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...

Ahhh....a break!

Spring Break that is! I took the week off and we focused on spending some quality family time together. The kids and I exercised together 4 days...played family games, went on hikes, zip line, visited cousins, etc. Doesn't it sound grand? (never mind that the family games and exercise sessions had to be made one of the kids chores to get it to happen) haha

Our first little adventure was a trip to Marana to spend a day with Janette and Brian. Didn't get any pics of our hike the next day. It was enjoyable, aside from the cholla cactus Derek got stuck in his calf. Good thing Brian was prepared with gloves and his little pliers to pull out all the spines. OUCH! He was a tough boy...FLIP-was his word of choice

We celebrated pi day on March 14...3.14 get it. We bought a pie and the kids then measured the circumference before we ate it:)
The last 1/2 of the week Steve took off from work and we rented a cabin with my brother's family up in Payson. We had a nice time relaxing, visiting, and eating. I sure love spending time with family! We hiked to waterwheel falls one day. Here is Kinsey testing the water. It was quite cold..it snowed in Payson the day we left. That didn't stop her from jumping in though!
A few kids even made there own little water slide.
We were lucky enough to spend an afternoon @ my Uncle Dave's cabin visiting with my cousins. The kids all had fun getting a turn on the zip line.
And, we did a little of this..it was a nice break with lots of quality time TOGETHER. That seems to be happening less as the kids are growing up.

Tale as Old as Time...

Shay had the opportunity to participate in this year's high school musical- Beauty & the Beast. She loved it! I was impressed with what a great job they did, from the pit orchestra, to the costumes, to the choreography. It's no wonder they had 5 sold out performances!Here she is in a villager scene.
One of the enchanted scenes...she's a broom:)
Another villager scene..
bowing at the end of the show...in her ball gown
Enchanted scene...don't you just love the whisk in the center..

Great job MHS!!!