My Trip to Las Vegas

A little over a week ago, I got a phone call from Mike.  It was about 2:00 pm on  Friday March 4th afternoon.  He said "Do you want to go to Vegas this weekend for Hailey's blessing?"  I was shocked but of course I said "YES!".  Hailey is my baby brother Jeff's brand new baby girl.  I hadn't had the chance to see her other than in pictures and was so excited to get to go for the blessing.

It made for a crazy busy night though.  My flight was scheduled to leave at 8 am on Saturday morning and we had Ryan's birthday party with his friends scheduled for Friday night.  So I rushed around and got all my responsibilities for church on Sunday covered, did some laundry, packed and took care of Ryan's party.

I got up bright and early, before the sun actually, and headed to the airport in Denver.  I boarded the plane and was on my way.  I hadn't even told Jeff  and Erika I was coming.  I had talked to Steve who started working on some plans for all of us to get together for Saturday night.  (he did this carefully so as to not let Jeff know I would be there) and I talked to Kevin who offered to let me stay at his place and pick me up from the airport.  I was so excited.

My plan was to just show up on Jeff's doorstep to surprise him, but since he lives all the way across town and I didn't want to show up and him not be there, I decided to let him know I was there.  I texted him and asked what he was doing, he said not much and asked what I was doing.  I said "not much" and in the next text said "just sitting and visiting with Kevin and Cassie and the boys".  He said "You're in Vegas?"  and I said "yes."  He said it made him tearful to know I was there, and that made me so happy.  I know he was happy and excited I was able to make the trip. It wasn't long before he and Erika and my sweet little niece were over there too.  She is so beautiful and perfect and I hogged her as much as I could.

The next morning we all went to church.  It was so nice to have all of my brothers and their wives as well as my dad and his wife there.  It has been a long time since we were all in church together (except for all the funerals in the last few years).  Jeff pronounced a beautiful blessing on Hailey and christened her HAILEY SHIRLENE PIERCE.  They named her after mom.  That's very fitting since she is the first baby girl born since mom's passing (not to mention the first baby girl with the last name Pierce in our family in over 25 years)  Anyway, I know that mom was looking down on us that day, she was with us in spirit and was so proud of Jeff for being able to bless his baby girl, and she was probably beaming knowing that all her boys were in church.  I am sure she would like to see them there more often.

After church a few of us went back to Jeff and Erika's house for some lunch.  We had a great visit. It was a beautiful day.  I took some time to take a few photos of Hailey in her blessing dress.  Here they are.

 She is such a cutey and such a good baby.  Jeff and Erika are so lucky.  She has red hair and I can't help but wonder what color her eyes will be.

Well I visited with Steve and Bree, and Kevin and Cass and all the boys a bit more and then it was time to head back home.  It was a really quick two day trip, over one day and back the next, but it was so worth it to see the smile on Jeff's face when he saw that I really was there.

Many thanks to my wonderful husband for making it possible, and to his work travel that made the trip virtually free.

Cub Scout Advancements

Last night was a big night for 2 of my boys.  It was our pack meeting and both boys have been working very hard to make their rank advancements.  First was Jacob.  He earned his Wolf Badge as well as one gold arrowpoint and 4 silver arrowpoints.  Here are some photos.

Ryan has been working very hard.  He earned 2 Webelos Badges, (Citizen, Showman, and Scientist), his Outdoor Activity Badge, his Compass Points Emblem and all of the Compass Point pins, his Webelos Badge, the Special 20 Award, his religious emblem (the square knot), and his Arrow of Light.  I am so proud of him for working so hard and going the extra mile, doing more than was necessary to advance.

Way to go boys I am soooooo proud!!!!

My oldest boy is turning 11

It's so hard to believe that Ryan is 11 years old today.  Where has the time gone?  It seems like just yesterday that they laid this little boy on my chest.  Here is what he looked like just minutes after being born.

Here is another when he was just a few days old.

He has grown and changed so much and I am very proud of the young man he is becoming.

The last few months he has been working very hard to finish his Webelos.  He decided to not just finish with the minimum required to get his webelos rank, but to complete ALL 20 of the webelos badges.  I am so happy to say that he accomplished his goal.  Many thanks to his scout leaders that helped him along the way, but he has worked very hard.  This Thursday at the Blue and Gold Banquet he will not only advance his rank, but he will earn all the compass points, his square knot (religious award), and his Arrow of Light.  I am so proud of him.  I will post some pics from that event later this week.

Well, here is a couple of pictures of my boy today on his birthday!  I am so proud to call him my son!  Happy Birthday Ryan!

To see how RYan has changed through the years, go to my facebook profile here for a whole bunch of pictures of him from birth to present.

Ryan's Wrestling Tournament

Last Weekend Ryan participated in his first wrestling tournament.  We are still trying to figure out if wrestling is something he is really interested in so I was glad it was a tournament that I didn't have to get him all the gear to participate in.

I am not sure if he really knew what to expect as he went in to his first match.  He was pinned rather quickly.  His second match however, he fought pretty hard and he pinned his opponent.  He knew going in to his 3 match that it was going to be a tough one. (he was going against the guy who hadn't lost yet that day).  He went in with a good attitude and fought hard.  He held on through almost all 3 periods.  His opponent was ahead by points, but Ryan was fighting hard to avoid the pin.  He was getting very tired and was finally pinned just before the end of the 3 period.  He ended up getting a third place metal for thte tournament and We were very proud of him for trying his best. 

I think he could have beat the first guy if he had one of his coaches with him, (but they were all occupied with other kids when it was Ryan's turn) and if he would have known a bit more what to expect.  I think he will do well in the future if he decides to continue with wrestling.  As for this tournament, it was all about getting some experience and deciding if he likes it enough to stick with it.  If he wrestles next year we will get him proper gear.

Here are a couple of photos of him.

Go COUGARS!!!!!!!

So in our family we are HUGE BYU COUGARS fans.  Perhaps because Mike and I both attended BYU and have a tremendous love for the school itself.  Perhaps because all of our children have expressed an interest to attend there.  Perhaps because of what the school stands for.  Perhaps it is because they do have good sports teams.  Whatever the reason we LOVE BYU.  I especially love BYU basketball!!!

We knew we would be attending the BYU vs. CSU game as soon as we saw the schedule.  We managed to buy our tickets just in time as it was  a sold out croud for the first time since 2005.  That's amazing since the stadium only holds a little over 8000 fans.  That seems so small when compared to the 23000 the Marriott Center holds and sells out regularly.

This has been a great year for BYU basketball.  Jimmer Fredette is the leading scoreer in the NCAA and he is backed up by an outstanding team of starters and bench players.  The team is ranked #9 in the NCAA and #2 in the Mountain West Conference. (only outdone in the MWC by SDSU ranked #6 and undefeated)  BYU lost one game this season to UCLA which was a bummer, but we are hoping they can hold the losses to that one.  A win over SDSU this next week would be awesome, but is going to be tough.

Anyway this past Saturday we took the whole family up to Ft. Collins to watch our amazing Cougars play against the Rams.  Sorry Rams the Cougars will always have my heart.   Kyle was so cute before the game, he was so excited for it to start he was practically shaking!  He kept saying "when is it going to start, I can't wait!"  Of course Mike and I were also quite anxious.  We knew it would be a good game with two fairly evenly matched teams and we were a little nervous about how it would go.  It was a great game.  The Rams played them well, but the Cougars were on top the whole game.  Jimmer had an amazing 42 points.  Other players had great games too and it was so much fun to watch this team play LIVE!!!  They won 94-85 keeping alive a 9 game winning streak!  I have to admit there for a little bit in the second half I was a little nervous about whether they would hold on to their lead.  Thank goodness they did!!!!

  Afterwards we wated around to see if we could meet some of the players.  Freshman, Kyle Collinsworth came back into the stadium to do an interview.  I overheard them talking to him about the mission he is planning after this season for the church.  It is so great to see these players that are willing to sacrifice those 2 years of playing sports to go on missions for the church.  I think that in many cases they are blessed for that sacrifice once they return.  The girls had their picture taken with Kyle and the boys all got his autograph.

We waited even longer, then the coach came in and said the players were heading to the bus, so we headed outside to wait in the cold.  The wait paid off as we were able to meet several of the players.

Jackson Emery just broke the BYU record set by Danny Ainge in the 80's for steals.  He is an awesome defender and his 3 point shots are usually dead on!!!



Charles Abouo comes off the bench and plays a great game. 



Jimmer signing Jacob's shirt



Jimmer signing Kyle's shirt





Jimmer signing Ryan's shirt

Jimmer with our whole family.  It was so cool to be able to meet him.

The kids and I with Brandon Davies.  Look at that smile!!

Kaylee and KEnsie were able to snag Jimmer right after he finished his media interview before leaving the court.  Look how kaylee is snuggling into him.  She says she is in love!!  hah hah  :)

What a great night.  I hope the kids will remember this one forever!!!!



January update...

It's been a couple of weeks, so I thought I would spend a few minutes and update the blog. 

Early this month I took the kids in for their 6 month dental check-ups and cleanings.  I am always scared as we head int to theses appointments because it seems that our boys have really bad teeth.  As much we try to make sure they brush twice a day, we have over time between Ryan and Jacob had to do several crowns, a few extractions, and lots of fillings.  This time however was a really good trip: only one small cavity for Jacob.  Hooray!!!  When you figure how many teeth that is between all five of the kids, having only one small cavity is a huge sucess.

 Also the beginning of the month I got a new neice.  Finally a baby girl born to one of my brothers.  This is actually the first baby girl born in our family who will have the name Pierce in like 25 years.  Including with Uncle Keith's family.  I really didn't think it was going to ever happen.  Cousin John and Lindsey have 4 boys, Kevin has 4 boys, Steve has 1 boy, I really thought there was a curse or something on the boys of our family.  Somehow, Jeff broke it though, and maybe others will benefit later on and get girls too.  Anyway, Hailey Shirlene Pierce (middle name of course after our mom) was born on January 3rd at 12:16 pm.  She wighed 7 pounds 15 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. 

She is sooooooo BEAUTIFUL!!!!  Congrats again to Jeff and Erika!

On the 11th, we finally had Jacob's birthday party that had to be resceduled when we got stranded in the snow storm in Utah after the funeral.  He was so excited to have so many of his friends come over to our house for a movie on the big screen in the basement.  They watched Despicable Me which is a really cute animated film.  I had made some really cute invites for the party (shown on left).  I also bought them all movie theatre sized candy and some popcorn that I put in popcorn bags and each of them got a water bottle.  It was a huge success.  We also had pizza and cupcakes. The kids had a blast and Jacob really enjoyed the day.

The kids, and Mike had a day off on the 17th for Martin Luther King Junior day.  It was so nice to have Mike home again for a holiday.  He and I started the day by going to Home Depot (one of my favorite places) and buying wood to do a bit more framing in the basement.  We came home and framed the doorway into the storage room at the bottom of the stairs and completed the wall under the stairs.  Now all the framing for the Theatre Room except the exterior wall is done.  Hopefully soon we will be able to do that exterior wall, get the electrical wired and finish off that room.  That would be so awesome.

After the work was done, we took the kids out to lunch and then we went bowling.  It was so much fun.  I wish I would have thought to take photos of the kids bowling.  I seem to forget that a lot these days.   I did catch a couple photos of our scores though.  Mike ended the second game with 5 strikes in a row.  unfortunately, I didn't get that score photographed before they turned off our monitors.  We all had a great time, we will have to do that again soon. 

 This past week, Ryan broke one of his fillings.  I don't knowh ow, probably grinding his teeth at night, but it was a good size piece that came out leaving a gaping whole in his tooth.  I took him back to the dentist and they elected to just extract it.  Apparently it wouldn't have been there too much longer anyway.  I was frustrated to be back at the dentist already after having such a good visit just a week and a half earlier, but what could we do.  They pulled his tooth and he is fine.

Kyle decided this month that he is going to exercise every day.  He made a list of the things he was going to do and has done it nearly every day since.  Here is his list and a couple of pics of him doing his "backward Sit-ups" as he calls them.  All I can say is this kids has a very strong back!!!

The other evening as I went to get Tiffany from school, I was backing out of the driveway and this is what I saw.  I had to stop and take a picture to send to my dad.

I have to tell you how many fond memories are associated with a scene like this.  Not only is it a beautiful site and evidence in my mind that there is a God and creator of this world, (for how else can something so beautiful come to be), but it brings back many memories of my father from my childhood.  You see if ever you asked my dad what his favorite color was, he always responded "sky blue orange."  To me that will always be a real color because my dad made it so.  When he saw a beautiful sunset, or even a sunrise, he would point it out to us and say, "look kids, sky blue orange".  I think of that everytime I blessed to see such a beautiful sight as the one above.  Thank you dad!!

So, things are going well.  We are all fairly healthy (though Kaylee and TIffany each missed a day of school recently for various reasons).  It has been a much healthier year for us this year than last year was. (knock on wood)  I sure hope it stays that way.

New Year, New Me

So here it is, a new year. Many of us start the new year off with New Year's resolutions. So I have been thinking aout what things I want to do differently this next year and I sit down here and now to put those things on paper (or screen) and to make a record of what I plan to work on this year. (in no particular order)

1) Family History. I need to be a better and more frequent blogger. This is my family history and I need to do my best to keep it up to date and current. I was really bad last year about blogging. I feel terrible about all that I have missed blogging about. It is my hope that I can somehow catch up. In addition I want to get up to date on family scrapbooks. I am up to about 2007 right now, but really would like to get all the books up to date so all I have to work on in the future is the current year.

2) Excercise. What list of resolutions could ever be complete without this one. I want to get back into a regular exercise routine. I wouldn't mind losing a few pounds while I am at it, but the primary purpose I will be pursuing is fitness and health. I will set up a schedule for daily exercise and stick to it.

3) Family Home Evening and Family Scripture Study. I want to be better about maintaining consistency with both of these important family activities. We will incorporate a regular time for family scripture study to make it easier to remember to do it every day. We will also include Mike when he is out of town via phone call or web cam in both.

4) Personal devotions and church calling. I need to be better about my own prayers, scripture study and spending better time on my calling. I will set aside time every Sunday to work on my calling and send out the Relief Society recaps. I will begin and end each day with prayer and remember personal scripture study as well. I also will look for more opportunities to serve others in and out of the church. In addition, I will make a greater effort to go to the Temple more often.

5) Home organization. I need to set up a regular schedule for my own household responsibilites to aid in organizing the home and keeping it clean on a daily basis. I will divide household chores so that I do a portion of the cleaning each day of the week and make sure that I do all I need to. I will work on dejunking the basement and anything else that needs dejunking.

6) Chidren. I will work more with the children on their own personal chores and keeping their rooms clean. I will do better with follow up and making sure that they actually do what they are supposed to do before they are allowed to do the fun things they want to do. I will also work with them on better behavior and manners as well as being accountable for their actions. This will involve a family meeting to establish a new set of house rules and the consequences for breaking the rules to be agreed on by all members of the family.

7) Household Budget. Ugh I hate this, but it is very necessary. I need to do better about maintaining and following the household budget. I will set up the budget and keep it up to date by accounting for spending and working within the set budgets. As well as finding ways to cut the budget so that we can save more money and pay off the few loans we have.

8) Family Meals. I will get back into the habbit of preparing evening meals on a daily basis. I have been lazy this past year, doing quick, easy, (frozen and pre-packaged) meals for the kids when Mike has been away. But I know the importance of good home cooking and pledge to do more of it this year for the health of my family. This may include getting back on my Once a Month Cooking plan. I will also work on providing healthy snacks for the children and encouraging good eating habbits for them as well as for Mike and I.

9) I will continue to explore my creative side by hosting classes and workshops, creating new T-shirt designs for my cafe press shop, working on new scrapbook kits and designs, designing for Cherry Lime Boutique, and whatever else I can come up with this year.

Wow, that seems like a lot to do, but I know that if I set my mind to it, many of these goals can be accomplished very easily. I just have to set my priorities and schedule my time accordingly .

I am looking forward to a great new year and hope that by setting down these goals for myself, I can work towards bettering myself and my family in each category in some way. Now off I go towards a new year and a new me. May 2011 be the best year yet!!!