Natalie's Field Day

Natalie had her first field day yesterday. She had a great time. I helped out doing the tug of war. I was not very smart, on just the 2nd round of kids out of about 20, I wrapped the rope around my hand when it was me and another woman against 12 kindergartners. Those little kids are very strong when you get a bunch of them together! My hand still hurts so bad a day later, and is very swollen and blue. I wish I could have just traveled from station to station with Natalie. Luckily, the mom in charge of Natalie's group was a neighbor, and offered to take pictures for me, and take Lindsay along with the group. That was a huge help! Lindsay was bored at my tug of war station before the events even started. Natalie said her favorite events were where she had to pick up marbles with her feet, playing with the parachute, and the pillowcase race.

Hope of America

Brayden's teacher called Dave while I was in California to let us know that Brayden would be receiving the Hope of America Award. This award is to recognize and encourage students who have demonstrated academic accomplishments, leadership and good character. The Kiwanis Club presented this award to one boy and girl in each 6th grade class. Dave and I were hiding up on stage with the other parents of kids to receive the award so the kids would be surprised when their names were called. It was so much fun to be there for his big accomplishment. We are so proud of Brayden! He is such a dedicated, determined young man. We are so proud that he works so hard to accomplish everything he sets his mind to do. He has straight 100 percents in all of his subjects in school. A while ago, I told Brayden that when I was about 11 years old, I went an entire year without candy and my mom paid me $100 for doing it. He came to me one day and asked if I would pay him $100 if he went without candy for a year. I said I would. He made it to the year mark, earned his $100, and continued to not eat candy. It has now been 2 1/2 years that he has gone without candy, all of his own accord. When President Hinckley put out the challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, Brayden was determined to follow the prophet and read the entire Book of Mormon cover to cover in those few months. He did it, and was only 9 years old at the time. Brayden will accomplish anything he sets his mind to. He is also so kind and considerate of others. We are so proud of him!

Zach and Kaari's Wedding

My parents and all the brothers and sisters except Chris. He didn't arrive until later.Zach and Kaari at the temple.

I flew down to California with Kelli for Zach and Kaari's wedding. I'm so glad I made the decision to go. It was great to be there to support them. All 10 of the kids from my family were there, and all but Jordan (only 17) were in the temple together for Zach and Kaari's wedding. That was awesome. I can't wait until Jordan's wedding, when I hope all 10 of us can be there together! The trip was very fast, very busy, and I didn't feel great, but I am so glad I was there! Congrats Zach and Kaari! I took these pics off Cam and Channy's blog because I didn't even take a camera down there. I am going to have to get copies from others.

Memorial Day

We went to Dave's parents' house for a barbecue in the rain. Here we are playing "thump" after dinner. This is the traditional Wakley card game that they have been playing together for many years.

Brayden Turns 12!

I can't believe Brayden is 12! Here his is enjoying our new whipped cream tradition.
Go Brayden!
He got an erector set that he has already spent many hours on. He loves to build things and create things. I am glad he liked his gift. He still has money from grandparents that he hasn't figured out exactly how he will spend it. He is leaning toward buying some clay and other art supplies. Brayden will spend hour after hours creating artwork up in our quiet room. He is working on some art projects for our kitchen that I will post when they are all finished.
This is Dave and Brayden on the Sunday he was ordained a Deacon. He passed the sacrament last week for the first time and did a great job!

Bryce's 1st Pinewood Derby

I have totally fallen behind in blogging, but I am going to be good and catch up on the highlights! Bryce had his first cub scout pinewood derby earlier this month. He was so excited. He worked on the car at Grandpa Wakley's with his cousins Carter and Cole.

To start the morning off we had a pancake breakfast outside in the church parking lot. It was pretty chilly, but Bryce didn't care about the cold. Bryce took 3rd overall averaging 223 miles per hour (to scale) with his speedster and was very proud of his car and his performance.

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I really didn't do much of anything, which is a nice change because the past few weeks have been so busy! The kids made adorable gifts for me. Dave helped the girls make handprint flowers with a cute picture of each of them in the middle. Bryce made me some flowers that had chores he would do around the house. He is always begging to do more chores around the house. Brayden made some awesome stick figure artwork of our family to hang on our wall in the kitchen. Jaron wrote me a sweet letter. Dave gave me some pretty yellow roses and the quesadilla maker I asked for after doing our Cinco de Mayo party at Kelli's. I used the quesadilla maker last night, and I love it.

I loved watching most of the Jazz game after going to church. I did fall asleep at half time and didn't wake up until it was almost the 4th quarter. It felt wonderful to take a nap! After a thrilling Jazz victory, Dave grilled up some steaks for dinner. I tried my hand at making onion rings. I have been craving onion rings for the last few days, so I decided to try making them. They were so yummy! We had delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert. We ended the day watching the Boston Red Sox game. The entire day was perfect to me! I know most women wouldn't love to spend hour after hour watching sports on TV- but I love it!

This day was very near perfection! The favorite part was spending the entire day at home as a family!

Cinco de Mayo

Kelli called me yesterday mid-morning wondering if we would like to do a Cinco de Mayo party for Family Home Evening together. It sounded like fun, so we started planning. We went over to Kelli's and had a mexican dinner and Spanish music playing all night. The kids had plain cheese quesadillas, and the adults and Jaron and Brayden had quesadillas with refried beans, hamburger meat, chicken, and cheese with salsa and sour cream. We played a "hide the maraca" game. All the kids sat on a blanket outside and closed their eyes and counted to 10 twice in Spanish while 2 kids hid maracas. The kids seemed to have fun but there was an awful lot of peekin' going on!

Searching for the maracas
Tori and Lindsay played on the teeter totter instead of looking for the maracas. We finally had them take a turn together hiding the maracas. As soon as the kids stopped counting, Tori led all the kids straight to where they hid them. She obviously didn't get the game, but it was very cute!
The pinata was definitely the highlight of the night. The kids had a blast! Brian rigged up a long bannister railing to the pinata and moved it around while the kids were blindfolded. After all the kids had a turn, we let them each have a turn with no blindfold.


Brayden broke the pinata a little, and we let Jaron have his 2nd turn to finish it off.

The loop holding the pinata to the pole broke, so in the end, Brian pitched the pinata to Jaron to hit.
The kids and their stash from the pinata.
We ended the night with ice-cream and sparklers. Kelli made a yummy topping for the ice cream so it would be like fried ice cream.

We all had a great time, and decided that this is now going to be a new tradition of ours.

Busy Saturday!

We had a very crazy Saturday! We spent several hours Saturday morning at Thanksgiving Point at the ScoutExpo. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. Brayden did over 100 push-ups in a competition. Jaron had the record for vertical jump, and Faith did over 120 sit-ups (she just turned 6). Bryce and Natalie loved everything, including climbing, branding their pieces of wood, jousting, and shooting marshmallow guns. Lindsay was in a bad mood all day, but at least she had moments of happiness.

We rushed home from the scout expo to have lunch before we headed out to Jaron and Brayden's soccer game. They both did great, and the team won 4-0. Shortly after we got home from the soccer game, my parents called to see if we wanted to go to a humanitarian dinner auction in Salt Lake City at the Little America Hotel. The catch was we had to walk out the door, all dressed up in a few minutes. Dave hopped in the shower and we both got dressed and ready in record time, and beat my parents to the ride and share where we all met to drive up to the dinner together. My parents, Sandi and Dave, Kelli, and Dave and I all had a great time together. There was a silent auction at the beginning of the evening with many things that were not that expensive. We had fun browsing mostly, but we did bid too, even though we didn't win anything. We had a nice buffet dinner, and then a program and live auction. Mark Koelbel from channel 2 news was the emcee and Kurt Bestor sang a couple of songs. The evening was wonderful, and I came away more determined to be grateful for the many blessings I have, and to better share with those who don't have much. I was especially touched by the ambassador from Mali who spoke, and reminded us of how happy his people were despite poverty. It is true, most of the pictures my Dad has from when he travels to Africa, the people look so happy! They have little huts for homes and very little food, and yet, they are so happy. On the drive home, all of us decided that we had so much fun together that we are going to have a big group date night on the 4th Saturday of each month with any of the adults that want to come from the Mel Johnson family. I think we are going to have a blast. We decided that each couple would take a turn planning the activity one month. I can't wait! We arrived home after 10 p.m. and then watched "No Resevations" on dvd while Dave caught up on work. I actually stayed up until about 1 a.m.! That never happens! Luckily, I did sneak in a short nap between soccer and the phone call from my parents or I never would have made it.

Jaron's Alpine Days Meet

This is Jaron competing in the long jump on May 2nd. He ended up getting 14'3" and placed 4th in the district of 10 schools. This day was much better than the day before which was freezing and so windy! I only got a few shots from very far away the first day because I was too cold to move or take out my camera much.

I decided to pull our other kids out of school a little early so they could come support Jaron. I don't know if they watched much, but I am glad they were there. The kids mostly ran around the bleachers or played on the grass hill. Grandma and Grandpa Wakley and Grandpa Goddard were all there to cheer Jaron on.

This is Jaron running the 3rd leg of the mile relay. They did great and took 3rd. Lindsay went to this meet with a perfectly good pair of pants and underwear! It was funny and embarrassing walking out of the stadium to our car with a huge hole in her pants! At Mountain View High School they have some large painted cement letters on the grassy hill. The kids thought it would make a great slide, but since it was just painted cement, Natalie and Lindsay's pants will never be the same again.
Besides running around and sliding down giant cement letters, the kids ate a ton of snacks! They always think they are starving. This is Lindsay's adorable face after dirt and many snacks

were rubbed semi-permanently into her face. Jaron did a great job, and we had a fun time watching him! He also placed 10th in the high jump at 4'6" and 13th in the mile with a time of 6:12.45. I am so glad Dave has a flexible job where he can come and support our children in their activities and accomplishments!

Happy 15th Anniversary!

In many ways it seems much longer than 15 years. Not to say that things have dragged on, but Dave and I have known each other for a long time. I went through a few of our old pics. Man, we used to be so young! The first pic is from 1988. That is the Wakley family station wagon in the background that Dave got to drive.
This is Dave's Jr. Prom. Incidentally, this is April 29th (our anniversary) 1989.
This is our engagement picture that was on our wedding invitations.
We had our reception at the Lion House in Salt Lake.
This is on the Salt Lake Temple grounds.

Our anniversary this year wasn't very eventful. Neither Dave nor I were feeling well. Dave brought home a Cafe Rio burrito for us to share. I fed the kids before he got home, and we rented a video for them to watch so we could have time to ourselves. Everything didn't turn out like we planned when Jaron came to us after the movie asking for help with a school project. We spent most of the rest of the evening helping him look for comic strips on the internet that were about certain subjects, like self-esteem, goal setting, ineffective communication, etc. Dave and I were on separate computers looking for comics. We laughed a lot, but it certainly wasn't what we had in mind. We'll have to have a "make-up" anniversary night soon.

Dave is absolutely the perfect husband for me in every way! I am so excited that I get to spend forever with him!