Prom and a Birthday

Happy Birthday Josh!

Last night Christopher went to his Senior prom. It was his last school dance and he went for the first time with someone he loves. He said it was wonderful. Kristie looked so beautiful. Her dress was amazing and pink is so her color. Gorgeous!!

This is part of Chris' much larger group of 12 couples.
Emily wanted to pose with the pretty girls.
These are my two handsome boys. Chris in his prom tux and Joseph in his new suit.


Today was Josh's birthday. Emily asked me how old he would have been. 35. He was only 28 when he died. So young. In his honor, I made his favorite dinner. It is homemade pot pie. I made up the recipe myself. It is delicious. I always made it for Josh on special occasions and put a heart in the middle for him. It is Dennis' new favorite too.My kids do not like pot pie (or really much of anything) so Emily picked something that reminded her of her daddy. After Emily's brain surgery, she wouldn't talk or eat. One day in the hospital she asked for corn dogs. Josh was so excited that he went across the street to the mall and bought about 10 corn dogs for her. Ha! So many corn dogs I remember for such a little girl, but Emily ate them (not all of them) and she always thinks of her dad when she eats her favorite food. He loves his babies and his babies love him.

They all helped make and decorate a carrot cake for him. Carrot cake is not their favorite. I know they picked it special for their dad.

We all sat around and talked about our favorite memories and sent some balloons up to heaven. Emily talked about the corn dogs and about when he used to shave his head. She would cry and tell him to put his hair back on. Joseph talked about when he won him a stuffed animal from a carnival game and jumping on the bed dancing with him. Chris has the most memories. He talked about how he taught him how to ride a bike and fishing and football games and much more. I have many favorite memories. Some of my fondest are the times he held me up. He was my rock through some very hard times. He never left my side when Joseph almost died and Emily's brain tumor. That man would have done anything to take care of us. His mom called me today. Thank you Heidi for calling me and talking to me about your son that we all miss. It makes me feel closer to him when we talk. I am grateful for your kind words about my mothering skills. I think he is probably happy with how great his kids are doing. I miss sharing all of it with him, but I'm sure he knows all of it. Happy Birthday Joshua! We love you!

Emily's Field Trip

Today I went with Emily's class to the Museum of Ancient History at Thanksgiving Point. AKA The dinosaur museum.

This is Emily pretending to be terrified of the T-Rex. I think she pulled it off! This other picture below was one of their favorite areas. It has wet sand that they can play in and they played for quite a long time.

This was the group I was in charge of. They all stayed with me very well. The other favorite part is below. It is dry sand they can dig for fossils in. We then ate our lunch in the museum and got back on the buses for the other half of the field trip.

It was supposed to be the other half, but because of time we could only stay here for about 15 minutes. We went to the Kennocott Copper Mines. It has some very cool history. Here are some facts that are pretty cool:

Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history -- about 18.1 million tons.

The mine is 2¾ miles across at the top and ¾ of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.

The mine is so big, it can be seen by the space shuttle astronauts as they pass over the United States.

By 2015, the mine will be at least 500 feet deeper than it is now.

If you stretched out all the roads in the open pit mine, you'd have 500 miles of roadway -- enough to reach from Salt Lake City to Denver.

This is a tire from the trucks they use at the mines.

The bus ride home was loud! Very loud! I had a great time hanging with Emily today! I love being involved! My kids are my world!

Soccer

So, it's soccer season. Emily decided to play for the first time. She is very nervous, but thought she looked great in her uniform.

She tried hard, but does not yet get the whole concept. My favorite part is when you try to yell out to her what to do and she turns to you with a very mean look and SCREAMS at the top of her lungs that we need to shut up and other various pleasantries. It is not even embarrassing at all! So fun!

There are times she tries really hard though and I'm so proud of her for doing something so out of her comfort zone and trying something new!

Joseph has started to do amazing the last few games. He is all over the place and even heads it all the time. He is so fun to watch. I took these pictures and laughed with Joseph about his retarded facial expressions! Ha! Love it!

His Answer to Prom......

Christopher asked Kristie to prom by writing her (with my help) this funny little book. This was her response. So clever, but most of all her singing voice is so beautiful! It brought tears to my eyes. Oh, Kristie, I just love you!

Spring Break Vegas Style

For spring break we went to Vegas to meet up with our great friends. They have a timeshare and we got to stay in the presidential suite! It was SWEET!!! They had a huge big screen in the living room and HUGE jacuzzi tubs in each bathroom and even a jacuzzi on the balcony! So fun. We all enjoyed the Jacuzzis very much!

Here are the kids eating dinner in the dining room. We bought our food and saved tons of money.

I shared a bed with Emily. Not too much room for me.

Jamie got the kids some rabbit catch game that they played a lot!

On one of the days we went to a science children's museum. It was awesome. They had the funnest things for kids to do. They had a building place where they could use hammers and cranes and pulleys and stuff to build with. They had a fake grocery store where the kids could shop.

They had a voting booth at the fake government building. A mechanics. A plumbing area where they could fix pipes. A fake airport with a security check center. A fake plane the kids could pretend to fly. The funnest for the bigger kids I think was the real ATM with fake money. They kept swiping their ATM card and getting out money.

They made huge bubbles and pulled themselves up pulleys.

They had many other areas. A school, a nutrition area, a music area, sports are, a medical area and much more. They had a performing arts area with costumes and a stage with a curtain. All the kids put on costumes and put on a pretend show. So much fun to watch.

They played games in the room and the arcade.

Emily used her claw machine skills to win stuffed animals for her and Maryn.

Joseph Loves the red M&M!

The girls made chocolate suckers for us.

We took the kids to the Mormon Fort. Mormon missionaries were the first non natives to live in Vegas.

MGM Grand Lion Habitat

We saw this creepy guy who dresses like Freddy and only lets you take his picture for tips. He is just a random dude doing it for a living. Clever, I might try that sometime around here. Who should I dress up like?

The Grand Canyon Store

The kids love the M&M store. We watched a 3D short movie on their 4th floor.

The kids swam a lot.

They enjoyed the water slides.

The hammocks were so relaxing.

Just my little kids went with my wonderful friend and her two kids. They all got along great. They are just like cousins and my friend is more than a sister. I had the greatest time with her. We talked, played games and laughed. I loved laughing with her. We have tried to make these trips a tradition. On our last trip she got us matching jammies and this year she did again. We looked so awesome in our cupcake night gowns. I'm glad we got to make more fun memories. I am blessed by her friendship and love her more than words can express!!!!!!!!