Our Seminary Graduate and Bre's senior quote.

Bre graduated from seminary and had her seminary graduation last night out in Enumclaw. Four years of early morning scripture study seminary is surely quite the accomplishment for these seniors! This past school year with cheer, work, running start and the longer commute into Orting for seminary, I will admit towards the end it was a bit of a challenge and quite a few make-ups days were finished on her part to get the job done, but she did it and the spiritual growth I've seen in Bre this past year has been wonderful to be a part of and to witness as her mother. Seminary and being a Mormon in general for Bre brings me into her senior quote for her HS year book this year. She decided on a quote to give her past dance and cheer friends a good chuckle only because Bre being a good HS girl and not being into the party scenes and so forth, often times many of the comments directed towards her were light-hearted mormon related which she has never taken offense with one way or another realizing she is different and it's a good thing. If anyone knows Bre, her passion has always been dance! She started dancing at 3 years old and never looked back. Dance has always been a natural thing for Bre, effortless to some point since she loves it so much. If she learns a routine or a dance once, she knows it and can memorize and perform it that easy (she always wished her school work memorization was too aligned with that natural ability.) So in high school she switched studio dance to be dedicated to her HS dance drill team where as a freshman she stood out as one of the best. She led her dance team to take 1st in districts for their Show Monopoly routine being the main character/dancer Mr. Monopoly himself. After freshman year, she switched to her HS cheer team and was awarded "best dancer" all three years commonly found front and center in pep assemblies and in half time field and court shows. Bre has always been very humble about this title but with her senior year she thought it would be comical to come up with a quote that represented her high school years with her passions and talents. So with help, the quote she decided on was "I might be a goody-goody but I can shake my booty." Meaning, yes I am a Mormon...but I can dance (and still have fun!) In the past few years, the senior quotes have been on random pages of the year book but this year they were found directly under the senior pictures themselves, too funny! Had Bre known her quote would be found to read right under her pic, she may have thought twice about it but it's all good! lol. To Bre and all of her friends and peers that know her, they will get it and get a good laugh out of it like we did! Dance your heart out through life with all your dreams and future ambitions Bre. We love you and may you always be your beautiful self inside and out as you continue to give your heart and soul to all your passions!

Our Youngest Saydee's first dance recital.

June 9, 2018

 Saydee had her very first dance recital on Saturday evening. She had a ton of fun with her ballet/tap combo class this year and enjoyed every bit of it! Little Miss Saydee is our free spirit daughter full of imagination and pure blissful childhood joys. She could not wait to dance on the stage, the morning of her recital she said "mom, I am just so excited!" She did a great job, her class was the youngest of the pre-classes so they just went up on stage and did their own thing, it was priceless. The sweetest thing, I love this age!  

 For the dress rehearsal the day before the performance, Ellie had done Saydee's make-up with foundation, blush, eye shadow, lip stick, liner and mascara. The dance studio required all out make-up for all ages since the performers will look washed out on stage with out it with all of the spotlights and such since it's such a a big auditorium arts center with all of the seating. So for the dress rehearsal, it's a closed performance so you check your performer in before their dances and check them out after- well when we went to pick Saydee up, her right eye was all red and swollen...it was SO SAD looking. We weren't sure at first if she had been crying, got hit in the eye or what? Shortly after, we realized she was as happy as ever and that she had itched her eye so bad from an allergic reaction it was unrecognizable! It took a long while for the swelling to go down, even into the next evening when it came real performance time, her poor little eye was still blood shot and swollen red. With a bit of foundation and cover up under her eye it looked a ton better only for the recital, we completely stayed clear of any eye liner and mascara and just settled for blush and lip stick to glam our little performer up with, no more eye reactions this time...

And to make her evening even better...flowers from daddy for a job well done! 

On the way to the recital at the performing arts center at Auburn HS, it was a bit of a drive from our home (45 min) so we did our best to keep Saydee's attention to preoccupy her from falling asleep...it wasn't an easy task. (Saydee doesn't nap much any more but if she doesn't get a nap and drives in the car, it doesn't take long and her eyes start to roll back into her head and she is out sawing logs zzzzz and if you wake this baby bear up before her full nap, the future mama grizzly bear comes out. (Not a very pleasant thing.) Not wanting that to happen, we managed to keep her awake and she was a happy dancer for her recital but on the way back home the minute she hit her car seat and the car started, she was out...good night Saydee! It was only like 7:30 pm but it must have been such a long day, she actually slept through the entire night. (Fully expected her to wake from her nap at 1 am and think it was party time.) She woke up Sunday morning to her flowers in a vase next to her bed and in great spirits ready to tell us all about her recital! We sure love this little gal. 

Ellie passed her driving test for her license

June 4, 2018

Regardless of the fact that it started to down pour rain the very minute Ellie started her drivig test and the rain stopped when she pulled back into the parking lot- she passed and she is officially set to drive solo next Tuesday on her 16th B day when she can get her license. Congrats Ellie.

Memorial Day Weekend

6/5/2018

We stayed close to home over the weekend since we mainly worked on the renovation of our home over the holiday weekend but Sunday we took the opportunity to go out to make our annual visit to Gma and Gpa Donna and Glen at the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery after church. It was a nice visit and beautiful weather! We bbqued after which was nice since we don't exactly have a oven or kitchen sink in the kitchen at the present time lol. A good and productive weekend. Not exactly what the kids would have choose to do on their weekend off but we needed to get the job done and it will pay off in the long run. Appreciating all of our Veterans past and current serving our country! 

Hard at Work

6/5/2018

 Josh was busy out back building a tree house over the extended weekend. He was pretty proud of his accomplishments and he built it with quite a bit of thought behind it. It may look a bit questionable but it was actually built pretty sturdy.

Reminds me of the good ole days building forts and mud pies in the woods with my friends growing up. Fun times.

Seven Baptisms for seven months in Arco Iris

6/5/2018

Elder Jackson, Lionel and Elder Chamberlin.

 Elder Jackson spent nearly the first seven months of his mission in the Arco Iris area of Argentina and he was transferred this week to his second area serving in Buenos Aires. His new area is Ituzango and he will now be serving with Elder Elliot from Utah. (He hadn't actually met him yet in his email so hopefully they get along well.) He loved the members and they loved him since he was able to serve for such a long period of time in Arco Iris- he got to know them pretty well. He was excited to serve in a different area to see more of Argentina but it was bitter sweet since he will miss his friends and the members there. His last email was his last day serving in Arco Iris and he was fed lunch from members and dinner by converts of the ward- they each fed them a feast and one of the Sisters of the ward gave him some cologne as a good bye gift (lol.) Jarom was kind of sad since him and his companion had 3 baptisms scheduled for this weekend that he would miss being a part of- but a nice welcoming to the new Elder taking his place in the ward I suppose!  Here's a few current pictures of p-day fun for Elder Jackson. He is doing well and enjoying his mission, he walks so much his first pair of shoes broke, so he has to get them fixed. The work marches on...
Miss and Love this kid!

Bre's New JOB

6/6/2018

She's working at Marshalls and the parents get a discount too!!! She works great hours just part time from 6-10 am right now with mainly the weekends off (all Sundays for sure), it's great with college and she can even keep her job working for Matt at RR as the cleaning and stocking lady :) hee, hee- she still has her whole day and evenings free so it's a win-win as far as she is concerned.

Apex Fun Run Winners

June 4, 2018

Ms Mason's 5th grade class were the overall winners for their school's Apex Fun Run Fundraiser, they got to do all kinds of fun crazy kids things ie duct taping the leaders to the tether ball pole, whip cream pies in the face and silly string fights. Way to go Josh and your class! A fun week. The 5th graders had camp this week also at Camp Arnold so the fun-run was the icing on the top of the cake to end the fun week off.

Cap and Gowns

May 2018

Hats off to these gals! Could not be more proud of all your accomplishments Bre, Caytlynn and Ashlee. It won't be long now and it will be official...

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