time in San Diego
In April Tori got to go to Astrocamp with GATE.
In April we took the kids to Phoenix. We stayed at a really fun hotel and went to a Diamondbacks game. Bay stayed home so she could go to her friends birthday parties. It's sad when they are so big they think hanging out with their friends is funner than hanging out with us!
MAY

It was Baylee's golden birthday this year. We picked her up in a Limo from school, went to Nordstrom for a make-over, went to Hugo's Cellar for dinner and stayed at The Trump Hotel. The next morning when we got home all her friends were at our house for a surprise birthday party.
Kenny came to Hard Rock! We had the absolute best "seat" in the place, right on the stage!

May was our girls trip to NYC. We had a blast!
And in May Cole was our last graduate from Sunshine Place Preschool. All 4 kids went to Mrs. Purcell. She is an angel.
JUNE

We went to South Carlsbad beach camping with the Horlachers.

When we left the beach we went to Disneyland for a day.

JUNE

Baylee's first girls camp. They went to SLC.
While Bay was at girls camp, we went to Lake Powell. We missed her a lot but it was so much fun!
Cole did swim lessons this summer with Janette Glenn.
JULY

We went to SLC for the 4th with Janet and Robin. We went to Stadium of Fire, it was amazing!

While we were in SLC for the 4th, we went to Kennicott.
And we did a hike Bay had done at girls camp.
JULY

Travis and I had the opportunity to go on a Church History Trip for 12 days in July. We had the time of our lives and learned SO MUCH!
July 31st Kade got baptized.
AUGUST

Back to school
Kade's first pinewood derby. We love having a cub scout :)
SEPTEMBER

Travis went to a Cowboys game with Mark and Bob.
So the girls and I went to Big Bear with Espi :)
Baylee ran for Junior Vice President at school. She didn't win initially, but ended up with the position.
Kade tried out football, it wasn't his favorite.
He did however find out how much he really, really loves catching.
OCTOBER

Baylee broke her wrist playing on the trampoline with her cousin.
We had a surprise birthday party for Cindy's 50th birthday. We played "Minute To Win It" games and had so much fun!

Travis rode his bike for 100 miles. Crazy guy
We went trick or treating at Disneyland. It was WAY fun!

NOVEMBER

Tori went to Sea Camp with GATE on Catalina Island. There are so many benefits to being smart :)

Mark and I surprised Travis and Lanae and took them to Maui.
We spent Thanksgiving in Richfield with Travis's grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Jazz/Lakers game Thanksgiving weekend.
Temple Square to see the lights.
DECEMBER

Our visit with "the real" Santa. Ken would disagree though :)

Elder Wilson

2011-01-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

My nephew is reporting to the MTC today to serve in the Ecuador, South America Mission. Good Luck Kyler! He is my first nephew to go on a mission. He's going to be great

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-01-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

After Thanksgiving we took the kids to SLC to see the lights at Temple Square. When we got up there we found out the Jazz and Lakers were playing. It was so much fun! The kids absolutely loved it, and it was an incredible game. Yes, the Jazz won :)

The kids had so much fun playing in the snow! It was beautiful, but SO COLD!

We went to This Is The Place and talked to Father Christmas

Like I said, it was so cold! We were trying to keep warm :)

The pink lights by the tabernacle are my favorites.

Cole seriously slept through almost the entire game.

Thanksgiving

2011-01-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we went to Richfield and had dinner with most of Travis's extended family. It was so much fun to see all his cousins, aunts, uncles, and especially his sweet grandma. We have never had a Thanksgiving with all of them and we really had a great time.

Kindergarten Carpool Conversations

2010-12-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

This was the conversation between Cole and the cute little girl, Sage, that we carpool with.

Cole: "Stage do you like me?" (her name is Sage but Cole can't seem to say it right!)

Sage: "Yes I like you"

Cole: "You have blue-ish purply eyes" (not really purply, Sage has the most gorgeous blue eyes :)

Sage: "You can walk me to the door if you want"

Cole: "Okay and I will carry your backpack for you"

It was so funny I was about choking trying not to laugh at them! Ah, the innocence of 5 year olds :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-12-03T14:21:00.000-08:00

So I discovered something today when I made chocolate chip cookies. Now, I understand the rest of you are super duper cooks and probably already knew this. But, here's what I learned:

These are the first pan I baked. Just mixed them up and stuck them in the oven to bake. Kinda flat huh?

These pretty little cookies were the last pan I cooked. Notice how much "fluffier" they look? Both pans taste exactly the same, but the last one sure looked better!

Both pans were from the exact same batch of cookie dough. But the last one I stuck in the fridge for about 10 minutes before I baked them. Not sure why it made such a big difference, but it did! So, I guess stick the cookie dough in the fridge for 10 minutes before you bake them and they will turn out alot prettier :)

Things Change

2010-11-19T07:49:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to mention this morning that Baylee got some good news this week. The student council advisor came to her and asked her is she were still willing to be on student council. So... Baylee did win in the end, she is now the Junior Vice President at Saville MS. :)

Surprise=Maui

2010-11-15T11:39:00.001-08:00

Travis has been super stressed at work, understandibly! So, when Mark called and said he wanted to surprise LaNae and take her somewhere and asked if we would like to go with I was all for it! Mark and I decided to keep it a surprise from Travis and LaNae and finally decided on Maui. We got some incredible deals and it ended up being a pretty cheap trip. We had so much fun! Travis did end up finding out where we were going a couple of days beforehand because he is snoopy. But LaNae didn't know even where we were going until we go to the airport. We drove the road to Hana. It was beautiful, but we found out we are more of "destination" people instead of "enjoy the ride" people lol. We hung out by the pool and the on the beach alot. We went to a luau, which was quite the experience! Mom stayed at our house with all 8 kids! She is so AMAZING! It was an awesome trip and we can't wait to go back :)

We went to Hilo Hatties and picked out the most "touristy" looking shirts we could for Mark and Travis. They were such good sports and it was super funny :)

We were hanging out on Big Beach on Wailea and this guy was doing these really weird jumps so his wife could take his picture. We were all laughing at him because he could barely get off the sand. So Travis decided he would go and show him how its done. Pretty impressive huh!

On our drive to Hana we kept seeing fruit all over the ground. We finally saw some on a tree and I really wanted to figure out what it was... it was passionfruit :)

Because Maui had been receiving so much rain the last week or so the waterfalls were absolutely spectacular.

It wasn't raining (at this point) it was just really wet!

Mark wanted a better view of the waterfalls and to fully appreciate our topless jeep he decided to stand on the seat for a better view :)

Travis insisted on a Jeep. It was a ton of fun, even if it was kind of a piece of junk!

... and of course, a Hawaiian chicken!

Where did October go??

2010-11-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

I think I blinked and October was over! I love October, and we really enjoyed it but it definitely went too fast!

I have always wanted to take the kids to the halloween trick or treating party in Disneyland but we just haven't been able to make it in years past. This year we finally did! I'm so glad we went. It was so much fun and the kids got a ton of candy!

This year for Halloween Cole was a firefighter, Kade was a skeleton Pirate, Tori was an 80's chick and Bay didn't want to wear her costume to Disneyland but for Halloween she was the red headed Sanderson Sister from Hocus Pocus. She looked absolutely gorgeous!

This is a picture of Baylee at a Halloween Party she went to with 2 of her best friends.

Travis decided to do a 115 mile bike ride in Vegas. It was such a great accomplishment for him! We were so proud of him, and the kids loved driving the ride and watching for him. They acted like he was a rock star!

We had a surprise party for my sister's 50th birthday at our house. It was so much fun to have our entire family together (everyone except 4 nephews made it to the party!) But at the end of the party Baylee came over to me holding her wrist and said it really hurt. So we hurried and grabbed Cindy and Ken before they left and had them look at it. They said it was probably okay and wait and see how it feels in the morning. But then Jake came in and said when he landed on her on the trampoline it sounded like a stick breaking in half! Needless to say, we didn't wait until morning! Bay and I headed to the ER. She had broken it right at the growth plate. It broke my heart to see her in pain like that! When I took this picture it was after they had given her Lortab so she felt much better :) Jake felt so bad, but it was just an accident. The kids were all playing. But this was our first cast, Bay thought it was pretty cool the first few days. We actually didn't get the full cast that night. We had to go to an orthopedic surgeon and have it casted on Monday. She got a purple cast and a month off of violin.

Travis and Bob went to a football game in Dallas, so Espi and I decided to take the girls and go to Big Bear for the weekend. We had a blast! It was so fun to spend the weekend with just the girls.

Kade has been playing flag football and baseball. He absolutely LOVES to catch, go figure! He did a really great job behind the plate and his coach put him there every game. He even wants his own catching gear for Christmas. I must admit though, I'm glad we survived doing both sports and that it is now over. Two football practices, 1 football game, 1 baseball practice, and 2 baseball games a week about did us in!

Baylee ran for Junior Vice President at school. She didn't win, but had a really great attitude and ran a great race! She is such an incredible kid. She always looks on the bright side of things and gives everything her best.

Village

2010-09-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

I always celebrate the kids going back to school by putting up my Halloween Village. It is my favorite thing :)

Durango CO

2010-09-20T18:00:00.001-07:00

I really have wanted to take the kids to Durango and ride the train for so long. We decided to make a quick trip and just go. Mom, dad and Chuck came with us and we had so much fun! This is Kade's injury from River Rafting. Him and Baylee were walking down to the edge of the river and he slipped and ripped the skin right off his leg! We didn't have any bandages or anything so we wrapped a bandanna around his leg and finished our rafting trip. He did cry, it was really bad! But he was super brave and insisted we finish our rafting trip.

This was our stop at the 4 corners :)

Our First Cub Scout :)

2010-09-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

Kade was SO EXCITED to get to go to Cub Scouts. He has incredible leaders that keep him excited every week! At his first pack meeting he earned his Bobcat and I got my first mom pin :)

Catching up! Kade's baptism

2010-09-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

Kade was baptized on the 31st of July. It was such a beautiful day! We are so blessed to have such great friends and family that support us. Kade was so excited for HIS baptism day. He played his violin with Baylee before his confirmation and Grandma Janet made lasagna for the lunch after. I am so proud of this kid and his desire to follow the Savior. He is such a funny, sweet, fun kid!

1st Day of School

2010-08-30T09:31:00.001-07:00

Kade's idea of conflict resolution

2010-07-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

Kade came in my room and told me that Baylee wouldn't share the popcorn with him. So I told him to think about it and figure out a solution, it wasn't something I needed to take care of. His solution.... He told Bay there was a huge spider in the kitchen. When she went to see the spider he grabbed the popcorn and ran outside. I thought it was pretty resourceful, hehe :)

Getting Home!

2010-07-23T10:48:00.001-07:00

We made it to St. Louis airport about 2:00 pm on the 21st after visiting Carthage. Our flight wasn't until 6:00 and there were 5 other people on that flight from our tour. Two ladies, Jennifer and Janell Wagner, were from Vegas too. Austin, Mishawn, and Katie all live in Phoenix (which is were we had to switch planes). Well a huge storm moved in over St. Louis and shut down the airport for a couple hours, so our plane was late leaving which meant we missed our flight out of Phoenix. The soonest we could get another flight was not until Thursday morning, and we had waited long enough to see our kids! So we decided to rent a car and drive home from Phoenix. Jennifer and Janell both had to work Thursday so they needed to get home as well. So the 4 of us rented a car at about 10:30 at night and headed home. We pulled in our driveway at 3:30 Thursday morning. Travis drove the entire way. Scary thing is, he doesn't remember anything past Hoover Dam! We had gotten up at 6:30 in Nauvoo (their time zone, whatever it is!) so by the time we got home we had been up 23 hours. Never in my life has my bed felt so good!

Day 12- Carthage Jail

2010-07-22T21:38:00.001-07:00

Joseph and Hyrum sacrificed everything for this church, even their own lives. After spending the last 11 days learning about Joseph's life, Carthage was pretty hard to be at. I don't know what to say to convey the feeling of love, loss, sadness, gratefulness, and a little anger at that mob who killed him. Just like so many other places we visited on this trip, it's hard to express the feelings in my heart for this Prophet. I can truly understand how the saints were willing to follow him anywhere. And why Heavenly Father chose him to restore the gospel on the earth in this dispensation. Praise to the Man

Day 11- More Nauvoo

2010-07-22T17:47:00.001-07:00

This morning we walked down Parley Street, it's the same street the saints walked down when they left Nauvoo. It was amazing to me to hear the stories of these faithful saints leaving everything they had worked so hard for in Nauvoo, and leaving happy.

Our good friends the Lewis's were on vacation and happened to be at the Nauvoo Pageant the same night we were there.

The Nauvoo Pageant was our favorite!!

We are even thinking about going to be in it next year :)

Day 10- Touring Nauvoo.... in some serious rain!

2010-07-19T19:20:00.001-07:00

This morning we had the opportunity to go to the Nauvoo temple and do a session. It was a great experience! When we came out, it was pouring!!! There has been a severe thunderstorm warning all day but that didn't slow us down any :)

This is the stone quarry site for the stone used in the original temple. Norm, our wonderful tour guide has a van from the hotel that he drove around town all day just picking people up and dropping them off. On our last pick up with him he took us here to see where the stone had come from.

One of the restored homes here is the Browning home. I didn't even know he was mormon lol!

This afternoon we went to the visitors center and was a movie about Joseph then say a play put on by performing missionaries about the Nauvoo saints.

Day 9- Moving West

2010-07-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

Far West Temple Site. In D&C 118 Joseph received the revelation that the 12 apostles were supposed to leave from this site on missions on April 26, 1839. From the time he received this revelation and that time though Joseph was betrayed and taken captive to Liberty Jail and the saints were forced to evacuate Far West in January. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball headed back to Far West to fulfill that prophecy in the beginning of April. On April 6th they past Joseph Smith and Hyrum because they had been allowed to escape Liberty Jail. Also at Far West the churches official name was changed to what it is today. And also the law of the tithe was changed to 1/10th instead of "all you had".

Adam-Ondi-Ahman, what a glorious place!! There is no visitor's center, no cute little couple missionaries sharing stories and doing tours. Just an incredible spirit that testifies to the importance and sacredness of this place. Unless you have got to experience this place it is really hard to describe it.

We made it to Nauvoo! This statue is across the street from the Nauvoo temple. It is of Joseph and Hyrum and they are preparing to leave and go to Carthage. And the two people in the picture with Travis are a couple of our wonderful friends we have made on our trip, Levier and Linda Gardner.

We went to see the temple at sunset last night. What a glorious building this is! I can't even imagine how the saints were able to leave it after all the work they had put into it. Travis took a ton of pictures, and finally got this one with the light just perfect. They "spared no expense" as President Hinckley put it into this temple to make it as much like the original as possible. One interesting thing we learned was that the architects told Joseph there wasn't any way to do the round windows, it just wasn't safe or going to be strong enough. But he insisted because that is exactly what he had seen in the vision of this temple.

Day 8- St. Louis to Independence

2010-07-17T19:43:00.001-07:00

We started off today by going to see the St. Louis Temple. One more of the beautiful Lord's Houses here on the earth today!

This is the court house is Independence Missouri. At this courthouse about 400-500 local men met to decide what to do about the mormons that were "taking over" Independence. They had several problems with the mormons. #1 Missouri was a slave state and the mormons were largely against slavery. #2 About 1200 mormons had moved into Independence and they were about to out number the locals and they would be able to take over the voting with the majority. #3 The Sante Fe Trail and Oregon Trail both begin in Independence and the mormons were taking the trade business with the people heading west. #4 That doesn't even begin to talk about the religious differences!

So they met together and wrote a secret declaration to get all the mormons out of Independence. They sent a group of men to talk to the mormon leaders and told them they had to leave. The mormons asked for 90 days, they were told no, they asked for 10 days, they were told no they needed to be gone in 15 minutes. The men returned to the courthouse and, in anger went across the street to WW Phelps print shop and destroyed his printer and burned everything. Miraculously, 2 brave little girls grabbed the book that was being printed at the time and ran into the adjoining corn field and hid from the mob of men destroying everything in the print shop. The men never found the girls and they saved the first copy of the Book of Commandments (except for the last page). It was the first copy of what would later be known as the Doctrine And Covenants.

In sharp difference from the temple we started our day at, we next went to the temple that belongs to the Community of Christ Church (formerly RLDS). It is dedicated to Peace which Travis found very interesting :) They showed us a video of their churches basic doctrines and it was kind of strange. They begin with our same history, talking about Joseph Smith and the trials the early saints went through. But then they show things like a mom baptizing her child. And in the first presidency of their church and their quorum of the 12 there are women. We have had an opportunity to learn alot about their church on this trip though and it has been very interesting. They are kind, open people and very accepting it seems of our religion.

This is Liberty Jail, it is a very moving place to visit. Joseph and 5 other men were unjustly imprisoned here from December 1838 to April 1839. The dungeon where they were kept was about 14x14 and a little less than 6 feet tall. Most of the men could not stand up straight. It was dirty, they were treated very poorly and I think the worst part was that they had no right to hold them. Some wonderful revelations came from this trial is Joseph's life though. It is a good reminder that none of us has suffered anything in comparison with what he suffered for this gospel. Because of the revelations that were received here, this place is actually referred to as the "prison temple" though.

This is a very humbling place to see.

Day 7, All day on the bus :)

2010-07-17T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today was travelled a LONG way! Norm keeps us entertained though and we have a great bus driver. We stop about every 2 hours for "comfort" breaks. And everyone on the bus are kind of like family now! The majority of the people on our tour are retired. There are 4 girls about our age that are single and about 6 teenagers, so we are right in the middle of everyone. There are such great people though and we have really enjoyed spending this time with them!

We finally made it to St. Louis! Little did we know that there was actually LDS history here! About 22,000 Latter-day Saints past through St. Louis on their way west. Joseph made the trip between Independence and Kirtland 4 times. Considering it took us about 9 1/2 hours on a bus, that was a lot of travelling in Joseph's time! St. Louis is the beginning of the Boonelick trail.

This is a picture of us by the St. Louis Arch.

Lucky for us we just happened to be staying about a block away from Busch Stadium where the Cardinals play baseball... and there was a game last night!! We were supposed to go on a riverboat ride and dinner on the Mississippi but because it has risen so much they aren't allowing any tours on the river. So Norm took us all to dinner on the 28th floor of a rotating restaurant, then we went to the game! We made it there by the 3rd inning and had a great time.

Day 6, Kirtland Ohio

2010-07-17T17:36:00.001-07:00

This is the stone quarry where the rock came from for the Kirtland Temple.

The twins of Joseph and Emma are buried here in the cemetery across the street from the temple. As well as Joseph's grandmother and Hyrum's first wife.

The Kirtland Temple is an interesting place. It is owned by the Community of Christ church, more commonly known as the RLDS church. They changed their name a few years ago. Christ appeared here as well as Moses, Elias, and Elijah. It was the first temple built in 1800 years. They Community of Christ church have taken very good care of this building, but they don't treat it like we do our temples. No ordinances are done here. They use it for education purposes and community meetings mostly. It is an interesting thing to contemplate the reason Heavenly Father allowed the temple in Nauvoo to be destroyed but preserved this temple. Why do you think he did??

This is one place I had honestly never heard of before. It is the John and Elsa Johnson farm in Hyrum Ohio. LOTS of important things happened here and this family sacrificed pretty much everything they had for the gospel, and I had never heard of them! They allowed Joseph and Emma to live here for a year. The church was headquartered here. They built Joseph and office upstairs in their home. The night that Joseph was taken in the middle of the night and tarred and feathered was from this home. 16 revelations were received here. It is a huge (especially for that time period) home that they willingly opened to many, many people. When people would come from Kirtland it was usually a full days travel to get to the Johnson Farm so when they came to see Joseph they would stay with the Johnson's. 2 of the Johnson's sons were members of the original 12 apostles. In 1833 they sold their farm to pay for the land the temple sits on in Kirtland.

This was John and Elsa Johnson's bedroom until they converted to an office for Joseph. Jesus Christ appeared in this room.

AMISH COUNTRY! What a beautiful place this is! We went to Holmes County and spent the night in the middle of Amish land. Travis was fascinated with their farming :) They were using horses for bailing even. We ate in a great, family style amish restaurant then went on a buggy ride with a guy named Lester lol.

Day 5, Niagara Falls, Kirtland Ohio

2010-07-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

This morning we started off our day by riding the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls. Way cool place!! What a beautiful, natural wonder.

We travelled quite a way today on the bus, but finally made it to Kirtland Ohio and went to the Newell K. Whitney store. I came here once when I was probably 14, man is it different!! The church paid to have the road go around the church history sites instead of straight through the middle. They had also built a really cool visitor's center here. They have rebuilt the lumber mill, the ashery, and the school house.

This is upstairs of the Whitney store. This is an "office" they built for Joseph to use. They also built a bedroom and a small kitchen for Joseph and Emma. In this home their first baby to survive past infancy was born, his name was Joseph Smith III. He was the 4th baby to be born to Joseph and Emma.

This room was upstairs in the Whitney Store. It was called the School of the Prophets, and was used as a missionary training center. 20 revelations were received here. In this room many people saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ during a meeting held there. The Word of Wisdom was one of the revelations received here :).

Our last stop today was the Isaac Morley Farm. Brother Morley built Joseph and Emma a house on his property, he was a patriarch and a stake president. He sold his entire farm and gave all the money to the church. And Isaac Morley was actually sent to Sanpete County by Brigham Young and settled Manti. On this farm the 4th General Conference of the church was held. During the priesthood session of that conference after Joseph had set apart the first 23 high priests of the church, many of the men saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear.

Day 4. Sacred Grove, Palmyra, and Hill Cumorah

2010-07-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

We are so blessed to get to go someplace so special as the Sacred Grove! The feeling in this grove of trees is not something that can be explained. It is beautiful, but deeply spiritual. To go here is to simply know without a shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith went here to pray, just wanting an answer to his prayer. And he came out knowing more than any preacher on the earth at that time. He knew what he had seen, he knew God knew it, and he could not deny it. We also know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared here and we can not and will not deny it! One of the missionaries there told us that it took alot of courage for this boy to go and pray out loud (he never had prayed aloud before) but it took alot more courage to walk out of those trees and declare to the world what he had seen.

This is the log cabin that the Smith's first lived in on their farm outside Palmyra. In this cabin the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. This home was on the property Hyrum had purchased next to Joseph Sr.'s property.

This is the frame home that Alvin built for his parents. Unfortunately for the Smith's they were only able to reside in this home for 4 years before the persecution became too intense and they had to leave. The golden plates were hidden in this home for 2 1/2 months and no translation was done here.

This is the Palmyra Temple. It is the only temple that has a clear glass window in the celestial room because it overlooks the sacred grove. We don't have anything to back up the story, but one missionary told us that the church was not able to clear the trees between the temple and the sacred grove because it was not church property. But an ice storm came threw the area and destroyed all the trees in the path blocking the view, so now there is a perfect view of the sacred grove from the temple's celestial room. It was the 100th temple dedicated.

This is the monument at the top of Hill Cumorah. President Hinckley was actually for the dedication on the way home from his mission in 1935 as a "tourist". It was dedicated by President Heber J. Grant.

Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to help finance the printing of the Book of Mormon.

Alvin died right before his parents house was finished. He had appendicitis, a doctor that they didn't know came to administer to him and gave him some pill sort of thing that was suppose to purge his system. After he died they figured out that what the doctor had given him had actually killed him. It had actually become lodged inside of him and he basically suffocated.

The Grandin Print Shop where the original 5000 Book of Mormons were printed.

The reenactment of Christ's visit to the Americas after his resurrection. It was a beautiful description of His blessing the children.

Before the pageant begins all the cast members are out by the seats to talk to people. We had our picture taken with the "wicked" King Noah.

Day 3, The start of the LDS Church.

2010-07-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Our first stop after leaving Vermont was to Colesville New York, this is the place that Joseph and Emma was married. Their was only this sign and an information kiosk, and a pretty cool dirt track.

Our next stop was to Harmony PA. This is Emma and Joseph first house, on property given to them by her father. In this home Emma had their first child, who died at birth. There is not a name of the headstone but it is believed that the babies name was Alvin. In this home the Prophet Joseph received 15 revelations that are in the Doctrine and Covenants. Joseph Sr., Hyrum and Emma all received revelations in this home. The majority of the translation of the Book of Mormon was done in this home, including the 116 pages lost by Martin Harris. It is very interesting to me that, although Emma's father didn't approve of Joseph, he gave them property to come live by them. I have to believe her mom had something to do with that decision! When they left here and went to Peter Whitmer's farm because of the persecution Joseph was receiving, they never again had any know contact with Emma's parents.

In the Susquehanna River behind Joseph and Emma's home, Oliver Cowdery and Joseph had gone to inquire of the lord about baptism after translating 3 Nephi chapter 11. John the Baptist visited them and conferred the Aaronic Priesthood upon them. They then baptized each other in the river.

This was a really cool waterfall Norm took us to see :)

This is the visitors center and chapel at the Peter Whitmer farm in Fayette NY. The sister missionaries shared a really incredible story about the Angel Moroni transporting the plates between Harmony and Fayette to protect them.
This is inside the Peter Whitmer home. The organization of the church happened here with the first meeting involving somewhere between 50 and 80 people. After the organization of the church, members were baptized into the church including Joseph and Oliver again, this time as members of the church, and Joseph Sr.

They finished the translation of the Book of Mormon here in 90 days. The 3 witnesses were shown the plates here as well as Peter Whitmer's wife. (who must have been a really incredible lady!)
One other interesting fact we learned today... of the 11 witnesses recorded in the Book of Mormon, 7 of them were either direct members of the Whitmer family or part of the family by marriage. They must have been quite the family!

Day 2- Joseph Smith's Birthplace

2010-07-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

Wow what a day! We started the morning at the Boston Temple. It is a beautiful temple in a very special place. President Hinckley chose the location which is basically a solid hill of granite. Next to the temple is the church we attended for sacrament meeting. It is the ward the Mitt Romney was in when he was Governor of Massachusetts. It is always so fun and relaxing to visit another ward!
After sacrament meeting we went to the minute man museum. They were incredibly brave, God fearing men that were willing to sacrifice everything for what they believed in. The put their trust in God and He led and guided them.
This is a statue of the Minute man, "now a symbol for the National Guard" in Concord MA. This is where the "shot heard round the world" took place.
This is North Bridge. This is where the colonists fired their first shots against Britain soldiers as a show of arms that they were willing to fight for their freedom. It is crazy to me to think they stood about 20 feet apart and shot at each other! The British soldiers turned and ran and the colonists followed and fought the 18 miles all the way back to Boston. The two british soldiers that were shot at the bridge are buried there.
Next we travelled to Sharon Vermont the the place of Joseph Smith's birth. What an incredible place! Elder Joseph Wirthlin said when he visited this place that it is second in sacredness only to Jesus Christ's birthplace. It was a beautiful place and the spirit was very strong. The couple missionaries that did the tour were such great people!
This is the only piece of the home that Joseph was born in still left besides the hearth. It is the front step to their home. The home was tiny, 20x24 and Joseph was the 4th child for Joseph and Lucy.
Where the bench is and the tree is the actual location of the home Joseph was born in. When President Hinckley rededicated this place in 2005 he told the missionaries serving there that the entire property was surrounded by angels.

This monument was placed for the 100 year dedication of Joseph Smith's birth in 1905. It is an amazing story. The top shaft came from one big boulder. It is one piece of stone and weighs 40 ton. The part at the top is 38 1/2 feet tall to represent the Prophet's 38 1/2 years of life.

Day 1- Boston MA

2010-07-10T19:32:00.001-07:00

We left Vegas last night at 11:00 and got into Boston this morning at 7:00 am so to say the least we are VERY tired! But we had a really great day. We didn't meet our tour until 5:00 tonight so we had all day to see Boston. We showed up with no plans for the day other than going to see Fenway Park. When we got there we found out there was a game today so we bought $20 tickets and went into the stadium. Once we got a hot dog and coke and marveled at how good our seats were for only $20 we realized the Red Sox were playing in Toronto today. Whatever was at the stadium wasn't Red Sox so we checked out the stadium and left. It was worth it though, way cool stadium! Really old, and pretty small compared to other stadiums but it felt like a really special place (as far as baseball history goes :)
We also drove to Harvard and drove thru the campus. Our camera was in our suitcase so we didn't get any pictures of it but it was cool.

Next we went to downtown Boston and walked around. We ate at the oldest restaurant in America and walked thru the Farmer's Market. We walked down to the harbor and sat down for a minute but it started to rain so we headed back to our car. By the time we got to our car it was a total down pour. We drove around for a minute but it was raining so hard, Travis pulled into a parking lot and we both fell asleep! We had only slept about 2 1/2 hours on the plane so we were exhausted. I wish we would have gotten a picture of it raining, it rained so hard for so long!
We went back to the airport, returned our rental car and headed to the terminal to meet our tour. We went down town Boston again, but this time actually found out what the places were we were looking at! It was really cool how Br. Gardner tied the gospel into the revolutionary stuff that happened here. I didn't know that Brigham Young and the other apostles were actually here in Boston when Joseph and Hyrum were murdered. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera still so we didn't get any pictures of the places we saw other than the food with my phone! What would a trip be for us if we didn't include food?? LOL! We went to Boston Common, the oldest cemetery in the US where 3 US presidents are buried, the site of the Boston Massacre, Bunker Hill, The Constitution ship, a building where several influential American Authors met and early american literature was printed, and several other things. I will be better with details tomorrow after I have had some sleep!

4th of July

2010-07-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

We went to SLC for the 4th this year. Bay took us on a mini tour of what she did for girls camp. We got to see some really cool stuff! We went to the cemetery where President Hinckley, President Mckay, President Wilford Woodruff were buried. And, as we were looking around, we happened across one of my ancestor's, Seth Taft's headstone.

Next we went to the Family History Library which was really neat. Then to the Museum of Church History. There was really amazing things in there! One of their displays was I Am A Child of God, all about primary. I wish I could recreate some of the things they had in there for our primary! But there was alot of things from the pioneers as well as personal things of the prophets.
Saturday night we went to BYU to the Stadium of Fire. It was unbelievable!

Carrie Underwood sang the National Anthem. She did an unbelievable job!
We had done so much that day that by the time Carrie Underwood was on, Cole was asleep! But he did wake up in time for the Fireworks.

We also went up to Park City, but forgot the camera! We rode the alpine slides, ziplined, and they even have a "rollercoaster" up there now. It was beautiful and a ton of fun.
On the way back from Park City, Travis took us to Bingham Copper mine. It was pretty amazing, and we learned alot!

We hiked up Ensign peak that evening. It was a beautiful view and a fun hike! We got to experience at least a little of what Bay did for girls camp and we had such a great time!

The BEST chocolate cake ever

2010-06-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a book called the Pioneer Woman Cookbook (or something like that). It is a written by a lady that started off just putting recipes on her blog with tons of pictures. One of her recipes is called "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever" and so I decided I was going to try it. Now you have to know I have ate ALOT of chocolate cake in my life. I like chocolate cake but it takes alot to impress me. After this was out of the oven and frosted I figured I better try it before I feed it to everyone at Travis's company party tomorrow night. Well lets just say that it is going to be a miracle if this cake makes it to tomorrow night! It really is the best chocolate cake I have ever had!! Everyone should make this cuz it's amazing! Her website is thepioneerwoman.com, happy cooking :)

Summertime

2010-06-29T14:06:00.001-07:00

We started off the summer by going to South Carlsbad Beach for a few days. It was tons of fun! I wore a jacket the entire time but the coolness didn't slow the kids down at all! Our friends the Horlacher's were the ones that had invited us and the kids all had a blast playing together. Plus our kids got to spend their first night in a tent, pitiful huh!

Baylee's first year at girls camp was this year. She is blessed to have Elise Noorda as her Young Women's president. This year our stake gave the wards an opportunity to plan their own girls camps and Elise planned a week up in Salt Lake. Baylee got to have the most amazing girls camp experience ever! They went to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti on their way to SLC, did baptism for the dead at the Salt Lake Temple, went to the Church History Museum, Family History Museum, Relief Society Building, Joseph Smith Movie, hiked Ensign Peak, and a few other things that I can't even remember! She hasn't stopped talking about it since she got home. I am so grateful to her leaders, they are incredible ladies!

While Bay was at girls camp, it was my sister's week on her houseboat so the rest of us went to Lake Powell. We had so much fun! My sister and her family are so fun to be with and my nephews are so patient with my kids. Kade learned how to wakeboard and Tori got even better at wakeboarding. Travis didn't crash and get hurt this trip so that was a good thing :)

An Angel in our Family

2010-05-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

We have been blessed with an angel in our lives. Mrs. Purcell has been our preschool teacher since Baylee was there 7 years ago! She is such an amazing lady and has made our family better by being a part of my children's life. After Cole's graduation yesterday I was taking the kids back to school and Kade said, "mom, Mrs. Purcell still loves me!" And all my kids feel the same way. She loves them and they know it. Thank you Kris for loving our kids! We love you and we are eternally grateful to have you a part of our lives. You truly are an angel to us!

NYC Girls Trip

2010-05-24T15:01:00.001-07:00

Usually once a year all the girls in my family go on a girls trip. This year for Christmas mom had given us tickets to NYC for our girls trip. It was a crazy, chaotic time of year to go but we had an awesome time! We packed about everything possible into 2 days and really had a great time together.

Monday Night the Yankees were playing the Red Sox. We had gone to a play and Cindy and I really wanted to go to the game. But mom and Lanae aren't the biggest baseball fans. But in the end, Cindy, Bay and I went to the baseball game (probably the best game I have ever been to!) And mom, Tori, Lanae, Charlee, and Sami went to see Mary Poppins. I think it turned out good for everyone. The girls loved the play and we loved the game!

The girls first subway ride

Time Square! We walked a million miles in 2 day and everyone was really good sports about it! They didn't complain (hardly at all :)

This was at Battery Park. And as close to the Statue of Libery we could get.

We went to church on Sunday. Not actually, but we did go to the church on Sunday just as the singles ward was getting out. It is on the 3rd floor of the temple in Manhattan (or maybe 2nd floor, but you get the idea). There is nothing like seeing the Manhattan temple! Surrounded by skyscrapers and all of a sudden there is the Angel Moroni! I can't wait to go back and do a session in this temple!
We had very little time and so we wanted to do everything as quickly as possible. So we hired a pedi-bike to take us on a tour thru central park. Little did we know that it was the NYC AIDS Walk that day in Central Park. So about 5 minutes into our tour, our bikes get stopped because there was literally 50,000 people in the park for this walk. So our little biker tour guide, not wanting to lose our money, took us all the way up Madison Ave. and into the park about half way up. We can even say we walked in the NYC AIDS walk, but only about 2 minutes :)
We flew into JFK at about 10:30 at night. By the time we got to our hotel in mid Manhattan and put our stuff in our rooms it was way late and we were way hungry! Outside our hotel there was a food cart with a huge line. We thought if all these people were willing to stand on the street in the middle of the night to get this food, we should too! And Cindy said we shouldn't miss the experience :) We still aren't exactly sure what it was, the only thing we know for sure is that the little container of red sauce is SUPER hot!

Our Baby Is 12!

2010-05-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, I would never have believed that 12 years could go so fast! Bay is an amazing girl, she is better than I would ever have imagined I would deserve as a mom. She was a perfect baby. I remember telling Travis when Bay was 14 months old, we should have another baby because she was so good it would be so easy. And she has always been easy. She is a peacemaker and loves everyone.

The older she gets the better she gets too. This year she has truly excelled. She is on Student Council, Intermediate Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, all accelerated classes, and National Junior Honor Society. She is smart, beautiful, and already has an incredible testimony of the Gospel. I don't know how I was so blessed to get to be her mom, but I am thankful every day for her and the amazing person she is.

I love you Bay, happy 12th birthday!!!

2010-04-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out how to order a blog book. Most of you already know all about these I'm sure, but it has taken me quite a while to figure out how to make one. Well today I finally did it. It took me a LONG TIME to edit just because it was everything I have ever blogged. But I am so excited to see it! This is about the closest to keeping a journal or scrapbooking I get anymore so it will be really nice to have. And now I am also really excited to blog more so that our 2010 book won't leave anything out :)

Also, Bay got her new glasses today. She said it is a "totally different look for her". She feels very grown up in them :)

Spring Break

2010-04-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

We had such an incredible time over Spring Break. We did a lot of fun stuff. We went to the beach. Played at the pool. We went to Knotts berry Farm and spent a day going to movies. We picked fresh strawberries and went to Birch Aquarium. But more than anything, we ate! We went to so many fun places to eat. We have some friends that didn't believe us that we spend most of our vacations finding really cool places to eat. A lot of the time we go to places that have been on Diners Drive-ins and Dives, and we are yet to eat at one that hasn't been great. This trip we documented all the cool places we ate just so everyone would believe us!

Philippes was a Food Network find. It was easily one of our ALL TIME FAVORITES!!! It opened in 1902 and they invented the french dipped sandwich. It was a really cool place to eat.

We love Bubba Gumps. More than anything else, they have the best garlic bread in the world!

Old Spaghetti Factory is a family favorite and Kade was so excited when we happened across one in California.

Trav loves the beach. Even though we were freezing we went to Imperial Beach and watched the sunset.

Bob and Espi introduced us to Tacos El Gordo and no trip is complete to San Diego without at least one visit there. (we went twice :) Best carne adovada tacos anywhere.

One of the kids favorite things we did was picking strawberries in Carlsbad. Our car smelled incredible all the way home.

We happened across this donut shop about 9:30 one night heading back to the hotel. It was the best donut shop EVER!!! It is open 24 hrs a day and they are constantly making donuts. The guy frosting them did it hand, it was really cool to watch him. We also visited this place twice. It would have been more but we didn't find it until Thursday lol.

Filipe's Pizza Grotto was a fun place one of our friends told us about.

Pizzeria Luigi was a Diner's Drive-ins and Dives find and it was the best pizza we have ever had. Anywhere.

This was at Ocean Beach. While Travis and I froze sitting on the beach the kids ran around in swim suits and played in the water. Yea we are wimps.

Hodad's is an incredible burger joint in Ocean Beach. We found it on Diner's Drive-ins and Dives as well. My brother texted us Friday and told us there was this really cool place he had seen on TV we had to check out before we came home. We had already been there! It definitely lives up to it's reputation. Great burgers and onion rings.

Phil's BBQ we found by just driving by. We were trying to find a Target and passed by here. The line was out the door and clear around the building. We knew we had to go back and try it. It was really good BBQ and a cool place.

This was Birch Aquarium.

We came home with sunburns and weighing about 10 pounds heavier than we did a week ago! We put 1600 miles on our car, swam, ate until we couldn't eat anymore, and made some great memories that will last a lifetime.

Catching a Leprechaun

2010-03-18T20:58:00.001-07:00

Tonight in the car this was the conversation between Bay and Cole.

Cole: I caught a leprechaun at school, but he bit me and got away

Bay: He bit you?! Did you bleed?

Cole: nope

Bay: How big was he?

Cole: As big as my thumb. And he made a huge mess, he dumped out puzzles and everything.

Bay: Wow, I can't believe he was that little and could make such a huge mess.

Cole: Well, that's just how Jesus made him.

I love my kids! There is NEVER a dull moment with them around =>

2010-03-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

On the way home from Costco Cole asked me, "how long ago were you a teenager mom? Cuz you look like a teenager." It made my day :)

NASCAR!! (Overload)

2010-03-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

What would a race be without a flyover, but in Vegas we get the Thunderbirds!!

Old School.

Robby has a pretty cool car, he was really cool to Kade, hopefully he can start to run better!

Somehow Carl and Tori hit it off, all the kids and Lacy were able to get their jackets signed by him and he remembered them when they did the parade lap and drove by our trailer!

This was Carl blowing a kiss to Tori!

Kade sat their forever waiting to catch a glimpse of Jr. He actually got a picture of his arm while he was sitting in the car!

One of Robby Gordon's crew members took the camera from Kade and took our picture, Kade was taking pictures of everything, Robby goofed around with Kade, he took his jacket from him and threw it up on his tool box.

We tried to sell our spot this year and had no takers so we went anyway. I'm glad we did, it was probably the best time that we have had out there yet! We were able to talk to some drivers and get some autographs, Lacy and Tori are in love with Carl Edwards. And Kade thinks that he should drink Monster energy drinks to support Robby!

Faith and Power

2010-02-18T19:15:00.000-08:00

Tuesday morning Tori woke up feeling kind of sick. I emphasize kind of, I would not make her go to school totally sick! But a little cold is so not worth missing school for. Especially when we can save those sick days and use them to do something fun! So I gave her some tylenol and sent her on her way. She was fine and had a good day. After she got home she was sitting at the counter doing her homework and all of the sudden she was lying her head on the counter and said she felt yucky. So I sent her to bed, mind you the girl NEVER has naps! Not since she was 16 months old. That was about 3:30. I had a stake meeting at 5:30 and she was still asleep when I left so I told Trav she was in bed and left. When I got back home after 8:00 she had just woke up and was really, really hot. Like a fever of 105.1 hot. We gave her motrin and did all the parent things to get her temp. down and it did drop to about 100. So we sent her to bed and checked her thru the night, giving her motrin in the middle of the night.

The next morning she woke up with a high fever still and said her left side hurt. I asked her if it hurt bad enough to go to the dr. and she said yes. So we went to the dr. and he said she had pneumonia! I was shocked! She went from perfectly healthy to pneumonia in like 24 hours. We did bloodwork and chest x-rays and back to the dr.'s office for injected antibiotics (in the bum, which she was NOT happy about) and breathing treatments. The dr. said on a scale of 1-10, 10 being hospitalized, she was a 7. He sent us home, but highly cautioned me to plan on a long night, she needed to be checked every 3 hours.

Once we finally made it home that evening Tori asked Travis to give her a blessing. Our friend Bob came over and helped Travis give her a blessing. In the blessing Travis said that she would be healed according to her faith.

Tori was hardly moving and wasn't even talking much. She slept by us and her fever broke about 1:30 in the morning. This morning when we went back to the dr. he was shocked at how much better she looked. He said he was planning on hospitalizing her this morning, and antibiotics usually don't work that quickly. At that moment I realized the antibiotics weren't what had helped her start to get better but the power of that priesthood blessing and Tori's faith in it. I am so grateful to have a husband who worthily holds the priesthood, and the opportunity to feel that power in our home. And I am grateful for a 9 year old little girl who taught me a little about faith. There is nothing in this world that compares to a child's faith!

Tori isn't all better, but well on her way!

Kade's pick up game of baseball with the Major League players!

2010-02-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

Kade went to a Baseball camp at Bat R Up on Saturday and they had Major League players there for the camp. Shane Victorino - Phillies, Chris Carter - A's, Tommy Pham - Cardinals, Jeff Malm - Rays, Gil Velasquez - Red Sox, Justin Leone - Formerly with the Yankees.

At the end of the camp Kade's group broke out into a wiffle ball game with Shane Victorina and Gil Velazquez. It was a ton of fun to watch the kids playing ball with a former Golden Glove winner and a world series Champion!

When it was over they each received an autographed ball and picture of each of the guys, and were able to ask questions!

I was really impressed how well they worked with the kids. It was a lot of fun!

2010-01-10T22:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, life has been a blur since we got home from our cruise! Christmas was tons of fun. Christmas Eve we went to my mom's house for her annual Christmas Eve Party. My entire family was there but Cindy, and you could definitely feel a difference without her there! It was the first Christmas Eve in my entire life I haven't had my sister there, and we all missed her a ton. The kids reenacted the Nativity. Tori was Mary this year, Baylee was the "head" angel as she called it, and Kade and Cole were shepherds.. We were just glad Cole decided to NOT be a rock this year :) The kids also did a little talent show which Kade was so excited to get to play his violin in. And of course Santa came to visit that evening.

Christmas Day we spent at Janet and Robin's house. It was lots of fun hanging out with them and playing.

Then the day after Christmas we took off for Dumont. It was SO much fun. We stayed a week with no crashes or major injuries.

Thanksgiving in the Caribbean!!!

2009-12-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

This is definitely the way to spend thanksgiving. If I had my way we would do this every year! It is really relaxing to just sit out by the pool everyday and have someone wait on you, then when your hungry head on in to the buffet! We had a great time!

We spent the first two days running around Disney World. You really need a full week to be able to see this place, it was huge! The castle looked really cool at night decorated for Christmas.

Baylee and Charlee on the ferry from St. John back to St. Thomas. We were the last ones on the boat!! We tried to get in as much time as we could at our second home! And we were so excited to take the kids and Lacy's family to St. John so they could get a taste of the place we love so much.

Playing in the water on St. Martin.

Our little boat on the pier at St. Martin.

Where else can you ice skate,

play nine holes of golf,

and do a little boogie boarding!!

Kade in the pirate parade through main street on the ship.

Cole on our first formal night. This about sums up his whole attitude in the dining room!

Can't be a good cruise without hitting the ice cream machine! We had a contest on the last day to see who could build the biggest and prettiest cone, Bay won! She even beat both her aunts :)

Sunset!

The bus ride back to the airport, doesn't everyone look way excited!

Grandpa

2009-11-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to Salina for my Grandpa Allen's 90th birthday. It was a lot of fun to see all my cousins, aunts, and uncles. I have such a great family, I just wish we could spend more time together. But my Grandpa is still just as amazing as I always remember him. He drove himself and his new wife to the party. I think that is pretty impressive itself! But as everyone was talking about memories they had with him, he remembered everything! He talked about his life with my grandma and taking care of her for 13 years because she had alzeimers. And he also talked about his new wife and how happy he is. He totally deserves it! It was funny told us that when they talked about getting married they decided they would both go have physicals and if everything was okay with them they would get married. My Grandpa has always been such a good example to me of hard work and commitment. He was a farmer his whole life, and just an honest good man.

2009-10-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

So much has been going on I don't even know where to start!

First, I did something I thought I would NEVER do. Travis and I rode in a 30 mile bike ride in St. George on saturday. I know for most people that is no biggy, but for me that is huge. If Trav hadn't been there with me I would have never finished the entire thing. The hill from Washington into Hurricane is HUGE and I thought I was going to die. I so would have turned around at that point without Travis there with me. But it was actually a lot of fun (minus the part I thought I might die) and I want to work up to doing longer rides. I learned so much about myself during that ride. I learned I am a total quiter but also that I am stronger than I think. And I learned that when I get to the point I can't do anymore, Travis is always there to help me. It was a fun weekend, with great friends that are total inspirations to me to get better and ride longer! (although I don't ever see riding up Snow Canyon in my future :)

For other news, Tori officially quit gym. It is a bitter sweet day at our house. She has done gym since she was 1 1/2 and has been doing competitive since she was 4. It is going to be so nice not spending 14 hours a week at gym, but we are really going to miss watching her compete. She has never really had a normal childhood because she has spent so much time at gym so this is going to be an adjustment for her. But she is really happy with her decision, and she isn't totally done she is going to keep doing a tumbling class and we will see what else the future holds.

Baylee ran for student council and won. My mom spent an entire Saturday here helping us make signs, and Baylee definitely had the cutest ones in the school! She is going to be the 6th Grade Representative. We aren't really sure what that all means, but we are so proud of her for putting herself out there and trying something new. She was so funny, the day after we had hung her signs up at school she came home and told me all these people she didn't know were telling her hi and even knew her name! She didn't put it together that her picture was all over the school and they were recognizing her from that. She is doing great in Middle school, I obviously spent the summer worrying about it for nothing.