Goat milking

Doug was asked by a neighbor to milk there goat while they were out of town. Shandraya and Kierra wanted to go with him on Sunday evening. Kierra wouldn't touch the udder but she did want to give it a hug and was very curious at what it ate.
She didn't seem afraid at all.

Stake Pioneer Celebration

Saturday morning our Stake held it's first Pioneer celebration. It was fun and well organized but very hot for the parade, brass band and the flag raising ceremony. A nice pancake breakfast was served (Wyatt my little friend) and enjoyed. Many games and activities were planned. Shandraya and Courtney at an arm wrestle and Colten and Seth

Nixon

Our little Nixon is already changing so much. He is such a good baby. I get to watch him for a few hours each week while mommy is doing hair for people.

Shandraya and I along with all of the other Beehives and Moms and Leaders had a fun time up at the Alston's cabin in Forest Lakes this past Thursday through Saturday around noon. We ate a lot of yummy food, did puzzles,played games, told stories around the campfire, enjoyed a couple rounds of horseshoes, and the girls really liked the zip line.
It was in the cool mountains and very relaxing. The beehive girls are all so cute and fun to be with.

Nixon and Grandma

Doing two of my favorite things. Snuggling with a baby (Nixon) and reading a good book. It doesn't get much better than this.

Grandbaby Nixon is here

We are so thankful that everything went ok and that he is here safe and sound. Such a little (9 pounds)cutie. Those round cheeks remind me of a few of our children. Can hardly wait to get to know him better and hug on him bunches.

Getting something finally done

This week I finally feel like I got a few things done in the sewing department. I have way too many project to do but I finally finished Tiffany's baby's bumper pads, mended three pair of levis, fixed a backpack, fixed the hem in a pair of Doug's pants and last but not least I finally finished the bang around quilt that I started a long time ago. It is pieces of material leftover from Doug's scrub shirts that I made him when he worked at the hospital. He always enjoyed the bright fabrics. He said that they were a great conversation starter.
Now onto three other quilts that I have in the works and a stack of pants that Danielle want's cut off and made into shorts. It's a good thing that summer is just starting so I have awhile to hopefully finish all of these before too long.

Memorial weekend

Memorial weekend was way too short. We couldn't leave Friday night because Shandraya's dance company scheduled their end of the year recital for that night and it was long and got over way to late to start the drive. Colten, Caleb, Shandraya and I drove over to my mom's Saturday morning. That evening my nephew Steele had his college graduation party.
Mark did a wonderful job at the grill.

All of the food was delicious.

Sunday we went to church and then visited with family.

Monday we went over to my sisters house and had a barbeque and did a little swimming




and enjoyed the jacuzzi. We all got a little bit sunburned but not too bad. The kids sure enjoyed the pool.It was a short 3-day's but well worth it. I always enjoy visiting with my mom, sister, brothers, and their families.

Graduation

Colten finally has graduated. I was hoping to get a picture at graduation of him but since it rained from the time we arrived until way after the graduation ceremony was over I only got one blurry picture. The rain did something to the main speakers so we couldn't hear anything that was said the whole way through. All in all it will be a night to remember in our heads and not with any pictures. The picture I am posting is after the baccalaureate services on Sunday evening. Colten forgot his honors sash but it is the best we can do.
This is the only other picture I got of the evening when all the graduates were throwing their caps up and the rain is still coming down.

Colten's Graduation Announcement

I didn't send out an announcement to everyone. But I thought I would post it on our blog just in case you would like to see it. He is so excited for this chapter in his life to be over with. I don't remember any of the other kids not liking high school as much as he has. But he will graduated on the 21st with flying colors and we are proud of him.

Prom

Colten went to Prom with a cute girl named Gabby. They were in a hurry to take a couple of pictures and then meet up with the group for dinner and the dance. He said that he had a fun time.

Baby Shower

Last Saturday was a fun day. We had a baby shower for Tiffany. She got many wonderful things. I think that she is really getting excited for the little guy to come. Well not real soon but as soon as finals are over. Many people came and wished her well. It was fun visiting with everyone. Thanks!

Irrigation

Ya know every now and then I just feel like screaming. Last Friday morning was one of those mornings. When I got up at the crack of dawn I realized there wasn’t any milk in the fridge so I was at Fry’s when they opened. About a half hour later I was going into my room and my niece comes out of the hallway saying Danielle’s room is flooded with water. Irrigation had gone over the front berm and was seeping into her room. It was across the room and almost to her door. We love irrigation most of the time but every now and then it sure has been a royal pain. It all worked out ok. Doug was outside already taking care of the blockage that caused the rising water and Becky and I used all of the towels we could find and mopped it all up. Life just seems to throw me enough curve balls to keep me from being complacent in my daily living. All in all life is great!
I guess I ought to be thankful for small blessings. Danielle had crawled out of her bed earlier that morning and dragged her blankets with her and had fallen back to sleep in the hallway. So at least we didn't have to deal with all of her bedding getting wet also.

Benefit Concert

We would like to invite everyone to a great evening of fun this Saturday the 25th. Click on the picture below and you can see all of the details. The dance company that Shandraya dances with is putting this on. It is to raise money for two very special families that we know that have some huge medical bills that need to be paid. Please join us and help the cause. Thanks in advance to any who can make it. Hope to see you their.

Benefit preformance

The dance company that Shandraya is with is dancing this Saturday night. It is for a great cause. Please come and enjoy a wonderful evening if you can. And thanks in advance.

Easter

Grandma did a Easter Egg hunt Saturday afternoon. Becky did a great job at hiding them in the basin around the flowers and plants. It was so much fun. I can hardly wait for more grandkids to join us. I hope in a few years it will be a huge group. Kierra and Keegan had a lot of fun finding the many eggs and eating a little bit of candy along the way. Shandraya joined in at the end to help find all of the missing eggs. It was a perfect day a little cloudy so it wasn't hot.

MDA walk-a-thon

Every year Doug's work sponsor's a booth at the Muscular Dystrophy walk-a-thon. We help support that and do some walking.It's a fun Saturday morning.












A star wars group sponsored another booth so I got a picture for Keegan he is really into Star Wars right now.
Many other groups are represented their also. We have fun each year going and seeing all the many groups.

MORP

Colten and his date for MORP. He had a fun time.

Mulch, mulch and more mulch

As you many of you know Doug likes his many trees and he loves the back to earth approach to the yard. That means tons and tons of mulch around all of the trees. His cousin Darcy King owns a tree trimming business so Doug gets all the free mulch that he wants. One day a couple of weeks ago one of the drivers of the huge truck that delivers the mulch wasn't being as careful as he should have been and backed up onto the lawn. Big mistake it made the whole truck off balance and tip over on it's side. Darcy had to get a huge tow truck with a crane here to up right it. I'm sure it cost Darcy a pretty penny. But we got some cheap entertainment. A few pictures to show the disaster.

Disneyworld-Spring break

Our trip over Spring break to Disney World was good but not one of those trips that I could say “I’ve got to back there again” I think one time will do it for me. We did have a lot of fun and saw a lot of new things, and experienced the waits of our lives. It all started out great. The plane ride was uneventful, luggage claim went without a hitch. We went to get our reserved car at Budget and they only had three people working and the computers were down so everything had to be manually done. Needless to say we waited for 1 ½ hours to finally get our car. Stopped by the local Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries and then headed to our resort. It was suppose to take 12-15 minutes from the store but none of the streets near Disney World have street names on them. All they have are the Disney attraction exit signs. So we drove around for another hour and a half until we finally found the resort. It was 3:30 in the morning.
Epcot center was really huge. We tasted many different foods from different countries represented. The Moroccan food was really good. The best thing we saw there was when the space shuttle went off and you could look up and see it and the two parts separating. Everyone just went quiet and stopped. It was awesome.
The fireworks were pretty good also.
I think the best thing at Animal Kingdom was the tree of life. It was cool to see all of the many animals that were carved into that huge tree.
The bird show is real similar to the one in San Diego. As far as the animals go I think that San Diego Wild Animal Park is better, but they don’t have the fun rides, parades, and the many shops that Animal Kingdom has so it’s kind of a toss up.
The main attraction at Disneyworld is Magic Kingdom. It is set up really close like Disneyland. All of us voted that Disneyland is better. Everything but the castle.
The castle was really pretty especially at night. The lights on it change color every few minutes, and the fireworks display was the best I have ever seen in my life.
On Friday of that week we went to a place called Gatorland. It was interesting to see the many different types and sizes of alligators. They had a guy wrestle one and then you could pay a little money and kids could sit on the gator (they had his mouth taped shut).

They also had some snakes there that the boys liked looking at. They had a lot of pathways to go out and see the different alligators. You could feed them a hot dog and watch them go after it. One of the funniest parts is on one of the shows they called a lady out of the audience and had her close her eyes and hold out her hand and they put a big tarantula in her hand. Kind of a fun place to visit for a few hours.
After that we went on down to Boggy Creek and took an airboat ride on the everglades and saw two alligators.
While we were waiting for our ride Shandraya hopped on the one in the office (good thing it was dead)On Saturday after we checked out we had some time to kill so we drove over to the Orlando Temple. It is really beautiful. The parking lot was full and we saw many people going inside. Wish that we could have joined them but that wouldn’t have been fair to the kids for two hours with nothing to do.
All in all it was a very nice week, the resort was great, with spacious rooms, water slides, lazy river,
and the company was great, all of the many sites we saw were a once in a lifetime event. I hope that Colten, Caleb and Shandraya had as much fun or more than Doug and I had.