Missionaries

Missionaries are a very important part of our church. When young men and women turn a certain age, have a desire to serve and are worthy, they can serve a mission for the LDS church. Within 1 week, we had a missionary in our family return home from serving in Argentina, another cousin receive her call to serve in Mexico and a close family friend enter the MTC (Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah) where he will be trained to serve a mission in Panama. Serving a mission is a full time job. Missionaries don't date, attend school, watch tv, play on electronics of any kind and follow other rules. Missionaries pay their own way while out in the mission field. They spend their time proselyting and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Scott served a 2 year mission in Ohio and I served an 18 month mission in Washington state and it was awesome for both of us! I hope and pray each of my 8 boys will want to serve and successfully complete a 2 year mission for our church.

Here is all the support standing at the airport waiting for Hermana Aleigh Boyce to return home from the Argentina Bahia Blanca Mission. It sure was great seeing her again.

And here is Meghan opening her mission call in front of over 50 family and friends. It was so sweet to watch her read it, and such a humble and vulnerable spiritual experience for her to share with us.  She received her call to serve in Mexico Aguascalientes Mission.

Then there's Elder Taylor Mann from Santa Barbara who flew in late Tuesday night to enter the MTC earlier Wednesday morning. It was so great to be with him for a bit before his adventure begins. 

ROAD TRIP!!!

A year ago I went (8 months pregnant) to New York City with my Cousins, Angie and Aleigh. We had a blast! There were so many fun things to do and yummy places to eat there! Our absolute favorite was Max Brenner's restaurant. A couple weeks ago, we found out there is a new Max Brenner's restaurant in Las Vegas! Aleigh is about to leave on her mission (to Argentina on Sept. 11th !! YEAH!!) so we needed to plan a quick trip for a couple days before she leaves. This time Brynnlee joined us. It was a fast planned trip but totally worth it!!

First stop, the St. George temple!! After a few photos outside, we went through the Visitor's Center and talked with several Sister missionaries. It was a fun, uplifting break from driving in the car. 

As soon as we arrived in Vegas, we unloaded the car and headed on the shuttle to the Bellagio. It's always a favorite stop of mine. So beautiful inside and out. We walked around the Bellagio conservatory and Botanical Gardens...photo bombing people, laughing, and enjoying our surroundings. Actually we photo bombed our entire trip. We were hilarious!!



Next stop, Max Brenner's for dinner and dessert!! Super good!!! This was Brynn's first time and she enjoyed it as much as we did!! YUMMY!



I made breakfast for the girls every morning, which was fun and delicious! I always love drinking OJ (or whatever) out of wine glasses and feeling so elegant and rich.

Next day we swam and laid out, went shopping, Max Brenner's for lunch, more shopping...We had a blast. The best photo bomb of the trip was at Max's. The table next to us sat 8 or so girls that all gathered together for a photo opt. Without even saying anything, all of us sat up real tall in our chairs and smiled for the camera. After, we started crying because we were laughing so hard. We kept saying as soon as those girls post their Vegas trip pic's they will notice all of us in their shot! So funny!!



Later that night we all rode on the New York, New York roller coaster. What a blast that was!!



On our last day we went shopping, stopped by Max's for a chocolate shake to go and headed home. We stopped off again in St. George for gas and a drink at Swig. Such a fun little drink shop.

I am glad we were able to make this quick Vegas trip happen. It was a blast spending time with these beautiful, inspiring, wonderful ladies!! I love them all like my own sisters!!



Easter 2013

On Easter morning, we ate Ebelskivers with homemade strawberry syrup and looked for our hidden baskets. The little kids took about 10 minutes to find theirs. The middle kids took a little longer, with a few hints and poor Will took over an hour! We, I mean, the Easter Bunny sure hid them well this year!!

That is one of our family traditions, is to have the Easter Bunny hide the actual basket for the kids to find.

I took Will's and Jackson's out of their baskets and put all their treats in a bag. It was much easier to hide that way! Jackson's basket was inside the piano.

The baskets were filled with candy, money and more candy!

Church starts at 1pm, so before we left, I made a batch of delicious Easter sugar cookies. The kids loved helping me cut them out and decorate them. Oh yeah, and eat them!
Scott had to leave shortly after to got to work but the boys and I were joined for dinner by the Boyce cousins. It was a real treat to have them spend the evening with us.

The meal was slightly different than I normally make. I wanted to try a bunch of new recipes this year. Thanks Pinterest!
I made crock pot ham with pineapple and brown sugar, twice baked potatoes, pastel colored deviled eggs (I placed the white part of the egg [after it was hard boiled and de-shelled] in a cup with food coloring. They turned out great! Pink, yellow, green and blue eggs!), Bunny rolls (they really looked like rats, but they tasted delicious!), Asian pasta salad with spinach, jello salad and our new favorite drink, limeade with Canada Dry.

 After we ate dinner, we hid a bunch of eggs all over the yard for the boys to find. I was telling Brynnlee, Kelsey and Aleigh that I use to come to Easter dinner when they were my kids age. Now, they're coming to my house. So cool.

I had a wonderful Easter filled with family, food, fun and of course the spirit.

A Blessing and a Bow Tie

We attended a wonderful baby blessing yesterday for our sweet baby cousin, Ruth. She was so beautiful in her blessing dress, the same dress her mom, Kyrra wore!
After we headed to a park and ate some lunch. It was so wonderful being with so many Santa Barbara cousins! And one from Alaska! It's always good to be with family!

 The Gray girls (my cousins Gloria, Marsha, Diana, Jeana and Clareesa) all had children pregnant at the same time. I'm not a Gray girl, but I put myself into that category as a cousin.
Karina had her son, Lincoln (pictured above). Jessica had her son, Lynn (not pictured). Next was me. Then Kyrra had Ruth (pictured). Next will be Nadia and then Hannah.

Then, there's this guy. How adorable is this picture. Cute church outfit with a sharp looking a bow tie. Cute red toned mohawk hair. Pursed little lips. Sweet Preston!

Zoo

Last week Scott and I took Nathan to the zoo and Nathan and I went again this morning with some cousins. It's always fun at teh Hogel Zoo here in Salt Lake.

What an awesome shot of Nathan and the Polar Bear. The Bear is so playful and fun. Everytime we've gone the Bear is always showing off for the kids and parents! I was surprised that Nathan wasn't scared at all!

New York City Extras

Here are some more fun pictures of my trip to New York City with two of my cousins. These are pictures from my cousin, Angie's, camera. I couldn't resist to share them with you all!!

 I'm hanging with the Subway Queen! Aleigh knew which train on which side and which letter/number to take to get us everywhere!

 With our cute cousin Joseph at his Baseball tournament in upper state New York.

 Walking around the Smith Farm in Palmyra, NY, here is Rick with 3 of his 4 sons. Future missionaries. Future leaders. Awesome!

 While shopping in SoHo we, I mean Aleigh, couldn't resist the store DASH. Here she is modeling like one of the Kardashian sisters. She fits in perfectly!

 On our way to our FIRST Broadway show, Lion King, in Time Square.

 On one of our many Taxi rides! So fun!

 Taking a little rest in Sprinkles while I wait for my cupcake order.

 Walking under one of the many bridges in Central Park.

 It sprinkled on and off that day, which was fine because it kept us all nice and cool and we hiked all over the island that day.