Little softball player

 Last year Katie really wanted to play baseball but I decided I wanted her to be a little older so I told her she would have to wait until this year to play.  When it came time to sign up the boys for baseball, I couldn't believe how much it would cost for her to play.  So I decided to try softball with the rec center.  I signed her up with two of her friends so she was pretty excited.  She really liked it and had so much fun playing in the spring that we decided to sign her up for summer softball too!

 Every time she was on deck she would turn and give us a great smile and wave at us as she was walking up to bat.

 She did pretty good at bat and hit the ball almost every time she got up to bat

 She frequently played catcher in the spring.  She tried it once in the summer and got so hot that she said she was never going to be catcher again.

I love that fat little face smashed into the catcher's mask!  It is so much fun to watch Katie play softball.  I'm glad that she likes it and hopes she can stick with it for a long time!

Our first graduate

It's really hard to believe that the little boy that I just barely sent off to Kindergarten, graduated from high school.  I can still remember that first day of school.  He was so nervous and scared but he didn't cry or complain.  He just walked into the class and stood in line and looked at me with his big blue eyes.  He looked so nervous but he did it because he knew that was what he was suppose to do.  He continued to be like that throughout all his school years.  He has always been the kid who liked to do the right thing.

I wanted to have a party for Jadon to celebrate his graduation.  I decided to invite all the seniors in our ward who were graduating to join us.  Jadon has grown up with these kids

We had a bar-b-q and played volleyball and ultimate frisbee.  Everyone had a great time!

                   Most of the seniors from our ward (plus a few kids that came to the party)

The day of graduation, we took Jadon to Outback steakhouse for a late lunch.  Grandma Byers and Granddad joined us.

Handsome graduate!

Dale and Jadon

Dale, Jadon and me

Me and my little boy (ok, not so little)

Jadon and some boys from our ward that he has been friends with since 2nd grade
(Jadon, Nick, Zack and Andrew)

The graduation ceremony was actually pretty cool!  We had been told that it was always really long and boring so we were expecting the worst.  It was so neat to see all the kids come out at the beginning and to see Jadon on the jumbo tron at the Energy Solutions Arena.  I'm so proud of Jadon and all that he has accomplished.  He has always tried hard to get good grades.  He joined the ultimate frisbee team and became a good player.  I'm so excited for him to begin the next adventure of his life as he serves as a missionary in New Hampshire.  I couldn't have asked for a better son!

Mother's Day/43rd birthday

 I had a great Mother's day and birthday this year!  They were exactly one week apart this year.  The day before Mother's day, Dale took me out to breakfast at Village Inn.  It's always nice to go out with just the two of us.  My family was so nice to me on Mother's day.  They let me sleep in and got up and made breakfast.  Then after church, they started making dinner.  Every kid helped make part of the dinner and they wouldn't let me help clean up.  It's really hard for me to just sit on the couch and not help.  I love my family so much and I'm thankful for them every day!

 My birthday was on Sunday and I had a meeting in the morning so I wasn't able to sleep in.  Oh well.  When I came home from my meeting there were 4 cakes from Nothing Bundt cakes on the counter.  Jadon and Dale had a communication problem the day before and they both picked up 2 cakes.  We had yummy cake every day for a week!  Earlier in the year (March) Dale told me that he had bought Brian Regan tickets for me for my birthday.  We went  to the show at the end of April and it was so much fun!

 I had fun with my family for my birthday and Mother's day.  They are so sweet and I love that they know me so well and treat me so special on special days!

The mission call

I couldn't believe that the day was finally here for Jadon to turn in his mission papers.  Because of busy schedules, we had a hard time getting him in to see the stake president.  Once it finally happened and we knew his papers were officially turned in, it was the longest two weeks of my life.  Our bishop was able to check the status of where the call was.  He let us know when he was "ready to be assigned".  He let us know on April 21, 2015 that the call had been assigned.  That was a Tuesday so we expected that it would come the Thursday of the same week.  That was the pattern with all the other boys who had already received their calls.  So we planned to open it Thursday night.  I spent the day cleaning the house and making treats.  So when the mail came that day, and the call wasn't in it, we were all pretty disappointed! 

 

Dale and I had tickets to go see Brian Regan, in Logan, for Friday April 24th so I was pretty positive that it would come on Friday.  That's exactly what happened.  When I was taking Katie to school on Friday, the mailman tried to hand deliver it.  He left a cute note on the door telling us that the call was in the mailbox.  Jadon had decided that he wanted to invite all his friends and family to be there when he opened his call.  That left us waiting until the next night. 

 

 

I knew Saturday April 25th was going to be a long day so I decided we should keep busy.  I got up and started making treats for the big event.  I had made a bunch on Thursday that we gave away because I wanted fresh desserts for Saturday.  So I started over again on Saturday.  Then we went to the temple to do baptisms.  Kierra had a baby to take care of, as part of her child development class, so she wasn't able to come with us.  I was sad she couldn't be there.  It was so nice and relaxing to be in the temple with my family.  It really helped with the anxiety we had been feeling all week.  After that we went to Katie's softball game where she got her first hit of the season!  Then we all went out to lunch.  Gladys arrived at our house at 4:00. Jadon had to work for two hours (5:00-7:00) so while he was at work, I finished the baking and visited with Gladys.  At 7:00 Jadon came home and we just sat around waiting for people to arrive.  He and I both felt like we were going to throw up!

 

The snacks for the party

 

Little elder bunnies that Kierra made

Jaxon, Annie, Darrell and Sharalee making predictions

 

We had a large map of the world so that everyone could make their guesses for where he was going.  While people were arriving, they placed their guesses on the map.  Jadon guessed Boise, Idaho.

 

Jadon's friend Andrew Searle and his mom, Wendy

 

The house filled up pretty quickly with all of our friends and family.  It is so neat to have the support of people that we love with us for this awesome event.  A lot of our family was there and tons of ward members and friends.  We have known most of the people in our ward for over 10 years so they are like family to us.

 

 

We announced that he would open his call at 8:00.  By the time most of the people were there (we couldn't wait for Doyle because Jadon's friend, Connor, was opening his call at 8:30 pm) we finally were ready about 8:15 pm.

 

 

Lisa tried to get a picture of his shaking hand before he opened the big white envelope!

Jadon with his very proud, excited and nervous parents

Here we go!

 

 

Jadon stood up on a stool because the kitchen and family room were full of people.  I wanted everyone to be able to see and hear him.

 

 

Elder Jadon Wilson Byers, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the New Hampshire Manchester Mission.

 

Everyone clapped and cheered.  I think everyone was really surprised.  I asked everyone if anybody guessed that and it turns out that I was closest with my guess of New York.

 

 

After everyone but family left, Jadon posted his call on facebook

 

 

and then we were able to sit on the couch and look over his book that showed the area that his mission covered.  His mission is in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.  We are all so excited that he will be serving in such a beautiful part of the United States.  I am planning to go back with Dale and Jadon after he comes home and I want to add New York to our trip since he has always wanted to go there.

 

 

This is how Jaxon looked after Jadon got his call.  He will miss his big brother so much!

 

I love this picture!  We have the best bishop in the world.  He is such a wonderful caring person.  He genuinely cares about everyone in our ward.  There is a group of 6 boys that all got their calls within about 2 months.  I imagine that the bishop's heart is so full of love for them. 

I am so happy that Jadon has chosen to serve a mission.  The week we were waiting for his call to come was very stressful.  The second he opened the envelope, and told us where he was going, the stress was gone.  It just felt so peaceful and right.  I will miss him terribly but I know he is doing the right thing and is going to where the Lord needs him!

Sweet sixteen!

 This week Kierra turned 16.  I can't believe my kids are growing up so fast and how each year seems to go by faster than the last one.  Kierra is growing up and I am really proud of the person she is becoming.  She is very independent and if she wants to do something, she does it.  She is very artistically talented.  It is amazing how she can draw anything and how fast she does it.   She has recently discovered acrylic paints and is painting anything she can get her hands on.  Phone cases, scissors, staplers.  She is getting her own room as soon as Jadon leaves on his mission so she's painting everything to match the colors of her new room.

 Kierra has a lot of great friends.  She loves doing things with them.  She is frequently found walking to Subway with friends.  That's what she did on her birthday.  The friends in the picture above walked to Subway together and then came back to our house to play games.

 Kierra is always willing to try new things.  She doesn't seem to have many fears of things.  We recently went on a cruise to Mexico.  She did paddle boards, power snorkeling and boogie boards.  She had a great time spending time with her cousins and always looked super cute on our trip.

Kierra is a great student.  She has almost consistently had a 4.0 through highschool with the exception of one A-.  She is very independent in school too.  I never have to remind her about homework.  If she needs help, she always goes to school early to get help from  her teacher.  She has found a love for sign language.  She recently participated in a state wide ASL competition and she took 1st place in her category.  We were so proud of her!  I love that she knows what she wants to do after highschool.  She wants to be a teacher to deaf children.
I am so happy with Kierra and the decisions she is making in her life.  She has a strong testimony of the gospel and is a great example to those around her.  I feel very blessed to have her for my daughter.  I love you Kierra!

Jake is 12!

 Jake turned 12 on February 10th.  It was weird not to celebrate it with my mom.  This is the first year that I wasn't able to take a picture of Jake and Grandma together on their birthday.  Jake decided that he wanted to go swimming for his birthday so we went to Gene Fullmer rec center and went swimming.

 This year we continued the tradition of taking just the birthday kid out to dinner.  Jake chose La Luna.  We love spending one on one time with our kids.  It was so nice to be able to just talk to him and spend time with him

 With our other children, we have allowed them to get an electrical device for their birthday when they turned 12 as long as they paid for half of it.  We were really nervous to allow Jake to do this because he is pretty addicted to video games.  He had saved enough money for the Ipod and we decided to let him get one with the understanding that he will only be allowed to use it on the weekends and limited time during the week.  He was pretty excited to have his own device.

Jake is now 12 years old and holds the priesthood.  It was very exciting to watch him pass the sacrament for the first time.  I now have a deacon, a teacher and a priest.  I also have 4 children in the youth program.  It's hard to believe how fast they are growing up.  Jake is a very smart kid with a fabulous memory.  He does great in school.  His favorite subject is history.  He wants to be an inventor when he grows up.  He isn't really into sports, like his brothers.  He would much rather spend his time playing video games.  We don't like how much he likes video games but we haven't found something else that he is interested in...besides Pokémon.  That is his new hobby.  He loves it!   He has over 200 cards that he carries around with him in his binder.  He is constantly rearranging his cards in his binder and he has his binder with him all the time.  He has some friends at school that he plays Pokémon with and he even goes to a Pokémon club at school. We are working on finding an extracurricular activity that he is interested in.  Jake is a mellow kid and pretty easy to get along with.  If he's not being teased by his brothers, he's generally happy.  He and Kyson get along very well which I'm so thankful for.  We're grateful that he is part of our family.  We love you Jake!

Byers cabin trip

The kids in the back of the truck going up to get on the snowmobiles

In February we went to the cabin with the Byers Family.  Unfortunately most of Doyle and Kris's family couldn't come with us but Logan, Taeya and Porter came.  Those from their family that didn't come, came up on Sunday for a few hours.  We have always talked about renting snowmobiles to take to the cabin so we finally decided to do it. We had such a great time with the snowmobiles.  We only had them rented for one full day so we got up early and got out there so we could make the most of our day. 

Jake and Dale

Everyone had a great time with the snowmobiles.  We had 2 new machines that were really great and we had 2 machines that were quite a bit older so they needed a little tlc.  Dale got really good at starting them every time one of the kids flooded it trying to start it.  He spent a good portion of the day starting machines and getting kids out of the snow when they got stuck.

Kyson and Taeya had a great time together.  When they were waiting for their turn to ride, they played in the snow.  They decided to dig a hole into the snow to see if they could dig all the way down to the street.  They never made it to the street but they had a good time trying.

At the end of the day a few of us went on a little adventure and we found a really cool meadow to ride in.  Dale was finally able to just ride and have fun.  He and Darrell raced each other and had a great time!

a few of us playing 5 crowns

Kierra, Kamry, Annie, Shawna, Grandma and Kayla up front

Katie was so sad that Macey wasn't able to come up to the cabin the whole time but she had a great time with her the few hours that she came on Sunday.

 

The kids spent a few hours sledding together.  They had a great time and loved going down in all sorts of funny ways.  This is Macey, Kyson, Katie and Porter all going down on the same tube.

Kierra, Kamry, Annie and Shawna all going together

Cute cousins!  Annie, Shawna, Kamry, Kayla and Kierra.  Even though they range in age from 14-18, they all get along really well and have a great time together!

The Byers family, missing David's family.  I can't ever seem to get a picture taken of the whole Byers family.  This will have to do for now.

Kyson and Taeya racing each other

Macey and Katie loved to run and jump on top of Jaxon when he would go down the hill

Gladys and her boys

We played some games all together in the living room.  It was so much fun and we all laughed hard!

Kierra, Jadon and Kyson

Kierra

Kyson

This is a group of us that went on a little ride up Guardsman pass.  It was such a cool ride on a very beautiful day

It was a great weekend and we made lots of memories.  I hope we can do it again someday!