Janna

Another mile marker in our lives has happened. My youngest child has finished elementary school. This is an eventful year to have Amberly graduate from High School and Janna graduate from Elementary School. Now I'm the only one left in Elementary School in our family.

I'm so proud of Janna. She has had a wonderful Elementary experience and I hope she enjoys her secondary education as much.

Good Luck Janna. You'll do great in Jr. High because you're just a great person. I love you.

We've been lucky to have this great teacher for three kids in our family. You're part of the family now Mrs. Dibb. Glad I get to keep working with this great lady.

Amberly

I want to share some of my feelings about my wonderful daughter Amberly, who graduated from Pleasant Grove High School yesterday.

This beautiful baby has grown into a beautiful young woman. I am so proud of Amberly. She has always been a very intelligent girl, but she is also so much more. I'd like to share my observations about her as she has grown up over the last 18 1/2 years.

Amberly is unstoppable. When she decides to learn or do something, you can't tell her she can't do it. When she was 3 years-old her friend Megan was learning to tie her shoes to go to kindergarten. Amberly decided she wanted to learn to tie her shoes too. I tried to convince her she was too young and she could learn when she went to kindergarten, but she just decided to teach herself. After trying for about an hour I showed her how expecting her to realize it was too hard, but she had it mastered before her dad got home from work.

The same thing happened when she was 5 and decided she wanted to learn how to play the piano. I tried to find someone to give her lessons, but everyone said she was too young and needed to learn to read. (She already was reading) I finally found a friend in Provo who said she would teach her and drove her down every week for a couple of years. As most people know she is an incredible pianist and uses her talent to bless many people.

Amberly loves to read, write and recently has picked up photography and is doing amazing at it. Just check out her blog to see what she's done for many friends' senior pictures. Amberly has always been an excellent student and as you can see from the graduation pictures she graduated with high honors. She is a great daughter, sister, cousin, niece, granddaughter, friend, singer, student, pianist, driver, photographer and very spiritual as well. When she decides to learn to cook, she'll amaze us all because whatever she decides to do, she does it well.

Amberly, I can't wait to see where you'll go next. As I said on facebook,

"We know we are successful if we live so that we qualify for, receive and know how to follow the Spirit." (Sister Beck) You have learned to be successful in the most important ways. I will always love, support and cheer for you. I will always be there for you as you figure out what comes next. I am truly proud of the person you have become. Thank you for being my daughter.

I love you forever. Mom

Rachel's Wedding

We had the privilege on May 8th to go to Boise and participate in Rachel's wedding. It is wonderful to see the next generation making the correct choices and moving forward with their lives. It was fun to be with Kevin's side of the family for the week-end.

Hurst Family

Rachel and Kyle with grandma and grandpa

The Larsen Family

The Turner Family

The Jacob and Nia Family

Rachel and Kyle

Birthdays and Concerts

We were preparing to go to California on Cammie's birthday and I didn't get any pictures to post for her 16th Birthday. Way to go mom! What she got for her birthday was her driver's license. I checked her out of school at lunch time and took her to the DMV to get her driver's license. Then we rushed over to Walmart and got her a phone. It didn't seem like her birthday was too exciting until we walked out of Walmart and she realized the phone we'd gotten had a camera. Then she really lit up. Happpy 16th Birthday Cammie. I love you.

Janna and Jeffrey have both had choir concerts in the last couple of weeks. I really enjoyed watching them perform. I feel very grateful that our children have had these great opportunities. The public school system takes a lot of flak from the public, but our teachers are really doing an amazing job with the limited resources and large class sizes that they deal with. We have amazing children in this community and I'm so glad we have lived here for the past 18 years.

Jeffrey's birthday dawned rainy, windy and cold. That didn't stop his lacrosse team from playing an amazing game. They beat Jordan 12-5. By the end of the game it was snowing. Jeffrey scored a great goal. Then we took him to JCW's for his birthday lunch. He is using his birthday money to get out of debt by paying us back for lacrosse. We pay for one of his sports a year and this year we'll be paying for football. That could get pricey since he'll be in 9th grade. I'm excited for Jeffrey to be ordained a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood tomorrow. I'm really proud of how seriously he takes his priesthood duties. He's becoming a great young man.