So much to blog (I mean brag) about

These past two months have been crazy around here and I really have tons to blog about but it has been hard to take the time.

About a month ago we went to Youth Conference up in Kolob Canyon. It was gorgeous. I ended up helping with the games but my kids( which by the way are the greatest) had a great time and loved it.

Here is Ang, isn't this just the cutest picture of her.

This is of her getting ready to rappell and she really didn't want to do it but she DID it.

This picture shows her a little more happy about it. What a great experience.

This is one of the games that they were playing at Youth Conference. Todd is on the left.

This picture is of Todd rappelling. He is so much more confident about it than Angela but I think he has done it before.

I really need to update you on so much more. We have had so many great adventures that I need to share. I am so glad that my kids have opportunities like this.

I'm Back!!!

Yes, I am finally back from vacation to Disneyland and Six Flags in California. It was great. I will post pictures real soon and tell you all about it. We just arrived home last night. My oldest daughter turns 21 tomorrow. My husband has his birthday next Sunday, so as you can imagine it is crazy around here.

Grades are in- I don't know if any of you have been wondering but we did receive our grades. My son did real well with it being his first year in college. My daughter passed her Math class. We are all so happy. This is the second time for her to take the class and she passed with a B+. We still need to celebrate. I made the Deans List again and was very happy about that.

PLT test results- Some of you may remember me complaining about taking a test a couple of months ago that took forever, well I finally received my scores from it. It is a test that is required for me to pass to become a teacher. I PASSED!!!!! I was ecstatic to find out that I passed and did quite good on it. SO HAPPY to not have to take it again.

My Student teaching Placement- Some of you also asked me to let you know when I received my placement for student teaching in the Fall. I finally did. I will be student teaching out at the Enoch Elementary school. I will be student teaching in first grade and then in fourth grade. I was a little unhappy because I asked for Iron Springs Elementary and didn't get that school and now I am quite concerned about having enough cars for all of my kids to get to school and home again. I just hope it all works out. I am very excited to student teach and think it will be great to learn about first grade and fourth grade. More Adventure!!!

I will soon post pictures and information about our Disneyland Adventure of 2009

Where all dreams come true

We are so excited for this week to come. We have had reservations for a couple of months now to take our kids and go to Disneyland. We weren't going to go this year and go somewhere else but we have received a great deal because my husband is in the military. (one we can't refuse)
We all need a break and a vacation. That song " I Need a Vacation" comes to my mind.

We are planning on going to the beach, the Newport Beach temple and Disneyland for three days. My kids are getting older and I thought that they wouldn't be as excited to go but they just love Disneyland or any theme park for that matter, so they are quite excited. We are driving which won't be as fun as flying but we can get there in about 7 hours, so that isn't too bad.

I am going to need to get some healthy snacks, because we usually have junk food on these trips and I don't want to gain back the weight that I have just lost. I usually makes cookies, buy chips and drinks, but I am not planning on doing that. It will be hard to eat like I have been doing so if any of you have ideas, let me know. It is always hard to watch what you are eating when you are on vacation, because you should be able to splurge, right???
Have you been to Disneyland or Disney World?? What is your favorite part or favorite ride?
Like my kids say" I'm going to Disneyland."

Week in Mesquite

This week is Spring Break for me. It has been full of many fun things, but I sure need a day to just rest.

This week started out by Mike and I going to SLC and staying overnight and just spending time together. We also had a chance to go and see my family and his parents. It was nice to just visit and also to spend time away for a day or two.

I spent Friday all day shopping in St. George with Karrilyn. It was nice. She also really needed a break and there is no place to shop here that is for sure. In the evening we had some friends over for homemade ice cream. It was very delicious. Mike makes the best homemade ice cream and carmel.

Today we have spent the entire day going to Manti. It was a long day but well worth it. We were able to go and do a session at the Manti LDS temple. It is so gorgeous not just on the outside but inside too. I always gain so much by taking time to go to the temple. The only bad part was spending the entire day in the car.


Tomorrow, is Sunday. Yeah, I just wish that I could just take it easy all day. Tomorrow night we will be going to the Draper Temple dedication that is being put on at our stake center. I am excited because all of our kids will be going except for our youngest.

On Monday morning I will be driving to Mesquite. What is there to do there???? I will be spending four days there with everyone that is in the block at SUU with me. We have rented a condo and will be observing at some of the schools there. It is part of our curriculum.

How do you think my family will do without me?? I have never been gone this long without my husband going on a trip with me. It will be interesting.

Have any of you been to Mesquite and if so is there anything fun to do besides gambling? I hope that I will end up having an ok time. It is going to be strange being with all 20 year olds. I hope that I fit in ok and that we can find something fun to do.

I will be back Thursday night so don't panic if I don't post until then. Wish me luck.

Do you have bunnies at your house??

Through the years my kids have done and said some real funny things. I am sure that you all of you have had similar experiences.

I remember the year when Karrilyn was about three and we lived in a small home in Riverton. One day she was playing in the kitchen and she said, " Mom there is a cute little bunny under our stove." She insisted that there was and to come and look. I looked under the kitchen stove and there was a mouse. It ran out and we all screamed. Well, that was our cute little bunny. We all laughed and laughed. It was so funny.



Another time we were going to California to Disneyland and we also went to Universal Studios with the kids. When we finally got to Universal Studios I think everyone was tired. We found a ride that was supposed to be real fun and exciting. It was called the Jurassic Park Ride. We decided that the kids would love this ride. As we went down to get on it and stand in line, two of our kids started crying and whining. It looked to scary for them and they did not want to go on it. It was a long hour and a half wait with two girls whining and crying about how scared they were to go on it. We did however finally all go on this ride, and after we got off the ride our girls said," Can we go again, that was fun." That is just how it is. You would have thought we were abusing them or something but they were sure excited and wanted to go again afterwards.

One other time, my husband and I decided to take the kids to see Stuart Little when it came out to the movie theater. We had heard that the kids would love it. We thought it would be a great Family Home Evening activity. We pulled into the movie theater and our son Todd who was probably about 5 or 6 at the time said that he didn't want to go. He said that he heard from the other kids at school that the cat in it swears. We told him that we had heard that it was fine and that we were going to go and enjoy it. You would have thought that we were abusing him because he was whaling and crying. Mike had to forcefully pick him up and drag him into the theater.

The kids ended up thoroughly enjoying the movie and wanted to buy it for ours to keep. What our kids put us through some times. All we wanted was to have a fun activity and he had decided that it was not going to be fun. KIDS.

I am sure that all of you have experiences or things that your kids have said that you still laugh at today. I am glad for these great memories to look back on. Share some of yours.

Our Trip to Disney World

Here are some pictures of the condo that we stayed at while we were in Florida the week of May 22-30. It was very nice. We arrived at our hotel at about 11:30 pm on Friday night and it was pouring rain. Our condo was great. It was completely furnished so we were able to make some of our meals at the condo and then one meal a day we ate out.

Saturday 24th- Hollywood Studios

On Saturday the 23rd we went to Hollywood Studios at Disney World. We had a great time. Here is a picture of Mike and Todd and AJ. This picture looks like a real city but it isn't

Here is a picture of me and Karrilyn and Angela at Hollywood Studios.

This is a picture of the Hollywood Hotel which is one of the coolest rides at Hollywood Studios. It is like a haunted house and you are put in an elevator but you are sitting down and go up and down real fast and can see out of the hotel while you are going up and down. It is great fun but scary at first. I quite breathing the first time and of course we went many times.

This is a picture of us waiting for the Haunted Hotel ride. You can tell who is excited to go on it and who is scared..... Angela was real worried at first but then after going she was begging us to go again and again.

A cool picture I took in Florida as the sun was going down. It was beautiful.

Sunday 25th- Day with Burrs

On Sunday the 25th, we went and spent the day with some friends that have moved to Florida in the last year. We went to church with them and had lunch and then they took us and showed us around their place. They took us crocodile hunting and we actually found an alive one and one dead. We also found an armidallo, rattle snake, and cool birds.

Here is a picture of us and our friends outside of the small visitor center that they have at the cattle ranch that the church owns there in Florida. Our friends moved there because Jan was given a job on the cattle ranch. It is very interesting. We all enjoyed our tour around the ranch. We especially loved seeing the crocodile and their swimming hole. My kids would die for a swimming hole like that.

We didn't get a picture of Nancy in the picture with the whole group so I made sure I got one with just her. It was so nice to see her again even though she really didn't care for getting her picture taken.

Monday 26th - Animal Kingdom

On Monday the 26th, we went the the Animal Kingdom at Disney World. It was amazing. We saw many real animals as we went on some of the safari rides. Here is a rhinoceros that we saw real close up.

AJ, Todd and I getting ready to go to "A Bugs Life" . It was in 3D. How would it be to live a bugs life. This was a funny ride, even though the girls didn't think so.

At Animal Kingdom, one of the best rides was Mount Everest Expedition ride. It was a roller coaster that was going to Mt. Everest. We loved it. Have you ever been on a ride that stopped at the top. One of the times we went on this ride it stopped at the top and we didn't know why. We thought they were going to have to have us walk down if that was possible. Quite an experience. I don't think I would want to be stuck on Mt. Everest.

Here is a picture of all of us in front of Raffiki's tree at the Animal Kingdom.

We just had to go see Raffiki in person. Mike really wanted to shake his hand.

Tuesday 27th- Magical Kingdom

On Tuesday the 27th, we went to the Magical Kingdom at Disney World. I think it is probably my favorite because there is so much to do that I enjoy and so many rides. Of course we had to go on the ride "It's a Small World".

Here is a goofy picture of my kids waiting to get on the ride.

It is just not vacation without getting ice cream on Main Street at Disney World. A little expensive though but well worth it. Our family LOVES ice cream. There is not much that my whole entire family enjoys but I can say that ice cream is definitely a favorite of all of us.

The whole reason to go to Disney World. How could you go to Disney World and not see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We stood in line for over an hour to see them, but I think even though the kids and Mike and I are a little older we thought it was well worth the wait.

Wednesday 29th- Epcot Center

On Wednesday the 28th, we went to the Epcot Center at Disney World. By the end of the week I think we were all getting a little tired. This is a picture of one of the rides that we went on at Epcot. It was about our future.

Thursday 29th- Orlando temple and Melbourne Beach

We really try to go to the different temples when we travel and so we called the Orlando temple and set up a time that we could all go and do baptisms. We were able to go on Thursday the 29th. It was gorgeous and so peaceful. I am surprised how much my kids enjoy this even though there are so many other things that we are doing, they really enjoy the temple trips.

(sorry if the picture isn't so great, we dropped our camera on our trip and had to buy a disposable camera on the last two days, what a bummer)

After our trip to the temple, we headed off to go to the beach. It has been a long time since the kids have been to the beach. It took some getting used to but by the time it was time to go back they all wanted to stay.

Here is a picture of Mike teaching the boys how to body surf, or trying to while the girls are watching.

Of course Mike wouldn't let us go to the beach without me getting in too and trying to body surf. I am not too good but it is a lot of fun to play in the water and try.

Friday May 30th- AJ's birthday, movie, shopping and trip home.

We woke up and checked out of our condo and then we headed over to Downtown Disney to do some last minute shopping. We also went to the movie for AJ's birthday. We went to see Prince Caspian. It was a great movie and a great theater. When we came out to head to the airport to come home, our GPS wouldn't work any more. We were a little stressed because we had no idea how to get to the airport. We finally were able to get directions from someone and we were able to make it to the airport. We made it there in time to buy some airport food for dinner. Mike and AJ had Burger King and the rest of us had hot dogs and french fries or fish and chips. It was a very long day. We finally made it back to Las Vegas where our Expedition was and then we still had to drive home to Cedar City. We made it home about 2:30 am on Saturday morning.

This trip was once in a life time trip for us and we all had such a great time. It was so nice to get away and play together. This trip was so much fun. I have such great fun kids to help make it a great time.

My kids are getting bigger and older all the time and I am glad that we were able to go and splurge a little in Florida.

Kids, thanks for making this such a great trip. You are GREAT!