Haley on the news

Just some journaling for Haley here.
Today, her class did a little play for another class. I got to go and watch. Thank goodness for Sister Jensen from my ward, who clued me in. I wouldn't have known parents were invited otherwise.
Her class did a really good reading about Martin Luther King Jr. They did a terrific job. I even got teary eyed as I had the opportunity to listen to parts of his famous speech that they performed.

(That's her in the black shirt, kind of center.)

And yesterday, one of the local news people went to her class to read to them.

I guess the video footage didn't come out too well, but the lady, Sue Manteris, did snap a couple pictures and then they posted them on the 4:00 news.

So, Haley was super excited to say the least to have her picture on tv.

She's in the first picture, wearing the red shirt towards the upper right corner.

Those crazy boys!

Apparently, while I was trying to squeeze my workout in this morning, the twin terrors got a hold of my camera........

They even figured out how to take some video footage.

Let me interpret...."Justin, my turn!"

"no, my turn."

"Jus----tin"

They took like, 40 pictures!!! Oh, and about 8 little videos. No wonder my battery was low this evening when we went to visit the temple and walk around it for FHE.

Not bad for a Monday

Well, really--most Mondays are pretty tedious around my house.
Today, I asked my sweet neighbor to come and sit with the little guys so I could go volunteer in Ashley's classroom. Well, the teacher had a sub today, so I nixed that plan real quick.
Came back home and decided to go to the library.


The boys had fun picking out some books. I really need to take them to a story time.
After that, we decided to stop at the store for some snacks. It must have been their lucky day---a fire truck sat in the parking lot, they were pretty excited at the sight as most little boys are. The nice fireman invited them for a tour. Jason is pretty brave and got to sit in the back seat and check things out. Justin was content just to watch though. I thought it was pretty cool of the guy to do that. He certainly didn't have to. The boys would have been thrilled just to have him honk at them, or wave. It was pretty sweet.
After that, we went to the park and played, and fed the birds cheeto's....



Here's the boys running back from chasing the birds.
(sorry it's sideways, I can't figure out how to fix it).

About the time we were heading home, daddy called to let us know he was home early from work; so we all went out to lunch and did a little shopping.

Finally, after the girls got home from school we went out to dinner.

Really a great way to spend a Monday---not my usual horrifying recover the house from the weekend, hair ripping out sort of day.


How was your Monday?

blessings and miracles

This Wednesday, April 14th is a truly special day.
First, it's the 39th wedding anniversary of these two wonderful people (my mom and dad). And also because they will be going here together, for the first time.

(Redlands, Ca. Temple)

I can't even begin to express my joy and wonder at the prospect.

If you remember, Mom and I went through the temple together last year to receive our Endowments. Since then, Mom has been regularly attending the temple, and the sweet blessings have been flowing. I honestly didn't think I would live to see the day that my dad would take this HUGE step.

All my life growing up, my dad was mostly inactive. I think I can remember a few periods of activity in the church, but they were always short-lived. He's smoked since before I was born, and had other vices as well. Don't we all have some sort of vice?

This past year, his activity in the church has increased. He's accepted the calling of Sunday School president in his ward, and has generally made a huge change in his life. The sweetest blessing of all is this, his decision to go through the temple and be sealed to my mom for time and all eternity. I'm just in awe at the amazing love, grace and miraculous power of our wonderful Father in Heaven. How he pours out his blessings upon his children. I'm SO grateful for my mom and her sweet devotion and obedience. Along with our Father in Heaven, I credit her with this amazing transformation. If not for her great example and continuous obedience in attending the Temple regularly, I don't know that this would be happening right now.

My only regret is that I can't be there with them for this joyous event.

I anxiously await the opportunity to go and be sealed to them both in a couple months.

March in Review--Daddy Daughter Night

March 13th was our ward Daddy Daughter night. The theme was good manners.
There was dinner and dancing and everybody got to practice their best manners. Fun was had by all. This is the first year for Haley. I can't believe I have two girls in Activity Days already, where did the time go?

March in review--Redneck Life

So, last Monday evening we had the pleasure of attending Family Home Evening at a friends house. They had a few friends over and a fun barbecue-get together sort of thing.
And then, I had the most amazing spiritual experience of my life......

Oh. my. gosh!!! Have you ever played this game? Have you ever heard of it? It is H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S!!!!!!!
It is infinitely funnier than any game I've ever played before. The object of the game is to be the player with the most teeth at the end. So funny. You roll the dice for your redneck name, I was Crystal Belle, and Jon was Corndog Bob. You begin accumulating kids pretty early, there is no college option, you get divorced during the course of the game and then you start adding on your stepchildren who all happen to be named Darryl. Don't even get me started on the houses and cars you can purchase. Oh my heck! My redneck counterpart is apparently a bit of a lush. I was constantly losing teeth due to some drunken escapade. Believe it or not, I actually won.

Seriously, you should get this game. We played for hours!

March in Review--ward campout

I have so much journaling to catch up on for the past month or so. So, I'm playing catch-up this week.
We went with our ward a few weeks ago on a fun little overnight campout. There's this wonderful little oasis in the desert called Warm Springs. The church owns a beautiful bit of property there, it has grounds for camping out on, and a fun swimming pool and recreation area. We really had fun. Way down at the end of the path, kind of hard to see, are four adorable girls going for a walk. Ashley is one of them, and the others are some of her buds from church. It just did my heart good to see her having fun with her friends.

Our welcome sign from the wonderful missionary couples who stay there to maintain the property. Now that's the kind of mission I would totally enjoy serving some day!

There's lots of little streams running throughout. The kids just loved watching the little fishies in the water.

Jason, pointing out a fishy to some buddies.

Part of the swimming pool. The water is naturally warm, (warm springs); we went swimming for a while Friday night and while the water felt great, it was a windy evening and we froze our patooties off when we got out of the pool.

The playground. Thank goodness for this, it helped keep the kids occupied.

This amphitheater is relatively new I think. I don't remember it being there a few years ago when we went on another campout.

Tent is set up and it's time for supper--KFC--their grilled chicken is really good!!!

Can you believe it, the boys found a little sand pit to play in. Naturally, they tracked sand into the tent afterwards.

The big open field where we set up our tents.

Can't be a church function without those volleyball nets now can it?

After he finished putting up our tent, my sweet hunny helped our neighbors get theirs up. I was so proud of him for offering such sweet service.

Here's our tent, and little Jason having a snack.

Justin thinks he's king of the tent.

We had fun, other than getting a really lousy nights sleep. I think I slept on a tree root. The wind blew all night long, and we got pretty darn cold.

But we're looking forward to the next campout in October at Red Rock!

Have a blessed Easter everyone!