Conference Weekend October 2017

We had a full house for Conference weekend.  It's always great having all the kids home at the same time.  I don't know why I only took a few pictures of them playing a game, but the whole weekend was awesome!  You'll just have to trust me! :) 

And here's Kyle NOT looking at the camera. :) 

I got some of them to look up...(Hey, is that Kyle looking at the camera?) I think so!

And finally, after much persistence and several tries, I finally got a picture of them all looking! Yeah!

It was an awesome weekend and I loved every minute of it!  Family is the best! :) 

Happy 18th Birthday to Dallin!

Dallin turned 18 years old on September 2nd!  I can't believe my third child is 18 and is going to graduate from high school this year!  That is just crazy!  

We had a pretty low-key day on Dallin's birthday, but it was really fun spending time together as a family.  Brandon was here for the weekend and so was Eric and Andraea.  Dallin's birthday was on the Saturday before Labor Day, so we had a great weekend together.

I love this shirt!  It's perfect for Dallin.

Me and Dallin

And a close up...

 And then we all went to Leatherby's together! 

Brandon, Kyle, and Todd

Do you see Kyle looking at the camera?  Will miracles never cease? HA! :) 

Eric and Andraea

Jacob and Brandon

Two pictures of Kyle's face?  And look at that smile! I knew he had it in him! :) 

Later that evening, we had cake. (Wow!  That's a lot of treats---no wonder it was such a fun day!) :) 

I love watching my kids sit around the kitchen table laughing together!  So awesome!

Look at those cute boys!  (Eric and Andraea had left by this time to go back to Logan)

Dallin, Brandon, Kyle, and Jacob

Happy Birthday Dallin!  

We love you so much and are so proud of the man you are becoming!

Back to school 2017

Welcome to another school year!  I can't believe school is starting already.  I don't think I'm ready.  But ready or not, here it comes! :) 

Kyle is a Sophomore

Jacob is in 8th grade

And Dallin is a Senior

Here we go...again!  Wish us luck! :) 

Brandon moves to Snow College

Well, we got Brandon safely moved down to Snow College the last week of August.  The summer went quickly and even though we didn't have a lot of time with Brandon, we were still excited for him to start his college experience.

When we walked into his apartment, this is the first thing we saw.  Seriously?  Is there a gang living nearby?  I totally laughed when I saw the couch all gouged up like that, and I told Brandon that he'd better watch his step.  HA! (Except really...why does the couch look like it has been stabbed?) Scary!

And here's a close up...

Brandon asked for only one specific thing when he was preparing to go down to Snow...and his big request was that he wanted his own room.  I think he had had enough with ""roommates" on his mission.  He wanted his own space.  So we paid a little extra for him to get his own room.  It was actually really nice and roomy.  It would have been very crowded with a roommate, but since he was the only one in the room, he got 2 student desks, and 2 big closets.  Nice, huh?

Here are a few pictures

A desk on the right

And a desk on the left 

And 2 big closets

The kitchen

Me and Brandon

Brandon and Todd

Another picture of the kitchen

We are so proud of Brandon and are excited for this next new stage in his life.  We see good things in his future! 

Good luck Brandon!  We are so proud of you!  We love you!

30 year high school reunion! Taylorsville class of 1987!

Can you believe it's been 30 years since Todd and I graduated from high school?  I can't!!

Todd and I were excited to go to our 30th high school reunion in August.  It was a lot of fun.  They had a picnic dinner on Friday night at a park, and then a dinner/dance on Saturday at the U of U  Mariott Hotel.  It was great to see so many people...

These first few pictures are of the decorations...

There was a table set up of all the "warriors" who had passed away since high school.  It was so sad to see all of those people who had left this life already!  And way too soon, if you ask me! :(

They had a lot of donated prizes to win!

And they had a "service" table dedicated to all of those from our class who had served our country.  That was awesome too!

And this is what the tables looked like where we all ate dinner...the party planning committee did a great job on decorations and worked really hard on this reunion.

I really wish I had taken more pictures of the people!  I'm mad at myself for not taking more...but here is a picture of Jared Leese and his partner (can't remember his name).  Except this is a picture of their shoes!  Jared is totally into "colorful" shoes!  Aren't they great? (Jared is on the right)

And then when you've got a jacket that matches those cool shoes?...I mean, seriously!  So awesome!  It was so fun to see Jared.  He was my Madrigal partner 30 years ago!  I literally hadn't seen him in forever and it really was great to give him a big hug! (Love the jacket!)

Taylorsville High School class of 1987!  Wow!  Yep, we were high school sweethearts! 

Don't you just love how my purse matches my shirt and jewelry?  Pretty awesome, eh?

(And what's funny about this is that I never match like that, but right before we were about to leave, I found this purse that I had bought from the DI for $2 awhile back and had forgotten about it.  But when I realized that it matched my shirt, I decided to go for it and bring it along!  I mostly just laughed at myself all night thinking about how "cool" I looked.  HA! Oh well, I was never really that popular anyway.)  :)  It was a cute purse though! (And it made me chuckle!)  

This is a picture that one of our classmates (Mike Lindsay) drew back in high school of a Taylorsville Warrior!  He was an amazing artist back then, and he is still an amazing artist now!  It was really cool to see it!

And this is the "wall of sweethearts" for all of those who dated throughout high school, and then married. (Or who just ended up getting married later in life, whether they dated or not in high school.) Todd and I sent in a picture of our wedding, but somehow it got lost in the shuffle, so we weren't actually up there.  Our names were, but our pictures weren't.  Bummer!  Cool idea though!  And it was fun to see all of the people who married someone from our high school!

It was a really fun night and I'm really glad that Todd and I attended.  We saw some great people!  Sadly, a lot of our friends who we hung out with personally didn't come.  There were a few, but so many didn't attend, and it made me sad to not have the chance to hug them all!  Todd and I both served on Seminary Council, and were both in Madrigals, and those are the people who we would have loved to have seen, but most of those people didn't come.  I was grateful to see some of them.  But I definitely missed all of the others!  

We had a graduating class of over 600 people, but there were probably only about 150 who came to the reunion.  It wasn't a great turnout.  But Todd and I did have a good time and I am glad that we took the time to go and support those who worked so hard to put it together.  30 years!  It's just crazy to me that it's been that long since we graduated.  Time is going by so quickly and I can hardly keep up!  Friendships are important.  And if we don't take the time to keep and grow our friendships, they will eventually be lost.  Something to think about, right? 

Anyway, happy 30th high school reunion to us!  May we all (and hopefully more) meet again for years to come!