April, Prom and cheer competition

So I'm posting these things out of order but at least I'm getting them posted. 

In April Ashley and I had fun doing a paint night at a friend's house. It was Christmas in April for me but Ashley's picture is now proudly hanging up in her room. 

Girls movie night.

It's great to see the kids enjoying the backyard. They have started enjoying making their own fires and having smores when friends come over. 

I love looking outside and the kids will be playing basketball together or swimming.

We got to celebrate Jacob some. Jacob got awarded his Eagle!!

Here he with Bret holding the knives that Brother Loveland gives them for getting their Eagle (they say that is the best incentive)

I also got to make this board for him for the senior banquet night for cheer. 

He looked at some of the pictures of when he was younger and said "Awww, I look so cute!!"

Jacob getting his certificate for the year. 

He had a great time being mascot while at King. 

Ashley and I saw some old friends at a local LPA party. We haven't gone to many events but its fun to catch up when we do. 

Chloe and Elizabeth.

We had fun taking Cassidy and Jolene for our first beach day of the almost summer. 

Spring break Jacob and Ashley got to go on trek. I had to make Ashley her outfit (though I borrowed the bonnet and bought the shirt). 

We had to pack all their stuff for the trip in these buckets. 

Ashley kept worried about looking stupid in her outfit until she saw everyone else wearing the same things.  Here they are getting dropped off.

While they were on trek it started raining and raining. 

Everyone was still in good spirits but it was very wet. 

After a night of getting bedding wet and then walking all day in pouring rain it got to the point where everyone was huddled in a shed trying to decide what to do. It was decided that they would have the youth come home a night early and then come back the next morning to meet for testimonies. 

The next day I let Jeff sleep in since he had been driving around in the mud with them the whole time and I got to go to the testimony meeting. When I went to pick up the kids stuff Jacob's sleeping bag was unrolled, half soaked and had a spider crawling on it. 

Even though a lot of the kids were grateful to be warm, dry and have a hot shower most of them wished they could've stayed until the end. 

While they were gone on trek I got to hang out with friends and do pedicures and go to dinner...

One day I got to meet up with Cindy and her friends for lunch when she was in town for a visit. 

I've been finding more projects to do with just serve. This one is making cards for hospitalized kids and I hosted a mutual night having the young women work on them. 

They did a great job and came up with a lot of imaginative and beautiful cards. 

I had the opportunity to go to a couple of Chef Brad cooking classes and learned some more about how to use my pressure cooker and sample some yummy stuff. 

Taylor had a birthday. Can't believe he's 20! We celebrated by going out to dinner. 

While we were there I had the nastiest mushroom soup. It was all the soup they had and I was thinking Campbell's cream of mushroom...no this was a puree of mushroom chunks. Yuck! I don't like mushrooms very much anyway and after one bite I couldn't handle any more. 

Jeff bet the kids $100 to eat the bowl. No takers but they took a bet for $1 for a bit... that was a stretch, ha ha. You can see their reactions.

Jacob had his national cheer competition in Vegas this year. 

Before it the kids came over practicing their routine. 

We ended up taking Jayden with us. The boys ready to go.

Everyone had time to practice outside for a bit.

Ready to perform. Lets Go!

They did a great job!

While we waited for the results Jeff and I wandered next door to the Mormon fort which was the start of Las Vegas.

King ended up winning the overall awards again this year...

You can see Jacob behind all the girls.

Great job guys!

Afterwards we celebrated by going to container park and then a buffet. 

They had this wild sculpture of a praying mantis that would spout fire...

A fun weekend with the boys.

Women's Conference and Mother's Day and Prom

This year Women's Conference was a much needed time away with friends to rejuvenate ourselves spiritually and personally. I think the consensus was that it was much needed, much appreciated and was a good reminder of ourselves when we were younger, life was more simple and uncomplicated.  

Before we went we started a group text where we would communicate with each other as we were getting ready...or avoiding getting ready. 

The drive was beautiful, full of talking and pit stops (we are a car full of women). 

The theme for the week was floral...if you had it you wore it...I guess I have a lot of it. 

We made it to BYU without and mishaps and were happy to meet up and enjoy the conference together...

Great speakers, great insights...

and great music. 

Some of our favorite parts were meeting up at the end of the day for a meal and talking about what we had learned and more importantly how we were going to apply it to real life. 

Roomates for the week...

Hoping we'll all be like this some day.. :)

It was a wonderful conference and we all resolved to incorporate habits that would stick... they did for awhile and we kept each other accountable through our group text but real life is slipping in as well as summer...so we are working to get back on track. 

Looking forward to more women's conference in the future with these women...if the stars allign and we can all get away at the same time again. 

This was a mutual night where the boys made things for the moms for Mother's day...

They dipped things in chocolate and had fun...

a little too much fun. This was the trampoline split all the way down the middle by the end of the night. 

Luckily one of the other leaders helped us find a replacement pad on-line and we ordered a replacement before mutual was over. We were planning to have a house full of family that weekend and wanted to be able to have the trampoline for the kids!

That Sunday for Mother's Day we had a big gathering with all the family from both of our sides!

I love having a house big enough to have our crazy family get togethers...

As always we had lots of food. 

Jolene and Boston

My side of the family has now been introduced to our crazy games that are played at family parties. 

There is Mafia and Signs that are the family favorites. 

Some people like them more than others but all in all everyone has fun. 

As for the little kids they like uncle Jeff and all the candy he passes out.

We'll have to look forward to the next family gathering...

Jacob's prom date didn't work out this year but he didn't let that stop him and he ended up going anyway with a group of friends. 

I love how Jacob doesn't let disappointments or set backs hold him down for long. He had fun. 

Jacob and his friend Kevin

Summer

 

Some snapshots of summer so far...

Jeff had an opportunity to speak at a Relief Society night about Italy. 

He was supposed to talk about the culture and have something to taste. As part of his taste of Italy we decided to tackle a tiramisu recipe using chocolate instead of coffee or liquor. 

 I was optimistic at first but realized I was working with ingredients and doing things I had never done before.  I did a practice one for mutual and realized my marscopone cheese was too cold to spread, my chocolate custard hardened too quick while making it and wasn't smooth like it was supposed to be and the ladyfingers soaked up the hot chocolate they were being dipped in and became a mushy mess. 

I served it at mutual (which I am embarrassed about now) and when I got home Jeff was home and he said "What is this? This doesn't look anything like Terimasu, you can't even see any layers" 

(That was because it was mush)

Eventually we realized that it was because the ladyfingers I bought at Alberson's, which were the only ones I've ever seen before, were like spongecake and the ones you are supposed to use from Italy are a hard biscuit.  Who knew.

Once we got the right ladyfingers, and we tried again the second version turned out much better! We redeemed ourselves and everyone liked it and Jeff even said he would make it again. :)

    

Now that's its summer we've been able to enjoy the pool more and to enjoy it with friends. Ashley's friend Abbie is moving back to Utah soon and we were able to have a girls day over at the house before she left.

 I warned the boys that girls would be taking over the house for the day.

 

Ashley had been wanting to tie dye t-shirts so I bought all the stuff and we had a tie-dye activity, swimming, we all ate dinner and then went to see Finding Dory the first day it came out at the luxury theater with the nice seats. 

It was like a 10 hour party by the time it was all said and done. After our movie I came home to rinse and wash all the t-shirts so they would be ready for the next day...

The next day was a swim party for both Abbie and Nathan since both of them are moving away this summer. 

I was cracking up because it took awhile for the girls to get in the pool....and when they did they stayed right here on this side...

The boys were taking up the rest of the pool but the two groups didn't intermix at all.

 

Girls on one side and boys on the other...

Maybe the girls let the boys have the rest of the pool because they liked to jump in over and over

 

I realized that I had to tell the boys to not jump on each other, put each other in headlocks underwater and other such "suggestions" that I never have to worry about with the girls when they come over.

 

 

In the middle of the party Jacob had invited Elsa to come spend a couple of days and Ashley had Jenna spending the night. There was a group of people that were playing games inside for awhile.

Then Kelzey stopped over since she was home for the weekend and we got to visit with her for a bit. I love that they have time for family and friends in the summer that is so hard to come by during the school year.

Once the party was over we got to spend time with Elsa and enjoy having her down. The next day we planned a shopping trip at the mall. Jacob declined our invitation, ha ha so just us girls shopped. The kids were going to a dance that night and Elsa was able to buy a dress, a Father's Day present for her dad and more. We ate pretzels (a tradition) and ended the trip with a visit to the puppy store. 

As we walked in Elsa said "I was not emotionally prepared for all this cuteness"

Yes the puppy store is a dangerous place. 

Ashley and Jeff have a deal or bet (whichever you want to call it) that if she can keep her room clean for a year she can get another dog. Jeff was so sure that she couldn't do it he agreed readily. Well she's been actually doing it...pretty much...it's not perfect but its a lot better than it was. Going to the puppy store hardened her resolve.

Now I'm being taught by her about every breed that is out there and peppered with questions about what kind of dog I want. Meanwhile I keep telling her just enjoy the one we have! Ha ha.

That night the kids had fun at the dance...and Elsa was able to wear her new outfit

The kids were off to EFY the next Monday. Ready to go. Jacob's 5th year and Ashley's first.

Jacob's roommate was Shaun Thompson...and in honor of that he wore the t-shirt Shaun gave him during his campaign...Shaun and his mom thought his shout out to Shaun was funny. I guess he was the life of the party at EFY and had a great time.
 


While the kids were gone I didn't do anything exciting. Actually it was lonely and boring for the first couple of days. One day I had to drive out to Los Angeles to UCLA to pick up Jacob's medical records. Long story short it was 2 hours at UCLA getting everything I needed and 6 hours of traffic nightmare getting there and back. Who knew that leaving at 2:00pm would still put me in rush hour coming home...an hour and a 1/2 drive turned into over 4. I am so grateful I don't commute to LA every day!!!