When did they grow up again?....

~1999~

(sara, lacey, brittany, danny, phylip, ashlyn)

~2009~

~We are proud of our younger siblings & the recent new beginnings of their lives. 

~Here's the latest scoop:

Ashlyn & Phylip~ Both Juniors in High School @ HHS & LBHS

Sara~ A Senior in High School @ HHS

Lacey~ BYU Hawaii (September) ...& sending off her missionary)

Brittany~ MCC's Dental Hygiene Program (August)

Danny~ BYU Provo (June)

Tommy~ working part time as Physical Therapy Tech & finishing credits to prepare for P.T. school with his sweetie Jozie by his side.

*Also Stephanie's husband Marcus~ began this summer @ USC to get his Masters in Real Estate. (1 year program)

Good Luck Guys on the beginning of the rest of your lives.

We're excited for you!

*3 months old*

Our Bubby Jax is growin' up....

weight: 14 pounds 2 ounces =50-75%

length: 23 1/2 inches =10-25%

head circumference: 16 inches =25%

cheeks: perfectly pinchable  =100%

"Best Buddies" as Daylan would say...

To not take lightly....

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."  ~Thomas Jefferson~ In 1961, Ronald Reagan joined the American Medical Association in opposing the Democratic Party's attempt to force socialized medicine on the American people. President Reagan's advice is just as relevant today as it was then. In part, he warned: "One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. . . . Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it." -Ronald Reagan

Jaxson's Blessing Day

"He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them." 

~Mark 10:16~

Hi Everyone!...Let me tell you about my special day.

The morning of Sunday, August 2nd my mom put me in this white fancy outfit. I wondered what the occasion must be. We arrived as usual to church but I thought something was up when we showed up "on time." My mom burped me as she walked into the chapel...bad move!... cuz I spit up all over her as she walked through the doors. (When will she learn?) 

~Walking in I saw lots of people that love me- like my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. This is cool I thought... After singing hymns, the prayer & sacrament it was then my time. It became very quiet & before I knew it I was being carried to the front of the chapel. Hey...everyone's looking at me! Well I do like being the center of attention you know! My dad was holding me and looking up I saw my Uncle Tommy, Uncle Mason, Uncle Jason, Great-Uncle Toby, Grandpa Lonnie & Grandpa Tom looking down at me smiling.

~They started to bounce me up & down a little...I guess they thought it would be fun for me....it was. My dad began to say a special prayer~a priesthood blessing just for me. I was excited to hear what he would say. I was blessed with many things; heavenly gifts that would bless me throughout my life.

~After church all the family came over to our new house. Grandma Kathy & Mom made some yummy sweet pork burritos. There were 13 of my 20 cousins there, my grandmas, grandpas,  my aunts, uncles, even 2 great-aunts, my mom's cousins, & great Grandma Porter. (Missing was Uncle Danny, Uncle Brian's family, Aunt Lacey, Grandpa Ron & Aunt Stephanie's family.)

~After dinner, the family gathered into the Family Room and watched a video that my Mom had made for me. It made peoples eyes kinda teary...so I hear; I was sleeping soundly in the swing so I just listened but had seen it made over the course of the few weeks before. It told the story of how by brothers & sister had prayed for me to come this family. They had waited too long and could not wait any longer. Heavenly Father answered their prayers readily when I came to mommy's tummy soon after.

  I LOVE being here on Earth!

“ God will send aid to no one more readily

 than He will send it to a child 

and to the parent of a child.”

  ~Jeffrey R. Holland

Coming Soon....

Ok to my devoted followers: (aka those who care or inquire)☺.....Steph, Sara & Heather J....

✍Updates for the past month & a half are in the works of being posted. This month has been nothing shy of craziness!

 

Psstt....Happy Birthday Britters!

1st Day of School

...for my PRESCHOOLer, 1ST GRADEr & 4TH GRADEr

Daylan~ Preschool

 (Our "Genius In the Making")

...Spence wore this shirt in Kindergarten & Dude just inherited a whole bin full of Spencer's old clothes...Thanks to "Audra-From-The-Past" for saving that; Saved on school clothes shopping!

Kaylea~1st Grade

Kaylea still lovin' Hello Kitty & sporting the backpack she HAD to have. (She insisted the lunchbox MUST match so she had to help pay for it.)

Spencer~4th Grade

Spencer sporting the new glasses that he had just got the week before. We discovered he is near sighted so he needs them for pretty much everything BUT reading, video games & the computer. He says he likes his new glasses because they make him "look smart."

And then there was the 2nd day of school:

look at that lip...

 Now a few weeks into it, he loves going to Preschool & learning his "Zoo-Phonics." Daylan has enjoyed making friends, having ART day with his buddy Kian & loves his guinea pig class pet "Piggy."

*Notice the difference of expression on Kay's face from the 1st day...She had a case of the nervous jitters in her tummy & told me she was gonna throw-up every day for...oh a couple of weeks now. *They have been in school for a month now & she is doing GREAT and has gone from the kids not thinking she could speak, to being the self proclaimed "chatter-box."..? I love that each day after school, she has so many stories to tell me. I feel like I already know every kid in her class! Gotta love Girls!..

*Spence as you can see here is just ready to jump out of the car and get on with his day. He LOVES school, has made a new best friend and just began the ELP program. It's funny because at Meet-the-Teacher night I told his teacher in my most un braggy way... 'Spencer is a really bright kid and needs to be challenged.' She responded "yes it seems like we will have a lot of smart kids this year." (A lot of parents must have said the same kind of thing to her.) Well I got an email recently from her saying..."You were right...he really is brilliant.") 

*(We received scores a while back on his Aims Testing from 3rd grade & he was in the 99th percentile-meaning he scored better than 99% of kids in 3rd grade (which is amazing being that he is always the youngest in his grade.)  *He also took the Otis Lennon Test & the COGNAT...or whatever it's called... & scored remarkably HIGH on those too!)   -I think Spence has passed his Mama in the "smarts" department!

A new house, new school, new friends....

..........AGAIN!!

(You'd think we'd be pros by now.?)

The last week of July we moved from Mesa to Queen Creek...Hopefully what will be our last move for a long time! The past 10 years went a little something like this:

Tempe to Gilbert

Gilbert to Flagstaff

West Flag to East Flag

East Flag to Bellemont

Bellemont to (down the street)

Bellemont to South Gilbert

S. Gilbert to more Southern Gilbert

Gilbert (to down the street)

Gilbert to Mesa

Mesa to Queen Creek

 & these were all primary residences!...

(not to forget a 2nd home in there at one point too) 

~Kaylea's Idea of Packing A Box:

THEN...

 the week we moved in looked something like this:

Saturday- Sold furniture in model home
Sunday- Went to new ward @ church for the 1st time
Monday- Moved into the house
Wednesday- School Started for kids
Sunday-Jax's Baby Blessing

~Since we moved in, my little Daylan has continued to ask us when we are now moving from "this house." The poor little guy doesn't know anything about stability. Everything is always changing. Well okay maybe I'm wrong... I should say "things" are always changing...

Hopefully Daylan & the other kids know that the things that really matter -NEVER change;  Like our love for them & the Gospel in our lives. 

We feel very blessed to be where we are, to have learned what we've learned, to know what we know and to begin a fresh new life with our kids in a great area. The kids love the neighborhood, the ward and their school classes....We also are enjoying the beautiful views out our windows of the San Tan Mountains. 

Life is good.

~Costa Rica~

In July we went with Tim's family to

Costa Rica & saw this:

Baby Jaxson got to go to Costa Rica at the ripe age of 2 months!

He had some quality Mom & Dad time....

(don't know why we look like we just woke up!?)

Other than the humidity & some gassy-colicky moments

....Jax Loved It!

We flew on scary small planes....

Ate GREAT food...

Went on jungle hikes...

Went sight seeing via BUS rides.

We took up our own bus.

oh the bus rides...memorable...-this one in particular.

And hung out on the back porch & saw this view:

(don't mind the leftover prego belly)

& We saw these things....

This is what I did on my 30th Birthday...oh wait I'm not in the picture...oh that's right.. I mean this is what everyone else did on my 30th birthday. haha...

That's okay- at least our Costa Rican guide bought me a birthday cake and conducted the whole place to sing "Happy Birthday Dear Ow-dra" to me...now that doesn't happen every day.

-don't you wanna just jump in this pool?

What amazing scenery & a great time.

From Small to Tall...

 *So the condo that we just moved out of was intended to be a very temporary move for us but it ended up being exactly a year's time. We were EXTREMELY grateful to have the availability of the condo to move into once we had to quickly move out of the previous house we were renting because of the unfortunate death of our landlord/Tim's friend Justin B. So we figured we'd just stay there a while until we found a good deal on a house.

*Well the month or two we thought it would be ended up being a year. We really had intended on it being such a short time that we just pushed two twin mattresses together on the ground & had the 3 kids sleep there on the floor. Poor Spence had grown so much throughout the year that he literally outgrew the bed, but it was definitely a memory they will always share together. Kaylea & Daylan are known to SPIN as they sleep so over the course of the year I captured a number of photos of both their sweet & hilarious positions.

...and I must note that now as I type this the 3 of them are sleeping SO SOUNDLY & comfortably in their "own" beds.