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.