Being a mother....well sort of

I have been having a lot of fun with Berkley, Madison, Landen, Logan, and Zachery. I have been helping the girls make bags, blankets, and random stuff with fabric. McKenna has been helping them make some necklaces. We went to the 24th of July parade with Keri's family which the kids caught tons of candy at. My mom and dad went out of town for their anniversary so I also had Chase & McKenna for the weekend!
We also had our last 4-H which the girls made tote bags, Chase made PJ pants and then we all decorated cakes.
I think they all had fun decorating cakes, but they were all sick of frosting by the time the cakes were done! It was everywhere!

May I just say that I am so grateful for a father that can give me a blessing whenever I need it and thanks to family that are nearby that are around for me to talk to, rely on, and just spend time with. The Lord gives us trials in very strange ways and in fact, in Sunday School yesterday, we actually talked about trials and I think I understand it better now. I love my family and this gospel! Thanks to Deven & Keri and their kids too. This has been an interesting and great experience and I hope they are having fun in Europe!

More....

Okay so to expound a little more, we went to Phoenix on Tuesday and flew home on Thursday. The amazing Il Divo concert was on Wednesday night! We met some of the nicest and funniest people waiting in line at the concert and people sitting around us. The music was amazing and I was able to leave the concert feeling happy, excited, and enriched. If you haven't ever heard the music, you should look them up, their music is beautiful and uplifting! I would recommend Amazing Grace and I Believe in You (With Celine Dion). We sat on row 26 in the middle section which we were thrilled about! We did some shopping in the Arizona Center which was a half mile away from the hotel. We had to walk in the heat, but it was okay. We also ate at this really good pizza and pasta place there. It was called Romas and it was absolutely delicious!
Can you tell that I just came in from the 111 degrees???? It was an awesome trip and if I wrote everything, you would be reading this for ages, so enough of that trip unless I think of something else cool! I am now staying with my aunt & uncle, Deven & Keri's kids. They are great kids, but right now I think they are really missing their parents. I am there for 2 weeks and so today, Madison, Logan, Zachery and I made a countdown chart that will have candy for them everyday until their parents come back.
We used construction paper, glue, markers, and crayons!

Wow!!! A ton of fun!

As you probably all know, Chelsea, Chalyce, and I went to Il Divo in Phoenix this week! We got our tickets in like January and have been counting down for it all year! It was a blast! I really don't like Phoenix, but I love Il Divo and it was even more amazing to be at their concert and hear everything live!
Their song selection was amazing and it ended way to quick! I think that we counted like 18-20 songs that they sang. They also sang most of my favorites!!
This one is my favorite though. He is Sebastien and is from France!
The others are:
Urs (from Switzerland)
Carlos (from Spain)
and David from the U.S.
We were all ready to go and would have guessed that we were going to be matching. P.S. I made Chelsea's dress for her! There will probably be more to follow, just super busy right now as I have just started babysitting my cousins (5 of them) for a couple of weeks while their parents are on a cruise!

Family Reunion/Vacation

Well, our family went up to West Pine Girls Camp for our Griffiths family reunion. We went up on Friday and came home on Saturday, but we had a lot of fun. Everyone had the option of camping out or staying in the lodge, our family chose to camp. My cousin Ryan and his wife Lanae and their 2 kids also camped in our campground.
Ruthie & Nathan were so cute! Chelsea accidentally spilled cards all over and they were so excited to help clean them up. Nathan also wanted us all to take turns catching his ball as he threw it around the camp site. He also decided that he really liked our walkie talkies and would take one everywhere and talk to us. If we didn't pay attention, he would ask that we gave the other walkie talkie to someone else!!!
On Friday afternoon we just sat around the campsite chatting with Ryan & Lanae and then after dinner we had a doughnut eating contest which Chase, Kyler, and Alyssa all participated in!
Mindy held both Kyler and Alyssa's doughnuts for them
Then some of us signed up to play Guitar Hero or Karaoke. Chelsea and I did Guitar Hero and so did Chase & Kyler. (P.S. I totally smashed Chelsea!!!!)
Then after breakfast on Saturday, we had family olympics. The rules were:
Every team had to have a person over 60 and a person under 5 as well as only 2 people from an immediate family could be on a team.
There were things like a sac race, someone had to run up the stairs and then come down the giant slide (it is a lot of stairs) a pie making and pie eating contest, a water relay, a rootbeer chug. and an archery contest. Chase & Chelsea were on our cousin Ryan's team and McKenna was on a team with Lanae. So I watched Ruthie while these games went on.
We had a lot of fun and I just have to say that I am so proud of Chase. He is such a good kid!!!!

A New.....

Haircut! I got tired of my hair the way it has been lately and so I had it cut. This is what I ended up with and I like it. It is nice to have something different than I have had for a while.
Chase convinced dad to take him fishing at the trout farm and he caught one to bring home and eat. Dad and Chase were the only ones who ate it, but Chase was really excited!
He didn't like to look at it because then he felt bad for it.

Summer BBQs and Smores

Even though McKenna and I worked all day on Saturday, it was nice to take the evening to relax. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. Then Mindy's kids came over and we made a fire in the backyard and roasted smores. Then Alyssa insisted that I spin her around in circles.