Happy Birthday Sweet Jordie!

 Jordie is 8 today!  Wow!  I can't believe how fast time goes by.

 Jordan is SO excited to get baptized!  She talks about her big event endlessly and we are so excited for                                                                                          the great decision she has made. Jord is such a beautiful girl with a big spirit!  Jordan LOVES her cousins!  Jordan LOVES her entire family!  Jordan LOVES her friends!  She prefers to be playing with someone or going somewhere!  

 In the last year Jordan took ski lessons, swim lessons, piano and violin lessons, played soccer and softball and is taking dance lessons!  She is definately a fun girl who prefers to be on the go!!  Don't get me wrong..  Jord loves her down time.  She can often be found with a blanket covering her lap, sitting on a chair while watching televisions.  FERN!

What I hope to remember about Jordan's 7th year of life.

 Jordan worked SO hard in school and made great gains!

 Jordan's sense of humor.  Her one liners keep us laughing all the time!

 The look on her face when she hugs someone she really loves!

 Jordan's tender heart.  Underneath all her silliness is a very tender little Spirit!

 Jordan's work ethic.  She is the hardest working and most helpful child I have!  

 How much Jordie is loved by everyone!  At home, in the neighborhood, at church and 

 school..  Jord has a special place in so many people's hearts!!

 All of the activities Jord participated in. We attended piano recitals, swim lessons and  

 countless sporting events!  Go Jord!

 Thank you  Jord for making our home such a fun and incredible place to be.  

We love you and look forward to many great years of fun and adventure!

                          

                          

Summer 2012

I know it is impossible to cram an entire summer into one post.  But because of my slackerness I must do that!  It is long so please feel free to skip!!

 Jeff ran Rangar again and loved it as usual.  It is such a fun event!  Their team did great and finished faster than ever before!  I think they placed like 21st in or something like that!  AWESOME!!

                             Jill, Tonia and I volunteered at Ragnar.  I truly is such a fun time!

 We spend a few weeks at Bear Lake.  I love Bear Lake!  It is quite possibly one of my favorite places on this earth!  The kids were in the Raspberry days parade and loved it as usual.  We spent a lot of time on the water in the boat and loved our first summer with a boat!  Both Taylor and Jordan got up on the wakeboard and hopefully will keep at it!  Hunter became nearly an expert and Reg improved a ton!  Chase continued to do all sort of tricks and flips!  I don't have a picture but Mitchy feel in love with this kayak that my dad bought.  He paddled around in that for hours!  It was really fun to watch!

 Carolyn, Steve, Jen and Jer and their kids joined us at Bear Lake for the 4th.  Baby Leah's first time at the lake.  She LOVED Taesha.  It was so fun to watch!  I love both of these girls!

 Jord played soccer and softball.  Both seasons were SO fun.  The Wellsville girls were always  SO good in softball and Jord's team did not disappoint!  She played on Samantha's team and they had a blast!

 Taylor continued to play soccer and has improved so much!  My sweet little violin player is super aggressive and truly on of the better players on her team.  They made it to the championship game at the Cache Cup.  It was SO fun!!  I have had the opportunity of spending a lot of time with these girls and LOVE them all!  This team has parties and spends tons of time together which I love.  I consider these families some of my dearest friends!  Tsunami soccer is a huge blessing in our life.  A blessing that has nothing to do with winning or losing and far more to do with character development and friendships!

                                                              Tay sporting her medal!

                   Some of my favorite Tsunami Mommy's!  Great ladies who I love spending time with!!

It is sad when you have a boat and the only photo I have is of it being pulled in the parade.  We had SO much fun with our boat that I had to put it in as one of the highlights of summer!!

 I just had to add this photo!  I love it!  Mitchy always rides in the front with Lance at the parade!

 I was able to go to girls camp this year as one of the directors.  What an amazing, incredible experience!  These Young Women are incredible!  The future women of the church are strong, we are in good hands!  I fell in love with every one of these girls!  We went to a high adventure camp and they really had to stretch both physically and mentally.  It was a blessing to feel their spirit and "SOAK" up the Son with them.

The greater blessing was attending camp with my Taylor.  She is a brave, incredible girl and is truly a leader among her peers.  She was among the first to do all of the activities which made me proud.  But the truly telling moment was when she was among the first to bear her testimony.  Every once in a while parents get a payday.   That was definately mine!  I told Kim that being a camp director is such a cruel calling!!  You work with these girls for months getting ready to go, spend an incredible week with them and then it's all over!  I seriously had withdrawals for several weeks.  The good news is that I created a relationship with each and every one of them and they will all have a special place in my heart always!

 I couldn't find a picture of Jordan's swimming lessons.  She took from the same lady that taught me to swim!  I loved watching!!  Jord became a great swimmer this summer!

The Summer of 2012 was incredible for so many reasons!  This was the first summer I was a "stay at home mom"  Wow!!  What a lot of work!  I wouldn't change it for all of the money in the world!  I was grateful every day for my sweet husband who makes it possible!  I absolutely love caring for him and our kids and try (not always successfully) to never take any of these sweet moments with my family for granted!

First Day 2012

I know!  I know!  I have not blogged since April.  My family is mad at me because they love reading the blog and my intention in starting was to create a history for my family.  Well, nothing tugs at my heart strings more than the first day of school.  It was so great, it inspired me to get back to blogging... At least for today:)

Here are the kids at the bus stop.  I know I say it all the time but I just can't overstate how grateful I am to live in this neighborhood.  You can see Jord towards the right hand side, standing by Reg and Sammy.

 Tay on the way out the door.  She is going into 7th grade and did not think that I should take a picture. She is such a beautiful girl and was SO excited for school.  While she was at school her young women leaders brought by the cutest little gift!  Again, how blessed are we?

 Tay and Brytan!  It seems just like yesterday that Heather (Brytan's mom) and I took them to Kindergarten together.  They have gone to school on the first day together ever year since then, 8 years! It hit me hard today that we are more than half way through their schooling.  They are growing up so be great young women and still BFF's!  Another blessing!!  When I took this picture was the first time I cried today.  The second time was shortly after when I saw Hunter's bus pull away!  He was going to a new school and I just took on his anxiety for just a minute!  When I saw him after school he said he did great!

 Jordie getting ready for 3rd grade!  She is so pretty!!  She was not totally excited as school is not her favorite thing.  In fact, her Grandpa Elden called her last night to tell her to have a good day and she replied, "I highly doubt that!."  She did however have a great day!

 Jordie and Kinnicko (as the kids call him).  She doesn't walk anywhere near Kim's house without picking him up.  We all love that baby!!  I'll bet he had a great day because he didn't have 5 kids in his face all day long!!

 Reg, Jord and Mannie!  Love, love these girlies!  It is so comforting to send them to school together.  Check our Mannie striking a pose!

 Jord getting off the bus.  Every year she limps off...  This year it was blisters!  That girl!

                                           Jord, Avery and Sicily.  Our neighbors and friends.

 Jord and Sicily, BFF's.  Sicily is Brytan's sister and I can't overstate how grateful I am for this family!

All of the kids at the "Snack Shack!"  Best neighborhood tradition ever.  My picture taking was weak because Mannie did not get off the bus!  She thought either Kim or I was picking her up because it was dance day so we had a moment of panic until we found her.  She was waiting at school!!  Jeff even came home from work to go to the Snack Shack but again, no photos because of trying to locate Mannie!

Every first day of school is a day I will never get back.  Mitchy will start school in the next few weeks and Chase left for his Senior year at Virginia Tech a few days ago.  This summer was particularly hard to let my Chaser go because he will graduate and move onto who knows what!  But he will likely no longer be coming home for the summer :(!  I took some laundry down to his room on Tuesday and had a vitrual melt down.  I just sat on his bed for a while.  Then I sent him a text and told him to drop out of school and come home!  He knew I was kidding!  Jeff and I are so proud of him!!