2009 Young Family Newsletter

2009, Wow, is it really almost over? And a crazy one it has been. We did however go the whole year without a stay in the hospital and since the year isn’t over yet, I am sooooooo knocking on wood right now!!


We started out this year in search of a cure for whatever was wrong with Jerika. She was really struggling in school and yet they would not let her have any special help anymore. I know she is going to kill me for putting this in our newsletter, but it was one of our biggest struggles this year. Well, our first appointment was on January 19 and after several other appointments, meetings with the powers that be at the Jr. High (who I might mention don’t really love me anymore) we finally found out in the middle of June what was wrong with her. She has ADD and the reason it was so hard to figure out is because she didn’t have any of the hyper that usually goes with ADD. After trying a few different meds, we have finally found the right ones and she is now getting amazing grades in school, has lost roughly 30 pounds and is a much happier person. This summer she started taking voice lessons and loves it!! Also, this summer she spent her very first night ever in a tent. Our young womens had ward camp this year and the girls got to sleep in tents for 3 nights and had no showers, power, etc. It was a fun experience for both her and I. Jerika is my total right hand man around here and I don’t know what I would do without her. She has spent a lot more time away from home this year with her friends and we really do miss her when she is gone. I am not ready for this teenage stuff.


Kinlee is taking dance again this year and really loves it. She is in the 3rd grade and has 16 boys in her class with only 6 girls. That being said, she one of the smartest kids in her class. I go help at her class every other Friday and I am amazed at what she knows. She is one smart cookie. I have even heard Jerika asking her how to spell things on occasion. One of the highlights in her world is Activity Days every other Monday. She has really fun leaders and she loves to go. She keeps us on our toes here at home however. She was sick last week so I took her to the doctor and the nurse asked her if she was allergic to anything and she told the nurse she is allergic to cleaning her room. Which I am beginning to think really might be true. When her dad is home, she is joined to his hip and hangs out with him the whole time. I almost feel a little invisible sometimes. But, she sure loves her dad and misses him like crazy when he is gone.


We haven’t seen very much of Tyler this year. At the end of last year he wanted to move in with us, so we let him live here for about 4 weeks. He really did struggle with following the rules and suffering the consequences when he didn’t follow the rules. As a result, he moved back home to live with his mom. He got him a job and didn’t talk to us very much for the next few months. Long story short, he has gotten himself into some trouble and we are just constantly praying for him would love it if everyone else could pray for him also. We are hoping he will learn from his mistakes and make a better life for himself soon.


The company Ray worked at for the last 8ish years told him in June they were going to go another direction in their business and let some of their truck drivers go. So, we were left without a job. He found one that day and we were really thankful for that fact, but I think that we were worse off with that job than not having one at all. It was horrible!! He worked there for 3 months and during that 3 months, we only saw him about 4 times. I am forever in debt to a friend who told me of a job opening in Teton, about 5 minutes from our house. After quite a few phone calls, he got a job at Gould Trucking and he loves it!! He is home every weekend and some weeks he comes home 1 night during the week also, so we love it too. This summer, he did ride his dirt bike a few times, but since he was working all the time he didn’t get to do that as much as he likes.  We are all really enjoying the extra time we get to spend with him!!


As for me, this year has been really busy. Along with running Jerika to doctors and helping at Kinlee’s school, going to girls camp, making watch bands, playing bunco twice a month and working, I have been to Utah twice. The first time to Women’s Conference at BYU, which was amazing, and once during spud harvest just to get out. My adventures through the year can be tracked in my blog, which I try update on a regular basis. The link to that is youngmom1220.blogspot.com, so feel free to look on there any time. In June they put me in the Young Womens as personal progress specialist, and then in October they put me in as the 1st Counselor in the Young Womens and then I guess they were just breaking me in, because the first week of December they put me in as the Young Women’s President. Nobody was more surprised than me!! I even asked the Bishop if he was sure, which Ray didn’t think was very funny at all. So, if anyone has amazing ideas for young womens, let me know, I need all the help I can get!! One other thing I have tried this year is Zumba which is Latin dance exercise classes, I have been a few times and if I am really ambitious, I will continue doing that next year too. So, as you can see it has been an amazing year and we have all kept pretty busy!!


Merry Christmas from our house to yours and we hope you all have an amazing 2010.

Amazing Bloggers and a few other thoughts........

A post without pictures just isn't a post, however, that is what this is.  I do have some pictures I need to download and post, but this week has been just a little bit overwhelming for me.  Trying to get a new young women's presidency and advisors all lined out was just one of my challenges this week.  Luckily all of those women are so amazing it didn't take much to get that accomplished. 

So, why am I posting you ask?  First of all, thanks to all of you who came to my house this weekend, it was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone!!  Second, I was reading some amazing blogs this week and I was thinking why can't I be an amazing blogger like those women.  It isn't that they are bragging or anything like that, but they are just deep thinkers and really make you think with a little more depth also.  I think I had several deep thoughts this week, however none I can really share with anyone (too close to Christmas).  Wow, I think I am rambling.  Anyway, from now on it is going to be my goal to post something a little more thought provoking, so it keeps people coming back for more.  So, stay tuned and we will see what I actually come up with.  I think one of my next posts is going to be my year end newsletter that I am too cheap and lazy to mail out this year.  I already started it and it really isn't too thought provoking or braggy, it is just the facts about 2009.  Hopefully worth reading though.

I usually post on Sunday's, but I will try to do a little better with that also.  Wow, next Sunday is my birthday and I will be 41.  That seems so old to me!!  Okay, I digressed a little.  Thanks for reading and try not to be too judgmental.

Putting up the tree

Thanksgiving weekend, Ray had the whole weekend off, so we put up the tree, which as you can tell is something he really loves.
This year he put the lights up and helped me put the ribbon on and the girls did the rest.

Aren't they precious, if I get a minute later, I will post the other pictures they took, they are quite silly!!

In this picture you can really tell how much fun Ray is having. We also took a few other pictures of him and will post those too.

The finished product. It really does look much prettier in person!! Especially because it is purple, the best color in the world. Maybe one of these days I will grow out of my big purple phase, but as for now, it is purple all the way!! And I guess if it makes me happy, then that's all that matters right?
Anyway, we had a really good night, I do love spending time with just the 4 of us. Love ya guys!!

Thanksgiving at mom & dad's

The important/cooperative people.  Well, dad was cooperative, but as soon as he finds out I put another picture of his cute face on my blog, he might not be so cooperative.  He keeps telling me that he is going to sue me if I don't stop.  So, here is another one isn't he cute?

Here are pictures of my siblings (minus Merrill) and their spouses.  I will post pictures of the kids later.  They really weren't very cooperative this year, but they were all having fun.  It was a really good Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for my family!! 

Mini Me - Halloween

So, when it comes to Halloween, I am not the funnest mom ever. I think buying costumes is waste of money, so we try to be clever every year. Well, this year Kinlee wanted to be a pajama model at school, which was just an excuse to wear her pajamas to school. Then on Halloween, she wanted to dress up in something different. So, I decided to put a few of my clothes on her with a little makeup, a watch band, my leather boots, and a purple purse as her Halloween bag. So, yes she was dressed up as me and it was pretty funny!!



We missed the trunk or treat because of Ray and I won't go into that, so she went trick or treating to about 5 houses in St.Anthony when we went to grandmas. So, she got a little candy. Jerika went to a party at some boys house, which also quite the experience! I didn't know the boy and I didn't know his parents, so I told her I would have to drive her to his house and meet his parents or I wasn't going to let her go. She freaked out and told me that she wouldn't go then. A few minutes later she came and told me she had texted the boy and he said it was okay for me to meet his parents. I also did a little background check of my own, but it was still hard to let her go and not spend Halloween with us. I'm not sure who was more upset though, me or grandma Sharp.

It also didn't help grandma that some of Nakia's kids were sick with swine flu, so none of them even got to go out trick or treating. I did get pictures of KaReena's kids with Kinlee, but that was all. Blake and his kids did show up at moms, but it was later and I think I had put my camera away by then. I am really starting to be a slacker when it comes to taking pictures lately!!

Nakia's baby - Rylen

I hope I don't get in trouble for posting pictures of her baby, but here he is. Nakia's baby Rylen, born two weeks ago. Isn't he cute?



As soon as Kaden gets over swine flu, I am going to go over and take more pictures. I got to babysit him last Sunday while Nakia went to her kids program at church. So, I took a few pictures of him then and I took some of their whole family, but I don't love those.

I feel like such a slacker, I was hoping to have whole bunch more taken by now, but I was afraid my kids would make them sick if we went over to their house and now I am afraid we will get swine flu from Kaden. So, yes Ben I am a bad aunt, but I will make up for it!!

Christmas with the Youngs

Yes, I did say Christmas. We decided that none of us wanted to travel this year during the winter months, so we had Christmas with Ray's family last weekend. Torey, Nichole, Kaizik and Naomi came and stayed at our house and so did grandma Walker. The all came on Friday night and left Sunday morning. It was really fun and we missed then when they were gone. Thanks for the fun weekend guys!!

Here are just a few examples of the silliness we had to endure.

Girls Weekend.

Tiff, Brooke, Allisa and I took a little road trip conference weekend and went to stay with Tiff's sister Tonia (who is our friend too). We had so much fun!! We went out to eat, shopped in Park City, went to a movie, shopped somemore and ate some more. We had a really good time and it was good to get away for a few days.



Lance took pictures for us and was such a good host all weekend.

So, we decided to make funny faces for this picture. By looking at us you can tell who complied to the "fun" request. Evidently Tiff thought tilting her head was really funny and I'm not sure about Brooke maybe it was her confused look, which is kind of funny. It was a really fun weekend and I think it is time for another trip!!
Thanks Lance and Tonia for letting us stay and for playing late night Family Fued.

I'm so lucky!!!!

This weekend was so very crazy, and I was kind of complaining that I was so tired and had so much to do these last 3 days. Which included today 6 hours of church meetings. Remember I am just stating, not complaining. Anyway, tonight as I sat down for a little me time, I decided to read some blogs, one of which was ironmanjace.blogspot.com. Jace is a little boy that went to daycare with the girls for a couple years. Jace is 6 and has lukemia. As I read through my tears his moms account of their journey through this horrible ordeal, I am so thankful for my kids and that they are healthy!!!



With that said, most of you who are reading this know how I am about my cameras. Yes, I said cameras, I have two. I sat down this week to review the pictures I had taken and found these on my memory card. I am 100% certain I didn't take these pictures and I for sure don't see any adults around. Well, last weekend while I was doing a "watch party" in my basement, Kinlee and cousins found my small camera (if it would have been my other camera, I wouldn't be posting about it, because it wouldn't have been cute!), and here are the results. Enjoy!!

They are a funny I must admit!! There were a few more, but they were EXTREME close ups. I guess if there are small children at my house, I need to keep a better eye on them. But, you would think my 9 year old would have figured out the rules around here and pass them onto the other kids that come to play, but I guess not.

Soccer

Kinlee played soccer this year and really liked it. Maybe it can be something that she can stick too and continue with. I sometimes wonder though if it is more of the social stuff that they like with sports. Anyway, it was fun for all of us and might be the closest thing I actually get to a child doing sports, since I don't have boys.

(Hey, who is that sexy lady in the background of this picture? The first person that can guess who it is and post a comment on this blog gets a free watch band.)

Dad even made it home to a game, believe it or not!! Good season Kinlee, you did a really good job!!

BACK TO SCHOOL!!

Here are pictures of the girls on the first day of school. I can't believe that summer went so fast. I might even have some summer stuff I didn't blog about, but I guess its too late now.

Jerika started 8th grade this year and Kinlee started 3rd grade. The both had a pretty good first day. I even got a little teary, because next year Kinlee will be in middle school and Jerika will be in high school. Time is just flying by!!

I decided this year that I am VERY glad that Jerika is still about a head taller than all the boys her age, because they would all be knocking down our door on a regular basis. (Even if I do say so myself, she is pretty cute!)

Kinlee is doing amazing in school!! She is so smart and doesn't really need much help at all with her homework.
I am just thankful that I have such amazing kids!!!!!