Covenant Daughters

Tonight I had the privilege to go with my wonderful Mom and with my Ally girl to the General Women's Conference broadcast at our Stake Center. 

It was wonderful and I really enjoyed having my Ally girl come with me for the first time. She is so wonderful and such a blessing to our family. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

I really felt like a high-tower. I was even wearing flats and my Mom was wearing little wedges. hah!

I felt the spirit so strong throughout the broadcast and I know that Elder Eyring's talk was written just for me. So much of what he said I needed to hear and it touched my heart deeply. 

"...those feelings are placed deep in the heart's of all of Heavenly Father's daughters. That is part of your divine heritage from Him. You were tutored by him before you came into this life. He helped you understand and accept that you would have trials, tests and opportunities perfectly chosen just for you. You learned that our Father had a Plan of Happiness to get you safely through those trials and that you would help bring others safely through theirs. This Plan is marked by covenants with God. It is our choice whether we make and keep those covenants. Only a few of His daughters have the opportunity in this life to even learn of those covenants. You are one of the favored few. You, dear sisters, each of you, is a daughter in the covenant. Heavenly Father taught you before you were born about the experiences you would have as you left Him and came to Earth. You were taught that the way back home to Him would not be easy. He knew that it would be too hard for you to make the journey without help. You have been blessed not only to find the way to make those covenants in this life, but to be surrounded by others who will help--who, like you, are covenant daughters of Heavenly Father." 

Lunch Date!

Today's lunch was awesome! Not so much because of the food but because of the awesome people I got to eat it with.

It was super fun to get together with my Mom, my Grandpa Sargent and my sister, Jen for a quick lunch during Jen's lunch break. 

Grandpa was super sweet and insisted on buying and he also gave us each a Valentine's box of chocolates. Best date ever! It has been so much fun getting to know him in a different way since my Grandma passed away. I know he misses her terribly but he seems so much more carefree since then. A lot of worry lifted off of his mind. 

It was a great day! 

Santa and The Mrs.

My cute Mom made these little ceramic figurines of Santa and Mrs. Claus way back when I was a little girl. In fact I do not remember a Christmas without them. I am so grateful they are now living in my home. Such a sweet treasure. 

Nola Juanita Hoskins Sargent

Today was my sweet Grandma's funeral. She was always a great Grandma. I have a lot of great memories of her, since I was a little girl. I remember sleeping at her and Grandpa's house when my parents were gone on trips. We would work on her sewing and tying quilts together. However, I cherish the last year or so with her especially. I could feel our relationship reaching a new and different level as I spent time with her. I could feel us developing a bond beyond Grandma and Granddaughter. We were becoming friends and seeing eye to eye more and more often as only women can. I already miss her.

(Bob and Joe)

(Travis and Sarah)

(My Dad, Gordon and my Mom, Tana)

These are the beautiful flowers to my Grandma from her Grandchildren. She loved red and white flowers. Just weeks before she passed I helped her pick out her flowers for her front beds. These are very similar to what she picked out.

Caught my Dad in the middle of telling my Uncle Dale and my Grandpa Sargent how he will feel if he gets up to Heaven and finds out there isn't a Chuck-A-Rama. Oh boy! ha ha

(The Little Mills Kingdom with Grandpa Sargent, and Grandma and Grandpa Hale)

(My Mom, Tana, Grandpa Norman Sargent, and myself)

(My Mom and Bob)

(Myself, Heidi, Joe, My Mom, Jen, and Travis)

(Ryan and Nate)

(Ryland)

(My Uncle Steve and my Dad, Gordon)

(Shaylen, Sawyer and Ally)

It was a beautiful day to gather together as family and celebrate my sweet Grandmother. I cannot wait to see her again. 

(Ronda and Nate)

Mother's Day 2013

The Friday before Mother's Day Nate and I went with most of my Siblings and their spouses and my Mom and her awesome husband, Bob, out to eat at Olive Garden up in Logan. Apparently it was supposed to be a surprise for my Mom but I never got the memo. Oops! At any rate we had a great time. 

Mother's Day morning Ryland surprised me by making our bed. What a sweet boy he is!

That Evening I insisted on us having a mini photo shoot. We took some great pictures of the family. Prepare for picture overload. Haha!

 For Mother's Day and Father's Day we bought this awesome swing for our backyard. We love it already!

Dance Recital May 2011

This was Ally's second year of dance. She loved it and did awesome at her reciatal.

It was back in May and her third year starts in about ten days so I figured I better get it posted.

I missed her first picture on picture day or else I would've insisted on her keeping her glasses on. It is so strange to see her without them on, they are such a part of her. Either way she is beautiful, no doubt.

Pre-Recital....getting some butterflies!

Ballet Dance ~ Silent Language



Tap Dance ~ Westward Hoedown

This year both of my parents were able to attend.

Grandma & Grandpa Hale

and
Grandma & Grandpa Burke

and of course Nate and I were there.

And of course after we went out to eat at Chili's.

Can't wait til next year!

Catching Up

Even though I blog everyday, it is amazing to me how much stuff still slips through the cracks. Since this is now my primary way of documenting our family's journey I have been making great efforts to get and keep us up to date on all of our happenings. With so much stuff backlogged I have had to implement Flashback Friday, Photo Shoot Sunday and Wordless Wednesday. It is crazy how much stuff I don't have "scrapbooked" even after years of doing it and tons of supplies to do it with. I always hope that what I put on here is of interest to others and not boring as heck but also still remembering that my primary reason for blogging is for my family. It's a crazy line to walk sometimes. Anyhow, here are a few things that have slipped through the cracks in recent weeks. To keep this post from being too long I didn't put everything on here, so there will be plenty more later where this came from! I guess I could blame this all on my awesome hubby for buying me an amazing new camera for my birthday (which incidentally already has taken over 4,000 photos, ahem) or just be grateful that we have such a happy, full life that we are blessed enough to live.

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

We ran up to my sister Heidi's house in Bear Lake in early June. It was during all of that crazy weather we were having at the time. Remember? Anyway, one minute it was sunny and beautiful and the next it was hailing. The size of marbles, hailing. The kids were scrambling to get inside, Wyatt was doing the dance of joy that he wouldn't be able to mow lawns, and Nate was in the middle of grilling our dinner. Terrible timing if you ask me. So, we supplied Nate with a cookie sheet for protection. This is where it gets interesting. While he was protecting himself from the hail, the flames on the grill kicked up. The heat bounced off of the cookie sheet and fried

Nate's hair. It was crazy! Needless to say, when we got home he was due for a haircut. Minutes later it was all over. The sun and the kids were back out and

Wyatt was grumbling on his way to mow lawns.

Monday, June 14th, 2010
I already posted about my birthday but I managed to forget that I had these photos from that day. They were on my little point and shoot I keep in my purse and not on my super-duper awesome new camera. Anyhow, since it was my birthday I wanted to do something fun. I told the kids we would go see Toy Story 3, except oops, it wasn't out yet. So, instead we decided on bowling. Since Nate was out of town and I didn't want to go alone I called my Dad. Frannie was busy tending to her mom so he was awesome and came along with us. We went to Fat Cat's. The kids played a little arcade, we bowled, ate pizza and had an all around good time.

Ally really dug the music and couldn't keep from getting down with it. It was fun to watch her get her groove on. Don't you think she could be a contender on Dancing With The Stars? Father's Day 2010
Saturday we had my family over for a Father's Day and June Birthday's BBQ and all around good time. The kids had a great time playing together and we all enjoyed hearing about Mom and Bob's trek across Europe.
For Father's Day we got Nate an amazing tool cart.
This is a photo of the display model. Since it was so heavy I couldn't get it home myself. They delivered it the day after Father's Day. Top three favorite things about it: #1 it will help keep his tools organized (yeah baby) #2 it holds a TON #3 it locks so the kids can't get into it!
Monday, June 28th, 2010
We went up to my Mom and Bob's house for a BBQ, along with my brother Joe and his family. It was super good food as well as super fun! My favorite kind!
Hope you enjoyed getting caught up and anyone interested in buying a ton of scrapbook supplies, let me know, they are gathering dust.