One Big Weekend -One Long Post

Friday -Kevin's first track meet -3rd place mile, 1st place 4x400

Friday -Kevin and Zach's combined birthday party at a local gymnastics gym and after at Zach's house up the street.  30 crazy 14 year olds, but easy party.

Saturday -Camille moved out of her apartment and back home for the summer.  She said a bittersweet goodbye to some great friends.  This is her sweet roommate, Ashley.

Saturday -Matt helped Grandpa L plant potatoes before the family Easter egg hunt.  The chickens helped.  Grandpa said he used to help his Grandpa plant potatoes when he was a little boy.

Shooting arrows with the cousins

Mommer and Grandpa

Easter Sunday -I did a horrible job of taking pictures, but here's a run down:

We had Easter baskets in the morning, I taught the RS lesson for the first time, both sets of grandparents and Scott's friend, Ule (who came to church with us), and Mommer and Grandpa's friend Douglas came to Easter (and Kevin's birthday) dinner.  I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of the whole group.  Douglas is the grandson of one of Grandpa L's converts from his first mission to France.  Glen has kept in touch with the family all these years.  Douglas returned from his mission in Louisiana just a couple of days ago and was starting school at BYU this week, so he didn't have time to go home to France, so he was staying with Mommer and Grandpa for a few days.  His mission was Spanish speaking, so Douglas had fun talking to Scott's friend, Ule, who speaks perfect English, but whose parents are from Mexico.  Ule's taking the missionary discussions, so Douglas got all excited about that, too, and he got his contact information so they could stay in touch.  They were cute together and I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures.

  Anyway, I did get a couple of pictures of our big (5'11") 14 year old and his grandparents.  Happy Birthday, Kevin!  We love you and hope you didn't get overlooked too badly in all the craziness this weekend!

 

Family Pictures

 Love these pictures!

 Love these people!

Winter Wonderland and Some Furry Friends

 It has been snowing off and on and then mostly on for the last few days and this morning we had about a foot of snow in our yard.  I think a lot more than that has fallen, but it has melted and settled a lot in between storms because it's really not that cold.  One of my friends was inviting all her kids and their families over today for Christmas dinner on their Christmas dishes. 

 For some reason the critters were out in force this afternoon. Besides our striped friend and the foxes, we saw pheasants, Canadian geese (who disappeared as soon as the foxes appeared) and some circling hawks.  We saw all of these in the 20 minutes or so that we were doing the dishes after our Sunday meal.  The water district pond in back of our pond is an attractive place for the Canadian geese in the spring, but I think it is obvious why we never saw any baby geese last year.  Too bad the geese didn't learn their lesson because at least two of them are back so far this year.  They are fun to watch, but I don't think it's a very safe place to nest.  The fox in the last picture is just staring at the pond.  Between the foxes and the skunks I'm sure any eggs don't stand a chance.  Ahh, nature.

What Was I Thinking?

Okay, 1/6 of my life just drove off in this car.  I guess the time comes when you have to trust your children, and according to my husband that time is now.  I can't believe I just let Scott and 4 friends drive to Las Vegas to stay with his friend's family for spring break.  The look on Zach's face in this picture is not exactly reassuring, although I'm pretty sure he was just posing for me.  Extra prayers on their behalf would be appreciated for the next few days.  FYI -this car is now equipped with brand new tires, speed limit control of 80 mph, radio volume control of no more than half volume, and the radio doesn't work without the seatbelts.  They also got the full run down of every warning and lecture in my arsenal.  If I seem a little tense this weekend, you'll know why.  Why do they have to grow up?

Pablo's Baptism

Scott & Pablo

Ule, Scott, Pablo, Bro. Williams (seminary teacher), Lyden, Kyler

Kyler, Scott, Ule, Pablo, Clayton

Zach, Kevin

Lyden's mom and I decided refreshments were in order

It was a wonderful night.  Many, many kids from the school and soccer team came to support Pablo.  Lyden baptized him and Scott and Kyler bore their testimonies during the service.  Both of them mentioned that even though everyone tells them that they have been a great example for Pablo it really has been the other way around, and Scott said that he started going to the discussions hoping to convert Pablo, but it became a real conversion for him, too.  I'm so grateful for these good boys.  I usually see them in shorts and t-shirts and it seems like all they think about is sports and food and occasionally girls.  It's wonderful to see them exercise their priesthood and really grow and realize how much good they are capable of.

It's Coming

Soccer, Of Course

I haven't posted any soccer pictures for a while, because I get kind of tired of posting about the same old thing, but, face it, that's a big part of our life pretty much year round.  Right now we are in the transition from the indoor to outdoor season.  Only one more indoor game next week, then on to outdoor for Matt.  He has learned a lot this year.  He had become much more aggressive during the indoor season.

Kevin has been playing on the 7-8th grade Jr. High team for the last couple of months as well as practicing with his club team.  Luckily there are only two other Jr. Highs in our school district so that makes for a very short season. :)  4 games and a championship.  They had their championship game last night which they won -good job Rams! -just in time for the club season to begin on Saturday. 

Playing keeper for the first time since he was 10

Love these boys!

Scott is playing on Ogden High's team and I don't have any pictures yet because I haven't wanted to freeze my fingers off, but his season goes through May, so I'm sure I'll get plenty. His team is doing well in the preseason, when they haven't been snowed out.  Also, there has been some missionary work going on with a couple of the players.  They haven't had a game this week and Scott and two of his LDS teammates have been attending the missionary discussions with one of his good friends on the team who is preparing for baptism.  Another teammate who is interested has been attending, as well as a teammate who was baptized last year and needs a little boost.  More to come on this.