It's Time...

Okay so I've been a big slacker and haven't posted since November, so I'm going to try and catch up, maybe. For Josh updates go to his mission blog see the link on the right. November and December ended up pretty busy with weddings in addition to all the family things going on. I just updated the look of my wedding website and blog so check it out (see link on the right).

Hey maybe I can catch up okay I'm just getting started....
Christmas was great with the kiddos, it's always great to spend some time with our family and then going to visit with the Grandparents. Abuela's house is always fun we had our traditional Mexican Christmas meal and even had a pinata this year the Kids loved it!

The kids all dressed up and did the Nativity and then all the kids participated in a mini talent show. It was great.

The Next morning we went to Grandma's for Christmas day and had the so yummy albondiga soup that she makes and we kept eating all day. Sorry I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures.




Dallin had a busy winter with wrestling. He was the Heavy weight wrestler for Queen Creek High and he did really well this year. He took 3rd place in Regionals, he qualified to go to state and his team took second in the state championship tournament. We are really proud of him!

Dallin was also asked to go to Sadie Hawkins Dance. The girl put a huge garbage bag of shredded newspaper on his bed. He was supposed to find the name in all that mess!

Dallin aswered back with a box full of fortune cookies in which one had his answer: He said Yes!

They were so cute as nerds for the dance.

A few updates down... a few more to go... I hope it doesn't take me 6 months to do it.

Consumed....

Never mind...

New blog for Josh

I've started a new blog for Josh to post his mission information, letters and pictures he may send from his mission. Check it out! http://elderjoshuadavis.blogspot.com/

Picture Day

Usually picture day for our family is, how can I put this...HORRIBLE. But, yesterday we had a family picture day and it was sooo nice. My friend Kim Skinner (photographer extraordinaire) offered to take our family pictures, since this will be the last time my family will be all together for a few years. I think I have been just blessed to have everything just fall into place. I found all the shirts for everyone at one store at a great price, the weather was great, the photographer was very patient, and my kids actually co-operated. Usually by the end of a session, I'm saying something like this (In my best devil voice I have) "If you guys don't cut that out and look like a happy family for this picture I'm going to knock you into next week" or something like that. I know, I should be nominated for a mother of the year award, I know...

Seriously, the pictures turned out so good and I'm so grateful that we have this great reminder of our family. Thanks Kim for this awesome gift.

These are some of the pictures she sent me to preview, I can't wait to get the pictures and go get them printed.

My latest craze...

So this is my latest craze... Acrylic style necklaces. I found these yummy acrylic beads online, at different stores and other jewelry I've taken apart. I have been making jewelry for a while now, but I've really fallen in love with these cute beads in all kinds of bright colors. I've made these for Angela now that she has started Kindergarten this year. And a few for me too ;)

Aren't they soooo yummy! I love them and they make great gifts too. Call me and we wan do a bead party!

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.