More fun with the 4th of July weekend. We celebrated with good friends too. The Makely's from church invited us over and we had so much fun hanging out! The Sharps also from church had a get together at their home/land and we socialized forever. It was so much fun getting to be with friends this weekend as well. . It was good times and good food.

happy birthday mom

We had a great time celebrating mom's  birthday this year. How come summer days seem to go so fast?

Mom and Adrian's family all came to our ward for church. It was so fun to have them all around.  We ate until we almost popped!  Of course mom wanted fruit instead of cake so we had both! Fruit for her and cake for all the rest!!! It was a good day of celebration. It was good to be together.

Youth Conference

Blake and Andrew are at youth conference with 800 other LDS youth celebrating, learning, and having a blast.  This is not only Andrew's first youth conference but also his first youth dance.  I bet it's a site to see..I'd sure like to be a fly on the wall!  And although there are days I want to pull their hair out I sure love being their mom. I hope they are not only having tons of fun but I hope they are ceasing the moment and gaining the spiritual strength to get them through any rough days that might be ahead.

June Updates! (warning-Long post!)

The past few weeks of June have gone so fast. Seriously, I don't know how it became June 18-I loaded tons of pictures and had so many more but ran out of energy and am eager to get this done.
With Blake doing two summer sport trainings(-football and wrestling) for high school and Andrew doing one (wrestling) we are in the car a lot as well as many more fun things. Needless to say this is my last summer of driving the boys 30 minutes one way to a practice and will be ever so happy when Blake can drive this fall to take some of the burden of driving them around...so I am trying to embrace it and really enjoy the extra few minutes we have driving together as I hold my nose to the stink of sweat!!

Wrestling camp was awesome this year. They were able to be trained by an amazing coach, Wade Schalles. While the boys wrestled their hearts out the girls had their Hale cousins little girls up for Aunt Gretchen camp. We had so much fun swimming, crafting and sleeping in.
Next my brother, Uncle A. invited my boys up with his scout group on an amazing scout camp. They will go their regular camp soon but Adrian always plans these really neat high adventure scout camps.
They canoed all week 50 miles.  They came home today with another nice odor and many many stories and memories. I can't thank my brother enough for putting up with them and teaching them all his amazing skills. I feel so grateful.
While the boys were at scout camp with Uncle A. The girls went to Aunt Cynthia camp. They are still talking about it.  They not only did crafts but got to go out to eat and to the movies...lucky girls.
My niece, Lucy,  my mom and I took on the task of cleaning out her garage while we had some time without the kids. It was hard work and very hot but it felt so good to be finished. We also visited my sweet Granny and tried to start working on buying my Dad's tombstone. I came home for part of the week had a photo shoot and went out with my hub. We actually went on three dates in one week! WHOA.

If you haven't clicked off by now. I tried to load some pictures of all the fun but they wouldn't load in order and I lost my patience trying to get them just right so here they are!

Taking a break from paddling

Blake and Harrison
My crazy brotherWilliam and AlexanderAndrew and Bryce
Blake and HarrisonDate night with the honeyleaving for the tripAunt Gretchen CampVisit with Granny and cousins Michael and Lane

oops..andrew downuncle A. Giving instruction. I love this picture!

Aunt Cynthia camp

Wrestling camp

Wrestling coach and amazing leader Wade Schalles.

having fun on the playgroundmore Aunt Gretchen campMax's first sleep overAndrew and williamgoing for a swim

Also I took my first praxis 2 last Saturday. It takes 3 weeks to get the score. If I fail at least now I know more how to study. I have to take a total of 4 this summer and fall. I am scheduled for two more July 24. It's so nice to not be in school right now but I'll be so happy to pass the all the test!

Whew this post took forever! That's why it's better to do it a little at a time...hard to catch up!

2nd grade picture

Can't believe my youngest child is going into the third grade!  This is her 2nd grade photo. I never buy school pictures cause I can take them myself but I loved this one so I bought the copyright.
My little sweet girl lookin like her nana!  She is such a easy child to parent now that she's older but she was by far the hardest toddler I ever encountered!  She loves to play alone-entertain herself. She loves board games and riding her bike. She loves swimming, running, climbing, playing with stuffed animals and anything artsy! She loves to sleep late and hang out with her family. She has the biggest imagination more than any of my other children. She is such a little sunshine!

Little stinkers

Friday foto

wishin I was here!  Summer 2009 Leah and Clayton collecting seashells! 

the smell and taste of home

The smell of brownies and red jello take me  back to home any time I taste, see or smell one of the two! Many times as I was growing up after FHE the dessert was brownies and red jello. Nothing too fancy or expensive-I'm sure the cost of brownies and red jello fit in great with my parents school teacher budget!

Steve's smell, taste and food from home aroma is rice and tomatoes or grits and eggs.  This was something his family had on a regular basis. I am sure my mom never intended on brownies and red jello being my taste of home since she is such a health nut. Of all the things we had I wonder why I loved the brownies and red jello nights so much. Maybe it was our only "junk" and I love junk.  Who knows but I discovered this taste of home when I was away at college. One day my roommates happened to make brownies and red jello and I went crazy. Being 30 hours away from home the first time in my life-I loved anything that reminded me of home!    So do I make a tradition and make a weekly "something"  or do I just let each child determine when they are grown that a certain food or smell is their taste of home?

shouting out!

Straight A's this semester!!! And I had a math methods class so that is really a big deal to me!  Although an easy task for my children I am more of a B student-I feel like I just got a pay check except I'm broke!!!

whoot whoo! whoot who!

Locks of Love

Caroline has been growing her hair out to donate to locks of love! Yesterday was finally the big day. She had just enough to make the donation of 10 inches.

What the day brought

I finished school yesterday it was sweet and bitter! I almost felt guilty for wanting to be happy. One of my favorite things to do when I finished a semester was call my Dad. He was not a big phone person so we would talk all of 1.5 minutes. It would go something like this-
Me-Hey Dad-I just finished my last final today.
Dad-ALRIGHT
Me-I'm so excited-where are you?
Dad-watching Price is right just got back from McDonald's! What are you going to do now?
Me-Scream
Dad-Why don't you go turn some cartwheels in a green grassy field!!!
Me-Yeah
Dad-Good job honey-I knew you could do it. Your smart like your mama!!!

Sounds silly but it just wasn't the same.
Yesterday would have been my parents 43rd anniversary.
and yesterday my mom's brother (my uncle) passed away age 58. He had a heart attack last week.

As our family faces the sadness and emptiness of death I am grateful to know that families are forever and that we will be together with our family again. All that I have known has been tested in the last 2 1/2 months of my life and as I have searched and prayed I have found only more truth to the teachings that I have always known to be true. I am so blessed to have all that I do.