Be the Best of Whatever You Are

This is a picture of a trail that Haley took and I used this picture in my lesson last week and we found this poem that worked great with it. I wanted to share it with everyone. Hopefully you can read it. I love this poem and it reminds us to just be the best we can at the things we do. We don't need to be that pine on the top of the hill, we can be a trail, scrub or a leaf on a tree. That's a good place to start. Enjoy! If you click on the picture you can read it better

Canyon fall pictures and Ibuprohen

We decided to go up the canyon while Mic was home from a break from school in St. George to take some pictures with all the pretty leaves. It was fun but kinda stressful and by the time we got home 3 of us had to take Ibuprofen because we had headaches. As you can see in these pictures Zac would not cooperate very well. There is only a few that turned out with him somewhat smiling normal. The pictures are a little blurry, but we got them done and can choose one for a Christmas post card.

I wanted to get one of the kids with the leaves as the background so they just layed down in front of each other.

We brought a box of leaves and had the kids throw up the box so I could get a picture of leaves falling on them, but it did not turn out. As we were leaving a family of 4 were taking pictures in the same spot but by a tree and one of our kids said "Hey Mom that Dad just shook the tree while they smiled" What a novel idea. Well, I was too tired to try it again, so here is the picture of leaves falling on them.

Ah... Love this picture

Okay so Parker the brave, daring person he is, started walking across this log over the river of rocks about 15 or 20 feet in the air and HE ALMOST FELL. He had to get down on his knees to get back and made it.

Helping Hands

LIMES

The other day I was walking out of macey's grocery store and the lady in front of me had a employee helping her push her cart and the cart hit a bump and a box of about 25 or so limes tipped over and started rolling everywhere. I held on to my cart and started picking up as many as I could with one hand or my cart would hit the same bump. Then as I was picking the limes up I looked around and people were rushing over to help. People walking out of the store and into the store. Mom's with little kids were helping and single people. I just had a really good feeling then and thought that it's nice to have helping hands to be there when we need it. I think that made my day to be a part of those helping hands. It would be nice if everyday was like that, then maybe the world would be a better place.

STRESS

Here is my stress for each day:

Cleaning house, laundry(wait I just washed these towels yesterday), jobs, school, kids, dogs, bills, church, broken things, car problems, homework, getting chores done, needing more hours in a day to get all this done, car pool mom, soccer, scouts, college stuff, grocery shopping, no time to read, or watch TV or relax, school clothes(wait that will have to wait), yard work( when I have time, but I don't so that will have to wait too), trying to stay awake when I have a moment to lay down, having a bedtime at midnight or later most of the time, doctors, dentist, listening to a faucet drip that won't stop, oh and dinner which normally has a saying; left overs, cereal, or haley can you make dinner, and what ever else comes up(which it usually does).

Anyone want to trade a day?

Who said you could......

So I was looking to put a new post on my blog and I came across Haley's pictures and this is what I found. THEY ARE ON THE ROOF!! When did this happen? They could have fallen! Haley, you are in big trouble.

Uhm.... College life... maybe I should be more stressed

Crazy faces, girls, funny hats. Is this college? Actually Mic is doing well and not starving anymore since the Baughs brought him a box of treats I put together for him and his meal plan is working now, so he is doing good. He has been meeting lots of people and met his Bishop today. He LOVES being on his own. He has been gone a week and our piano is getting dusty, and it's quiet. SAD! Haley has been too busy with soccer to play it. I might play it or try to. Anyone is welcome to come over and play for me. I'm missing it.

Starting school and COLLEGE!!!

Mic going off to college!!! This is a day I thought I was prepared for but lost it an hour before he left. This was a day I was supposed to go with my sisters and my mom to party all day cause all of our kids are in school all day. Breakfast, shopping, pool and a treat, but I missed the first one because I wanted to stay until the very last moment to get Mic off. I wanted to spend every last moment with him ( a friend came to our house to pick him up cause she was going to Dixie too in St. George). First he got all packed and ready then I had him sit at the piano and have him play my favorite songs and sing one of the songs. This is when I lost it and I cried through all the songs and just watched him. I was even crying drying my hair thinking about him leaving. He is only going to be about 4 hours away, but it feels like he is going to be millions of miles away. My sister Shelley said this will help tho for when he goes on his mission and it won't be so hard to let him go because I have a taste of it now.

This is a picture of him with all his stuff that we fit in her tiny car. She already had a microwave and another huge box in the back seat so we stuffed and stuffed and got it all in. I am so grateful for her taking him down, it helped alot and he probably had more fun anyway.
I This is a whole new change for us and I was not prepared for how I was feeling. I'm really missing the younger years. And to top it off, his phone is not working down there and I have only talked to him on his friends phone 2 times. He starts school tomorrow and I hope his scholarship money is in. It wasn't when he left. This college stuff is stressful and makes me miss the younger days even more. Treasure those little days, every second, cause they go by fast. I wish there was a way to slow down time. I try not to think about all these changes but they are all around me and I can't stop them. They just keep coming whether I'm ready for them or not. Chocolate helps a little but too many changes will get me fat with eating chocolate with every change. What to do? Just remember to treasure the little days as much as you can cause they go away too fast! Some of the elementary kids going off to school. This is my favorite years that I'm missing of Parker, and Mic. I love this age

This is another growing up part that you just want to hang on to. Jr. High with the 2 Haley's and Parker in 11th grade. I made Mic stand in too cause this is the way we always have taken first day of school pictures. This will be the last picture of Mic on the steps. SAD!!!!! Very SAD!

"His Hands"

As I was planning my Laurel lesson this week which is on service, it talks about Heavenly Fathers tools and the tools he gives us to use, to serve others, and I thought of this song and found a video to go with it. It's amazing! It reminds us how we should use these tools (hands) to lift others up and to be more like Him. Doug Taylor was so nice and put it on a DVD so I could show my class this amazing video. Thanks Doug. Hope you all enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFibyjcyYsE

Too many changes

Do you ever feel like life is going so fast and so many changes are coming that you don't want to deal with anything sometimes. Life is crazy here: Mic going to college at Dixie, and mission coming up, new job for Andy( which could be stressful for our family but we need the job bad), Feeling like YW is so busy and feeling overwhelmed, but I love it and I love all the girls( I just want all the girls to feel loved), friends moving, school starting, and the list goes on. All these changes have made me feel stressed and feeling like I don't want to go on, but I have to, so I force myself to do things. I feel better after I do them, but these feelings are still there and don't seem to go away. I'm always on the verge of crying, but I try to think of good things and have stopped it a few times. I think all these feelings is why I have not blogged in a while. It was nice to sit down today to read everyone's blogs. I have not done that in awhile.

I have been walking/running lately and going on 4 weeks now. The canyon is my favorite and that's where I think alot and I think has helped me with these bad stressed feelings. I hope it does not get cold soon, cause the canyon and running is helping a little. I don't like to run in the cold. I think running, the canyon and reading all your blogs help. I will post some pictures soon if I have some.

This summer has been very boring for our kids. Except for Haley. She has been gone for 3 weeks this summer. Girls camp, EFY, Soccer camp at Dixie, and Student council at Dixie. She paid for all of it herself. She made over $700 this summer and we are so proud of her. Paying for all these things have made it more meaningful for her. We have not done much but go to a movie or two, just working alot and trying to make it. Our California Beach trip(family vacation before Mic leaves to go to school and his mission) got thrown out the window, but there is always next year. Sorry Mic. I think the kids are actually excited about school starting, hey my house will stay cleaner too. I'm excited for school to start and it might make things better. Hope everyone is doing well.

Kinda a little bit NERDY!

This was our Daddy/Daughter Nerd Night at Young Womans. It turned out to be a success. All the dads were troopers and dressed up and did all the activities, mainly eating contest. Hope no one got sick. I better run and hide with posting this picture. All the nerdy girls

All the nerdy Dad's. Great face Mark. Ha Ha!

AMAZING Girls Camp 2009

The whole team with our famous football jersey's on

Girls Camp was amazing this year, as it always is. This is my 3rd year and I want to go until the whole time Haley goes. This is such an amazing spiritual experience. You can just feel the spirit right when you drive into Camp Shalom. This year the weather was a little better and we had a few breaks from the rain. It was cold, but we had fun anyway. Haley and I with her crazy glasses on the last day of camp. Nice hair guys. They all teased their hair for the fashion show.

Haley waking up the girls with the song "Reveille" Some of the girls were laughing and some were not.

All the amazing leaders!

Ah..... me and Haley, sorry it sideways. We brought these PJ's to see the reaction of the girls, but not much of a reaction. They even have those cute little feet in them. Haley loves hers and wears hers when she is cold. I borrowed them from my sister Shari who went to girls camp the week after us.

VOTE FOR MIC EVERY DAY!!!!

Here is a website where you can go onto to listen to Mic's song and vote for it so he can win and earn money. He is in 5th place right now and needs your vote every day. He has 58 votes and the first person has 307 votes. Push him up to first. He would love that. You just have to log in, then go to showcase and find Mic and vote. Start voting every day through the whole month of June, but you need to vote every day to push him up.

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I feel old today

MIC"S GRADUATION DAY Mic had an awesome day today. He had a smile on his face the whole day. I do feel old today because I can remember my graduation day and that seems so far away and to have our son graduated from High School just made me feel old. In this pictures below he got to sit on the stand because he tried out to speak at graduation. He came so close and his tryout speech was awesome! He is sitting on the second row from back 7 over from the right. He is sitting between 2 girls and has silver cords on. He got the silver cords because he got the award for being in the top 10 % of his class in GPA.

This is Mic again on the left. The guy on the right is a speaker, so when they showed the speaker on the big screen Mic was in the background. They turned off the lights during the remaining program so you could not see Mic anymore when speakers spoke, but it was cool to see him on the big screen for a little bit.

Mic opening his gifts and he got money and was so excited!

Mic's piano cake that was fun to make.

90 rolls in one night!

You know how you spend hours making a meal and it's gone in like a half hour. I normally don't do that, but Sunday I thought I would try it, so I put a roast in the crock pot with peeled and cut carrots and potatoes and onions and seasonings and cooked it all day.. okay that part did not take me hours, maybe 1.

Then I had this idea to make rolls from scratch, my moms rolls. They are so good and I knew my kids and Andy would love me. I made the whole recipe which makes about 90 rolls, thinking we would have left overs or some to share. I made the dough and let it rise for 2 hours then punched it down right before church and rolled them out, cut them and placed them on the pan to rise for 2 more hours, but I knew it would be 4 hours before we got home so I hoped they would not rise too much.

We got home and they were perfect, then I baked them and brushed them with butter. Is your mouth watering right now? Can you smell them? Oh, they were good and all gone an hour after dinner. I kept looking at the pan and more would disappear, then they were gone. I did not even get one to save for a snack later. WE ATE 90 ROLLS!!!!! Holy cow! That's like a dozen each. Well, I did not eat a dozen, maybe 6 of them. Sorry, I was going to share but they were gone like that and I forgot to take a picture of them.

It might be awhile before I make them again cause they take a lot of time, so my family will have to wait. I might make bread sticks out of them for the Young at Heart tho.

MVHS STATE CHAMPS!! YEAH!

click on this to see Parker and to watch the video of their win: http://videos.heraldextra.com/p/video?id=4228448

Here is Parker and the trophy. This was a huge win for Mountain View soccer and their first state title ever! Parker feels great to be a part of that. This game was up at the Rio Tinto Stadium last night and they WON! 3 to 1. Parker and his Coach

After the win

Parker and the ball

Starting of the game line up

Mic's scholarship to Dixie

Mic received the Dixie Dean scholarship to Dixie college that he is going to for a semester in August before his mission. YEAH! He also got the 10 ten award from Timpanogos. He also got honorary ropes to wear at graduation on his robe. We are very proud of him

Mic's HUGE award and VOTE for Mic!

Mic received the John Philip Sousa award in band. His name is going to be engraved on a plaque in the band room at Timpanogos for all to see. This award was given to Mic for his dedication and performance in band. This is a huge award and we are so proud of him. Great job Mic. He even got his very own first little trophy for band and of course my favorite candy bar!

This is really cool! Vote for Mic's song. He has about 60 votes so far but he needs to catch up to an Osmond who has over 1600 votes. Vote every day. Mic is the one with the the 2 little boys in overalls. That's when they were little. He is about #15 down.

Hey, this is Mic!
Remember that music showcase contest I was in?
Well its starting again for the summer showcase! Please vote for my song every day so I can get money for college!
Here's how it works:
1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://music.mormontimes.com/index.php?ref=mtHomeAD
2. Then in the upper right-hand corner click: Sign up here!

3. Quickly enter in some info.

4. Now click on the SHOWCASE tab at the top and scroll down to find my name. Click it and listen to my song and vote! Vote EVERYDAY and TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!! Thanks

Mic's Seminary Graduation and Twin Sisters

Congratualations Mic!!!! Mic did a great job giving a wonderful talk and doing a musical with his friend. I can't believe he is graduating and going off to College and then a mission in 8 months. Mic was just this little guy (2) running around saying "I do, I do". That's was basically his first words and now he is all grown up. I am sad, but I am happy at the same time. I'm excited to see how he does on his own. Okay someone else has to learn to play the piano or I'm seriously going to go crazy without it! Haley is learning, but hurry up. Ha Ha!

This is my Mom Alice and Alice Ann Young. I have always thought they look alike and they have the same name. I had to get a picture. I asked Alice Ann to come and meet her twin sister.

Prom # 2 if you can see it

Here is Mic's last prom. The pictures are very small which I got off facebook. I'm waiting for a CD. Mic had a blast and they had a lot of fun. It was hard having 2 proms in one night at 2 different schools. I wanted to go to both of their houses to get pictures but they were doing them at the same time. Parker was ready and Mic's group was still going around picking up their dates, so I went to Rachel's(Parker's date) house and got pictures and I ended up not getting to Mic's to get pictures, but they are making a CD. Here are the pictures. Hope you can see them.

A GIGANTIC Mother's Day card

I love cards on Mother's Day! They are the best gifts and my kids all made me cards. Parker and Haley had a contest to see who could make me cry the most. First I read Parker's which is this one, the gigantic one(The frame by it is a 8 x 10, so you can see how big it is). His made me cry and so Haley said I am going to make Mom cry more. I was crying at all their cards. The things they wrote were from the heart. I loved it and I felt loved. This is what Parker wrote in his if you can read it. If you click on the picture you can read it better.

This is Haley's card to me.

This is Zac's card that he made at school

And this is Reilly's card he made at school. Mic's gift is not ready yet, but he has spent 3 hours on it and he also cleaned all the windows inside our house on Sat. I have wonderful kids. And I feel loved. I even got Mother of the Year award from my Mom and sisters. They gave me a big pot of pretty white flowers. Now that made me cry too. Happy Mothers Day everyone!

Hope of America for the 4th time!!!

I totally love this program. We have gone to it 4 times now with our kids and we have one more to go. Those are kids in the flag with red, white and blue shirts on. It's so cool Reilly and his cousin Madi who were both in the program

The gang

Reilly's birthday was the same night so we made a big sign to hold up and Reilly saw it from the floor. We were sitting way up high. I told Reilly to look for the big green sign, that way he would be able to see where we were sitting. It worked.

Smile Reilly!

Mic's Court of Honor

Congratulations Mic! We had over 90 people to come and see Mic's Court of Honor. Wow! We almost did not have enough chairs and cake. Thank you all for coming, that meant alot to Mic. Thank you for supporting him in his project and being there for him. Now we get to work on Parker. I think Mom and Dad's should have their Eagles too with all the work that goes into it. Where is my award???? Oh wait..... it's Mic and how proud of him I am. It feels so awesome to have an Eagle Scout for a son. Great job Mic! The family of the Eagle Scout.

Mic putting the Dad pin on his Dad. The Mom picture did not turn out so good.

Mic really felt that he wanted to give the mentor pin to Jeremy West. Mic really looked up to him and had some great times in scouts with him. Reilly is now in 11 year old scouts and we wish that the West were no moving. You guys are great with scouts

Mic and his Eagle we got him.

Mic and his table of all his scout accomplishments.