Reflections Contest

This year the Reflections Contest theme was Beauty Is... so 2 of my kids decided to do photography this year and Baylee of course had to do another painting since she went soo far with winning last year. She thought she would have luck again this year. Well sorry Baylee your picture was very cute but no luck this year but better luck next year!!

Baylee sayed Beauty is Friendship cause when you are down friends always make things feel and look better. So she painted her with Emily and Katera playing by an apple tree. And yes she did this all by herself!! She loves to paint with watercolors on canvas it makes her feel calm and at peace is what she tells us. Who knows maybe she will love it so much to continue to progress each year.

Lexi Picked Nature... she said Beauty is Natures cause it is so peaceful and beatiful in the mountains. So we took her up Mirror lake Highway to pass lake and it had just gotten done snowing and took the pictures of the lake. She loved how the trees, the sky and snow, reflected in the water. Lexi was very dissapointed that hers didn't win cause she thought she had the prettiest picture out of everyone. Better luck to you again next year one of these years you will make it.

And Brayden of course picked Elk... Go figure with a dad like his. He said Elk were beautiful cause they are so powerful and strong. They carry themselves with strength and the attitude that you can't touch me I dare ya. He loves looking at the elk so much that everytime we go to Grandma and Grandpa Donios we have to drive past the huge Elk Farm off of 106th South so he can watch them fight or just lay there. Brayden's didn't win but his was soo good that he got an Honorable Mention Ribbon attached to his cause if they could of picked more winners his would of been next. Way to go my little Booser!!

Thanksgiving

This year we had a blast. All of us were at my parents this year and we decided to do it at my sisters church building cause my mom's sisters and all my cousins and their families and all my brothers and sisters were going to be there this year. So we get to the church and there was soo much to do. They had 4 TV's set up with 3 Wii's and a playstaion 2 set up with DDR on one and Guitar Hero world tour on one and then free for all on the other 2. The boys had their half court for basketball games and pin the tail on the blow up donkey and bowling for the littlier kids. It was soo much fun. Even though Jason you cheat on Dance dance Revolution you need to get a life. I bet thats all you do in your free time at home.

After dinner we went to Jeff's mom's for dessert and hung out with Carl, and Deann and all their kids and their spouses and Joyce and Larry and Tom and Vicky and all their kids. We had a blast. Yummy pies banana cream which is the only pie I like at Thanksgiving (thanks Joyce) and we played pounce all night laughing and chatting it up with my niece's and nephew's. Rachel I feel sorry for you with your soo competative husband!! And Vicky better luck next time. I will take it easier on you when we play again (haha).

I love Thanksgiving cause you can just eat and chillax with the people that matter most in your life!! We are so blessed with the family that we have. We love you all and are greatful for all you do for us!! I am grateful for my husband and the 5 beautiful children he has blessed my life with. They make my life busy and full of laughs. We may not have much right now but as long as we have each other nothing else matters.

Finally gonna update.......

Halloween has come and gone and we survived yet another year with my 3 little drama queens. They all had to be fairies this year so I got brave and made their tutu's for them and just added wings and their costumes were done. They were soo cute!! Ciarra couldn't stand the wings so mom ended up carrying them most of the time at all the parties we went to. My shy little Brayden decided he was going to go out of his comfort zone and be a nerd this year. He looked soo cute!! see picture below.....

Brayden was excited this year again cause Jeff was able to take the first half of the day off again this year to come to their school Halloween parade and help with the party in Brayden's class. All the kids love having Jeff in their classes cause all the kids think he is cool So of course I got Baylee's class. Next year she is dressing up as ugly as I can make her cause she had boys grabbing her hand to be in their group for centers and boys in other classes coming to her door and telling her how cute she looked that day. Ugh I am soo in trouble with that child!! Lexi had fun in class too cause they did a readers theater and we were able to go listen to that before we had to help with class parties. It was so fun to see how interactive and dramatic she can be!!

Things have been soo crazy it seems like we never have time to just stop and breathe. I have finally finished the top to my quilt that I am making for Lexi's bedroom all I have left is the backing and quilting it all. She told me I have till Christmas to finish it then if it's not I am in big trouble and have her to answer to. OOOO I am soo scared an 8 year old is threatening me I guess I better watch out!! Brayden has had his Webelos badge and Arrow of light earned since August and he finally received the Webelos last Saturday. However they won't be doing his arrow of light ceremony till January so he will finally get that then. He does however love his new scout leaders and was able to go on his 1st overnighter campout. He loved it they went to Strawberry and fished on the lake in his scout leaders boat. He had a wonderful time!!

Jeff got a new calling and we are all trying to adjust to the demands that it puts on our family. He is now the Scout Master for the 12-18 year old boys. What a lot of work. I was soo tempted to raise my hand when they asked does anyone appose. I wanted to see what they would of done never seen anyone appose anything. Campouts every month are going to be hard for me to get used to especially when I work nights every weekend. But Andrew was so glad that his dad gets to stay in young mens with him even though it's not in the presidency anymore.

Busy! Busy! Busy!!!

Sorry for not posting lately. This summer has been so busily crazy I'm going nuts. First off Girls Camp!! What a blast. We had 20 girls and 8 leaders up there this year double what I had to plan for last year. But the good news is they all got along and we really enjoyed getting to know all the new girls that are in this year. We did tons of fun things including Zip line this is our group that went and almost all of us went down the zip line a couple of times. WE had a Blast!! Next year Charri and Lucinda we are going to get you on there!! No excuses!!



Another thing we have enjoyed doing this summer is free family activities to keep the kids busy. The kids have discovered the fun in Herriman at a splash pad that they can play in for hours. It has a playground and then the water pad that water shoots out of everywhere they have loved going weekly and enjoy playing with their friends and hanging out for hours here. We have also the Gateway fountains, Sweets Candy factory tour, The best was the Mrs. Fields Cookie Factory tour. The kids loved it!! WE got to see how they make and package the cookies and the taste testing afterwards was divine!!! We also went and saw all the floats for the parade and voted on them and went waterskiing. This summer has been a blast.

This is the kids at the Gateway fountain. They had so much fun!

We got to go see all the floats for the Days of 47 parade and vote on them.

Us at the Mrs. Fields cookie factory YUM YUM!!

I got the opportunity to go on Trek with the youth in our stake this year. Oh my gosh what an awesome experience this was. I have never done something so hard in my life. I was shocked I survived the whole thing being as I am not in the best of shape health wise. I had the best family ever!! And I enjoyed getting to know people I would not normally have hung out with. This experience has really brought to light the reason why we are here and why I want the best for my children. It taught me a lot and helped me grow both spiritually and mentally.

Me and Lexi also got the chance to go on Good Things Utah and be in their audience. What a blast. They had a guest host that day and he was hilarious. We got to hang out with them after the show and the guy loved Lexi's hat and she was very shy every time he tried to talk to her.

We have had one busy summer and now that school is going to be starting the fun during the day has to end dang!! Hopefully I can be a better blogger now and keep it updated more often. I am going to have 4 out of my 5 kids in school full time now and I don't know what the heck I am going to do with myself just having Ciarra all day. Hopefully she won't be too sad when she won't have Baylee to play with anymore. I guess just me and her will have to find fun stuff to do to make the time go by.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOOBY DREW!!!

Happy 13th Birthday little man!! I can't believe you are 13 already. You came into this world 2 weeks early weighing 6 lbs 10 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. You were such a cute little thing! And you still are, except for now you are 65 lbs and 55 inches long. Man where did the time go??

You are everybodies best buddy!! Everyone always likes to hang with Andrew. You have always been a well mannered kid and a very good helper to your parents. You have grown into such a responsible young man and I am honored to be your mother. You never seem to amaze me with how grown up you are and the decisions that you make in your life. I just pray you will keep that level head of yours as the peer pressure will continue to build. I am proud of your christ like ways in trying to inclued any and everyone with everything that you do. You are such an amazing child and I sometimes wonder where you get all of your good qualities from. Hope you have a fun birthday. We love you tons my handsome man!!! Love mom and dad.

Happy 6th Birthday Baylee

Happy Birthday to our precious little angel!! You came into this world waking us up at 3:30 am the only one who made my water break in bed and at home. You arrived at 7:30 am weighing in at 7' 5 oz. We took you home on July 3 and the very next day we took you to the West Jordan parade on July 4th then to the swimming pool with the family and back to grandma's for fireworks. We had a long day and we stayed inside grandma's cause the fireworks scared you. Ever since you were born you have been a firecracker, you know what you want and how to get it. Some of your favorite hobbies are chasing boys, playing with your friends and riding your bike. We can never find Baylee cause she is always going and going and going.

Baylee can bat her eyes and get her own way with anything especially with daddy!! She is a big time daddy's girl and always has been. She can wrap anyone around her pinky to get her own way!! We love you tons girly girl and I can't believe you are 6 already. I always think of you as my little baby still cause you are so small for your age. Try not be so fiesty though as you get older... I'm already not looking forward to the pms years with you!!
Hope you have a wonderful day and that your wishes will come true. Love mom and dad!!!

Last Days of School Festivities

This is Baylee on her last day of school with Mrs. Reese!! She was such an awesome Kindergarten teacher and she is leaving Heartland so she will be missed. Baylee was always so excited to go to school. She would cry and yell at me if she was sick and couldn't go to school cause she loved to see Mrs. Reese. They did the cutest little graduation program and the kids sang and danced it was so much fun. They were then presented a flower by the principal so they can move on and grow more in 1st grade next year. Thanks Mrs. Reese for all your love and patience you showed teaching our daughter this school year. She has grown alot and can read basic easy books on her own. She spells signs and words everywhere we go!!

Here is Lexi with Mrs. Willahan. She is such an awesome teacher too if your kids have ever had her if not you are missing out!! Andrew was lucky to get her in 1st grade and none of my kids have had her since until Lexi this year. We were so excited to have her!! Lexi loved all the fun they had in class and Mrs Willahan would always talk highly of her and how talented she is. She also said Lexi was always so polite and quiet in her class. POLITE and QUIET huh I have never seen that side of my very demanding and verbal child that she is at home!! You even look at Lexi wrong and she is ready to beat the crap out of you. Thank you Mrs Willahan for being a wonderful example and teacher in my little girls life!! Hopeful Baylee will get you in 2nd grade too. I will keep my fingers crossed!!!

Last but not least I bring you to Brayden. He was not too happy about getting his picture taken with his teacher in front of his friends it's just not cool in 4th grade. But I don't care I made him do it anyway!! This is Mrs. Bailey she is also among many of the great teachers at Heartland. We loved having her as our sons teacher. Brayden is one who will only do work when he wants to do it and we can't make him. I think his name was on the board the whole last half of the year for missing assignments. His teacher would laugh at me cause I would come into the school and go thru his desk and make him do piles of homework all in one sitting cause he procrastinated too long. He loved science in his class and going to the museum for his fieldtrip. Mrs. Bailey always made classtime fun!! You are an awesome teacher and thanks for your patience in letting Brayden turn his work in whenever he felt like it.

Unexpected Lake

I know I haven't updated for a while and what better way than to tell you about my little troublemaker Ciarra. Man that girl is always busy, busy, busy!! Well last night while I was at Young Women's and Jeff was at Young Men's she decided to water my flowers in the back yard and left the hose running by the window well all night. We got home at 10:00 and I walked downstairs to take my contacts out and low and behold I stepped into 2 inches of water in my bathroom. At first I thought one of the kids flooded my toilet. Then I started to hear a trickleing noise so as I walked into my bedroom there to await me is 2 inches of water sitting on top of the carpet. She was so lucky she was asleep when we got home cause I doubt she would be alive this morning if she hadn't been!! Jeff was at the grocery store when I came upon this awesome discovery so I immediately grabbed the shop vac and started to suck up some of the water. I had already dumped 2, 6 gallon buckets of water by the time he got back and that was only a tiny portion that I got done before he got back to the house.

As you know we finished our basement into one huge master bedroom and we have a huge log bed in our bedroom and the mattresses alone weighs a ton!! So thanks to our good friend and neighbor Brent Locke who we finally called at 11:00 last night came down to help my hubby take apart the bed and carry it out of the basement so we could get the water sucked up and the carpet torn out of there. I am so grateful for him cause of the way wet carpet and the huge area it ruined I could never have helped Jeff lift that out of there!! He also stayed and helped rip up all the carpet padding that was soaked and helped chuck all that out till 1:30 this morning. Thanks Brent for all your help we couldn't have gotten that all taken care of without you. Jeff told me it's lucky it happened on a night that I wasn't working cause he probably would have lost it and killed her for sure ! (metaphorically speaking) So yes love I am not glad that it happened but I am grateful I was the one to find it and not you!! You are just lucky it didn't happen while you were out of town!!

The upside of all of this is my widowsills will finally get grouted and we can restain the wood on the walls since we had to pull everything out of there. The downside is we are now sleeping on the couch for the next couple of weeks till we can get it all put back together. Man the joys of having Children. If she is this much trouble at 3 I can't wait till she is a teenager!!