Highland Fun 2008

We had so much fun hanging out at my parents house in Highland. We had s'mores (a big tradition at my parent's house), played on the big blow up water slide, had exciting sleep-overs (as you can see), and even visited Kanagroo Zoo! So much to do! The weather was great and it was really hard to come back to Vegas weather. The kids has so much fun with their cousins, which to me is the best part, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with my sisters and brother. Thanks to everyone for making our vacation so much fun!

Emily and Ben Gutierrez! I hope I spelled that right. The wedding was beautiful. She got married in the same room in the Timpanogus Temple that my siblings and I have all been married in. It was really special and she looked so beautiful. The kids all looked adorable too. Here there are posing with the newlyweds. Leah was a little tired and just would not stop crying. I guess it makes for a better story later on, though. I also posted a picture of all the women in my family. From left to right, Ruth Ann (Jeremy's wife), Heidi, Kelli, Emily, my mom, Celeste, Lindsay, and then me. Ok, I had to post a picture of us working on the wedding food, too. We had veggie cabobs (yes, that is right), and mini fruit pizzas, with yummy little chocolate cups filled with a divine chocolate mousse. The food was done by me and my sisters. I have to give them most of the credit because I just showed up and helped put a few things together. It looked gorgeous when it was on the table. The best part about it was that it was mostly healthy and we really had a fun time working together. It definitely looked like it was catered and most of the people made comments about how nice it was.

Oh, and doesn't my little Sam look sooo cute in his newsboy hat?! If you look closely you can see a gigantic bruise across his forehead. He was jumping on the "beanbag couch" and somehow hit is head on the step in the theater room. Ouch! He was a very strong boy and didn't complain about it.

By the way, if you want to see any pictures up close, just click on them and you'll get a better view.

Hello out there!

It has been almost a month since my last post and sooooo much has been happening. We went to Utah, saw my beautiful sister get married, had a Haws Family reunion in Park City, Jeremy turned 31, and Troy turned 1. I have lots of pictures and fun stuff so now I will start to put them on for you. Thanks for looking!

From the top, it is Shaunie (6), Sam (5), Leah (3) and Troy (11mo). My mom wanted some pictures of the kids for her 'grandkid wall". Here is what I sent her. I like them.

4th of July 2008

I didn't take any pictures, but we had a great Independence Day celebration yesterday. We had a swim party for the kids at Michelle and Clint's house. We also had a BBQ and watermelon and lots of fireworks. We went to Boulder City for the fireworks and I don't think they could've been better! They were beautiful and the weather was actually not too hot. Maybe it was the sprinklers going off in the park on the people in front of us that helped us to cool down a bit, but it was awesome. Thanks to Michelle and Clint for letting us bombard their house on the day they get home from California. God Bless America!

Thank you to those men and women brave enough to stand up for their rights and freedoms. Thank you for the bravery, vision, honor, love, humility, and lives of those before me. Thank you to a loving Father in Heaven who blessed this great nation with all it has. I pray it can continue to be worthy of those blessings.

Family Reunion

Kids on the beach, Troy on the Beach, Kids at the Zoo

After we spent a few days in San Diego, we headed to Tustin, CA for a Mangum family reunion. It was a ton of fun to spend time with cousins, aunts and uncles and everybody else. We met up with most of Aunt Karen's family and most of Jeremy's sisters and parents for our reunion. Jeremy's dad has one sister so the reunion was made up of the two sibling's kids and their families. We were sad that Jessica and her family couldn't come, but everyone else from the Daryl Mangum family was there. We started the reunion on Friday and met at the LA Zoo. We saw lots of animals and the kids loved playing on the playground. Thanks to the LA Zoo for having a playground! It worked out to be perfect for us. The animals were cool, but seeing our family was much better. After the zoo, we headed over to some church Institute building for dinner and talents. We loved visiting, laughing, eating and playing with everyone. It was a perfect place for fun. The next day was spent at Balboa beach where the sand annoyed Shaunie after about 2 hours, the waves crashed down while Sam chased them up and down and up and down and up and down, and Leah dug in the sand. The waves were really fun to play with because they were strong. We lost Leah once because she couldn't find her way back from the fire pit. She wandered over to the lifeguard stand and they held her until Jeremy's cousin, Paul's son took off running down the crowded beach. Stacy, Jeremy's cousin, went after him and came back with Leah too! Troy enjoyed the shade and we all enjoyed each other's company. It was a fun day! The next day was Sunday so we headed over to church with Aunt Karen. The place was full! We sang a song in Sacrament meeting and then took pictures afterwards. We got some cute family pictures, (but you'll have to see Jen's blog for those). For dinner we went out to Staci's. We ate dinner and played games. We had a great time and are very grateful to Karen and her daughters for putting this all together. It was worth the time and we all had fun getting to know each other better. We hope we can do this more often.

Sea World

The kids loved the shark exhibit and starfish pond. Here is Sam checking out the strange Commerson's Dolphins as he waits to ride the Atlantis roller coaster.

Sea World!

Here are the Sea World pictures. Because our kids are still fairly young, we decided that a 2-day pass would be the best without all the pressure of a one-shot- only deal. Our hotel was only 1 mile from Sea World so that made it easy to go back and forth. We would head back to our room around lunchtime and so we could feed the kids and put Troy down for a nap. It kept him happy and us much more relaxed. We were able to see everything I would recommend it to anyone.

Sam really got into the job of carrying the map. He made sure he knew our location and destination at all times. He was a very good navigator.

Sam also went on his first roller coaster ever! He went on Atlantis with Dad. After the first hill he wasn't sure if he wanted more. Jeremy said he asked if they were going to go down again and when Jeremy answered that they would he just huddled into him. He was very brave. If you ask him if he liked he will probably answer that he didn't. But, we'll see.

We saw lots of shows and got splashed by the dolphins (which really wasn't too fun for them). We got to feed the rays and pet the starfish and look at blue poisonous frogs. Troy talked to all the animals, but especially loved the big fish when he could see them eye to eye. They loved the dolphins, sea lions, seals, starfish, polar bears and even the pig.

We also got to see the polar bear dive into the water to find his breakfast. We were right in front of the glass when he surprised us. He was huge!

We had a great time in San Diego and I know the kids will be talking about it for a long time. We can't wait to have another family vacation. As a mom, I think the best thing about it was that we were able to spend time as a family and strengthen our connections to each other. Just spending time with US without any other interruptions really gave us a chance to become closer and love each other more. That is really what makes it worth all the money, planning and time.

Mission Bay

On June 23rd we loaded everyone up and went to San Diego. Ok, so it wasn't THAT easy. It took a little bit more planning and a lot of packing. But, we headed out to Mission Bay where we stayed at the Bahia Resort Hotel. I think Jeremy just liked the name (the Bahia in Brazil is where he served his mission). It was beautiful! We had a bay view suite. We had so much fun. The weather was perfect! We rented a boat for a hour and explored the bay, spent two days at Sea World and had a lot of fun family time. I'll post pictures. It was worth every penny and every minute of preparation.

Here is the private beach on the bay at our Hotel. The sand was silky soft and the kids loved looking for shells. The water was a bit too cold for the kids, though. Or maybe it was just too cold outside for us Las Vegans. Low to mid 70's is almost winter weather here.

Here are all the kids playing on our patio outside our room. Below is our view of the bay from our room. Perfect. Absolutely perfect!

This picture below is of the boat we rented to take a cruise around the bay. It is off to the left of the dock. We loved it! Leah and Troy ended up being rocked to sleep by the boat, though.

The kids were amazed that you could find shells in the sand. They spent a lot of time digging and searching for the 'not broken' ones. Here is Leah showing off her find.
--Also, this is a picture of the Bahia Bell. A little boat you can take a cruise on at the hotel. The kids loved the wind in their faces.

Daddy Day

My husband is AMAZING.
How do you know your dad is a good one?

-His children run to him shouting "Dad!" when he comes home from work.
-He willingly works to support his family.
-He takes good care of his wife by giving her time off every once in a while, and by giving her backrubs, too.
-He is a good example to his children.
-He teaches his children to ride their bikes.
-He travels all over town to find the right bike for his 5 year old boy(it had to be that Speed Racer one).
-He lets his kids crawl all over him.
-He lets his kids do his hair.
-He takes his kids to the library.
-He bathes his kids.
-He reads to his kids and uses different voices for the different characters.
-He helps his kids set up forts in the house.
-And soooo many more amazing things.

Thanks to my husband for being the best dad in the world. I love you!



Thanks also to my Papa Bear for being my best dad in the whole world.
Here's what I love about my dad...

-He STILL lets me lay on his belly (although it's not as big as it used to be).
-When I call, he answers the phone by yelling RACHITA!
-He really CAN fix anything!
-He almost always answers his cell phone.
-Letta Mo Tetta (need I say more?)
-He is passionate about his beliefs.
-He never misses a chance to teach us something.
-He makes a great trophy husband to my mom.
-He loves my children and they love him.
-He reads a lot of good books but claims he hates English.
-He loves farming.
-He gives the kids rides on the tractor.
-You can always count on him to make you laugh.
-He always has something wise to say.
-You can always count on him to buy a treat at the store.

I LOVE YOU DADDY!

St. George Escape

St. George, Coons, casita, swimming, playing laughing, hugging, talking, eating, movies, games, toys, more laughing, bbq ribs, double chocolate cream pie, flavored water, ponds, snacks, toads, toads, toads, fish, dragonflies, lizards, spider webs,
red rock cliffs, Snow Canyon, Saturn Sky, Smart car, Pride Liz Acelyn and India,
Guess Who game, cottontail rabbit, walks, potatoes, scraped knee, cool nights, fire pit, more swimming, sack lunches at the table, sun burn, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, sleeping, missionaries, packing, coming home, crying, happiness.

My babies...
Shaunie, Sam and Troy, and Leah

Where has the time gone? I find myself in the middle of June. Shaunie has ended her First Grade Year and is ready to start another. She came home on the last day of school and declared " I am not a first grader anymore". She is happy to be home and I know her siblings are happy she will be home too. They will spend many hours playing games and house and running around yelling "I bet you can't get me" or "Who is going to get me?" I was once told by a very sacred source that these will be the happiest days of my life. I guess that might seem funny to some. I am sitting here in Jeremy's old scrub pant, a t-shirt, my hair in a flippy-pony tail, no make-up, and bare feet listening to the Leah yell from her seat on the toilet that she is going to get an Otter Pop, and although I wish I was 30 pounds lighter and the kids were a little quieter and my house was a little cleaner, I really know that I am happy.