May 2016

 May as always was full of excitement.  I have had in my mind for this entire year,  that if I could get this little family to May....  happy, healthy and still employed....  I would consider myself a complete success.  I am completely successful in more ways than one.

I literally feel beyond grateful for so many things and I quietly pause to reflect and be grateful a couple times a day.   I am really so happy for our marriage.   I love being married to Raleigh.  He is such a good husband.  I don't know if he does the things he does because he is really working hard at it, or if it is all coming naturally to him....  but he tells me several times every single day how much he loves me and he tells me I am cute and smart and funny or whatever.

There was a time in my life for a lot of years that those things were not said.  In fact the opposite was true.  It's hard to recover from that.  And my sweet husband, whether he is trying to or not is healing me.  And I am so grateful to him for that.  Consequently, I wake up every morning and my first thought is to be so happy that I was given a second chance to be so happy.   He honestly will NEVER know my level of love for him because I can't adequately express it.

I am also over the moon for these kids.  I have had so many moments this month where my heart was filled with pride for them.  One of those moments was when Crysti and Brayden came over one night and sat on our bed and just talked with us about nothing really important for two hours.   I just loved it.  They are doing so well.  There was a time, a couple of years ago,  that Raleigh said to me,  I wonder if Brayden will live with us forever?  And here he is....  married.  Taking care of someone else's daughter.  Working at a bank where he wears a tie to work (and sometimes he wears a bow tie).  And Crysti....  she literally saved our bacon this year.  I will never forget what she did for us.  What a doll. 

I am beaming with pride over the talents of my Quincey who entered hair school with so much natural talent in hair and make up it was ridiculous, but she has taken her cosmetology education to unbelievable levels (and she's only been in school for 5 months).  I have referred her to several people and they'll text me when they are done in AWE of what a student has been able to accomplish.   She is kind to them.  She makes them feel beautiful.  And their hair looks SO good when they leave.  I knew she'd be good, I can't wait to see what she is doing this time next year.   I am just so proud that she will always have a job for the rest of her life.  She will always be able earn money,  potentially a lot of it too.   I don't need to worry about her in that way ever again.   Here is an example of her work.

We celebrated Mother's Day.  I was showered with fabulous gifts.  Raleigh and the kids gave me enough lotion to last all the way through the summer.  Let me tell you,  that is a lot of lotion.  Allie gave me this spray that you spray in your house to make it smell good.  And it is to die for.  It is a scent from my teenage years and I LOVE it.  We run around the house doing leaps spraying it.  And Morgan gave me Al Carraway's book and I have already read it 3 times.  I have it all highlighted and I have notes in the margins.  It is inspiring and has helped me in so many ways

The ONLY reason why I am taller than these two is because I am wearing 

really high heels and they are shoeless. 

We took our traditional mother's day photo with all the kids.

This wasn't our best, but these pictures mean a lot to me.  

This pictures also means a lot to me because last year,  Kori and Russ and Dad were in Houston on Mother's Day and we were so sad.  This year we were all together.  That is so nice. 

Lots of Grandkids

We wrapped up our first soccer season

She is so proud of this trophy

This is Parker wrapping up his last soccer season

Parker's Senior picture

Morgan's senior pictures

Here is Morgan's lei that Nana made for her.

It was the cutest lei at the graduation

Parker's graduation from Desert Hills was at 1:00 on Tuesday.

I ran over for the last hour on my lunch break.

There were SO many people, it took me almost the 

entire time to find Morgan.  We went down onto the floor

so I could meet Parker's parents.  They are adorable.

And they said so many kind words about Morgan.

I was extremely claustrophobic down there

I ran back to work for two hours and then I changed my clothes and headed back to the 

College for Garrett's graduation from Snow Canyon at 4:00

He is the greatest kid.  So good and kind

Kori was such a trooper.

I remember my mom saying last year...

"I just hope Kori will be here next year for Garrett's graduation"

And boy was she.

Morgan's graduation from Pine View was on Wednesday at 4:00.

This day was one of those days where I was so rewarded as a mother.

And I loved every minute of it.

My words are not going to come close to expressing the pride I felt in my

heart for her.  Let me break it down...

She is a junior.

She has been working her butt off for a year.

She has taken SO many classes

SO MANY CLASSES.

And when all was said and done,

not only did she graduate with the senior class...

She graduated 17th in the class with a GPA of 3.96. 

She was the very first person to walk into the arena.

She sat on the front row with all of the other smart kids.

She wore a SILVER cord around her neck.

And more that that, she is breathtakingly beautiful.

And she is a very good girl.

I was absolutely bursting with pride.

 Graduates are listed in GPA order

But keep in mind that these kids only tackled their senior year this year.

She knocked our her junior and senior years and still ranked 17th

 Yeah...  I know I look like a pinhead.

It's not about me

I didn't look bad in person, my mom assured me.

 But my smile says is all

BURSTING!!!

In the midst of all of these graduations

Peyton got to go on a field trip to Staheli Farm.

She got to ride the bus.

Raleigh packed her the coolest lunch ever.

She had the best exit interview with her teacher at school.

Her teacher went on and on about how smart she is and how she is so obedient and well behaved.  

And better than that, she is a friend to everyone and is very kind

 Allie was awarded

"Most Talented"

in the Musical Section of the Yearbook

She really is so incredibly talented.

Her voice is fabulous.  I cannot imagine how good she would be if she had been in voice lessons.  

She is such a good person with the biggest heart.  

I love her so much. 

My sweet, Kaleigh draws me pictures every day.

Usually they are a glimpse into her world which is a magical world of lovely

creatures and beautiful colors and everything good.

She drew this picture of me.

I love my eye lashes and how my shirt has "polka nuts"

and my skirt has an alternating pattern.   And we are holding hands.  Holding hands 

is so important for KK.  She LOVES holding my hand.  If we are out in public, she must be holding my hand.  She will scramble through the crowd to find me.  I don't ever need to wonder where she is, she finds me and latches on EVERY time.  I joke around about how she is always attached to me, but I secretly love it.  I adore her.

I taped her picture on my mirror, so that I can look at it every morning when I am getting 

ready for work.  She brings me so much joy.

I am so lucky to get to be her mom

Ryker continues to amaze me.  We had such high hopes for him athletically that we never planned on him being smart too.  But he can almost read and he is no where near Kindergarten.

We will have him spell words for us and he gets them right every time. 

The other day Raleigh says  "Walt spell your middle name."

And he goes

J---- A---- M---- Z

We'll accept that.  

We were invited to go to a pool party with some of Raleigh's work friends.

Kami and Brent were invited too.

We had fun in the pool, but the best part was when we played volleyball.

Raleigh, Brent, Kami and me on one team and the other couples on the other.

The wives on the other team were tom-boy,  jock chicks

(like they played sports in high school)

and even though we had Raleigh, we looked pretty pathetic by comparison.

And they were probably making fun of us in their minds.

Disclaimer:  The freakin' ball was so hard it felt like we were playing with a rock.

Every hit was blisteringly painful.

I'm not exaggerating, when I would hit it, my heart would stop beating for two seconds.  It hurt so bad I would lose my breath.

And I have the forearms of a 7 year old, so I thought my bones were going to break in half.

So naturally,  it's not surprising that when the ball was coming down into my area,  I chose to cover my head and run out of bounds.   Consequently, to compensate for my weaknesses,  Raleigh was running around like a crazy person attempting to help me look good by diving and sliding into the splits and very nearly blew out his knee twice.

It was hysterical.

I'm musical, not athletic

I worked on my birthday.

I was only a little bitter about it, as I was going to take the day off, but 

couldn't because 2 people were out of the office on vacation. 

The only thing that made me happy was that a three day weekend fell on my b-day weekend.

My co-workers and husband showered me with presents and well wishes.

 I won't have to pay for a Swig for three months

I had a lovely day,  in spite of my age.

I am not handling these birthdays very well.

Physically, I don't look like I am old enough to be a grandma.

I don't feel like I am that old either,  nor do I act like it...

But, the ugly truth is.....  I AM.

And I don't like it. 

To celebrate our birthdays: My niece (who was born on my 30th birthday) and mine,

Our family decided to spend the day in Pine Valley.

It was the greatest family day ever.

We had the best time.

I will always remember it.

Russ made real burgers on the tailgate of Papa's truck

 Raleigh and Nana did some cooking

We took some pretty great pictures

 I'm not sure why we are posing with a football.

Occasionally, in a way to show me that he is not completely thrilled with all the pictures that I make him take with me, Raleigh will grab a prop of some kind to show that he is not serious in any way.

I have pictures with wooden hearts,  pumpkins,  diet cokes,  kitchen utensils and various food items. 

 Nearly all of us...  We are missing Papa and Nana and Quincey

 Morgan brought Parker

and he fit in perfectly.

We think he's a keeper

 Poor Brayden.

When he got home,  he discovered that his house had fallen down.

What a mess.

Good thing he wasn't home OR walking under it when it came crashing down.

I know for a fact, when I agreed to be in Primary,  I didn't sign up for this.

 

We wrapped up our month with a Memorial Day Hike

in Snow Canyon Park.

It was another good one with easy trails and beautiful scenery.

 I always love the part when we have decided that we have gone the distance and we sit down for a minute before turning around.  We have granola bars and fruit snacks and drink lots of water and talk about all of the cool stuff we passed. 

 Raleigh got me my very own camelback for Mother's Day

Peyton brought her journal so that she could

write a few things down that she wanted to remember

She also drew pictures of squirrels and lizards 

and different leaves that she saw.

She is really smart

 The three of us didn't want to go up that hill.... so we sat at the bottom and waited for 

THE KIDS to go up and over and back down

 He's killing something scary

 To the right of me is a lava tube.

You can't see it but there is a cave down there.

I would have gone exploring (haha)  but it was about to rain on us.

The truth is....

I NEVER...EVER would EVER go in that cave, unless I was trying to hide from a bear or something

 On the way home, we stopped at Marvs

for lunch. 

Today,  May 30th is Brayden and Crysti's one year anniversary

We have been storing the top of their cake in our freezer for one year.

We had such a good month

I am so glad it's summer.  

We get to eat in the backyard again and spend late nights sitting outside listening to the crickets.

We get to go to late night Maverick runs.

We have a few trips planned.

And we are going to just enjoy being together.