Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Lacrosse Tournament Time

The school year is winding down and so are alot of the kids extra activities. Joshua participated in a lacrosse tournament over the weekend to finish off a great season. Unfortunately, as he steps up his competetiveness with lacrosse, we are finding that the expense continues to grow, so we are not sure how much longer we will keep this up. I continue to be stunned at the amount of money parents pour into their kids sports....but, well, that's another post! Here's Josh, #14, playing defense. He takes it so seriously and it's fun to watch him whacking at kids twice his size! We ended up playing against some great teams and some not so good teams and finished the tournament with 1 win and 3 losses. Joshua chose not to play the last game since it was held on Sunday. He is such a good kid and always desires to do what is right.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

BYU Management Society Scholarship Gala

Shelby was awarded the Leader's Scholarship at the BYU Management Society's Gala on Friday night. She was one of four winners in our area. They put on a very nice banquet and made it a special evening celebrating these kids. Shelby was awarded $750 in scholarship money which brings her total to about $2300. I am so proud of her efforts and I know it is fun for her to see all the hard work recognized! Shelby has always been very bright, but when she was in 9th and 10th grades, she was worried about being the freaky smart kid, so she stopped trying so hard. She has come full circle though and has really poured it on these last two years of high school; she even took 6 AP classes this last year!

Congratulations Shelby! You deserved to be recognized!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Percussion

Here is my very own little drummer boy at his spring concert! All day, every day, non stop drumming is happening at my house. Everything seems to have a beat associated with it and Joshua is determined to play out the rhythm of our lives! In the car the other day it was chopsticks being drummed on the center console to the beat of the radio, but he has also used shishkabob sticks, pencils or even just his hands to constantly keep the beat. I have to admit that it DOES drive me CRAZY at times, but just the same, I still love my little drummer boy!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

New York Trip

Earlier this month I was able to chaperone Caleb's orchestra trip to New York. I have never been, so I was excited to check out all the sights! Here is our motley crew in Times Square...This is the New Year's Ball. I don't know what I expected.....I was a bit disappointed! It was so small and somewhat anticlimactic if you ask me!We went to a broadway show one night and then on a dinner cruise the next night. The Statue of Liberty was awe-inspiring to see from the boat and the New York City skyline is gorgeous at night.













Here I am in Times Square.....I have to admit, it was fun for a day, but I did not enjoy the crowds! Too many people crammed together; you can forget about personal space! The funny thing was, I had spent the weekend before revelling in the openness of the Nevada desert, and then to be in a cramped city was crazy!



My favorite stop was Toys R Us in Times Square. What a dream toy store! They even had a life-sized barbie dream house! YES, I totally went in! You have no idea how long I have dreamed about being in the barbie dream house!



This was in the Legoland part of the store. There were lots of cool things made out of legos; I know my boys would have loved it!Then my favorite childhood game, Candyland, had its very own section. Lots of bulk candy and specialty treats....all priced at a premium, of course!There is a full sized ferris wheel right as you enter the store. I had to snap a picture of the My Little Pony car for Savannah. How cool is that?!!





It was a fun trip, but I was glad to come home. I have no desires to ever live in a big city! When we pulled into our neighborhood I was so excited to see wide open streets without cars lining both sides! Oh yeah, and there was an orchestra competition.....they won first place!

Easter

Remember last year when I didn't take any pictures of our Easter celebrations and I was lamenting being a bad mom and vowed to take pictures this year?

Well, I give you Easter 2011 in all its finery..... I am SUCH a photographer! Sadly this is the only picture I took!

A few days before Easter, Savannah said to me "Mom, I haven't ever gotten to make colored eggs." WHAT??? She had to be wrong! I was the mom who always did colored eggs! So I started thinking back and realized that I haven't done them in the 4 1/2 years that we have lived here, so if she did them, it was when she was 2 and there is no way she would remember that! When did life get so hectic that I didn't have time to color Easter eggs?!!

So I boiled some eggs and gathered all the kids who were interested (only the 3 youngest came) and we got to work coloring. I don't think Joshua colored any; he was too interested in his book! But Savannah and Samuel had a great time!

Monday, May 2, 2011

BYU Women's Conference 2011

I am not even really sure what happened to these pictures....I left my camera home, so my sister sent these to me, but I think they are posting like thumbnails. Anyway, here's the story...



Four years ago, my husband sent me to Women's Conference as a Christmas gift. It was the most incredible gift I have ever gotten.....to this day, he hasn't topped it! However, I don't think he realized that once I went, I would have to keep going back! (Sorry honey....)



This is the first year we have been able to convince all of our sisters to go. Usually mom would go with us too, but she was serving my youngest sister by babysitting her kids since she just got divorced and her husband couldn't take them.



It was an incredible trip! Spiritually uplifting, emotionally filling and so much FUN! My sisters ROCK!!! I do not know another family that gets along as well as we do. Maybe it helps that we don't live all in the same town to annoy each other with petty differences, or maybe they are just THAT COOL!!!



One night we went to a concert and then stayed late to get pics with all the "celebrities"! Here are Rachel and Krysten with David Osmond We always have fun doing the evening of service projects. Rachel went with me this time and I picked the crown and wand project. Seriously, we were creatively challenged on this project! Rachel and I both made a wand, but it took us about an hour! We didn't even attempt the crown, but something tells me it was probably alot easier! Next year I will let Rachel pick the craft!Here I am with Shannon, Mandy and Krysten at the Marriott Center. It is so cool for me to be back at BYU since it was my old stomping grounds for 5 years. I LOVED being there!




I felt like this year's theme for me was learning all I could learn about the principle of agency. It is funny how we tend to take home the things that we needed most from each conference. I felt like all the classes came together to give me a better understanding and I learned oh so much. Now I just have to figure out how to put it all into practice!




Of course, no sisters trip would be complete without some serious shopping! On the way up to BYU, we saw a billboard for the ModBod Outlet Store and decided to stop in. Unfortunately they were closed (they are currently only open 2 days a week, so call ahead if you want to go to be sure they will be there), so we decided to peek in the windows and see what they had. There we were, all five of us, with our hands up shielding our eyes from the sun and our noses pressed to the window, when all of a sudden we see someone inside waving at us and laughing! We begged her to open especially for us, but she couldn't. After Women's Conference on the way home we decided to drop in. Of course she remembered us....how could she forget! We all had a good laugh about the window incident and then proceeded to shop! Lots of great items and I think we spent enough money between the five of us to make it worth there while. They carry alot of the undershirts that I like to wear and put on the girls to make their clothes a bit more modest and the prices were really cheap. Oh, and I have never laughed so much while shopping! The owners were great and we totally enjoyed hanging out with them....as a matter of fact, if you are reading this, owners (I think I forgot to ask your names, which is terrible since you learned all of ours!), I am now granting you the status of honorary sisters and you can come on our next sister's trip!!!