Miss Emma

Miss Emma's 11th

Birthday Party!

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Emma asked me how many girls she could invite to her party, and I was like, I don't care, however many you want. So Emma invited 21 girls! UGH. My thought was, on 5 days notice we'll probably only have like 15 come... OH NO... She had TWENTY girls here for the party.

They loved "Just Dance", who doesn't?

And it made my heart happy,

that even though Emma had 20 friends here to dance with....

she kept getting her baby sister Sophie and holding her and dancing with her.

GUEST APPEARANCE:

Sis. Autumn Hunt, who use to be the music teacher at the girls school... happen to stop by our house for secret reasons (see below post "Taylor Lautner") Since she is literally a concert pianist... we had her impromptu play "Happy Birthday" on the piano (a seriously concert version) while ALL the girls sang to Emma. It was SO fun and I wish I had that moment on video!!

And since Miss Emma hates cake... she requested this yummy light and fluffy cherry cheesecake we love... good choice!

So, in the end, 20 girls was A LOT of girls to have in the house. We had the party from 6 until 11pm, because I thought that sounded fun for her (and better than a slumber party)... but at about 10pm Bruce was like, "how long are these girls gonna be in our house?". ha ha. It felt LONG, it was a little crazy, and hard to play games with that many girls here... but they played "Murder in the Dark" over and over and over again, and loved it... (BEST party game) and the party eventually ended...

and Emma loved it. So it was worth it.

We love you Emma-nem.

Taylor Lautner

Ummmmm, why is this fine looking muscle bound heart throb in my 15 year old daughters bedroom??

Well, he was delivered by these ladies:

Ha ha... in the middle of Emma's birthday party Ashlin's friends came over all sneaky while Ashlin was gone to deliver a surprise to her room. A full size, stand up, Taylor Lautner. Ashlin didn't get home that night until like 1am... she was so tired... walked in to her bedroom and screamed. She wasn't expecting a man to be standing there in the dark. ha ha, it was so funny.

She thinks he's really hot... who doesn't?

Lame-O Mom Christmas

Actually, we had a very wonderful Christmas month, in spite of all the busyness... however I took NO pictures. None, zero... no Christmas day, no Christmas temple lights memories... no photos of the day baking all kinds of goodies to bring to neighbors... Oh well.

The only photos of the whole month are below.

This is literally the best picture from our 20 minute long family photo session in the park behind our house trying for a Christmas card picture. I say to the kids... "If you just smile for FIVE minutes, we can be done, so lets all be good so its fast". Oh NO, that was too much to ask, instead everyone had a melt down.

Sophie screamed the ENTIRE 20 minute session... and it was really hard to smile with her screaming and crying... by the end Lily was crying... Dallin was crying (because I swatted him with Sophies blanket for not cooperating)... and I wanted to cry! Good times.

Here's a good one of my frustrated face. ha ha.

This one was decent, but Sophie's face is 100% facing the other way, which is probably better since she was screaming anyway.

We also have one really fuzzy picture of a really neat evening.

Emma was in the East Valley Mormon Youth choir all fall.

They put on an AMAZING Christmas concert at the Mesa Arts Center. Bruce and I went with Dallin, Logan, Lexi and my dad too see her... and the full orchestra, children and adult choirs.

It took my breath away. One of my favorite things we did this Christmas season.

The Big Day

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Logan's Baptism Day

November 27, 2010

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Logan was looking forward to being baptized for months.

The first baptism day available was at the beginning of November... and I let him know that if he waited until the end of November his Grandma Judy, Grandpa Val and all his cousins, Aunts and Uncles from Bruce's family would be here (They were coming for Thanksgiving). It was a hard decision, because he didn't want to wait any longer... but finally he decided he wanted all his cousins there for his baptism.

The big day finally came and Logan was baptized by his Dad.

It was very special to have all of Bruce's family here.

I could feel the spirit so strong in my heart during the whole program. His Grandma Judy spoke on baptism and made him this precious book about his baptismal covenants with all these pictures of Logan. Logan chose his Aunt Carrie to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. All the Vernon cousins sang "I am a Child of God" in English and Malay. (Grandma and Grandpa had gone on a mission to Malaysia and came home and taught all the grandkids how to sing it in Malay... we had them sing it because its neat to think of children all over the world just like Logan who are joining the Lords church on the earth and being baptized) It was so neat. I played the piano for the song, and Ashlin played the piano for the prelude.

Br. Smith from the bishopric gave the closing remarks and encouraged Logan to go home and write the feelings in his heart about his baptism. It was such a busy day I regretted I didn't do this with Logan. But I was looking in his journal later, and to my surprise he had written on his own, this is what he wrote:

"Today I had a baptism. Brother Smith told me to write how I felt the spirit. I felt it so much I felt like crying."

I love going to baptisms. They are my favorite meetings in the church to go to. They are so simple and beautiful and the spirit is always so strong that I get teary also. I always feel like its the Spirit speaking to our hearts that God loves these children so much and He is so happy they are being baptized. It is always so sweet and clear to me that this is really the Lords work and He's letting us know by those feelings in our heart that we are participating in His ordinances. The feelings of love and purity are so strong in the room, it is such a privilege to feel and be there for.

I have said so many times, and still mean it with all my heart... that the thing I am more thankful for then anything in this world is that I was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It changed my life. It has blessed my life more than I could have ever imagined. Everything good I have has come from that decision. It is such a joyful special moment to see each of my children baptized by the power of the Priesthood by their father. They each have been taught and understand at that moment they are promising the Lord they will obey and follow Him, and that He is promising to send His spirit to always be with them.

Here is our family on Logan's special day:

The tradition in our family is that when you get baptized you get your very own nice set of scriptures with your name printed in the leather, and a carrying case. Logan, more than any of our kids, was SO excited for his very own nice scriptures and talked about it for months. He loves them. He loves taking them to church and really reads from them every night.

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I am so proud of you Logan

We love you!

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Turkeys

(Logan's Turkey)

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TURKEY DAY

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I LOVE my new turkey I got below... is he not the cutest turkey, look at those legs.

We didn't take any pictures from Thanksgiving, the kids took a picture of Bruce and I making dinner together one sunday in November (you can see our "turkey hat" on the counter).

Bruce did help a lot this year for Thanksgiving... because all his family came to our house, HOORAY! His mom and Val, Rayeann and Steve, Kari and Kurtis and all their kiddos came down from Utah... and Brent and Colettes fam came from Queen Creek. So fun to have family staying here all week... his family loves to play cards... and I love that!

TURKEY TROT

Ashlin, Rayeann, Steve and I ran a 10k, the Mesa Mi Amigos Turkey Trot, on Thanksgiving morning. I had started running end of July. I kept expecting to get faster (and lose weight)... yah, never really did much of either... but I gained endurance and could run farther every month. Seriously, in July I could barely run 1 mile without dying. But I ran all 6.2 miles. Hooray! I did not want to go though. All of a sudden I started to feel self conscious that I was so slow and that everyone there would be skinny, then there would be me, sticking out like a sore fat thumb in dead last. But finally I decided I wouldn't be last, because I would trip whomever was ahead of me so I could atleast be 2nd to last. ha ha. Rayeann, Steve and Ashlin made me go. I was glad I did. Ashlin did great and totally creamed me.

It's always fun hanging out with all Bruce's family... yes, we hosted 28 of us on Thanksgiving, and I had seating for everyone in our entry/dining room. (we set up a few more tables in the entry way)

All 28 of us went to the movies on friday to see:

TANGLED

Lily colored this cutest picture above, in anticipation of seeing the movie. She is only in preschool and check out the detail. I love her individual stones on the tower, the small strip of blue sky at the very top, and LOVE the mustache on the guy... ha ha the cutest... I don't know why she gave him a mustache but it's SO dang cute. Lily literally spent hours on this picture. That girl LOVES to color, and I love that girl!

Just in case you wanted to catch your own Turkey next year, Logan explains how one might do this below. ha ha (We've always just caught ours out of the freezer section of the local grocery)

"Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things" D&C 59:7

"Let all thy doings be unto the Lord... and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God." Alma 37:36-37

Pies Pies Pies

Ashlin asked me to teach "Pie Making" at our house for a Young Womens Activity with the Mia Maids in our ward (14-15 year old girls) the week before Thanksgiving.

Oh yah, we love ourselves some homemade pies.

If you store buy your pies or your pie crust... LET ME JUST TELL YOU... you are missing out. Home made crust is the best part... 1) because it's yummiest and 2) it's fun to make, like glorified play dough where you eat your creation... (most especially loved by children when they each get to make their own little pie, which is why we own miniature pie tins).

Bruce cut big dowels from Home Depot for me, and our kids helped sand them... so all the girls could use and take home their own little rolling pin. (See above)

(I look retarded in the above picture, like as if this is the most intense skill I am teaching... ha ha, dork)

The individual little pies they made were so cute.

That's a lot of girls makin pies in my kitchen.

Cherry~Blueberry~Homemade Apple~

Chocolate Cream~Banana Cream~Yum!

Halloween Stress

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OCTOBER

2010

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It's time for HALLOWEEN...

And look who is so excited to be Snow White... Poor Sophie didn't pull off Snow White super great this year. Even with the cute gold headband, she was just a little too balled. I think that is why she's crying, someone told her Snow White has hair. ha ha.

Well, we seriously thought she was still the cutest... and laughed at her cute little body in the little tiny dress my mom had bought her.

She cheered up once she started getting candy, but not in time for the below picture.

So, explanation as to why all my kids look crazy. Halloween was sunday this year. STRESS. Last time it was on sunday, October 2004, we did not go Trick-or-Treating. It is super important in our family to reverence the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy. In 2004 we didn't feel that Trick-or-Treating was appropriate on sunday, however we still gave candy out to neighbors.

This year I had a change of heart. I really prayed and stressed about it all week. I felt it is the one time of year we get out there and visit with all our neighbors. We told our kids we weren't going..... then sunday came along..... and well, I decided in favor of being neighborly. So I told the kids like a few hours before dark to go find costumes in our costume box. (They were very happy about my change of heart) The above picture is what they came up with. Nothing fancy.

Ashlins BFF/cousin Macy came over too.

The kids went Trick or Treating all together just up our street. Bruce and I put the fire pit outside and invited our neighbors David and Rachelle over to hang out with us outside and pass out candy. It was so nice to sit out front and visit with them, because we never have time for that, and talk to all the neighbors. We laughed and laughed and had a beautiful night hanging out as a family.

Sophie loved eating candy all night.

I love that Bruce is wearing work gloves below...

he's not messing around about keeping that fire going, ha ha.