June 3rd-My birthday

Since I can't do 41 things of "What we adore and love" about myself I decided to do 41 things of "What you may or may not know" about myself instead. I may be boring.

Here goes.....

1. I was born in Twin Falls Idaho but I consider myself a California Girl. I spent a good portion of my life in California. I love the sun, going bare foot, and the beach sand then I do snow and wearing layers. Utah is beautiful though.

2.I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters and I am the middle child.

3. I skipped 6th grade. Not sure that was the best thing for me but none the less here I am.

4. I went to something like 14 different elementary schools.

5. I have lived in Idaho, California, Washington, Wyoming and Utah.

6. I have been to Idaho, California, Washington, Utah, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, New York, Maryland, Oregon, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Germany, and Switzerland. My favorite by far was Switzerland. I would live there if I could.

7. I met my sweet husband In Utah. We lived in the same apartment complex. Same family home evening group.(I really worked hard on figuring where to live in Utah and felt prompted to move there. I now know why.

8. My roommate thought I should meet Christian Wray. I thought she should give this other guy who lived in the same complex a chance. They just seemed a lot alike. We both married these two.

9. In December I will have been married 20 years.

10. I have 8 of the best kids ever. (I have had 5 miscarriages)

11. I would love another baby

12. I live in American Fork Utah. I wouldn't mind moving but that's not in the cards right yet.

13. I have some of the very best friends. Friends have been a huge blessing to me.

14. I'm starting school on Monday to get my CNA license. I'm excited to see where it takes me. (Maybe the labor and delivery/nursery to hold babies:) )My job will always be mom first though.

15. My favorite color-I don't really have one. I like most all colors.

16.My favorite type of food-Mexican by far.

17. I like to sew. Mostly with my girls.

18. I like to read. Favorite book=Book of Mormon.

19. I enjoy all types of music. I love to listen to the words to songs. Music can be so powerful.

20. Favorite treat=by far cookies. I'm trying not to eat sugar/treats all summer though so don't bake any.

22. Herbs interest me and the things they can do.

23. I love to cook and try new foods. I'm trying to change the way I cook though from a "Mormom Mom" cooking style to a more "healthy" style. (No white flour or sugar, less meat, more fruits and veggies-actually this summer I'm trying a 90% fruits and veggies type diet. No dairy. More Exercise. We are trying some raw food meals too. Ask me and I'll tell you how it's going.

24. I would love to be better at gardening veggies and flowers.

25. I've always wanted to be a runner since I was little. I need to lose some weight but I will hopefully soon.

26. I have never broken any bones but my kids have unfortunately.

27. I was married in the Provo temple. We were scheduled to marry at two different temples 1. Manti 2. Provo. The road was closed to Manti so we married in the Provo temple. I drove by the Provo temple the other day and it was absolutley beautiful tucked back in the mountain.

28. I was turning my papers in to serve a mission when Christian proposed. I'm somewhat jealous of girls who served a mission.

29. My family joined the church when I was 7. I watched my Dad, Mom, Older brother, and older sister get baptized. We are the only members in my extended family. I'm somewhat jealous when people have pioneer ancestor stories.

30. I only have one living grandparent. Grandma Graham, my moms mom lives in Redding California. She was to me what a Grandma should be. I loved to visit her house. I have such fond memories of my grandma and her house. I hope to be a great grandma like my grandma.

31. I love traditions. Traditions are what brings family back together.

32. My favorite holiday =New Years, Valentines, St. Patricks day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas-I love to celebrate just about anything worth celebrating. We are going to celebrate when Gavon's cast comes off. :)

33. When I was little I thought I wanted to be a truck driver ( go figure :)

34. I went to Ricks College after high school. I absolutely loved it. I was there the same time as Christian but never knew him.

35. I once ate a squid while I was dating Christian. It got stuck in my throat and I thought I might throw up. I wanted to impress him so I managed to swallow it. I will never do that again!

36. I don't like amusement parks. I don't care for roller coasters. I'd rather get a root canal.

37. I'm not a real animal lover. I could never be a vet.

38. I wish I could play the piano. I think it would be relaxing.

39. I use to rock climb.

40. I love my family.

41. I love my Heavenly Father.

Wow! That was harder than I thought.
I wasn't sure I was going to make it.

One long feild day post

Field Day 2011

Bonneville Elementary

Jordon loves the monkey bars and is really good at them. We had to visit the monkey bars several times during the day.

This is a portion of Brooklon's great girl friends

Allison, Kyra, Jessica, Tia, Maggie, India, Brooklon, Emerie, Bekah,

Bailey, Allie, and Becca.

Caleb, Joseph, Dillan, and Jenson

(Some of Jenson's friends eating lunch outside together)

Jenson throwing the javelin.

Jenson dribbling the soccer ball around cones.

The two headed race with Jenson and his friend Caleb.

Jenson and his friend Caleb holding hands waiting for their turn at the two headed race. (Cute)

What time is it Mr. Fox? (Jenson)

Jenson doing the baton hand off.

Sponge/water race-Jenson

Sponge/water race-Maron

Maron and her good friend Makenna

Maron and Makenna doing the three legged race

Nanette, Mrs. Mason (Brooklon's awesome sixth grade teacher), India, Brooklon, and Emerie.

Brooklon and Emerie. It's not often you get to be in the same class as your cousin

Brooklon and Nanette

Brooklon and Josh. (all of the boys in Brooklon's class minus one have been really cute, kind, and like a brother to Brooklon. The minus one boy is a whole other story- we'll talk about that later.)

Brooklon and her good friend India

Brooklon at the sponge/water relay race

Brooklon-relay race!

Brooklon and Emerie

6th graders against the faculty. Score 19 to 15 faculty :(

A portion of Brooklon's class doing a silly picture.

It was fun to spend the day watching the kids participate in field day. What a fun year this has been.

Relief Society: Something Extraordinary

Happy 16th Birthday Landon

*Sorry the pictures are backwards

Maron, Brooklon, and Emerie had their own little get together during Landon's party. They sure have a fun time together. Can I just say one more time how sad I am that Brooklon and all of her cute cute girl friends will be split next year. I'm hoping to have them still get together often.
It started raining hard while at the park. Thanks to Grandma Brooks we were able to move the party to the great room at Grandma's. We watched a movie (Despicable Me) projected on the wall and ate ice cream. Landon has a nice group of friends. Kids came and went steadily all night long.

We rented a huge game of Twister at BYU and played it at the party before it started to rain....hard.

I think the Twister game was a fun thing to start off with. As more showed up they just jumped right in.

They listened to music as they visited and played.

-We barbecued hamburgers, hot dogs with chips and soda.

-We had a table set up with a paper table cloth so everyone could write birthday wishes to Landon.

-Landon did a little show with liquid nitrogen. I think the kids enjoyed this more than anything. Maybe a little too much at times! (Some kids/kid!!! got a little too crazy.) All in all it turned out good thanks again to Grandma for helping us out when it got really wet out.

Gavon is a full time job. We'll leave it at that.:)

I am going to be so excited when they cut this cast off. You have no idea. (It's starting to stink...bad!)

I'm sure no one will be happier than Gavon though. He is being such a trooper. It's not easy being stuck in that thing.

The other day was "Beach Day" for Brooklon at school.

Maron thought it was Hippie Day until she got to school and realized it wasn't anything for her class. The peace necklace and cool head band came off real quick. She still looks cute though.
Feild day is tomorrow. I'm hoping to get up to the school to get a lot of pictures.

Happy Sweet 16 To My Sweet Landon

*Is he not just so handsome? I'm a proud mom. I couldn't be more pleased. I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father sent Landon to our family.
7a.m. Landon was at the DMV getting his license so he could drive to school. He drove to school and then called after school to see if I needed anything or anyone picked up.- I could totally get use to this :).

-He had been promising the younger brothers that he would take them fishing on his birthday after school. After picking up the kids from school he took all of the boys minus Gavon and Christian fishing and caught 3 fish.

We had Landons favorite dinner of chicken enchiladas and his favorite birthday treat of cheese cake. Saturday we will have a fun friend party at the park. We'll share those pictures then.

16 things we love and adore about Landon

1. He is genuinely a good person.

2. He cares about others no matter what.

3. Great son and brother.

4.Helpful. Especially if I need him to drive somewhere :). He jumps in and knows how to help when and where needed.

5.Honest.

6.Cheerful.

7.Positive. Always so uplifting.

8.Great example. He teaches me things.

9. Great teacher. He helped me learn some math in the way I needed. Very patient and kind.

10. Clean/organized. His things are always so orderly.

11.Thoughtful. He has a big heart.

12.Respectful.

13. Great Smile :)

14. So smart.

15. Friendly with everyone. I think everyone knows Landon.
16. He loves his Heavenly Father and makes choices that bring him closer to Him.

I'm so proud of you Landon and the person you are. I'm proud of the choices you are making and the example you are. I love when you dress up in your dress clothes and wear your dads missionary badge to school proudly. I know you are going to be an amazing missionary. --I love when you shake the hands of all of the boys passing the sacrement. You are a good example and a good leader. I love when you share your testimony and the lovely things you say about me. You are thoughtful and kind and I am thankful. I love to watch you interact with your brothers and sisters. They feel of your love for them. That is so important so that you can have good relationships when you are older. I'm thankful that you talk/share with your dad and I all the things going on. I couldn't be more pleased. I'm thankful always to be your mom.

Love Mom

I might pop if one more kid goes to the Dr.

Today was......exciting! Yeah that's a good word for today. Christian called me from Brooklons soccer game and asked if I wanted him to pick me up to go to the Dr. or if I just wanted him to go by himself. I thought "No! Your kidding right?" "Not funny!" Brooklon took a soccer ball to the eye ball and the green/blue part of her eye had a blood blister (you can't really see it in the picture) and she couldn't see anything out of that eye. Christian said that it hit her so hard that it knocked her down and she was kind of in shock. He thought she was going to throw up. ---I thought "We are really being tested it seems." But actually we are trully blessed. I know Heavenly Father is watching out for us. There may be bumps in the road but nothing we can't handle with Heavenly Father helping us.--They said to watch her vision/pain/swelling and it should go back to normal in the next week or two. -- I think I'm going to make everyone stay in bed tomorrow and not move just so I can breath for a minute :).
*Just an update for journal sake-This morning (the next day) Brooklon's eye is already looking better.

Alvin, Simon, and Theodore!

Shriner's Hospital

Sully, Mike, Jordon, and Gavon-These characters were at Shrinners Hospital. Shrinners Hospital is trully an incredible hospital. What a blessing they are to families. They asked us if we understood how their hospital worked and we had no idea. I was a tad bit concerned how we were going to pay for everything having went to three different hospitals but, Shriner's said that we would never see a bill from them. They really help a lot of families. It has been an eye opening experience for me. I want to give back some how/pay it forward in some way. -Our Dr. was amazing too. We talked to her for a bit about Landon wanting to be a Dr. and how he was taking the CNA class over the summer. She said "bring him in next time you come and I'll answer any of his questions and ..... she said she would hire him to do CNA work there at Shriner's if he wanted a job. What a great opportunity. What a great hospital.

We did family home evening last night on "Making Righteous Choices"-By Paul V. Johnson-New Era Sept 2010. Next week Brooklon and Maron are doing the lesson.

Today is Pirate day for Jenson's class.

We have a Dr. appt. for Gavon at Shrinners Hospital.

Tomorrow is a very special day at our house. Landon is turning 16 and is going to be driving. He has been waiting and preparing for this day. I believe he's ready. I think he said something about 7 dates in 7 days too ? :) I'll do my "birthday praise" post tomorrow.

Today is going to be a great day!

Saturday

(Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Wray for the fun gift. It came at the perfect time)-When Christian came up stairs to see what special gift Gavon got, Gavon says to Christian "Look what your mom sent me, she's my grandma". It was kind of funny

Saturday wrongly starts at 5 a.m.!

We had been up a couple of times with Gavon during the night so when the phone rang at 5 a.m. I couldn't figure out what was actually ringing. By the time I had figured it was the phone and had answered it the caller had hung up. I remembered that the boys had made plans to go fishing at 5:30 and went to wake them up. I think we had all been in a deep sleep. Landon said he had set his alarm but at some point turned it off. --Landon and Trenton went fishing and then to an all day service project to help pay for scout camp. -- We watched Brooklons soccer game (got sun burnt)--swung on the swings with Gavon and took pictures of him going down the slide with Jenson and Jordon-- Jenson and Jordon have rode their scooters and jumped on the trampoline all day--ran kids to friends houses and birthday parties--planted in the garden--made bread, rolls, and bread sticks--made dinner--It has been a pretty productive day I must say so myself. We are ready to go to bed.

Quote for the day: "You are finished when you quit."