Shem's Mission Call

Shem had filled out his mission papers but by his calculations he would receive his call while he was at Philmont for 10 days of hiking with his dad. He asked me not to open it, which I promised not to but I told him we would probably think of some fun way for him to find it.

Well the girls and I did a little searching for ideas when we decided to make a fake mission call. It was a little tricky but with the creative ideas flowing the girls got it done. It looked pretty convincing. They sent him on a scavenger hunt to find it, which made it more convincing since we told him that that was probably what we would do.

After he found it he was told to read it all the way through out loud. Shaun was looking over his shoulder and started mentioning mistakes that he noticed, we had to shush him with sign language. Luckily Shem was to excited to notice. The girls sent him to Madagascar. They sealed it before I could see where they sent him, they were supposed to send him somewhere close to home. So he was pretty excited until he got to the end where it said "and please forgive your family for playing this cruel joke on you."

Here he is with a sad face and the fake mission call.

We then gave him his real mission call and we were all anxious to see where he was going.

A much happier face.

Dnipropetrovs'ko, Ukraine Mission

All the tabs on the map are all the places everyone guessed he would go. Only one person got close by saying Eastern Europe. He leaves Dec. 21st. We are all so excited for him, he will learn and grow so much.

Andy & Rachel Come for a Visit

Andy & Rachel came out to see us for the Fourth of July. So of course we went to the lake.

Aaron & Caitlin got up on skis for the first time. Grandpa even got in on the fun.

On Sunday we had a piano recital, they all did such a good job.

On the Fourth, The Engles' came over. We played corn hole.

Eric is already for the noisy fireworks.

Here are all the kiddos waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Having fun with sparklers.

Isabelle has the best seat in the house.

We took all the kids hiking

Even Samuel enjoyed the hike.

It was a hot day but all the kids had fun anyway.

Sarah's Hawaii Trip

Look at the beautiful ocean!

Uncle Mike is refreshing me on how to boogie board. (This is close to their house.)

Snorkling place surrounded by huge, sharp lava rocks. I touched a sea turtle and found out afterwards that you get find $2,ooo or something if you touch a sea turtle. Opps.

Flowers around the temple.

Beautiful Hawaii temple!

Monkey see, monkey do!

As a side note: Sarah worked hard and paid for this trip all by herself. I was so proud of her.

Hannah's Big 12

For our family party Hannah wanted peanut butter fudge for her birthday cake.

A marionette horse....

and a Bow & arrow set were on her list.

Hannah wanted a water skiing cake for her party with her friends, so Sarah gladly obliged.

Hannah, the social butterfly, loved having her friends over for her birthday.

Daddy Daughter Crazy Dinner

The Young Women and Activity Day girls joined together and made a special meal for the dads in honor of Fathers Day.

We made a special spaghetti dinner the only catch was the dads didn't know what order they would get their food.

They could order noodles and salad, or brownies and sauce, because everything had a silly name so they wouldn't know what they were ordering.

Then to step up the fun we gave them crazy utensils and dishes to eat with.

The girls had so much fun watching their dads, they would come into the kitchen with big smiles on their faces ready to see their dads reactions for the next course. I think the dads got a kick out of it too.

A Few Fun Activities

We loaded up the car one day after the persistent bugging of Aleena to go to the Precious Moments Chapel. I have a few figurines and Aleena had fallen in love with them. When we found out that this Chapel was close by we had to go see it.

Samuel Butcher is the artist & creator of these figures. The Chapel has beautiful paintings on the inside. There was a museum of all the figurines and dolls he had created.

Aleena wanted to buy everything, She loved it.

Hannah and Isabelle took a theater class they learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here the are demonstrating how they focus in and prepare their minds for acting.

They did a tableau on a Mid Summers Night Dream

This was Hannah's first year at camp so her , Sarah and the other Beehives made matching shirts. When the older girls saw them they wanted ones too. So the girls got busy and made shirts for the rest.

Don't they look great! We had a fun time at camp.

Budding Talents

Shem & Dan had an end of year talent show for school.

Daniel and his friend sang the "Friday" song in French.

Shem played his pipe instrument which was really cool until it fell apart about a minute into his song. I was so sad for him.

Hannah Aleena & Isabelle have been taking an Archery class, they love it.

Silly Chickens and Silly Girls

The girls love their little bantam chickens.

Here are a few fun pictures they took of them.

All these eggs (except the blue robins egg) are from our chickens.

The chicken next to the rooster has legs!

Now you know from the last post why my camera battery was dead. The girls like taking silly pictures, like falling out of a tree.

taking a chicken for a walk?

Chicken basket.

SArah and I went for a walk early one morning and saw this bat laying on it's back in a driveway.

It had a torn wing we took it home to show everyone then put it in a tree. He stayed there all day and flew away that night. It was really cool.

It's all about Shem

Just plain silliness.

Shem was asked to be the town crier for a Family History expo. He rang a bell when the classes were done.

Shem with his friend Lauren at Senior Prom

Seminary graduating class of 2011, Shem, Courtney, and Gabriella.

The 3 teachers they have had over the 4 year course, Sis. Farris, Bro. Sedrick, Sis. Atherton.

Shem's senior photos (taken by Dan Murphy)

Graduation!

The Family, except Sarah who was in Hawaii with the grandparents, and we have an extra head that belongs to Carrie and Mitch.

*Disclaimer: The two photos above were taken by Mitch, because when I pulled mine out to use it the batteries were dead. If you could see my photo stash you would understand why, there are tons of silly photos that the girls have taken. So needless to say Mom was NOT happy that night!