5th and 6th Grade Orchestra Concert

Both Michelle and Eli were in Houston Elementary's Orchestra program this year. Michelle played the violin, which she has wanted to do since she knew I always wanted to play.  And Eli played the cello.  Eli surprised me last year saying he wanted to play the cello.  I tried to talk him out of it, asked him to play the trombone. With no luck I signed the paper saying he could play the cello.  He had done a great job this year and plans to go back again next year and play.  I am very excited that he is liking it! Michelle has been playing the violin for 2 years now and is pretty good at it.  She doesn't plan to play next year and that breaks my heart. Hopefully by some kind of luck the Jr. High will take her second elective choice instead of the first and "make" her do orchestra. I would hate for her to quit now! Eli's name was pulled out of a hat during his concert so he got to play a solo. He did a great job, this mom was very excited! Here are a few pictures and maybe a video or two!

Eli peeking around!

The cute girl in the back is one of Michelle's best friend!

Emie was lulled to sleep during the concert!

Parker fell asleep too! poor kids

Mrs. Moriarty (Eli's teacher) wanted to take a picture of the sleepers!

Parker's 2nd Grade Musical

 Parker's 2nd grade class had their musical yesterday.  They were so cute and Parker did a great job! He was a weed and he got to dance a couple of times.  He did great at knowing the words to the songs, something that always seems to be too hard when church comes along!  So here are a couple of pictures and a video.

We Had a Visitor

We got a surprise on Friday. Danny and Gwen decided to come for a visit.  It was so GREAT! I finally got to meet my niece Samantha Leigh. Monica, "Mitch" and I were so happy to finally hold and snuggle our cute baby.  She is such a cute baby, and what a personality. She is so happy and when she isn't she'll let you know. Just hand her to mommy and she'll fix her and hand her back. Gwen was a great sport letting us all giggle and fawn all over Samantha! She even let Emie hold her. WOW! So on the last day that she was here I thought why haven't I taken any pictures or our new baby. so out came the camera and I went to town here are just a few! 

What a great baby to just put herself to sleep! 

Parker's Big Day!

Parker chose to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He was so excited and totally ready. I had my concerns but decided to let him choose and he made a fantastic choice!  He was so excited on Saturday morning he came into my room and he said "Mom, is today my baptism?" what a great little kid :) He was surrounded by my whole FAMILY! I say FAMILY because I consider everyone that was there to support Parker as my family! I am surrounded by not only my family, and Justin's family. But I am also surrounded by awesome friends that have made a place in my heart! I love them all :)

Here are a few photos from Saturday, I didn't get to many but that is OK because the day was just great!

Easter 2012

It is sort-of fun to type 2012
This year same as all the other years we went over to Safford to celebrate Easter with the Crockett's.  The Curtis' reunion got canceled because Wayne got hurt and is in a full body cast :/  But anyway...While we were in town Justin installed a dishwasher and garbage disposal in Monica's house, now she can have her dishes pile up and then just stick them into the dishwasher. She said this is the first time in 6 years she's had a dishwasher.  We also got to see "Old" Grandma.  We love her and are all very grateful that we get to see her when we make the trip over to the Gila Valley! After church on Sunday We took the kids over to Eastern Arizona College to take a few pictures.  I do have to say that my kids are pretty cute, I am biased too :) Here are a few pictures I captured!

Some Firsts

We've had a few firsts here at our house! Since Emie got her 2 wheeler for her 5th birthday she has been speeding around! No training wheels needed for her :) She loves her bike and loves to ride it to school and home! She begs the kids to go out side and watch her ride her bike!

The other first we had was, since Parker turned 8 he had his first cub scout den meeting! What a cutie. He has been worried since the first time Eli went to scouts that "they" wouldn't have it anymore when he turned 8.  So he was very excited about his Cub Scouts.

Michelle is now 12 and since she is 12 she gets to go with the youth of our church and do baptisms for the dead.  Michelle has been excited about going to the temple ever since I can remember! She loves to drive by the temple she loves to take pictures of any temple she loves to visit the grounds and the visitors centers. Her favorite temple is the Salt Lake temple and she hope to be married there someday :) She has a picture of the temple on her wall that I hope she looks at everyday and makes a priority to visit often.  

Michelle, Bethany, Maylee, and Fiona!

Parker is Great to be 8

Parker turned 8 on March 25th! It happened to be a Sunday so when he got scriptures for a present I don't think he was as disappointed as if it had been...lets say a Wednesday! Anyway 8 is a big age for us Mormon's.  It is the age of accountability. Parker has chosen to be baptized and become an official member of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  That is on April 14th at 3:00.

Parker really wanted a Lego block cake...this is what he got! 

But for his birthday he is still a little boy! All he wanted was an air soft gun. I wasn't sure about it considering he caught a ricochet in the eye on Christmas day from the BB gun the boys got :) but Justin reassured me that air soft guns were not as powerful as BB guns! So I caved and that was his big present. I don't think the family was too impressed maybe a little concerned about my sanity!

Spring Break

What can I say about spring break? It is a love/hate relationship! I love that we don't have a schedule to keep and that we can sort-of relax and do what ever but at the same time I need to figure out what to do with my kids for an entire week so that we don't fill our time with TV video games and other such nonsense! So what do I do?   I take them to the movies hahaha well it seemed like it! We saw The Lorax one day and we Saw The Muppets another day...So instead of watching our TV for free...I spent money to see these GREAT movies! Both of them were great! One day though, I took them to one of the local dairy farms where they got to pet some dirty animals and even feed them...we got to take a hay ride tour of the farm itself. Emie even got to ride a horse or donkey can't remember which one she got! I try to get my kids out of the house when the weather is so excellent.

Here is Parker chasing a chicken...he overheard something
I said to Justin about keeping a chicken if a person catches
one...well when he FINALLY got one I had to break the news
to him about not being able to take it home! Mom needs
to watch what she says :)

Emie on the horse ride!

Parker being a leap frog...the weather for SB was so awesome!

Emie Turned 5

Emie turned 5 is that allowed? I don't know, but she sure is getting big! She was so excited about this years birthday. I think because kids actually know what is going on when they are 5 so this year she was bursting at the seams.  Drew and Cyndi sent her gift in the mail and it got here on the Saturday before the big day and said doesn't grandma know that my birthday is Monday...why didn't I get it on my birthday? I interpreted that as I can't wait to open this up why'd it have to come and tempt me!  So to celebrate her birthday we had a party with our friends from the ward. Our ward family!  Here's a few pictures!  We had a full house with lots of friends so a lot of the pictures are blurry!

She got her first 2 wheel bike for her birthday! 

Family Pictures

So in October we got our family pictures taken at the temple. Our young women had a brilliant fund raiser and they had people in our ward volunteer their time and photo expertise to take pictures. So for a mere $25 we got a 30 minute session at the temple and a CD with edited pictures! It was awesome :) Here are a few of our favs.