Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Happy 50th

Saturday we celebrated my Uncle Henry's 50th birthday. His birthday was almost 2 weeks prior, but it was a surprise party :) The whole theme was a luau. When he came over to the house across the street to help move something on the patio we were off to the side with the Hawaii 5-0 theme music playing and yelled surprise!! He truly was surprised!
Since it was a luau theme I was thinking of doing a volcano cake, but Helton convinced me to do a roasted pig cake instead (since they weren't going to have one).
It didn't turn out how I really wanted, but it still looked good. Some people said, "it looks to gross I just can't eat it," some one else said "that's to real for me." So I guess it looked better than I thought.


James had asked a few boys from the Samoan branch to do a dance and they said they would, but it was ill planned and much more ill executed. So James and I ended up doing some dance stuff. We started off with helping my Uncle Henry and Aunt Geneal do a lit bit of a "fruit salad," as James called it. He would say pineapple and you would move your hips to the right, orange for the left and banana for the front. Everyone got a kick out of it. Aunt Geneal said "how do you do banana?" She tried to do it and then Uncle Henry said "I've seen you do it better than that." :) So after their short little dance, James and I did a bit of a Tahitian dance. I did pretty good until the music started going really really fast and my thighs decided to burn like crazy. Everyone enjoyed it though, including us.


Our New Friend

This last weekend, Mom and Dad came down again. Paul was giving his homecoming talk on Sunday. On Saturday, we were outside cleaning up the backyard and along hopped a little frog/toad (i don't know how to tell the difference).  Dad picked it up and was showing it to Emjae, and she just looked at it somewhat from afar. Julie however came right up to it to touch it and almost poked it's eye out :) lol The two of my girls could not be more different at times.
Dad put the little frog by our small leaky water spickett and Emjae will now go out side and look there, come back inside and then ask where the frog is. She likes it, just as long as it's not touching her or too close :)

Friday, August 12, 2011

Divorce Ranch


Also known as Floyd Lamb Park :) This place was so cute and fun! I never thought that here in Vegas we could find such a cute place to go and take pictures as a family. I still need to get a picture of Erik and photoshop him in, but until then here are the ones that I have edited :) Yeah that's right I did the editing, I am not a professional, and I don't know all the tricks of the trade, but I have the programs to learn how to do so.







The day was a bit to windy :( but I think we got some great shots and the wind did not bother me at all when we were eating our lunch and playing in the grass and shade :)








Tuesday, August 9, 2011

FRESH PRINCE WAS THE ISH!!!!!!


I finally found someone that knows the same thing that I do. NO ONE IS MAKING UP NEW DANCE MOVES!!!! They are dance moves that have been reinvented and put to music. Thank you Fresh Prince.

 The Cat Daddy:
The Shuffle:
The Single Ladies Dance:
The Stanky Leg:
The Cyclone:
The Dougie:

(Source: JADEHAM13)
Reblogged from http://sosonlove.tumblr.com (originally from jadeham13)

Pauls Party

The Jewitts (my sister Kates Mom and Step Dad) offered there home and swimming pool to us to have Paul's welcome home party. We waited until Friday evening to have the party because Alex didn't come into town until Thursday night. We didn't want to party with out the whole family (even though Erik is still in PA). Amy made the cake and frosting and I did the fondant (she's a frosting girl and well I'm not so much)
Our cake was to represent the old (white shirt and tie) merging into the new. I wanted to do two cakes, but I didn't have enough marshmallows. I was asked why I didn't do the shirts the other way so that the missionary tag could be on the cake. It just doesn't look right for a welcome home cake. When we read or look at chronologic order we always look at left being the past and the right being the future. So if I were to do a mission call cake, then I would do it the other way. I may even get the chance sooner than later since my cousin Glen just turned in his papers.
There was plenty of food, and even exploding soda cans :) James grilled the chicken for us, he is my main man!! :) Not to mention my only man, but he is my go to guy for grilling. We had all different kinds of salads ranging from Cookie salad (made by my Mom and almost completely eaten by Gary Jewitt)
A very delicious Potato Salad
Green and Berry salad, and an amazing avocado salad (which I did not get a picture of) 
Almost the whole Coker family made it by for either a short visit for Paul or to stay and swim. The only ones that weren't able to make it were Becca and Rusty, but we knew that before hand.
The Robertson family and Kuhn family also stopped by :) Paul enjoyed himself and his time visiting with everyone.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Repelling

The day after Paul got home we wanted to go repelling. I had told a few of my young women that when my brother got home that we could go. After baptisms for the dead I talked to a few of the young women and told them they had to be at my place at 7.
Tony Robertson came with us to help make sure we were setting up correctly, he is certified. He was such an awesome help! After he set up, he had to head back to work, but the fun had already begun.
Mckenna was the first out of the young women to go down.
 Erica, Sarah, and Emily (left to right)

 Paul attaching everyone to the ropes

 Anthony came with us too.
 Yeah I took the helmet off after the first trip down.
 At the very end James and Paul went up and took all the ropes down and carried down whatever else they needed to. However, on the way down James fell or stumbled and fell on a cactus. There were a ton of small little pricklys in his leg so once they got down we tried to get all the things out but we couldn't reach it through the hole that was in his jeans. Paul pulled out a knife and cut off the lower part of his jeans. Hence the calf picture :)
The only thing that sucked about the whole trip was the hiking back up to go repelling again :)

Welcome Home

Paul is home and he is doing great! Becca and Rusty came over before we left to the airport and we made a few signs. As we were waiting at the airport by his terminal it was right next to the escalator's and we had to go from one side to the next waiting for Paul to come down. Amy had made a sign that said Welcome back to Reality. Her and Erick stood at the bottom waiting, so as people were walking by and reading her sign Becca started laughing because everyone is reading this sign and have no idea who it is for, but I can just say that Vegas is not reality :)
When we finally saw Paul, Becca and I started screaming and yelling and waving our signs. Everyone thought we were crazy, but the smile on Paul's face was the biggest smile I have ever seen!!!









From the airport we went straight to Panda Express. One of Paul's favorite places to eat in the whole world.
After he was released he came to do baptisms for the dead with my Dad, James, and Tony Robertson. Our Youth needed more priesthood and they were all willing to help. I am blessed to have a family with willing Priesthood holders!
As far as Paul's plans, well he wants to find a job and then go to school in a year.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Ummmmm...DUH!

How could I forget to blog about my anniversary :/
Well, lets just say that I am so grateful for the man I married. He is my best friend, my support, my love, and my husband. We have been married for 4 years now and we are stronger than we ever were. Watch out world!!!
Now it would have been great and wonderful if we could have gone to the temple and do sealings, but our temple is closed for cleaning right now. However we were able to go on Wednesday (the night before our anniversary) and clean the temple. I got to clean pictures and windows and James got to clean the stairs. It wasn't exactly doing temple work, but yet it was :) just a different kind of temple work.
For our actual anniversary we went out. Since we have been on pretty much the poor and broke list for awhile though we were very frugal with our money and the things we were to do for our anniversary. We have a great babysitter that loves watching our kids. Elizabeth Lueck, you are a true life saver :)
With only $24 we went and saw Transformers 3, went to lunch at Chili's, and saw a show called Vegas The Show out on the strip. We were gone most of the afternoon and evening. It was great to be with each other and be able to get away from the kids for awhile.
Here is to more years of growth, love, and hopefully children (one day).

Place of Refuge

I love it when my parents are in town! I also love it when I can have one on one time with one of them. Well my Dad is in town right now and has been over the weekend. (Mom and Amy come in today)
Last night while James and Anthony were at Priesthood, Dad and I got talking. I was talking about Young Womens and some of my hopes and fears and frustrations.
Frustrations are I think a part of any calling that you have in the Church or in just anything that we do in life. For me it is a frustration that I can't do more! There is so much that I want to do, to teach and to just be there for "my" young women. But as a calling of a secretary I am not attached to one class, I am given an opportunity to go where I am need when it comes time for class activities, which is beehives right now, and oh how I love the enthusiasm of the beehives. I also have been lucky enough to have a presidency that will allow me to give suggestions and input. But my frustration is still there that I can't do more!
My fears are that I wont be able to help the girls when they need it. That they will feel that they have no where to turn or run to. I believe that every young woman needs someone besides a parent that they can turn to for answers and for comfort.
I have such a hope that I will stay in Young Women's forever!!! I hope that the girls that I am surrounded by will feel comfortable with me. That they will know that I am here for them no matter what!!! I hope they know I will not judge them for mistakes that they have made in the past or mistakes they have made yesterday. I hope that they can find a place of refuge in me, and if not in me than in someone else who they can look up to and strive to be like.
I know I am not perfect, I know I still have much to work on, and that it will be a continual struggle and battle to get to where I am suppose to be, but that is only because I myself am the one fighting the change at times.  
I want so much for my young women. I don't want them to make the same mistakes I did or have the same battles that I did. I want to be invited to many temple sealings because they have continued with faith and are enduring to the end.
I wish that when I was growing up I had a place of refuge. Some one or somewhere that I could have gone to and felt safe and welcomed. I think that it would have helped me not walk down certain roads that I did.
To any young woman out there: Find your place of refuge! In these times it is needed!!!! Find that person or home or temple where you can turn to in times of need. Don't feel ashamed and feel as if you are forgotten. There is at least one person out there that wants you to succeed!!!! and if you include me then there are two. I don't care if I have met you or not. I still want you to succeed. I want you to do all you can to return to our Heavenly Father!!! How great will be our joy when we can sit at our Fathers knee and finally be in our true place of refuge.

Adoption

We have adopted!! Okay, okay, so we haven't done adoption papers and signatures and what not. We have however taken in a young man. You may have read about him briefly in Julies party post or my 4th of July post.
Anyways, it all started when James went out with the missionaries to go visit the Rivero family. He heard some not so good things about Anthony and wanted to do what he could to help out. He offered one day a week for Anthony to come over. It was an opportunity for his mom to do something with the 2 older girls in the family. I don't know if they are doing anything together, but Anthony is over here and away from trouble or his "boring house," as he calls it.
We have been doing this for a couple of months now and he comes over more than just once a week. He has become a part of this family in a way.
Last night he was over and he was finishing up his Duty to God for the deacons and James and I sat down and talked with him. We informed him that we want the best for him! But if he is to get in trouble in any way that when he comes over, he will not be allowed to play the xbox or pool. We told him that those are rewards and if you are not doing things to receive those rewards then you will not get them. He is still welcomed and wanted to come over and we will have other things to do, but those are the things he likes most to do.
He also opened up to us last night, which I feel is a huge step. We told him we loved him and we wanted only the best to happen to him and that we are here for him when ever he needs us.
At the beginning of this new adventure, I was not excited for any of this to happen because, well.....he was a trouble maker and he got in trouble quiet a bit. But thanks to my husband my girls now have an older brother that they love as well. They get so excited when he comes and love to play with him.
So there it is. Our adopted son Anthony. We are glad you are now apart of our family and hope that as you continue to do what is right that you will be able to leave the bad things behind you.