I was going through my pictures today and trying to do some computer housekeeping and I came across these pictures of Megan and Spencer. The first few are of when Spencer was beginning 7th grade and the next few are of when Megan was beginning 7th grade, just three years later...they are growing so fast! I am not sure why Spencer thinks it is so fun to actually get in the locker, but he does. I am sure that soon he will not be able to fit in any locker.

Recently I was preparing hamburgers for dinner one evening and I could not get the jar of pickles open so I called on Spencer to help me out of this "Pickle". He came upstairs and muttered something about how I was such a girl and then proceeded to try to open the jar. After a few failed attempts, he seemed to be using his mind over matter technique and then after some pondering, he tried a few more times. Let me just say that at this point it had become a challenge and the jar of pickles was not going to prevail. His diligence paid off and in the end we had pickles on our hamburgers! Thanks, Spencer.

Good things are worth the wait

It seems that a good portion of my time lately has been spent in anticipation of upcoming events. We have been patiently waiting for our son to receive his mission call and it finally came last week! He will be serving an LDS mission in Scotland. We are so excited for him and know that he will have amazing experiences in Scotland.
Another event that we are still looking forward to is the upcoming birth of our first grandchild. The expected due date is at the beginning of January, but we are hoping for the end of December. The girls have been having fun making blankets, shopping and attending baby showers all for the new little one. We simply don't know how much longer we can wait.

So, I guess an update is in order. Many things have been going on and most of them are exciting. We enjoyed spending time with the Scott side of the family last month as a neice of mine was getting married in the Manti temple. It was a beautiful, yet somewhat brisk November day and my neice and her new husband looked so happy as they were married. I do have to say that it brought back a few memories of almost 23 years ago when Doug and I were married in the Manti temple in December.
The cousins had a great time spending time together and I think one of the highlights of the weekend was staying at an amazing cabin in Mt. Pleasant. We sure do love our family!!

Spencer's 16th birthday!

On Spencer's 16th birthday we threw him a surprise party! My good friend Kat whipped up this way cool invite and one of Spencer's good friends handed them out at school. Despite all of our efforts to keep this on the down low, Spencer had a pretty good idea what we were up to. He wasn't all that surprised, but it was a fun party anyway.

Instead of the traditional birthday cake and ice cream, we had one of Spencer's favorite desserts, grasshopper pie. There were so many candles on the frozen dessert that we had to hurry before it all melted. It is hard to believe that Spencer is already 16. Time does fly!

BriAnna, Kristopher and Megan all helped with the decorations...my favorite was the big happy birthday poster and the balloons. The kids played Rock Band, air hockey and Foosball and ate junk food and just did normal teenage stuff. Happy Birthday Spencer!!

Beacuase of UEA weekend, the kids had the day off of school so we went swimming at the Legacy Center in the morning.

Doug and I spent the last week making these fun picture frames for a project we are doing at church. I have not done anything creative or crafty for quite some time and I was surprised at how much fun it was to create something again. To be honest, though, I have to admit that Doug did most of the actual work. I planned the measurements and found the raw materials, but he did all of the cutting and drilling. After he was finished with the tough stuff, I finished them off with the painting and sanding. They weren't quite finished without adding the final touch which was adding the cute pictures of my daughters!

More Summer Memories 2008

A few days after graduation, Megan, Spencer and I started off on quite an adventure. We loaded into a 12 passenger van with my sisters family and drove all the way to North Carolina to visit my other sister Becky and her family. There were 11 of us in the van and it was a very long drive, but we were able to stop and see many interesting sites along the way.

Our first stop was in Lincoln, Nebraska and we were able to see Winter Quarters and the temple there. The next day we stopped in Nauvoo, Illinois and went into the temple there. This was probably the highlight of the entire trip. What a beautiful temple it is. There is so much to think about and learn from the sights in Nauvoo. What a blessing it was to be able to go there.

After finally reaching Charlotte, NC after three long days of traveling, we rested for a day and then went on to Ocean Isle Beach. We stayed in a beach house for the entire week and had so much fun playing on the beach and with cousins! Spencer went deep sea fishing with his uncles and grandpa and caught a shark which we ate for dinner that night! We made pull-taffy and swam in the pool, played mini-golf, took in a movie, got ice cream and were mostly spoiled all week long.

The time always comes to say good-bye and this trip was no exception. This was the worst part of our trip. I have never liked goodbyes, in fact, I do what I can to avoid them. I shed a few tears, as did some of the rest of the family, because we just love our Wheatley
cousins and Aunt and Uncle. They are truly good people! Well, we loaded up in the van and headed west. This time we stopped in Branson, Missouri at a beautiful time share. We were able to take in a few shows while we were there and had some really good food as well. It would have been fun to spend more time there, but we had a schedule to keep so it was off to Colorado the following day. We stopped at a hotel in the mountains that night. It was such a breathtaking sight. Such beautiful countryside! We finally made it home the next day. We figured we had been through something like 13 states during our vacation. Not too bad! I was struck by what a wonderful country we live in with some much beauty and majesty. The fact that we have freedom to come and go as we please adds to my gratitude. What a blessing it is to live here!

Summer Memories 2008

This summer was full of events that I hope we will always remember! To start our summer off, our oldest son McKay graduated from High School. It was a bitter sweet day for me because I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished so far, but I know that he will be leaving soon and I will miss him more than he will know. Congratulations McKay!!

College Graduation!

Our oldest daughter BriAnna graduated from BYU last Friday! It was so exciting to see her accomplish a goal that she has worked so hard to achieve. We enjoyed seeing her walk across the stage to collect her diploma and I have to say that it was a moment that makes being a parent so worthwhile. What a joy it is to see your children achieving their dreams and becoming valuable people in our society! I look forward to watching the rest of our children work out their dreams and feel blessed to be a part of their lives.

Welcome to the year 2008...it's about time!

This is my very first blog being done under the direction of my very computer literate daughter. Without her help this would never be happening, so a big thank you goes out to BriAnna for all of her patience and support! Hopefully this will be a worthwhile and fun project not only for me and my family, but maybe for friends as well.

Keep in mind that this is a work in progress and I am only on lesson one right now, so check back in a few days to see the fun additions!

P.S. I think it should be mentioned that I may have been coerced or slightly forced into this project!!!!!