Think Positive!

Just wasn't a Sunday without Jonnie . . .

Jared said to me. . "it doesn't seem like a Sunday." I said, "Ya, I know." But there Jared was in a suit, we had finished church hours earlier. We had a chips and dip snack, played a game and now we were on to making dinner. Nothing was different than any other Sunday, except we were missing Jonnie. And we really missed him. Our house feels empty without him. Sadly, he will be gone at least 5 weeks out of this summer. So we will have to live with the emptiness, but I know we won't get used to it because there's no replacing that awesome kid.

Jared and Sienna had a little squabble in the foyer as we were leaving church.  Jared apologized to Sienna in the car without me prodding him.  Because he could see his weakness and apologize on his own, I switched gears with the punishment I was going to dish out.  Since Jared was sweet with his sincere apology I would be "sweet" with the punishment.  I told Jared that he and Sienna would need to play a game together.  When Jared got home, he asked if he could read her the comics.  I said that would be fine.  I left them to put Shanelle to bed and ran back to the church to listen to Jon, I came back home and found Jared and Sienna on the couch reading the comics.

Later Jon played with the kids on the floor.  They love to "rough house" with him.

 

Sometimes he lets them "win" to boost their self-confidence.

Sienna waited for her turn, I wish I could say, "patiently waited" but I can't.

Jon felt a little "beat up" after today's routine.

 

We played Parcheesi while Shanelle slept, so we could not have 2 year old interruptions. . . it was an educational experience for all.

Jared chose the game.  He left the game.  He came back to the game.  He played to win and didn't win.  But he learned a few things.  He left mid-play because he was angry and he came back before his next turn.

Mount Timpanogas. . . Late May

Just love this mountain.  This is how it looked today.  

Sienna pointed out the pink clouds in the West and the northern area of the sky, so I am sharing that picture today, too.

More of McKenzie and Shae!

We wish we could all have this "dreamy" picture of us with our spouse or spouse to be. . .

Don't they look so natural together!

 

I think this is my favorite one!

 

Don't mind the frozen lake in the background. . . it will soon thaw!

 

No green grass, so we used what every girl wants in her engagement photos, dried thistles!

 

 

 

One more . . .

 

They are such a great couple!

Had the chance to do engagements with the cutest couple getting married this year. april 30 to be exact - we are all looking forward to a great wedding. Here is a sneak peek of their photos. You look awesome Kenzie and Shae!

Blue & Gold Banquet!!!
So my new calling (I have had it for 4 months now) is a Den Mother for the Wolves. I have had 3 boys going to Cub Scouts for years, but now its my turn to be on the other side of the table. This was our first Blue and Gold Banquet and just one word can sum it up "Wow!" Our cubmaster, Eric Sevy, had a vision of the boys donating food to the food bank and doing some type of community service. Kristine Broadbent had memories of her brothers making cakes with her dad. We put the two together and came up with a cake auction, and of course we had to invite the ward so that the parents wouldn't be the ones making the cakes, judging the cakes and buying the cakes back!!!
Plus it was the 100th Birthday of Scouting and we wanted to do something special. Because this was the first time "inviting the ward" to this type of event we had no idea how it would turn out. We had 175 people there!!!! We had a spaghetti dinenr, CubCake walk for the younger kids, the cake auction for the families, and a birthday cake for the scouts. It was an EVENT, not only that is was extremely successful. People could bring food or dollars and exchange them for Cub Bucks, this is how they would buy the cakes. The boys earned over $200 in cash and another $200 in food donations. We had over 20 cakes there and the boys were thrilled for the event and almost every boy earned an award.

It was so fun!!!!

So Jared's class is having their Valentine's Day class party a day early because they get to go to the Space Center in Pleasant Grove tomorrow. (I am so excited for him to go to that.)

Anyway, I bought Valentine's for the kids over a week ago. Princesses for Sienna, 3-D sports for Jaxon and Madagascar for Jared. You never know with Jared what he is going to like, plus now he is in 6th grade. (Jonnie hated giving Valentine's out in 6th grade) So Jared looked at his box and said. . . "I want Avatar Valentine's. That sounded like a great idea. The next day I checked 2 stores while I was there for other things, no Avatar Valentines, were they not thinking this would be a great hit?!

So we made them ourselves. Jared chose the poster, I took the picture and Jonnie, Jared and I tweeked Jared's face until it was so blue that he could be found living on Pandora. I printed them out on Kodak picture paper and they came out so blue and sparkley and FUN!! Jared taped an "air head" candy to each of them, and he was ready for the fun holiday. . . one he looked forward too.

Opening Prayer

Yesterday I was asked to say the opening prayer for Sacrament Meeting. It has been a very long time since I have done that. I had more than 20 hours notice, but of course, I really couldn't concentrate on what to say until we were singing the opening hymn. I had a few things in mind. I felt I would thank Him for the beautiful area that we live, and a few other temporal things and then thank Him for some spiritual things in our lives and definitely remembering the missionaries and those suffering in Haiti.

I started the prayer, "Our Dear, Kind Heavenly Father. . . " then I couldn't say another word, for if I did it would be in a tear-filled, trembling, sobbing voice. I swallowed hard, and took several seconds to gain composure to speak. I was completely surprised at how strongly I felt the spirit. I just wanted to be sincere. In the back of my mind I thought "I need to do this more often . . ." I need to be that sincere. I totally felt like I was speaking to Heavenly Father and I thought about each phrase before I said it. I planned on saying something about our ward family, but I felt completely inspired to talk about buoying each other up and helping each other spiritually. I prayed more specifically for the missionaries from our ward and for our bishopric.

I received 3 or 4 comments about my prayer later that day. Rachele Beck was sitting on the row right next to ours. She said that Shanelle heard my voice and then quietly and quickly folded her arms for the prayer. Janet Barber said that Shanelle and Sienna were so cute today sitting next to each other on the bench before the meeting started. (Jon took all of the kids . . I came 10 minutes later.) I was glad to hear cute comments about them. Shanelle is Sienna's shadow. She follows her around EVERYWHERE and DOES EVERYTHING Sienna does. And Sienna is eating it up!! She is loving every minute of it. It is a great stage.

This is a picture taken in December.  It is a Saturday morning where Sienna had dressed Shanelle and did her hair (she was trying to achieve matching hair and outfits.)  Sienna did her own her and outfit as well.  Shanelle was LOVING it. 

Good Luck to Brad!

Let's all wish Brad the best of luck as he tackles the Lotoja - (Logan to Jackson) riding his bike the entire 206 miles!!!  You will do great and we will be thinking of you!!

 

These are just a few shots of Brad biking in Power and Bingham counties over Labor Day Weekend.

The Hammonds hit Steadman's Funland!

 

 

 

Brooklyn's Dedication!