Ward Camp-out and First Day of School

We had our ward camp-out a couple of weeks ago and we were glad that we were able to go this year. We hadn't been able to go for 3 years because we always had a wedding on the weekend that the ward was camping out. So we decided last minute that we were going to try and go up early. We ran to the store got all our supplies, packed up and were ready to go on Thurs, then we remembered we had all kinds of things going on so it was put off for Friday morning. We managed to leave by 7 am and off we went... It was a little over three hours for us to get to the camp site that was up above Payson. It was so beautiful up there and the weather was great. It even got cold at night. Since the kids were anxious to go I asked them to pack all the sleeping bags and blankets and pillows, well when it was time to go to bed we discovered that they had only packed 3 sleeping bags, 1 blanket and 4 pillows... somehow that just doesn't add up. Despite the cold, hard night we managed to have a lot of fun.

Kenyon and Ammon were very helpful getting our Old School tent up with the help of the guys from the ward that were already there. Everyone was so helpful helping each other as everyone arrived, I love my ward.

Everyone had a ton of fun. There were games planned for the kids, volleyball, tug-of-war, a scavenger hunt and there was a zip line there that the kids all loved.

The Tug-of-war was hilarious, it began as boys against girls and only the kids were pulling... After the boys got beat two or three times...



Brother Jones decided he needed to help the boys not get their butts kicked...

Then it was on! All the men and women got involved as well... and the winner is


The girls!!!! Now we know where all the strength comes from in our ward.

The kids had a blast playing volleyball...


...and doing the scavenger hunt.

And the adults even got to play a little volleyball... It was a blast! The night before we was a fireside and got to visit with friends.

The next morning the Elder's quorum made a delicious breakfast and cleaned everything up too! I'd like to sign up for that plan every year.

We all had a great time and we're glad we got to enjoy one of the Castlegate ward's family traditions.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.....


First day of kindergarten for Angela this year. She is going in the morning, which I thought was going to be impossible because she's such an night owl like her mother and definitely not a morning person, but she would get to be in school with her friends and I would be able to trade off carpool, so we're doing it. She has been doing such a great job. She was grumpy for the first week or so, but she's used to it now. We're proud of her and her great attitude about the whole thing. she is stylin' for school everyday and has a matching necklace for each outfit, what have I done.... I created a monster! Well at least I get to have fun in the process.

Ammon started his first day of middle school and as you can tell he is a cool cat! He is loving school and all the social stuff that go with it, he was made for school.

Eric John was also excited to get back to school. He is doing really good in school right now and is growing and enjoying life.

I had to go snap a few pictures at school and make sure they found where they needed to be at. Why do mom's get so worked up over stuff like this?


Angela is having so much fun at school and is so happy she got to be in school with some of her friends. I hope they can stay friends long enough to have some pictures of them when they graduate High School... Now I'm crying! I love watching my kids grow up and have great experiences in their lives, it's what makes getting up every morning worth it.

More firsts, they keep coming...

On Saturday we had Dallin's eagle project. It was a long time in the planning. It was mostly a lot of me getting after him to call people, to do his write-up, to go get signatures and on, and on... But after a lot of prodding and poking we finally got everything in place for his Eagle Project day on Aug. 29th. Like always our ward is FANTASTIC in supporting our scouts in all their activities, especially on the Eagle Projects. We had a great turn-out and most of the work got done. Dallin is installing a chain link fence and compost box for the Simonton Elementary school. It's to block off their new gardening area. The school has implemented this neat program for the kids to participate in and we were very excited to do a project that would directly affect our community. Dallin was great in directing people and trying to be the director for the day. He is not finished yet, but Monday we will finally be done. The project is mostly completed, we just need to put the chain link on the post the everyone helped to install.

We started with a clean slate and after a little measuring and leveling....Let the digging begin!

We had quite a bit of digging to do, about 12 holes, 20" deep on some very hard dirt, but everyone was so willing to help

and seemed to even have a bit of fun... Look even long time rivals from Mesa High and Mountain View came together for a good cause.

Some of the holes were not quite where they needed to be so we did some more digging... and after much sweat and many blisters, the guys got to pour some cement to have the posts stay in place. Thank goodness my Dad was there, he was our expert on site to make sure everything was going to be done right. Thanks Dad for being willing to take a day and help Dallin.

Everyone, young and old was involved and we got the work done. I thought it would take us all day to do, but it was done in about 2 1/2 hours. Great job everyone!

We also had some refreshments that everyone got to enjoy. Thanks mom, Lanette, and Rachele for bringing the yummy treats so everyone had the strength to work!

I am grateful for a good ward where the Bishop knows the importance of the YM program and for calling great leaders that do a wonderful job with these boys. We will have 9 eagle scouts by the end of the year. What a great accomplishment for the families in our ward. I'd like to also thank Hurricane Fence Co. that was so generous in donating almost all of the materials for the chain link fence and my dad's company, Guardian fence for donating the rest of the materials needed in finishing the the project. Thank you everyone that was involved we couldn't of done it without you!!!! I'll post the pictures of the finished fence on Monday when we finish.

A time for firsts...

You would think that at age 40 all the excitement of "firsts" are behind you, but I've come to realize that they just don't end. Thank goodness that lately they have been great firsts like my first son leaving on his mission. Here are some pictures of him on the day he opened his mission call. He received his letter on a Thursday, but couldn't open it until Saturday because his brothers were at a scout camp outing. Well I invited my family and some ward friends to come be a part of the reading of the mission call. I asked everyone to be there at about 1:oo pm, his brothers didn't get home until almost 4 pm. Needless to say there were a lot of people ready to leave. It was such a crazy day because my sisters had a big work party that they were hosting at my sister Adriana's house and they wanted the whole family there, my sister-in-law Amy had a big YW activity, and all my friends all had stuff to do as well so I was very anxious to get this done and have people leave for their activities.


So we played a couple of games to see if anyone could guess where Josh was going to be called to and we had a map so people could put a pin where they served their mission.

Everyone was waiting and anxious to find out where he was going and to leave to their activities.

My younger boys Ammon, Eric and Angela were so excited that they made a balloon drop from a garbage bag and a small bag of balloons they found in the closet. It was a great day!!

Here's a video of when he read his calling. Enjoy!

So when the festivities were over, I have never seen people leave to fast. Everyone cleared out like a stink bomb went off. Well let me the first to say....LIARS, YOU'RE ALL LIARS!!!!

You guys lied so good and for so long!!

My sweet, but very sneaky hubby and my over-achieving, but adorable sister-in-law had been planning a surprise birthday party for ME :) for a very long time. And I have to say that I was very surprised. I had no clue, especially having been so busy with Josh's mission stuff. And I wasn't only surprised at the party, but who was there and how SPECTACULAR Amy and my sisters, and sisters-in-law made everything look. Women after my own heart. It was a full out sit-down dinner, with floral centerpieces, chargers and place-card for everyone, material hanging from the top of my sister's balcony and Chinese lanterns with jewels dangling from them, and a professionally made cake by April from Designer cakes by April with these awesome fancy jewels cascading from the top.

Shelly Flores from Flowers Unique made these beautiful centerpieces

The cake was FANTASTIC! and tasted soooo good as well.

Amy spared no detail it was so wonderful and so fun to have all my family and friends there celebrating this special occasion with me. It made turning 40, not so horrible. My sister-in-law Dyna put together an awesome video of pictures of me and my family growing up, my kids on video tape saying they love me (I have proof now), and my parents and their sweet memories of me when I was born and a small child. My brothers all roasted me and had a few nice things to say as well. And I want to thank everyone that had anything to do with making such a neat day for me. I almost didn't show up because I was so tired from Josh's thing that I wanted to skip out on the work party the Gary and Chad were supposedly doing for their new company. The thing that surprised me the most was how calm and collected everyone was during all of this craziness. I felt bad and repented for having such a bad attitude about going to my sister's house. All my crazy friends were even there. It was such a great surprise. My boys and all the older nephews where dressed up like waiters and waited on everyone, served our meal and helped clean up after is was all done. We had a blast! Thank you, thank you , thank you, for caring so much about me.

So much to blog... so little time

I'm so behind on blogging that I don't know if I'll ever catch up, but I'm going to try. Today I'm posting a bit about Josh, his mission and the generosity of so many that have helped us stay on track to get him out on his mission.

The days that I think I'm going to seriously hurt Josh because he's part teenager/part adult and some days acts more like a teenager, I read his acceptance letter for his mission call. I'm going to post it because it was so neat to see that he really does want to go and serve the Lord.

Letter:

I am pleased to serve the Lord and the people of Mexico, I look forward to dedicating all my effort and attention to preaching the gospel of Christ to those that would hear it. I have a testimony of the restored gospel and of Joseph Smith and have been preparing to share that glad message to the humble souls that hunger for that knowledge. I know serving is a big part in my own salvation and hope that baptisms and faithful new saints will be a by-product of my labors. I anticipate this opportunity I have been given with much excitement.

With Love,

Elder Davis

We are so proud of him and that he is preparing to go on his mission. We have been blessed already with Eric finding a job, my wedding business is starting to fill up for fall and winter and the days that I just cry because I don't know how we are going to pay for his mission I get phone call for business, a dear ward member calls to let us know that they will buy all his shirts, others have given Josh money to help him prepare to get ready to go or my family reassures us that they will help us any way they can I know the Lord is blessing us already. We are so grateful to be a part of this gospel and to have our son help take this that makes us so happy to others that need it in their lives. Thank you to everyone that has been such a good influence on us and our family. We love you and hope we can some day repay all the generosity that you have given us.