Where to begin......

It has been so very long since I have posted. We have been so very busy and had a fun, exciting summer. I will have to post more about all of that later. I have decided to just start back with school pictures and what we have been up to lately. It hurts my head to think about all of the things I could write about and tell about.

The kids first day of school pictures:

Jessica with her friend Andrea, who came from AZ to visit us for over a week was there still on Jessica's first day of school. This is them before leaving to go to seminary. Jessica is 16 and a Junior this year. She is on the Varsity Volleyball team and loving the sport.

Hunter is a Freshman this year. He starts high school and seminary. He is 15 and is on the freshman football team playing outside linebacker. He has grown to 5'9 this summer.

Spencer is 10 and in the 5th grade. He is currently playing fall baseball and loves it. Taylor is 9 and in the 4th grade. She is playing volleyball at the YMCA. She is the youngest and smallest one on her team, but everyone thinks she is so dang cute. I need to be better about posting and hopefully I will catch up more later, but for now this is all I can do.

I am Loved

Ever since my kids could eat solid foods I made heart pancakes for breakfast for Valentines day. I would always put a note in there lunch with a special treat, and a little box of chocolates. This year it was on a Saturday, so no note in there lunches with a special treat. I did make them our annual heart pancake breakfast. My hearts did not turn out as great this year, but I was in a hurry because I had a Stake Young Women's Leadership meeting in the morning from 10 to 12.

We had some extra special kids with us on Valentines day morning. Who enjoyed our tradition. Jessica and Hunter are not in this picture, because they were just getting up.

I left that morning in such a hurry I did not have time to clean anything up and left my house a mess. I wished everyone a Happy Valentines day and left for my meeting, which was 30 minutes away. When I got home I was really wishing that my family would have cleaned up the huge mess I had made from that morning. This is what I encountered when I came home:

This beautiful note on the back door inviting me:

It immediately put a smile on my face. I walked into the house and it was immaculately clean and the table was set just like this. A peach rose from each on of my kids and white roses from Doug, with a special note/card from each of my children and a love letter from my husband.

With a dinner Menu of what they were going to serve that evening for dinner. I had to wait in the other room till they were finished and they called me into dinner and this is what the table looked like. I wish I would have taken one with all of the kids sitting down. Doug made it all. It was heavenly, and plenty left for the next day and it was just as good the second day. Thank you Doug, Jessica, Hunter, Spencer, & Taylor for making me feel so loved.

I love you!

I love these moments

Jessica

Hunter Taylor

Spencer with duckie (from Grandma Udall) and otter (from Grandma Slade)

Piano Lessons

Spencer and Taylor have started taking piano lessons from a wonderful dear friend of mine Melysa. They get to learn on a baby grand piano, how awesome is that. I got to learn on a baby grand piano too. We have a piano that I paid $125 dollars for. It was a steal, but it still needs to be tuned. I will get around to it soon. I need to just do it. They have loved it so far, even practicing. I know that it will not last, I have been there and I loved piano lesson's for a few months then I begged my mom to let me quit, but she would not let me. I finally talked her into it after a year. I wish she would have never let me quit, but you can't force me to do anything. Gotta go to piano lessons. Wish them luck.

Four eyes are better than two

Taylor has worn glasses for a year now, but it was time to get her some new ones. Of course her prescription changed and now she pretty much has to wear them all of the time, except for reading. She would not let me get a good picture of her with them on, but I finally managed a decent one. She loves them but has a hard time remembering to wear them. I catch her squinting all of the time and have to tell her to go and get her glasses.

First day of school

Jessica is a Sophomore this year. Last week she tried out for the J.V. volleyball team and made it. She is so excited to be playing a new sport. Here in Georgia softball and volleyball are played at the same time in the Fall. Jessica played softball last year and chose to play volleyball this year. Today was also the first day of seminary. Jessica loves seminary and is always eager to go and learn more about Christ. She is studying the New Testament this year. Hunter is a 8th grader this year. He is on the 8th grade football team. They had tryouts this year for football for the first time, because their was to many boys. Hunter plays corner and wide receiver. He has grown over 4 inches just in two months. Spencer is in the 4th grade this year. He chose not to play football this fall. I am grateful one less practice to worry about. He is still in cub scouts. This year he will be switching classes between three teachers. His Social studies and reading teacher is my good friend Lora. Her son is one of Spencer's best friend. Taylor is in 3rd grade this year. She was so excited to start school back up. We met her teacher last week and she already had a homework assignment for the first day of school. She needed to bring in three things that described her. She brought her stuffed kitty, a book about kittens, and some pictures that she took. She loves kitties, reading and taking pictures. She is going to start piano lesson's here soon. I went down to the church building and took this picture of Jessica and a few of her friends from Seminary. We have 32 kids enrolled in Seminary this year. That is awesome. She is smack dab in the middle. We have a great group of youth in our ward.

Awards

Taylor received two awards in her classroom. One was voted on by her peers and that was that she was the most respectful in her class. Her teacher told me that she was voted for in so many of the categories, but the teacher could only pick one for her and said she could not get everything. Spencer received the TOPS award for the whole third grade. Today's Outstanding Pupil Spotlighted is what TOPS stands for. There are over 180 kids in third grade. The nine 3rd grade teachers all got together and had to pick one student in 3rd grade to receive this award. The student had to have good citizenship, great character, hard working, good academically, and just an all around great student. Spencer was chosen. He was actually chosen back in December and was announced on the radio, newspaper, and local magazine. He just received his award and a pin for it at the end of the year. I was sure a proud parent. He also received a national physical fitness award for commitment to and achievement in physical fitness. Another award was a Silver attendance award for missing less than three days of school. None of my children have ever earned any kind of attendance award. He also was voted on by his peers as the most Honest Student in his class. Spencer had a great year and loved his teacher who challenged him everyday.

Toothless baby

We call Taylor a toothless baby, because she has lost so many teeth lately. As you can see in the photo she is missing several teeth. She lost one two nights ago and last night she lost another one. She is missing five teeth all together. Three on top and two on the bottom. It is so cute and funny at the same time. She is excited that the tooth fairy came two nights in a row. Here's a better photo of her empty mouth, with a cheesy smile.

Daddy Daughter Date

On Saturday night Taylor and Doug had a Daddy Daughter Date. They had to dress up, go to the church building to have dinner together. They are here getting ready to have a nice dinner of barbecue chicken, spinach salad, fruit salad, potato salad, and brownies and ice cream for dessert. After dinner they played a game. Earlier they had to fill out a survey about themselves. Then they played it like family feud style where they had to hit the table if they knew there daughters answer. Next it was the girls turn to answer questions about their dads. Taylor trying to be funny answered what her dads favorite scripture story was. She said "Pina Colada."Of course everyone laughed and asked if they could come to our house for scripture study. It was really funny and I think Taylor accomplished what she was trying to do. Her leaders did an awesome job. Taylor and her dad learned some new things about each other.

A Temple visit

Our Achievement day girls went to the Atlanta Temple a couple of weeks ago. It was actually Taylor's first time in achievement days. She was so excited to be able to go. I was able to go with her. I am in Primary and I get to work with the achievement day leaders. They do an awesome job. They brought each girl a lunch with their name on it tied up so cute. We sat on the front lawn of the temple to enjoy it. Then we waited for someone to talk to us about the temple. So we took advantage of taking so pictures in front of the beautiful flowers. Here are only half of the girls, the rest were finishing up there lunch. Shea, Taylor, Aspen, & Autumn A picture of us in front of the temple, by a flower bed. Aren't those flowers gorgeous? Taylor just could not get over the fact that the flowers so pretty. She wanted to take tons of pictures. Which she did her is just one of them. She took about ten or so and did a pretty good job at it too. She is like her mother, always looking to scrapbook the pictures that we take. We were asked to come into the waiting room of the temple. There the assistant to the Temple matron talked to the girls and told them some neat facts about the Atlanta Temple, who can enter, how can we go to receive our own endowments one day. You could have heard a pin drop. The spirit was strong there and the girls were great. The assistant to the matron gave each girl a picture of the temple with the Articles of Faith on the back of it. It was a perfect way to end a perfect day. Taylor I can't wait until you are able to go and do baptisms for the dead when you are twelve and worthy, but also to receive your own endowments one day. You continue to do what is right and follow the commandments and it will be soon enough. I love you.

Taylor's Baptism

This was a very bittersweet day for me as Taylor's mother. I can't believe my baby is was getting baptized. It just seemed like yesterday when she was born. I was sad to think she is growing up, but excited for her to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. She truly has a sweet spirit about her. I know with all of my heart that she made the right decision to be baptized. She told me she wants to be like Jesus and Jesus was baptized so she needed to be baptized. It is amazing how much you teach your children and they end up teaching you and reminding you of how simple the gospel is. Taylor I love you and only want the best for you. Your dad and I are very proud of your decision and we hope you will always follow the gospel.

Family History

My grandma and her sister told me that this picture is very rare for their parents to show affection in public. You just don't do that sort of thing back then, they told me. They cherish this picture of their parents. I love this picture also. Someone was lucky to get a shot of that. This was in Texas on a Uncle's Farm if I remember correctly. Grandma and her sister Gloria Me, Aunt Gloria, and Grandma Slade. This is Angel (my second cousin), Me, Great Aunt Gloria, Spencer & Taylor. Her son Buster was their but was not able to take pictures at the time.

This one is a picture of my Great Great Grandmother. She is the Baby on her mother's lap at the left.

This is a picture of my Great Great Grandfather & Grandmother Alexandra and their horse Daisy.

This is my great grandmother a couple of years before she passed away. I remember a few things about my great grandmother and one of them is that she loved bowling. I got one of her many bowling trophies that she won when she passed away.

This is my Grandma Slade's mother, sister's & brothers in the early 70'S in Texas.

I am so thankful for my family tree. It has been amazing to learn so many great things and stories while my grandma was here to visit. My grandma was the only one in her family to join the church to this day out of her immediate family. I am sure glad that she accepted the gospel when she married my grandpa who was a member. Doug told me that my trip down to Columbus was well worth the trip to spend time with my grandmother and to be able to get some really neat pictures of my ancestor's. Most of the pictures I took of pictures my Aunt had.

A trip with Grandma

We had such a great visit with Grandma Slade or Great Grandma Slade to my children. We sadly had to take her to here sisters house in Columbus. So we made a trip out of it. We took Taylor & Spencer out of school early and headed out of town. On the way we stopped at the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield were a civil war battle was held. Grandma in the Museum and enjoying every minute of it. This museum is not very big, but has so much information to read and see that you could be in there for hours. We only were there for about 1 hour and 1/2. Grandma knew the kids had been there many other times, but they were very patience about letting her take as much time as she needed. This museum has a child space with coloring and reading they have visited many times. We made our way to Columbus in 2 hours and checked into our Hotel. We looked for a place to have dinner and the kids came across their favorite Pizza Place Stevie B's Pizza Buffet. I was not in the mood for pizza, but Grandma said that sounded good to her. I right away spotted a scrapbook store next door to the pizza place and so I made a deal. I will take you to pizza if I get to look in the scrapbook store. They agreed, and of course the scrapbook store had a children's play section. They did not mind it. I bought some really cute bowling paper for when we went bowling a couple of weeks ago. It had been a long day and we were all tired. Great Grandma invited Taylor to sleep with her so she didn't have to sleep on the couch. Taylor agreed happily. Grandma told her she has never slept with a Great granddaughter before. That made Taylor happy that she was the first. We woke up to snow falling the next day when we took Grandma to her sisters house. We were sad to leave her behind, but happy for her she hasn't seen her sister in two years.