ROCKY POINT!

Stacia and Liz finally convinced us to go to Rocky Point with them for spring break. I have always wanted to venture down there, but always apprehensive because of all the scary stories you hear. We drove down on Thursday and came home on Monday. It was the best. I love me some beach time. The kids all had tons of fun and loved every minute of it. We went into town and ate Mexican food, got ice cream, layed on the beach, built castles, played king of the mountain, played cards, watched movies, played corn hole, played baseball, football, frisbee, ate mangos every day, got hit by a car right before we got to the condo, but the guy showed back up the next day and buffed it all out, rode jet skis, boogie boarded, walked all over the coral and looked for creatures, Emma got her hair braided because that's what you do when your there even though your mom can do it for free - ha ha, Emma got to bring her bestie Maddie for her birthday present in lieu of a party, we had a super amazing Sacrament on the beach, The Gilmores were in charge of it, we had opening and closing song and prayers, blessed and passed the Sacrament, had a quick lesson and then testimony meeting - it was very spiritual and experience to never be forgotten.

RANDOM PICTURES!

Just some pictures that need to be documented...

Emma holding the flag for the National Anthem before the twins baseball game started...


My pooped out boys in between different sports on a Saturday....


The sisters at Uncle Reed's funeral...


The twins during the Superbowl Party....



Eli and Jared building a bird house to earn some merit badge or something for cub scouts - ya I am awesome and know all this stuff - ha!

Tyler sending me a kissy face during church while I was at a dance competition...

FAITH PROJECT!

Personal Project is different now than when I was a young woman. In my day you did all the little tasks and then one 60 hour project - now you do all the little tasks plus a 10 hour project for each value. I really believe if the girls are having fun with whatever they are doing then it makes it seem less like they "have to" and more like something fun to do while growing spiritually and sometimes not even realizing it because they are enjoying themselves so much. I looked over the Faith projects and none of them seemed that fun to me so I reached out to Sara and she gave me fantastic ideas so we took one of them and ran with it! We got some of Emma's friends together and went to the store, bought white fabric, grabbed some lunch and came home and sewed a bunch of hair scrunchies for the Temple Baptistry. Then a couple of weeks later, Jared took Emma and Hoku (because the other girls couldn't go that day) and they went and did baptisms for the dead and donated the scrunchies. Emma loved doing this project and they even got to do the baptisms in the Mesa Temple which was cool because they have never been inside that one before. Another successful project completed!

Emma, Maddie, Hoku, Noelle and Anni

EMMA TURNS 14!

It was a very anti-climatic birthday. She was really excited about her birthday of course, but it fell on such a crazy weekend - we never really got to celebrate with her. Friday at school she got lots of love, donuts, balloons, waffle love, treats, cards, etc and then after school she came home and we gave her some new shirts for youth conference that weekend and then Hoku came over and they got ready, we grabbed them dinner and took them and Noelle to youth conference.

 Afterwards, those girls and Anni and Haley came and we took them to Sodalicious and then tee peeing - we tee peed 3 houses, got caught at the first one, got caught at Bishop's house (and secretly I snuck back while the girls were hanging out in their room and cleaned it up - since we were caught - I didn't want him thinking we didn't like them) and then the last one was a success.

The next morning was her birthday and we took the boys to their soccer games and then the girls got picked up and went to youth conference again all day. Bishop Tomlinson had the youth of Grove 2nd ward sing her Happy Birthday. (She was secretly hoping they would since they did it for Matthew, but I told her he is his son and don't count on him remembering her...well in true Bishop Tomlinson fashion - he didn't let us down! He also wrote every youth a letter letting them know how much he enjoyed them being in the ward and wanting to stay in contact with them! Our family was sure blessed to have him as our Bishop and he will truly be missed!)

That night she got asked to dance 3 times, once with a really short boy, once by someone I can't remember and the other time by a boy she claims was 6 feet 2 inches and had a mustache! But she had a great time none the less.

Then on Sunday was the first day of our brand new ward, Appleby. We only have a bishop so far so everything is kind of messed up. The bishop was sweet and did call Emma up to announce her birthday and give her her certificate - she was the only announcement that day and the bishop said, "now that you are up here you can look around at the boys you can date in the future!"

Then at 5pm the ward had a Break the Fast at the park so all the families could all come together and try to get to know each other better. It was good because the twins came home from church as happy as could be with the new ward, Eli and Emma came home crying so I think the break the fast helped break the ice for sure! Then we had ice cream cake to celebrate Emma's birthday, she got her plane tickets and ticket to BYU Cougarette camp again and then she was off to the fireside for Youth Conference!

 It was a jam packed weekend, but a good one! I do have to say, I was Sunday school teacher for Emma's class 2 years in a row and I loved them - I will miss these sweet faces and I will miss this awesome group of girls Emma got to hang out with...

Collin, Kyle, Hoku, Noelle, Emma, Morgan, Matthew

 Appleby Break the Fast

 Youth Conference

 Celebrating Noelle's birthday...

 Emma's birthday...

Maddie, Emma, Hoku, Jaeden, Morgan, Brooklyn, Noelle, Sage

#WINNING TODAY!

Today the boys ended their soccer seasons and both teams were successful. Team Flash shut it down today and the score was 4-0. The season was a little bit of a struggle, bigger field, bigger nets, goalies, being the youngest team, but they played hard and had the best soccer skills out there even if they didn't win every game. They ended the season in 3rd place.

Eli's winter soccer team "Crew" did an awesome job this season as well! Eli plays so hard and is so deteremined! Coach Steve James has taught him so much! They won most of the season, but certainly ended the season on a high note 8-0!