Rare Photos Indeed

While we were in New Mexico I made a point of getting some pictures of Darren's family. Anytime his dad sees me with my camera he tells me, "Don't take my picture hon." If he sees me trying to sneak a picture of him he stops whatever it was he was doing. That's what happened right after I took this picture of him playing with the bubble gun and all of the little kids. I was determined to get a great picture of Darren's parents with my kids. I don't think I even have one with them and all three kids in it and we are getting ready to add another.The sweet little lady in this picture is Darren's grandma - the kids' Great Grandma Stewart. Alexia loves to measure up against her whenever we visit. If you look closely you will see Alexia is seriously on her tip toes trying to look taller than Grandma. It's close, but Grandma still wins. She lives right next to Darren's parents in this house.

This sweet little girl with Alexia is the other grandchild of Darren's parents. Her name is Olivia Ruth aka Sweet Pea. She and Lexi share the same middle name and coincidentally so do their mama's.
Teressa is always telling me how much Oliva reminds her of Alexia at that age. Once I headed to my scrapbooks I could see why she says that. Here is my girlie at about the same age.
You can't tell they are related can you?

PS. Thanks for holding still Jerry! ;)

Wells Family Reunion

This year's family reunion was a working vacation. We all converged on my parents house with the lofty goal to re-shingle their roof. It was a huge project to undertake, but with some help from the EQ and a friend of my dad's things eventually got done.

Because of my six month baby bump at the time, Darren told me there was no way was I getting up on that roof. My three sisters (Alena, Becca, and Melissa) probably logged as many hours on the roof as my brothers did though. Way to represent, girls!Down on solid ground we kept busy with a project of our own...humanitarian Education Kits...36 of them. I brought 20 that the YW in my ward had started which needed some tlc and a missing item here and there and then we did 16 from start to finish. It to turned into a lofty project.
Pictured here are Rebecca, and my SIL's Lindsay and Kristin doing the all important material sort.

Kristin showing off her mad sewing skills.The finished product.

We capped off the weekend with pinewood derby races for the kids. They thought it was so much fun.
While we didn't really get to spend a lot of time talking to each other besides meal times, it was fun to see and spend the weekend with everyone. Having the cousins get together is important to me, as there are some in my family that I wouldn't be able to name. It's always fun to see how much the little ones have grown.
Most everyone went home on Sunday, but there were a few stragglers left and they all headed back outside early (6am) Monday morning. Alena ended up seeing the project to completion later that week.

We pulled out the home videos and had a few laughs. We even found one that must have been the first we ever took. I was probably ten years old in it. I don't remember ever watching it before. It gave my brother Scott a good idea for next year's reunion which he will be in charge of organizing.

Girls Camp

I was counting the other day and in 10 years of marriage, I have been working with the Young Women for all but three of those years. In that same amount of time I have been to seven girls camps as a leader. Whew! My family has come to realize that every summer includes a few days of fun with just dad while mom is off in the woods some where. This year was the first time I had been on just a ward level. Wow it was a lot of work but we had an amazing camp director.

We had 29 girls at camp this year and it was so much fun. What was amazing was that we didn't have one fight or any girls in tears the entire time. And if you have spent any time at girls camp you know how incredible that is.

They were such a fun group of girls to go with!

This was my favorite view of nature. I took so many pictures of the blue sky, white clouds, green needles and dark brown tree trunks. I'm starved for color here.

This game (Storm the Castle) was a huge hit. It was done with bungee cords and a helicopter net. It looked so fun. I wanted to climb up it but was so afraid to get up there and get stuck.

Three of the leaders, including our camp director, were pregnant this year. The three of us roughed it a tent and still managed to crawl out of bed each morning. Maybe next year with a new baby I'll get a bye.

Jump Around...Jump Around...

Jump up jump up and get down.

That's really all I think of when I see these pictures. They have been sitting in a folder waiting to get posted for a while now. So while I get organized with my pictures from the last three weekends I'll get you something new to look at.
These pictures were taken the weekend of Alexia's baptism. My youngest sister Melissa is a pro at these shots and she was trying to get us all in on the fun. The idea is to strike a great mid air pose and catch it (in focus) on film. She was busy giving pointers to my sister Rebecca and Alexia. It took a lot of tries to get anything good.

Here they are getting started...Lexi just kept forgetting that she needed to bend her legs mid-air.Apparently Lexi jumps better with her tongue stuck out. Sound like anyone else you know?Pretty soon Melissa stopped giving pointers and got in on the fun. I told you she knew what she was doing.They finally got one with everyone jumping up at the same time.
This next one is my favorite of Alexia. Look at the height she gets and that tongue and hair. That's my girl!

Kindergarten Celebration

June 2nd, 2008

Parker graduated from Kindergarten. I've never been to a Kindergarten Graduation but next time I'll know it is a big deal and make Lijah dress up a bit for it. Parker had the opening part and did a great job.

They put on a small program and then the families all headed to each child's classroom for refreshments and awards.Here Parker is receiving the "Greatest Ball Player" award from Mrs. Mendoza. Hence the humongous smile on his face.
Parker and his good friend Alazain.Parker and his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Ruth Mendoza.
Parker and Eliza...the little girl who told him she thought he was cute. She is moving in a few days and Parker is really sad about it. I caught him moping around yesterday while we were cleaning bedrooms and thought he was upset at having to do all the work I was asking for help with. "I was just thinking about Eliza moving tomorrow mom and it made me kinda sad cause I'm not going to get to see her again." Does anyone else notice the fact that he has his arm around her? Sheesh...we need to have a personal space talk with him.

Peace Restored

Do you ever feel like things are closing in on you? I get that way sometimes. Things around here get hectic and I just need to get out. Darren teases me that no one ever calls the house when I'm gone but as soon as I walk in the door, the phone starts ringing. April was a crazy busy month for me and May was filled with stressful things. I needed a break but I had commitments so Memorial Day was my only hope. I asked Darren to get me out of the house and into nature. The mountains calm me. I need to see some green and something on the ground besides rock and dirt. I talked him into a picnic in Payson and he was sweet enough to oblige. I know a two hour drive to eat lunch seems like a bit much but he's a trooper and so nice to me. We had such a great time. We packed along our little grill, camp chairs and a good book. We pulled up to some campsites alongside the road in the middle of huge trees, trails and a stream. It drizzled a little on us at one point but I was not to be sent scurrying easily.
We walked along the stream with the kids.
Murphy's law says that if you play near a stream with little kids, one of them is bound to fall in...she did. ;)
It was such a great day for me. The mountains feed my soul and I had been too long between meals. Thank you sweet little family for making this day so nice for me.