Ucon Drama Club Presents Aladdin

This year our new principal decided we needed a Drama Club and my best friend Hollie got roped into being incharge of it.....so I got roped into being her side-kick. :) We had drama club every Wednesday after school for months and went through all of the stages of teaching the kids about acting and singing and tryouts, etc.  It was a long process, but it turned out INCREDIBLE!! We have AMAZING talent in our little elementary and the audience just ranted and raved after every performance.  It really did turn out SO GOOD and when it was all said and done I was grateful to have been a part of it.

 Rhett had one speaking line as a towns person, then he changed into his guard costume and was a guard the rest of the play.  Laiklie was one of the Jr. Djinns. (they were the ones that made the magic happen onstage with lots of singing and dancing)

 We had a big group of about 60 kids and there were days we thought we would NEVER make it through and we seriously wondered WHAT WERE WE THINKING!! But then there was the performances that came together and turned out so well in the end that made it all worth it! 

What a fun,life changing opportunity for 60 little kids to be a part of! Such a great experience and I can't wait to see what we do next year!

Chase and Yvonne

 On April 13th we had the opportunity of attending Ryan's little brother, Chase and Yvonne's sealing to each other and to their 2 precious little girls.  They were sealed in the Brigham City Temple, and it was a beautiful thing to be a part of.  I got to babysit the babies for a little while that morning before we left while Yvonne was getting her hair done and Memory kept telling me she was "going to the temple!" She understood and was soooo excited! I absolutely love sealings when children are involved and we bawled as they brought the big girls in to witness it and the babies in to be sealed.  Such a neat, neat day! So grateful for the gospel and that a loving Heavenly Father has made it possible for Families to be Together Forever!! 

Easter 2016

This year Easter was tricky because of trying to get the new house finished.  I was never home and so we didn't do alot of our normal traditions that we do at Easter time.  The kids were SO SAD that we didn't get to take our annual Elderly Baskets around.  We are definitely getting back to doing that again next year.  This year we were lucky to get eggs dyed the night before Easter.  We did atleast get that done though. 

Easter Sunday was beautiful like always! I did however forget to take pictures in their new Easter clothes until everybody but this little cutie had changed and NOBODY was willing to put their church clothes back on for me.  I don't blame them!! But I did atleast get one picture of Laiklie. I love the Easter season and the opportunity it gives us to reflect on the Savior and that the real gift is that HE LIVES! What a blessing that because HE LIVES we too will live again!!

Aniston Baptism

On March 20th we were able to drive to Gooding to see my brother Cody's daughter Aniston get baptized.  It was the first family event my parents had to miss being on their mission and so we got special permission to facetime them so that they could see the program and baptism.  I had the camera turned so that they could see what was going on, but I was able to see them and they seriously went through an entire box of kleenex's because of the tears of having to miss it and joy of being able to be in California, but able to see it in Idaho at the same time.  It was an emotional thing for me to watch them cry out of love.  There were also a few funny things that happened that day too....

The first was after the talks we all moved into the room with the font and waited and waited and waited for..............Collin to finish pooping so Jessica could see the baptism.  Hahahaha!! That still cracks me up! Little brothers!! :)

The second was after we got back in to the room where they were going to confirm Aniston we ended up waiting and waiting and waiting for.................Cody! He had somehow got locked out of the mens bathroom in nothing but his wet undies. Bahahahahaha!! He had tried calling everyones cell phones because he didn't want to streak through the church in wet undies and FINALLY got ahold of the bishopric member who sent Jessica with the keys to let him in.  Soooo funny!! Glad it all worked out and we were able to be there!

House Update!

By the end of March we were getting SO CLOSE on the house!!

 I took this picture because I wanted to remember what $1000 at Home Depot looked like! They were ringing this up as we were checking out and I watched the total go up and up and up and about died that this cart full of faucets, plumbing supplies and some tiles cost us $1000!!! Building a house is EXPENSIVE!!!

We did so much of the work on this house by ourselves and because of that have such a sense of pride in it.  We laid floors until our knees ached and tile/grout until our hands hurt.  We lifted walls, framed, painted, etc, etc, etc.  I am so proud of our little family for working together to get the job done!

Diabetes Anniversary

On March 17th, not only did we put Oakley on an airplane to spend spring break in Arizona with her Great Grandparents......we also celebrated LIFE!! It was TEN YEARS ago that day that Oakley was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.  I picked my little 5 year old up from Kindergarten after her St. Patricks Day party and ran her into the doctors office thinking that she had a bladder infection because she had to pee ALL THE TIME and had even had a few accidents.  That was SOOOO NOT Oakley.  The day she was potty trained, she was potty trained! We NEVER had accidents....so I knew something was wrong.  After a urine sample, a finger stick and a blood draw (about 20 mins) and we were diagnosed with Type One Diabetes and sent straight to the diabetic specialist where we spent the next 6 hours pumping her full of IV fluid, doing blood draws and learning how to give shots and really, just learning about how drastically our lives were about to change.  I still remember and tear up every time I think about leaving the specialists office that evening.  As we got in the car and pulled out of the parking lot I said to Oakley, "Oh sis, I'm sorry today has been such a long day!" and she said, "but not a bad day mom!" Our sweet girl had been poked and prodded for the past 6 hours over and over again and didn't consider it a bad day! That is how Oakley has always faced this disease.  It SUCKS! and we have some EXTREMELY CRAPPY DAYS because of it and it has had us in tears more times than I can count, but after 10 years Oakley still faces it head on and fights like the hero she is! We love her and are amazed by her EVERYDAY! So this year, 10 years later, we once again celebrated life and put her on a plan to Arizona. 

Arizona

If you look really close going up the escalator in the back is Oakley and Macady getting ready to board a plane headed to Arizona! Ahhhh!!!

 Tara and I decided to take Great Grandpa and Grandma Romrell up on their offer this year of having the girls come visit and bought the girls plane tickets for Christmas.  They left March 17th and spent the week of spring break down there having a blast and getting sun tans.

 The girls did water aerobics with great grandma each day and LOVED it.  They came home with all sorts of stories of how much fun they had with the Greats! We tell people all the time that our Great Grandparents aren't like "normal" great grandparents. They are so much fun!! Heck, they rode the California Screamer with us at Disney Land! They are seriously BEST GREAT GRANDPARENTS EVER!!!

 They took these girls and Cousin Vanessa to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple while they were there and the girls said it was INCREDIBLE.  From the few pictures I got I can only imagine how good it was! I am so glad they had a good week and I love that they are getting big enough to go do these kinds of crazy adventures on their own.  It is so good for them and it was good for us mom's to see what they were capable of. :)