Who Are The Cutest Kids Ever

The Highlights

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was a great day. Devynne, Cadie, Cody and Carson were here with us and it was so much fun to see them. We went to Nick's house where Jenn did a fantastic job hosting dinner. She made the turkey while everyone else brought side dishes and desserts. We brought Steve's mash potatoes and gravy and homemade rolls. I made cheese balls which Cadie and I loved. Delicious! We ate, played games and enjoyed being together.

Devynne's Birthday

Devynne turned 19 on November 28th. We celebrated her birthday on Friday the 26th by going to the movies. We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part I) and we thought it was a great movie. We then met the rest of the family (grandparents, Jenn, Nick, Mike and cousins) at California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. I can't believe she's 19 now. She's growing, changing, maturing and is a wonderful young woman. I can't wait to see what her future holds. We love her so very much and it was great to have her here.


Saturday Morning at the Temple
The next morning we met Grammy and Grandpa, Broc and Mikelle at the temple to do baptisms. It really was a wonderful experience being there with 5 of our kids (unfortunately, Devynne didn't make it because she had a hair appointment that morning)and Steve's parents. The kids were all lovely in their white clothes and it was so neat to see them all there. Thank you to Grammy and Grandpa for the great idea to do this. Afterwards, we all met Devynne, Jenn, Nick, Mike, Tayler and Cory at Blueberry Hill for breakfast.







Other Things This Week
Decorated for Christmas
I had a birthday (7 layer chocolate cake...YUM)
Dylan made Performance Glee Club
Dakota made the Basketball Team
Went to a work Holiday Party
Ran lots of errands

There, I think we're caught up. :

A Teenage Melodrama.....Like Whatever

This is Dylan after his performances last Thursday night. He played an angel (Chet) in Day Six and the air conditioning maintenance man (Dylan Everready) in A Teenage Melodrama.....Like Whatever. He was a great angel but we really liked his performance as Dylan Everready. Hilarious!!! He is one talented fella, if I do say so. Both plays were directed by students and they all did a really great job. :)

UNLV vs. Wyoming

The three of us went to the UNLV football game Saturday night and this picture was taken on Steve's Iphone and it's a little fuzzy, I noticed. Anyhoo, it was fun to be out with Steve and Dakota and this was after we got a free meal at IHOP (because they lost our order and the food was late getting to us, the manager picked up the check)Yay!! Steve's parents were there too so we were able to hang out with them for a while and share peanuts. It was a good night. :)

Pine Valley Trip

I have snuck onto Toni's blog and taken over for a day!!! Feels good to be back! Actually, I just wanted to write a little bit about a trip Dylan and I took last weekend. We went with the Priest Quorum and their leaders to Pine Valley Utah.

Friday night, we had a great lesson about quorums by Daniel Barnhurst and then just hung out with the boys talking and playing old Nintendo games. Saturday we went and shot rifles, handguns and shot guns in the morning. Here is a great video of Dylan being all Gangster with the handgun.



Later that day, we took a tour of the oldest operating LDS Church building. The contruction of the building was amazing. It is hard to believe what people did without the modern building tools we have now. It is a beautiful building.

The last thing we did was go to the Mountain Meadow. This was a little bit sobering. It is the location of a very sad story of some people traveling through the meadow on their way to California. They had been traveling all through Utah and the entire time, were pretty much being shunned and/or ignored by the people of Utah, due largely in part that the people of Utah, mostly Mormons had been driven out of their homes back East, abused, tortured and looked down on. As such, they were not receptive to people from the East and those travelers may have done their part to antagonize the Mormons. It is very unclear exactly how things got to be so bad, but the end result was nearly all of the people from Arkansas were killed, many by ambush from the Indians and Mormons both. It is a sad story but what we took from it was the need to not let situations escalate. Things like this could be avoided with cool heads and open hearts.

Anyway, the trip was great and I enjoyed the time with Dylan and the other boys and leaders. Here are some pictures.

One of My Favorite Things

Is to hang out with Steve when the kids are in school. Yesterday, Steve took the day off and after dropping Dakota off at school we headed out to Henderson. We stopped at Einstein Bagels for bagels, a danish, a pumpkin muffin and fresh orange juice. Delicious!! We headed to Walmart where we roamed around for way too long (we did buy a few things) and then stopped at Costco for a few things. By now it was the time frame you are allowed to drop paint cans off at the dump, so we did. The whole time we talked about so many different things and held hands and just enjoyed being together.

We then headed home and did a few things around the house that needed to be done. After some computer time and book reading we picked Dakota up from school and made our way to Sonic. Yippee I love me some sonic! When Dylan got home, he and Steve left for Pine Valley with Bishop and the Priest Quorum for an overnight trip. Dakota and I had pizza for dinner and watched Back to the Future. A great day for me. :)

Halloween Came and Went

October 30th was our Ward Halloween party and was so much fun. Steve made my most favorite soup ever, Cream of Mushroom, for the Chili/Soup cook off and it was as always absolutely delicious! Dylan and Dakota didn't dress up this year but they had a great time hanging out with their friends and playing games. Steve was busy taking pictures of everyone and I spent most of the night visiting with Brad and Leslie Johnson (who are such wonderful and awesome people).

1 bowl of soup and 2 cupcakes later, the Trunk or Treating began. I was going to make an early get away at this point, however, Dylan made off to Albertsons with my keys in his pocket. So again, I sat with the Johnsons chatting away while watching the little goblins trick or treat for candy and I had a ball. So much fun. Dylan and my keys found me and it was off to home. We have such an amazing ward and I truly love being a part of it. Our bishopric is fantastic and I am so grateful for them (especially the 1st counselor I absolutely love him):)

Sunday the 31st was a great day at church and wonderfully quiet at home. Dinner was awesome, left over Cream of Mushroom soup for me, thankyou very much. Then we watched Hocus Pocus, my favorite Halloween movie, to end the day. Happy Halloween! It was a great weekend! :)

October 22nd Came and Went

Just like the last 14 years. Dakota turned 14 on this day and I have no idea where the time went. He's my baby and I can't believe he is cruising through teen years now. I can remember just holding him as a baby and thinking "I better enjoy this and remember it cuz he's the last one" I'm so glad I did that. I remember how he used to wave his little hands in circles and scrunch his nose when he wanted you to pick him up. So cute I tell you!! Just look at this picture, I just want to bite a chunk out of him.

He got a cell phone for his birthday and couldn't have been happier. Evidentally, "everyone has a cell phone" and now he does too. We celebrated his birthday by having family over for brats and potatoe salad (dakota's favorite) and a burnt frosting cake. Yum!

I'm so grateful for this kid. He is kind, loving, funny, spazzy, energetic, smart, handsome, full of knowledge which he is always willing to share (whether you like it or not), sticks to his guns (whether you like it or not), athletic, and did I say funny? He makes us laugh all the time even when he's not trying to be funny. I love him, this little child of mine, which he's not so little anymore (6'1" at 14 sheesh). I'm so grateful for him and the love and joy (and the occasional craziness) he has brought to our family.

We love you Dakota and Happy 14th Birthday! :)

The Planetarium

Last weekend Steve and Dakota went to Utah to see Cadie, Cody and Carson. One of the things they did was go to the Planetarium. I'm not sure why Cadie isn't in the picture or why Dakota is looking so thrilled. :) Anyhoo, they did have a great time hanging out with the kids and on their way home Sunday they stopped in Cedar City to have lunch with Devynne.

Dylan has a Unicycle

Friends Randy Sly and Jacob Crist looking on while Dylan practices. :)

Trip to Florida

I just got back from a week long trip to Florida with my mom, aunt and sister. It was a really wonderful time. The four of us flew to Jacksonville and drove an hour to Lake City so that we could have a funeral service for my grandma. When we got there on Tuesday, we checked in with the funeral home, bought flowers and headed over to the cemetery so we could look at the different grave sites of family members. We cruised the mall and just hung out. We also drove by the house we lived in with my grandparents when I was in the first grade (my dad was in Thailand that year) and I was so surprised to see that it was abandoned and so small from what I remembered it being. It was so crazy.

Wednesday we had the funeral service in the morning and were pleasantly surprised to meet some of Grandma's cousins. Several of them came to the service and it was nice to see them and talk with them. After going back out to the cemetery we changed clothes and headed down town for lunch. We met Helen and Polly (grandma's cousins) at another cemetery to see grave sites of more ancestors. I evidently come from a long line of Latter Day Saints. In fact, Arthur Douberly and his wife were baptized in 1897 and were considered pioneers in that area. Who knew? We had a crazy ride looking for Jeanette's house and laughed until we had tears. We did eventually find her and had a great visit with her.

Thursday, we headed to Ft. Myers to see my mom's cousin Bonnie. We spent two days with her and her family and laughed alot while she shared stories with us about my great grandparents, grandma and Inabell (Bonnie's mom and grandma's sister). Bonnie took us to do some souvenir shopping and to the beach. We ate lunch on the water at a place called Nervous Nellie's and it was really good.

Saturday we headed back to Lake City where Mom, Ink Dink and Missy dropped me off at Helen's. They headed back to Jacksonville since their flight was leaving Sunday morning. I spent the night with Helen and had a wonderful time getting to know her and learning more about my ancestors. We went to church together on Sunday and I was able to meet more relatives. After church, Helen and I ate lunch and visited with Geneva until it was time for me to head to the airport.

I had the best time with the four of us being together. I know my grandma would have really liked that we were able to take this trip together and spend time reminiscing about her and her relatives. I was also excited to learn that so many of our relatives are LDS and that I actually come from mormon pioneers. So exciting. I love my family and I will always remember this trip and the great time my mom, sister and aunt and I were able to spend together.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Yep, it's been 10 years and we couldn't be happier! We've come a long way in our lives since 10 years ago and I'm so grateful for where we are. I love Steve and he loves me. We've grown together in so many ways and I know it's because of living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the gospel in our lives and I'm so grateful for our spiritual journey through these last 10 years and I can't wait to see what the next 10 bring us. :)

10 years ago.


Today. :)