Sophie's 12th!!!

Woo Hoo! Sophie turned 12 and is officially in Young Women's. Even thought she's been coming for the last month because of girls camp stuff. She got her interview with the bishop on her birthday to graduate from Primary and to get her Temple recommends to go do Baptisms for the Dead with her friends and Shayne the next day. We have a tradition that every birthday starting with the 12th we go do baptisms. It has been super fun. And Shayne got to hand the tradition over to Sophie by taking her for her 1st time. I have always been a big believer in Temple work and I hate when people say that after you graduate High School then you prepare to go to the Temple to either go on a mission or get married. To me preparing to be worthy to enter the Temple starts at 8 years old or earlier. By 12 you should get your baptism recommend and always be able to go at any time. If you hold that recommend then you should always be worthy.

Anyway,
Sophie and Leighton Ipson (yes, Austin's little sister) share the same birthday. So we went to Pirate Island Pizza and had a fun party. The girls ate a HUGE pizza called the Kraken.









And then they played lots of games, had cake and ice cream and were all hopped up on sugar when we left. Sorry Mom's to return them like that but they had a ball. Sophie is lucky to have such wonderful friends. They all live in our stake except Megan and she just lives a mile away. They are such good girls. I hope that as they get older that they hold onto those friendships through High School. It'll make High School a lot easier.






















Left to right - Nikki Turner, Victoria Robinson, Leighton Ipson, Sophie, Tylair Hudson, Megan Paddock and Brianna Esplin.

Happy Father's Day!

Here's a shout out to all the Dad's in my life. You guys rock! I don't know what I'd do without your love and support. I love you all but especially this guy.














Not only is he the hottest guy I know, he's also very smart to have picked me as a wife.












Joel is an extremely amazing person. He works 80 hours a week to keep us in all our grandeur. We hope that will change soon. He want to have him home more of course.














He loves everyone, has a heart of gold, respects his priesthood, and loves his kids.
I'd be lost without him. Happy Father's day Joel!

Swim Lessons

Here are David and Evan in swim lessons. We always take swim lessons at the college pool because they are cheaper, longer, have smaller classes and because the college kids teaching get graded on it so they do the best they can and they also have 2 teachers per class. A big plus when David and Evan are in the same class. They have a ton of fun together. Best Buddies.

Girls Camp

I survived another girls camp. This year was special because I had both my girls there with me. That may not ever happen again. I went this year just as the YW sec. and it was awesome! I wasn't responsible for much. So, I did a lot of hair. Here are some pictures:

My favorite is the Bun Hawk in the middle.
Here is a link to the website that I got these ideas from- www.cutegirlshairstlyes.com

Here are more fun pictures of camp:

It was a perfect mix of spiritual and fun. The Washington 5th Ward Young Women are amazing! I'm so glad I was able to go with them.

Birds of Prey

I love to see big huge birds! When we lived in Hurricane the local Falconer used to bring his 2 eagles over to the golf course to let them hunt rabbits. It was always incredible to watch. We had a wild Golden Eagle that lived over there too. We named her Goldy. One day she was sitting on top of this rock the size of a VW bug with 2 huge ravens trying to get whatever she had killed. It was amazing to watch her fight them off. I ran home to get my camera and she was gone by the time I got back.

Well, the other day my neighbor told us to come see what he brought home from work. It was a baby red tailed Hawk! He changes billboards and they found this HUGE nest this a huge baby in it. It still had it's downy so it couldn't fly yet. So, they kicked the nest down and carefully took the baby down. Meanwhile the Mom and Dad were not happy. They kept dive-bombing my neighbor and his co-worker. When they got back to work and told there boss the boss came unglued. They had broken 4 MAJOR federal laws. So, their boss called the authorities and tried to smooth things over. Luckily they were not charged because the Falconer in Hurricane said he would keep the baby until it's feathers grew in and then let it go. Here is a picture. Look at it's talons!

This next picture is of Turkey Vultures! We were driving on the back roads and saw 5 of them standing in a field and I slammed on the brakes. They were about 50 feet from us. You could see their red heads and snood. It was awesome. Then we saw this huge shadow as one flew right over us and landed in the field with the others. As we looked around we saw more circling in the air. 14 in all! It was so incredible. I've seen them since over by Dixie College. JoEllen says the live in a tree by Grandma Sullivan's. I am always in awe of big birds and the grace and strength the Lord gave them

Graduations!

I'm a little behind in my posts because my computer crashed. So, here is the first update.
School is out and everyone graduated. Tuacahn had there graduation first. Here is a picture of my and Heather Oram and Taylor Holbrook. 2 of my favorite people from THS. They were both in the Summer institute program last summer and are amazing!


Then my nephew Jacob graduated from the Success Academy at Dixie College which means he graduated with his associates degree a week before he even graduated High School. He is also amazing. Super smart and talented. Then a week later he graduated from Desert Hills High School.

Then Pine View High School graduated and here is the cake I made for a girl in our ward. Austin Ipson (see the Christmas cookies, Prom and Sr. Ball) graduated also.


Then Ben graduated from all day Kindergarten! It was awesome! Here he is with his teaecher Mrs. Burrell on the right and her helper Mrs. Salisbury. Shayne is friends with Mrs. Salisbury's son Blaine who is on a mission in Australia.

And lastley Josh graduated from 4th grade! Here he is with his teacher Mr Hogan and his student teacher Mr. Edie. They were awesome teachers.



Now let the summer fun begin!!

Father's & Son's

This year Joel and the boys were lucky enough to go to 2 Father's and Son's campouts. They went in May with Kyle and his boys to there's and in June they went to our ward's.




They love camping! Putting up the tent, playing in the water, smore's, you name it. Kyle's ward went up to Pine Valley and it was gorgeous as usual.





They played games, had races and loved being there with their cousins.



Our ward went to a little campground right before you get to Veyo. They bugs almost ate Joel alive. We 62 bites from head to toe. The boys only had a few because they bugs were pretty full after they had Joel.





This picture is of Daniel Cluff and the GIANT crawdad he caught. It was more like a small lobster.




It was fun for them to go with our ward. It is so nice to have a ward to call home. A ward our kids can grow up in and have friends that they can grow up with. We have been in so many different wards that have all been great but this one finally feels like home.




I'm so glad that the boys get to spend this time with Joel. Joel works a lot but we always make sure that the time they do spend together is amazing and makes great memories to keep forever.