After the Rain.....

Today is June 18th. It has rained every day except for one this month. Being from Arizona, I am a rain lover. However, it is getting to the point that I am longing for some sunshine. Last Sunday, the bishopric counselor who was conducting, and is a farmer, said "Those of you who are still fasting and praying for rain, please meet with the Bishop after the block." Yesterday this beautiful, brilliant double rainbow appeared in the sky. It reminded me that Heavenly Father is still mindful of us and is blessing us every day. SO STOP COMPLAINING!!!

Blessings #20 MACI LYNN

M - Midget. She's my only child still shorter than me. She is taller than Gwen though.
A - Artistic. She loves to draw and color. She could do it all day, and often does. Active. In sports (volleyball) and in church.
C - Counted cross stitches. She has gotten very good and enjoys this hobby. Cookie baker. She makes a plate of cookies for each of her teachers and principals for every holiday and special occasion.
I - Is photogenic - She is her own favorite subject to photograph. She has hundreds of pictures that she has taken of herself.

L - Late sleeper. If someone doesn't wake her up, she'll sleep into the afternoon. And forget about and alarm--she doesn't even hear it! She makes her dad and sister late for school every day.
Y - Yearns for straight teeth. She gladly got braces so she could have a beautiful smile.
N - Never wants to grow up. She cried like a baby at her 8th grade graduation.
N - Neat. She likes to be organized. She usually keeps a pretty clean room. Sometimes she'll even organize my cupboards or the fridge if she's bored.

Maci is the baby of our family. She's a little Diva and loves to be in fashion. She has lots of friends and she does very well in school. She was "Student of the Year" both her 7th and 8th grade years. She loves school and didn't want it to end this year.

Who could sleep through this?

Maci and Linz showing off their braces


She's taller than someone!

Maci and her sunburned friends all dressed up for graduation.

Self portrait

Maci with Phoebe

Famous cookies

Clean room

A Great Weekend

I had such a fun weekend. Lindsay, her friend Julia, and I went to Time Out For Women in Pocatello. It was Friday night and Saturday at Holt Arena. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Friday night and just had some girl time. But the amazing thing was the event in general. They had so many great speakers and such wonderful music by Hillary Weeks and Jenny Jordan Frogley. We all came away feeling great about ourselves and spiritually filled. I even got a picture with Hillary Weeks.

Blessings #19 EMMA-LEIGH

E Excels in volleyball. She's looking forward to her final season as a setter on the Cardinal volleyball team
M Makes friends easily. Has a fun personality that peole gravitate toward.
M Makes her parents proud.
A Always on the go. She is a typical high-schooler who is gone almost every night.

L Loves to play her violin named "Bob".
E Earned her Young Women Recognition Award last month.
I Is a good student--currently 4th in her class.
G GEO- She works with special needs children at Grace Educational Opportunities. Is Great with kids and loves her nieces.
H Has a strong testimony of the gospel and bears it often.
Has a goal of becoming a pharmacist.

Emmi's Junior Volleyball photo

Emmi with her friends on their pre-prom date



Emmi with Bob

Emmi with her five awards from honors night at school

Young Women's Recognition

Emmi with Phoebe

Emmi with Gwen

Woo Hoo for the Moo!

We made a great discovery yesterday at Costco. They have started carrying Morning Moo in buckets! Each bucket contains 52 gallons of milk for only $55! That's about $1.05 a gallon. We have been using this for our milk for close to 15 years. We can't tell the difference between this and regular milk and we don't have to run to the store for milk every few days. We just keep 2 gallons cold in the fridge all the time, mix up a new one when we use one and it works out great. This is the best price on this that I have seen in the whole time we have been using it. There is only one small drawback to Moo. You can't make pudding with it because it doesn't set up. For everything else, it is wonderful. A great food storage item, although I would recommend using it within 2-3 years, which isn't a problem for us since that is all we use. We usually go through about 150-200 pounds a year.

Blessings #18 BRENDAN

B - Bald baby, balding adult. Such a short-lived hair life.
Brazilian missionary - loves his mission and only has 8 months left.

R - Round-headed baby. His head has stretched out a bit as an adult, but what a cute, round-headed baby!

E - Engineer? He's thinking he wants to go into engineering as a career. He loves to take things apart and put them back together, which qualifies him for the work.
Eagle Scout - Brendan is our only Eagle Scout. He worked very hard at getting there and we are very proud of his accomplishment.

N - Nutty Personality. He is so fun to be around. Never a dull moment when he's around.

D - Doer of secret talents. He loves to bake and he used to always color my hair for me and forbade me to tell anyone.
Devious - the picture with the center-cut loaf of bread tells it all.

A - Athletic. He absolutely loved running. He ran cross country and trained for and ran a half-marathon.

N - Needlworker. This was another of his hidden talents. He made some beautiful counted cross stitches but didn't want anyone to know.

Mother's Day Call

You may remember the picture Brendan sent of his Christmas phone call of him sitting on a stool talking on a short phone. Well, for Mother's Day, he found an even better one. It was in a park of some sort and was in a much quieter area so we could both hear much better. He's really doing great. There is only one more phone call from him before he gets home. His release date is January 12. Just 8 more months! How the time has flown!