Timberline Leadership Camp

June 6th-11th

This past week Coleman spent his first week away from home at a camp. He was so excited to leave that I am wondering if he likes us at all. :) He headed up to Hobble Creek Canyon with a group of scouts, that he didn't know, to do youth leadership training. Aside from the camp songs he had a BLAST!!! When I went to get him he was so dirty that I had to ask if he took even 1 shower, and he said "yes, 1" So 5 days with one shower in the dirty wilderness, let's just say it wasn't pretty. When I asked him what he learned he said he learned how to set goals for his life and how to lead a scout troupe. It really was a great experience for him!!! Here he is with his group. He really made some good friends and 1 of them happened to go to his school which was cool for him.

Before camp the parents were asked to write a letter to their sons expressing our feelings and hopes and dreams for them. On the last night they gave the boys the letter. Coleman would die if he knew I posted it, but since this is my scrapbook/journal I am going to!!! He doesn't read my blog anyway!

Dear Coleman,

We want you to know how much WE LOVE YOU!!! We are so grateful to have a son and that Heavenly Father blessed us with you!! Since the day you were born you have captured our hearts and our lives wouldn’t be the same without YOU! I know life feels challenging sometimes and you wish things would just be easy, but we PROMISE the Lord has a great plan for you and if you will decide NOW to always work hard at everything you do and to live the gospel Heavenly Father will work miracles in your life. You are a fighter and we want you to fight for your best life and a good education will get you there. We love watching you grow and seeing what you enjoy. Every year with you is more fun then the year before. You are always making us laugh and we LOVE your fun personality. We are so glad that our little girls have YOU for a big brother, I hope you know how much they love and look up to you. You are such a strong example of how I want them to be. Keep choosing the right and understand that when you make mistakes the Lord can help you do better. You make us SO proud and We are excited to watch you grow and change into a strong young man who will serve a mission and help bring the gospel to Heavenly Fathers children. Heavenly Father has blessed you with so many talents, try to do his will always and he will lead your life!! Thank you for all the laughter, jokes, scaring (mostly mom), and JOY you bring to our lives. Always know we LOVE you more then we can ever tell you and we are always here for you and even if we are not perfect we do everything we do because of LOVE!!! You are our ONLY boy and that is something special thanks for making us proud!!!

When he got home from camp I asked him if he liked the letter and he said "yes, thanks" I guess he was just too touched to say anything more. right? lol. I have to keep reminding myself that he is almost 13-a teenager!!!!, and as Evelyn reminded me the other day "those are the hard years" LOL.

dance recital!!!

JUNE 4TH

It was so fun to watch the girls grow this year in dance, Leland is loving it and plans on dancing next year at a new studio. She made a very competitive team and it should be a lot of fun!! Claire on the other hand said she needs a "break" from dance. Either way I am very proud of my girls!!!

Both girls in their lyrical costumes. Leland had 4 dances with 4 different costumes and Claire had 2, it was a very busy back stage :)

Big girl at the dentist

Ruby is hilarious, you never know what you are going to get, but most of the time she is very brave. Well yesterday she had her first dentist appointment and she proved she is VERY brave. It was so funny watching her sit in the giant chair and not move a muscle. She even let them do x-rays. Honestly that shocked me bc Claire was 4 1/2 before she would do them. Lol. Anyway Claire was so proud of her and throughly impressed with her baby sister. She just kept saying to me"wow mom she is so big and brave" and them she would say to ruby "good job you are doing so good!" it really was so fun to watch.


Here she is getting her teeth cleaned. They would tell her to open like a monster and she would say, okay!!


Look at how tiny she looks in that big chair.


She was so serious I was dying laughing inside. So stinkin cute!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Claire is ready for the big K

I can't believe that my little Claire Bear will be 5 soon and be heading off the kindergarten. She gave her last pre-school program all she had. She sang all the songs and welcomed all the attention from Mom!!!! She has learned a lot this and made some really cute friends. She went 5 half-days a week and was almost always excited to go. This little girl has a lot of sass and can push you till you break, but honestly I wouldn't want her any other way. Okay maybe I would want her to be sweet and never scream at me and be able to always find her shoes without tears, and stay in her bed at night and finally get out of a pull-up, but seriously other then that she is PERFECT!!! :)

My beautiful big girl!!!

She sure does love her baby sister!!!

Her favorite little friend!!!

The Living Christ

In the 6th grade the students were challenged to memorize The Living Christ. It is an overwhelming challenge for a boy who isn't good at memorizing, but through this experience Coleman has learned he CAN do hard things. It took them 9 weeks and they all worked really hard. I am so very proud of Coleman because he did in fact do it and was able to recite it to me from start to finish night after night. I was amazed each time. It is such a blessing to watch your children grow and learn, especially learning of Christ. I know through this experience his testimony has been strengthened and he has gained more self-confidence. At the end of the 9 weeks they took a field trip to the SLC Temple visitors center and recited the whole thing in front of the Christ statue, it was memorable!!!!

Both 6th grade classes!!!

I LOVE this boy!!!!

France

April 30-May 10th

France with Brian!!!

I really don't have the energy to give a play by play of everything we did all I will say is it was much needed and a wonderful 10 days with my Love!!!

I am just posting pictures so consider this post a guessing game, see if you can guess where we are- hehehe...

Evelyn's Devotional.

April 29th

I love my kids school and one of the best parts is the fact that the kids get an opportunity to do a class devotional every year. I always look so forward to them. In 3rd grade the devotional is always about missionary work and it was a beautiful testimony that we are missionaries.

I am so proud of my sweet daughter Evelyn and the example she sets for me!!

Here Evelyn saying her part, which was:

"We were put on this earth for a reason it is not for our own self, it is for the will of God. To devote our talents, our abilities, and ourselves in every possible way to carry out the designs of Jehovah and to help establish peace and righteousness upon the earth."

Evelyn and her 2 best friends!!

We were lucky that Mama and Big Daddy got the chance to be there for this special day.