A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. Roosevelt delivered this famous speech on Dec 8th.

The quote "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy" comes from President Franklin Roosevelt's 12/8/1941 speech describing the bombing of Pearl Harbor the day before.

Interesting tidbit: "the most famous line of the speech originally read "a date which will live in world history"; Roosevelt crossed out "world history" and replaced it with "infamy", as seen in the annotated copy of the original typewritten speech from the National Archives"
The quote means that date will have a bad reputation.

SOURCE

Love This Picture!

I just loooove this picture! Ryan is coaching Adam's football team, the Toro's II, & here's their team picture. Ryan is the coach on the left & Adam is (#1). So dang cute! Ryan & Adam both had a blast this season!

Halloween 2010 Whew!

I wanted to get our Halloween report up before it was too late!

We went to a really fun pumpkin carving at our friend's house the Thurs before Halloween. It's an annual event they put on in our neighborhood & we enjoy it so much. Thanks Davis's!








Then our ward had a trunk or treat on Saturday the 30th. Ryan & I took Faith & Adam to that. Ashley went to a friends party & Sara was at a Band competition so sadly, no trunk or treating for her.

Ash & her friend dressed as boys. Ash's outfit was Justin Bieber inspired:


Adam was Lego Man:




Faith went as a diva. That's her pillowcase loaded with candy:


Since I'm turning 40 next year (yes...it's true) I decided to go with a mid-life crisis costume. I don't know what you'd call this exactly but I felt young. That's Ryan's actual high school football jersey I'm wearing btw. I think I need to dress like this more often LOL. Ryan wore his coaches tee shirt but I didn't get any pics with him. :


We hope you guys all had a fun Halloween too!!!

A Katy Perry song I want my kids to listen to!

If you haven't heard 'Firework' by Katy Perry you should. It has a great message. I love the lyrics:



KATY PERRY - FIREWORK

Firework Lyrics

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin, like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?

Do you ever feel already buried deep, six feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing?

Do you know that there's still a chance for you cause there's a spark in you. You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine, just own the night like the Fourth of July.

Cause baby you're a firework come on show 'em what your worth. Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!" as you shoot across the sky-y-y.

Baby you're a firework. Come on let your colors burst. Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!" You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe.

You don't have to feel like a wasted space, you're original, cannot be replaced. If you only knew what the future holds, after a hurricane comes a rainbow.

Maybe a reason why all the doors are closed so you could open one that leads you to the perfect road.

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow and when it's time, you'll know. You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine. Just own the night, like the Fourth of July.

Cause baby you're a firework, come on show 'em what your worth. Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!" as you shoot across the sky-y-y.

Baby you're a firework, come on let your colors burst.
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!" You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe.

Boom, boom, boom even brighter than the moon, moon, moon. It's always been inside of you, you, you and now it's time to let it through.

Cause baby you're a firework, come on show 'em what your worth. Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!" as you shoot across the sky-y-y.

Baby you're a firework, come on let your colors burst.
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!" You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe.

Boom, boom, boom even brighter than the moon, moon, moon.
Boom, boom, boom even brighter than the moon, moon, moon.

Source

It's That Time of Year Again!

Here's Adam's touchdown during his football game on Saturday. I barely caught it with the camera. Ryan is the team coach & so far they are 2-0!

Hamm & Buble

This is for my cousin Becky, who I thought about when I watched this skit because of her crush on Michael Buble
she went to his concert! Did you know Michael Buble was so funny?

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Ashley's Choir Concert!

Ashley decided to join choir this year at Poston & their first concert was Wednesday night. I couldn't help but take some video. Her choir is called Rhythm & Blue. The girls did a fabulous job!!! The songs they preformed were Sanctus, Johnny Has Gone For a Soldier & Excultate Justi. Ash loves choir & is learning a lot!

Food So Good It Could Kill You

Here are a couple of things we will be eating tomorrow:

Breakfast -



Wheat Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup (From My Time to Blossom)

Butter Milk Syrup -
1 cup white sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup butter
2T. corn syrup
1tsp. Baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla

Boil for 7 min.
Remove from stove
Stir in vanilla

Whole Wheat Pancakes -
Blend in blender for 4 min.
2 eggs
1c milk
1c. Wheat
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
3T. Oil
Also good as waffles

*We're having the waffles

Lunch -



Baked Potato Soup (From Our Best Bites)
4 baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
6 cups 1% milk
1 1/4 c. cheddar, divided
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 c. light sour cream
3/4 c. chopped green onions, divided
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled.

1. Pierce potatoes with a fork; bake at 400 for 1 hour or until tender. This step can be done in advance or you can even use leftover baked potatoes. Allow to cool. Slice in half and then scoop insides into a bowl. Discard the skins and break any large chunks into bite-sized (or smaller) pieces.

2. Place flour into a large pot and gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly, but do NOT bring to a full boil! Boiling will lead to curdled soup, and hey, no one likes curdled soup.

3. Add potatoes, 3/4 c. cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir until cheese melts and remove from heat.

4. Stir in sour cream and 1/2 c. onions.

5. Cook over low heat until soup is heated thoroughly. Again, this is a recipe where you have to be vigilant--don't let it boil and don't let it burn the bottom of the pot.

6. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with bacon, remaining cheese, and green onions.

*I'm making a bigger batch then what this recipe calls for.

I can't wait to make & eat these!!!

Cute Halloween Banner!

Made this with some friends...




I think it turned out cute :)

Happy 14th Birthday Ashley!

Ashley went & turned 14! Everybody loves Ash, even the Biebes wanted to wish her Happy Birthday:


He even dedicated a song for her:



Our Ashley was born on a beautiful Friday morning, September 27th, 1996. She is the 3rd girl in our family. She is full of spontaneous delight! She's a go-getter & nothing is impossible for her when she sets her mind to it. She loves to read & has always been several grade levels ahead in reading.

Ashley was so excited to start pre-k & learning. That 1st week of pre-k she came home & asked us, "when am I going to start reading & doing math?" It was so dang cute!

When Ashley was little she rescued her little sister, Faith, who she saw fall in our pool. Ashley is very dependable & reliable. She's a great friend. She's a great debater & can run circles around Ryan & me sometimes. She loves to give talks in church. She loves animals, plays the violin, enjoys gymnastics.

We are so grateful to have this special girl in our family!!!

Just Dance!

The youth of our stake, ages 14 to 18, put on a Multi-Cultural dance festival Saturday night. It was awesome!!! Each ward preformed dances from different countries around the world such as, Cuba, Italy, Samoa, etc.

Our ward's country was the USA. I loved our dances! You can tell all the effort that was put into this both by the youth & their leaders. We did the Virgina Reel, Charleston, the Twist/Hand Jive, Electric Slide & had a special appearance by Michael Jackson! Watch for Sara in the 1950's number with the twist & hand jive. She looked so cute in her poodle skirt & pink ladies jacket! (I should have taken a pic of the back of her jacket). All the girls were adorable! I do have to say that our ward had the best costumes!


Great job to Sara & all the youth in our ward & stake! Thanks to all the leaders, as well, for all their work on this fabulous event!

Domestic Goddess Internship

So I moved up a little in my Domestic Goddess internship! My lovely neighbor, Laura Krummenacher & I canned some chicken in my pressure canner. It was a first for both of us. Once we got going, we were surprised at how easy it actually was to do. Why did I ever wait 5 yrs to use that canner?! Thanks to Laura because if it wasn't for her I might have gone another 5 yrs!

Yay For Maddie! The Day Has Finally Arrived

Has it really been 3 months since my last blog post?! Oh well there's no better post to re-kick things off with then this one:

"The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth." (D&C 93:36)

We just want to say how much we all love & are going to miss you, Madison, as you go off to NAU (Northern Arizona University) on Wednesday. You have been such a blessing, helper to our family & a wonderful big sister!

Faith says she is going to miss you the most because you're the only sister that doesn't fight with her. Sara is going to miss wearing all your clothes & you picking her up from school. Ashley is going to miss you taking her to WalMart late in the night to buy stuff for school the next day & other fun late night things you've done. Adam is going to miss you taking him to the movies. I'm going to miss everything but especially your beautiful smile & all your help driving the kids around & running to the store for me.

While we'll miss you, we are very excited for the new adventure you are embarking on in this new stage of your life! We know fun & enriching experiences await you. NAU doesn't know how stinkin' lucky it is to have you up there!

I'm not gonna lie, as a mother, I have so many emotions right now it's crazy! This video really express it all *tear*



Here's Maddie's 18th B-day video. Give it a look-see. Where did the time go?

Mt View Band 'Eclipse' VIP Midnight Showing!

Sara is in the Mt View High School band & they are putting on a special VIP 'Eclipse' midnight showing Wed June 30th at 12:01am - Doors open Tue June 29th at 11pm! It's in a private theater at AMC Mesa Grand (Stapley & Baseline). Since it's a private theater you wont need to wait in line all day for your seat. They are giving away great prizes including Cast autographs & twilight merchandise! Tickets are limited so hurry & order yours today! Tickets are just $15.00 & the proceeds go directly to the band.

If you are interested give Sara or I a call at 480-298-5346 or leave a comment with how many tickets you would like. Please tell anyone who you think would be interested in this. It's going to be tons of fun & it's really great not to have to wait in line all day for a seat!

Why I Have a Count Down Clock for Meeting Stephenie Meyer on My Blog

Some of you might know I'm into Twilight. Well this past Monday I received some of the most exciting news ever!!! I will be going to meet Stephenie Meyer on June 18th all thanks to my friend Alison Genet owner of Twifans.com. Not only do we get to meet Stephenie, we get to interview her, have lunch with her & spend the day with her!

How did this happen you might ask?

On Monday Stephenie Meyer made a surprise announcement on her website:

May 17, 2010

Hey guys,

I want to do something different with publicity for this movie release. For Twilight, I did the normal press junket, for New Moon I got to go on Oprah. Both of these were fun, exciting experiences. However, they both had the same drawback—the interviews were designed for a very broad audience, and because of that, most of the questions were about things you guys have known the answers to for years. I feel like all of the basic questions have been answered, and for Eclipse I want to focus on the more specific questions of the readers. To accomplish that, I'm hosting my own mini-junket with a few fansites. It will be held on Friday, June 18th, the week before the L.A. premiere.

Unfortunately, I can't talk to every single site, and I want to keep this as low key and enjoyable as possible. So I put all the U.S. fansites in a hat (for logistical reasons, we had to keep this in the country) and drew out four names.




The names I drew were:

* Twilight Series Theories (twilightseriestheories.com)
* Twilight Source (twilightsource.com)
* Twifans (www.twifans.com)
* Letters To Twilight (letterstotwilight.wordpress.com)

Each of these sites is invited to send two members of their staff (or one member and a guest) to our fan-centric mini-junket. You will be contacted shortly by my assistant, who will give you all the specific information. In the event that any of the sites is unable to send representatives, I've already drawn four back up sites, which I will post if it becomes necessary.

I'll answer all of your questions (and your readers questions, if you want to poll them) about the Eclipse Movie, and the Bree story, as well, which will have been out for a few weeks by then. We'll have lunch, hang out, and hopefully have a fantastic time. I hope you all can make it!

-Steph

I still get chills reading that!

Sooooo I get to go represent Twifans.com along with my friend Alison, the site owner. Thank you Alison! There is no way I can ever repay you for this! Also, thanks for making this super duper "Countdown to Stephenie" widget to celebrate the occasion.

Maddie's FCCLA Award Presentation at Mesa School Board Mtg

Tonight Madison was honored at the Mesa School Board meeting by Superintendent Cowen for her Gold Award Chapter Showcase win, representing Mt View High School, at the State FCCLA (Family, Career & Community Leaders of America) competition this spring.

To win she created a huge scrapbook (like 45 pages) of the years activities for all the different FCCLA programs at Mt View, like culinary arts, child development, fashion & interior desgin. The scrapbook has to meet strict criteria in appearance & content & they do a 10 minute oral presentation to the judges. They compete against all the different schools statewide. Believe me it takes hours & hours.

It's Madison's 2nd year being honored at the board meeting as she was the State FCCLA Showcase Gold winner last yr as well.

Last year she went on to compete at the FCCLA National's in Nashville, TN & this year she will be competing in Chicago. She's so excited to be going to Chicago! Whooo Whooo!

We love you Maddie & are so proud of all your hard work & all you've accomplished! You're the BOMB.COM!!!!!!!!

On Monday, we went to a CTE (Career & Technical Education) award ceremony where Maddie was awarded a certificate for completing the 2 year CTE program in Education Professions & recognized for her State FCCLA Gold Medal win at that ceremony as well.

"Out of the Park!"

Adam made a home run tonight in his baseball game. Look for him on the D-Backs in the near future! I love the "out of the park" cheering by Trevor C.:

The Justin Bieber Guide for Old People

With Bieber fever sweeping the planet I figured we, well those of us over 15, could use a little "Justin Bieber 101". Who is this kid that was recently on Saturday Night Live, has an upcoming concert tour, & will be a guest on Oprah in the near future? Luckily I found this "Justin Bieber Guide for Old People" to help us out:

Justin Bieber is the first "YouTube Sensation" to make it big:

Back in the old days, pop stars like Lady Gaga came up the hard way: After years of performing thankless gigs in small clubs they would eventually be signed to Island Def Jam Records. But Justin Bieber was signed to Island Def Jam Records just because a YouTube video of 12 year-old Bieber covering Ne-Yo in a singing competition went viral. A prominent manager randomly stumbled on it and now he's chilling with Usher. Bieber is in fact the first real YouTube sensation to cross over to the mainstream, and much of his appeal comes from this grassroots creation myth. (No, Susan Boyle doesn't count since the only people who enjoy her sincerely are you Old People.)

Justin Bieber is Canadian:

In the grand tradition of such Old People favorites as Alanis Morissette and Rush, Justin Bieber hails from Canada. He was raised in low-income housing by a very Christian single mom in Stratford, Ontario (Pop. 32,000). Now he lives in Atlanta, which you may remember from the time they seceded from the Union during the Civil War.

Justin Bieber Owns Twitter:

Perhaps you have experienced the phenomenon of logging into Twitter to see what brands of wine your friends are drinking only to be confused by the fact that "Justin Bieber" is a trending topic. He almost always is, for no reason except that every eleven year-old girl on Twitter appears to only tweet about Justin Bieber. (And everyone else is tweeting "Who is Justin Bieber?") Bieber has more than a million followers and, according to Perez Hilton, he gains 11,000 new followers daily. (FYI Old People: Perez Hilton is a widely-read blog famous for always being right.)

Justin Bieber Has Famous Friends Even You May Have Heard of:

You might know Ludacris best for the women he has in so many different area codes. But a new generation knows Ludacris only as Justin Bieber's friendly rapping sidekick on the summer hit "Baby". ("She had me going crazy, oh I was star-struck/she woke me up daily, don't need no Starbucks.") And Usher, who signed Bieber after hearing him sing just once, said of Bieber, "Sometimes he's like a little brother or a son to me." Bieber's toured with Taylor Swift, and sung the opening line on the new "We Are the World" remake that is probably on your "Chillaxing" iTunes playlist.

Justin Bieber's Hair is His Most Distinctive Physical Feature:

Justin Bieber Has Three Songs Every Young Girl Knows:

Bieber's first album, My World was released in November of last year. It went platinum. But all you need to know are the three hit songs and their corresponding music videos:

• "One Time" - The one where Usher calls Justin on his iPhone.
• "Baby (Ft. Ludacris)" - The one with Justin and Ludacris in a bowling alley.
• "One Less Lonely Girl" - The one at the laundromat.

Justin Bieber Literally Causes Riots Among Said Young Girls
You are old enough to remember the Watts riots, right? Bieber had one of those! Last November, during a scheduled appearance at a Long Island mall, a riot broke out among the 3,000 attendees when Bieber wasn't allowed to perform because of safety concerns. A handful of fans suffered minor injuries and an Island-Def Jam VP was arrested for not tweeting that the show was off. Yes, Old People, it's time to wake up to our scary new world where a YouTube sensation has supplanted social justice as the only reason anyone riots, and you can be arrested for not tweeting. Welcome.



SOURCE

In complete honesty I didn't need this guide at all... I've been fully Bieber educated by my darling Ashely who is JB's #1 fan & I MAY even have one of his songs as my ring tone but hopefully the rest of you who aren't so lucky found it helpful.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Happy Birthday to my dearest husband! Words can not adequately express how blessed I am to have you for my companion for the eternities. You're not only a wonderful husband but your a SUPER dad! We love you! XoXoXoXo

Eclipse Director Tweets Funny 'Eclipse' Trailer Spoof!

David Slade, who is the director of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, just tweeted this funny Eclipse trailer spoof:

Happy Birthday Faith!!!

Our sweet little Faith Alice is 10 yrs old today! I can't believe it! Faith is our 4th child & the 4th daughter. She was born at our home on East Pepper Place Monday, February 28, 2000 at 11:42pm. She was due on leap day, February 29th, but came just 20 min before. She is our only child that came right on time on her own. I wasn't even expecting her because I was always overdue. I remember the day clearly because I started to sort through all the old baby clothes thinking I still had a week or so to go when I started feeling mild contractions. Needless to say I was shocked.

She is a bundle of fun & a great big sister to Adam. Faith is a VERY organized person. Her school teacher is amazed at how perfectly clean her desk always is & she hates to have a thing out of place in her bedroom so it works out great that she shares with Madison bc Faith helps keep Madison organized whether Madison likes it or not.

A story we will never forget about Faith was when we went on a Disney Cruise 7 years ago. Faith was a quiet & shy 3 yr old at the time. My mom went with us & Maddie & Sara stayed in her cabin. Ryan & I were in a different cabin, a few doors down, with Ashley & Faith.

Early one morning our cabin phone rings waking us up. It's a the ships security asking us if Faith is in our room. I thought that was strange...of course she's in our room...silly me...I said "yes" thinking Faith was in bed but when I checked she was NOT there or anywhere in our room! Ahhhhhh!!!! I went & checked my Mom's room & she wasn't there either. Apparently Faith woke up on her own, unlocked the door & decided to go visit Grandma but couldn't find the right room nor could she find her way back to our room either & was found wandering around. She wasn't telling the Security her name so they were calling rooms of people with 3 year old girls to see who she belonged to.

Not only was it bad enough that she ran off without us even knowing but the cherry on top was she was only wearing a pull-up at the time. Yes, she was out roaming the halls in only a PULL-UP! It didn't even hit me she was only in a pull-up until I saw the Disney t-shirt that she was returned to us in, along with the stuffed animal they gave her. What an experience.

Faith loves softball, collecting stuffed animals, fixing her hair & color coordinating her outfits. She is a great help to our family.

We love you Faith!!!!

'Team Jacob' This One's For You

Once again I was doing a little too much You Tube surfing & came across this little gem that merges two of my favorite things Twilight & Taylor Swift songs. Personally, I like my men cold, dead & sparkly but for all my Team Jacob friends (wait...I have team Jacob friends?) this one's for you:



If you need the lyrics here they are in this video below:

Funny Super Bowl Commercials 2010

A lot of people just watch the Super Bowl for the commercials or DVR it so they can fast forward the game & go straight to the commercials. Well none of us here at our house even watched the game so I went online to check out some of the ads we missed...

Dave Letterman, Jay Leno & Oprah:



People are calling this one historic. If you know anything that's been going on in the late night wars the last few weeks it is pretty colossal.

The Green Police:



Ok this one totally reminds me of "no burn" days. Neighbors turn neighbors in if you are burning your fireplace on the wrong day. Seriously it happens.

Snickers Betty White:



Don't ya just love Betty White! She's hilarious! And wasn't that the guy that played Fish on Barney Miller?

Volkswagen with Stevie Wonder & Tracy Morgan:



Love the ending!

Mans Last Stand:



Nuff said.

Etrade:



Awwww...so cute!

Doritos - Weight Room:



This wasn't Doritos only Super Bowl commercial, they had 2 more that were also great but I really related to this one...hmmm...wonder why?


Did you have a favorite one? You can view all the commercials listed quarter by quarter here.

Real Life Farmville

First of all, if you don't know what Farmville is, it's a virtual game on Facebook where people have their own farms & take care of their virtual crops & animals just like a real farmer. Some of our kids (cough,,,Sara) are obsessed with it. Well, today we participated in real life Farmville...

Our family did our service for Disney's "Give a Day. Get a Disney Day" volunteer program. If you participate in an approved service opportunity Disney will give you one day free admission at Disneyland!

We went to Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in Phx & helped the Sisters of St Benedict with gardening. It was a wonderful service opportunity for our family! We are thankful to the Sisters of St Benedict for letting us come & work in their beautiful garden. Click here to learn more about Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery & the Sisters of St Benedict.

We helped weed the garden, dug 2 holes for planting trees, & aerated the tree border alongside the property.

Adam Ryan Clarkson

Adam turned 7 on Saturday! Sorry to get this up so late...

Our sweet little Adam was born at 6:19am on Thursday, January 23, 2003 at Chandler Regional Hospital. He weighed 9lbs 5oz & was born at 38 weeks, which was the earliest my doctor would induce me at.

We didn't find out what we were having & I just went with the odds & took pink baby clothes & a pink blanket to the hospital. Ryan had to run & exchange them. Hey, after 4 girls I had given up on ever having a boy. I'll never forget the amazing feeling when the Doctor said it's a boy! Squeeeee! I was so happy I even applauded. I think Ryan was in shock. My mom was there, it was 2 months to the day of my dads funeral. I felt like he was there too.

Adam has been entertaining us ever since. He loves to sing. He sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" before he really talked. I remember thinking how funny it was that here this kid can sing Twinkle, Twinkle but doesn't really talk. He also used to hum himself to sleep in his crib, he was the easiest of all our kids to put to sleep because of that.

Adam is the spitting image of his dad Ryan, down to being our only child with brown eyes & brown hair just like his dad. He even has his dad's olive complexion & long tounge that he can touch his nose with. He also has his dad's gentle personality.

Adam loves sports of any kind.

He had so much fun hitting home runs his last yr of tee-ball this past season. It was so cute! He would set a goal of how many home runs he wanted to hit each game. He would it 2 or 3 depending on how many times he got up to bat. He is now looking forward to coach pitch this spring.

He really enjoyed football this past fall too. It was his first time playing. He learned a lot & even scored a few touchdowns. His favorite though was defense & getting the flags of the other players. We had a ball watching all of his games!

This summer he's going to try wrestling.

Adam tries hard to choose the right & be kind to his sisters. He tries to forgive & turn the other cheek.

Adam is always asking questions. I really think Adam's favorite words are what, why, where, when, how, & who. What's the biggest whale? How big is the earth? How many people are on the earth? Why did people in the bible used to live so long? Why can't I have a facebook? The list goes on & on. He loves to learn, read & he's enjoying 1st grade.

We love Adam & are so glad to have him in our family! Oh, one thing I forgot, of course we named him Adam because he was the first boy.

Sara Dawn Clarkson

Today is Sara's 15th birthday! We love Sara & want to thank her for all the joy & light she brings into our home!

Here are a few fun facts about Sara:

Sara was born at home in Mesa, Az on Sunday, January 8, 1995 at 10:30am. It was a beautiful day. She weighed 11lbs & 12 oz. She was my shortest labor at just 3 hours but very sharp contractions (probably because she was so big they had to be extra strong to squeeze her out). She is the second oldest out of 5 children.

Sara owes getting the name "Sara" to Madison. She was originally going to be named Eden Ashley instead of Sara Dawn. My mom kept Madison while I had Sara & when she brought Madison over to see her new baby sister after she was born my mom asked if we had changed her name to Sara. I said, "No, why?" & she said that Madison had been talking all about her baby sister Sara & how the baby was named Sara. Ryan & I decided not to disappoint Madison & went with the name Sara, with Dawn as the middle, which is my middle name.

Sara was quite an independent girl at home, she learned to get her own drinks, use the microwave, make sandwiches very early on. She could do her own pony tails by 5 years old.

Her nick name is "Sarasponda" or "Sponda" for short.

She loves sports, music & signing. She also loves sewing & is a great artist. She does well in school & keeps good grades. She is a Poston peer mediator & on the NAL team. She participates in band playing the flute & harp. She likes to set goals & challenge herself. She earned her Young Women Recognition award while she was a beehive, something which is very hard to do. Also, Her farmville farm is amazing!

Sara has great faith & it has been so special to see her exercise her faith at certain times in her life.

Sara loves life, friends, family & having fun. We love you Sara - Happy 15th Birthday!!!

Here's a little Birthday video we made to celebrate 15 amazing years with Sara:

Made of Awesome Maddie & Sara in the Fiesta Bowl Parade!

Here is Maddie & Sara along with the Mt View band & color guard in the Fiesta Bowl Parade today (1/02/2010) in downtown Phoenix. It was so fun to get to watch them & to have both Maddie & Sara in it was double fantastic! They did an excellent job!! The song the band was playing is called "On Parade".

Sara on Fox News!

The Fox morning show was out on the field today with the Mt View band & you can see Sara playing the flute in one of the clips they aired. We are hoping they post the clip with Maddie & the Color Guard but nothing so far.

Good luck today girls! All your hard work all will pay off!!

Tune in around the 59 sec mark to see Sara:

"The Mountain View High School Toro Marching Band of Mesa, Arizona will compete in the 32nd Annual Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Fiesta Bowl National Band Championship on January 1, 2010, at 1:00 p.m

Each year, one school from Arizona is selected to perform in the National Band Championship as the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Honor Band. While Mountain View will hold this honor for the 32nd Annual National Band Championship, a second Arizona band from Catalina Foothills High School in Tucson, Arizona, will also be competing in this year's event.

For ticket information on the Fiesta Bowl National Band Championship presented by University of Phoenix, please call 480-350-0911 or visit www.fiestabowlbandchampionship.com"

SOURCE