Maxisms 2014

Well, Max is still my Max.  He enjoys torturing his little sister at any time and in any place.  He especially loves to tell her ghost stories--Bloody Mary being his favorite.  He left a "message" in my mirror in my bathroom one night meaning for Tatum to see it but I saw it instead.  Kinda creepy thing to see in your mirror when your husband is out of town but I had a good laugh.  He DID get in trouble the next morning for it and I told him that "Bloody Mary" needs to pay closer attention in english and spelling because she sure messed this sign up:

And while I was at camp this last week he made a "Bucket List."  And on this list:

#1:  Get a Dodge Ram Truck.

#2:  Get a tattoo of a skull on his left forearm so that everyone can see it when he drives his truck and puts his arm up on the window when it's rolled down.

#3:  Grow a beard.

Well after discussing this with his father, they compromised on this:

He will wait until AFTER his mission to get his tattoo.

Awesome…I leave for a week and this is what his mind comes up with.  I guess I'll cross this bridge when I get there:)

Ethan's First Temple Visit:)

We took our dear sweet Ethan to the Gilbert Temple this month for his first time doing baptisms.  Carlie, Ethan, and I met up with Chris at the Temple late one afternoon.  I had asked Ethan to get dressed in church clothes to go.  I apparently was a little too trusting of Ethan and didn't glance over his clothing choice before we left.  He didn't want to wear a belt so he just put his church pants over the swishy athletic pants he was already wearing and he didn't grab a tie:)  So I notice as we are walking into the Temple that the athletic pants are hanging out the top and bottom of his church pants…GREAT:)  And he has NO tie…FANTASTIC:)  But he's so sweet so how can I be mad?  And all the temple workers just knew that this was his first time to the temple and they were all sooooo sweet coming over and welcoming him and hugging him.  We even met the actual Temple President who also came over and introduced himself to Ethan and hugged him.  The whole time I was just praying that they would not notice the athletic pants:)  I will just be more aware of his temple clothing choice in the future.

The baptisms were amazing as we did our own family names.  Ethan thought it was SUPER cool because on his dad's side of the family, one of the names of the ancestor was "Merlin."  And on my side of the family we have "Snapes."  So Ethan is now convinced that we are a wizard family:)

WHY I did not think to take a picture of Ethan's outfit, I'll never know!  UGH!  Just such a funny memory that I wanted to write it down:)

Girl's Camp 2014

I had the opportunity to be the Camp Director once again for my ward.  This was my 3rd year to do this as although it's very stressful and I don't like camping (at all), it was a very rewarding and awesome experience.

Of the 3 years I have done this, this was my most favorite year hands down.  This mix of girls was just amazing!  Everyone remained healthy this year--not a single puker:)  And they all just got along with very little drama.  And I had more of a clue of what to expect and what to do so maybe I was just better prepared all the way around.  Whatever the reason, I just LOVED being there this year!  I also recently received the calling as 2nd counselor in the YW presidency so I get to STAY with the girls this year which makes me SUPER HAPPY!!!

We had 30 girls and 4 leaders that I was in charge of this year and it all came together perfectly.  Here are some pictures of our adventure:

All nice & clean:)

YAY for Girl's Camp!!!

Our theme this year was A.R.M.Y which stands for "A Righteous Mormon Youth"

Our cute 1st years

Our wonderful 3rd Years headed out on their hike!

The Grove 2nd ARMY

So the 1st years were a little too excited this year on their first night at camp.  They stayed up until 3 am talking and laughing very loudly!  They woke everyone up in camp at least once.  Sis. Sharp then had to get up and stop the craziness!  So the next night while the 1st Years were "Snipe Hunting" the 3rd Years wanted to play a little prank on them.  So with they had a great time decorating the 1st year's tent.  All items of decoration were provided by our lovely YW leader Sis. Lawler:)  

Can you guess what that is???

My favorite night at camp was the Lip Sync night.  We were assigned the color yellow and the "For Strength of Youth" topic of Service.  So I created and re-wrote the words to the 2 songs of "Can Anybody Find Me Somebody to Love" by Queen and "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix A-Lot.  Two very shady songs (haha:) but I made them appropriate for camp:)  I just couldn't do a "Frozen" song like everyone else:)  But my girl's ROCKED it!  I was so proud of them.  Check them out:  (they tried to cut our song off thinking it was done so that's why you can hear me talking:)

As leaders, we got even less sleep than the girls.  We believe that we set up our tent over a ground squirrel city of some sort!  We had a 2 REALLY bad nights when the squirrels were all over our tent!  You could actually SEE them scurrying under our tarp floor--which was VERY LOUD!  It was like the "Whack-a-Mole" game that you play at the arcade!  We were screaming like 10 year old girls trying to stomp on the moving lumps, throwing shoes, and doing ANYTHING we could think of to get them away!  The squirrels were also running all over the top of our tent.  They are cute in the day time but not so much at night.  Then once actually got into our tent and OH MY!!!  We were all ready to jump in our cars and head home!  But after calming down, we said a prayer and had a much better night the next night.  Good times and good laughs.  It's going to take me a week to catch up on sleep for sure.

All in all we had a fantastic girl's camp.  Such a rewarding and spiritual experience for everyone and although I am thoroughly EXHAUSTED, I would do it all again in a heart beat:)

Carlie's 14th Birthday!!!

We came up with a new idea this year for birthdays and so far all of our kids have taken the deal.  So just like my boys, Carlie took the $100 for her birthday this year instead of a party.  She has really wanted an iPhone for a while now so having met certain requirements:

#1:  Save half the $ for the iPhone
#2:  Finish your YW Personal Progress

She met the requirements and she got her beautiful iPhone 5C (in green her favorite color:)

She didn't have a party but we had dinner at Pete's Fish & Chips (one of her favorite restaurants).  We also had tickets to see Red Riding Hood at the Mesa Arts Center.  And then instead of a cake she wanted a birthday Blizzard from Dairy Queen.  So here's pictures from her very low-key birthday day:

Red Riding Hood at the MAC

Blizzard with the traditional Bday crown!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most beautiful and talented 14 year old girl I know!

Ethan's 1st AP Camp!

Ethan went to his first Aaronic Priesthood "AP" Camp this year!  He was gone from June 2nd thru June 6th.  Life has sure been a lot busier for this guy since he turned 12.  I have to admit that I was a little worried because the camp was 5 1/2 hours away, Ethan had never been away from home for that long, AND Chris left the same morning for 12 days to France for his big Normandy event.  So with LOTS of prayers and LOTS of trust, I sent my son off for a whole week!

We sure missed him while he was gone.  We all definitely felt the void in our home this week.  Ethan is most definitely my peace-keeper in the family so there was lots of more fights this week.  I missed his sweet sense of humor.  Max took his absence the hardest as Ethan is his best friend.  I was SUPER excited to pick him up on Saturday afternoon!!!  And Ethan was SUPER excited to tell us all about the things he did at camp!  First on his list…REPELLING!!!  This was a HUGE accomplishment for him as he turned down an opportunity to repel a few weeks earlier at a birthday party he went to.  Bro. Germaine from our ward was in charge of this event and truth be told, he kinda had to "carefully drop" Ethan over the cliff:)  I'm sure glad he did because this helped Ethan overcome the fear of repelling and he can't wait to try it again!  He also couldn't wait to Skype his dad later that day to tell him too!

So since I wasn't there, I didn't get a whole lot of detail and I scrounged a few pictures of him off other people who were there.  So here's my guy at AP camp!!!

Chase & Ethan

Here's the proof!

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