Kids say the cutest things!

(Tyler reading to his cousin, Avery)
Two nights ago as Tyler was going to bed he told me that his legs hurt. I warmed up some rice bags, put them on his legs, and tucked him in bed. I told him that he was probably having growing pains and I explained a little about that. He said, "Or I am just really tired." Usually he won't admit that any behavior or feeling is because he's tired! The next morning he walked up to me standing tall and said, "So, do I look any taller." It took me a few minutes to realize that it was because of our conversation the night before.

Utah Summer Games in Cedar City

We had a great time in St. George this past weekend. We stayed with Roger and Jill and had fun visiting with them and the kid's all really enjoyed their cousins. On Saturday Ashlee had a gymnastics meet (part of their Summer Games) in Cedar City. She was so excited to have her Nana Jody, Aunt Melanie, cousin's Katie, Hailey, Emma, Chloe and her family there to support her. She did very well. She took SILVER all around! Gold on vault, Bronze on bars, bronze on beam, fourth on flour. She did so well and we are so proud of her. We are sad to see gymnastics end for her, but excited as she moves on to the next step in her life!

Tyler and Heath showing off their cool boats that they made with legos.

Brittany, Emily, Christian, and Michael had fun in the pool until midnight Friday and Saturday night.

Ashlee and Sara sporting their medals they won at Summer Games.

Ashlee's fun "end of senior year" events

Prom

Ashlee went to prom with Colton Barfuss. She had a great time. About a week before prom we decided that I was going to make her dress. It was my first Prom dress and we were both very pleased with it and she looked beautiful! (And there was no unpicking like with her homecoming dress!)

Ashlee and her group match perfectly and they didn't even plan it.

Tea Party
Ashlee and some of her friends planned a fun Tea Party date that was in our backyard. Ashlee's took Evan Braithwaite. Amber, Emily, Brittany, and Tyler were so excited to help.
beautiful girls
Yummy food and great company!

Seminary Graduation

Papa Jones, Nanny Jones, Dad, Mom, Ash, Grandma Nance, Papa Russell

Graduation

Ashlee and Josie Nilson, one of her best friends.

Whitney Robinson, Erika Bunker, Ashlee
more best friends

with Papa and Nanny Jones

Erika, Amber, and Ashlee
Best friends! Amber is very close to all of Ashlee's close friends and Ashlee is very close to Amber's close friends. I love how close they are as sisters and friends!

Amber, Mrs. Wolsey (one of the girls favorite teachers), Ashlee

Erika and Ashlee on their way to get there diplomas after their names were called.

A fun Spring full of soccer and dance!

Emily had a few dance competitions this spring and her team did really well! This one was taken in Kerns at the competition Dance-A-Rama.

Brittany played soccer on two teams again this year. Mike coached her recreation league and co-coaches her competition team. Both teams played well this year. Next year Brittany will play AAA with Michael co-coaching again. This is a picture of her at the Lone Peak soccer camp. She loved it and learned a lot!

Tyler loves soccer and is very good!

He is very excited that his dad will be his coach next year!

Ashlee is going to BYUI this fall

Ashlee received a full tuition scholarship to Brigham Young University Idaho where she has been accepted into the Interior Design program.

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!"