Slacker

How sad that I am already a blog slacker and I have only been doing this a few months. I have a huge pile of posts half done in my drafts. So very little free time. Sigh. I leave for girls camp on Saturday and I hope after I return home I will be able to sleep again and get caught up on the rest of my life.

Temple trip

Friday we all piled in the car and headed to Gila Valley for the Temple open house. It was beautiful! After we left the Celestial room Heather told me "When we went in that last room I was really cold and then I got warm, all over my body." What a great blessing to help her recognise the Spirit. It made the six hour round trip sooo worth it.
I am so excited to have two more temples built in the next few years so close to home. What an awesome expeirence for my children.

I also enjoyed the trip. It brought back so many memories of driving to my grandparents house. Lots has changed but the topography hasn't, it was a beautiful day in the high desserts.

FHE Book of Mormon Party

We thought a celebration was in orer. We finished the Book of Mormon in our early morning scripture study. Going out to eat is a rare and special treat for the kids. This is one of our favorite places. It is a gyro shop that sells Thrifty ice cream. But we mostly love the guy in the back of the photo. It is a huge hot dog and the bun is painted like the American flag.

Jane block

This block was simple, so I thought. But you can clearly see the wonkiness. I still have a lot to learn about dealing with the bias.

Ice Cream Social

Wednesday through Friday of this week is the annual ice cream social. It is a fund raiser for the choir program at Greenway High. I don't know the dollar amount but I am sure they make bank. Over the three nights they had more than 700 people turn out. Friday night was sold out.
For $7 you get to enjoy the ambiance of the school cafeteria, listen to some very talented kids and eat all of the cafeteria ice cream you can. Which is not much because it is well, cafeteria ice cream. All I can ever down is a banana split and a root beer float. By Friday I was sick of it and just asked for ice.
As far as the kid part goes they have to audition the number they would like to preform. It is very competitive and less than half of the acts that auditioned this year made the cut.





Here is Tyler with the NSYNC Bye, Bye Bye group. They performed Wednesday and Friday. By far ne of the most popular acts of the evening.







On Wednesday night Tyler did "I'm Too Sexy" Very funny and he did a great job.


Surprise for me! He had a big solo in the finale all three nights. "Camp Granada" He even got the Hello Mutta, Hello Fatha down. Very cute he is such a ham.



Thursday night Ty decided to go as Robin. Why? Because he wanted to wear the elf tights! Shouldn't I be a little worried about my son wanting to wear tights. Yeah I think so.



Tyler making a cameo in "Stupid Cupid."


Amber's Duet with Aaron Walth, "You're the One that I Want" from Grease. She rocks those pleather pants.

And on a sad note. Amber and Tyler had a duet together. "Anything You Can Do" but I don't have a still picture for that. Because I guess I am the only one that can take a picture in this whole family. Even though I was video taping and the big fat camera with the huge fancy lens was sitting on the table right next to some one (who will remain nameless) with all their fingers and thumbs.

Prom

The last two weeks of my life were completely consumed by this dress. Amber designed what she wanted and I had to figure out how to make it work. I tried to draft it the best I could and then sew a practice dress to work out the kinks.

Amber and Ryan. I love the look on Ryan's face. He does not like getting his picture taken. But he is always a good sport for me.
Again the real motivation behind finally getting his eagle project done. He wanted to drive the Mustang to prom. He has had his license for three whole days and Ron told him he could. Crazy.

Department of Moter Vehicles

So this is the real motivation behind Tyler's sudden interest in getting his Eagle Scout Leadership Project done.

Area choral festival/ concert

What a fun day for Aubrey. She was invited to represent her elementary in a sort of honor choir. A bunch of elementary schools a few junior highs went over to the high school and during the day and practiced with the big kids. That night they had a big concert.



Aubrey with her buds, Evenlee, Alyssa and Megan.

Eagle Project

Tyler has been a Life Scout for almost two years. He has been amazing. He has done most of his rank advancements on his own as well as his merit badges. But when he got to his Eagle Leadership project he was stuck. He needed help and direction. Luckily for us Sister Benion recently became the new advancement coordinator. She has been instrumental in breathing new life into our formally dysfunctional scout program.


Yikes! Who is that?

Dad and Tanner.

The Elders even stopped in on their way in and out of the other wards dinner.

Russian message from who else, Dad.

These two spent a big chunk of their time mistakenly sanding the sanding blocks!

My handsome boy


Sister Bennion, Andrew, Zaydee and Ashley.
With the help of 54 volunteers. We were able to make 35 T stools for Vistancia Elementary special needs program.

baptism/prom

The dress turned out. Thank goodness for easy patterns and for the super shiny, easy to work with fabric Heather insisted on.
I had sent Heather and her friend Catlyn outside with the camera to take pictures before the baptism. It was a "please, get out of my hair" moment for me. But look at what a good job Catlyn did. Heather's pictures of Catlyn are just as pretty.

I am not sure there is anything more awesome than watching your baby boy baptize your baby girl.


I was a little hesitant about the whole thing and left the decision up to Heather. She of course wanted her Daddy at first but after thinking it over and me promising Tyler wouldn't tease her she changed her mind. What a neat experience for Tyler and hopefully a real bonding moment for them both.
It was a stake baptism and Ron is the high councilor over it. I had to wonder as he was conducting the meeting, standing at the pulpit in his suit and tie. If Tyler wasn't going to do the baptizing would Ron have conducted in the white jump suit? That would be a sight.

We had family and friends over for dinner after and this little cutie joined us. Another Katlyn. Tyler met her a EFY. She lives across town but they have a nice little friendship and get together every now and then.

I love her dress! The pictures don't even come close to capturing how pretty it is. It is iridescent with purple hues. The back laces up like a corset. Truly an amazing dress.
Katlyn's prom was at The Science Center. The kids had a great time.

tux shopping & Campjambarama

Tyler has been busy. Too busy. We were not able for the last couple of weeks to get to the tux shop for a fitting. So we were down to the last week before prom and trying to find a store that would a) rent him something and b) not charge an arm and a leg for our procrastination. "We" finally had the brilliant idea to find a used tux and buy it. With three proms this year and his junior and senior year still to go this seemed like the smartest thing to do.
I am a genius I tell you.
It was a crazy, driving around, cranky mom afternoon. But we finally found a little shop in the barrio. Angel's Tux shop owned by two brothers. Very young entrepreneurs so sweet their mother must be so proud. They had one tux Tyler's size. It needed a seam mended and the buttons on the jacket replaced. Apparently the guys at this store can't even thread a needle. They thought the repairs were extreme and sold me the whole thing for $40.
Smoking, smoking deal.
After a frantic afternoon we loaded everyone with a male chromosome that lived in my house plus three into the Pizgaur and sent them off the the Scout Campjambarama 100 year celebration. I hustled home and by nine o'clock I was finally cutting out Heather's dress for her baptism tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Boo Boo

In my present stash Heather found three Polly Pocket sets. EVERYDAY for the last month she would drag them out line them up and then play with them. I am not sure how that is done while they are still in the packaging but she did. She wanted them all for her birthday. Look at the one in the picture. It is a pirate Polly Pocket. How cool is that?


When she said she wanted a Baby Alive also, we had to cut the Polly Pocket set to just one. Otherwise I think I would have had a true mutiny on my hands.

She thinks the Baby Alive is hilarious because it can pee.

I had to include this picture of her.
I have so many pictures of Heather making faces at me. She is so the family clown.







The frosting on these cupcakes is ridiculous. All of the kids went home with stained mouths and hands.







Heather originally wanted Gyros for breakfast. I had to talk her out of that. Can you imagine gyro breath all day? So we had Gyros for dinner. Her second breakfast choice was ice cream! So we compromised and had french toast with vanilla ice cream. It was surprisingly good.








I can't believe my baby is eight.

Easter

We had such a great time over the Easter weekend. We did all of the traditional Easter things. I love it when conference and Easter collide. Best weekend ever. I just loved all of the talks on family. Lots of guilt but more hope, encouragement and ideas to help our family. It is the first Easter our family has ever been apart. Kind of sad but so worth it because Ron took half of the kids up to see General Conference. As a bonus Ron and Ty watched the priesthood session in the Tabernacle with Lance and Uncle Marv.

Dear Jane

I loved making this little block. Very simple and apparently I like applique. Who knew?

Tennis Anyone?

Have I mentioned how much I love tennis! It is the best!
Tyler is undecided whether or not he will play tennis or return to track next year, but I am sold. My top ten why tennis is my new favorite spring sport.

5. No new equipment purchases. We have some old ratty rackets in the garage.
And your school shoes will do just fine. (you have to buy spikes for track and field)

4. If your kid is not that good they play on the far side of the courts. Tyler started the season as 2nd alternate on the JV team. This
really translates to....you can bring a chair and sit under the shade of a tree at the far end of the parking lot..

3. Tennis matches take a while. So your kid can call you from home when it is finally their turn and you can run over to the school and not miss much. As apposed to a track meet where you have to wait all afternoon for you kid's events that last a few seconds.

2. If your kid gets better and is ranked 2nd on the JV team he moves to the middle of the courts...you can actually park your car right by the courts. You never even have to get out of your car! You can sit on your fanny, listen to the radio and sew while you watched. Just don't encourage anymore practicing because if your kid makes varsity your fun is over. You will have to go sit on the bleachers and clap with the other moms.

1. Last match April 20th! Those poor Track mom's are still out there cooking in the bleachers in mid May.

I love tennis

Percy Jackson Party

We finally had Aubrey' birthday party. She is a huge Percy Jackson fan and has read the whole series. We turned the house into camp half-blood for the evening. We had variety of blue food.






The cyclops were my personal favorite.

The girls were sent on a series of quests to defeat evil monsters. They have been studying Greek mythology at school so they breezed through the riddles pretty easily.








They made Camp-Half Blood T-shirts.









Decorated individual cakes.






Lots of silliness.

We ended the evening at the drive-in watching Percy Jackson, of course. I missed the cutest picture of all. Nine darling girls packed into the trunk of my Yukon.
I will leave the chairs at home next time.