Arizona!

Well we headed off to Arizona Friday morning. We took our Suburban and crammed it full. We had us 5, and Braden's Dad and 2 sisters, plus every ones luggage and coolers. It was tight, but good. We hit about the center of Salt Lake and Joye threw up! So we had to stop at a gas station, Braden took Joye, I took the car, and Grandpa took the carseat. After that ordeal, we were back on our way. We stopped again in Circleville to eat lunch. We stopped at the Veterans Memorial. It was really neat.

This mangy dog came by and the girls befriended it. Then we were back on the road.
We crossed the Arizona border. I thought Arizona was supposed to be bright and sunny :)

After driving about 14.5 hours, and stopping by Braden's cousin Brenda's house. We finally made it to our hotel, and got to bed.

The next morning we were recharged and ready to go. Joye climbed up onto the window sill and sat there forever playing with her Elmo.

After we got everyone ready, we drove for another hour and arrived here...

The Mesa, Arizona Temple!

Where we went in and saw this family sealed together, forever! It was so special, I cried like a baby.

Of course lots of pictures were taken

All the Fessler's that came to support Kris and Brenda on their special day

After the temple we got in the car and the temperature was 113. Crazy hot. We followed Braden's Aunt Kaylynn to get back to Brenda's because we thought she knew the way. Well she didn't and instead of driving an hour to get back we ended up driving like 2.5 hours. We had 3 cars driving around lost. I thought it was fun. Well during our little lost outing, Braden trying to catch up with the group, pulls out in front of a cop. The cop is clearly thinking about pulling us over, then we catch up to Kaylynn and she pulls out in front of us and crosses all the lanes of traffic trying to get onto the freeway. The cop also sees this and is now trying to decide which one of us to pull over. He can't get behind either one of us, so at the stop light he is right next to us and makes Braden roll down his window so he can tell him to be more careful. Neither one of us got a ticket, thank goodness, but it was sure eventful. We got back to the hotel and to keep the kids quiet in the car, we bribed them with swimming when we got back. Joye was excited and started running to the front door of the hotel. Braden yelled at Grandpa to be careful, he didn't hear so he turned around while opening the door and got Joye's toe under the door. It ripped her toenail off, and some skin. She is so tough! She didn't cry for very long, then played the rest of the day without complaining. After changing and relaxing for a few hours, we went to Kris and Brenda's and partied!

The next day we headed home. We stopped here to eat lunch

We parked on one side of the dam and walked across, which was so scary by the way. The wind and the cars driving across would make the bridge bounce. Joye is fearless, she was leaning up against the fence and looking straight down, at one point she would just lean her head against it with no hands.

Here are some pictures, Braden took while we were driving home.

We finally got home, we dropped Braden off about 1 am so he could get some sleep in before he had to go to work. I ran Braden's dad and sisters home. Then I finally got home around 1:45 am. When I got home I looked at the mileage from the entire trip it read 1651.3 That is way to many miles in 3 days. Even though it was a short trip we loved it. Thank you Kris and Brenda for inviting us to share your special day. Congrats!

Our Son, The Barber

Last Thursday were dance pictures, and we were leaving for Arizona either that night or early Friday morning, so a lot was going on. I let the kids play outside all day while I was busy packing and trying to get things ready to go. When it got closer to pictures, I brought the kids in so I could shower. I sat them down with a movie, so I could shower quick with no interruptions. I got in showered, washed my hair, and got out. I went to my room and got dressed then I came out in the living room and found some hair on the floor. My first thought was that Joye had gotten the scissors and cut one of her dolls hair, then I couldn't think of which doll she had that has hair. That's when the light bulb clicked on...it was Joye's hair!!! I asked who did and Jaxon owned up to it. I lost it! I screamed, I yelled, I cried (uncontrollably). Dumb I know, it's just hair it'll grow back. But I waited 2 long years, for my baby girl's hair to be long enough to do something with, and now we're back to square one. After I had calmed down a tiny bit I took a look at the damage. Joye had 5 piggy tails, and Jaxon took the scissors and cut all but one piggy tail off at the elastic. Then took the scissors and cut all of her long hair in the back not in piggy tails, and her bangs. This is when I locked the boys in their room and I locked myself in my room. After I had calmed down a little bit more, I went and asked if Alek had helped. Of course Alek said no and Jaxon said yes. I pointed at Jaxon and said don't you lie to me. He replied, "Well he kind of helped." How do you kind of help cut somebody's hair you ask? "Well he didn't tell me not to, or to stop." I asked him why he did it. Jaxon told me that Joye asked him to. Later he told Braden that he asked Joye if she wanted her hair cut, and she said yes. After a little while longer, I notice something weird about Alek's hair, I take a closer look, and sure enought Jaxon got Alek too. Not very bad, just a little chunk out of the front. So I go look at Jaxon's head and he has taken the scissors to his own hair about a million times right on top. Braden finally got home and helped with the situation. Jaxon got buzzed completely, Alek got left alone, and Joye, well she got butchered.

Here are some before pictures of her hair.

Here are the pictures after Jaxon got a hold of her.

And these are after Braden got through with her. The back isn't so bad, other than she looks like a boy. The front and top are really choppy and hard to cover.

With a lot of hairspray and an awesome comb over, complete with headband. It doesn't look too bad.

I guess I should look on the bright side and say at least it was just hair and not a limb that he cut off or an eye poked out or something. Hopefully this will send a message to the hair and it will grow super fast.

Smith Family Pictures

We have never taken family pictures with my side of the family. I have tried over the years, but never got them done. So enough was enough, I persisted, and got them done. We were only missing 2 my brother, Mark, and my niece, Kelsey. We just took them with my camera, and I haven't had time to edit or crop any of these, so don't judge. I just wanted to get these posted before June is over, I'm so behind.

Here is the whole crew.

My Dad with his kids and their spouses
Grandpa and his grandkids

Mark's kids

Chaz, Brandi, and Cody

Jeff's family with Dad

Jeff, Lisa, Tyler, Brady, and his girlfriend (I don't remember her name. My bad)

Brendan and Frankie. (Kelsey couldn't make it)

Cory's family

Sarah, Mona, Cory and Brooke

Ricky's family

Mi-A and Ricky

Raimee, Ryten and Renee

This is my favorite picture of Raimee and Mi-A

Rusty's Family

Lexie, Sierra, Lydia, Cambree, Becky and Rusty

Their girls

We took Lexie's baptism pictures too that day. Here are 2 of my favorites

And last but not least, us!

And our cute kids

It was a hard day, the lighting wasn't the best, the mosquito's were awful, most of us were ornery. But it was so good to have the whole family together, we don't ever get all of us together.

2 Wheeler~Recital 2010

I'm combining these 2 posts because neither one of them have pictures, and I haven't posted anything for June. The other day the kids were playing outside and Jaxon comes running in and says, "Mom and Dad! Come out and see what I can do on my 2 wheeler!" Neither one of us thought anything of it, because last year he started to ride a 2 wheeler and decided that he was too scared and wouldn't do it anymore. So we told him we would go out in a minute and see. Well we got busy and I was getting ready to go some where so we forgot. When I walked outside to leave, Jaxon said, "Mom, you forgot to come watch. Watch now!!" So he walked his bike up by the front steps and got on, put his feet on the pedals and took off! I about fell over. He was riding over the grass and dodging the suburban in the driveway. I yelled at Braden and told him to come out right then. It was crazy, he just decided that he was going to ride a 2 wheeler and taught himself. Riding a 2 wheeler just had to be his idea, and not ours.

On to recital. It was so good this year. About a month ago, Alek came up to me in class and told me that he didn't like dance. I told him that was fine, and he didn't have to take it next year. He also said all he wanted to do was take tumbling. I did tell him that he had to do the recital, we were so close and it would screw things up if he wasn't in it. I also told him if he didn't dance on the stage he had to take dance next year. I was going to try anything to get him to dance on that stage, he was too scared last year and wouldn't. We got to recital and the boys were up and Alek went out and danced great. He had so much fun! After recital was over, he told Braden that he loved it and wanted to take dance again. We'll see what he says next year though. Jaxon did great as usual, he is such a performer. The audience doesn't scare him at all, he thrives! As for me, dress rehearsal made he want to shoot myself. Not only did I mess up, but the stage was so slippery it got me scared of falling in front of everyone. And we did each dance 2 times all in a row. I decided that I was too old and fat. Well at recital I was so nervous for my second dance. The first one was hip hop and I knew it frontwards and back. The second one had turns and things in it that made me nervous. We did both dances and I was so surprised, I don't know how they looked, but I felt so good. I think this was my best recital ever. The best thing about this recital being over and the next season starting soon, is Joye gets to start dancing!!

Update On Braden

I just wanted to put up a picture of Braden's bruise today. Owie!!

Our Long Crazy Weekend!

We spent our weekend up at Braden's parents. Grandma Fessler bought a huge play set for the grand kids that we had to put together, which by the way had a bazillion pieces, they also were putting up a fence for the horses. Saturday Keenan and Calee came up and helped me and Nesha with the playset, while Doug and Braden started the fence. Wendy moved from helping with the fence, to helping with the playset, and making meals for everyone.

Here we are working hard.

While the fence crew were just standing around
Then it started to rain, we're still as happy as can be.

The rain didn't stop us we just kept going

and going

On Saturday it got dark and we weren't finished, so we just left it. On Sunday we went down to Ricky's for a BBQ. After we ate we all went up to the cemetery to see Mom. Then Braden and I and the kids went to Syracuse to see Braden's sister Jamara. After we drove home we grabbed clothes and went back up to Braden's parents so we could get up bright and early and start working again. After working most of Monday we were finally putting the finishing touches on the play set. Teonna got to help us today. She had a big date on Saturday so she couldn't help ;)

Then the kids hopped on. They loved it. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Fessler!

On Monday we ran up to Cal Ranch and Grandma and Grandpa bought the kids cowboy hats. Then we went back and they got to ride Sunny.

Alek was so excited

Jaxon was a little scared

Here Alek is being a true cowboy with a piece of wheat grass in his mouth. What a cutie.

And our animal lover Joye. She loves those horses. She didn't want to get off, she threw a little fit when she got off.

So Grandma put Alek and Joye back on.

These are some cute pictures of our little cowboys

While the kids were riding the horses, Braden, his Dad and me were working on the fence. Braden wanted to ride his horse after we were done. Background on this horse, she is skiddish. I think she was beat by the people who owned her before us. Braden rode her last week and she was pretty good. We did the same thing yesterday as we did before. He got on and she started acting up. She lifted her front feet off the ground a few times then stood up on her back legs and fell over backwards on top of Braden. I was holding onto the lead rope trying to keep her calm and keep her down but of course she was too strong. I got rope burns, ripped some skin off and hurt my pinky pretty bad. Braden on the other hand was pretty hurt, but also pretty lucky. He landed on his tail bone first so he is pretty sore there, and the horses head hit his head so he got a bloody nose and the one side of his face is sore, but the worst injury is his leg. We are assuming he got the saddle horn jammed into his leg. He has a huge bruise and its really swollen. So unlucky that it happened, but lucky that he only has some pain and some minor injuries. We are truly blessed.

Here is a picture of Braden's leg, it's not the best picture but you can kind of see it. This was taken after we got him inside.

Well it was a long, hard working, eventful weekend.