Sweet 16!

August 26, 2010, Tyler turned 16 & I officially will now be known as his sister. I'm not old enough to have a 16 year old, I've decided.


He made the football team, we went on a quick vacation before school started to celebrate everyones birthday's with my family in Kansas, & he was cut from the team for missing 2 days of practice. He was disappointed, but I think slightly relieved. It was a lot harder work than he thought it would be, that's for sure!

He's still very much a kid at heart. He might be a near-giant, but he's still my first baby. :)

He loves to torment me with things like the skin of the copperhead snakes that came in to their camp site. Love this kid!

Jordan Gets Baptized!

Sounds like a great name for a book. Maybe a future joint venture for Jo & I? His new love is writing & I'm not terrible at illustrations, so maybe...

I'm so far behind in the blogging world, I don't know if I'll ever catch up! I guess I'll start with the recent baptism of Jordan.

We were able to have a few family members come to town for the big day, which was really nice. Both my parents, Dave's mom, & my younger brother Grant (just got home from a mission in the Phillipines) came out to witness the special occassion.

Jordan, waiting for the font to fill with water.

My Mom, Dad, & Ty

Dave & Logan, who looks like he's devising a plan of sorts.

Ty & Grant, goofing off.

Jojo & Daddo (as Jo used to call him)

Just before the baptism.

Amazingly, I captured a true Logan-look. He's totally a Mikey & that grin proves it!

Dave & my Dad goofing off. Nice grills!

Watching the water rise.

So handsome in his Sunday best!

Jojo & his Yaya (Dave's mom)

Jo, with the honored mom. :)

Proud parents. :)

My Mom, Dad, & Jordan.

On August 31, 2010, Jordan was officially baptized & confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm so proud of him for making the decision to join the true church of Christ!

Jordan's thrilled to be able to go to Scouts, finally. He's been looking forward to it for some time now & it couldn't have come soon enough!

New Toy

I think it's true love. ;)

Spring has Sprung!

There are cherry blossoms everywhere in our little community.

Around the corner from our home is a business park, sporting a "lake" with real whales in it. They like to hang out in the same place all day, spouting off (at their mother?). For the longest time, every time we would pass this corner, Jordan would diligently search for the sharks he knew were in there.

Checking out the "floaters" they spotted. They were much more interesting than trying to spot sharks!

Of course, what's a nice Spring day walk without posing in front of whales?

There was much drama to get this pic, so even though 3/4 of the people in the pic have their eyes closed, I'm posting it! It was sunny & Jordan was counseling everyone to close their eyes for the picture so they won't have to complain about mom making them pause for this shot.

And of course it isn't Spring without a little kite-flying at the park.

Apparently I missed getting a picture of Logan with his Super Hero's kite. He was pretty mad at the kite though, after it didn't magically take off like he had planned. He's all about the Super Heroes right now. I can barely get him out of his black Spiderman costume long enough to wash it. It needs a serious patch job. The neighbors think we're crazy & are unsure if he even owns anything other than a Spiderman costume. I'll have to try to get some pics up of him, as Spidey, once I get the thing fixed.

Overall, we had so much fun trying to fly kites that day. I smiled, laughed, & ran so much I was sore from it all the next day. Fun times!

February is gone!?

February flew by for us. It was a busy month, with Tyler returning home for his schooling. Plus with Logan & Hayleah going to preschool 3 days a week. And we can't forget about Jordan & his schooling (though I think I let a little too much slide with this one).

I'm going to try to catch up on some posts in the next few days, as time permits.

Can you believe Spring is already upon us!?

Stake Roadshow

This past week, all of our wards youth & their leaders' hard work came to fruition. They put on a production of Grease entitled It's Hip to be Square. Though I might be slightly biased, I have to say they totally rocked!! Tyler played 'Danny' & sang his parts nearly to perfection.

They all gathered together, the excitement nearly tangible, in a few of the rooms before their performance time.
The only pics I got were taken after the performance. I video taped it but can't find my fire wire to download it to share (yet).

Karen Crowder, the woman-in-charge, was telling them what a great job they all did. I was so proud, my cheeks hurt by the end of it all, from all the smiling I did that night! The man in Blue beside Karen is our Bishop. That smile you see on his face is nearly permanent. I was just telling Dave how I like to watch him when he doesn't know it (sounds kinda creepy, but it's really not). He seems to always have this smile on his face that looks to be a mixture amusement from a funny inside joke & a radiant joy that can't contain itself inside him. His mood/attitude is infectious & just watching him makes me smile. Love that man! :)

My Mom was able to fly in to see the Roadshow. She, too, was impressed with Ty's mad singing skills! :)

Bart Yeates, telling Ty what a great job he did.


Braden, Justin, & Brandon. Justin did an AMAZING job!! His energy level made me want to get up & dance, too! Scary thought. LOL


Ty & I....I was beaming with pride! :)


Looking handsome & relaxed.


Ty, with one of his greaser buddies, Brandon.

After it was all said & done, my Mom & I took Ty out for a celebratory dinner at Outback. Ty watched the performance while we waited for our food, then made googly eyes at the hostess & his burger (not at the same time, fortunately).

In all it was a lot of fun & I'm so glad Ty was able to be a part of it. A HUGE THANKS to everyone who did anything to help out in this production. It took a lot of patience & diligence to get to this weekend & I'm so thankful for the dedicated, really great people in our ward.

First Soccer Game!

Ty & the Desert Oasis High School JV team had their first game last night against Sierra Vista. It was an away game & the timing didn't work out for us to make it. Ty had hurt his ankle (doing who knows what; probably goofing off) earlier this week so he didn't play.

They lost.

The fun part about the night is I spent a good hour looking for him afterwards. I told him to ride the bus back to his school after the game & I'd pick him up there.

After 30 min. or so of driving around & parking, then driving around some more, I stopped & asked another JV player if they had seen him. The boy had seen him but was sure Ty wasn't on the bus coming home.

I moved on & decided to track down the coach to get some answers. The coach said he'd signed out (I now realize "signed out" actually means he didn't ride the bus home) & then double checked in his roster to be sure before telling me he was sure he saw Ty return trip. He didn't look as sure as he sounded so I ran home to get my cell & make some phone calls.

I guess the bus left him at Sierra Vista. They dropped the boys off in on place, then picked them up in another, so he wound up missing the bus.

Shortly after leaving to grab him from the other school, his coach calls & I can tell he's a little panicked. He said they did a head count before leaving the school after the game & the numbers turned out correct. He clearly isn't a math teacher, aside from being the soccer coach.

Coach wanted me to call him as soon as I got Ty. I understand accidents happen but I was a little irritated at being told something when he wasn't sure of the truth of his words. These kids are their responsibility when in their care. It was careless to leave someone behind. Hopefully it'll be a good learning experience for everyone.

I will now be at all of his games, even when there's something conflicting. Ty will stick with the group & not go off on his own. And hopefully the coach will either learn how to count & then re-count until he gets the same number at least two times, or call names off a roster instead of his normal guessing game. :P

Birthday Party FUN!

Last weekend we celebrated both Jordan & Tyler's birthdays. Vickie came in town from Reno for their birthdays, as she has every year since we moved to Vegas.

Tyler invited a large group of boys since we decided to have a party "in" this year. He wanted to take a bunch of friends to Gameworks but after finding out how much something like that would cost, we decided against that idea. We set up the casita with a few small tv's, some game systems, & a lot of cold refreshments. The boys arrived shortly after we got home from Soccer practice.

I didn't realize how many people were actually there until I went out back & did a head count so I could order what I thought would be an appropriate amount of pizza for these STARVING, growing young men. Ten boys & seven pizzas later, there were still a few left hungry but we were headed off to the movies to see G.I. Joe.

All the boys seemed to enjoy the movie & afterwards (instead of letting them roam around Town Square like they wanted to...it's a NUT HOUSE there on a Friday night!! I never knew!) Dave & I came in both cars to pick them up & drop them each off at home. It was fun seeing a few boys from our old ward we hadn't seen in a long time.

These are the only pictures I got of the bunch. It was impossible to get them all together in one shot.

Here are a few pics of Ty on his actual birthday.

We gave him his gifts from the family that day. We love to mess with our kids & give them a hard time whenever possible, so that small cylinder-shaped present in the front is actually just a wrapped can of soda. There were a few other gag gifts, too.

Jordan's birthday party was on Saturday. He had six friends come to celebrate with him & celebrate they did!

As soon as they got here they all got a "lab coat" (essential for budding mad scientists!). They made some goggles, picture frames, & each got a name tag.

We made slime, which was either the coolest thing ever or the grossest thing ever, depending on who you asked.

We had an atom bust contest. Each of the kids would get a balloon tied to their ankle & they would try to protect it from everyone else. They had so much fun chasing one another around, trying to pop everyone elses "atoms"! It was the loudest but funnest part of the whole party, if you ask me!

Our eyeball cake turned out to be a hit. Jordan wanted red velvet cake to have more of a "real eyeball" effect.

We had some pinata issues (I think I filled it too full) & instead of breaking it open with a stick the kids had candy & toys rain down on them (somewhat painfully, I imagine....hey, I told them to stand back! LOL). After gathering up all the candy, they had fun practicing their newly acquired kazoo skills with one another.

We had plans to make an exploding volcano but the time simply went too quickly. Overall it was an extremely fun but exhausting weekend! The kids were so fun to have over & it was great seeing everyone enjoy themselves so much!