Summer Happenings

We went to Hurricane for Kortney, Shayli, McKenzi and Shauni's Graduation. They are such amazing girls, and I am pretty lucky to be their aunt. I have tons of memories of them growing up and spending lots of time at my house, and it is hard for me to believe these 4 little girls aren't so little anymore. Remember- just cause you're grown ups doesn't mean you can be strangers.

Kortney McKenziShauni and Shayli

We had a summer birthday for Jake while we were down south, and we also celebrated Teran's 13th birthday the same day. What is it with these kids thinking they need to grow up?Ellie and Jake got to meet their Great Grandma Toni at Jake's summer party. Grandma sure does love giving hugs and kisses, and my kids sure enjoyed getting them from her...We got to hold Grandpa and Grandmas puppies before they had their eyes open. SHHH don't tell anyone, Grandpa said it was a secret and swore the kids to silence. :) The kids sure enjoyed snuggling the cute puppies. We hope they will still have at least one left when we go down next. Tracey came up and stayed for a weekend. We did some pics of her kids up in Logan, then went to Sam's Club for dinner then headed off to the Cache Fun Park. The kids had a blast having cousins up her to play with and we hope they will come again someday.Melanie and her kids came up for a weekend visit as well. She had Ray do her blood while she was here and then we headed to Logan so we could show her kids the Temple and then we headed to Sam's again for hot dogs and pizza. We celebrated Kyla's birthday while they were up here also. I made a chocolate cake and we had cake and ice cream together. Again, I can't believe how old these kids are getting. I feel like life is just blowing away in the wind and I am missing out on it somehow. Ellie and Jake have absolutely loved having family come and stay with us, and are looking forward to Aunt Stephanie's family coming for a weekend visit the end of July. We love our family, and love spending time with them when we can.

XO*xo*XO*xo*XO*xo*XO*xo*XO*xo*XO

Where Families become FOREVER

I was in Logan, and stopped by the temple to snap some shots to play with on my photoshop. I loved how this one ended up, and even had a gal buy a CD with this picture on it for $15. She and her husband were sealed in this temple with her little girl, and this picture made her smile big. :)

All Around Good Kid

Jake got an award at school today. The Kindergarten does their Awards assembly in the kindergarten classrooms, and they invite the parents to attend. They had a cute little music program that they did for the parents and then Mr. Chadez (principal) gave out the awards. Jake recieved an award for being such a hard worker, and a friend to all. I am so proud of him and his hard work, and even more proud of him for being a friend to all he meets. I love his kind heart, and willingness to forgive others so easily. Good Job Jake!!!! I Love You!

A new Hair Cut

Last night after Ellie got out of the tub I decided to give her a haircut. Her hair has been getting pretty long, and it seems just so straggly all the time. She hates to comb it, and hates when I get after her to brush it. I got online yesterday and tried to find a web site that would give a demo or something on how to trim hair. Well after much searching I finally found a site that showed how to do it. I measured her hair on her black shirt, and then marked it with chalk, then had her put on a big t-shirt so I could cut her hair. I think after it was all was said and done I cut almost 6 and a half inches off. Her hair almost touched her waist, but it looked thin and nasty. So now I figure that I will need to take her and have it straightened up because it is a bit crooked, but it still looks pretty good. She is very happy with the hair cut, and said she would still like a bit more taken off. I just didn't dare take a whole bunch off in case I messed up so bad that the only way someone could fix it was to cut it into a boys hairstyle.

Mountain Lion

This last weekend Ellie came in the house to tell us that there was a Mountain Lion under the freeway underpass. Ray and I told her that was nice and then told her to go out and play.
A little while later she came in again to tell us that all the neighbors were talking about this Mountain Lion that was killed under the freeway underpass. So on Monday as I was waiting out front of the school waiting for Jake, I started talking to one of the sisters in our ward. I asked her about the Mountain Lion everyone was talking about, and she said that indeed there had been a Mountain Lion. She said that it had been seen coming down the Madsen's (counselor in the bishopric) driveway, and then hid up under the underpass. She told me that the fish and game had intended to tranquilize it and relocate it, but as they began to strategies they noticed the crowds of people coming to watch, and they even had several people confront the officers and started causing problems so they worried that it would run and they would loose site of it. So in the end they decided it was best just to euthanize it. I was amazed how far into town this cat was able to come. He was quite a few miles from any of the mountains in town. I was also quite bothered by the fact that this cat was less than a mile from my house. It has put a whole new fear in my mind. As I was talking to this gal in my ward and she was saying how she figures that the several cats in our ward that are missing, and even a couple of dogs were probably breakfast, lunch, and dinner for this big cat, I decided that our little pillow kitty was maybe a midday snack for this big cat. I am glad that they took care of the Mountain Lion, but kinda sad that they felt the best way to handle it was to kill him. But, I am more glad that no one was hurt by this wild animal.

SUPER HEROS at my House

Yesterday Jake invited his friend Brennan over to play. It was a warm day outside, and these two boys played hard. They rode scooters, ate snacks, jumped on the tramp with the sprinklers on, went to the park with Lightning McQueen cars and raced them down the slide, seen just how high they could get on the swings, and then came home and dressed up like superheroes ready to save the world. Batman, and Captain America were able to save a couple of potato bugs from being crushed by scooter wheels, saved a butterfly from being caught in Ellie's but net, and used their magic powers to help the life flight helicopter to fly safely over our house. By the time the these two superheroes were done saving my planet they were wore out, and ready to be done for the day. Thanks Brennan for coming and playing at Jake's house, and for being his sidekick superhero. :)

Mother Daughter Date

Last week, Ellie's Activity Days girls had a Mother Daughter Date. We were supposed to meet at the church with a cake to decorate together. Ellie asked me a few days in advance if we could just bake a cake, and then her and I decorate it at home. She doesn't really get along with the girls in her group, and she said she didn't want to go and feel like she didn't belong. So while she was at school, I baked 2 round cakes and then when she got home we started decorating the cake. She wanted her cake to look like worms coming out of the dirt. We rolled out some taffy to make flowers and then crushed cookies for our dirt. The wafers on the side are supposed to look like a basket. She was very pleased with her cake, and her and I had lots of fun spending time together. Dad and Jake enjoyed the ending result (eating cake and ice cream). Thanks Ellie for the fun time together. I love You!!!