Campfire Songs

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For Pack Meeting this weekend we went to a camp site at the Riparian Preserve and had a camp fire program. It really feels like a campsite back there, with vegetation all around.

They asked me if Dallin could play a few songs on the guitar for everyone to sing along with. It was a busy week, and we didn't have time to look up songs/practice... so the day of I told Dana we might just sings songs without the guitar. 

But luckily football practice was cancelled that day, so Dallin got home early, which gave us an hour. I was really impressed with his guitar skills. He didn't need any time to learn the songs, but could play them as soon as we found the chords. It more took an hour to decide songs/find chords on line and make sure I could lead on the right pitch. I was so proud of how he has progressed recently and impressed by his guitar skills tuesday. Way to go Dallin!

Warning: Red eye edit gone bad below on Logan

ha ha.

Infidel

If you are looking for a good book to read, here it is:

I just finished this book. Even though it was sad, it was so eye opening that I couldn't put it down. It was so powerful. My cousin Emily lent it to me. I was wishing I was in a book club, because as soon as I finished, I just wanted to talk about it! 

Summary:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.

I knew so little about the Muslim Faith before. 

It made me realize again just how lucky I am to be born in this country. Whatever trials I think I have gone through, 
are nothing in comparison.

If you read this, tell me!!

Then lets talk.

Senior Prom

Waiting with her brother for the date to arrive...

 (FYI- this dress use to be sleeveless, but Sis. Webb cut length off the bottom to add sleeves to the dress. Genius)

If those pictures looked really classy...

this is what was actually going on out front as the date arrived...

Bouncy Basketball court!

ha ha ha

An Adult

Last week Ashlin turned 18.

How do I even parent an adult?

She wants to know if she still has a curfew. Aaaah.

 Homemade belgium waffles for breakfast...

then Bruce and I took her out to Cheesecake Factory for lunch.

So many emotions go through my mind as I see my first little baby grown up. One of the most difficult is this:
I AM NOT BETTER YET!

What I mean by that is, every year I think I am going to do better at this or that, I think I am going to handle situations better, I have all these goals for myself.... but then somehow she is an adult now before I ever became the mother I dreamed in my mind I would be.

 But I am so proud of who she has become! If you could hear the spiritual insights she shares every Family Home Evening, you'd know why I am so thankful for this daughter.

--HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLIN--

Friday night she had a party here.

Because of the dreamy client Bruce has with the inflatable toys business... we got a bouncy basketball bungee thing. It got here friday night... and our awesome buddy left it here until sunday. 

The kids loved it... all... day.... saturday....

They begged to sleep out on it.

Don't think I am that awesome. Since it was in the front yard, I didn't feel safe leaving them out there. We laid out there forever on it (Dallin, Logan, Emma, Lily & I all snuggled together) The boys bugged us while Emma and I laid there singing songs until almost midnight. Then when they all feel asleep, I went inside (to read my fascinating book "Infidel") and wait for Ashlin to get back from prom. At 2am I woke the kids, and sent them to their own beds.

Triathalon

Last weekend Dallin did a triathalon.

Bishop Rengifo and Br. Dewitt took him and Isaac.

Isaac is a track/cross country runner... and they both talked big about beating each other. In the end, they finished 30 SECONDS apart from each other. So close. Isaac won, but Dallin beat him on the run portion. Apparently Isaac pushed too hard on the bike portion. The only training Dallin did was going to football and wrestling training most days after school. He finished 55th out of like 300+ boys his age. So he did good. Way to go Dallin!

My Boys

Dallin had a Court of Honor sunday night.

I love him. I love Scouts. Dallin is a good boy. I am so proud of him and his desire to make good choices. He never complains about going to anything church related. And is so responsible with his priesthood duties.

And I love Court of Honors.

I love hearing about all of the stuff the boys do.

Our ward has some great leaders! Bruce worked on the scout slide show for hours on sunday. He couldn't find the perfect song for it, so I said, "Don't put sound on it and let Dallin play the guitar live with it"

Dallin got a new steel string acoustic guitar for his b-day. He played a medley of songs with the video : a hymn "If you could high to Kolob", and the Beatles songs "Blackbird".

He did great. I love him.

FUNNY THING- Logan asked me if he could wear this fake mustache to the Court of Honor, so I let him. Even though Emma grooooooaned and said, 

"MOM- why are you letting Logan wear that??!"

Then during our funny Bishopric member's closing remarks {Br. Tringham} at the Court of Honor he was saying how amazing it is to watch these boys grow through the years in the scouting program. Then he stopped and said, 

"Like it seems just the other day that Logan Vernon was only a kid, and now he's sitting here with a full grown mustache" 

ha ha ha. It was so funny.

{self portrait by Logan}

**very important.....
SHOUT OUT TO BRUCE:
Bruce is the Scout Master. And even though I don't have a picture of him that night, he gave out most of the awards. He prepared something wonderful and funny to say about each boy. (and made at least one of the moms cry) He was so clever and witty and touching. He had spent HOURS that day working on the video, and was having technical difficulties... then he couldn't find the bag of awards and was so stressed looking... but he found it, and the evening turned out wonderful. As I watched Bruce up there my heart was so full of love for him. We have this little troop of scouts, much smaller than a lot of wards. But that man of God Bruce is at every meeting. He gives everything to his calling. I am so so proud of him. He is so good. It is such a beautiful thing. Some people might think that since there are only a few boys, its not as important. But all service in the end is for the Lord, and "serving the one" is how the Lord taught us to serve. So Bruce- I love you so much. Thank you for serving the Lord, and the few boys you have, with all your heart.
♥♥♥

(Bruce on the bottom carrying the load)

#1

Emma has been obsessed with volleyball as of late.

Every night she begs us to go out front and play with her.

All because of the church young womens volleyball season.

But the biggest news is our ward 12-13 year old girls team...

 won the stake tournament!!

-UNDEFEATED ALL SEASON-

Wooo-hooooo

I am now putting her in some summer volleyball camps, 

she is so excited!

Birthday Boy

.......Fifteen.....

(picture Dallin took of himself and edited in digital photo class)

Last week Dallin was the birthday boy. On his big day we did the usual...

-Made a fancy breakfast of his choice 

(JUEVOS RANCHEROS w/ chorizo)

-Bruce got him from school and 

took him out to lunch

-Made dinner of his choice 

(country style ribs & corn on the cob)

-took him shopping for his b-day gift

Then friday night he had a BIRTHDAY PARTY. 

Dallin kept telling us he had friends at school, but at home he just hangs out with the same couple guys all the time (Zack and Isaac). I was a little worried many kids would show up... but then like 25-30 kids came. Turns out he does have friends, ha ha! There were kids everywhere... out front with the Jumbo basketball hoop and snow cone machine, in the living room chatting listening to music, in the family room watching Spiderman. Emma & her friends were in the basement. 

These ladies did a stinking cute job helping me frost/decorate all of the birthday cupcakes in the kitchen during the party.

Then I was scared of the teenagers, so I convinced them to walk the platter in to Dallin in the living room so he could be sung to.

 I am nerdy, but I love having a bunch of kids over. It doesn't stress me out. It makes me happy to hear a house full of people.

Dallin was a lucky duck... because his dad, Dr. Vernon, has a client who owns a huge INFLATABLE rental business {BOUNCEALOT.COM}.... and they do trade straight across... 

--Veterinary Work for Bouncy Things-- 

We have been in debt to him for a while... but he came in recently and needed A LOT of Veterinary care. SWEEEEET.

So we rented the below for Dallin's party. 

And a snow cone machine.

 I forgot to take any pictures of it out front the party night.

But Sir Bounce-alot loves us and lets us keep these things all weekend, so the kids had fun with it all the next day. Turning it in to a basketball hoop/water park by putting the hose in it and playing slip and slide underneath.

ha ha.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALLIN!

Claustrophobia

A few weeks ago I got to be a chaperone for Logan's field trip to Goldfield Ghost Town.

I could hear the cute little girl behind me on the bus quietly singing the sweet primary song, "Holding Hands Around the World"... while all the rest of the kids were going crazy, on the bus ride there. It was so sweet.

When Logan was a toddler, he was OBSESSED with trains.

I kept reminding him of that on the train ride below:

It was fun to spend the day with him there! (Even if I did get a little claustrophobic in the underground mine tour)

But I had to enlist THREE different helpers for Sophie while I was gone. To drive her to preschool, home from preschool, and to watch her until I got back. I can't imagine how easy twill be to volunteer when all my kids are in school. 

In 2 years that will be me!

(which will be a SAD and happy day) 

Poor Logan... I have not been involved a lot in his class this year. I wanted to teach Art Masterpiece, but it was already signed up for. I signed up to teach Music Masterpiece... but apparently too many others did too. So pretty much me helping a few piddly times was all he got. Oh well... he still loves me. I need to make up for it the next 2 years of his elementary school life, so he has lots of memories of me there helping.

DRAMA

Ashlin's car caught on fire soon after she left our house thursday...

 SHORT VERSION of story:

All she saw was some smoke, her and I thought it was just over-heating. So she left it on the side of the road, and came home to get my car. Luckily someone in the neighborhood called 911...
before it exploded.

It burned a hole up through the dash board, you can see the charred window, and set off the driver air bag. The firefighters sprayed the car interior down with foam, which is all over the floor in the pictures.

LONG VERSION:

SETTING: Yesterday (thursday) I just walked in the door from driving kids around for 1 hour and 20 minutes (to and from football, violin, bank to pay violin teacher, piano). Sophie was screaming crying, and I had 15 minutes before I had to leave again to pick up my friends kids we were watching over night. I put Sophie in her bed, and was trying to clean Lily and her room quickly before the company came... and Ashlin left the house to stop by someone in the wards house (she was taking care of their pets for them while they were out of town)... 

on her way to work.

Then within minutes of Ashlin leaving the house she called me stressed out saying her car was smoking. It has over-heated once before, so I figured it was engine problems. I didn't know what to do, so I said, "just leave it there (she was right down our street) and dad will be home in 20 minutes to look at it, walk home and get my car." TRUTH: I was tired of being in the car, and didn't want to drive down there, because I was focused on having only 15 minutes to clean up this big mess. She said ok, came home and got my car. But then when she drove back by her car, she called me again and said, "Mom- there are a bunch of people standing around my car and its still smoking" So I asked if it was smoking more or less, and she said less. But she was only noticing the smoke coming out of the car hood, the entire car at the point was filled with smoke. So I said we would check on it, 

and she kept driving to get to her appt. 

I sent Dallin to run down and check on it, because Ashlin now had my car. And I was home with Lily and Sophie. My neighbor was leaving his driveway at that moment. So I called his cell as he was leaving, and said, "Hey- would you just look at my daughters car as you drive by it and let me know if you think I need to go down there" I was still thinking the engine was having problems that made it smoke and once the car was off, that would be fine to wait until Bruce got home in like 20 minutes. And he said, "Well there is a fire truck and 2 police cars all there around her car".  I was like WHAT?!! 

Never did I think the car was on fire. 

As he was telling me that my other line rang... and it was Dallin calling me from the police officers cell phone telling me I needed to get down there. Then the police got on the phone and said, "Do you have the keys to this car? We need them right away to get in, the doors are locked" Dallin ran back for the keys, while I ran towards them with them. The police officer kept asking how far away I was, saying to me, "Maam- you need to get us these keys fast, and we might not be able to wait. We are going to have to start breaking these windows to get in the car, because we can already hear popping from the hood" 

Like he was afraid the car was going to blow up. 

So Dallin got the keys there in time, right before I got there. Luckily my neighbor/cousin Emily was out front, and I yelled to her as I was running down the street, "Lily and Sophie are home alone, 

will you keep an eye on my house?!" 

There were like 2 police officers and 6 fire fighters there. Dallin told me when he was there without me the fire fighter was interrogating him about Ashlin and why his older sister would leave her car on the side of the road on fire and take off. He was asking him if she was a chain smoker. When Dallin got there at first, there was just a police car and some guys from the neighborhood there with a fire extinguisher. They are the ones who called 911, thank goodness. 

Then the fire truck got there.

When I got there the police officer was kind of mad, and telling me it looked really suspicious that my daughter would take off and leave her car there on fire. I was SO embarrassed. And told him I told her to. That neither of us knew what to do. She did not know it was on fire, and had only seen smoke. I called her and told her to get back immediately. Then the cop yelled at her too.

I was so shocked it was on fire. She was only in the car 1 minute, 

she had just left our house.

They found the cause of the fire. It was an electrical fire, a sterio wire. We had bought the car from the Auto Trader from some college kid, it was like $2000. He had installed a nice sterio himself. Well, the wire he used wasn't to code and encased in whatever safety thing, and it caught fire... was totally burned up. The fireman showed it to me and said the fire started under the gas pedal, 

and burned up through the dash board. 

So lame that it happened. So annoying it was from a sterio wire that kid didn't do correctly. But SO thankful Ashlin was ok. So thankful it happened so close to home so she pulled over immediately. That night when Ashlin said our family prayer, she was really shaken up and cried. She felt really dumb earlier, she didn't realize it was something so serious, but was also so thankful she wasn't harmed. 

We obviously were too.

Who knew earlier in the day when Sophie and I were sending funny texts to Bruce about all the BAT-Facts we were learning in the documentary we watched that we had such a DRAMA ahead.