Sunday, July 22, 2012

The 4th of July

My family was able to get together for the 4th.  My Mom and Dad were down from Montana and all my siblings that live close were able to come to my house and party!  We had so much fun!  


Water balloon games.


Juliet wearing Madi's shirt.  


Madi and Kayla were having so much fun!



Shooting water balloons


The kids having fun!


Juliet loved holding on to this water balloon.  She kept it safe the whole time.  


Sam being a nerd face!


Water Gun Fight!



Sponge Toss Game!  So much fun!


The grandkids giving Papa a soaking wet hug!



Grandma's turn!  
We had so much fun!  We celebrated birthdays, ate yummy food, shot off fireworks, and enjoyed time laughing and playing!  It was a wonderful day to celebrate our independence!  

Katelyn Turns 8!!!

Katie turned 8 on July 3rd!  I can't believe she is that old!  They really do grow up too fast!  This year Kate got to have a friend birthday party!  She was so excited!  


Here are the girls playing a game.


The party place


It was a Pool Party with a Luau theme.


Fun drink cups



The girls outside swimming and playing




Opening presents




A picture of her cake.  She was so excited and had so much fun with her friends!


Here she is on her blessing day!  So tiny! 


She started growing up!  Sharing her beautiful smile and laugh with us.



 Growing bigger and bigger!


Off to school and out in the world.


My beautiful 8 year-old!  
She is so excited to get baptized!  She is loving being able to attend Activity Days.  She got her ears pierced for her birthday and she was so excited!  She also received scriptures.  She is getting so big and more responsible.  Katelyn is so helpful and so kind-hearted.  She helps me out so much.  Many times I find her unloading the dishwasher without being asked, helping with her baby sister (feeding her, getting her a drink, or holding her if she is sad when a baby sitter is here), and so many other helpful things.  She loves the gospel and has chosen to be baptized.  Her favorite color is still blue but sometimes she prefers pink.  She loves Kit-Kats, sandwiches, and gum.  She is an amazing girl!  We are so blessed and lucky to have her in our family!  Love you Katie!  


Here is Katie's baptism invite.  She is so excited!

Walls' Wedding

Back in June my friend Heidi married her sweetheart Bryan.  It was a lovely day and I was so happy we got to be a part of it.  I didn't get many pictures hopefully I'll be able to add some later.  


Here is Heidi and Bryan.  She looked beautiful!


I made 100 cupcakes for the reception.  


And here is the wedding cake I made.  It turned out great! 



Here is a picture of cute Juliet!  

Congrats Heidi and Bryan!  I'm so happy for you 2!  :)


The Great Fire of 2012

Thursday, June 21st, I recieved a call from my brother.  He was on his way home from work and he was calling because he saw a fire on our mountain and was calling to see if we were ok.  I told him that it hadn't made its way over on to our side of the mountain and that we were fine.  He said from the looks of it, it looked like it had.  So I went out side to my backyard and this is what I saw.  


It had made it's way over to our side of the mountain.  It seemed to be moving slowly and by night time we weren't too worried.  Well this is what we woke up to the next day...


The fire had moved quite a bit and was burning like crazy.  It had come pretty far down the mountain and was getting close to our houses but they were keeping it contained to a certain point on the mountain so it wouldn't move any closer to us.  They had so evacuate a lot of people on the other side of the mountain but only had to evacuate a couple homes on our side.  The news was on scene reporting and so many people were calling, texting, and emailing to make sure we were ok.  We had countless offers from people to come stay at their house.  We felt so loved and cared for by so many.  Thank you to all who were so caring.  


By that night they had contained it on our side quite well and I wasn't too worried about it.  Most of us in the neighborhood felt calm and safe.  I know lots of people were praying for our safety and comfort and we could feel those prayers.  


This is a picture someone else took and it captures the beauty of it.  It was so beautiful to watch it Friday night.  Me and a couple of my neighbors sat on the porch and just watched the fire burn.  The embers were beautiful.  I'm glad that not 1 home was burned and that everyone was safe.  The firefighters, emergency response teams, and the sheriffs department were just amazing.  Working tirelessly to keep us and our homes safe.  What an amazing sight it was to see the community pull together and local businesses donating food and items for activities for those who had been evacuated from their homes. How blessed we are to live in a Zion where everyone takes care of one another.  Below are some pictures of them putting out the fire.  


Here is another view of the fire Friday night.  









This is a picture of some of the firefighters taking a break to sleep after fighting the fire all night.  I'm so grateful for their tireless efforts to keep us safe.  


Here is a picture of the before and after.  It was burned pretty bad.  It looks better now that we've had some wind that has blown away some of the ash but it does look so different.  You can see the line they kept the fire at.  They did an amazing job keeping us safe!  We are so blessed!