Erin is 12!

My first thought is wow what a neat girl I have, and gee the second is when did we grow up enough to have a 12 year old!!?? Well for her birthday she was able to visit Disneyland. And we will celebrate her birthday on Sunday when Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Carrie get back from visiting Great G & G Escriva on Sunday. So until then a list of 12 awesome things about Erin:

1. First Born!
2. Born in Texas (only a few are blessed with that honor)
3. Has beautiful blond CURLY hair
4. Eyes that change from blue to hazel (like her aunt)
5. Loves Horses, and any animal really, but horses first
6. Wants to be a Veterinarian
7. Loves to listen to all kinds of music
8. Can sing and plays the piano
9. Enjoys LONG showers
10. Loves all of her family (and we love her too!)
11. Can't wait to be a true TEEN!
12. Loves playing games

She is really excited about turning twelve though for some of its benefits: She now gets to have real babysitting jobs, gets to go to the temple w/ her dad for the 1st time to do baptisms for the dead, gets her own cell phone, can wear SOME makeup, can go to YW's now, and she also got to go to camp. So she is lovin' it! Happy 12th Birthday Sweet Pea!

Yes I am alive

It took a few days to recuperate but it was such a wonderful time, busy and just getting geared up for the rest of the summer! Have fun and thanks everyone who we saw and visited! Miss all of you.

Post #6 Girls camp

Yup Erin and I went to girls camp together which was so much fun. Oh the pranks, the sleepless nights, the wonderful food, the awesome girls, the mountain air, the mud fights, the spiritual devotionals, the crazy camp skits, and even crazier songs, the clean awards, great crafts, fun activities, my daughter getting over her fear of heights somewhat, the belches and excess gas, the new camp name (Roadrunner), the testimony meeting, new friends, old friends reacquainted, Phase 10, cramming 17 girls in a small space, the meds, the warm fuzzies! The memories are wonderful and we only had one ER visit at the end of camp which turned out well after surgery. She is recovering well and grateful for all of her hard work and so glad she made it through the week before it happened. We had a blast! and we are definitely BELIEVERS!! And a special thank you to Anita!

Post #5 St. George, UT

So on our way back from the visit/funeral in Midville, we had another family event to attend. We arrived in St. George to visit my cousins and celebrate the 4th of July with them and bless Karli and Kevin's baby boy. We had a great time visiting. My mom and dad meet us there late Saturday so they went and hung out with Aunt Judy and Uncle Al. We hung out with Kasi and her two kids Dax and Gracie and went to the fireworks there in St. George. After the fire works the kids got to go to the firestaion where Kasi's husband Vince works. He is a fireman and of course the boys LOVED it. But it really paid off on Sunday after the blessing when Vince had to take Matt to the ER. His leg was getting really bad and swelling up. So he was able to get in and out in record time. Tons of Antibiotics and prescriptions. We had dinner at Aunt Judy's after the blessing (which my garden provided the corn on the cob and the watermelon :)) Yeah! So then we left there for another party to celebrate Vince and Dax's birthday's. They had it at a park with a water playground in it. It was a lot of fun. We then went back to the hotel and let the boys go swimming with their cousins till we took off. The boys stayed with my parents because they were staying an extra day and we had to get back because Erin and I were taking off to girls camps and Matt had to go to San Francisco. We got back around 3:30 in the morning. Which leads into the 6th and final post.

Post #4 Utah

After the doctors appointment we were planning to go camping up in Grants Grove, but we found out some sad news from Utah. Matt's grandfather had a serious stroke. So the whole family headed to Midville, Utah. He passed away a few days after the stroke. It was really hard on the whole family. The funeral and viewing were wonderful. I learned so much more about this wonderful man through this experience. I can totally understand living up to a name. The funeral was beautiful and very touching, he served in the Navy and they had a 21 gun salute and a bugle playing taps. It was a great tribute. During that week together we also had a wonderful time getting to know the other relatives and also visiting the Rufs and Meachams. We had the privilege of also attending the Oquirrh (pronounced oker) Temple Open House. My kids loved it! I am so glad they can't wait to go to the temple! We have pictures but they are on Matt's camera. So I will post them as soon as I can get the camera from him. We also visited This is the Place monument, which was fun and interesting. The kids got to ride a really cool train and ride ponies. The only bad thing that happened is that Matt got an skin infection on his leg. We thought it was poison oak at first, but it turned out to be cellulites or something like that because they are not totally sure what it is. Needless to say it is painful and is taking a long time to get over.

Post #3 Drs. Appointments

This was kind of a hard week and a good week for me, the kids had drs. appointments to put them on medicine for ADD. Which was Mike and Erin. They are both doing really good with it. But the hard part came when Danny was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome. It explains a whole gamma a things, and it helps with how much more we need to be aware of him. He is very high functioning and is still social and shows emotions (even though they are not at the right times) but the emotions are real which is good. He still has more testing to go through which will happen at the end of July. We will keep everyone updated!

Post # 2 Day Camp and Turk Station

This week was crazy and fun. The scouts had a great time, and the weather was pretty nice which helped out a lot. So the boys learned so many different things. They absolutely love the nature hike, which included skeletons(hello boys yeah!) I was quite concerned about day camp and volunteered to help out for next year. I can't wait. Erin went to Turk station and got 4th in Archery. I am so proud of her! She had a really good time she said. Erik also went to WEEBLOREE which was so cool for him. He went with the Huffackers (such an awesome family) Love them! Had an absolute blast and we taught them how to geocache! I think they are hooked!

First post of 6

Ok it has been a CRAZY month! SOOOOO much has happened. Well lets start with Fathers Day weekend. I went to Oxnard to visit my friend Tara who flew in from TEXAS, to drop off her nephew Austin. And spent an amazing weekend with her family! We stayed at her friend Ann's house (thank you so much!) (who I definitely want to come decorate my house too!)(and has an awesome family) It was really crowded at her parents place with everyone else there. And then to top it off her parents refrigerator died! But luckily they have several friends in the area so food was spread around till Sunday! I tried to help with her photo shoots (by the way she is an awesome photographer) And then we went to the beach and had some FANTABULOUS food at Andrea's. YUM I am still drooling thinking about it! We then went to a birthday party/welcome home/ father's day party. More good food. We also stopped and got some great roadside farmers market. Yum again! And then I headed home to celebrate fathers day with Matt and the kids. Which I got several phone calls about how great a dad he is from members in the ward. (Already knew that but it was great to hear it from others)

Side note: I had to make a few corrections with some names (thanks Tara) The house we stayed at was Ann's, not Amy's and I guess I was thinking of mexican food because I put Angelina's instead of Andrea's. Any who. It is corrected now and thank you! I am just so glad I didn't have to recite every one's name that I met while I was there. I can remember a few, but it was crazy fun so I forgot who some of them were.