Temple Trip

In December, Tyler organized a temple trip for he and his friends. It was a wonderful experience for everyone.  They started preparing by reading the Book of Mormon.  They started on a Sunday evening and read 1 Nephi.  Monday morning they started reading at 8 am.  It was a delight to have these youth in our home.  Ashley invited a friend and she and Kaylynn participated in reading also. They listened to several parts and played it at high speed, following along as it read. Different kids came and left throughout the day and by that night they were at Moroni. The spirit was very present as the youth took turns reading.  They marked their scriptures and each had a favorite part that they wanted to read, instead of listen too. It was good for me to listen to them as the day went on.  It made me very grateful for Tyler's friends and their excitement, laughter and determination to reach their goal.
The next morning 7 boys and 6 girls meet at our house at 4:45 am to start the two day temple trip. The weather was horrible, although the youth had fasted that they would be able to go the previous Sunday. Allen and Ryan's mom drove the youth. They started at the Logan temple and headed south. The canyon was horrible driving and Allen instructed all the youth not to tell their parents how bad it really was!
After they left Logan Temple, the kids wanted to finish reading the Book of Mormon.  Each car read as they drove to Brigham City.  After completing the baptisms, they stood in the underground parking garage, standing in a circle, and finished the last chapter together.  Allen said he was about in tears as he listened to them. He was very glad to be a part of the experience.

Brigham City Temple

(left-right)Robin Christensen, Ryan Sorensen, Alisa Hinkson, Myra Williams, Darci Olsen, Connor Finlinson, Stewart Weight, Trent Grunig, Joel Gilbert, Kam Krafts, Kaylee Knudsen, Whitley Ward, Tyler Dawes

Wednesday morning the youth meet at the Payson temple. While they were doing baptisms, Allen went to the store and bought a rose for each of the girls.  When they came out, the boys presented a rose to each of the girls.  They loved them!

Ryan Sorensen, Joel Gilbert, Connor Finlinson, Tyler, Trent Grunig, Stewart Weight, Kam Krafts,

Alisa Hinkson, Darci Olsen, Robin Christensen, Myra Williams, Whitley Ward, Kaylee Knudsen

They visited 11 temples in all, doing temple work in 9 of them.  They visited the Provo City Temple,  Provo temple and Jordan River, but weren't able to do work.  They were running out of time. The boys stayed at Grandpa Dawes' house and the girls stayed with Ryan's mom at a friends home.  The group had bought tickets for the Star Wars movie in SLC.  The tickets were for 4:30.  When they arrived at the SLC temple, Tyler was designated to go in and see if they would be done by 3.  Alisa spoke up and said it doesn't matter, because they were there to do temple work and it would be okay if they missed the movie.  Everyone agreed! Tyler returned and said they would work fast and get done.  They all went in and were back outside by 3:05! When we put the Lord first, all things work out. The kids stayed in SLC for the movie, dinner, and see the lights.  They rode the trax trian to Sandy and Allen and Sister Sorensen meet them to take them to the house for the night.

Tyler was on cloud nine for several days. It was an amazing experience for them and they still talk about it today. Again, Tyler has fabulous friends and it is wonderful to have them in our home.

Achievments

We are so proud of Tyler and his accomplishments!  He was selected as Mayor of the Smithfield Youth Council.  Last year he was a member of the counsel.  At the closing social last year the adult supervisors interviewed youth that wanted to be committee members.  Tyler interviewed for Mayor and treasurer and he was selected as the Mayor.  He was sworn in at the first council meeting and has his own gavel with his name on it.  He earns a $500 scholarship at the end of the year.

The rest of the council members

At the end of fifth grade Kaylynn earned the Great American Award!  She had to take the citizenship test, memorize the 50 states with capitols, recite the Gettysburg Address, pledge of allegiance and why it was important, recite all the Presidents of the United States.  She did an awesome job.  There were 6 in her class of 35 that earned the award.

Abraham Lincoln for the fifth grade history fair

Ashley was awarded for 4.0 GPA at the Breakfast of Champions at Cedar Ridge Middle School.  Ashley works and studies hard for her grades.  She is diligent in getting her homework done and has excellent hand writing.  All of her teachers loved her and she was always praised at parent/teacher conference.  

Mrs.  Mitchell for math

Mrs. Addis - language arts. Ashley was lucky to have her for 6th &7th grade

Homecoming 2016

Homecoming was on Tyler's birthday, Sept 19th.  They had a HUGE group of 26 people for dinner and about 40 people for the group date.  They started out the day by going to the Bear Bottoms red neck water slide in Wellsville.  They had lunch and played games.  Dinner was served in the Relief Society room at the church.  Julie, Connor's mom, did a wonderful job decorating, it was beautiful.  We served sweet and sour chicken, salad, fruit, rolls, potatoes.  All the boys were given an assignment to help with dinner.  After the dance they went to Connors house for ice cream and watch the rest of the BYU football game.

Tyler & Alisa

Alyssa's Birthday

I guess I was so excited about Alyssa's baptism that I forgot to post about her birthday.  Her favorite thing is crepes, so we had them for breakfast with options of strawberries, yogurt, nutella, peanut butter, bananas and pudding for fillings. That is what is scene at the table.  Alyssa is a fun girl.  She has started playing the piano, although some days it is a struggle to get her to practice.  I think my favorite thing is to hear her laugh and she loves to be tickled.  The bed time routine is prayers, tuck in and then tickle her.  She gets along with everyone, Joslynn and her are really good friends.  She loves to ride bike, play Sleeping Queens.  Her favorite food is crepes.  We are very grateful for her sweet, smiley, happy spirit in our home.

rainbow loom bands

 purse cake

Alyssa was excited to get her own set of scriptures.  Thanks to my sister for the cute little bag.

JR Prom

Tyler went to Jr. Prom April 11th at Sky View High School.  His group consisted of six couples.  The "thing" to do is to have a "day date", so hopefully the dates get along, because it's an all day event.  Due to other commitments on Saturday, the "day date" events took place Friday evening.
I helped plan and prepare for some of the activities.  Trent Grunig's  grandparents graciously offered to have the activities and meals at their house in Hyde Park.  The girls and I, with Trent's mother and children met at the house to hide 180 Easter eggs.

Tyler picked up his date, Alexa Archibald, at 4 pm and they met at Trent's house.  The six couples then went to Hyde Park.  The evening activities consisted of an easter egg hunt, capture the flag, kickball, dinner, board games and just dance.  Trent's grandparents said there was a lot of laughter, so it sounded like everyone had a good time.  They ate pulled pork sandwiches, chips and salad for dinner.  The boys were all assigned a food item to bring.  I went to help set up, then left when they started eating.

Saturday, PROM day!!  Tyler& Trent traveled together.  They picked up their dates and met everyone at the park for pictures.  Dinner was again at Trent's grandparents house.  Sister Grunig had the table set with China dishes and flowers.  The meal was sweet & sour chicken, green salad, fruit, green beans, corn bread with honey butter and bundt bread.  After the dance, they went to Skyler Johnson's house for ice cream.  Lara made waffle cones and bowls for everyone.  Curfew was 12 midnight and Tyler walked in at 11:59!!  He had a great time and we were very grateful that Alexa had such a pretty and modest dress.

Alexa Archibald & Tyler

Mirae Whiting, Jeff Madsen, Darci Olsen, Trent Grunig, Lexi Murdock, Landon Spring, Hayli Gittins, Skyler Johnson, Madi Smith, Spencer Funk, Alexa Archibald, Tyler Dawes

Spencer Funk, Jeff Madson, Tyler, Landon Spring, Skyler Johnson, Trent Grunig

Tyler and Alexa meet up with their "twins" at Prom!!  Ryan Sorensen and Alisa Hinkson arrived wearing the same tux and dress.  Alisa and Alexa are both on the Smithfield City Royalty and thus have the same dress.  All four of them are good friends so they took a picture with their phones. Tyler really had a fun time.  I think I was just as excited as he was, I was giddy and excited to help him dress. He looked so handsome in his tux!! I was glad to be involved with the dinner part, so I could at least see them together in person, instead of just pictures.   It'll be fun on the other end with my daughters to see the flowers exchanged and pick up.  

Cousins Visit

After the wedding, Kenneth & Heidi went to Georgia on a house hunting trip.  Their four children stayed here and my parents stayed an extra week to help out with all the house full of grand kids.   We had several different activities, and for the most part, every one got along.  By the end of the week Grant stated he was"tired" of Joslynn!!

finger painting!!

Kaylynn wrote a play for all the cousins to be in.  While we were at the wedding they practiced, made tickets, props, and arranged seating in the basement.  

 

Dad wore this sweatshirt a lot so he was nicknamed "Horizon"

Dad tilled my garden and with mom's help planted several things for me.  My peas, onions, carrots, lettuce, spinach, kale & beets are planted.  Alyssa stated "I didn't know Grandpa knew how to plant a garden".  She was pretty impressed.

 

On art day, the kids decided to color themselves with chalk.  They came in looking like Indians!  The last day, I kept Alyssa home from school and we went to First Dam.  We feed the ducks 5 loaves of bread, chased the geese and went for a short hike.  It was successful as no one got wet!!

The girls picked up some moss and Arianna put it on her head like a wig!!

Mom was completely bored so she started weeding the flower beds.  Kate was kneeling on her back and then sat for a long time as Grandma weeded.