Five Crowns

First Day of School! First Day of School!

2010-09-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Leah Lou Lovely on her first day of school

Walking to her first day of class


Mommy's big mistake. How dumb can I be?! I took Leah to the wrong classroom, sent her to put her backpack away, even took this great picture, only to realize after she had sat down with the rest of the class that she was in the wrong room. Duh! I grabbed my embarrassed daughter and we started over. I am just not a good mom sometimes.


Troy Boy, patiently waiting for Mom to come back


Millie, chillin'

Back to School!

2010-09-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

It is now an official tradition. Having this cake, I mean. I know this because Sam came to me and told me that the best day to have this cake would be on Sunday night, the day before school started. It was an expectation, something that he just knew would happen. So, here it is. I complied. They love this cake that marks the beginning of another school year. And this year is special because Leah gets to start kindergarten. They were all so excited they devoured their cake and quickly went to bed. Here's to another school year. Bring it on!

Happy Birthday!

2010-09-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Michelle's Cake. This just reminded me of her.

Troy wanted a race car cake. This is actually made of rice crispy treat and has a chocolate marshmallow frosting in the middle. Thanks Martha Stewart.


Shaunie's cake. This is an ice cream cake with a brownie layer. Yum. Good choice, Shaunie!

I can add these to my long line of fun birthday cakes. The kids picked theirs, and I picked Michelle's. These are the August birthdays that we celebrated on our Sunday dinner with the Mangum clan. On the actual birthdays we have taken the family out to a restaurant that the birthday kid chooses. For Shaunie, we went to Souper Salad. It was fun. Troy chose 'the grape store' or Olive Garden. It has been fun to spend the time as a family and not have the focus be on presents and parties. That just gets old to me after a while. I hope that each child has felt special and knows that they are a very important member of our family. That's what I think that birthdays are for.

Cake Top

2010-09-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

While my mom and I were looking for some meat for Brazilian Rice and Beans, we found this. It is the cake top to my wedding cake. It even had the real flowers still. I originally thought this had been thrown away long ago, but here it is. And, no, we didn't eat it. Yuck.

Jordanelle

2010-09-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

Marcus and Troy eating lunch

Millie, enjoying the cousins and food

Stud Man Jeremy

The Calm Before the Storm

The day started off innocently enough...then all Hell broke loose. Okay, so it wasn't a hurricane or anything, but it was quite the adventure. My dad rented a boat up at Jordanelle Reservoir for the day. We were going to have it all day. We were going to be able to ride in and be pulled by it all day. We were going to have lunch, dinner, and snacks by the water all day. That was the plan. And that is what was happening. The kids were enjoying the water and mud at the water's edge and the adults and older kids were enjoying taking turns riding in, or being pulled by, the boat. It was nice and hot, with a little breeze. We started getting lunch ready: hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, soda and lots of other stuff. The kids had just eaten and some were waiting for Dad to return from his latest ride. We had seen the low, dark, billowing, clouds just to the south of us, but we waved them off and told ourselves that 'the clouds travel west, not north,' and that 'those clouds won't be here for a while, they're too far away'. But our words had no power. The clouds did come. And suddenly. At first it was just a strong, cold wind that blew. We scampered around, at first trying to just gather in the food and paper products so they wouldn't blow away and litter the ground. Then, we all realized that the wind was only the beginning, and without saying anything our defensive action changed from gathering to saving. This wasn't going away, or even letting up a little. The wind increased in speed and chill and with it came stinging rain. We starting piling the kids into any open vehicle. Minivans and SUV's quickly filled with frightened children. Mom's ran around gathering what was left of the folding chairs, food, coolers and blankets and stuffed them into any space not filled with a child. Sam, crying, and barefoot, stole down to the dock to beg Jeremy to come away from the waves rocking the out-of-control boat. Jeremy left the boat, not able to resist Sam's plea's, and my dad, without a life jacket, steered the boat away from the dock and over to the marina. When I finally climbed into the van I tried to calm the children's cries. I said a prayer, yelling over the storm outside and asked Heavenly Father to bring peace and quite to the weather and our hearts and to protect my dad as he battled the waves. I then put on a movie to distract the scared and emotional kids from the storm. Within moments the rain stopped and the wind calmed. Everything was ok. We were a little wind-worn and the kids were a little tear-stained, but we were all safe.

Very Scared.

This is Heidi's truck. Notice how windy and dark it is.

There are two motorcycles in this picture. The wind blew the yellow one over.

Me, with the Movie going.

Leah and Vanessa reacting to the storm.

Thanks to Lucas for getting these pictures. He had my camera during the whole drama and we got these great pictures.

The Budding Photographer (s)

2010-09-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Troy, taking his own picture.

The Mom

The Millster Meister

The Dad

Obviously, Troy's favorite model

These shots were taken by Troy. After the three older kids spent 10 days with Grandma and Grandpa in Utah, it was time to pick them up. We left on a Saturday night with only Millie and Troy in tow, and headed to St. George. We found a place to eat after our well-intentioned host, Sterling Coons, burnt our dinner. It wasn't actually his fault. The problem was that when you mix fire with lots of old grease, whatever gets close to that is not going to come out edible. So, we set out to find some food. We found The Pizza Factory and while waiting for our food Troy decided to get creative with the camera. Here are the results. You can tell who he likes the best out of our group, and she was a beautiful model. :-)

Funny Faces and a Domino Church

2010-06-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Troy and Leah have been ummm....borrowing the camera. Here are some of their pictures. These two have proven to be very good friends. They get along best when the others are gone and they can play anything from Barbies, to preschool, and house to Legos. They are fun to watch and listen to. I will be sad when Leah goes to school and leaves Troy alone at home. I guess I shouldn't be too sad because that situation will lend itself Troy and Millie playing together more. I guess it's more of one stage passing on to another. Is it sad to mourn the passing of a stage? They seem to come and go so fast that just when you get used to one, another comes and takes it's place. I guess these can be considered part of the Joys of Motherhood.

I wanted to showcase one of our latest creations. Can you guess what it is? Jeremy made it with the kids. Hint: Yes, that's a pulpit and those are choir seats.

Seven Sam

2010-06-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

My little Sam turned 7 this last week. For some reason that seemed really old to me. People tell me all the time to enjoy the time while they are young, and now I think I'm beginning to understand why. Sam just needs to stay about 5 and that would work for me. I guess, though, that I'll just add this on to the list of things I can't control while I try to soak up every moment of him being 7.

Sam requested cupcakes for his class on his birthday. I prefer not to buy cupcakes because, well, they are just too pricey to me, they taste gross, and nobody really eats them anyway. But since he insisted, I decided to steal an idea from my very creative sister-in-law. She made an alligator cake out of cupcakes. I looked online to make sure I got the details right and I went to work. Here is how it turned out. Sam was very excited to see me show up not just with cupcakes, but with ALLIGATOR cupcakes. I felt like a good mom. We handed them out as the kids lined up to go home (Sam almost went with them until I reminded him that he was coming with me) and Sam was practically walking on air.

Later in the week we had a family birthday party for Sam at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I made his "real" cake, we sang Happy Birthday and he opened presents. I think he had a great birthday.

He requested a Batman cake. This is an ice cream cake with Oreo crumbs for decoration. It is made out of ice cream sandwiches and was SO easy. Her is a link to the recipe.

Sam had wanted these for a while.

Couldn't resist putting this in. Troy, Ammon and Carson are so cute as they try to figure out the game.

We also got him this book about ocean animals. It has fun 3D puzzles and lots of fun information. Perfect for Sam.

This is another one I couldn't resist putting in. Sam and his cousin Ani have a lot in common. Here they are putting together the 3D puzzle of an octopus.

Leah--the Graduate

2010-06-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

I'm a few weeks late on this update, but at least it's getting out there. Leah graduated from preschool and is now officially ready to enter Kindergarten. She had a great graduation ceremony that showed off all she has learned this last year. They sang songs, spouted off nursery rhymes, and showed off their alphabet and number recognition skills. It was awesome! She has really loved her teachers and I have appreciated the love they showed her. Here are some pics of the event.

Leah's class. You can see Leah's white cap in the middle of the back row.

The graduation procession. My beautiful Leah-Loo after she received her "degree".

Leah with her very loving teacher, Mrs. York.

The children's creations were on display around the room. Here is Leah's handiwork. This poster is now on display at our house.

Pictures

2010-05-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

We got our pictures done by a very talented friend of Celeste. Her name is Lindsey Shaun and she handled the big group very well. Go to her blog and look at more if you want. Lindsey's Blog

Haws Happenings

2010-05-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

My beautiful Shaunie and baby sister. Kelli is going to Chicago, Illinois Spanish speaking mission.

My sister Celeste blessed her little girl, Halle. She is a beautiful baby and it was so fun to be there
.

There is NOTHING better than playing at grandma and grandpa's house. The tire swing, play ground and motor cycle rides really made it memorable.

We also went to Pirate Island. It is a great big place like a pirate themed Chuck E. Cheese.

For Family Home Evening we went Bowling. We took three lanes and played as hard as we could. I think the kids beat most of the adults. It was a very entertaining night.

Tea Time!

2010-05-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

We went up to Utah this weekend to see my sisters from Maine and Virginia, and to see the rest of my family. We kicked off the fun with a girls-only tea party put on by my amazing sister Heidi. It was in her back yard and she made it look perfect. There were even little fairies hanging from the trees to join in the fun. We all dressed up and munched on cookies, veggies, and cakes. We loved the tea party and look forward to more in the future. Thanks Heidi for all your hard work!

Mother's Day

2010-05-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day. Here are some of the things I got from my amazing children. Leah made me my own handmade corsage. I wore it to church on Sunday and got lots of complements. Shaunie made me a pop-up card with a very sentimental message. I really loved it. Sam spent all of the Saturday morning before Mother's Day making this very handy guitar. He hid it from me until Sunday morning. He was very proud and I was very grateful for such an awesome gift. I don't have it pictured here, but Jeremy gave me a new beach cruiser bike. I am excited to take it for a spin.

On the week after Mother's Day the school had Mom's and Muffins. We got our pictures taken. I show this picture with the hope that you will ignore my quick morning do and tired eyes. I love my children and enjoy being their mom. They are the best gift I could receive.

Class of "o" 10.

2010-05-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, after everything, Jeremy finally graduated! I say, 'after everything' because it seems like this road has just been too long. I guess it hasn't been too long, but just right. He got it all done and now we are through with school for a long time. On May 8th Jeremy graduated with his Masters degree in Health Physics. It was a long time coming, but having five kids, a full-time job, demanding church callings, and a full-time very ornery wife doesn't help things happen very fast. He did it. I am so relieved, happy, proud, amazed and excited. Here are some pics of the event.

After he walked, Jeremy slipped out of the graduation before the other lower class-men got their degrees. We met at our home for a light dinner with family and a few friends. Thanks to everyone for supporting my husband and family.

The Love of My Life...

2010-05-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm a little hesitant to put too much here. Not that I don't love my husband or that I am not proud of him, but I am uncomfortable bragging about such things. I guess I am writing not to brag or bring attention to myself or family, but because it affects my day-to-day life. On the Sunday when my sister and her husband where here Jeremy was made a High Priest and was set apart as a High Councilman for our Stake. If you don't know, this is a huge honor in our church. It is also a sacred responsibility. I am humbled to know that he is able to serve and carry these responsibilities humbly, honorably, and worthily. I definitely married up. He is a wonderful husband and I am grateful for him.

Ethel M non-factory, Tra der Hoes, and the Rainforest Cafe

2010-05-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

My little sister Emily and her husband Ben (also known as Be'Em) came to spend some time with us. It was so much fun to hang out with them. They are great with the kids and I just love having my sister around. Her husband is awesome, too! We spent a busy day going to the Ethel M chocolate factory, which by the way NEVER has people working. I've been there at every time of day on every day of the week and it always seems that they either aren't working or they just finished up. I'm beginning to think they don't really do anything there! BUT I digress...After the Chocolate Factory that isn't, we went to Trader Joes, or said with Spanish phonetics is Tra der Hoes. We add the Spanish phonetics because Emily spoke Spanish on her mission and that is when she discovered this wonderful store. She pranced around the store picking up nostalgic foods and recounting to her loving husband (and sister) all the great little stories and memories that she found at Trader Hoes. I must say, the foods were delicious and fun. I can't remember the name of it, but one was a little ball of ice cream covered in a thick wrap of rice gelatin...yumm! We followed Trader Hoes up with an always exciting visit to Mc D's as per Leah's request. That night we took all the kids and visited Rainforest Cafe in the MGM. That is where all these pictures were taken. It was fun, a little too expensive and perfect for ending our adventurous day. Thanks to Be'Em for visiting us. We love you!

Impromptu BBQ

2010-05-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Getting together with friends is always fun, especially if you don't have to worry about the details. We had an impromptu BBQ and marshmallow roast with some friends from our ward. The kids played and the adults talked. Overall, it was great. Thanks to our friends who came and were willing to join us. We should do this more often.

Staying Busy

2010-05-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

Troy is helping me out here. He pulls a chair up to the sink, asks for someone to start the water, grabs the sponge, and starts scrubbing.

Lil' bit o' bed head.

Stealing the camera for some glamor shots is always fun. Too bad you can't see what she's wearing, (or NOT wearing)!

Pay Caws!

2010-04-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

5:30 am Troy peaks his cute little face through the crack in our bedroom door. I heard him before he got there so I knew he was coming. He laid in bed with us for a little while and we hoped he would fall asleep again.
5:42 am Troy hands me his bear and Sam's "Foxy", I don't know why he has this, and tells me he has to get up.
5:45 am Jeremy tries to get rid of Troy by telling him to take is bucket of cars out into the loft.
Well, the cars only made it out of the bucket and onto our bed. He brought me a car and told me to play. We played.
5:51 am I suggested to Troy that Dad might want to play cars.

Here is the result...

Um...that's combines with the stress on the first syllable...like COM bine.

2010-04-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

This is a great picture. It reminds me of my dad...AND my mom. I'll explain. My dad grew up in a very rural eastern Washington. I was born there and have a few patchy pictures in my head of living there. Most of my only real memories of the place are from the yearly vacations we took to visit family. I remember it being empty, peaceful and quite beautiful. We would drive down the road and see miles of fields. Each one growing something different. My dad would name each crop as we drove by, "asparagus... corn... alfalfa... potatoes...". I loved watching the rows as we drove. If you looked straight at them they would all line up for a millisecond and you could see down one row forever. My favorite thing was getting sprayed by the huge sprinklers on the end of a water line as you sped by in your car. I still like that by the way, it just never happens that much any more. Anyway, I remember seeing my dad on big, huge, strange-looking machines that were neither truck nor robot. I knew they had a purpose because I would see them in the fields going up and down, making trails in the crop. I heard the word combine all the time and didn't really understand. I don't know if he ever drove this kind of machine but when I found this paper on the counter this morning I had a flashback. I remembered my dad coming home from work all dirty and sweaty. I remembered him calling out the names of the crops in the fields, and I remembered getting my car drenched by a huge over-sized sprinkler spraying the road.

It was when I asked Sam why he brought this picture home that I was snapped in to another picture. More recent and less romantic. Sam told me that he got this picture from his teacher who used it to illustrate what a "context clue" is in reading. Sam pointed to the small explanations of each part of the combine, "These help you understand what this is, like context clues help you understand in reading." I smiled. My mom would be so proud. My mom was a first-grade teacher for much of the time I grew up. Four of my sisters had her as their teacher so she taught them how to read. She would come home from work talking about thematic thinking and how today was cloud day. She would read Huckleberry Finn to us on our way to Washington long before cars ever had DVD's or even videos. She talked of Reading Recovery and could sing a children's song about any subject (and believe me, we tried to stump her). So Sam didn't get why I enjoyed it so much. He acted confused and wanted to just throw the paper away. I picked it up and I in a funny little way, like so many times in life when you just don't expect it, was reminded of who I was and where I came from. And I was proud.

Dress Up

2010-04-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

It has been a tradition in my family to get Easter clothes. Here are the kids all dolled up. By the way, don't tell Sam I called him 'dolled'. I might get in trouble.

1st Try. Leah is mad. Millie's not looking.

2nd try. Leah is still miffed, but everyone else is cute!

3rd try. Leah is crying but everyone else is darling! Notice how Troy copies Sam.

When the cousins come to visit and the mom's go out shopping the end result is....
Presents! We got matchy matchy stuff just to have fun. It started with Leah and Vanessa's yellow dresses and ended with brown flip-flops for Troy and Marcus. SO MUCH FUN!

Easter Conference

2010-04-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy conference weekend. I love the laid-back atmosphere, the family, conference cake, fold yer laundry while ya listen, feeling of it all. In this case, it was actually more of a 'organize your desk while ya listen' feeling but ya know what I mean. To make it all that much better, we got to combine Easter with conference weekend this year. We colored Easter eggs while the men went to the Priesthood session and had an egg hunt between sessions on Sunday. We ate conference cake and cinnamon rolls in the morning and had an Easter ham with all potatoes and homemade rolls in the evening. It was perfect and everything went off without a problem. Thank you to the Petty's for adding so much to our celebrations. It was complete with you.

The find.

The search.

Shaunie did Aunt Shannon's hair during conference. Quite the budding stylist.

Shannon did Jesse's hair during conference. Cute.

I tried something a little different for Easter. Instead of just candy, I put pieces of a puzzle in the eggs. The kids combined their pieces and then Sam and Ani put the puzzle together. It was a fun thing to do that didn't focus solely on candy. I think that for next year I will try to get a puzzle that is a little more centered on Christ. This idea's a keeper.

Easter 2010

2010-04-12T16:57:00.001-07:00

Happy Hunters in Front: Ammon, Sam, Troy, and Millie
Back: Ani, Auri, Shaunie and Leah

Troy and Millie.

Another shot, just cause they're cute.

Millie's first Easter Egg

Millie Faye. Just cause she darn cute!

2010-04-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Sam the Happy Toothless Egg-Hunter

Sam, Shaunie, and Auri...on your marks...get set...

Leah and Ani oh so dainty and cute.

Troy and Ammon. They don't really know what's going on...yet.

Decorating Easter eggs. Lots of colors, fun and smiles.

Soccer Fun (or not so fun?)!

2009-11-12T20:00:00.000-08:00

Shaunie and Leah have done pretty well with soccer. They have days when they love it and days when they'd much rather do anything else. Here are a few pictures of them out at the city soccer fields.

Shaunie was part of the Goal Getters and Leah was a member of the Fireballs.

We've been able to make some new friends, between their coaches and the kids on the teams.

Carson, Ammon, and Troy watching the games. Troy is the girls' biggest fan and can't help but cheer for his sisters.

Baptism Day

2009-09-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

". . . show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism."
Alma 7:15 (Book of Mormon)

Saturday, Sept 5th, Shaunie was baptized and confirmed at our stake center. Some of my family were able to make it and some of Rachel's family also came from Utah to help celebrate this special day. It was a good experience for both of us. When I was in high school I had the chance to baptize my little sister, Kristin. I had other baptism experiences throughout my mission, but where baptism fits in to the great plan of happiness really hit me when I had the opportunity to baptize my own daughter. It puts into perspective a more complete understanding of eternal families, and the steps we take so we can be together forever.
Shaunie was excited and she looked beautiful.

Here are a few pictures from Saturday's baptism. . .

Shaunie with some cousins (from L to R)
Auri, Elise, Shaunie, Emma, Min

Some of Rachel's family that could make it

Some of my family that could make it.

Welcome Baby Millie

2009-09-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

The long awaited day has arrived! On Sept 1st, Heavenly Father blessed us with a new baby girl. Millie Faye came into this world very healthy, weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 19" long, our heaviest baby.

Dr. Juarez delivered her C-section, and all went extremely well. I got to do the honors of cutting the umbilical cord. The nurses were amazing and treated her so well. This is Cathy RN making sure I did everything right. She has 9 kids of her own. WOW!

Here she is on the scale, fresh out of the oven, and baked to perfection.
(sorry it's rotated)

After a quick Conference address on modesty, we got her dressed and bundled up. Once she fell asleep, we unwrapped her to get a pretty picture of this amazing little girl. Is she cute or what?!

It was fun to see how many people congratulated us on having a baby, and offered advice or help, thinking it was our first. When they found out that Millie is our 5th, they quickly agreed we didn't need much help. This is a great picture of us and probably the only one you'll ever see of Rachel in her hospital bed.

We want to thank everyone who helped us out in all aspects, especially my parents and Rachel's parents who stayed with the kids overnight and all day long so I could be with Rachel and Millie in the hospital the entire time. We love you guys. We have strong testimonies of the importance of the Gospel and are grateful that families can be together forever.

Here are some random pictures taken at the hospital.

Samuel, Millie, and Leah

Aunt Jody, Millie, Maddie (Jody's), and Me

Shaunie, Millie, and Troy giving kisses

Baby Millie relaxing after a hard day

Planning ahead

2009-08-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

Now that school has started, and Shaunie's birthday is over, we have a few more things to plan for. The most important at this moment is the new baby, tomorrow. Rachel finished all of her pre-registration today and the Dr. says everything looks really well. Rachel asked him how big he thought our new little girl will weigh. He replied by saying about 7 lbs, but not more then 8. He also emphasized to Rachel, with a smile, that he has never been off by more than 5 lbs. He is a great guy and we are truly blessed to have him has Rachel's physician.
Once baby Millie has come to earth, it'll be time to prepare for Shaunie's baptism and confirmation. She is a little nervous, but she passed the bishop's interview with flying colors. Immediately following the baptism, we will have Millie's baby blessing, and then off to lunch. Once that busy weekend is complete we look forward to Shaunie and leah's first soccer game of the season, and Rachel's birthday, then Leah starts pre-school, then Samuel starts karate. Originally he was going to play soccer with Shaunie and Leah, but he changed his mind and said he needs to do karate first.
So, the next 3 weeks will be full of many FIRSTS in our family. What a blessing to live where we live with the family we have. Life is great, busy, but great!

Happy 8th Birthday, Shaunie!

2009-08-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow! who said Shaunie could grow up so fast?

At our "Family dinner" last night we also celebrated Shaunie's Birthday. As always, the kids get to pick out the style of cake they want and Rachel creatively makes it for them. Shaunie searched the internet for ideas and came to her mom with the idea of a "Book of Mormon" cake. This is kind of appropriate since we have been talking a lot about baptism with her. She reads it periodically and we like to sing Samuel's favorite song, "Book of Mormon Stories" at night.

Aunt Michelle also had a birthday this month, so she chose the kind of cake it would be. Anyone know Michelle's favorite? Well, she chose Rainbow Chip. We ended up putting the 2 cakes together with Michelle's rainbow chip cake acting as the support base for the Book Of Mormon cake. Grandma Mangum added a little chocolate chip ice cream to seal the deal. Thanks Mom!

Back to school

2009-08-31T11:15:00.000-07:00

No first day of school would be complete in our house without a little celebration. Rachel made this cake last year and decided to make it again, because it was such a hit. After talking about school and the importance of it with the kids, we broke out the "cake", actually made of brownies and frosting, and enjoyed a small piece. Needless to say that when I got home from work the next day, there wasn't anything left. Oh well!

Troy Turns Two

2009-08-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

We had a small, simple birthday party for Troy Boy on the 7th. He turned 2. I can't believe he is getting so big. He is so much fun right now. His vocabulary is growing every day and he loves to tell us all what to do. His favorite words include:

MINE!

ME!
Ni-Nite
baby (that's what he calls his ratty bear blanket now)
nums (that's any type of food he wants)
bobbie (any drink or cup)
B-ball
WHOA! (to anything awe-inspiring)
das' cue (he calls everything cute)
why? (I don't think he knows what this means)
NO!
EEWWW! (Sam taught him this and he uses it freely)

He still loves to throw his balls around, crash his cars into each other and pretend he is a doggy. He has even started to play little make-believe games with Leah. He'll make me food from the play kitchen and pretend to take care of his "baby". He is so much fun to play with and talk to. Of course, he is two and he loves to throw his fits and draw all over himself, but his age also preserves my right to give him tons of hugs, cuddles, and kisses and smile at his contagious laughter. He is my little Troyboy and we love him so much. Happy Birthday Troy!

Troy's all-cousin party was a swim party. Troy's little pool is in the background above. Here is Troy telling us 'I code"

Troy and cousin buddy Carson enjoying the birthday cake and ice cream.

Sam ummm....helped Troy open his presents. Sam understood what was going on much better so his excitement was a little ummm... less-controllable than Troys. This is a fun book he got from Grandma Mangum.

I usually try to make the cakes according to what the kids are in to at that time. It's sorta a way of capturing that age (and then devouring it, I guess). If you have been around Troy you know that he LOVES dogs and baseball. Since his dog cake turned out a little small, I decided to add a few baseball cupcakes to make sure we had enough.Here is a picture of both. I was just happy that he recognized what they were and enjoyed eating them.

4th of July

2009-08-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July is a fun time to celebrate the independence of this great country where we live. To start with, we'd like to thank all those who have served or are serving in the armed forces to protect this great nation and allow us the freedoms God has given us. We were able to celebrate the holiday with some friends in the front yard of our house. It was relatively quiet, and when all was said and done, we didn't have to fight through traffic to get home. You may think that we didn't get to see any of the real "cool" fireworks, but alas we live in an area where illegal fireworks could be seen and heard all around us. Yes, we missed the shows synchronized to music, but we saw lots of neat displays.

Here is Sam watching a fountain firework

Some neighborhood friends eating and watching. I don't have a clue what Shaunie is doing; Crazy cuke!

Troy and his friend couldn't help but enjoy the sweet watermelon that is a necessity for any 4th of July celebration. It was straight to the bathtub for him.

Shaunie . . . Reading Time

2009-08-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

Shaunie has always enjoyed reading. She has an amazing talent for picking out words, even difficult ones, and learning their pronunciation rather quickly. Many times we will find her reading to her brothers and sisters, like in this picture. Her favorites to read to someone else include Dr. Seuss books and Junie B. Jones. For a while I thought she was going to jump on the Twilight bandwagon; she started reading it, but has since moved on.

Jordanelle reservoir

2009-08-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

On our last day in Utah, we went with most of the family to Jordanelle reservoir for a day of fun in the lake. There's not much of a beach when you compare it to California, but I think it still beats Lake Mead. Grandpa Jay rented a boat and we had a great picnic-style lunch. Good times, great eats!

Samuel and Lucas loved pointing out all there was to see

Leah and Troy got a little cold, but they loved the boat ride

Mckenna looked like she was about to lick the table, Hmmmm

Nice hair Grandpa!!!!

A little of the beach action . . .

This little bird was protecting it's eggs. Everytime someone would walk close, it would let you know that you needed to back-off.

From Arizona to Utah

2009-08-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

We got home from the Anderson Reunion in time to do laundry and then we had to get ready for our next summer adventure. I went with the teachers and priests up to high adventure camp in Southeastern Utah. We had a great time at Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort. We were able to do some rock climbing, repelling, zip-lining, GPS course tracking (make sure your batteries are good if you do this, otherwise you may be WAY off your mark!), clay pigeon shotgun shooting, swimming, camping, firesiding, and lots of eating. It was a good time!
While I was camping with the young men, Rachel took the kids up to Northern Utah to be with her family. After summer camp, I flew up to Salt Lake to meet up with everybody for a couple more days. It was so nice to be where it was cool. Gotta love Utah's weather.While there, we had a talent show for Father's Day.

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Anderson Family Reunion June 2009

2009-08-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since the Anderson Family has had a reunion, so we were way excited to go to Cottonwood, Arizona for the Ray and Gloria Anderson Family Reunion in June (I know the posting is way late, but better late than never). Most of the activities took place at the American Heritage Academy, owned and operated by the Steve Anderson family. Thanks guys!!!!

There was a talent show. . . . and amazing MC's . . .

There were family history displays. . . .

There was even a showing of the next Siskel and Ebert, critiquing the talent of the night.

There were Relay races . . . and even bow and arrow shooting

And after a lots and lots of fun, it was nice to rest in the hotel room. Troy and Samuel were mesmerized by something on the TV, I think it was a show about sharks on Discover. Notice Troy still likes to keep his baseball's close by at all times.

To see some of the live action, check out the video Cousin Todd made. It's posted on YouTube. if the link below doesn't work, copy and paste it in your browser. And watch out for flying shrapnel from the steel fridge!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr7MXIeILSc

Sam's still creative

2009-08-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

Here is another of Samuel's amazing creations. He is always so proud of his masterpieces.

Shelled-visitor

2009-08-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

While hanging out at home, Rachel and the kids found a shelled visitor. It seems someone left the back door open and "Big T" wandered into the house; looking for a treat no doubt!

Magic Chocolate Ice Cream

2009-07-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

1 tsp instant coffee or espresso powder (I used Pero, this enhances the chocolate flavor and makes it not overly sweet or taste like coffee, so don't be afraid of this ingredient)
1 TBS hot water
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 1/4 cups cold heavy cream

1. Melt Chocolate Base: Combine coffee (Pero) powder and hot water in small bowl. Let stand until coffee dissolves, about 5 minutes. Microwave chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and coffee mixture in bowl, stirring every 10 seconds, until chocolate is melted, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir in vanilla and salt. Let cool.

2. Mix and Freeze: With electric mixer on medium-high speed, whip cream to soft peaks, about 2 minutes. Whisk one-third of whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Fold remaining whipped cream into chocolate mixture until incorporated. Freeze in airtight container until firm, at least 6 hours or up to 2 weeks. Serve.

NOTE: I tried replacing the bittersweet chocolate with the same amount of white chocolate. It seemed to taste pretty darn good. I have added in some mix-ins such as M&M's and other chocolates just for the fun of it. In tastes tests, this beat out the premium commercial brands. That is saying a lot for homemade ice cream. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

End of the Season

2009-06-06T17:34:00.001-07:00

Well, T-ball season is done and I feel guilty saying that I am happy about it....but I am. It has been fun watching Sam get so excited about the game and his team and all that stuff, but it has been exhausting going to the games. I hear it gets better as they get better, so we'll see. He still has the same zest he did starting the season so I think we'll be back next year. Here is a picture of his party and the cool trophy, ball, and dog tags. It was a swim party so that is why he is partially naked. He has already asked for a special shelf for all his trophies (this is his first one).

Playin' Ball

2009-06-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

Troy has apparently been watching Sam play more than I realized. I had noticed him hanging on to the fence and yelling at the players, but I didn't think he would have picked up the basic jist of the game. While Jeremy was getting the bbq ready for some yummy cookin' Troy decided to play a few innings. We caught him hitting the ball off the T and then running around the jungle gym as though he was running the bases. He obviously forgot the part where you drop the bat, but he might have been hanging on to it just to make sure the other kids didn't snatch it while he ran his home run. Later on, when the other kids caught on to the game he got so defensive that we would scream if they stepped on the grass while he was doing his thing. I must say that I was very surprised by his knowledge of the game.

Just a little fun note, Troy LOVES to watch baseball on tv. A few times on a Saturday I've been busy with things and he was at my feet crying so I put him on my bed and turned on the tv. Well, there just to happened to be baseball games on and it caught his attention immediately. Apart of being relieved that he found something besides my shadow to entertain himself, I was very amused to see that the reason that he did yell for me when I was out of the room was because the game had gone to commercial. He would ask "Were'd da'ball go?" Try explaining commercials to a 22month old.

What the HECK are they doing?????

2009-05-27T10:47:00.001-07:00

Shark Reef

2009-05-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

Troy, all ready to go.

Green SawFish

Sea Turtles (below) and I think it's the star fish and octopus(above)

Seeing the rays.

It has been a while since we visited the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, but this weekend was a perfect chance since Aunt Krissy and Uncle Ryan were in town. We got a special discount for having so many people which is one of the benefits to having so many relatives. We met there on Saturday after we picked up Jeremy from work. We had lots of fun seeing everything. Sam was so excited! The whole day he kept telling me that he just couldn't stop thinking about going to the Shark Reef. On the way there we passed the gigantic golden lion in front of the MGM hotel and Sam about lost it! He was so impressed! Shaunie told him that there were lions inside the hotel that you could go see, too. He thought for a minute and then asked "You mean they have a Lion Reef?" Sam was also doing a good job at thinking of questions to ask the people who work at the Shark Reef. I told him they know everything. After looking at the piranha's for a while, his only questions was "What makes them die?" I think we actually stumped him.

Here are Troy and Sam enjoying the Lion fish. Troy was saying hi and waving to all the fish.

Now We Are 6....well, Sam is

2009-05-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

Now We are Six (1927)

By A. A. Milne

The End

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five, I was just alive.
But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever,
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

The best part of a child's life is the birthday! It is a special day just for them that makes them feel like royalty. I love making a big deal about my children's birthdays. It is my little way of saying thanks to Heavenly Father for the most precious gift he could give just to me...my child.

This year Sam asked for a Transformer birthday cake so here is what I came up with. We used fondant for the transformer part and then peanut butter M&M's for the dots. He was very satisfied. We had a big pool party with lots of cousins and family and a few friends from church and school. Sam felt like a king. I was too busy putting on a party to take photos, but hopefully I'll get some from Aunt Jen soon.

Pool Time

2009-05-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

Summer has come very quickly to Vegas this year. We've hit 100 degress a few times already so the only real remedy for that is to hit the water. We decided that since it'll be a little more difficult for me to take the kids to the pool than normal this summer that we would invest in an above ground pool. I did a little research and we bought this pool here. It fits perfectly on our small back patio and it definitely keeps the kids busy and cool. So far it hasn't been too hard to maintain and the kids are good about asking to go in and out. It's only 3 feet deep so I feel much safer than I would if I took the kids to the pool, and the best part about it is that I don't have to drag the kids anywhere or get in a swimsuit for them to play! One day we'll have a house that has a real pool, but until then this will work perfectly.

Auntie Em and Uncle Ben

2009-05-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

We got a visit from Auntie Em and Uncle Ben. It was the first time they had been to visit us in Las Vegas and we loved it! Here are the kids doing their best to get them out of bed on a Sunday afternoon. We had lots of fun and the kids got to play a lot. I hope we didn't wear them out.

Creativity and Love

2009-05-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Shaunie decided to make a little fort dedicated to Sam. If you can't see the signs on the wall they read "I love you so much." She took a lot of time putting this together and I was very proud of her. Sam loved it and I think Leah felt a little bit left out even though that didn't stop her from making her presence known. They played games and had lots of fun in this little fort.

Shaunie's class went on a field trip to the Special Olympics. I guess they have a big part of the Olympics where kids from schools get to take their students who would normally compete in the special olympics and combine it with other olympic-type events for the other students to compete in. She competed against other 2nd graders and had a lot of fun. She got a shirt and even a number to wear on her shirt. It was all very non-competitive, but she got to get out and cheer some classmates on and have a lot of fun doing it.

Sam's little creativity shining through. He is very symetrical in almost everything he makes.

As a mother one of the best things is seeing what your kids come up with next. I love to share in their creativity and love of life. It is especially rewarding when they are using their creativity to show love or appreciation for each other. The best reward a mother can receive is to see her children play together without fighting. It seems so simple, but it shows they truly love each other.

2009-05-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

When school got back into session Shaunie and Sam received awards for the trimester. I was able to get a good one of Shaunie but not of Sam. Shaunie got an award for the "A" honor roll and perfect attendance and Sam got an academic achievement award and a citizenship award. You can kinda see Sam admiring his awards while he was sitting on the stage with his class waiting for the other kids to recieve their awards.

Easter 2009

2009-05-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

Proud Sam.

Distracted Leah.

Cousins and fun. L-R Anni, Shaunie, Emma, Auri, Sam, Front:Leah, Lily
Poor Sam with all those girls.

Troy getting the hang of it.

Our colorful eggs.

We had a great Easter. Ok, I know this is a little late, but I thought I'd get it up anyway. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love the springtime and all it's colors and warmth, and I love the whole meaning of Easter. This year we had a special treat for Easter when my parents came down. We had a BBQ at the park and our traditional egg hunt. The kids had fun and got lots of candy and we were able to spend time together as a family and enjoy the great weather and beautiful park. Some the the highlights include:

Watching everyone realize that we had nothing to cook our hamburgers on and then watching Jesse, after he ran to the nearest store, do his best at getting the fire to stay hot so the coals could really get going.
Watching Carson stare in awe at some boys playing basketball at the courts near by. He was almost in a trance! Too bad we didn't have a ball for him.
Watching everyone get creative with their food since we didn't have any ketchup. Josh actually ate his hamburger with warm potato salad!
Watching Sam "innocently" wander through the area we where we were hiding eggs. He tried not to look but you can't cover your eyes and still see where you are going.
Watching the smallest egg hunters, Troy, Carson and Ammon, get the hang of finding and filling their baskets. Once they realized that candy was hidden in the eggs they usually wanted to stop everything and eat their new-found prize. It took a bit to keep them going.
Watching my mom run around after the kids and try to get good pictures of the egg-hunting action. It's just really hard to do!

T-Ball Fever

2009-03-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Sam has loved baseball since Jeremy first introduced it to him a few years ago. This year we got him in on a T-ball team with some ward friends. He LOVES it...well, I should say he is obsessed with it. The season officially starts tomorrow, but here are some pre-season highlights.

Here are the boys getting their uniforms. Can you tell he's a little excited?

His team is the Cardinals. "That's a red bird".

Here is Sam playing outfield during their scrimmage game. At first I thought he was really into it but then I realized there was something wrong. Not too long after this we had to run to take a potty break. In any case, this is great video of his first experience in a game.

Happy Patty's Day

2009-03-27T13:55:00.001-07:00

It's a tradition and the little leprechaun didn't let us down. He showed up and turned our toilet water green (Leah was scared to go in the bathroom when she heard about it) and left shamrocks and candies all over the place. Here is Leah with some of the booty. (I love the chocolate lipstick.) The kids tried to catch him but were unsuccessful, which is probably a good thing since he brought each one a present at the end of the day. Sam got some baseball gear, Shaunie got a dress, Leah got an "L" necklace, Troy got a shirt and they all got some Lucky Charms cereal. We like this tradition and the suspense it brings.

Resting in Comfort

2009-03-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

Comfort? No, it's not the nice soft down comforter, nor the memory foam mattress. No, it's still not the bottle of milk, nor the comfy pajamas. It is the 2 balls under each elbow. If you didn't notice the first time, look again. A T-ball under the right elbow and a red foam ball under the left elbow. Troy wouldn't stay still unless he had one on each side. Once he did, it was all peace and rest after that. He is a boy through and through, and we LOVE every minute of it.

Scream Competition

2009-03-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Laughing All The Way

2009-03-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

The kids were so funny the other day. We could hear some loud screaming coming from the backyard, but it wasn't the "Hurt" or "in trouble" screams you may recognize as a parent. After checking it out, we found out that they were engaged in what seemed to be a screaming competition and laughing about it the whole time. Here is a picture of them enjoying their time on the blow-up trampoline in the backyard. I will see if I can upload the video stream in the next post.

Jungle Gym Time

2009-03-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

Our kids are small and still like each other enough that they love to be together climbing, or just hangin' around. That's what Shaunie, Sam, and Leah were doing when I caught up with them in the backyard.

2009-03-17T12:55:00.001-07:00

Sam came into me the other night after he had been put to bed. I asked him what he needed and he told me... "I just can't think of anything to think about."

Sam's Story

2009-03-17T12:51:00.001-07:00

Here is a story Sam wrote the other day. It has a definite reference to our San Diego trip last summer. This is exactly as he dictated it to Jeremy. He typed up the first few lines and then got frustrated so I finished it for him. I kept his typing because it was just too cute. Enjoy...

My Day For Moving

Once Upon a Tme There Was a Family in Anothatr Mmth Thaty Are Going To moue / Ohen They Were So So Happy They were So Happy Eeny Day, because they were moving in another month. They were going in a different stat and then their mom and dad knew that state, and that state was California. They say they love California, and then they loved it because they were going to live in a hotel room.
Then they wanted their hotel room to be by the beach. So, they can go there to the beach. They will want to play there when their mom says, and they just ran out with their shoes on and go to the beach.
When their mom says no, they will just stay inside. They thought about it every day. Everyone in their family thought about it and then in the dark they thought about it. That's why tomorrow they were so so so excited to go. Then they went to California to have some fun.

The End.

Our Young Artists

2009-03-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Recently Leah and Samuel decided that they wanted to further develop their chalk-art abilities. Samuel convinced Leah to outline his body as he lay on the ground. That was fun, but not enough for Sam.

After seeing the body outline on the ground, he decided he needed to make it more life-like. He went and drew, what he says are, "every bone in my body." I thought it was good enough to show the world, so here is Sam's skeleton

Another Bake Sale

2009-03-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Our young entrepreneurs were at it again recently. They decided to have another bake sale since they were out of school that day. We had the usual lemonade and juice, somehome baaked cookies with mini cornbread muffins, and a little something else, magazines and books, as proposed by the neighbor who wanted to help. Shaunie thought it a great idea, and off to work they went.

Chugga-Chugga-Choo-Choo

2009-03-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

Troy seems to have gotten the same gene that Sam has when it comes to putting things in a row and lining them up. Here he has decided that the table chairs need to be put in order. Playing train with the chairs is fun when Mom is finishing some yummy cookies. Notice the bib, he'll be ready to eat after a hard days work.

Valley of Fire (in the winter)

2009-03-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

Our ward had a ward campout recently at the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. The name really defines this area during the summer. It gets temperatures in the 130's, but during the winter, it gets really cold. Cold enough to light a fire and roast some marshmallows while being bundled up. It has some REALLY cool hiking spots. Sam was in awe at how much fun hikin he could do, he was even doing a little rock jumping with some friends. We have a great ward, and even though we couldn't stay overnight due to some prior commitments, we had a fun time while we were there.

Here are Rachel and Troy watching the fire

Jeremy and Troy had fun watching this bonfire rage.

Nothing like singing around the campfire: Shaunie and Rachel with a few good Brasilians.

Samuel and Leah enjoying their view from the rock ledge. Fun times!!

Gitty-up !!!

2009-03-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

Troy loves horsing around. He does whatever he can do to make people laugh. Most of the time it is his laugh alone that makes you laugh the most. The other day, Jeremy came home from work and lied down on the bean bag chair to watch the kids play. While he was lying there, Troy quietly climbed up the chair and straddled the new found horse. He couldn't help but laugh as he pretended to ride like a cowboy. That's definitely one of the things dads do best, play horse. Gitty-up Troy!

Grandma Came To Visit

2009-03-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

As our family grows, it becomes more and more of a challenge to travel to Utah to see Grandma and Grandpa Haws. Knowing this, it is ALWAYS great when they come to visit us, even if it is just for a couple days. When the kids find out that Grandma Vicky and Grandpa Jay (He's "annoying") are coming to visit, we always by a small pack of Mint Milanos for Grandpa and a special treat for Grandma. Most of all though, the kids just love hanging out with their grandparents. They don't have to go do anything too special, even though we did hit the local Chuck-E-Cheese's for lunch. We love having them come and visit!! As you can see from the picture below, even grandma doesn't mind the slumber party either.

What's up?

2009-02-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

So it has been about a month since I last wrote something here. It all seems to go by so quickly. I hate to say that because it means I have neglected to notice and appreciate some of the little things in my life, and since it is basically the little things that make my life so meaningful, I have really been missing out!
We have been blessed to have great weather this January. It has been consistently in the 60's for a while now. The kids are enjoying the outdoors, their bikes, scooters and the opportunity to hang out with their friends after school. Troy is blossoming in his language skills. He has really connected to the idea that "communication is key" to getting your way. He says Mamma and Dadda a LOT and screams them with glee when we walk into the room. He also realizes that we will answer when called so we are always being called. He calls Shaunie "Sha Sha" and Sam "Sa Sa". We haven't quite realized what he calls Leah, but that is a hard name for a little boy. He is his siblings' biggest fan. He loves to be around them. He likes to point to what he wants and say "Ont dat" or "ont sum". He is putting sentences together too, and when things just don't really need words he screams. He actually does that a lot.

Leah is still my Leah. She has the funniest mind. She is constantly entertaining me with her imagination. Her friend "Sarah" is still a big part of her life and we have now welcomed Mara into our little circle of friends. She loves to go around unhindered by her siblings. She stays very busy when the older ones are at school and Troy is sleeping. She loves school, herself, and always has the most interesting comments. Her teacher told me that they were learning about fire drills and that she was chosen to be the leader. The teacher told the class to follow Leah when they heard a firedrill. Leah got excited and asked her teacher if it was because of her missing tooth that they had to follow her. She also came in to me really sad the other day. She said that she was sad because nobody in her class thought she was fancy. She kept telling me that no one had told her she was fancy so she didn't think they liked her. It really upset her. She always has some thought that is hilarious. Last night we were getting ready for FHE and she came in waving her arms around her. She said "I am touching nothing. Look Mom, I am touching nothing. I am Nothing Girl!" She is very fun.

Sam is reading really well. Last Friday he got the Academic Award for Reading for his class. He is really starting to sound words out. It is like a great discovery every time! He also loves to count to 100. He will do it several times a day and tell you how easy it is. I love his little boyish ways. He walks around the house making noises and when I give him a crazy look he explains that he is trying to "blow out my spit". He and Troy continue to be the best of buds and are always caught wrestling. He is extra careful and Troy loves it. He taught him to give body slams and Troy usually does it with little prompting. When he does his homework he is very precise. He refuses to hurry because "then it will be sloppy". I hope that doesn't translate into OCD. I love my Sa Sa.

Shaunie is my beautiful seven year old. She makes sure that she is one of the best in school and she always tells me about it. She loves it when I take her to the grocery store with me and she loves to be the second mom. She is becoming a little tom-boy with all the kids in the neighborhood. She seems to attract the boys and they spend their time playing basketball or running around in some type of chase game. She loves reading and always reads outloud, which can be good or bad. I love my Shaunie Rae.

Jeremy is busy trying to get his thesis done. It looks like this actually might be the semester that he finishes it. I don't know what that means by any changes in career in the immediate future, but it will at least be done. I am proud of him enduring this long. He has been in school since we have been married. It will be nice to have him on Thursday nights. He is a very supportive husband and dutifully does the laundry every Monday. I don't know what I would do without him. I love you honey.

If you want to know about me all you have to do is read what I just wrote and you will see what I am up to. My family is my life, sprinkled with a few good friends, church and a lot of good times. Sorry for the delay in the update.

Love....True Love...

2009-01-13T15:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some quick shots of my friend, Jenny Hodge's, wedding. Jenny and I have known each other since the MTC when we were roommates and in the same district. My MTC district was very close and we were all like brothers and sisters. They have all impacted my life in such positive ways. I had lost track of Jenny when I moved from Utah down to Vegas. But, we were not to stay away from each other too long. I ran into Jenny a little over a year ago at a BYU/UNLV football game. We had great seats on the front row of the 50 yard line. When I went to sit down a very beautiful girl waved her arms at me and called at me . I didn't recognize her so I just gave the polite little smile and wave and turned away to talk to friends. When I got closer to her she spoke to me and I immediately recognized her by her voice. Her seats were right behind ours and we quickly caught up. Since then our busy schedules have only allowed us to get together a couple times, but she is still like a sister to me.

On December 28th Jenny got married to an old friend who had be recently widowed. It was such a great story and I was so excited to see her be sealed to him in the temple. She is one of the most amazing people I know. Another excited part of her getting married was for me to visit and catch up with Jenny's MTC companion Melanie Newbold. She is another favorite person of mine and we had a great time talking, remeniscing, and just enjoying the wedding festivities. I missed my MTC companion and wish she would have been able to come. Thanks to Jenny for letting me be a part of your special day.

Merry Christmas

2009-01-13T14:59:00.000-08:00

Leah and her magnetic dress up dolls. We've had some of these things before, but she must be at the right age for them. She loves them so much and comes up with all sorts of outfits. She loves to display and explain each outfit just to make sure we know what it is.

Shaunie got a paintable piggy bank. Surprisingly, this is not what the pig turned out looking like. It was much more colorful.

This toy became a favorite of the little boys. They all played it and loved making the doors pop open. It is the simplest toy, but provides a lot of fun for little boys who like to see things pop up and surprise them.

Here is Sam displaying his Leapster. At this point, I don't think he actually knew what it was, but he soon learned all the cool things it could do.

I know, I am finally getting to this. Here are some Christmas morning pictures. The tree was beautiful and we had Emily and Ben along with Kelli and my parents to share Christmas morning with. The kids loved their presents and we are very grateful for all of our blessings at this time of year. Shaunie loved her MP3 player, Sam couldn't put his Leapster down, Leah thought the magnetic dress up dolls were the coolest, and Troy loved his balls and random toys. It was all so much fun and, like always, the best part was seeing the faces of the kids as they opened their presents.

The Christmas Story

2009-01-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

Here is our reluctant wiseman. Sam is not big on dressing up and then parading around. This is the most he would participate in the Christmas Story reenactment.

Little Lukas is the best star I have ever seen! He even pointed the shephards in the right direction. He was so cute and so excited to put this huge star around his neck and stand up on a chair to show the way. Very priceless picture!

Leah was a shepherd, Shaunie was Mary and Troy was Joseph. None of the older boys wanted to be Joseph so it fell on Troy. Too bad Taylor and Russ weren't there. He was cute nonetheless.

Here is the whole crew. Some were very reluctant (Sam and Eli) and some were more than happy to join the crew. We love how it evolves each year with each child getting a little older. This will always be one of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve.

More Snow

2009-01-08T16:53:00.000-08:00

Emily, my sister, got shoved into the snow by her loving husband. They were outside helping their nieces and nephews build a very interesting snowman. My babies LOVE aunt Emily and Uncle Ben.

Here is the snowman. He is so handsome!

Hidden Picture: Can you find the van?

Let it Snow...

2009-01-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

We went to my parent's house in Utah for Christmas this year. It may be one of the last years we are able to do this, but don't tell my mom. When we first pulled up this is what we saw. The snow continued to come down for about 4 more days. The kids did spend some time enjoying the snow but it was easy to tell they didn't quite know how to handle it. It's kinda hard for me to believe that my kids don't know what snow is all about, but I guess I should have expected that. They wanted to do the things they always do at grandma's house which includes swinging on swings and going down slides. They cleared the snow off the swings and had a little bit of fun, but the highlight was the occasional deer that came down looking for something green to eat. We saw them several times and it was fun for the kids. Sam's favorite part was seeing my dad's "snowball fighting machine" which translates into what we would call a snowblower. My dad loves his snowblower and Sam loved watching him as long as the shooting snow wasn't pointed in his direction. Now you know why he called it the snowball fighting maching. As a mother, it's always fun to see the kids experience new things and this was no exception. Enjoy the pictures!

2009-01-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures of the night. Shaunie got a Barbie American Idol and Leah got a Sharpay kit that came with a skirt, big sunglasses and a star necklace. Both presents were absolutely perfect.

Early Christmas Eve

2009-01-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

We had Mangum Christmas Eve festivities early this year. It was great. All of Jeremy's siblings were able to be here to join in the fun. After getting family pictures taken we headed over to Jeremy's parent's home for food (yummy homemade Zuppa Tuscana), singing, and presents. The kids had fun entertaining us and we had fun opening presents from our not-so-secret pals. You can see the sheer excitement on Sam's face with his art kit. It was a great night and we were so happy to have everyone together.

Global Warming....?

2009-01-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

I took Shaunie to her friend's house who lives right across the street from the temple for the "snow day" off from school. There was a little snow left there and I thought that I'd better snap a picture before the opportunity left. You never know when there will be snow on the Las Vegas temple again!

This park is just across the street. There had been a bit more snow there but this is what was left the next day.

You gotta love the snow, and ya gotta love the snow when it's in Vegas even more. Yes, as the world now knows we got some flakes here in the desert and in some places it was pretty deep. In East Las Vegas we only got a few, but it was enough to get us in the Christmas spirit. The night it snowed was actually a birthday party for some cousins and a little welcoming party for some other cousins. I traveled to Henderson where the snow was 7-9 inches deep. The kids had a blast and I was grateful for my previous experience of driving in the snow. I don't know if Henderson even owns snow plows, so needless to say the roads were pretty scary. We traveled safely both ways and had fun seeing cousins and romping in the snow.

Cutest Houses on the Block!

2009-01-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

We had a great time with our neighbors decorating our Gingerbread Houses. The kids all came up with their own creations that ended up showing off their individual personalities. Leah ate as much candy as she put on her house, Sam had a very well-planned house with a garage and very uniform walk-ways. He got some ideas from our 13 year old neighbor who also had a very intricate and organized house. Shaunie didn't want an empty orange juice box as a foundation, so she tried to stick it all together without anything to stablize it. She started with a great brick wall made of tootsie rolls, but it all collapsed with the weight of candy. She wasn't too upset and I think next time she'll go for the empty orange juice box. Our great neighbors came over with their kids and they all kind of fed off of each others creativity. It was fun to watch them. We love this tradition.

O' Tannenbaum!

2008-12-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

The kids were very excited to put up the tree this year. It is so fun that they now look forward to some of the Christmas traditions. We played Christmas music and danced a little while we opened boxes and rediscovered old decorations. We had a great time just putting the decorations up and trying to figure out where to put them all. The kids loved finding their old hand-made decorations and always made sure to put them in a very special place on the tree. Troy was a little confused about why a new-found shiny ball would shatter after throwing it on the ground. He just stood there for a while with a little frown and his big blue eyes looking up at us like they were trying to understand what just happened. I think the broken ball hurt his feelings. He's so tender-hearted. I had to run out and buy another star for the top since my star's lights refused to light up. You can't have a dark star!

2008-12-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

Nice post honey! If any of you understood that you are very smart and have an intricate understanding of brain stuff. As you can see, I don't. Anyway, it really was fun just to get away and enjoy some time with my man. He's so smart (but I can still beat him at Scrabble)!

Our Hot Date - A Look Into Rachel's Head

2008-12-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

For some time now (okay, a very long time) I have been working on my Master's Degree at UNLV. My research is focused on the brain's response to Olfaction (smell). I would tell Rachel about it and she would understand very little. The more we talk the more she "gets it" and thinks it is actually pretty neat. Well, a couple weeks ago we had a chance to get out for the evening (thanks to Sister Bevel for offering to watch the kiddies). There was still some work I had to get done, so I actually took Rachel out with me to get her brain scanned on our 3T MR scanner. We did a Diffusion Tensor Image (DTI) and also an olfactory response. This is a picture of her Rt and Lt DTI of the white matter tracts originating at the corpus callosum. I didn't have a chance to process the Olfactory response images yet, but I can post those some other day. We had a good time and it was very inexpensive. I'll take you out "for reals" , real soon honey. I love you and thanks for stickin' with me.

Left lateral view of her fiber tracts

Right lateral view of her fiber tracts

Aren't they beautiful?

If anyone wants to have their brain scanned, please let me know. We are always looking for volunteers. It is usually late at night, you need to be at least 18 years of age, and we image at NV Imaging Centers (NIC) in the Southwest part of Las Vegas.

Thanks Be...

2008-12-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

Troy Boy trying to play a little ball with the big boys.

Jeremy is in the yellow Brazil jersey, it turns out that there were a lot of Brazilians and Brazil fans there, and Ryan is in the orange and blue shirt. GOOOLLLL! (That's Portuguese for goal, just so ya know).

Sam and Leah trying to get in on the action.

While waiting for the food to be done, the kids decided to turn Grandma's bathroom into a beauty parlor. They invited people in to get their hair done. Shaunie made a sign that said it was only "$1 or Free" and when you left you got a tootsie roll. I must say that everyone had wonderful hair for Thanksgiving.

We had a delightful day of family, food and soccer for Thanksgiving. Umm, yes, I said soccer. It turns out that our friends like soccer more than football. We started the day very early when Kristin and Ryan came to stay Wednesday night and got here around 11:30pm. We stayed up talking about lots of good stuff and didn't get to bed until around 1 or 2am. I loved spending the time with them and I loved the political talk (thanks Ryan). We got up around 7 and I did everything I could to keep the kids from jumping on a very sleepy Ryan and Kristin. Finally, Kristin got up, no doubt woken up by my kids' very loud "whispers" and overall silliness. Ryan soon followed and then the party really started. We ate breakfast, it was one of the few times that we had pancakes for breakfast, and then we headed over to a soccer game with some ward members and friends at the high school down the street. I got some great action shots as you can see. We came home for a quick shower and then gathered everyone and everything in Jeremy's new-to-you Pacifica and headed over to Grandma's House. It was not over the river and through the woods, but it was sufficiently exciting regardless. We hung around for a while and then I started cooking. I made the deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, rolls and taught Teri how to season a turkey. By the way, the turkey turned out DIVINE! I could have eaten half the turkey by myself!. Anyway, we ate a late dinner to make sure everyone who worked could be there for the feast. I must say that the food was delicious and the company very delightful, but my favorite part of the day was the rain. It poured on us and I was very grateful. It turns out that it CAN rain in Vegas. Thanks.

Tastefully Simple Party

2008-12-03T14:22:00.001-08:00

I am inviting everyone to come to my house for a Tastefully Simple Party on Wednesday, December 10th from 6:00pm to 8:00ish. Tastefully Simple sells amazingly yummy gourmet appetizers, desserts, breads, spreads, soups, etc. They are delicious and perfect for any special occasion. Come hungry and taste all these yummy treats and if you want, order some for your family and friends. Don't feel bad if you come late, we'll save some for you. If you can't attend but want to buy something you can go online at tastefullysimple.com and order something from my party there. I suggest the key lime cheese ball with graham twists or beer bread!

Sam's Feast!

2008-11-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

It's kindergarton tradition. The kids get a big feast on the day before Thanksgiving. The kids made these really cool hats. Some kids were Indians and some were pilgrims. Sam only wore his hat for the picture and was too embarrassed to actually wear it while eating. He enjoyed himself and it was lots of fun.

More Awards!

2008-11-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

The end of the trimester means award time for the elementary school. We went and saw both Shaunie and Sam get their awards at school at a Monday morning assembly. The kindergartners got awards for being good students and the older grades were awarded for their perfect attendance, excellent citizenship and the A honor roll. Shaunie got all three awards and Sam got the Kindergarten one. Here are pictures of them receiving their awards from their Assistant Principal. It was good and the kids appreciated the recognition. I am proud of my great students.

Leah was a little bored with the whole award thing so she decided to play with Troy. She put these glasses on him and snapped the picture herself. Maybe she is our budding photographer?

Mantis!

2008-11-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

This praying mantis looks like he was taking a break from Kung Fu Panda and showing some moves to my kids and the neighborhood kids. He was actually a very frightened mantis who was ready to fight the kids because they had closed in on him for their bug collection. Shaunie has been collecting bugs, spiders and worms for her 10 gallon glass aquarium that she keeps outside. This poor guy had tried to avoid capture but the kids were too fast. Good thing Mom came to the rescue and sent them away. He held this pose for about 5 minutes after the kids had left him alone. Poor guy. I want to keep lots of mantis' in the garden and around the home because they eat other less-desirable bugs and they are dang cool.

Superman in his 'Jammies

2008-11-28T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here is Sam waiting line with his class watching the kid's get their awards. It was pajama day at school and he was very excited to wear these.

Great Writers

2008-11-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

This is my beautiful Shaunie. She won the award for Writing at her school. Her teacher chose her out of all the class to be recognized for her great writing abilities. I was very proud of her. She is such a great student and I am so happy that she loves to express herself through writing and words. Could she get any cuter!!?

Here she is with her principal and the other winners of the award in the 2nd grade. She's the cutest!

2008-11-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

Once again, I don't know why this turns the picture. We got a Walmart ad in the mail and Sam was inspired to write a letter to Santa. Here is his Christmas Wish List. I hope you can read it, and I hope some of them change.

Bright Lights

2008-11-28T11:34:00.000-08:00

These pictures are from a fun Family Night at the Festival of Lights here at Sunset Park. Each year their are millions of lights on display at the park and you can drive through and see them in the warmth of your car. We heard that on the opening night they were letting people go through for free so we called Jeremy's family and met everyone out there. It was a lot of fun. They gave away little bells and reindeer hats and we rode through with the van doors open (it was pretty warm outside). The kids loved the lights and they loved it even more when we stopped at a playground in the middle of the park and let them play with their cousins for a while. The pictures are a bit dark because they were taken from Jeremy's phone camera, but they let you get the idea. After playing for a while we headed over to Jeremy's parents house and had ice cream and brownies. It was a great little family get-together and it helped us get into the holiday spirit.

2008-11-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

These cute little pictures were taken by the camera on my phone at McDonald's. Troy is discovering ketchup. I just thought they were cute. After a RS meeting we decided to go to McDonald's for lunch. Thanks to my friends who don't mind going to McD's for lunch so that I can take my kids.

Basketball Star!

2008-11-28T11:24:00.000-08:00

Shaunie's basketball "season" has ended and we are very glad that she had so much fun and was able to learn a lot. It started out being a little more social than serious but she ended up getting into it by the end. She was going after the ball and running up and down the court with much more enthusiasm by the end. She even got to shoot the ball a couple times in the final game. Overall, it was a lot of fun and I think she loves basketball and understands a lot more about it than she did before. Way to go Shaunie!

The Circus is in Town

2008-11-28T11:05:00.000-08:00

These are pictures of the amazing circus we had in our driveway. Shaunie, along with our neighbor's kids, really have a knack for organizing things. Most of the time they do bake sales or lemonade stands, but now they have really moved on to the big time...or should I say "Big Top" stuff. They planned a circus! It was complete with prizes, games, side shows, rides and as you can see below plenty of neighbor kids. Their advertising consisted of signs on bikes and the riders going up and down our and the neighboring streets yelling out "Circus! Circus! Come to the Circus! Only 10 cents!" They also went to a lot of doors took their advertising to the next step. Here are the pictures to see how grand of an event it really was.
I don't understand how these photos come out sidways, but here is an example of the advertising. The sign says "CIRCUS" then our address and then "10 cents" The 10 is actually torn off because they ended up raising their prices.

This sign was on our driveway, written in chalk. Troy was the side show but he ended up being a no-show because he had to take a nap.

These are examples of the games the kids could play. They even had bikes to ride (of varing sizes) if you wanted to ride instead of play. They had to pay to play but they had lots of choices, and if they won they got to pick a prize. As you can see, the kids had a great turn out. Thanks to the parents who let their kids come over so early on a Saturday morning for great games and prizes.

My award...

2008-11-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

It was a Wednesday night and I was tired and very ready to submit myself to my bed and my TV remote. Suddenly, the doorbell rings and when I open the door a group of beautiful Young Women greeted me and handed me this award (it also came with a couple miniature candy bars...nice!). The girls were so sweet and it was the perfect little pick-me-up to make my day end on a positive note. Thank you to the Beehives and their leaders for the little award. It was really appreciated.

Livin' Life

2008-11-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

This is Troy's new obsession. If you know anything about Troy, you know that he is obsessed with animals. If he keeps this up he will definitely become a Veterinarian, Marine Biologist or Zoo Keeper. When he first wakes up he points (leads you by pointing) you to the kid's bathroom where the fishbowl sits. He will just sit in the red chair and talk, laugh, point to the fish for hours at a time. He gets mad when you pull him away to eat or change his bum. I am glad he likes animals but sometimes I wonder if he is taking it too far ;).

Here is just one of the many creations by Sam. He loves building and I thought I would show this picture. I am sure he took this picture by himself, too. He likes recording his creations.

This is a common site in our house. Besides sitting on the red chair in the bathroom watching the fish, Troy loves to bounce, fall, roll and romp around on Sam's bed. Good thing we have this rail put up, or this place would be off-limits. In this picture, Leah and Sam decided to get in on the action. Troy loves to play with them.

Halloween

2008-11-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

Here is our little garden gnome. He was woken up from a nap after a very busy day of decorating cookies at Aunt Shannon's house so he was a little groggy. He was a great gnome, though.
We always go to grandmas house to go trick-0r-treating. Here they are in what was left of their costumes. They had fun going with Grandma to visit the scary house on her street. They got a big candy bar. Well, they all went except Sam. He decided he didn't want to. He stayed back and ate candy and kicked his shoes off.

Here we all are at our tri-ward trunk-or-treat. We didn't decorate our trunk but that's okay. The kids got lots of candy and we had lots of fun. Halloween is always so much fun!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

Here is Shaunie driving her car and I don't really know why she has her binoculars on the swing ride. I should ask her what she saw.

Here is Troy with the animals and after he was with the animals. He cried for a very long time.

Here are Sam and Leah. They were a little more timid with the animals. Sam was a race car driver and totally had all the moves. Too bad he was connected to the ride.

Here is one of the best family pictures we could get of them. They are like herding mice! Here is another picture of Troy with the goats.

Here is Sam in the swing ride. I loved his smile. Here is Leah getting a little help on the game. Good thing, she could barely lift the hammer.

We went to the pumpkin Patch at Sunset Station. It has become an October Tradition. There are fun carnival games, rides, a petting zoo and just a bunch of pumpkins everywhere. The kids had fun on their rides and Troy had even more fun with the animals in the petting zoo. He ran around to all the animals but would stop just before he reached them, then he would put his had up to touch them but would usually get too excited to actually make contact. It was really fun to watch. He would've stayed in there all night and was very upset when we left. You can see him crying in the picture above. He never really got over leaving, either. We had lots of fun and ended our night by going to Walmart to buy treats (carnival treats are just too expensive, plus we had a few things to pick up). We loved our little family night out.

Welcome Sarah!

2008-10-29T14:59:00.001-07:00

A little girl named Sarah has been the topic of much of Leah's conversation lately. Last night she got on one particularly long tangent and I thought I would share with you what I know about this Sarah girl.

Sarah is 5....no 10 years old.
Sarah does yoga and goes to yoga school.
Sarah doesn't go to school because her mom doesn't know where it is.
Sarah has a friend named Tina.
Tina has a brown....no, black face.
Sarah's mom has curly hair.
Sarah goes to karate (Sam wonders if she can do moves like Kung Fu Panda).
Sarah has gone poop and seen corn (sorry, that's gross but kinda cute) and so has Tina.
Sarah has a little brother named Tommy.
Sarah has karate skills (yes, she said 'skills').
She meets our neighbor boy at his karate class.
Sarah has blonde hair and pink clothes on.
Sarah has a note for me which Leah will run and go get.
The note says "Dear Sarah, I love you very much and I love your mom too, you should come over tomorrow."
Sarah doesn't want to talk anymore.

If you haven't caught on by now Sarah is the newest imaginary friend created by my little Leah. Sam has had a hard time accepting Sarah. He hasn't met her and it's really weird to him that she doesn't go to school. My Shaunie just asks questions and smiles at me when Leah talks about her. We would like to officially welcome Sarah. I think she'll only be around until Leah starts Kindergarten. Then they all seem to go away.

Family Dinner and Chocolate Shadows

2008-10-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

We had our monthly family dinner last night. It was really good. Jody and Josh were in charge and can I just say that I LOVE FRESH&EASY! They make a pizza dough you can buy as well as a yummy pizza sauce. Jody and Josh used those yummy ingredients to make homemade pizzas. They were really good. I was in charge of dessert (I love doing desserts because it gives me a chance to try out new recipes) and I decided to try this Chocolate Shadow Cake. It's basically a three layer chocolate cake with a 7 minute frosting and a chocolate glaze. Jeremy suggested making it spooky so I added a spider web and borrowed Leah's orange spider (she really didn't like that idea). It turned out great and everyone seemed to like it, especially the Three Amigos, Troy, Ammon and Carson. They found the other kids' left-overs and we couldn't resist letting them go at it. We then decided to clean them up and threw them in grandma's big tub. Troy was a little freaked out, but at least he got clean. Thanks to Aunt Jen for taking the pics. I stole them off her blog,mooah ah ah ah!

School Carnival!

2008-10-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here is Troy trying on Sam's pirate patch.

This is Sam with his Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hernandez. She is so cute and nice and Sam is my little preppy pirate.

Here is Shaunie with our neighbor friend Seth. They are good friends and hang out all the time. Shaunie is our beautiful Princess Leia and Seth was so inspired that at the last minute he decided to change his costume from a dead football player to Anikan Skywalker. Here they are having a battle.

And here are the cutest kids at the carnival. Leah is Word Girl (Word UP!), Sam is my handsome pirate and Shaunie is my Princess Leia. What a group! I love Halloween!

2008-10-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

Leah has been sick this week and has hardly gotten out of bed. Thanks to modern medicine she is finally getting out and being herself again. Here is a sweet picture of her dad coming home and ...well....comforting her? She had been waiting for him all day and I guess he just did the best he could. What a good daddy.

Name-uel

2008-10-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

Since Sam has been in school he has learned that his name is really Samuel, with the -uel. He has always been called Sam so he never knew it before. Now, he fascinated by the addition of these three totally new letters. He decided to write down what everyone's name would be like if they suddenly discovered that they too had these extra letters. Pretty cool, huh?

Little Creations

2008-10-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

We've been doing a lot of creating lately. The Leah got a huge pack of playdough for her birthday so the kids have had a lot of fun making playdough stuff. I also made some cupcakes and let the kids decorate them. I have found that cupcakes are much easier than cookies to make and decorate, and they are just as yummy. We had the kids decorate the cupcakes and then we took them to some families in the ward and ding-dong ditched them at the doors. The kids had a blast and we loved seeing them jump in the van out of breath and with big smiles on their faces.

Baby Cousin

2008-10-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

This is little Madelyn Elizabeth Moser. She was born the day after Leah's Birthday, on the 4th. She is a doll and we were really excited to see her between conference sessions. Thanks to Jody and Josh for letting our family crash the quiet calmness of the hospital. It was fun to see you and we are so excited to welcome Maddie into the family. Just so ya know, Leah and Sam were not interested in holding her or we would have cute pics of them too.

2008-10-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

The High School had a little Homecoming Parade around the park that is just across the street from us. It was really little but I thought that was one of the best parts about it! The band played and there were a few floats of clubs and cheerleaders and student body officers. They even threw candy! In fact, it was so short that since we were at the beginning of the parade route, after the end of the parade passed us we ran across the park to see the parade again (and get more candy). I just got a few pictures, but it really was a short parade. Doesn't Sam look cute?