Harry Potter

After a long, long wait, Jayden and I took Shy, Mac and Colby to see the new Harry Potter movie! As the kids would say, "Oh my gosh, it was awesome!" It was pretty spectacular. We devoured lots of popcorn, chocolate and pop, went home with tummy aches and fun memories. I think it was a pretty eventful day. The older the kids become, the more fun it is to do things that they enjoy.

Karen's Weekend

Shy's just getting in some practice
Shasta, Shawnte (& Vance), Karen, Mac, Sarah
with Dad
Travis helping in the celebration

Sarah, Shawnte' and Shasta

helping Karen celebrate her day!

Mackenzie, Karen and Shyane

Karen got some great gifts

(my cousin Sandra and Aunt Diane came too)

Shawnte' and Shasta coordinating the games

The decorating committee

(Sarah and Shawnte')

Our beautiful Vance

Sweet Makenna (after a night with a fever)

Little Breck. We caught him when he wasn't moving!

Funny Girl...Sienna with Grandma!

Mac, Grandpa, Shawnte' and Colby

Shyane showing Braden how to make a smore

Say smore!

Kaelynn didn't like getting her fingers gooey!

(who is that old lady in the picture?)

Karen celebrated the arrival of our new baby surrounded by those who love her the most. Her sister's Shasta, Shawnte' and Sarah came down (with their family's) to help me give her a baby shower. After all Karen's been through the past couple of years, we wanted to help her attain as much as possible. She thought her baby days were over and had given her stuff to the girls...ha! Just shows you who's really in charge. We had a fun weekend beginning the night before the shower when the grandkids stayed outside with me and made smores! Saturday, Grandpa took the small kids for a ride on his riding lawnmower...they loved that! After the shower, we all came back to my house to hang out, eat and visit. It was a wonderful weekend but I have to admit, once the last of the company drove off, Grandpa and I went upstairs and took a two hour nap! ha...

Jehkiah's Graduation

Father and Son

Stopping for a snack before dinner :)

Suzanne and Jayden

Katrina, John, Jehkiah and Jayden

Jehkiah (almost looking somber)

Too magnificent not to share

Singing his favorite song

Little Morgan (two days old)

It's finally over...Jehkiah is now officially a nuclear medicine tech! All the struggle and study has paid off. John, Jayden and I drove down for the graduation on June 13th and spent a fun weekend with Jehkiah. (I need to add that a week before, someone from our area called and asked if we could rescue a black bird (nestling) they found in their yard. After the wind storm we had, they couldn't find the nest, so we drove out and picked him up. We called him Morgan. He was very fragile and I had to take him to school with me so I could feed him regularly and keep an eye on him. That caused quite a bit of attention when Morgan would start hollering for me from inside the little basket. My teachers were patient, though. He was growing quickly and making lots of fun noises. But, we noticed he did have trouble digesting. You can see by the photo's how he loved riding on the dashboard.) We love hoteling it so we stayed in a hotel in Klamath Friday and Saturday. After graduation, we went to his friends house for a barbecue then Jehkiah took us on a tour of the city. We fell in love with the area. Sunday, we found little Morgan had died while we were out having breakfast. We were very sad. After church we did more sightseeing and took a drive up to the Lake of the Woods to bury our bird, and then onto Paul and Suzanne's for the night. Paul is Jehkiah's former Branch president (now Stake Pres.) and we had a blast. Suzanne let Jayden take her horse for a walk and then we just kicked back to visit. It was a warm, memorable day. On the way home, we stopped and viewed a fun historical site....so like John. Stretches the fun to the very last minute.

Tea Party

Shyane and Mackenzie
Our tea party setting

(with my grandmother's china and tablecloth)
Every year my granddaughter's Shyane and Mackenzie come over while Grandpa takes the boys (Jayden and Colby) camping for the father/son outing. This is our girl time. Because Shy was performing in a play on Friday night (May), she chose Drama as our tea party theme. So, Friday we went to the play, which was fabulous and afterward grabbed an ice cream cone at McD's, then came home to watch a girlie movie. Saturday morning I was up early to prepare a huge breakfast and set the table with ancestral pictures of the women in our family who've paved the way for them. We did a pajama party this year and sat around the table drinking raspberry tea and talking about my great grandmother's experience when women were allowed the vote. My grandfather actually hid the horses so she couldn't ride into town and cast her ballot...however, being the stubborn woman she was, Myrtle put on her walking shoes and walked to the polls. The girls thought this was so awesome. We then proceeded to write our own character outline - as if we were casting a play. I wanted them to envision what kind of a person they are or want to be. I think they learned something about themselves. It was a wonderful day.

Sister's Reunion

Wow! What a quarter. I'm so glad finals are over and I can just breathe. Note, I didn't say relax... I have lots of projects that have been "on hold" during the school year. I passed with better than expected grades and thoroughly enjoyed my history class and found a lot of enlightening moments. There was much I didn't know. Math was a challenge but I loved learning. I just wish I could learn without the stress of a grade. In May, my sister's came from all over and stayed with me for a weekend. The occasion was my nephew's reception but we tweeked that and turned it into a reunion!! Also, our dear friend, Lisa and her husband Ron drove over from Spokane to join in the fun. It was absolutely wonderful to have them here to visit and to reminisce about our lives and experiences. We've come a long way girls. Even if we are just a tad bit older.

Easter Memories

Jayden talking with Grandpa Floyd (he's 104)
Grandpa Floyd's in kid heaven
Karen's crew and Jayden
Karen, Katrina, Aunt Diane and Sandra

Dennis, John, Aunt Diane and Jayden

We had a really wonderful Easter Sunday with my Aunt Diane and her family. We met in Kahlotus at Sandra's for a scrumptious ham dinner and lots (lots) of dessert and easter egg hunting in the house. It was raining pretty hard outside but we still had fun! Grandpa Floyd was there and he is just as I remember. Full of spunk! The neat thing to share with the kids was that Floyd was my mother's math teacher when she was young and my aunt married his son. We had good food, fun memories and a relaxing Sabbath day.

Just plain catching up!

Jayden and his buddies getting ready for camping

Mac on the court

Dad reading Jayden's Birthday letter...what a tear-jerker!

For a want-a-be writer, I'm sure not very diligent in keeping the blog going. Will try to condense the past month or so. I have been swamped with school assignments but am LOVING IT! I really am surprising myself. I'm getting A's in Speech Class and even presented a short synopsis of the first chapter of my book for my manuscript reading assignment. My teacher, Ginny was very impressed and asked if she could buy a copy so she could finish reading it...ha! Developmental Psychology is going along and I'm "getting it", although I don't agree with some of the issues. I even came home one day, my heart and soul just aching because the teacher - a professed know-it-all, validated the reality and what should be considered acceptable lifestyle of homosexuality. I really just had to pray and cry and let go because I was allowing it to get to me. So, onward onward. I'm the head of my debate team and I get to argue against the issue "Does ADD exist?" You know I've been loving this... I'm doing well in geometry and only have two more math classes left before I start the Chemistry/Biology stuff! Yikes. It even sounds scary.

We had a quiet Birthday for Dad...just made his favorite Seafood Fettuccine and pecan pie. He opened a few gifts and just relaxed for the day! I love quiet Sunday's with my boys.

Have been taking Mackenzie to her basketball games on Saturday when Karen has to work... Wow can that girl shoot! She amazed me yesterday when she scored a basket at half court! Where did she learn all those moves??

Jayden's doing awesome but he can brag on his own blog...so check it out! I will say that he's such an example of what's good. I'm so blessed to be his mother. He's a true leader among his friends. When I think of Jayden, I think of Integrity and Honor. He's doing wonderful in school (A's), already registered for high school and will get into the Running Start program. He doing awesome in wrestling, a born leader in the YM program and scouts...We're looking forward to our visit to Spokane in a few weeks to watch him play trumpet in the All-State Band.

John's having surgery on his wrist this week so hopefully he'll be healed up by the time he goes back to work...which he's anxious to do (so am I). We are so tired of the rain, wind and dullness of winter. I'm itching to get dirty and start working in my garden.

Okay, I think I'm caught up. Not much going on other than school, work and family. What else is important right now?