Memorial Day Fun

Ever since I was a little girl we would go to my Grandma and Grandpa Hughes' house for Memorial Day. All relatives on that side of the family would come if at all possible. There was always some sort of a BBQ and playing with the cousins. Sometimes we would hike up the mountain to "Hell Hole". It was a strenuous hike to a beautiful waterfall in the mountains above my grandparents house. We would plays games of ball or just sit around and visit.

We would always end the day by going up to the cemetery to put flowers on my Uncle Tim's grave. As the years have flown by more and more family members have passed away including my Grandpa Howard. But at the cemetery it is a time we can reminisce and talk about the great heritage from whence we came.

This year once again we made the trip to Farmington to spend the day with the family. Although things have changed (we are all older now and there is a whole new generation of kids) the feelings of love and strong bonds are still the same.

My kids had great fun playing with their cousins on a beautiful spring day. We enjoyed pizza and cake (for my mom's birthday), played baseball, and caught up with everyone. It was a nice day. I am lucky to have a grandma still here. She is an amazing lady and has raised a wonderful family.

Uncle Matt gave Ryan some pointers on his pitching. They helped alot because the next game Ryan did phenominal.

Sisterly love. Amber and I got in a cake fight. I actually got it much worse than the picture shows. My hair in the back was totally matted down with frosting. My kids got a great kick out of mom having a cake fight.

Food, Friends and Fun!

Roger and I have been feeling incredibly blessed lately in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for and we have so many wonderful friends. We decided to have a dinner party at our house and invite some of our favorites.

The Teerlinks, Millingtons, Hammners, Wheelers, and Longs all came over on a beautiful spring evening. It was threatening rain all day but held out until our get together was over. It was a nice 70 degrees, perfect for visiting and for the children to play.

Roger spent the day smoking pork to make pulled pork sandwiched. He also made three different kinds of barbecue sauces to go along with it. He learned that many people like coleslaw on pulled pork sandwiches so after some research he found a suitable recipe. It wasn't your typical coleslaw recipe. It was vinegar based and it was delicious. Is definitely complimented the sandwich.

Everyone contributed with the wonderful meal. There were pasta salads, deviled eggs, chips, cookie, caramel brownies and peanut butter bars. Everything was so wonderful.

We had such a marvelous time and I just couldn't help but think about how just a few years ago we didn't know any of these people. I often feel that we were lead to Jacob's Ranch to live and now I know it to be true. We are so blessed to live here, to associate with such amazing people and to have our children have so many great friends.

The kids played redneck horseshoes, jumped on the trampoline, played wiffle baseball, swung on the swings and even went horny toad hunting.

The adults visited and laughed and just enjoyed one anothers company.

Baseball fun.

Hunting for lizards in the field.

Poor Scott Teerlink ended up in a wrestling match with the kids. In spite of being outnumbered, I think the swat guy won.

Overall we were pleased with our get-together and Roger thought it was his best pulled pork ever. I hope we are able to do many more of these type of things this summer.

Sage Hills ThunderHawks

Today I attended an open house type thing (sponsored by the PTA) for the new Elementary School. The new school's name will be Sage Hills Elementary. (When we submitted our choice for names we suggested Sage Elementary so we were pleased with the new name). We also found out they will be the Thunderhawks with the colors of navy blue, gold and sage.

We were able to listen to the new principle give updates on the progress of the school and the hiring and so forth. She said she had 1,009 requests for interviews to fill the 33 spots in the school. I hope with those odds that we get some of the best teachers possible. We then were able to ask questions and so forth.

I left the meeting with a much more positive attitude about the new school. I think it will be exciting for Brianna to attend there and many neat things will come from this opportunity.

Go Thunderhawks!!

Hectic Days

These are the best days of my life , right? Here is just a small example of our night life starting at 5:00 p.m.

Alyssa had soccer practice but thankfully it was cancelled (a blessing from above). Brianna has a soccer game at 6:00 which I have to coach. Alyssa will be attending a neighborhood watch meeting at 6:30 to represent our family and learn about personal safety. Ryan has a soccer game at 7:00 which we will probably miss so that he is not too tired for his baseball game at 8:00 p.m. Alyssa will have to get to her own haircut at 8:00 so that Roger can go to the scholarship award ceremony at Lehi High. He is bagging is continuing education class and trying to find someone to head the missionary meeting tonight. He may or may not do training for the ward mission leaders after that. We might be lucky to have everyone in bed by 10:00 so that we can start again tomorrow. Isn't it wonderful?

The 1st scholarship

Yesterday we received a taste of what is to come. Alyssa received her first scholarship. The school was having as awards ceremony for a reading program that has been going on throughout the year. Kids names were randomly drawn for bicycles and other things.

In correlation with this, the 6th graders were asked to write an essay on "Ways to save money during this harsh economy."

Alyssa wrote her essay but was sick the day they had to turn it in. She pleaded with me to drop it off , so I did in spite of the inconvenience on that day. Well needless to say, several weeks later, her essay was chosen over everyone else's to be the winner.

She was awarded $100 to put toward her education. It was exciting. I know that she will do great things with her schooling and have no doubt that this will be the first of many scholarships to come.

Soccer Saturdays

We are in the thick of soccer season and between the practices and games much of our time is spent on the field. The kids are enjoying the teams and I am enjoying the fact that they get lots of excercise. Here are a few pictures from their games.

Alyssa's singing recital

Alyssa has always had a beautiful voice and she loves to sing. Unfortunately I do not have much natural music talent and so we had to look elsewhere for a little more help. Alyssa has been taking private singing lessons from Anna Butler, a lady in our ward.

She has helped Alyssa understand music better and how to read the notes etc. I can hear improvement in just the short amount of time that she has been taking lessons.

This past Saturday, they had a music performance to show off their hard work. Alyssa was extremely nervous, more than I thought she would be, and yet she did very well. I hope that she will continue practicing and enjoying music. I can see her do musical theatre sometime in the future. I can't imagine having some musical talent in my family to go along with all the athletic events. It would be nice to be a little more well rounded.

I was going to post a video of her performance here but apparently the file is too big. I will have to see if Roger can help me compress it in order for everyone to enjoy her talent.