Girl's Camp 2010

I got back from girls camp earlier this month. It was wonderful. I absolutely love being involved with it and when I get released from this calling, it is definitely going to be one of the things I miss most. I love being up in the mountains with the girls and the leaders from around the stake. There are so many amazing people that I have gotten to know in from the different wards who I have come to admire so much. They give so much to help the Young Women's program and I have learned so much from them.

Many people thought I was crazy for being up there this soon after having a baby, but nonetheless, we were both there. My parents cabin is only about 15 minutes away, so we stayed there at night and went to camp during the day. Thankfully, A was the perfect age. She still sleeps so much of the time and is so undemanding that I was able to easily take care of all my responsibilities.

This is a picture of some of the girls doing one of the standard activities for our 2nd years.

Here are some of the leaders hanging around the tent. We had daily afternoon lesson/discussions with our Jr. Staff and this is just after one of them.

We have a new Stake Presidency. I truly loved our old Stake Presidency (surprising, since my dad was the stake president, but I really came to love the couselors too) and I'm so thankful for the chance I had to work with them. I now get the opportunity to get to know and work with the new presidency and I'm already loving it. My old bishop, Pres. Christensen, is one of the counselors and I already know what an amazing person he is, but I have enjoyed the time spent with Pres. Allred (who is over the YW program), and Pres. Andersen. Here is a picture of Pres. Andersen with all our YCL's leading one of the camp songs. The girls just loved it!
Our theme this year was COURAGE, taken from our Mutual Theme for the year in Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage." I'm so thankful for this theme and for all we were able to do with it. Each of the wards/campsite chose a hero from either the scriptures, or present time. It was great to think of each of the men and women chosen and appreciate the courage they had. I'm so thankful for all their examples. I know the Young Woman today need that kind of courage to make it through all the trials that will face them, but I also know that these girls are up to the challenge. I'm grateful for their examples to me!

Big Brother, Big Sister

The other day, D was playing with A and had her smiling pretty big. I just always love to see my kids having fun with each other!

Here is L enjoying L while up at the cabin.

FHE

We had a neighbor who lives down the street who just got home off his mission. He took the missionary lessons when he was in high school and got baptized when he turned 18. He then served a mission in Rome, Italy. He got back a few weeks ago and my sister and brother in law invited him over to their house a couple of weeks ago for Family Night BBQ with some other neighbors. He talked to the kids about his mission and showed pictures of all the amazing places he served. It was fun night for the kids, and I hope it got the boys excited for when it is their turn to serve missions.

We got a kick out of how the kids were interacting with each other. Between TV and Ipods, who needs other people around? (Pretty sure Scottie and D were texting one another)

Dave and Grandma Shirley. This was our last night with her. She was such a great sport the whole time she was here to go along to all sorts of places with is. We already miss her!

The Barneys... some of our great neighbors.

My brother in law, Scott... trying to hook up the computer to the TV so we could look at mission pictures.

The "guest of honor" with some of the adoring kids!

Anna, Josh, Lily, CK

Kinder-Grad

CK graduated from Kindergarten this year. I had originally planned to have her repeat kindergarten since she has a late August birthday, but due to budget changes and new laws in our state, that is no longer an option. So, this really was it for her. I'm hoping I will be able to get her on track, schooling wise so she will not always be the youngest girl in her class, but we will see. This year, she went to a charter school since they offered half day kindergarten and the public schools didn't. I'm planning on keeping her there one more year in what they are calling a K/1 class then I'll move her over to our friendly neighborhood school the following year to just do 1st grade. Hopefully this works! Either way, she has done fabulously this year and has learned so much! I can't believe how well she is reading and sounding out words. She has really loved being in school and her teacher was wonderful!

Here she is in her little grad-cap.
(I thought it was cute because they used crayons on a yarn for the tassels.)
She is in the middle.

Receiving her certificate from the principle.

Here she is with her class singing their song. She walked around the house singing this song for weeks! She was so excited to sing it for her program.

Blessing Day

A got blessed this month. She looked beautiful (I may be biased, but that's ok). It was a great day. We were so thankful to have Dave's mom here with us. While I didn't get a picture (and I'm now mad that I didn't) she got to have 3 of her 4 living grandmothers there when she was blessed. That is pretty amazing! Dave gave her a beautiful blessing that got me quite emotional and I just can't say enough how thankful that I am for him and for my kids.

Here is my doll before church

KL and A

I found this little metal angel and so I had to get it to make her headband
because of course her names means angel!

My sister made me and the baby matching bracelets.
Here we are modeling them.

Me with my Angel

All the kids with Grandma Shirley

D, KL, Grandma, A, B, CK, L

My grandparents:

Grandpa Pug, Baby A, Grandma June

Lots of Junes!! June is a popular name in my family. This is because of my grandma. She is an amazing person who has been a remarkable influence in my life. Of course, my Grandma Lorraine is extremely special too and if I could have, I would have made this baby's name about a mile long adding all the wonderful woman in my family who have had an influence on me. As it is, we could only chose 1 extra name for her. June is what it was. Here are all the "June's" that were present when she was blessed.

Mary June, A. June, Grandma June, Evelynne June

Grandma Shirley

We just love it when Grandma Shirley comes to visit. She was able to make a stop here on her way to Utah so she could be here when we blessed Baby A. I felt bad for her because I know it wasn't a very fun trip. I was getting ready for Girl's Camp and plus, we are a fairly boring group of people! Still, she came and we were all thrilled. The kids especially were so happy to have someone play their games with them!

Here she is with KL and A

Grandma and Grandpa had sent KL a birthday card for her birthday a couple of weeks before. However, I forgot to give it to her on her special day. Instead of giving it to her when I remembered, I decided to wait and give it to her when Grandma was here. It was a big hit. It had dollars in it which made it even more amazing. Grandma gave it to her just before bedtime after reading her a story. Dave then went in and said he would save the money for later. She about fell apart when her money was taken. I told him it was fine for her to hold it so he went in and gave it back. When I went in later to check on her I had to laugh because she had fallen asleep with holding her card!

Emma

We were lucky enough to get our darling friend Emma come and visit us a couple of weeks ago. We just love Emma and her whole family. I have believed for some time that getting to know their family wasn't a chance occurance. They were brought into my life by divine guidance . I met them when I was living in WI just after my freshman year of college when I was nannying for my aunt who was fighting cancer. Emma was the same age as my cousin at the time (3 years old) and so I would take my cousin over to play, or go to the park, etc. Her mom Tracey and I were instant friends. As Tracey puts it, "We met one summer and fell in love." Too true. Anyway, Emma just graduated from High School and she was able to come and spend a weekend here before heading off to college.

Here she is holding A:

We went to go and get pedicures one day. Here she is getting pampered.

We often refer to Emma as KL's BFF. KL is happy to go along with that, even if it doesn't look like it here. She was just sad she had to say goodbye to her bff. This is just before I took her back to the airport.

At the airport just before going through security. So sad.

Thanks again for coming, Emma! We miss you! Come back soon!

KL's 3!

KL turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. She was so excited for so long about her big day. We actually got to split it into a 2-day celebration which suited her just fine. We had a little party at Grammy's house the day before her birthday because we were all gathered for Sunday dinner, then we had a smaller event at our house on her actual birthday. Funny little story about her... My little sister was in town last week and I got to watch my little nephews one day. The older one, Ty, is about 6 weeks older than KL. Apparently, ever since it was his birthday, he has been convinced that it is still his birthday. Well, the 2 kids were playing pretty nice most of the time, but of course they had their moments. At one point, I hear Ty year, "You do NOT talk to me like that." I looked up and he was glaring at KL (who was glaring right back) with his hands on his hips (again... her too). A minute later he said, "I'm going to spank you in the butt!" KL must have assumed he meant boss because her response was, "No! I'm da butt! Cuz I'n free!" Ty: "NO! I'm free cause it my birday!" they went back and forth for a few minutes until I finally told them they were both three. With that realization, they smiled at each other and happily went off to play some more.

Here we are at Grammy's opening presents:

Modeling the dancing clothes she got:

With her birthday cake

The next day, at our house...

When she turned 1, my sister gave her a blanket that is silky on one side, and furry on the other. She loves it and I had made another one for her a while ago. For her birthday, she kept telling me she wanted 4 blankets. Well, she didn't get that many, but I did make her a new one.

Her "Princess And The Frog" dress from Emma and Tracey

Blowing out candles again. We had gone to Krispy Kreme that day, so I figured... what better treat?

We are so happy to have had her around for the last 3 years. She is such a fun, happy, funny little girl and love her to death!

Happy Birthday, Dave

Dave had his birthday a couple of weeks ago. Wow! This has turned out to be a busy birthday time for us. We now have 4 birthdays in 1 month. It starts with A, then a week and half later, D, then a week and a half after that, Dave, then 3 days later KL. Anyway... we had a simple celebration here at home. He grilled stakes for us and they were yummy! I got him Cutco BBQ tools. He use to sell Cutco knives before we got married and we have always loved having those knives. I stumbled across these tools and though decided he would get a kick out of them. I had him open his present before dinner so he could enjoy them while he cooked our dinner.

Here he is giving B birthday spankings. He gets a kick out of telling the kids he is suppose to give the spanks, not get them.

B was so proud because he was able to give Dave gummy bears for his present. Here they both are celebrating how cool the gift was.

Birthday cake:
Vasa, KL, Dave, B, L, Emma
(D was gone on a scout camp out)

Hope you had a happy birthday, honey! We love you!

The Girls

These are the 3 cousins who were all born in just over 32 hours of each other. Here they are at 5 weeks (Well, the oldest is 5 weeks.. the other 2 were awfully close!)

Here they are... youngest to oldest:

A, Ava, Kalais

Enjoying Life

Here are just a few random pictures of the kids. No special event, just having fun at home with a new baby.

KL just loves to sit on her little camp chair. She had brought it up to watch TV on.

B laying with A

A has always been a smiler, but she is doing it much more frequently now.

B holding A