Scripture Cookies

For Family Home Evening this week, we made scripture cookies. We each had a slip of paper with a scripture written on it, we then had to look up the verse to find out which ingredient to add to make our cookies. Ali had been anticipating this for weeks now and was so thrilled when we finally did it. Here she is holding up her slip of paper with Chris and Kenna.

Jace's scripture told us that sweet cane was needed and he happily dumped in the sugar. Emily adding the flour....

Lindsay had the baking soda...................

We are a happy family : )

This was a fun little activity that we found in the friend, thanks Kara. All the kids thought it was great, the last ingredient was fruit, so we used dried cranberries and also added white chocolate chips. They were delicious and a recipe that's so simple and easy, the kids could do it by themselves.

Pre-school graduation

Last Friday was Baylie's pre-school graduation. I can't believe how fast this year has gone, I can still remember her first day of pre-school, with her asking over and over if it was time to leave yet, and it did make me sad to leave her that first day. She has grown and learned so much this past year, it was bittersweet for me at her graduation. She has had an amazing teacher who has done so many fun things and taught her so much. The cute kids put on a little program for the parents and siblings, here is the morning and afternoon classes doing a little song. Baylie is in the left group, far right in the green shirt. Mrs. Grover asked all the kids what their favorite number was, what they want to be when they grow up and where is their favorite place to go. Baylie said her favorite number is 3, she doesn't know what she wants to be and her favorite place to go is the store! (She is a good little shopper)

Mrs. Grover giving her a hug.... we sure love this lady and young lady!

Baylie with her diploma......

One final picture and final good-bye to Mrs. Grover!!

This has been such a great growing year for Baylie, she is excited for kindergarten but I think I wish she could do another year of pre-school, this one went way to fast! Baylie is such a joy to have at home and I have missed her the few hours she's been away at pre-school. Mrs. Grover did such a fantastic job and I know Baylie is destined for greatness in her new adventures in grade school!! Way to go Baylie, you are growing up way to quickly!

Kenna turns 14

I'm finally getting around to posting about Makenna's 14th birthday, better late than never. Her birthday was on the 16th, last Sunday. We had David and Anjela and their boys here for the weekend but it was still a bummer for her to have her day fall on a Sunday. No party, no friends and she's such a social girl. Here she is opening one of her favorite things, to eat.... Uncle David tried to take her down over the weekend.

Makenna thought it would be cute to have Jace and Gavin put bows in their hair, she helped and then wanted a picture with them. Good thing they're still little enough not to know better!

Grandma Jackson joined us for dinner too!

Makenna wanted to have brownies and ice cream instead of cake.

We did have a fun little family celebration and she got some nice things from those who love her! I felt so bad for her that in a moment of weakness, I told her she could have friends over Friday, which I had forgotten was Baylie's pre-school graduation. At her age though, they just seem to entertain themselves as long as I provide the food! We are so thankful that Kenna is in our family, she brings a lot of laughing and fun. We love her personality and I can't believe she's already 14!!! I've been wondering where the years have gone.........

Down by the River

Last Saturday was such a beautiful day!! David and Anjela and the boys were still here visiting so we decided to take them down to the river for a picnic and to feed the ducks/geese that are there. We had a perfect view of the temple from where we were sitting. Baylie venturing out to find some ducks that were in need of bread

Lindsay, Chris, Me, Dexen, Anjela and David chillin' out while the kids are off feeding the ducks.

Baylie and Jace (Bella's in the background) coming back for more bread.

We did take a little walk around part of the green belt too. Here are Anjela with Gavin and Lindsay with Jace - and the race was on, piggy back style- but I made them stop and pose!

Ali, Jace and Baylie throwing bread at the geese.

Lindsay, Baylie, Emily and Ali!

Chris decided to get a nap in too!

The weather was perfect and we all had a great time! Jace keeps asking when do we get to go back to duck island. I'm not sure how he came up with the name, but it is a little fitting.

Just for Men

Last Thursday was my little brother's birthday. They happened to be coming to Idaho Falls for Carli and Jared's wedding when I got a text from my sister in law, Anjela. The text stated that David forgot to dye his hair and for his birthday he wanted me to get him some hair color. We went to dinner and came back home for cake and ice cream and of course, his Just for Men hair dye. Here he is proudly showing his gift I had the privilege of actually coloring his hair. It was quite exciting since I'd never done it before! Here we go, he's looking a bit scared (and he should be bwuahahahaha)! Here I am adding the color to his hair. We went with light brown.

Rubbing it through out his hair - I really was having a good time

Kenna is wiping the sides of his head, apparently the dye stains your skin if it comes in contact with it, who knew? I am proudly displaying the bottle....

And rinse! Another fun part, I was using the hose from the sink and I kept squirting him in the face as well. Good times!

This was a fun little night, I learned to do something I hadn't done before and who better to have for practice than your little brother? Thanks David for trusting me, we had some great laughs!!!I forgot to take an after picture but it did turn out good, if I must say it myself! Who's next?

5th grade sqaure dance!!

Last Wednesday, the 5th graders had a square dancing program for their parents as well as the other students at the school. They had 2 sessions and it was a cute little program, they had been practicing for months! Here is Emily with her partner, Easton Dahlberg, getting ready for one of the dances. Another kid in their "square." That's some super cool hand holding Em : )

And, promenading around the square!

After the square dance, they were going to perform a line dance, in which people from the audience were allowed to go down and join them. Here is Emily coming to where we were sitting to get anyone who wanted to join her.

Ali went out with her. She had Jace for awhile but he didn't like it very much and I had to go rescue him! They were both very cute and it was fun to watch Ali try to copy Emily in what she was supposed to do.

This was a cute program and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go watch her perform. I had to hear about practicing for months so to see the final result was great! The school year is winding down, I think this one just flew by!

18 Years strong!

18 years ago today, I made the best decision of my life, marrying Chris. It has been an amazing 18 years, and I can't begin to imagine what my life would be like without having Chris in it!! I am one lucky girl, and have been very blessed to be able to spend my life with him. (these pictures were actually taken today at the river) 18 reasons why I love Chris

1. Lindsay
2. Makenna
3. Emily
4. Alison
5. Baylie
6. Jace
7. He is an incredibly hard worker
8. He constantly tries to better himself
9. He leads our family with quiet strength
10. He's humble
11. He loves the Lord
12. He treats me like a princess
13. He makes me laugh
14. He sets a fantastic example for our kids to follow
15. He is a fabulous dad
16. He folds the laundry : )
17. Goes to work and comes home to work some more
18. Waits up for the kids to come home (I always fall asleep)

Thank you Chris for the last 18 years. They have been such wonderful chapters in my life, I am so grateful for the man that you are and for the quiet example you are to me daily. I appreciate that you always treat me kindly and respectfully and that you put up will all my quirkiness!! I love you and am grateful for how hard you work to provide for me and our beautiful kids.
Our Eternal Family.

Commencement 2010

****I may have over done it on the picture taking****
This past Saturday was the BIG day!! Lindsay and her date, Matt Tolson, started the day early with a 'day date.' He picked her up at 10 am and off to the zoo and then to the park for a picnic they went. They were with 5 other couples. I had asked Lindsay ahead of time to take pictures through out the day so I could blog them. Well, she came home with 3 pictures! I was bummed. Here are some pelicans they saw at the zoo. A few of the boys goofing off! Her date is in front.

Here she is with 2 of the girls, they must have been laughing a the boys!

She returned home around 2 so she would have enough time to get ready for the dance. My good friend Christy came over to help her get her make up on. Here they are working on it.

After make-up, it was time for me to do her hair. She had decided she wanted me to do "princess curls" all through her hair. That's just our fancy name for ringlets. It's how I bribe Baylie to let me do her hair, if I do them, she'll look like a princess. Her hair is fairly thin, but these curls are done in layers, 2 layers on each side and 3 layers in the back.

After just over an hour and almost a full can of hairspray : ) TA-DA

Next, we had to get her into her dress without messing up hair and make-up!! Once she had the dress on, I put on her accessories, necklace, earrings, bracelet.... yes, those are her earrings hanging out of my mouth!

What a beauty!!!!!!

Don't forget the lip gloss!!

While waiting for her date to arrive.......

We took some pictures, her siblings were all just waiting and watching us get her all dolled up. They loved it! (Kenna was off babysitting for a neighbor)

I had her take a picture with her dad as well. I love it!!

One (or two) more before Matt arrived. I think she looks amazing, and I'm not saying that just because I'm her mom! See for yourself.....

Here she is with Matt while he's putting her corsage on her wrist.

Pinning on his boutonniere....

and, smile!

There they go!!! I was so glad to see he opened the door for her!

I told Lindsay I was going to follow them to the house where they were having dinner. I really wanted to. I wanted pictures of all the girls, the boys, couples, flowers, everything. Lucky for me it was at my friend Alexa's house (her son is one of the couples she went with) and it would've been so easy for me to go and do all that. I figured I had over loaded these two with picture taking so I called Alexa to make sure she would take a few for me, to avoid further embarrassment of Lindsay. Here they are at dinner.

Lindsay had a fantastic time!!! The boys did all the cooking for the meal and did a great job in planning the whole evening. I was impressed with her date, he was so polite and seemed like a genuinely nice young man! I had a fun few weeks with Lindsay, shopping for the dress, shoes, jewelry, getting her hair done etc. I'm sure this was just the first of many dances I'll have the opportunity to help her and my other girls with! I'm glad she had such a great time!!