New Years 2010

Emma fell asleep for awhile and woke up right before midnight. She was kind of grumpy. The good news is that she fell right back to sleep after all the tooting and hollering!

Lee really got into the festivites this year!

I don't worry about Mikel being out on a night like New Years but I do really, really worry about Andrew. Boys seem to get into more trouble. I was so relieved when he told us he was staying home to "war" with his buddies. YaY!!
Mikel didn't spend New Years with us. As usual she went out with friends and went to the dance.

The tree.

Our traditional Christmas Eve pajamas! So cozy!

Pies that Mikel and Sarah made from scratch. They were yummy!!

Sarah's Christmas Orchestra and Choir Concerts

Sarah started private violin lessons this year and she is really improving and loves playing violin. She really enjoyed choir this year as well. Although most of her friends dropped out because they didn't want to stay after school to practice, Sarah stuck with it and is so outgoing that making new friends was not a problem at all. Way to go SARAH!!

Halloween 2009

Emma was a witch this year. She refused to wear a witch hat. She wanted to be a "pretty witch".

Thomas went to school as Hannah Montana. At the last minute he decided he didn't want to be Hannah Montana and put together a hula girl costume. We didn't have a coconut top for him so he grabbed a marker and started drawing coconuts on his chest. I think it turned out pretty good. Naked boy!!

We spent a small fortune on Sarah's dance outfit this year so I was pretty happy when Sarah found another use for it. She made it into a Minnie Mouse outfit. Turned out cute.

Mikel went as a "Sexy Woman" this year. Her and her friends find it humorous to dress in the loudest, tackiest outfits that they can put together and they wear them for going out and for parties.

I am one of those "bad" Moms that let her kids eat all the candy at once. It serves 2 purposes. #1 I hate picking up sticky candy off of the floors and cleaning candy wrappers for weeks. #2 I don't have to cook until the sweets are all eaten, everyone is too sick to eat!! This year it only took them 2 days to finish off all their candy.

In Loving Memory of Darrel Vaughn Oliver February 16, 1965 - September 09, 2009

Darrel, Liz, PJ

OH BROTHER!!!

I got a call from Thomas' school today. The school nurse to be exact. She called to inform me that Thomas had been sent to her office this morning. He was very upset about a test he took in class that he did poorly on. He claims to have hit his head on the playground equipment at recess and could not remember any of the answers for the test. The nurse checked out Thomas and found no bumps, bruising, scrapes, nothing. She had him put an icepack on his head and asked him if he knew his name, the names of his parents, how many children were in his family. He answered all these questions correctly, AMAZING since he now has amnesia. Oh brother!

Thomas, being difficult AGAIN!

It's only been a week since Thomas started school. Yesterday Thomas got a warning slip. Thomas told me "I raised my hand for like 60 minutes and the teacher still would not come over to help me with my work." He said he was bored so he started messing with something he wasn't supposed to and he got caught. This is the slip that the teacher made him fill out and sign.


I was trying really, really hard to not laugh. Thomas noticed this and told me "It's okay if you laugh Mom, my teacher laughed when she read it too".

Palmyra Temple

Even though Mikel is seriously home sick, she says that her experiences have been so amazing. She has visited the Palmyra New York Temple where she had the privilege of doing work for some of her ancestors. The next day, she was able to visit the Sacred Grove. She shares "I was totally overwhelmed by what I felt there Mom. The spirit is so strong. You can't walk away from visiting the Sacred Grove without your testimony being strengthened."The Sacred Grove

Mikel left for New York last night. She called bright and early this morning to tell me to "quick, get on the computer, I'm on the web cam in New York." So I got up and took some pictures of all of them in Times Square.

Grandma and Mikel

Mikel-Bill, Grandma, Tyson and Chad to the right of her.



All of them on the right side of the pic.

4th of July 2009

Independence Day this year was fun even though I wasn't feeling well and we only had a few people over to celebrate. We had our traditional breakfast burritos that Lee was stuck with making all by himself this year. We didn't get to do our traditional rubber band war. We don't throw routes any more and now everyone we know who did throw routes, no longer throws one so there were no rubber bands for our war. Lee cooked up some Awesome ribs!! They were juicy, tender and the best ribs so far that he has ever grilled. Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Bill came by to eat and visit. Mikel made a really yummy strawberry shortcake dessert. Yum, Yum!

Fireworks were hard to find this year. We lucked out and the only firework display in Mesa happened to be at the boobies church only 2 miles away from the house. It was a short show and kind of lame compared to years past but, we were grateful to have fireworks to go to at all this year. I love the 4th of July!