Family Pictures!

I am never in the mood to sit and get my blog all caught up but these beauties are worth blogging about! It has been a couple years since we have gotten family pictures taken so I am in love with these. I can't wait to get more back after they have been edited! Here is a sneak peek...


LOL!! Aren't they all so cute?!? I paid big bucks for these!

Ok here's the good stuff....




I'm in love!!

First day of School

I am finally coming out of the funk I have been in. (just want to be lazy lately)
I love the beginning of a new school year. Every year my kids get so excited about buying new clothes, backpacks, lunch boxes, and the forever long lists of school supplies! I love how they set their outfits out for the fist week and a half and wake up WAY earlier than necessary! (we are three weeks into school and the newness has officially wore off...they don't want to get up!)

All the kids got GREAT teachers! This should be a REALLY good year!

Callie...she's growing up WAY TOO fast! She has officially started borrowing my jewelry and not too much longer we will be able to share shoes!!

Cody...he has had a rough start to the school year..he had a permanent tooth come in turned 90% and it has put a damper in his self esteem...so braces on Monday!! I will be glad when my happy go lucky Cody is back!!

McKenzie..she loves school! She is so eager to learn and loves that 1st grade work is harder than Kindergarten. Hope she can keep that attitude all year.

Makayla is SO excited to start pre-school next week...she had a hard time every day for the first week of school, she didn't understand why she couldn't go.

I can't believe soon ALL four of my kids will be in school all day...what the heck am I going to do with myself? I am gonna have to go out and get myself a hobby...or a job!!

I need to go out and buy myself a new camera or this is going to be the last post for a LONG time (at least with pictures)

4th of July and Big Lake trip!!

I have been putting off updating my blog because there is so much to catch up on, so I will attempt to do so for journaling purposes.

Our family Big Lake trip is always the highlight of our summer and this years trip was SO FUN!! We decided to break up the long drive and stay at Grandma and Grandpa Mowers so the trip wouldn't be so stink'n long...we picked a great weekend to do that cause Snowflake always has the best firework show for the 4th!!

This year while up at Big Lake Makayla turned 4!! Clayton and I also celebrated our 11th Anniversary on the same day!! (Makayla was the best Anniversary gift we could ask for!!)

Wish me luck!

Heading up towards Mormon Lake in the AM for girls camp. I am the Camp Director..and all I can say is "Wish me luck!"

School parties, Kindergarten performance and the Lake!

I love that school is out!!! I don't have to pack a lunch for 66 days from today!! I love that we get to sleep in, bath when we feel like it (not everyday), swim EVERY day, have sleepovers every day (not just on Fridays), I don't have to curl my girls hair everyday, wear mismatched clothes, and just be plain lazy!!! The last few days of school are always fun for the kids! Callie had a water party at the park, Cody had a movie/pizza party, and McKenzie had a game day.

Makayla joining in on the fun!

On the last day of school McKenzie had a Kinder"Garden" End of the Year Celebration. They song lots of fun songs for us parents. So cute! I had a hard time holding back the tears watching her up there all big. It didn't help that her teacher was on the side falling apart...we love Mrs. Cruz!!

Best teacher EVER!!

Makayla can't wait to be "Big" like McKenzie.

She was SO nervous being up on stage in front of everyone.

McKenzie made some really good friends!

Memorial Day weekend....

We went to Bartlett Lake for some camping and water fun!! My whole family went, and that always makes for a lot of fun and lots of laughs!!

Dedication of The Gila Valley Temple

We went to the dedication of the Gila Valley Temple this morning! (at our church building) I want to write my thoughts and feelings down so I will always remember this day. This was our first time participating in a dedication of a Temple. (Clayton, me and Callie) While getting ready Callie flooded me with question after question, she wanted to know what was going to happen. I just kept telling her, "We will experience this together." I just knew it was going to be special. It was BEYOND special!! It was emotionally filling!! I enjoyed every word spoken, every song sung, every joke told (even if it was told twice!! :) LOL it was fun to know about the inside joke that the President told...how he teased someone about chasing a bear. (there was a bear running loose last week in Thatcher, and my friend's husband is the one that saw it and called the cops. It turned out to be the town excitement for the day!)

I think I scared the poor eight year old boy sitting in front of me...there were times I was crying uncontrollably and he kept turning around looking at me. I truly believe that my dad was present and rejoicing for the people of our hometown and that just kept bringing tears to my eyes.

I think this dedication was such a great experience for me because this was happening in my hometown, my old stomping grounds!! How blessed the people of the Gila Valley are!! I really enjoyed the words spoken by sweet Sis. Crockett, about how her non-member friend went to the open house and sat in the Sealing Room and there she lost the feelings of anger toward God for taking her dad from her. This hit me SO hard...I have struggled many times since my dad has passed with being angry about it. This dedication has helped me release any feelings of that sort. How neat for a non-member to be able to sit in the Temple and feel of the Spirit in that way!!

It was also so fun to see people I knew singing in the choir, and the man (Bro. Palmer) giving the closing prayer. How fun to know the people in the service!! I loved how it was mentioned a few times, that this is a perfect time as members of the church to recommit ourselves to be better people and try to live our lives to please God in every way. And how we need to look at callings like a blessing, and to think of all the blessings that the Lord will bless us with for serving him. I have been really bad about callings lately...I have turned down callings for the simple reason of not being comfortable with them. So this really struck me...that we can recommit ourselves today forward, to trust in the Lord and he will bless you!! (hope I'm not setting myself up for something...we just got our ward split and so they are having to call people to every single calling there is in a ward) :)

I LOVED, LOVED seeing sweet President Monson joking and being cute with everyone in the audience while outside of the Temple! This is something I will not soon forget, so glad we were able to go and be part of it!! I walked away a better person.

Our life for the last month...

We LOVE to see the Temple....

We had the opportunity to go see the Gila Valley Temple!!! It was breath taking!! We went on the last day of the open house so it was a bit crowded outside of the temple, so we couldn't get any good pictures. We thought, "We'll just stop on our way out of town the next day and take some pictures." But McKenzie ended up getting sick so we hurried and packed up at 10:30 pm and headed home, so this is the only one we got...we will definitely have to go back to take some more!


Thank you Becky and Nate for letting us stay with you! Your always so fun to stay with! Thanks Stephanie and Samie for joining us for dinner, we had a blast and it was fun catching up!!

(She's gonna shoot me, but this is the only picture I have of Becky from the trip and my kids took it) Love you!!

Gone for a good cause....

McKenzie's beautiful hair is gone...She has been begging for a short hair cut for awhile now, but I was good about ignoring her. After much begging, I decided since it's for a good cause, why not do it?!? She donated it to locks of love! Plus, summer is here and I HATE trying to put sunblock on her with hair everywhere, it will be nice!! She looks so stink'n cute with short hair. She had an emotional break down after we did it, but it's starting to grow on her and she really likes it now.

BEFORE...

AFTER...

She does not do well being the center of attention, so she was not happy at the salon with everyone making a big deal about her.

My kids amaze me!

Cody got the ALL AROUND KID OF CHARACTER for the year award!! He got this award along with he best bud in the whole world, Josh!! Josh's mom and I were shocked that is wasn't the "goof off award" but his teacher says even though they are best buds they know when to stop and be serious. I'm so proud of you Cody!!



And Callie got the PRESIDENT'S AWARD FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE/Outstanding Academic Excellence award!!...signed by the President of the United States!! I seriously could not be any prouder. Callie is Miss Smarty Pants and I can't not figure out where she gets it from, but hey, we'll take it!! WAY TO GO CALLIE!!!!


The End To A FUN Season....

Cody just finished up the Spring Season of baseball. We are happy/sad about it being over. I as the mother, look forward to not having anywhere to go at night (I hate schedules) and being able to cook again. But it makes us sad because he was on such an AWESOME team! Every single boy on the team were good ball players and they were so fun to watch.

The WHOLE league on closing day.

Team/families swim party...handing out awards!

DiSnEyLaNd!!! It really is "the happiest place on earth!!"

We have been waiting for this day since December...and it finally came!! We had such a fun time!! We decided to pull the kids out of school so we wouldn't have to spend our whole day waiting in lines, and we are SO glad we did. The first couple of days we were there we could literally just walk right up to the rides, it was so nice!! With 16 kids and 12 adults you couldn't ask for more fun!

The girls got to dine with the Princesses and the boys ate at Goofy's kitchen!! So fun!

We went to a Pirate dinner show with some friends that live in California. So fun!