3rd Grade Graduate

Makayla loved everything about the 3rd grade! She had a great year and a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Moreno. Makayla gets excited about learning new things and loves science and art. She has made so many neat friends at school in the past four years. Her teacher says she is a friend to everyone, and her energy in class is contagious. I hope her love for learning continues as that will help her excell in school and in life.

Makayla's 3rd grade class

Makayla had a blast at her end of the year class party! She was also excited to tell me that she made the Roll of Excellence for getting straight A's all year. Way to go Kayla!

Makayla and her friends, Juli, Andrea & Jenna

Go Dragons!--Trophy Party

Logan played his heart out at his last game. He scored three goals, and his team won! Go Dragons!


Logan was so excited to get his trophy. You can't see it here, but he is grinning from ear to ear as Coach Brock presents him with his trophy. Savannah wanted a trophy too. She loved watching her big brother play soccer this season. Maybe next year she can have a trophy of her own.

Logan and his buddy Cameron

The proud Dragons

Lights, Camera, Soccer Action!

Logan had so much fun playing soccer this season! He really got in there this year and went after the ball. He especially had fun playing soccer with his good buddy, Cameron.

As you can hear, the parents had just as much fun at the soccer games as their kids did! : )

Makayla's Dance Recital

Makayla dance class backstage getting ready to perform Madonna's "Holiday"

What cute friends! We are lucky to have such great friends!

Logan and his buddy Holden

Caroline, Lauren & Makayla

The boys were pretty good sports spending the weekend
watching the girls dance, but you can only play your Game
Boy so long during the dance shows before you are done.
Mike and Jared were actually planning a fishing trip in
Alaska during dance recital time for next year. Nice--boys!


Our cute little girls The proud dancers: Lauren & Makayla

Makayla in Action at Her Dance Recital

Makayla performed Madonna's "Holiday" at her dance recital last Saturday, May 31. She did a great job and had a ball dancing this year, especially because she gets to dance with her good friend, Lauren. The top clip is from her dance rehearsal and the bottom one is from her recital. I just took snippets of footage, but if you use your imagination you can connect the two and almost feel like you saw the performance.

Makayla is performing on the far left of the stage. Please turn off my music player at the bottom of the page to enjoy Madonna to her fullest.

Logan is a Preschool Graduate!

Last Wednesday, May 28, Logan graduated from preschool. He looked so handsome singing with his class during the program. It was a very exciting night! He was so excited to be graduated and old enough to go to Kindergarten in the fall. I think he'd like to go to school now if he could. He was also very excited to be presented with his very own Bible. That was more special to him than being presented with his diploma. You can see which one he wanted to hold in the picture.

Logan sang his heart out at his Preschool Graduation! He sang 7 songs and knew the words to all of them. It was a very serious business--he sat perfectly still the entire program, even for the hand actions.

Miss Jeanne presents Logan with his diploma.

The proud graduates: Alyssa, Ellie, Crystal & Logan

Logan and his good friend, Micaela

Logan's teachers: Miss Jeanne, Miss Carrie, & Miss JoAnn

Logan's Preschool Class--it was a good year!

Logan busy at work at school. Logan and Savannah--Do they measure up?

Logan and his friend Ellie

Logan's favorite part about preschool was recess. He loved to play with his friends (mostly girls), and practice crossing the monkey bars. He is now the master of the monkey bars.

Lazy Saturday on the Guadalupe River

River trip with Aunt Rina continued. . . We had the nicest afternoon spent relaxing on the river bank while the kids splashed and played in the Guadalupe River several weeks ago. We invited our friends, the Barlows, which made the day even nicer because all of the kids had a buddy to play with, which meant more time for the grown-ups to relax. We wanted to take Rina to the coast while she was visiting, but the river was closer and almost as fun. We sure miss having Rina here to play with. : )

Logan with his Aunt Rina.

The kids playing in the river. What a beautiful day!

Logan and his buddy Cameron fishing.

Savannah loves her friend, Brooklyn!


Savannah eyes her pet frog. Logan loved catching frogs in the river. He wanted to take his pet frog home. I convinced him little froggy needed to swim free in the river to be happy (and for Mommy to be happy too. :)

Makayla barely held her frog for the camera before he made a jump for the river, causing Makayla to scream, a mild freak-out.

Happy Birthday #9 Makayla!

My baby is 9 years old. When did that happen??! I love my sweet girl! She is such a big helper and is so grown up lately. Sometimes I could do without the "grown up" attitude, but her big heart and happy personality makes up for it. She sparkles with creativity and intelligence. Her love of learning and reading helps her progress and grow in school. Makayla is such a good big sister to Logan and Savannah. They look forward to when she comes home from school, so she can come up with fun things for them to play and do. She is a great example to them. I am lucky to have such an amazing daughter!


Today for Makayla's birthday, we delivered cookies to Makayla's class, and then picked her up from school to head to the Webkinz store. Makayla was super excited to spend her birthday cash from her grandmas on some new Webkinz. Thank you, Grandmas!

Makayla poses with her new Miley doll. Then, it's off to Young Mens/Young Womens for a Super Hero night. These 3 are my HEROS!

We ended the birthday fun singing to Makayla. Somehow it took three times lighting the candles to let everyone help blow them out. You can see here that Makayla's trying to help Savannah out with blowing the candles.

Logan: My Little Miracle Man

Yesterday, we got the greatest news from Logan's Neurosurgeon: his Arachnoid Cyst in his brain is completely gone!!! The doctor said it's a miracle! Last year when we saw the doctor, he said it looked like his cyst had flattened, but that the lining was still there, and there was a chance it could fill with fluid again. Yesterday, looking at Logan's head CT, there is no trace of the cyst, and his brain has continued to grow, filling in the void where the cyst had been located. The doctor told me that these cysts don't just go away. There have only been cases of patients with Arachnoid cysts that have gone away after acute trauma to the head, like in a car accident. In many of those cases, there was sub cranial pressure that built up because of bleeding in the brain. The only trauma to Logan's brain we could pin point was a really hard fall into the window seal last year. The doctor thinks that fall probably fixed it. What a lucky boy! If he had fallen when he was 6 or 7 years old, his brain would have been done growing and wouldn't have filled in the gap where his cyst was, but because he was still young enough when it happened, there is no trace of the cyst!

Logan was surely blessed by our Heavenly Father. I know he has been healed through the power of the priesthood. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father and know he answers my prayers. What a miracle to not have to worry that some day his cyst may cause pressure in his brain, and we would have to operate to relieve the pressure. No more head CT's, MRI's, or yearly visits to the neurosurgeon! Thank you, Heavenly Father! I love my little boy with all my heart, and am blessed daily by the joys of having him in my life and getting to be his Mom. : )

Texas Brings out the Best in Us!

Anybody for a kegger?

Mike really enjoyed spending time with his little sister while she was here. It was nice to have some time just to hang out with Rina. We got to spend a lazy, relaxing Saturday on the Guadalupe River with Rina. Mike is dressed for the part here. White trash fun, here we come!(Really--the strongest stuff in that cooler was a Diet Dr. Pepper)

Like Father, Like Son!

Texas Welcomes Rina!

Mike's sister, Rina, came for a Texas mini-vacation a couple of weeks ago. We had such a nice visit with her. The kids were so excited to get to play with their Aunt Rina all week! It was also fun to have some sister bonding time with Rina. Mike even watched the kids one evening so we could hit the mall. We found some great clothes! And the best part--shopping with no kids!!!

The kids were in heaven all week with their Aunt Rina visiting. Logan especially loves Aunt Rina because he loves to play the Wii with her. I especially loved that too--Thank you, Rina! It was so nice to have a little time to catch up on things, while the kids were happy playing with their super fun aunt! We had a great day at the zoo while Rina was here. Logan loved the Big Cats and especially Mr. Tiger. The tiger was pacing and leaping all over his habitat and I was a little concerned he might try to leap across the ravine like that crazy tiger in the news recently. Luckily, this one didn't try for it.