12, How Can That Be?

My baby is not a baby any more at all. In fact my sweet little boy that came to us 12 years ago is growing up so fast that he is taller than me and has been for about six months. I know, as many have pointed out I am not that tall, that is not the point. John was not suppose to get taller than me until he was at least 12 years old. He did not pay attention to that though and he just keeps getting taller and more handsome as the years go by.

I feel terrible but due to the fact that we were barely settling into our new house I did not know where my camera was. Therefore I do not have any pictures of John's birthday or his special weekend. John's birthday was on a Friday and we went to dinner at Boston's as a family and then went to see Furry Vengeance. The dinner was great and the movie was very funny. Grandma and Grandpa Finn joined us for the movie and they enjoyed it too.

Then on Sunday we had Grandma and Grandpa Finn, Grandma Jeanie, Bob and Lauralee, Dawn and Rod and the kids, Laurie and Richard and the kids all join us for church. It was great to look around the chapel and see how much family John had there to support him in receiving the Priesthood and to celebrate his birthday. When John was ordained a Deacon there was barely room to move in the bishops office because we had so many attend. Matt gave John a beautiful blessing that had many of us in tears.

After church we all came back to our house and had a wonderful lunch. Thank goodness the weather was nice and the kids were able to go outside and play. They got a game of kickball going and also played dodge ball. I don't know who won, but I do know that they had fun. Later many of us also played a fun card game called Cover Your Butt. It is a game that we were taught at the Finnardsleyton (for those of you that don't know that is Finn, Bardsley, Moulton) family reunion this summer. The Hatch cousins had fun learning the game and were sad when it was time to go.

John you are such a special young man and I am so proud of you. You amaze me with your generosity and caring attitude. Your dad and I have always felt that you are a very special spirit and the older you get the more it just confirms it for us. God has something very special planned for you and I feel so very blessed that He trusted me to be your mother. I hope that you will always keep the sweet spirit that you have. We love you John!

Jessica turns 10!!

Jessica is 10!!! How did that happen? Time does fly when you have kids and it seems like they grow up in the blink of an eye. For Jessica's birthday she wanted to go to Watiki. She invited two of her friends and we went and had a good time. After Watiki we went back to my mom's and had pizza and cake and ice cream.

Here are Jessica and her friends at Watiki having a blast. Girls are so funny when they get together and it was hilarious to listen to them talk to each other. The topic was often boys which made me laugh even more. I feel that they are way to young to be talking about boys, but it was still humorous to listen to them.

Jessica in her new hat and shirt. Jess loves wearing hats and had wanted this one for a couple of weeks. She loves wearing it now.

Jess the morning of her Birthday. She insisted on opening her presents the morning of her birthday. It was a great incentive to get her ready on time and even early.

Better Late than Never

Sorry that the pictures are out of order and just at the beginning but I could not move them. Blog was not cooperating with me tonight. Oh well!!

This post is more for me than for anyone else. While we were living with my mom I did not have my program to download my pictures. Now that we are in our house I finally downloaded my camera. Some of the pictures that were on my camera were from Easter. We had a wonderful Easter at my mom's.

Months earlier we had invited Steve and Trish and their girls as well as Dave and Julie and their boys to join us for Easter. We did not know at the time that we would be putting our house for sale and then selling it in 10 days. When Easter rolled around and we were not in our new house yet we were not sure what we were going to do about Steve and Dave coming for Easter. Thank goodness they spent the better part of their childhood growing up here and were both able to find other arrangements for sleeping.

The day before Easter we all got together and had an Easter egg hunt at my mom's. The kids all had a lot of fun finding the 100 eggs that were hidden. Then the kids dyed Easter eggs and had fun playing with each other. To top the day off we had our big Easter dinner on Saturday so Dave and Julie could join us. We did not want them to miss out because they went home on Sunday.

Easter morning brought more excitement as the kids searched the house in our traditional Easter morning egg hunt. It is always so fun to see the kids run about the house trying to find all of the eggs as well as their baskets. Easter fell on General Conference weekend and that is traditionally spent at Laurie's, so once we were all ready we headed to Laurie's house. As always the kids had fun their with their cousins between sessions. The house is always very lively with 14 kids in the house, but the adults still manage to listen to conference and feel the spirit that is always present.

Our Easter weekend was fun and I am so thankful for all of the family that we were able to be with.

All Moved In

Well our house took much longer for us to get into than we expected but we are finally moved in and getting settled.

I will have much catching up to do on my blog because while I was without my computer we celebrated Jessica's birthday, John's birthday and Mother's Day ( picture to come later).

For now I just wanted to say we are in our new house and doing well.

The adventure has been fun, but I am glad we are DONE!