Camping in Pineview....#1 a.k.a STRIKE ONE

For the past several years it has been our family's tradition to go camping up at Pineview Reservoir. Sometimes we go with family members and sometimes we go with our friends, this year we went with our friends the Barnes and Murpheys. The trip started out not so great....Faze and Chris were sick so they did not join us for the first three days, so it was just me and the girls. I was pretty proud of myself being capable of setting up camp all by myself.
The first few days had not so great weather, in fact it was down right cold and of course I did not pack anything that was warm enough so I had to make a trip into town and buy the kids some warm clothes. Other than the lack of my husbands presence we had a great (cold) time hanging out with our great friends. We just LOVE camping at Pineview!

We even rented a jet ski and pulled the kids behind on tubes, Faze just loved riding on the jet ski...I was surprised that he didn't freak out on it.

Taelynn and her good friend Taylor...they just love playing together.

Taelynn is such a ham! Her and Taylor and Izzy made up this hilarious "top five" things that are soooo important and they recited them to us complete with actions and hilarious facial expressions.

1- To eat at Red Robin- 'Red Robin.....YUM"

2- To be Greek

3- To sit in a chair

4- To drive a car

I can't remember the 5th one. I know that this might not seem funny but to watch the three of them recite them so animated just made everyone laugh.

I thought that this was a darling pic of all the kids- minus faze and mya

loved this pic of our good friends Jake and Amy

eating watermelon...well none for me, that stuff can kill ya!

playing at the beach! The beach was literally 20 yards from our campsite.

Good times for the kids!

Jake and I have a brother/sister type relationship.....just gotta love him.

It got so cold that we had to hunker down in our tent and just play games for the afternoon. Hard life, I know.

the three amigos!

Crazy girls!

Thanks guys for the great memories!

"A dream is a wish your heart makes"

Yes girls, dreams do come true! Ever since I got married I have WISHED for the chance to go to prom and to go to prom with the most good looking guys in town... my hubby! Well in June the opportunity presented itself and lucky for me, my hubby was willing to accept the date. A local school was having a fundraiser called "second chance prom". I know, I know this was TWO months ago, but life has been so crazy that I STILL have not blogged about it and wanted to document this momentous occasion. We managed to convince some of our friends that they should participate in this event with us (thanks guys!)

I wanted to have the FULL prom experience, so me and some of the girls in our prom group went dress shopping. None of us had much money to spend on such frivolities so we needed to be thrifty. I LOVED this part! It is sooooo much fun to try on fancy dresses. Last year when I was judging a pageant I fell in love with one of the evening gowns that one of the girls were wearing and have wanted a reason to buy it. I tried it on and of course it was AMAZING.....and...$200! I just couldn't justify spending that much money for it. Sigh. Maybe someday. So here are some pics from our fabulous night.
Me and my HANDSOME date at dinner.

Kayla and Jody when we were dress shopping.

Taking a drink break....man, shopping can be exhausting....but oh so fun!

A cute shot of Jen

Jen twirling in her BEAUTIFUL dress, this one also cost $200!

I found this dress and LOVED it, they had it at Dillard's in turquoise and I bought it for $26!!! The deal of the century!

Me and Jen
Me, Kayla and Jen waiting for our dates to arrive. All the girls waited at our house for our men to show up and pick us up. I knew that they had a surprise for us, little did I know that it was some set of wheels. No, not a limo.... they rented a huge RV! What a totally awesome way to arrive in style! LOL

Jody, all dolled up and looking FABULOUS!

The beautiful Jen, sitting in the RV
Kayla looking good!
There was so much hairspray in my hair I am amazed that it didn't fall out due to product!

Our WAY HOT limo...I mean RV driver!

Pinning on his corsage.
Stealing a kiss!
Jody and Dion at dinner. We ate at Thanksgiving pointe....so yummy!
The dance was held at the Apollo in AF. There was a live band and we had soooo much fun getting jiggy wit it!! LOL

Seriously though, Chris was in RARE form this night, I have not seen him let his hair down like that on the dance floor in FOREVER. Yes people, he did the worm (which did cause injury to some important areas!)
Jaron and Elizabeth showing us their moves.

Jen and Kelly dancing it up.

Chris and I on the dance floor.

There was even a photographer at the dance taking group and individual shots, we talked the guys into doing it! The pictures turned out so AWESOME!

We left the dance at about 11pm to go to our 'activity' we drove up to boondocks and did something that I have always wanted to do.....go lazer tagging!

I love this pic! This was all the girls in our group posing in our lazer tag gear! Look out Charlie's Angels!!!
The girls posing in front of our RV!

The men posing for the camera...... what a bunch of crazies!

After boondocks closed we drove the motor-home back to the neighborhood and parked it so that we could overlook the valley and then we watched a movie. We did not get home until 3:30 AM. Can I tell you how fun it is to not have a curfew?! (My mom had the kids spend the night at her house, thanks mom!)

This was better than ANYTHING that I could of done had I gone in High School. Finally my dream of attending a prom has come true! Thanks to all of our friends that made this night so unforgettable. And especially thanks to my prince charming for making one of my biggest dreams come true! Chris has said that if this school does it again next year then we are going again!!!! I can't wait!

the flipiest of flip flop parties!

Last month my sweet little Tae turned nine!!! I have the lucky privilege of having two children with back to back birthdays (they are a day apart). Ana's party I already posted about so now it is time to post about Taelynn's. She wanted to have a flip flop party. So I racked my brain for a way to make that happen. The first was with the cake. I found this cake idea and ran with it. I made homemade fondant, which I have NEVER used or made before but really wanted to try it out. Let me tell you, fondant is so easy and fun to use and this recipe actually tasted good!
When the guests first arrived we played the candy jar guessing game, which is a game that I played when I was a child. Then the kids all decorated flip flops with fabric. They turned out very cute. Then we played some silly games that the kids all loved. It was a fun little party and everyone seemed to have a good time. PHEW! I now can rest until the next party in November! My sweet little birthday girl!

The flip flop cake. It turned out pretty darn cute!

Decorating flip flops

The finished product! Really there are feet somewhere in all of that!

Free at last!!!!

Yes that is right....I am free! From Primary that is! I have put off writing this post for a couple of weeks. Let's just say that Primary is not my favorite place to be lately. Like any ward we have our unreliable teachers and bumps and bruises that happen along the way. Well it finally was more than I could take. I had almost hit my two year mark and let me tell you there is a reason why most callings of this nature have a two year expiration date....you are just done by the end of it, in every way....spiritually, physically and emotionally. I will miss the wonderful women that I got to work with, they are amazing women that evidently are much stronger than I.
I learned a lot in these past two years, one thing that I learned is to never flake out on my responsibilities in the church. I think that sometimes people forget that these callings come from the Lord. HE wants you to be in this calling. It amazes me how some people take their callings so casually.
I will never no-show for a class and I will always try to help when asked to substitute. I have so much respect for anyone in a Primary Presidency calling, it is hard work!
I am excited to be able to attend relief society again, my spiritual well was just about dried up and needed to be refilled. This is me drinking it up......AHHHHHHHHHH!

Announcing Birthday girl, Fairy Princess AnaLeigha

A couple of weeks ago my sweet little Ana turned six! Where has the time gone??? For her birthday party she decided to have a princess fairy party. I found a FABULOUS website where you can buy all sorts of great things at DIRT CHEAP prices. So I bought Fairy wings, Tu-Tu's and crowns for each of the 'fairy guests'. As the guests arrived they were sprinkled with 'fairy dust' to begin the fairy transformation. Then we made fairy paper dolls and played fairy games, followed by a royal feast. It was a fun little party. For the cake I made a pink castle cake, it turned out alright....

hard at work cutting out the paper dolls.

Ana got some fun presents from all of her friends.

The royal feast

a group shot of all the fairies.

The birthday girl.

mirror mirror on the wall, who is the BRAVEST of them all....I AM!

HISTORY.... When I was 19 I pierced my ears for the FIRST time. I know, I was WAYYY old, but my mom is NOT a fan of ear piercing, so I just never got it done when I was younger. At the time I was on the Ballroom team at UVSC and I felt like it would be better to have pierced ears for ballroom dancing purposes, so I went with my best friend Brook and took the plunge. It hurt. I cried (yes for real). Three months later, they were infected and grew in. I never re pierced them. End of story... until now.
Sienna got her ears pierced back in November for her birthday and I was tempted to re-pierce them then, but with Chris' job in upheaval I resisted.
A few weeks ago I told my two friends Amy and Kristin that I wanted to get them re-pierced, they JUMPED on it and we planned our night out with a trip to Sizzler for dinner and then to the mall. Here are some pictures from the crazy event. Oh so nervous!


Picking out my studs, they had to be perfect since they will be in my ears for the next six months.

Us at dinner before getting them pierced

This was right BEFORE.... having second thoughts.....oh so scary!

I insisted that two girls pierce them at the same time...what a chicken. Right before she pierced them I asked "what happens if the earring gets stuck in the gun thingy" the girls said it won't get stuck...well guess what?! Yep, it got stuck! This was me screaming "it's stuck...get it off!" The girl actually told me to stop making such a ruckus!
Looking at my freshly pierced ears for the first time!
After the tears had been wiped away....a happy girl! LOL
Bravery at it's finest!!!!