Happy Birthday, Josh!

Happy 15th birthday, Josh! Tiffany commented the other day that she hardly sees Josh. He is gone around 5 a.m. (with Tyler) to do the paper routes, leaves for seminary before 7 a.m. and comes home around 6:15 p.m., after baseball prac. If he has driver's ed or baseball games, he gets home even later. He is enjoying playing baseball again after not being able to play for a few years due to lack of interest in others his age to play. We love you are are so blessed to have you in our family.

Tiffany decorated this cake for Josh. She commented that she has done much better on other cakes she has decorated!

Prom

Tyler took Justine (from Gooding) to Prom on March 27th. This is Tyler's 1st major dance (besides when he was voted as Homecoming Prince in Oct 2008 and had to rent a tux but was not yet 16 so he couldn't go to the dance). He knows Justine from his ballroom dance class. On Saturday, the group of 4 couples went and rode ATVs near Dead Horse Cave, which ended up being Tyler's favorite part of the day. After that, the boys dropped off their dates (all of the girls were from Gooding) and the boys went and set up the area at Bunn's home for the dinner that night. They picked the girls up around 4:30 p.m. to make it to the Grand March (where the parents can go and see who is going to Prom and what they are wearing) at 5 p.m. in the WHS auditorium. After the Grand March, the 4 couples went to Bunn's home and had steak, potatoes, salad, bread, juice & dessert. After dinner, they drove to the dance at The Ballroom in Twin Falls. During the dance, people could vote who they wanted to be King/Queen (for Seniors) or Prince/Princesses (for Juniors). Tyler won the vote to be Prom Prince. He had a fun time at Prom.

Tyler & Justine at the Grand March

Group of friends after Grand March

Clara, Alan, Tyler, Justine

Tyler & Justine

Group Tyler went to Prom with

Group with masquerade masks

Dinner on Bunn's porch

Tyler voted Prom Prince

Wagon

Brianna enjoys Justin pulling her around in the wagon.

Stake Conference

We had Elder Russell M. Nelson as our Presiding authority attend our Stake Conference on March 14th. The only time I remember seeing an apostle or prophet (besides on TV) was when I went to General Conference in the Tabernacle with some of my roommates when I was at BYU. I am thankful that everything worked out so that Lon & I could attend the Saturday night adult session, which was full almost to the stage. Lon’s parents surprised us by coming to the meeting because the 4 elders that live with them needed a ride. I was expecting to know when he walked in so that maybe we could shake his hand, but he was past me before I realized it. He talked to us that night about having family prayers, family home evenings, and family scripture time. He also told us it is never perfect, but to keep trying. He said that he and his wife struggled with their children also. Kids will always be kids, there will be interruptions, it will seem like nothing is getting through to them, but just to keep trying. I also learned he is a man who loves languages. He enjoys taking words apart, finding their meaning, roots and origins. We know they were expecting a big crowd, so we got there around 8:30 a.m. and were able to get a seat in the chapel. This session was also shown in Gooding so the Stake Center was not as full as they had planned on, even though most of the chairs were full. The main thing I remember from Sunday is that we need to endure to the end. We all have trials and things we go through that will test our faith. We need to remember that we can pray to Heavenly Father for the strength to get us through our trials. After the meeting was over, all of our family was able to go and shake his hand. We are all so thankful for the opportunity of having an apostle come to Wendell.

Glasses?

Happy Birthday, Brianna!

Our little Brianna turns 2 years old today! She is our little Energizer bunny and doesn't stop except for when she is asleep. She is so much fun to have around and sometimes we just laugh at the funny things she does. Here is a picture I took of her today, right before we went to Stake Conference, with Elder Russell M. Nelson presiding. Great meetings.

Wrestling

Tyler had a good season in wrestling this year. He really improved over his record last year (13 wins, 17 losses), ending this season with 24 wins and 9 losses. He wrestled the entire season at 130 lbs and he placed in every tournament the Wendell wrestling team went to. He took 4th at the Bear-Cat (Twin Falls), 4th at Buhl Invitational, 1st at Magic Valley Classic (Wendell), 3rd at Challis tournament, 4th at Parma tournament and 2nd at districts (Gooding). Tyler qualified (the top 3 wrestlers qualified in each weight class) and went to the state wrestling tournament. He pinned the first wrestler, then lost, then won, then lost and was out of tournament, 1 match shy of the medal matches. Our family stayed and watched Derek Gines (took 4th) & Alan Benson (took 6th) wrestle on Saturday. At the wrestling banquet last night, Tyler was honored as the "Most Inspirational" wrestler, along with Derek Gines. Tyler is now planning on continuing with wrestling and learning some free-style wrestling. He is hoping this will help with take downs and make him a better wrestler during his senior year.