Reflections Region 6 Awards Night

 Last night Clint and I went with Kambriella to the Region 6 Reflections awards night where Kambriella was honored as one of the 250 finalists out of the 50,000 entries made throughout the state of Utah!

And although she will not be moving on to the state level, she has so much to be proud of and WE are definitely proud of this sweet girl! :) Way to go Kambriella! Your dreams are within reach!!!

Just KEEP REACHING for the stars baby girl!!! YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!!!  :) XOXOXO

Good Kids!

A quick child update! :)

As we spend many of our evenings at Gavin's basketball games, we enjoy cheering him on and watching him grow and progress! Gavin is doing awesome in his basketball with last nights win 33-3!

(Kesslyn has a "ball" ;) at the games too helping to hold a baby of our friend that just had twins! :)

 Gavin is also loving getting to attend the temple! It is something that he looks forward to and makes a priority in his life. :) He and his brother Dallin are best buddies and have such a great time together. Dallin is such a good example to Gavin and they build each other up in every way, from going to the temple together, to writing encouraging notes to each other, to helping to pick out awesome outfits to look their best in as they go to school...their love for each other is strong and I love everything about it!

Dallin is also currently involved in the rehearsal and production of the school play Peter Pan! He has the part of John Darling and is LOVING acting! He is still taking acting lessons and had the unique opportunity to be filmed by the news station KSL yesterday as they will be doing a report on it in between general conference sessions during this upcoming general conference! (So be sure to watch for him on T.V. between conferences...) Pretty fun! :)

Also, tonight we will be attending another awards ceremony for the Reflections contest for the Jordan school district! We will see Kambriella's artwork displayed there and are so proud of her hard work and accomplishments! Way to go Kambriella! ;)

...And...I just had to share this cursive writing paper of Kambriella's! WOW!!! She is just learning how to write cursive and it is soooo beautiful!!! Did I say how proud I am of these sweet kids??? :)

So grateful they have a daddy who has taught them how to be EXTREMELY self confident...;) ;)

Happy Thursday!

Ready To Read

This sweet little girl waited all day to do her reading because she said that she wanted to read with me when it was time to go to bed. 

I told her that was great since our day was so full and packed with places to be...

So, sure enough, she didn't forget! As I was beginning to turn into a pumpkin, she came to me and said, "Mom, are you ready to read?" 

I turned and saw her carrying her scriptures and about melted into a puddle on the floor...I quickly followed her to her room where she began reading to me out loud. I LOVE that Kambriella has a sincere desire to do what's right and to be good...but I also LOVE that her older siblings have been such a great example to her on this. Personal scripture study is such an important habit to have, and lucky for me, my children are already learning that and it makes me so happy! 

Life is hard and if we can each learn where to turn for peace and answers, we will be so much better off in this life!

Kambriella, THANK YOU for your good example to me! And Kierra, Carew, Dallin, and Gavin...

thank YOU for being such good examples to her! I am one lucky mama to have you sweet kids to share this journey with! XOXOXO

I LOVE you!!! 

New Year's Cards :)

 Christmas seemed to FLY by this year and with it so did my time! So, my Christmas cards have turned into New Year's cards! :) But that's Ok, I am still so happy to share the highlights of our family's year with the people that we don't get to see very much! 

2017 was an amazing year for our entire family! :)

 I summed up the moments in a month by month highlighted review in a letter, and added our most current family picture...the one from Kierra and Riley's wedding.

I LOVE that we are ALL together!!! I LOVE this family of mine!!!

 I added a little personal note to some of our closest friends and put them all in this Thomas Kincaid card. His artwork is so nostalgic and beautiful to me..it brings all of the familiar feelings of Christmas to mind with the cozy scenes, the glitter, and the light...I LOVE his work! Both romantic AND magical! :)

I'm excited once again to see what our new year will bring...hopefully more of all of the good stuff, right? ;)

No matter the year, it seems to me that Heavenly Father is continually involved in the details of our lives, and so I am just going to once again leave those details up to Him! 

(I of course will do some planning with His help in mind, but the things that will matter most I think will be on His agenda, and so I will try to align my will with His, have a prayer and gratitude in my heart, and HOLD ON for the ride!!! ;)

Welcome 2018! :)

Cake With Kate :)

The first week of the new year has been full of service for me...and it has continued to bring an added measure of peace and gratitude into my life...but in my need to fulfill my calling, I too had to call upon help in order for me to be available to help others. So, I called Kate! :)

Kate came and babysat Kesslyn for me so that I could go and serve others. She was a hero for me, and what makes it even better...Kesslyn LOVES Kate. :)

 Can you see it in her eyes??? Kesslyn LOVES Kate! And Cake! ;) But the cutest thing ever is that Kesslyn calls Kate "Kake!" It is so cute!!!

NOW you can really see it in her eyes...she's saying, "I LOVE Cake!" :)

 ...or is it...I LOVE "Kake?" :)

 I'm pretty sure it's both!!! :) Kesslyn is saying, "I LOVE having cake with Kake!" ;)

 But really, Kate was so kind to come and spend her morning with Kesslyn so that I could be available to fulfill my calling and help others who needed me...as soon as I got home I took these 2 cute girls to Zupa's for lunch, just because I thought it would be fun, AND because I wanted to say thank you to Kate for helping me out! And we got cake! :) What a good sport! Kate with cake! ;)

 After our lunch we stopped back by the house just in time for the other kids to see Kate, which probably wasn't the best idea because no one wanted her to leave. ;) 

Kambriella and Kesslyn both walked her to her car and said their goodbyes...but she will be back! We love Kake and she loves us too! :) (But mostly Carew ;) and we think that's pretty awesome! :)

Happy New Year!

One of the last fun things we did to ring in the New Year was Clint and I sent the children to my sister's house for a night, and then we spent a night celebrating each other by being together. That is really our main gift to each other for Christmas each year is to go somewhere and have a night with just the 2 of us. It's the BEST thing that a husband and wife can give each other...their TIME! 

Although we did not do much we had a blast just being together, and giving each other our 100% undivided attention with NO interruptions from little ones! It was heavenly! ;)

We met at his work, went to dinner at The Habit, went to see the new STAR WARS movie The Last Jedi, took a long hot bath, stayed up late, slept in, and savored every quiet minute we had together.

We also spent a lot of time talking (which is what we always do) and looking back on the last year that has been AMAZING for our family! Soooo much good came about and we are in utter disbelief and complete shock as to where the time went and just HOW it got to be 2018 already!?!?

In fact, as I sit here this morning, it is the 5th of January...the 1st week of the year already FLOWN by...

All I can say is, we MUST enjoy this journey! We can't ever wait for the moment to come that will "make" us happy, we have to get up every morning and "choose" to be happy! Finding the good all around us makes each day of this mortal journey a gift and an experience that we can take with us when we make our way "back home." Just as our beloved prophet President Thomas S. Monson did just a few days ago...

here are a few of my favorite quotes from him:

As we begin a new year my only resolution is to be a little better today than I was the day before! In a world where being "perfect" is the goal, I feel like this goal fits me perfectly!

 ~ And in the words of President Monson:

I figured that even on the days that don't go "perfectly" there is always a new day to try again! That's kind of  pretty much what the gospel and Atonement of Jesus Christ is all about!

I know that with it as my guide my 2018 will be as bright as my faith!

Happy New Year!

Visiting Friends...

 After all of the Christmas fun was over and Kierra and Riley had to head back to Colorado, we decided it was the perfect time to visit some old friends while we still had the break from school...so, we 1st visited my friend Natalie Christensen and her family in their new home that they just moved into 3 months ago!

All of our boys are friends and so everyone had fun playing together for a bit...their home was lovely and it was so good to sit and catch up and still feel that same spirit in their home even though the walls are different...Natalie is like a sister to me and will be forever and ever!

 After our visit with the Christensen's in Clinton, we drove to Peterson (which is by Morgan) to visit our friends the Penrods! They are yet another family that is LIKE family to us! We have stayed in a beach house together, and each of our children have become friends...but my Lisa...she's like a sweet sister to me too! We have known each other for almost 20 years, and although we hardly get to see each other, it's the kind of friendship where when you finally do get together, it feels like not a day has gone by...I LOVE it! 

They even took us to see the new miniature horse they are getting!!! It is so cute and they are going to have so much fun with it! Kesslyn kept saying, "I wanna wide it!" ~And so they invited us to come back in the spring just so Kesslyn can "wide it!" :)

 And although THIS particular friend visit didn't happen until LAST NIGHT...it was one of our favorites of the Holiday! Carew's girlfriend Kate came to see us and even brought us gifts from Mexico! (That is where her family spent their Christmas this year! :) Kate came bringing laughter and her beautiful smile. :)

 All the kids were so happy to see her and so was I!!! :) She is a ray of sunshine and makes everyone feel so loved. She has a very special spirit about her and we just couldn't get enough of her...there is something about having her around too that makes us feel a little closer to Carew which is a bonus for us! ;)

 Kesslyn climbed up on Kate's lap and let me take a picture of them together...but not without kissing FLAT Carew!!! She loves her brother that's for sure! :)

 After a while of just visiting with Kate, I headed upstairs to make dinner for everyone and the kids had a ball playing with Kate!

 Even though we got to spend more time with her than we thought we would, it STILL wasn't enough! Kambriella begged to have her say the night...:)...I'm glad everyone LOVES Kate! :)

 After we all ate dinner and the boys headed off to Young Men's together, Kate, Kesslyn, Kambriella, and I all sat at the kitchen table together and painted fingernails. :) Kesslyn had Kate paint about 20 layers of EVERY color that she could find, and Kambriella had me "decorate" each of her fingernails with designs...It was fun sitting and talking while we painted, but "decorating fingernails" is NOT my strong point!!! Where is Kierra when we need her???;)

 By the time we finished up painting and visiting the boys were getting home and we realized that homework still needed to be done, so we said goodbye to Kate and wrapped up the night. It was so good to be with her and to hear of all of the good things that she is doing, and how much she still admires Carew....probably even more than before if that's possible...;)

Family and friends are some of our greatest gifts and blessings and it was so good to be able to spend time with some of them over the holidays! The most important things in life are not "things" at all, but the people we meet and the relationships that we build all along the way throughout this journey called life...

It was a happy holiday season and one that we won't ever forget!