Sunday, January 31, 2016

Sweethearts!

Sweethearts
Bailey has been so excited to turn 16 and be able to go to dances! Sweethearts was her first dance! She had imagined it, and dreamed it up in her mind for so long, that I was afraid she'd be disappointed when it actually happened. I'm happy to say that wasn't the case at all. She had SO much fun, and it was everything she hoped it would be, plus some! :)

The Asking
The girl's cross country team asked the boy's cross country team, so they could all go as a big group. They didn't have quite enough girls, so they enlisted two cute Emilys, and they were all set. They did it at the cross country banquet. Gabby dressed like a gorilla and had a basket full of bananas. Each banana had the name of one of the girls on it. Coach Johnson called the boys up, and said, "These girls would go bananas if you guys would go to Sweethearts with them." Gabby came out and gave each boy a banana, so they would know which girl it was. So cute! Bailey asked Mason! :)

Gabby was the cutest gorilla! 

 The Answer
The way Mason answered her was so fun! He ditched a bag full of balloons on our doorstep. They were filled with shaving cream. She popped them all at the sink, and then played in the big mess to find her answer. She thought it was great!


Could her smile be any bigger?!?
He said YES!
The Day Date
For the day date they played Minute to Win It games and had treats at Lexi's house.


The Dance
Bailey got ready, then went and got Mason. They looked so cute! Jenni did pictures for their group. It snowed earlier in the day, so everything looked beautiful, but it was FREEZING! The poor kids! They had a fun dinner at Holly's house, then headed to the dance. They had tons of fun at the dance. Afterwards, they came here for dessert and a movie.

Good thing I have a very talented friend in the make up department. Jenni came over and helped her get beautiful.
We blinked our eyes and she grew up!
After many noble attempts to put on his boutineer, Mark finally had to do it for her!
Hahahaha! Good thing she doesn't get embarrassed very easily! This might be my favorite picture of the night!
He got her a beautiful corsage that she could make light up! So cool!
These two are seriously the cutest!
The Pictures Jenni took turned out so cute!

Ha! They needed one with their traffic cone!
This one is my favorite!

The beautiful girls! Hannah, Emily, Liz, Holly, Bailey, Emily, Ezri, and Lexi. 
The fearless runner girls! 
The handsome guys! Jonah, Jakob, Coen, Mason, Landen, Alex, Brian, JD. 
These guys are seriously the best!

Emily & Jonah, Emily & Jakob, Hannah & Coen, Holly & Landen, Bailey & Mason, Liz & Alex, Ezri & Brian, Lexi & JD 

After pictures, they had a fun dinner at Holly's house.

Dinner!

At the dance!
Cute kids at the dance! 
One last picture of all of them at my house before they changed clothes and had dessert! I love these kids!
For dessert they had Oreo, and chocolate caramel brownie dessert jars, and a chocolate fountain. 
Dessert!
Haha! The nice clothes come off, and she goes right back to being a dork for the camera!
She had such a great day! I'm grateful for Mason, for making her feel special the whole time. I'm grateful for her friends who made everything so fun. These are AWESOME kids! If you know Bailey, you know that she's not much of a night owl. She would go to bed at 8:30 every night if it was socially acceptable. :) She was so happy, that she said she couldn't have slept if she tried. She stayed up till 2:00 in the morning telling me about everything. It was the cutest thing! I'm glad her first dance exceeded her expectations!

A Winter Adventure with The Hughes!

For Christmas, Jenni got Keith an adventure for each season. So fun! The first one was snowshoeing at Harriman Park. Me and Mark were excited to be their guides!

Aren't they cute! 
It was beautiful like always!
Good times with good friends!  

Book of Mormon Challenge

Bailey did the seminary Book of Mormon Challenge again this year over the Christmas break. I really didn't think she'd complete it this time. She got so behind at the start, but she is a determined little thing! She completed it in 24 days. It took a few late nights, and an all day reading on the last Sunday, but she did it! She always picks a word to highlight throughout the book. Her word this year was STRENGTH. That's a perfect word for her, because I think she has so much of it. Good job B!


Happy Birthday Mark!

Happy happy birthday to my favorite guy! Mark got a Fit Bit Surge for his birthday, and just like me and Bailey figured, he's obsessed! Bailey cracks up because at the end of the day, Mark will be downstairs walking around the bar in the kitchen over and over again to make sure he gets all his steps in. So funny! He was jogging back and forth down the hall last night trying to break his record before midnight! We knew it would be the perfect present for him. :)

Sawyer was in Rexburg, and Bailey was in Pocatello watching her friends run in a track meet, so me and Mark went on a snowshoe birthday date. We explored some areas in Kelly Canyon. Probably not our best idea! We went on a 'trail' up a huge hill, where no one had gone yet that season. We had to make our own path. I would sink to my knees or waist with every step, and then Mark would have to help me out! It took us an hour to go one stinking mile! Once we made it off the big hill, we had a much more pleasant time. Talk about a good workout though! I think we only went about 5 miles, but it was so hard! Lesson learned....stick to the groomed trails when the snow is that deep!

Once the kids got home, we took Mark to dinner at Famous Dave's. He had a great day!

Happy Birthday! 
Kelly Canyon
It snowed on us a lot! 
28 years later, and I still think he's the best!

XC Snowshoe Adventure!

With the help of a few parents, we took the cross country team on a snowshoe adventure to Harriman Park. Most of them had never done it before, and they had a great time. I say it all the time, but these are such fun kids! They could have a great time doing just about anything together!

Our fun group!
Liz, Lexi, Hannah, Ezri, Bailey, Holly, Jakob, and Mason
8 snow angels! 

We made it! We went 5.5 miles along the river, and around Silver Lake. I hope this can become a tradition!

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Snow Shoeing at Kelly's

Mark and I spent the first day of the year snow shoeing in Kelly Canyon. We went exploring, and it was quiet, peaceful, and beautiful! It was only 10 degrees, but within the first 15 minutes, we had taken off our hats, gloves, and coats!





This is the canyon we came up, so the fist hour was tough! Going back down was a lot more fun, and a lot faster!

Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year!

We had a great New Years Eve! The stake had a big New Years activity for the youth in the morning. The kids went to Fat Cats and could do everything there except watch movies. It was really fun! Bailey bowled, played miniature golf, then ended with pool. After that they all met back at the church for brunch and the introduction of the 2016 mutual theme. Good times!

Bowling!
Emily, Bailey, Vanessa, Marlee, and Annie 

Miniature golf! It was scary walking through there! Balls flying everywhere!
Playing pool....actually, they ended up playing skunk.
 We ended the year with food, games, a movie, and lots of noise at our house! Before Hannah got to our house we played Loaded Question. Sawyer was completely inappropriate, like always. But even Bailey was crazy this time! She usually keeps it reigned in a bit, but I was dying over the stuff both of them were saying! Good thing Mason is pretty used to them by now! When Hannah got there, we watched a movie, and it ended about 10 minutes before midnight. That's when the noise started! Remind me never to get these guys noise makers again! Holy cow! I think Mark was the worst of all! They blew horns as loud as they could for 15 straight minutes. Even my poor dog started howling! We toasted in the New Year with some of our favorite people, and we couldn't ask for anything better! Bring on 2016!

Mason, Bailey and Hannah getting ready to ring in the new year!
This is a very crazy, obnoxious bunch, but I sure love them!
Cheers to 2016!
Poppers! Please take a moment to enjoy Sawyer in this picture! :) 
Happy New Year!