Happy Birthday Eli! Where did the years go?

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI BOY!

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ARE 11 YEARS OLD!

HERE ARE 11 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOU...

1. YOUR BIG BLUE EYES AND YOUR LONG EYELASHES!

2. YOUR HUGS EVERYDAY, SOMETIMES EVEN SEVERAL TIMES A DAY

3. YOUR FUNNY PERSONALITY

4. YOUR LOVE OF LIFE AND ESPECIALLY SPORTS....YOU ARE ALWAYS PRACTICING SOMETHING OR KICKING A BALL, OR RIDING A BIKE OR RIP STICK.

5. YOUR KIND HEART.

6. YOUR SMART BRAIN. YOU DO SO WELL AT SCHOOL, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT!

7. YOUR OBEDIENCE. I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS PAST SUPERBOWL SUNDAY WHEN YOUR TEAM WAS PLAYING...AND SINCE THE BISHOP CHALLENGED US NOT TO WATCH IT, YOU CHOSE TO BE OBEDIENT. THAT MUST HAVE BEEN SOOOO HARD! THE SUPER BOWL IS A BIG DEAL, BUT THEN WHEN YOUR TEAM IS PLAYING IT'S EVEN A BIGGER DEAL!

8. YOUR TESTIMONY. YOU SHARE IT IN QUIET WAYS AND EVEN SOMETIMES WITH WORDS. YOU ARE A GREAT EXAMPLE TO MANY FRIENDS!

9. YOUR FRECKLES. YOU ARE SUCH A HANDSOME BOY. WE LOVE YOU AND YOUR FRECKLES.

10. YOUR STRONG SENSE OF SELF. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND AREN'T AFRAID TO SHOW IT.

11. YOUR IMAGINATION. YOU ALWAYS FIND FUN THINGS TO DO....

We love you Eli Paull....you are such a great addition to the family! This year we decided to just have a family party. Eli wanted to invite one friend and go to "AMAZING JAKES". Next year when he turns 12, we thought we do a big party.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!!!

Our community usually puts on some kind of festivities for the holidays. Usually for Halloween there is a chili cook off, a costume contest, and some fun activities.

 

Apparently, Mason and Eli weren't too intersted in dressing up. It's kind of funny to see them growing up and being "too cool" for stuff.

 

Here are a few of our friends in their costumes. The way we voted was screaming the loudest for the one we liked the most. Abbie felt very confident going into the contest.....

 

But, was VERY disappointed when she didn't win. You're still so cute to us Abbie! What do they know anyway? Ü Actually, I think it's good for her not to win everything. A little humility never hurt anyone.

 

We love our friends in this neighborhood. Audra volunteered to make cotton candy. YUMMY! Good work Audra! Laura is always a good sport about dressing up. She looks cute, huh? And Kiersten is one of Abbie's best friends. They are so close that they either LOVE each other and can hardly stand to be apart or are totally fighting.

 

Halloween in La Fortina is becoming quite a tradition. We started out just being our family on the drive way with our friends the Petersons. We would bar b que shish-ka-bobs and hang out together. Now, 6 years later, we end up having several families on our drive way. We have a pot luck and eat lots of yummy stuff. THe kids and dads go trick or treating and ride on a hay ride while the moms stay on the drive way passing out candy.

Also: A little side note, Notice that Mason went and put on a WWWAAAAYYYYY too small Power Ranger Costume to go and get himself a little candy! He is funny cuz this year he has really gotten into the show Power Rangers. So, when he saw this old costume up in our costume box, he couldn't help himself....he HAD to go put it on! It gave him a MAJOR SNUGGIE and look how high up the leg it goes! YOU ARE A HOOT MASON!

 

Then all the kids get back and dump out all of their candy and start to exchange for their favorites. I totally remember doing this as a kid with my brothers and sisters! How fun to do it with the neighborhood, huh?

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!!!!

Summer of 2011 in Utah

Oak is my youngest brother and always has the "cool stuff". Probably cuz he's spoiled. haha...just kidding. The guy can "sell and Eskimo ice". He always seems to have anything he wants and puts his mind to. We all get a little envious cuz it seems like life is "easy" for him.....but all the same, we just LOVE him! We all had to take a turn in his jeep and then some of us even drove it. THis is his "fun" jeep. He actually drives a zippy little car, which is nice, but this is just for kicks.

 

Everyone that sees these 2 together say they look so alike! It's funny when someone from my past sees Eli and they say "oh my goodness! He is a total JEfferies!" Or when we went to visit Oak in Ca....when they saw Eli they would say "WOW! He is a mini Oak!" Ü We love it when Oak comes to town to visit. He lives up in Vernal right now, but comes down to see us when we are there.

 

We have no family here in Arizona, so we try to go to Utah and California a couple of times a year to see everyone and keep our bonds strong. THe kids are really good sports, but from time to time they say "do we HAVE to drive this time?" "Can't we just take an airplane?" I let them know I have more time than money and then they say "Ok".....The drive is pretty long. About 12 hours to Utah and 14 hours to CA....but they seem to keep busy with their music or video games. I've got a bunch of great kids....

 

Grandma is always playing games or having a craft for the kids to do when they come up to visit. OR she likes to bake with them. I'm glad they are able to get to know her even though we live so many miles away.
THis summer Abbie also lost her first front tooth. It's funny, it seems like my kids lose teeth on trips. I guess that just keeps things exciting!

 

When I lived in Utah, I think I took for granted all the things there were to do there. Especially taking advantage of church sites. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has a broadcast every Sunday up at the Conference Center. It televised every week. THere are huge buses of people dropped off all the time. Well, I wanted my kids to experience the Conference Center. To see where the Prophet and his apostles speak from and to hear the MOTAB choir in person. It was a truly wonderful experience. Now when the kids watch conference every 6 months, they can picture exactly where it is and know they have been there. I think it's so important to give the kids experiences like that.

 

On the way home, we stopped again at Cove Fort cuz they mentioned there would be free hot dogs on that day. How cheap am I? I can't even remember why they were doing it. Maybe it was their anniversary or something. Hahaha....but we stopped to eat a free lunch and then noticed a guy making pottery. I told the kids that's why my dad does is throw pottery on a wheel. We started watching him and found out that he and my dad are friends from college. I had to call my dad to tell him I met Andy Watson, the guy that I heard about growing up.

 

I love being with my family. I guess I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I did. I look forward to hanging out with my sisters and being with the cousins. I guess we just get so busy having fun that I forget to take pictures! Next time.

Nana Grandma's Idea for a Rest Stop on the Way to Utah!

There is a little place that the church owns called Cove Fort. It is a couple of hours away from my parents house and my mom called to tell us that we should stop here and visit it.

 

I could be getting my facts mixed up, but I think President Hinckley's Grandfather owned this. IT was a rest stop in between Salt Lake and St. George. And a safe place from the Indians. Correct me if I'm wrong. We had a fun time stopping over there. I tried to imagine us really having to travel in a covered wagon. Doesn't sound too fun!

 

Can't believe what the pioneers went through!!!

 

Thanks Grandma. Great idea!

I Love to See the Temple!

I made a New Years Resolution to get back on blogging at least once a week. Now I know why I quit! I am SOOOOOO behind! I made the mistake of voicing my resolution in front of my friend Sara, and she of course asked me why I haven't started yet, so here it goes. And thank you Sara for getting me started again! I'm sure the next couple of months are going to be old news, but stuff I want to include for my kids.

 

I LOVE the temple! I have really come to be much more familiar with it in the last couple of years and have really looked forward to having Mason turn 12 so I could take him to the temple. I think it's so important for my children to gain their own testimony of the temple and not just rely on their parents'. Summer of 2011 we went up to Utah to visit my family. We stopped on the way to visit David's brother Greg and his family in St. George Utah.
I was so excited for Mason to do baptisms while we made our one day stop. He is such a good kid and a great example. He seemed to really like it. That temple is gorgeous. It's one of the first temples, so the architecture is amazing and it's just fun to learn about some of our church history. The cousins came and met up with us so here they are sitting as high up and in the shade as they can since it was such a hot, sunny day! There aren't very many temples that you can go up on steps and sit on the.

 

On our trip another temple that we HAD to go to was the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple. I LOVE THIS TEMPLE! I may be a little partial cuz this is where David and I got married, but when you look at this magnificent structure, you can't help but be in AWE!

 

So far, the temples Mason has gone to do baptisms in are Mesa, AZ....St. George, UT....Salt Lake City, UT...and MT. Timpanogas. Not bad! He is the Deacon's Quorum President right now and is being a great leader! Hope to have many more temple trips and can't wait for Eli to turn 12 in 13 months!!!!

Time Out For Women 2011

Time Out For Women is something I look forward to every fall. My friend Lori Mecham is really involved in the event, and has had me come and help for the last couple of years. I LOVE being a part of such a great event. It is a time where we come to just enjoy ourselves, and celebrate the women we are. A time to realize that we are all struggling with something, and more similar than different, but with HOPE we can overcome all! This year, the theme was BECOME. I enjoyed it so much! I will have to say my favorite speaker was actually the one who came to do music. Hillary Weeks is AMAZING! She has a gorgeous voice, invites the Spirit so quickly and is HILARIOUS! We just sat and laughed SO much! Mostly because she helped us to laugh at ourselves.

 

2 of my room mates from college have kept up pretty well. Amy (Slade) Lemke, and Shanna (Wood) Fuhrimann. They came out just to attend TOFW. It's always good to get together with them. They are both such neat friends. We had a few days together, and just found ourselves laughing and reminiscing....and eating, and just having so much fun!

I definitely felt relaxed and ready to tackle anything after that weekend!

 

Sarah Wiltbank and her mom, sister and friend came and sat behind us. Actually, we saved them seats. There is a really neat story behind that. Last year, right after I got put into the Relief Society Presidency....we were planning the RS Birthday Party and decided we would go and hand out invitations personally to people who weren't at church to pick them up. Well, it got down to the end, and the Saturday before Enrichment night, I started driving around delivering these invitations.
Sarah happened to be outside talking to a salesman and I didn't want to interrupt, so I quietly and quickly said "Are you Sarah?" She said "yes"......I gave her the invitation and took off. I didn't know if she would even want the invite. I had never seen her.
Long story short, she showed up to the Birthday party and has been coming to church ever since then. I guess she had started back with her friends a couple of weeks before. But prior to that, she had been inactive for several years.
It has been SOOO neat watching her grow and change. IT's remarkable what having the Spirit does to you. She is such a great example to me.

 

I loved watching Hillary so much that I just HAD to go and get a picture with her! My friends were all shy about it, but I insisted. When it was finally our turn, Hillary said to me "I like your shirt!" And I said "I like YOU!" Ü

 

I can't wait to go next year. I look forward to it like Christmas. It just leaves me feeling whole. I love that feeling! See you in the Fall of 2012! Can't wait!

Camping With Friends is MUCH better than alone!

Anyone that knows me knows that I HATE camping! That's terrible to say, but I don't really see the point to it. You are hot and dirty during the day, and then you are freezing in the night. LOTS of work to prepare food, and just plain not that fun. I know there are lots of people that LOVE camping, but I never did. HOWEVER, this fall, Shelly Turner put together a group of 5 families to go camping and I felt pressured into going. I have to admit, that I sent my family a day ahead of me, and I only stayed 1 night and 2 days, but it was REALLY fun!

 

Camping with friends makes for a fun time. The kids were all playing which left the adults to sit around in chairs talking, laughing, eating, playing games like cards and horse shoes. I couldn't believe I was enjoying myself as much as I was. I kind of didn't want to admit it. Stubborn ole me!

 

Talan Turner is my boy! I love that baby! He is so cute and I could just hug and kiss him all day. He feels more like my nephew than friend. I had a couple of pictures of me with him, but they didn't look so good, so I just put him in.

 

The girls had fun making crafts. Shelly and Katie made fun things for the girls to do while we were up there. We camped somewhere on The Rim near Payson.

 

I am going to admit that THE WORST thing about camping is the toilet situation. I don't love to bare my bum in the woods and especially NOT at a tree or somewhere out in the WIDE OPEN SPACES! I thought it was bad enough to have a latrine or something. This is the main reason I put off coming for too many days cuz I wouldn't have to go to the bathroom that many more times. Dave Mahaffey was awesome and made a little potty out of a bucket so we didn't have to squat and get stuff on our pants. I guess I'm not a professional go-to-the-bathroomer in the woods. I thought Dave was being sweet to make the girls a pot, but really, he was tired of everyone wanting to come into his 5th Wheel to use his bathroom....so this is where he sent everyone to use the biffy.

 

David loves to camp. He just ate it up those few days. He went and did his little mobile shower every day and just hung out with the kids. "Bonding" time is what I call it.

 

We were all assigned a different meal to cook. Which is another reason why I don't love camping. I thought we would have to cook over a big open fire, and do that 3 meals a day. Shelly organized it all to have us take turns cooking for all 5 families for 1 meal. We provided the food, cooked, cleaned up and then were done for the rest of the trip. We brought our own munchies and drinks and stuff, but only had to cook one meal. Not bad huh?

 

The kids had fun games to play, and the boys especially had fun having air soft gun wars. In fact, the girls wanted to get into it and Malory Mahaffey asked for an air soft gun for Christmas!

 

I am totally game to do this again! I was kind of sad to leave that next night while everyone was sitting around the fire bonding. It was so much fun to be with these friends and I hope we do it again next year!!!