7th grade....a strong finish!

Madison had a great 7th grade year. She worked hard all year and it paid off. She was inducted into the National Honor Society and received a Top Twenty Panther award.

Madison, Carrie Clark and Clark Brown at the NJHS induction.

We waited all night wondering what award she had won, it was worth the wait. A Top Twenty Panther award is given to students (10 girls/10 boys) that are well rounded in all areas. Academic excellence, citizenship, attitude etc. She is the #1 Panther to us. I didn't even know they had these assemblies until she came along.

Carrie and Madison after the awards assembly.
We went for ice cream to celebrate.

New College Graduate in the Family.....

Cameron graduated from ASU in May then promptly ripped his family from us and moved them all to Minnesota the next week. Cameron started to work for General Mills June 1. They are loving it! We are missing them but we are all so thankful for such a great job.

Cameron and Wolfley cutting their double surprise graduation cake.
Cecia and Chelsea did a great job surprising them.
It was great to see everyone.

Jack looked super cute in his ASU Sun Devil suit.

The proud pep-pep and Grammie

Oh the places you'll go........I just wish it wasn't so far away.


Yes! A great accomplishment!


Grandma Ferrin was able to come for the celebration.
Look how she is looking at him. Do you think she is proud?


Mi Amigo's- celebrating after graduation.

This may be old news by now but it is definately news worthy and needs to be documented no matter how late I am on the post.

Happy Birthday JACK!

I can hardly believe Jack is one year old today! It has been a wonderful year watching him learn and grow. He has brought more JOY into our lives than we thought possible.

Few days old...precious baby!

Blessing day

loving the bath

Playing with Grammy, looking for PepPep

Friday fun with Grammy

We love you JACK!

Costa Rica

PURA VIDA!

After spending the last week in Costa Rica, this is now our favorite phrase. It means living the "pure or simple life", I equal it to Hakuna Mattata (sp?) because we truly had no worries in that fabulous place for an entire week. I am choosing only a few photos per day to share as I think the 965 photos would be a little much. The best part of this trip? Just being together as a family.

Just like the good 'ol days!

The manly paddle out to the reef (middle of the ocean) snorkel, get in and out of the boat without sinking or tipping it over and get back to the beach in spite of the wind. I was glad I was on the beach.

This should be a soda commercial!

These were REALLY cute monkey's and only a little scary...I keep hoping we didn't get any nasty diseases from them.

Way Way to close for my comfort. We saw hundreds of them.

Rob taught her how to handle the waves, so sweet.

Very cool waterfall we hiked to... where all the locals go.

We loved going to Church on Sunday. They were so friendly and kind. All very humble and sweet. Thanks to Cecia and Rob we even knew what they were saying which always makes it more enjoyable.

Glorious Sunsets every night!

I added more pics than I thought I would and I even left off the canopy tour zip lines, Rob's surfing video, snorkeling and approximately 945 other shots. I'm glad Mike turned 50. I'll go celebrate with him anyday.

The GLORIOUS day of Mike's Birth.......

This past week was Mike's 50th Birthday. We started celebrating late Friday night when our friends arrived with some fabulous decor for the yard and house. We continued to celebrate all day Saturday finishing it off with homemade pizza compliments of Madison. Since we had a good thing going we continued right through Sunday. I think his favorite gift was Madison's. He received a valuable coupon good for 50 snuggles, 50 foot rubs, 50 kisses and 50 hugs.

FIFTY FABULOUS YEARS!

From this.....

to this......... Boy how time flies!

A photo of the culprits. I love how Mike is throwing back his
head totally cracking up over "the gifts" they left for him.

The boys started this horrible tradition a few years back....sing Happy Birthday AS LOUD as possible, but be completely off tune. It is so annoying but hilarious at the same time. I think the glow from the fire makes our birthday boy look not one day over 49.

Look at all the smoke! It filled the whole kitchen but he got them all out in one try. You are one of a kind Mikey and we all love you ! We're looking forward to celebrating 50 more!

Confused?

If you have noticed more activity, vehicles, noise and laughter coming from our house-that would be due to the fact that we have acquired some new roommates for the next few months. I think we'll keep him around as long as possible.

OPERATION A.I.T. Mission Impossible

We had our New Beginnings program this past Wednesday. The theme was a spin off of Mission Impossible, calling it Operation A.I.T. (Agents in training) trying to fulfill their mission as a AIT's working on their PPM by using their PPMM (Personal Progress Mission Manual). Everything was based on this concept. It was MUCH fun and creative thanks to our amazing Laurel Class Presidency. They did a great job planning and carrying out the ENTIRE program. They are all talented beautiful girls and so willing to help out anyway they are asked. Rachel, Bridget and Madison did a great job in the skit, getting the message across that it is not an impossible mission after all. The "welcome" for the new Beehives was a big hit and then we topped off the evening with a fabulous chocolate fountain. I loved this theme and the end result was exactly what we were looking for.

"No matter our disguise" (see poem below)


YW and Bishop Soelberg

Laurels

Mia Maids (The ones that were present)

Beehives

Danielle enjoying her "new Beehive Welcome"

Hats

Adorable hat Models

Enjoying the fabulous chocolate fountain

A poem that we made into a bookmark to help them remember the night.

All in all it was a fabulous fun filled memorable evening.

Kids are HILARIOUS!

We had some friends over for dinner this week. 10 year old Briggs really liked Cameron and they became fast friends. One of their conversations went something like this......

Briggs: Hey, I can't remember your dogs name.
Cameron: It's Winston.
Briggs: Winston?
Cameron: Yea, Winston like in Winston Church Hill. Have you heard of him?
Briggs: Nope- but I've heard of Belly Button Road.

....and there you have it. I love 10 year old boys!

HEY BRACE FACE 4 Eyes...

Many many moons ago....I became aware of a curious phrase my Grandpa Jack used to say. I never truly understood it but it always made me giggle. LONG GREENS. I know, curious to say the least. Every now and then I would hear the dreaded words of.... "she's just in her long greens" For me this did nothing but create a great fear of green pants. Many days were a "note to self" avoid green pants NO MATTER WHAT kind of day.

Funny thing, a few years later as a silly awkward goofy looking 12-14 year old I had the dreaded phrase repeated to me. How could this have happened? I had religiously avoided the dreaded green pants so how was it I had still arrived at this milestone? Little did I know then it was a road all must travel. Long Greens was just a different way of saying, "awkward stage". The long greens stayed around with me for a LONG LONG time and we did not travel so well together. (Some days I think I still have the greens lingering on).

Recently the long greens have returned to us, but this time the GREENS are traveling in some serious style. I am sure if Grandpa Jack were still with us he would have to come up with a new term for Madison's road. Never have LONG GREENS looked so good. So go ahead and call her names.... brace face, metal mouth, four eyes because the LONG GREENS will not be here for long.

I think she looks beautiful but for good measure, because we want to be sure, we will be avoiding green pants the next few months.

Family Photos

Here are a few of my favorites from our family photo shoot.

G&G Joy

Family tree

Best photo of the day!