Tyler the "Lunch Lady"

Tyler was helping me grind wheat the other day, when all of the sudden she left for a min..... and came back looking like this She wouldn't let me take a picture, but I snuck one anyway while she was busy cleaning the grinder :)
She is the best helper EVER!

JAERICA...

Right before I went to camp (and I do mean Right before, I would have cried my eyes out if I would have missed it!) this little beauty was born.

she was 7 lbs 5 Oz and 18 inches long

I just LOVE being an Aunt!!

Tyler thinks she is pretty cool too!
She has been over to visit us already(They came up for Father's Day) and well... She TOTALLY LOVES US!!!

OK! So, I have tried and tried and tried for days to down load video from camp, but Blogger hates me so NO video … VERY sad because I had some good stuff.
So, I guess I will just have to tell you about it instead.
We had the BEST guest speaker, her name is Kris Belcher. EVERYONE and I do mean EVERYONE should listen to her (or at least read her *book) she is AMAZING!!! The things she has overcome, the trials she has had, and ALL with a good attitude and a spirit like you wouldn’t believe. Everyone has trials … ummm that is what we are here for, you know so we can learn and grow from them. But this lady man… I feel like I have had it easy! Her talk alone made camp worth it.
Then we had Sister Snow who again was amazing, and our stake music lady was Sister Zollenger another AMAZING one (you should check out her CD)
Heber camp it’s self is beautiful! I feel very blessed to have such a neat place so close. I tell you Pres Hinckley LOVED the youth (especially the young women) there was no detail forgotten :)
My least favorite part was the Challenge course… It was SCARY!!! I was so proud of the girls, even though most of them were scared to death (and they had every right to be) they ALL did it! And because of that, I had to… I am not going to lie I hated every min of it … but you can’t break a promise at girls camp. RIGHT??
It was a good week and I am glad I go t to go, but I am also VERY glad to be home.
*Sister Belcher’s book is called “Hard Times in Holy Places"

I,m in the DOG house...

... with Tyler that is!

Everyone has seem to get back to normal after our crazy week...everybody except the little Miss!

For the past 2 days she has been rotten! She was an Angel while I was gone and we only had a few tears when I would call and tell them good night. ( yes they had a "CELL PHONE PARKING LOT" at the camp... only 5 mins (driving) from where we were so we(the leaders) would load up and come down for our nightly good night calls! Thank you Pres. Hinckley for thinking of EVERYTHING)Please keep in mind I have NEVER left them for this long , and Trav was in WA for half the time... crappy timing I KNOW, So when I got home...well, I was in BIG trouble!

After 2 days of sassiness(more than usual for her) rudeness and just plan old naughtiness. I had to sit her down and give her the " what the heck is going on" talk.

I found out that it was "MY FAULT" for making her feel like an orphan, and she didn't like it , and I owed her big time!

SO I am on "payback" I have snuggled, hugged, taught and sung (over and over )camp songs that I would be perfectly happy to NOT hear again for a very long time, went over every little detail of what we did while I was gone, and PROMISED not to leave her that long again for a very very long time. (if I can help it)

So let’s hope after a few days of this (because she never lets anyone off easy... I am hoping it is only a few days) She will be back to her normal happy, helpful self :)

*Thanks to everyone who called/ stopped by and checked up on them. They did AMAZING! I think it was a good learning /growing experience for all of us. Not that I want to do it again any time soon, but I am grateful I got to go.

I'M HOME , I'M HOME, I'M HOME!!!!!!!!!!

Here are just a few things I learned this week:

1. We have the BEST girls in our ward, and I LOVE them ALL!!!
2. Heber Valley Camp is AMAZING!!!! (for camping, it was the best)
3. Absents does NOT make the heart founder.... it just makes you VERY homesick!
4. I am still deathly afraid of heights and for good reason, the Challenge course was terrifying!

I am truly thankful that I was able to go to Girls camp this year. It exceeded all of my expectations and then some. I will update with pictures soon, right now I just want to snuggle up with my fam!

A work of Art

Tyler won 1st place for her sculpture!!

I think she did a fabulous job!

Way to go Tyler girl!

Softball has started!

Now it feels like summer can begin!

I am kind of sad because Brayden didn't want to play baseball this year, and I LOVED watching him! But we decided NOT to make him play. (I make him do enough all ready... ie shower, brush teeth, read, do homework, clean up after himself, piano, and some days I even make him floss! So, as you can see he is picked on)

However, Tyler couldn't wait to play softball this year! So we will be spending only two nights a week at the ball park. She is on the Angels this year and she was thrilled they were red and NOT pink! It is a coach pitch/ slow pitch team which means the girls pitch and inning and then the coach does one. It actually works out pretty good, and she was glad to not have to do another year of coach pitch, but as usual she is the smallest one on her team by at least a head!

(something she is going to have to get use to I am afraid!)

I love her smile in this picture!

And never mind that their shirts are an adult LARGE... Yes she looked like the shirt had swallowed her :)
she played 1st & 2nd base and did a GREAT job!
She even managed to get a few hits!
It was kind of rough the first inning the girls pitched, but by the end of the game they were doing awesome!
They even ended up winning their first game... HOORAY!

Memorial Day

On Monday Trav had a downhill race up at Sundance... He did AMAZING!!!!

* just click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can see better :)

This was him coming across the finish line on his first race. It doesn't look like it, but he was going FAST!!! I swear the second they announce he is on the track I hold my breath... apparently that is for 4 min and 33.2 seconds. Yep, that is how long it took him to go a little over a mile and a half on some of the roughest trail I have ever seen.
As you can see by his cute face he made it down safe and sound!
Now just one more to go....

Heading back up for his final ride

This time we hiked our fanny's up the mountain
I normal try to avoid seeing things like this ( I am already nervous enough)

But it was all for the sake of getting an awesome picture,

so now refer to above picture... Who could say NO to that face?

So I sucked it up and just prayed he wouldn't crash!

I think at this point... I almost had a heart attack

But by this point(still not breathing) I knew he had made it,

but again he was going VERY FAST!
My camera takes pictures every 2.5 sec, and these are all in a row

Go Trav Go!!!

In the end he got 3rd place.

He was a little bummed, but I thought he did GREAT

there was less then a second between 1st and 3rd and over 25 people racing.(in his class)

So to me 3rd was awesome!

Memorial Day part 2

Tyler and I went and put flowers and glow stick hearts(or butterfly) on the graves of our loved ones on Sat. The glow sticks were Tyler's idea and they turned out so cute! They were BIG glow sticks with a cute little top on them. We lit them in the van so we could see what they would look like, and all I can say was Tyler was pleased!! She wanted us to stay until dark so we could take pictures, but we had to get home to the boys.

Grandpa Malan's

Tyler was VERY insistent that NO ONE put flowers on Grandma's side

"She isn't there yet people" were her exact words!

Aunt Terra's .... Tyler picked a Yellow butterfly for her

She said it looked Winnie the pooh ish

Aunt Shel's was her LEAST favorite one... she almost started crying
but she was a trooper and put the glow stick right in front :)

My mom's was dirty :(
Darn birds! But I didn't have anything to clean it with and since we don't live close anymore
we had to just leave it that way until next time we are down...
I will make sure we have something to clean it with then!

Hope everyone had a fun and SAFE Memorial Day