And So It Begins.......

The season begins!

 

First Day of School.....Success!

Today was the first day of school.  Honestly...I think it we well.  I hate the end of summer.  Summer is a great time for us because we get to spend so much time together.  When it is over, I am sad.  The kids did come home very happy!  They both love their teachers and their schedules.  I think it was a success!  Good start to the school year!

Ian looked awesome in his new clothes.  I can't believe he is in 8th grade.  This will be his last year of middle school!

Aubrey is a senior!  I don't even have the words to express how I feel about that!  It's crazy!

I found this picture on the internet of Aubrey and her friends!  Dance team friends.  I think it will be a great year!

 

Summer Is Over!

It is a sad day in our home.  Summer is over.  Tomorrow is the first day of school.  It was a great summer.  We were busy with summer jobs, camps, and a ton of fun things.  Let's just say, tonight has been rough.  Ian is so sad.  It is hard to go to school when your two big brothers are home and hanging out. It has been so fun for Ian to just hang out with them and play.  So Zach tried to comfort him and this is what he told him.  "When I was in middle school I was bullied.  I was pushed down the stairs and called fat.  (At this point, I am like, what?  Your middle school didn't have stairs!)  So that's when we decided to stop homeschooling!"  Nice, real nice!  So here are some extra pictures I found of summer fun!

Aubrey's work.

Zach's work as an EFY counselor.

Girls camp!

Wet N Wild!  Thanks to Rachel for the video!



Homecoming!

Austin has been adjusting well to post mission life.  Sometimes he does or says funny things, and forgets he can be alone, but other than that he is doing fine.  It is wonderful having him home.  It is wonderful having all of my children in the same house.  It is quite a blessing.  This weekend the family from Idaho came to town to hear Austin speak.  It was wonderful to have them here.  We had a ton of fun.  I love that when my little nephews come, all they want to do is swim.  They don't ask for much, just swimming!!!  So of course we swim.  It was a hundred and eleven degrees out....we swam!

Then Sunday came.  Austin did a beautiful job on his talk.  It was so sincere and sweet.  You can tell he has a strong testimony of the Savior.  It was wonderful hearing from him.  Unfortunately, it was a very exciting sacrament meeting.  There was another boy reporting his mission.  He isn't in our ward, but his family is.  His family lives all over the world and were in transition to live in another country.  Some of his family members live in our ward, so he spoke with Austin.  Unfortunately in the middle of his talk he passed out and hit his head really hard on the podium and something behind him.  It was horrible.  We felt so bad for him. We felt bad for his family.  I am sure they were trying to make his day special.  Especially when they were all in transition, moving!  I guess Austin said he locked his knees, and he has had his sister in the hospital!  I think everything caught up with this sweet boy and he passed out.  We have heard that he is doing well and out of the hospital!  Nothing but craziness when Austin is involved!

We were so grateful for family support.  It means so much to us!

 

Happy Sunday!

I love the Sabbath Day!  I love going to church, taking a break from the craziness of life, and just being with my family.  Most of all, I love focusing on my Savior Jesus Christ.  He is the reason I love the Sabbath Day!



Also, Austin is speaking today about his mission.  So here is some insight about missionaries and what he did for two years!



He Is Home!

The night before our son came home from his mission he spent the night in the mission home.  Lucky for me someone took pictures and posted them on facebook. It was so strange to see these pictures and know that in a few hours he would be home!

At home we were getting ourselves ready for his big arrival!  I ordered this neat banner from Etsy.  The web site is HERE.  She is awesome to work with and the banner was perfect.  Plus she sends you a coupon to get it printed up!  It was worth the money.  Especially because it has been stormy here in Vegas!

The family made their own signs.  Aubrey had to dance this day, so she didn't come to the airport with us!  We were bummed, but we understood.  Here is the funny thing, two years ago she said good-bye to Austin on her way to dance, and she missed him at the airport because of dance.  It's her life!

Now here is his homecoming story....and you know Austin....it's a story!  I have been calm for two years.  I am not a mom that counts down or cries everyday that he is gone on a mission.  I cry occasionally, but listen, this is where I want my boys.  I am so thrilled they decided to sacrifice two years of their lives for the Lord!  I am totally proud of them.  So I try to remain calm about them being gone for two years...then something happens to me.  Like the last 24 hours of their missions, I become crazy!  I become impatient, and totally stressed.  I want them home.  So we go to the airport and get there a little early.  It was perfect really.  Don checks the board, and we see that the flight is on time.  It says that for like 10 minutes after their estimated arrival time.  What???  Zach checks the internet and tells us that Delta says they have arrived.  Cool, so we wait, watching the escalators in baggage claim.  Now, because of the new laws we have like 4 escalators to watch!  I keep looking at them because I don't want to miss him.  I want him to have a big homecoming!  You know, like with the signs we made!  Nobody wants their returning missionary to not have a big homecoming or to be missed at the airport!  There is a Mormon movie called RM.  Yeah, no one wants that for their son!  So about 30 minutes pass....no Austin.  Zach walks down to the baggage claim to make sure we didn't miss him.  No he isn't there.  45 minutes pass and finally a limo driver tells me that Austin's flight has come and gone!  Now I am freaking out!!!  Did he miss his plane???  Is he sick??  Did we miss him?  I am loosing it!!!  Zach run back down to the carrousel in baggage claim and sees two huge black suitcases going around and around.  Yeah, I bet those are Austin's.  The limo drivers tell us to go back to Delta and talk to him and try to figure out where he is.  Don does that, and tells me to wait and keep an eye out for him.  All of the sudden I hear, "Mom."  I turn around and there is Austin!  I can't even express all the emotions I felt!!!  He was home!  He got lost in the airport because he was talking to a family and gave them a Book of Mormon.  Then he went to the wrong terminal.  Got a the tram again and started talking to another guy and got lost.  That guy got him off the tram.  He had no idea where he was and finally found baggage claim and us!  I could kill him, but I was so happy to see him.  He is the same!  Funny but grown up too.  He says he is the same old Austin, but improved!    It has been great hearing his stories and all about North Carolina!

His adjustment has been great.  He is happy to be home.  Don't get me wrong, he loved his mission, but he feels like it is time to come home!  He keeps calling himself Elder Brasier and when we go to a store he follows me around because he is not used to being alone.  Other than that, he is fine!  He worked hard, and now it is time to get on with life.  Having all of my children home is wonderful!  I feel peace in my heart!  I love them all.  They are amazing kids, doing good things.  My life is very blessed!

 

 

And So It Begins.......

This is going to be one crazy week!!!  Company is coming!  All week long!!!  I know it will be crazy, but I am excited for it.  Maybe because it means Austin will be home.  To start the week out my roommate from college, Laresa came to town.  She needed a place to stay and then leave in the morning.  Plane tickets are cheaper from Vegas!!!  I was so excited to see her and her boys.  It is crazy, because the second they come in the house, it is like we see each other everyday.  Her boys get along with Ian and played games all night long.  Laresa and I hit the strip.  Well, a little bit of the strip.  It was totally fun!  It was nice to laugh, talk about old times, and catch up!  She is a great lady, and I am lucky to have her as a friend.  I feel bad that she had to leave the next day!  Next time, we will have more time!

Girl's Camp...These Are My Days!

This week I went to girl's camp.  I am a leader in the Young Women presidency in my ward, so I get to go and spend the week at girl's camp. Now, I am not a camper!  I really don't enjoy it. Don't get me wrong, I love nature. I believe the world is a beautiful place, but after I hike, I want to go to a nice hotel room.  One thing for sure, I love Girl's Camp.  I believe in this program!  I have seen girl's lives change and miracles happen at girl's camp.  There is nothing like it!!!  It is amazing!  So I feel blessed to go and attend camp with these girls.  Sometimes I don't get enough sleep there, have to deal with latrines, have to deal with rain, creatures eating our food, dirt that never goes away, no showers, walking up to the farthest campsite, and stomach problems, but it is worth it.  Being with these girls, feeling the Spirit, watching them grow spiritually, and giggling late into the night is worth it!!!  I love it!  This years theme was "These Are My Days."  It is based on a talk by Neil L. Andersen.  You can read the talk HERE.  Our ward theme was "Good Friends".  We loved this theme.  It was perfect for us.

 

Our campsite was the last campsite and up hill.  At first we complained about it, but then we started to see the good points to having this campsite.  It was away from everyone, so the girls could be loud and it didn't bother anyone, and we had a family of deer visit us everyday.  We even had wild horses!

Aubrey was a Youth Leader this year.  This is her last year of camp.  Girls can only go for 6 years.  It is so sad, but it is the way it is.  As a YCL (Youth Camp Leader) she runs the high adventures, certifies, and leads the girls in activities.  She loves it!!!  I am so glad I got to be with her for her last year.  This year she taught how to make bedrolls!

The girls also have to clean latrines, serve food, and take care of the camp.

YCLs love to dance and sing.  Every time we meet together the girls lead all the other girls in song.  These girls basically run the camp!  It is so awesome to watch them plan and carry out their plans every day!

Zachery even came up to work security.  That is a pretty hard job.  These men sit in the dark and walk to the camp to protect us.  They stay up all night!  I don't think Zach knew what he was getting into!

For one of the firesides we had some band members from the band Brumby come up.  They did a wonderful fireside.  It was a band member and his wife.  They need to put out a spiritual CD!  They were fantastic!  The girls loved them!!!  Not only did they sing, but the message they gave the girls was priceless!  They did an awesome job.  Totally Aubrey's type of music!!

Don came up and we went on a hike with the 2nd years.  We went to Rain Tree.  It was about a 6 mile hike.  The day was perfect.  So clear, you could see the city from where we were.  It was perfect!  This hike is a bit hard, but it is super cool. One of the Oldest living things in the State of Nevada is a 3,000 year+ Bristlecone Pine Tree called “Raintree”.  This 6 mile round trip hike  has about 1700 ft. elevation gain and altitudes over 10,000 ft. It takes about 3.5 hours. One of my girls hurt her hip on the hike.  She was really struggling. She never complained and just kept going.  Don stayed with her and encouraged her the whole time.  He kept telling her to keep going nice and steady.  He kept giving her water and drinks.  It really made me think that this is what life is like.  Sometimes life is hard and we are pushed to the limits, but Heavenly Father is always there encouraging us and telling us to keep going, just keep steady and keep going.  He gives us people to help us and encouragement.  It was a good lesson for this girl to learn.  After talking to her, she really did learn this!  In the end, she was proud she finished the hike!

The girls had a spiritual challenged that they worked on everyday!

We did crafts!  What camp wouldn't be complete without crafts!!!

We had high adventure activities!!!  They are awesome.  Even our littlest girl did all the high adventure activities!

All YCL's are assigned little sisters. These are girls who are at camp for their first time. Aubrey loved her little sister.  We know her because she is one of my girls!!!  Aubrey went out of her way to treat her special!!  She even made her these shirts!

There was a YCL lip sync!  Aubrey and her friends won!!!  They were 1Direction.  I don't know.  Aubrey doesn't even listen to this group!  But they were awesome!

The girls also did a C.O.P.E. course.  That is always fun.

Then, before dinner and testimony meeting, we had a dance party!  It was so fun.  The girls just danced and danced!

It was an amazing week!!!  The girls in my ward are amazing.  There was no drama!  Just fun!  I am so lucky I get to go and spend time with these girls!

Here is a glimpse into our week.