MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!!

Winter Formal

ALL OF THIS.......

 Was in preparation

 (notice our doorman....)

 FOR THIS!!

 My angel Sister-in-lawshared memories of her favorite winter formal with Shay.  She then so graciously volunteered to help us re-create the evening for Shay and her group.  It was a HUGE task
that took her away from her family of 6 little darlings to help us.  I will be FOREVER grateful.  She was the mastermind.  Here's what we did..

 As the guests arrived we had a gentleman (Derek's best friend) at the curb to open the car door.  There was another (Derek) waiting at the house to open the front door and usher the couples inside...where yet another (nephew Taylor) was waiting with Christmas trivia for each couple.  This kept the group occupied while waiting for all 7 couples to arrive.  They were then seated...

 and served a 3 course meal  consisting of a delicious holiday salad, chicken cordon bleu with a dijon-parmesan sauce, herb roasted red potatoes, steamed green beans, roll and ended with choices of chocolate, white raspberry, pumpkin or traditional cheesecake. YUM!  The waiters and waitresses (Kinsey and Abbey)  were prompt, helpful, and super cute!

 We then had a surprise visit from....none other than SANTA!!  He came bearing gifts for all.  This is a picture of the group playing the left/right story game.  Santa read a story and they had to pass their gift whenever they heard the words left or right.  They then kept the gift they ended up with.  (They were all the same, so it didn't really matter)  They each received a beautifully packaged ornament that read MHS Winter Formal 2013 with some yummy chocolates.

 Each couple then had photo ops with the big guy...doesn't he look a little familiar???  This happened to be my favorite couple:)

Here they are getting ready to head off to the dance.  What a fun night!  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my angel SIL.  We love you!!

Halloween Recital

Kinsey had been asking to take guitar lessons for quite some time and I finally relented and found her a teacher.  She's only been going for a few months.  They had their Halloween recital today at an assisted living facility.  Isn't that a cute idea?  She's dressed as a prisoner that died while incarcerated (in case you couldn't tell)

The Halloween song is an original composition.  She used the music to a known song and insterted a Halloween poem she wrote for the words.  Kind of cute don't you think?

Good Thinking...

We had some late monsoon rainstorms in August that caused our back yard to be inundated with mosquitos.  One HOT Saturday morning, it was Kevin's turn to weed-eat the back.  He came in after a few seconds and said he was being swarmed by the mosquitos.  I told him to figure it out and get back out there....Here's what he came up with.  Keep in mind it's 100+ degrees

Gotta love this kid.  He always makes me smile.

Another Year!

We had a great summer as we made an effort to spend family time.  The weeks sure did FLY by.  We spent a fun weekend at the Arizona Grand Resort/water park, a day tubing down the Salt River, caught a few summer blockbuster hits at the theater, spent a week at the beach in La Jolla....  I like these guys.

And now we're back to the beginning of yet ANOTHER school year.  Here are my pretties.

                                                   Derek-  Freshman (HOLY SMOKES)

                                              Kevin- 6th grade (last year of elementary school)

             Kinsey- this was the first year she really cared what she looked like.  Isn't she cute

                                    Shay-junior year!!  Our first year having a driver.  Kind of different.

Intentional Summer 2012

With our children getting older, more social and just down right busy we are finding it more difficult to have quality family time.  So we had a family meeting and decided to be intentional about it.  We brainstormed fun family activities, made a list and are planning some fun family time.

Shay has her first job and is working 35 hours a week. We are realizing that we could only have 2 more years with her home (she wants to go to BYU).  She is quite "friend" focused and wants to spend all spare time with her buddies.

Derek is busy with swim team, weight class, and lifeguard training.  If he's home he either wants to read or play computer games.

At least Kevin and Kinsey still like to hang out with Mom and Dad....sometimes.

Here are a few pictures of what we've been able to do so far...we're determined enjoy these years!!

 Took a day trip to Payson and hiked the Natural Bridge.  Here it is behind us.  We didn't plan on it being cold..afterall, it's been in the 100's.  The kids resorted to hiking wrapped in blankets from the car..

 Isn't this some beautiful scenery?  Hard to believe it looks like this not that far from Mesa.  It was a fun day, good exercise and great company:)

This week we drove to our local peach farm.  We Spent the morning picking 18 lbs of peaches, tasting

all things peach in the bakery and deciding what to make when we got home.

We decided on fruit leather, peach butter, and 6 pints of canned peach cobbler filling....YUM!

We have lots more fun things planned.  If you have fun ideas that your family loves to do together leave a comment....I'd love to hear.

 

Sweet 16!

I can't believe our baby girl is 16 years old.  I can remember my first Mother's Day right after she was born.  I was so in love.  She changed me forever.  I am a better person because of her.

 We collaborated with these 4 girls parents to throw a Superstar party.  These girls all turned 16 within a week or so of each other.  They have been good friends for a number of years and we thought it would be fun to have a joint celebration.

 It started with a photo shoot.  Aren't they all beautiful.  What a great group of kids.

 They're all a little goofy to.

Driving and dating and a job....oh my!

 The parents surprised the girls by showing up at the high school in this limo to take them all to lunch.  They were literally squealing with delight:)

 Here's a pic of Shay and Kathryn while we're at lunch.  Two happy girls.

And in the limo...

 Our neighbor brought out his blue corvette for our red carpet event that evening.  Here is a group of superstars arriving.  Trying to sneak past the paparazzi..

 more stars arriving and walking the red carpet...it was "invitation only" of course

  A picture of the super cool band that played.  It took the kids a while to figure out what to do while a band is playing.....Guess they've never experienced that before.

It ended up being a fun party with about 60 kids dancing, eating, playing ping pong and hanging out. Whew!  Hope we don't have to do that again any time soon:)

Sure am grateful for my Shaypoopie, Shaylynnski, Shaybird, Shayster, ShayShay, Shaygirl.

Dance Festival

Shay and Derek had the VERY cool  (well actually it was 100 degrees today) opportunity to be in a 4 stake dance festival.  This year is Arizona's 100th birthday and we celebrated in style by showcasing different dances thru the years.  Because Shay and Derek are in the 14-15 age group together, for a few more weeks, they decided to pair up.  Made it easy to get pictures of them:)  They represented the 1970s era by dancing to Safety Dance.  It was AWESOME to see that many youth come together for a common purpose.

                                              The best looking dance couple around!!!
These 2 youtube links should show the Mia-maid/teacher dance along with the finale number.  Take a look.
http://youtu.be/lwLhY-Juo_g

http://youtu.be/1YaQd0k0ha4

Here are a few pics of a couple of the other numbers.  The twins are hoping they get the chance to participate in one of these when they are youth.

http://youtu.be/1YaQd0k0ha4

Double the fun

This is one of my favorite pictures of these two. Looks like a prom picture or something. SOOO cute. They are about 3 yrs old here.

Oops. Didn't get this picture turned. This is their first day of kindergarten. So sweet and innocent...most of the time.
Our first Easter back in AZ. This was 2007.. so they are 6 yrs old.
And look at them now. I can't put into words how much I love these two. They fill my life with all kinds of happy!
Happy birthday Two-ums!!!! We love you!

Two-ums!!

That was our slang for two of them! In honor of Kevin and Kinsey's 11th birthday we're doing a double post highlighting these past 11 yrs.

Here they are just before their debut...making me super uncomfortable and VERY excited to meet them.
Look at my babies...ALL 4 OF THEM! What was I thinking!! haha They are all so little.
Poor little Kinsey bird hurt broke her wing. I was so sad for her...and then her brother thought that since they were twins....
He would do the same thing! I think it was about a year later for him.
One of many messes the two have made. They were caught in the moment for this one...many others were discovered after the damage had been done...like flooding the kitchen!:) See the next post for the rest of the story...