Cousin Sleep-over

My sister Cheryl and her family have been in town, and their little girl Abi (5) totally idolizes Courtney. She follows her everywhere and is usually holding her hand. It is adorable! While they were here they wanted to have a "cousin sleep-over"... and Abi's first sleep-over period. My sister wasn't sure how she would do...but I had not doubt that Abi would be just fine. She would be with Courtney... the coolest cousin EVER!!! Here they are playing with the new toy Uncle Dan got for her... Watching a movie and eating popcorn...

The next morning getting them selves a little breakfast before heading to church...

Playing barbies when they were done getting ready...

And my personal favorite... Courtney reading the Friend to her while she ate a bowl of chocolate chip cookies...

I think I will send this one in to the Friend magazine... how cute are they?! The funniest thing Abi said... "Aunt Stephi, while I am with you and my mom is gone can I call you mom?" I told her that her mom did the same thing when grandma and grandpa went to Hawaii when we were kids... so yes! We loved spending time with one of our favorite girls!

EFY 2011: Kenna's great adventure!

This is where Kenna stayed durning EFY this year.... And this is her bestie from EFY... Peyton! Isn't she adorable?! She lives in Oregon, so they won't see each other again until December when she comes to visit family... we will see if Kenna can survive until then...

And these are the boys in their "family"....

And these are the ladies showing off one of the new moves they learned... guaranteed to get the attention of any boy I am sure....

Kenna had the time of her life this week... and came home even more beautiful than when we dropped her off! She also came home acting a little more like a teenage girl... in a good way. She seems to be a little more attached to her cell phone...and a little more interested in boys. Hmmmmm. As great a girl as she is, we won't get too worried! She also came home knowing that she isn't the only teen out there that is actually living the standards of the Church. Gotta love that. What a great week!

No Greater Work

As many of you know, last summer McKenna had the opportunity to do a photo shoot for Jenny Phillips for this years youth CD "Believe". She was also in her video for the song "Happily Ever After". Over the last year we have become good friends with the Phillips family, and she called a few weeks ago to ask if the girls and I would want to be in a video for her new song on motherhood called "No Greater Work." She is in Taiwan as I write this doing a tour and firesides on the value and importance of motherhood. Apparently, when polled over 90% of the young adults said they would not be having children but would instead be focusing on their careers and income. (They also had a staggering 3 X the abortions to live births last year as well!!) This is a beautiful song with a message that I couldn't feel more strongly about... I love being a wife and mother more than anything in this world and I am so grateful that we can all be examples to the world when it comes to our beliefs. I would have a house full of little ones if I had been able, and someday I know I will understand why that wasn't in the plans for me here during this time of my life. I have such a strong testimony of motherhood and of our divine roles as mothers and I hope to pass that on in my own daughters. It is a gift. I hope you enjoy and share this video!!!

Courtney's Bedroom...

Last year when Kenna was at EFY we painted Courtney's room this light pink. It has bugged me just a little ever since. I felt like we needed to add something to it... We decided to do the bottom half green and put up some chair rail molding. This week while Kenna was gone we got to work! We found some great frames at Pottery Barn Kids and this cute "bulletin board" at Hobby Lobby. We haven't put pictures in them yet but we will do that today. Courtney wants a picture of her favorite temple... the San Diego temple... in the bigger frame. We will need to make a trip to the distribution center for that...

We have had these letters for a YEAR! I just kept forgetting to pull them out. Dan, Courtney and I had a little painting party the other night and they are finally on the wall above her bed!

She loves her room...and so do I! Here's to hoping she will love it for a few years to come!!

EFY!!! August 2011

Today we dropped McKenna off for EFY at BYU! This is the 2nd year she has gone...and it is worth every penny! After checking in, we found her dorm and then ran to get some lunch before we took her stuff into her room and headed home. I can't believe I forgot my camera... but luckily (?!) Courtney had her DSi with her and took some pictures... Heading up to her room...

This is a "shot" of her desk...

Kenna sitting on her bed in her "cell"...I mean her dorm room...

Kenna's roomie from Vernal...

On Tuesday we had to bring Kenna her tennis shoes she forgot to pack...am I a nice mom or what? I told her how lucky she is that we live 30 minutes from BYU! We met Kenna and her 2 cute friends at the creamery by her dorm...

Kenna, Peyton, and Ashley enjoying their ice cream...

Kenna and Courtney...

We will look forward to seeing you on Saturday morning! Have fun Kenna!!!

Youth Conference: Day 1

Our ward decided to do a Temple Square Youth Conference this year. We started out Thursday by checking in to our hotel... Then we headed over to Temple Square to begin... we started by watching the movie Legacy. I know I have seen it before, but because we just celebrated Pioneer Day, went and saw 17 Miracles a week ago, and have been on TREK... it meant even more this time.

Next we headed to the Church History Museum... Taylor Davis left and went to his radiation treatment durning the movie... what an amazing young man!!!

This is our cute speaker at the museum. He was adorable!! The kids then went on a scavenger hunt... and I realized how much I have missed out on by not visiting before. I need to bring Courtney back before school starts so she can see it too!

This is Andrew Thompson dancing in the childrens section at the museum. I love this kid! He is hilarious!!!!

The girls were so impressed with his awesome moves!

Andrew, McKenna, and Kamree modeling pioneer bonnets at the museum gift shop...

Waiting for Taylor to return from a quick nap at the hotel...

We decided to walk around the plaza... and I annoyed the kids by taking a bazillion pictures!

Aren't they adorable?! Nice "rabbit ears" on McKenna by Andrew.... you can always count on the boys...

McKenna and Kamree looking very sassy... thinking of their future husbands and Temple marriages?....

Andrew decided he needed a quick nap on a bench...

Lovely ladies enjoying the beautiful view...

After a delicious dinner at the Lion House where we all consumed way too much food we headed to the Salt Lake Cemetary for a scavenger hunt to find the tombstones of Prophets and other important leaders of the church. We did lots of walking... which was good in helping us work off a little bit of our dinner...

We ended by finding President Hinckley's grave. I sure loved him...

We then headed to "Hires" because our growing boys decided they needed ice cream. Andrew built this huge "pillar of salt" and had lots of the other guest cheering him on and bringing him the salt off of their tables...

The day ended with a dip in the pool.... ewwwwwwww. Don't even ask me why.....

What a great day and great kids! I am so glad the Young Women leaders asked me to go!

Youth Conference: Day 2

We started off this morning by beating the boys down to the lobby... the girls were VERY proud of that!! After a quick breakfast we headed over to Temple Square... first we met up with sister missionaries for a program they call "Called to Serve." It was great and we really enjoyed feeling the Spirit and being strengthened by their testimonies. After that we headed up to the "roof" of the conference Center for a tour...

This was a picture I took of our group with our adorable tour guide. It is amazing to get the views of the valley and of Temple Square from up there...

Next we attended an "organ recital" at the Tabernacle. These kids were great! No issues... no drama! Just FUN!!!!

Next a scavenger hunt at Deseret Book. Our guide showed us some of the beautiful artwork and replicas of scriptures Joseph Smith and Emma had. Very cool.

We then got to attend a "cooking class" with the head chef at the Lion House... he was hilarious and sold the kids on being able to cook when you head off to college...

We then headed to the Family History Center in the JSMB for a class on using the family search program...

Our team had to have a name... and we were "Special Sauce"... Andrew Thompsons nickname...

Here is a cute shot of all the kids... and we didn't even help them pose! They did it all by themselves!!! How cute are they?!

Our last event was a nice dinner and guest speaker... here are Andrew, McKenna, and Tanner.

And here are Abby, Sister Randall, Kamree, Taylor, Brother Griffiths and Brother Higbee...

And here are the kids posing with our guest speaker....Dennis Gaunt. He is the author of the new book "Bad Guys of the Book of Mormon." He was FANTASTIC!!! Youth Conference was amazing...and our youth are the BEST! Thanks for some wonderful memories!!