Happy, Happy Birthday!!

I can't believe that another year has already passed and that Kenneth turned 15 this year!! 

He showed great enthusiasm when he found his gifts on the couch. Although the show was for my benefit, I am glad that he showed some excitement!

This is a more genuine smile.

He loves to play with fire, so it was no surprise that he wanted to light his own candles.

My work had a summer party at the local swimming pool the same night as his birthday. He thought it was a great idea to go to the pool and have lots of fun and good food.

Grandma Susan, Grandma and Grandpa J, Melissa and Janey all came and joined in on the fun.

 Janey still has her cast on so Melissa wrapped it in plastic wrap and a garbage bag....but at least that way she could kind of get in the water. 

 We are so very grateful that we have been able to have Kenneth in our family for the last 15 years. He makes life interesting and fun!!!

Love you, Bud! 

2nd Annual Fundraising Yard Sale

We were able to host our 2nd annual fundraising yard sale on Friday and Saturday this past week. This year the proceeds went towards Pam's (Mike's mom) medical bills. She is currently going through chemotherapy for breast cancer.

I was at our house organizing the items to come over and didn't get a "before" shot of everything that was there. The entire yard, side yard and driveway was packed with treasures! 

We had a TON of stuff!!! We have very generous friends and neighbors who donated a lot of items for the sale. THANK YOU!!!

This picture shows what was left over at the end. 

Towards the end of the day we were all pretty tired, but still had enough energy to have a little fun!

Faron found this jacket and was kind enough to model for us......I just keep singing a certain song from Tommy Boy everytime I see this pic :)

Kenneth had his turn with the lovely coat....with Jamie and Emily.

The left over clothing filled the entire back of Mike's truck. The hand you see sticking out belongs to Kenneth. He was buried pretty good.

We had this truck full of shoes and clothing and then another entire truck and trailer full of items that we donated to DI.

This year was another fabulous success.

Thanks to everyone that helped out!!!!

Youth Conference 2012

Are you ready for picture overload? Because there are a ton of pictures in this post. I had a hard time picking just the few that I did.

We had the opportunity to join our Stake at Youth Conference for 3 days at Badger Creek this year.

Our stake leaders did a great job!!

We met at the Stake Center Wednesday morning and each received a colored T-shirt. That color determined which group we would be in. We didn't stay as ward groups, but intermixed with everyone throughout the stake. I got to know several new people over the next couple of days.

The pictures don't necessarily go in any order.....

Kenneth and Jordan waiting for the buses to arrive...

Our ward gathered quickly to get a group shot.

Sunny M, Josh T, Mindy J, Hannah M, Rhyannon T, Abby S, Bekah M, Makayla K, Kole P, Matt F, Mark F, Josh K, Kenneth J (we were missing Trinitie S who didn't want to be in the picture and Emily M who was laying down - she wasn't feeling good :(

 All of the girls from the stake were assigned to sleep in 2 large yurts. There wasn't enough room, so they set up a large tent. All of the girls from our ward and 14th ward picked to sleep in the tent together rather than be in the yurts.

Hannah, Makayla, Bekah, Abby, Trinitie

The boys resting in their tent

Matt, Kole, Josh and Kenneth

One of the first activities our group did was a team building one. It is called the spider web. The group had to work together to get all team members from one side of the rope to the other without touching the rope. The leaders were not allowed to help and the youth couldn't speak to each other. It was a great teaching tool!

This is another team building exercise. Our entire group (I think there were 9 of us) had to swing on a rope over the top of a stick without knocking it down. Then we had to land on this small platform. Our entire team had to be on the platform and not fall off in order to accomplish this exercise. It took a while and a few different strategies. Our group did well in communicating and helping each other out. I didn't know any of the youth in my group, but they were all amazing!! We had a good time together.

Bishop Fielding on top of a power pole. After getting to the top he jumped - kind of like Superman!

  The incline log with Lexi. The purpose was to climb the log and then walk across the other log, then rappel down. She did great! 

Cutler (I think) doing a Karate Kid pose after going up the incline log!

The jungle gym..

 President Bishop working his way along the jungle gym... 

Waiting to ride the horses...

Playing human foosball....

Giant game of twister. Kenneth is the one in the center with the hat on...

I missed seeing him....so I was taking advantage of the short opportunity that we saw each other on Thursday afternoon...

Me and Sunny - the other leader that came from our ward.

She is fantastic!!

There was a dance and karaoke going on, but the girls thought hanging around outside of the tent was more fun.

I found this "throne" and we snapped a fun pic.

Back: Abby, Trin, Makayla

Front: Bekah, Mindy, Rhyannon

 The view of the Tetons right outside of our tents...it is gorgeous! 

The theme for Youth Conference this year was "Livin the Dream" meaning Lehi's dream.

The stake leaders organized a fantastic iron rod activity.

This was the iron rod.

The youth started down a trail and there were a few scriptures for them to stop and read. Then the youth continued down the trail and there was a great and spacious building (a cabin) that had a bunch of people trying to entice them with candy and they had a party going on with music and the game Dance Dance Revolution going on.

After they got past that, they were brought to the iron rod. At this point they were blindfolded and their hand was connected to the rod. They were instructed to not let go. Then they started walking and feeling their way through the trail. 

There were several people along the way that were tempting the youth to let go of the rod. Some of the trickier things they used included....

They would stand in front of the youth and tell them the rod was broken and they were trying to fix it. They told them to just let go and go around them and get back on. As soon as they would let go for an instant, someone would grab them and move them away from the rod. 

OR

One lady was very convincing and she would tell them that they were at the end of the rod and to go ahead and let go....it was a trap!

If one of the youth did happen to let go of the rod, they had someone (bishop, stake leader, etc) right there to talk to them and help them and guide them back to the rod. Then they would continue on their blindfolded journey.

At the very end of the rod they came into an area with this tree....representing the tree of life.

They had a notebook and were able to sit as long as they wanted and write down their thoughts and feelings about the whole experience.

The youth LOVED this activity!!!! Several of them had very moving experiences.

We had a fantastic time and enjoyed the variety of activities - both physical and spiritual.

K-9 Training

Mike and Jenny (his dog) headed out Sunday to Twin Falls for the annual Idaho Police Association K-9 conference. They thought I was a dork because I wanted a picture before he left - but I got the picture! 

 They spent the week with other K-9 handlers from all over the state doing all sorts of training that they don't get to do anywhere else. Last year they got to deploy out of a helicopter! This year they were able to rappel down a cliff with their dogs secured to them. Mike loved it!

Mike just got a GoPro camera that he can mount on his chest and was pretty excited to try it out this week. He has lots of video from their different activities.

At the end of the training week they do a competition called K-9 trials. As a team, Mike and Jenny placed 3rd in drug detection. Way to go!!

The only bad thing about this week is Mike came home sick as a dog and spent a couple of days in bed with a really bad cold/sinus infection.

Janey's Accident

Janey had surgery on her right arm today. She broke both bones in her arm while doing a cartwheel - while on a mat at gymnastics -she wasn't even messing around. How weird is that?

Since she broke both bones, she said her arm was all floppy - GROSS!!

She wasn't feeling the best, but after a bit Kenneth started picking on her and she perked up a lot!

Kenneth picked out this fluffy green pillow for her to help keep her arm elevated.

Summer Picnic

I love working at home! It makes so many more things possible during the summer.

The weather was really good today so we decided to take our lunch to the park.

Apparently, this is Kenneth's serious picture taking face??

I had to snap the pictures I could while he was occupied with other things.

But look at how blue the sky is in the background!

After lunch we just laid on the blanket for a while and chatted.

Kenneth then wanted me to roll him up like a burrito. This is something that we use to do when he was little and he loved it......he still does!

He still cracks me up!

After an hour we headed back home and I was able to get right back to work.

Technology truly is a blessing that allows me to spend more time with my family while still getting my work done!

Last Day of Junior High

Here he comes....

I can't believe that a whole school year has already passed!

He thinks that it was silly I insisted on taking pictures.

Mike thought it was silly too, but they indulged me and posed for a couple of quick shots.

I can't believe how big he is getting.

Just recently, he finally passed me up in the height department. It makes me sad that he is growing so fast, but I am truly proud of the person he is becoming!

I am soooo excited that he is home for the summer!!!!

Can you tell?

He did fantastic this year and I just got his report card and he earned a 3.88 GPA.

We are so proud of him!!

S.O.S. Kits

I can't believe that summer break is here already! Tomorrow is the last day of school for kids in our area. I am excited for the break, but sad at the same time that Kenneth is finishing up his final days of jr high. We have a tradition that we do something fun to celebrate the last day of school. Kenneth gets to pick the activity....I am not sure what that will be yet, I just know it includes going out to eat. I will have to post more details after tomorrow's adventure.

I wanted to do something fun this year for my young women too. After talking with the other leaders we came up with the idea of doing a "Summer of Service". We put together little kits that I will deliver to each young woman tomorrow as soon as school is out.
Thanks to Steph at www.somewhatsimple.com for allowing us to use the cute journal label!
And a big THANKS to my friend, Jessica, for all of her cute ideas!!!

We challenged them to do an act of service every day this summer. There is a journal included for them to record what they are doing each day. The letter explains why the other things were included in the kit. For example...."Remember, it is always KOOL to AID others."  

Plus, we wanted to congratulate them on finishing another year of school!

These were fun and really simple to make.

I love all the fun ideas that I found via Pinterest!

I am so excited to deliver these tomorrow!!

Final Game of the Season

I always find some of the warm up exercises entertaining :)

Kenneth throwing the ball in...

The entire team one final time.

The ride home proved to be umm....interesting.

The start of the ride was great. We were just chatting away and having a good time. Then all of the sudden a smell started to over power me and it was horrendous!

I asked what happened and Kenneth and Josh both denied doing anything. Then I realized they had both taken their shoes off. It was HORRIBLE!!

The next thing I know it was getting stronger and I finally figured out that Josh had put his feet on the console next to me and Kenneth had his feet on my seat near the headrest. They thought it was pretty funny.

I rolled their windows down and locked them. We rode almost the entire way home like this....

After about 45 minutes we were finally approaching our off-ramp. Their coach passed us and got a good laugh after seeing feet hanging out of both sides of the vehicle.

A Picture for the Fridge

I have a little 3 year old friend that lives just down the street who is just as cute as can be! Today at church he brought me a picture that he drew of me....how cute is that?

Thanks to his Mom for helping him make me this card!

I haven't had any special artwork to hang on the fridge for a couple of years, so that is where this is going!

Mother's Day Dinner

We had the opportunity to host Mother's Day dinner at our house this year. My mom, sister, and niece came. My cousin, Jamie, and her family were also able to join us this year. 

We used Grandma Halterman's china this year. I don't use it very often, but I like to on special occasions like this.

Hugh entertained us with funny faces, while Bryce shared dessert with him. I have to mention that Mike made the dessert for tonight. It was a super yummy chocolate cake with a chocolate sauce on it served with vanilla ice cream. Yummy!

Janey entertained Hugh for a long time and chased him around.

Jamie helping Joel get on the rocker, while Melissa slows Janey down from chasing Hugh.

It was fun to spend the afternoon together and catch up with family.