It's great to be 8!

I am so excited for my little one's big day! I've been busy trying to get everything ready for her baptism luncheon following the service. It's a lot of work.... but she's worth it.

Here are the invites that I made.

I am totally into subway art right now, so I wanted to try and make one... here is what I came up with. I will frame it and put it somewhere in the house on the day of her baptism.

I also wanted to make a sign that I could frame and display at the luncheon and then hang in her room after, so that she can always remember her special day

On Sunday she had her interview with the bishop. Our bishop is such a great man and he was so darling with Ana. She was really nervous about her interview, but he had her laughing and smiling in no time. I guess she answered all of the questions correctly, because he said she could baptized. I just love my little princess!

And so it begins!

Another school year has begun... time for the traditional pics of the kids on the front porch. I can't believe that all of my kiddo's are old enough to be in school. I just blinked and BAM, they are growing up!

Sienna ready to begin 8th grade. She started at a new school this year, public Jr. High.... YIKES!

Cute lil monkey boy, watch out Kindergarten....HERE COMES FAISAL!

Giving mommia a squeeze before sending him off to his class.

AnaLeigha getting ready to start 3rd grade!

Taelynn is a middle schooler now! She is excited to have a locker and that she gets to ride her bike to school every day.

I love my kiddo's!

An angel in heaven

My heart is so sad right now. A wonderful, beautiful, courageous young lady passed away today. Her name is Lindsey and she was one of my former colorguard students. What an amazing girl she was!

I met Lindsey about 13 years ago when she tried out for color guard. You couldn't help but love her, she was so kind and just darling. A few months after she made the team she learned that she had a brain tumor and they performed brain surgery to remove it. Unfortunatly for me, this meant that she could no longer be on team.... the doctors didn't like the idea of her throwing flags and rifles above her head (crazy, I know!). The team as devistated, but Lindsey remained close to all of us and instead came and helped us with our equipment at our competitions.
To make a long story short, over the past 13 or so years she has had 3 or four more brain surgeries due to tumors coming back. Last February, Lindsey and her husband Josh received the devastating news that there was nothing more they could do for her. Of course her family was heartbroken, but you know what her response to them was? She said "Hey, I'm not dead yet. I'm here and alive". What an amazing attitude this young girl had! Her family created a blog for her about a year ago, to tell her story and I have been following it for the past nine months. It is so uplifting and inspiring. I recommend you go and visit it and read her story from the beginning. It will make you laugh and cry and just feel love for Lindsey. The blog address is
www.forlindsey.blogspot.com
For the past few weeks the family has known that Lindsey's time on this earth was very limited and maybe that is why I have been thinking about her even more than normal...
This morning I dreamt of Lindsey. She came to me to say goodbye and tell me that she is free from pain and limitations. I started crying as we embraced, sobbing actually. Begging her not to go. She gave me one of her beautiful smiles and told me she loved me and then she was gone. I woke up just sobbing and had this strong sense that either Lindsey had passed away yesterday or would do so today. I tried to shake off the feeling, but all day I kept thinking about the dream. Earlier this evening I received a text from one of my former students, who was on team with Lindsey, saying that she had passed away today.
Even though I know that she is in a much better place and free from pain, I weep for those of us that she left behind, especially her husband Josh and her family.
I keep thinking about the dream. Why did I have it? Was it just a coincidence that I had that dream the day that she passed away? I'm grateful for it though, because I feel like I really was able to say goodbye to her and tell her that I loved her.
It brings me peace right now.
I will always be grateful for what she taught me, about faith and about love. She really was such an example of a Christ like person.
Her favorite food was french fries, especially from Taco Amigo. I will always think of her whenever I eat french fries from Taco Amigo now.
Thank you Lindsey for your example and all the countless memories that I will always remember about you from when you were on colorguard. I love you Linds.

Ana's baptism photo shoot

Last night we got Ana all done up and took her to some spots around town to do a little photo shoot of her in her baptism dress. We had such a good time, well at least I did, I'm not sure Ana LOVED it. She was hot and sweaty. These first few pictures are some of the pics that Chris took with his camera.

These next few are some that I took with my camera that were some of my favorites.

I'm pretty pleased with how these all turned out... of course the subject matter was pretty beautiful! I just can't believe how grown up she looks!

All grown up

It always amazes me when I get a wedding announcement in the mail from one of my former colorguard girls. Not because they found someone to marry, but because to me they will always be little junior high/high school kids... forever and ever.

I only taught at Riverton for one year, but in that year I met some of the most amazing girls ever. 

Mylee was one of those amazing girls! What an honor it was to be asked by her to make her wedding cake! 

Yesterday was her wedding and what a beautiful bride she was! It was fun to be a part of her special day, thanks for asking me Miles, it meant a lot!

Our weekend in Pineview!

We got home today from a fabulous weekend of camping with our dear friends up at Pineview Reservoir. This has become an annual tradition in our neighborhood, this was the third year that we have gone and we honestly look forward to it every year. This year certainly didn't disappoint! 

The days were filled with playing at the beach, boating, wake boarding, tubing, crafting, game playing, sand volleyball playing, friend playing, swimming, sun bathing and junk food eating. The nights were filled with, campfire sitting, marshmallow roasting, Werewolf playing, and just enjoying each others company. 

We truly feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends in our neighborhood, they are AMAZING people, some of the best we have ever lived by. As I sit here typing I am reminded from my aching body, just how much fun we had on the water. I tried wake boarding and ACTUALLY got up and skied around for a few minutes before crashing. I was so proud of Faisal and Ana. Faze tried tubing and LOVED it, Ana tried water skiing and was not so in love with it. I'm just so proud that they tried it. Sienna and Tae ate it up tubing and knee boarding. We were in a different campsite this year because our normal site was already booked, the new site had an awesome sand volleyball court that the kids LOVED hanging out at, not only playing volleyball but also playing in the sand. The water was pretty high this year so there wasn't much of a beach, so it was pretty cool that they had another sandy area to play in. Warning! Lot's of pictures!

 Here is a video I took of Ana skiing for her first time!