Happy 20th birthday, Amber!

Happy 20th birthday to our sweet, precious Amber. You are such a joy in our lives. You are beautiful, sweet, loving, kind, talented, a great example and a hard worker.

Amber loves: Harry Potter, Anne of Green Gables, Pride and Prejudice, the rain, playing the piano, Michael Buble', art, and her family!

Amber on her 1st birthday.

Bailee (4), Ashlee (1 1/2), Amber (3)

Amber and Aunt Danica

8 and getting ready to be baptized

14 years- Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii

15 years

Ashlee and Amber

A beautiful bridesmaid at her cousin, Bailee's wedding.

Some funny things Amber has said or done:
2 - Amber would sing and dance for everyone. She loved to perform and everyone loved to watch. However, no one could laugh or she would stop what she was doing and would say, "Don't do that. That's not funny!" Then she'd carry on like nothing happened.

2 1/2 - Amber had a bad cold. She was frustrated and said, "My nose doesn't work." A few days later, she had decided to accept it and thinking it was a permanent problem she said, "My nose doesn't work any more."

3 1/2- She asked me to leave the room because she was going to do something she wasn't supposed to do. She wanted to jump on the couch and thought it would work to just tell me to leave!

2-presently - loves to watch, quote, act out, and sing many movies. Her favorites when she was little were: Cinderella, Little Mermaid, "Rodin Ho" (Robin Hood), The Wizard of Oz, Jungle Book, and more. Currently she has too many to list, but she secretly would love to be Hermione Granger. Her life is and has always been full of performing, singing, and pretending. Many times she would dance in the isles of the grocery store and it would take a few minutes to snap her out of it to go to a different isle.

For Amber's birthday and family home evening, we all went to see Peter Pan at the high school. We all really enjoyed it. The acting was wonderful and the flying scenes were amazing.

Our neighbor Michael Hoggard was Captain hook.
Two of Ashlee's best friends were in the play. Josie Nilson was Peter Pan and Erika Bunker was a lost boy. It was fun to see the kids we know in the play. It was a funny and entertaining show.

A Bridal Shower for Kimmie

Last night I gave a neighborhood shower for Kimmie. The theme was "My favorite things". The gift idea was to bring Kimmie one your favorite things that she could use as a newly wed. There were a lot of great ideas and we had a lot of fun visiting. Tonight, Amber and Kimmie's sister Ashlee are giving her a shower for friends from high school and friends in the singles ward. They've planned a great party. Kimmie has been a regular part of our home and family for the past 10 years. She and Amber have been inseparable that whole time. It has been a bitter sweet experience for Amber. She is so very happy for Kimmie and grateful that she has Andrew, but she is going to miss her best friend as Kimmie moves on with her life with her new best friend.

Leslie Brown, Debbie Sampson, Guymons ( Kim, Kimmie, Emily, Ashley), Margo Lamoreaux, Lillian Anderson.

(Just a few of the great neighbors that were there.)
Ashlee, Ashley Guymon, Amber, Kimmie, Orlynne Sampson, Lora Katzenbach,
Kilee (Kimmie's niece), Katelyn Reese, Ali (Kimmie's niece), Emily Guymon
(Just a few of the great friends and family members that were there.)

Baby shower fun

Last month my sister in law, Jill, gave her daughter, Kelly a baby shower in our home. It was fun to visit with Kelly and other family members and celebrate the soon arrival of her baby, Preston.

Kelly with the cake Jill made.

Ashlee, Danica, Kelly

Emily "skydiving" and "surfing"

For Katie's (Emily's cousin) 14th birthday she wanted to do something adventurous and was too young for skydiving or bungee jumping. She decided to go to the Salomon Center, in Ogden, and do the indoor skydiving and surfing. They had so much fun!

Leprechaun trap!

Tyler had an assignment to make a leprechaun trap. He was so excited and had fun working on the project with his dad.

The drawing of the trap design.

Happy Valentine's Day

For Vanlentine's day, Mike and I went out to eat at the Brick Oven in Provo. We brought Tyler to Amber in Provo to watch him. Everyone at home was busy. He had such a fun time and he keeps asking when he can go back to Amber's! They walked to a pond and fed the ducks. They also went to Amber's friend's apartment to make cookies.

?, Amber, Brittany Thompson
Amber and Tyler showing off their cookies.

I have the privilege of being Brittany's room mom this year. Last Friday for the Valentine's party, we had four rotations. Two were fun games, one was making a card and one was the chocolate fountain with fruit, marshmallows and pretzels. The kids loved it! I also helped in Tyler's class party but I couldn't find my camera. I realized later that I had left it in Brittany's classroom. I had 12 Valentine things (candy heart, pink teddy bear, heart pillow, heart candle holder, flower. . . ) on a tray. The kids would take turns going out of the room and removing one thing from the tray. The other kids would then look at the tray to figure out what was missing. Whoever got it, had the next turn.

Bailee's little boy

The end of November Danica and I gave Bailee a baby shower. Danica planned a lot of fun games and we had a great time visiting.

Ashlee, Amber, Bethanie, Dione, Brittany, Heather, Danica, Bailee, Emily
On January 26, 2010 little Canyon Walker Hawkins joined Zach and Bailee's sweet little family.

Happy 7th Birthday, Tyler!

Tyler loves vacations, especially Nauvoo and Disneyland, his sisters, cousins, his whole family, cottage cheese (a few days ago he told me it was even better than cake and ice cream), soccer, basketball and playing the wii! We love you, Tyler and are so blessed to have you in our family!

Hawaii 2004

Woody for Halloween 2006 Tyler, Kyler, Collin, James, Abram, Jarom

Disneyland 2007

Nauvoo 2008
Golfing in the cruise ship, 2010

(Where he made 3 out of 9 "hole in one" shots!)

Tyler celebrated his birthday in Cabo San Lucus on the beach! Before we left for our cruise, he had a birthday party. He loves sports and so we decided for his party to take the kids over to the gym in the church to play games. We played basketball, soccer, and did some fun relays. We then came back to our home for presents and cake. Amber came home from BYU to make his cake. He requested a soccer field!
Some funny things Tyler has said or done:

9 months- Tyler went to Disneyland for the first time. He was as happy as can be the whole time. We went opening to closing everyday for 3 full days. He never even once cried for food, a nap, or anything. When he was tired, he just leaned his head against the stroller and fell asleep. One morning he was cranky in the hotel and on the walk over, but as soon as we entered the gates, he was so happy! Like they say, Disneyland is the "happiest place on earth"!

2 1/2- After everyone made their lunch one morning, I couldn't find the container of cookies to put away. I finally asked Tyler if he had seen it. He said, "They're not lost. Tyler and Scooter ate them all gone." He went behind the couch to get an empty container!

31/2- Tyler said to me, "Let's go to the store and buy two car seats." I asked why and he said, "for the two babies I want you to buy. I want a baby brother and a baby sister!" (Tyler has mentioned wanting a younger sibling many times!)

3 1/2- I told Tyler that I was taking Brittany to dance and he was staying home with Emily. He got a worried look on his face and said, "Why do I have to take Brittany. I don't know how to drive." He was very relieved after I explained it to him again.

4 years- talked about Disneyland everyday for at least 6 months after we went. About a month after we went, he woke up one morning crying. When I asked what was wrong, he said, "There are people that live by Disneyland. I saw the houses while we were driving there. I want to move into one!"

5 years- We went to Nauvoo and he loved it! He loved the children's games and activities the most. When he mentioned that he liked Nauvoo even more than Disneyland, I thought he must have felt special spirit about the place. I asked him if he felt a neat spirit there. He scrunched his nose in confusion and said, "No spirit, it was just fun!"

Cruise to Cabo San Lucus and a Day at Disneyland!

For Christmas we treated the kids to a cruise. We were especially excited to have Chris' and Amy's family's with us! We drove to Las Vegas on Saturday, January 16 and spent the night with Nana and Grandma Martha. It's always fun to visit them. Sunday after church, we went to San Clemente and had a great time there! We stayed in the San Clemente Inn which was very close to a great beach. Then on Monday, in rainy weather, we headed to Long beach to get on the Carnival Paradise. The ship was scheduled to stop on Catalina Island and in Ensenada. California was having the worst storms in years. Do to the high waves and stormy weather, the captain decided to head to Cabo. We had a great day in Cabo on Wednesday! Even the water was warm! Our ride back was quite rocky, which made for a miserable Thursday. The captain said that in the 12 years he's been cruising, he has only seen the water this bad about three times. The rest of the cruise was great though.

We had a ton of fun in Cabo! We were in Cabo on Tyler's birthday! Sydney, Emma, Lauryn and Brittany made him a sand Cake and everyone sang to him.


Mike, Corey, and Chris dove into the waves over and over and so of course we had to get a video of this. The first time I saw Mike run and dive, he was doing it alone and it startled me so badly. I thought he was running to save a child!


We signed up for Disneyland's give a day, get a day. We made blankets for a local charity and then got FREE Disneyland tickets. We enjoyed making the blankets and enjoyed Disneyland! Our ship came back on Friday evening, we spent Saturday at Disneyland, and then drove home on Sunday.

Ashlee received her Venturing Silver Award!

Ashlee received her Silver Award tonight. It is the highest award in the venturing program.

The Venture Crew. Emily just joined and is excited to have many fun outdoor experiences! Emily is far right and Ashlee is fourth from right, bottom row.

I've also added more to Ashlee's birthday post. I am a little late, but you can scroll down and check it out!

Fun with extended family at Christmas time!

We had a very fun family Christmas party in Cameron and Connie's beautiful new home in Mountain Green, Utah! Their home is beautiful. The kids especially loved the room in their basement that had a trampoline and a basketball court! We were blessed to have so many there, but missed the families who couldn't come. Connie had a fun party planned. We enjoyed great food, excellent company, and fun games!

Heath, Roger, and Jill excited to end up with a prize at the end of a game. Heath fought hard for those Reeses, as did many other kids!
Danica, Tyler, Jarom, and Collin enjoying one of the games!
Nathan, Porter, Danica, Tyler
Papa with 7 of the 13 boy cousins under 9!
We had the Kester family for Christmas this year. We gave them all four of the Home Alone movies, a popcorn popper, and dress-up clothes for the boys. Abram and Porter are dressed in some of the costumes in this picture. The Kesters had our family too. Amber and Ashlee each got a crock pot, Danica made beautiful watches for Emily and Brittany, she made me nice greeting cards, Mike got a book he's excited to read, and Tyler got a fun Batman cave and figures that he's enjoying.
On Christmas day we did our traditional sleep over with the Jones family. We all look forward to this fun time! We usually sleep at Nanny and Papa's, but with them on their mission in Boston, we went to Amy's home this year. We had a nice dinner, did a small talent show, the children performed the Nativity with Sydney as the director (Amber proudly noticed some of the similarities from when she directed), and then the kids opened the cousin exchange gifts. We also really enjoyed talking to Nanny, Papa, Jon, and Lissa on the skype cam. Lauryn, Sydney, Brittany, Emma - cousins and great friends!
Jack and Tyler each got a fun book from Matt and Jayne!
Ashlee and Melissa always enjoy their time together!
Jack was the only boy in the Nativity this year, the other boys played the Wii. What a good sport you are Jack! After the Nativity we all played games and then went to bed late! The next morning we enjoyed waffles together and more game playing!

Christmas morning

We went to the family room first to open stockings, then we ate breakfast, we then headed to the living room to see what Santa brought, and then we went to the basement family room to open family presents. It was fun. (We had a tree in the living room that Santa visited, but we had a tiny real tree in the basement where we put the presents we had for each other.)

All the kids were so excited to open a gift that showed a picture of the Carnival Paradise cruise ship and an itinerary for our cruise that leaves on January 18th. Everyone was especially excited when they found out that the Chris Jones family and the Leiseths are coming with us!
Emily, Brittany and Tyler playing Rockband; a gift from Santa to our family. We also have spent a lot of time playing Wii fit that we got from Nana Jody. What a fun Christmas. Tyler said, "We are the luckiest kids in the world!"

Santa Clause is coming to town!

The kids made a welcome Santa sign and Tyler put out cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer! We are all excited for Christmas!