Ben's wisdom teeth removal

Ben's 'before' picture

Grandma used to work for an oral surgeon. She works for a dentist now but she came to Ben's surgery because she loves this stuff. Here she is checking out Ben's teeth in the waiting room before the surgery.

After surgery, Ben was emotional from the medication. He cried about Trey Young's great game and that the Buck's won. Ben is a sweetheart. He was emotional but he was also full of gratitude. 

Puppies help everything feel better!

Eating is hard with numb lips!

I love taking care of my kids! On the menu after wisdom teeth removal? Cheesy mashed potatoes, jello, pudding, soup, homemade macaroni and cheese.

Temple

I had the amazing opportunity to attend the temple with these three kids. It has been more than a year since we have been able to go to the temple because of COVID, and we were so happy to return. 

We made our appointment in April and we had the whole baptistry to ourselves for a whole hour.

Ben baptized all of us. What a wonderful experience.

We can't wait until we can return.

Student government initiation

Since Ben has been in student government all three years of high school, he is considered one of the 'originals' and therefore he was one of the initiation organizers. He left our house at 4:30am to start waking up other student government members. Jen Dishman came to our house at 6:00am and together we set up breakfast for the kids. She made all the food- my part was easy. At 7:00am, the group showed up and we ate breakfast together. It was a lot of fun. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love these kids!

The latest from Washington

 Michael is doing well on his mission. He is working hard and enjoying it. He is training another missionary- Elder Schroeder. We just heard on Monday that he has been called as a district leader. Way to go Elder Stepan! We love you and we miss you! We are currently working on his visa paperwork for Ecuador since his first visa expired. He really hopes to make it to Ecuador sometime soon.

Another Chick-fil-A worker in the family

Mary decided to join her older brothers and is now employed at Chick-fil-A.

I love seeing my kids smiling faces!

Ben's SBO group

 Ben's SBO group before the closing assembly.

The Junior class at the Spirit bowl

Ben's instagram post at the end of the school year a couple of weeks ago.

Playing with hair

The Jazz were in the second round of play-offs against the Clippers. This is what I see when I lay in bed and watch the game. Todd plays with his hair when he is nervous. I don't blame him. The games were intense. Some people bite their nails- Todd plays with his hair. Sadly, the Jazz lost the series.

So much food

This is how much food was leftover when I forgot that two of our biggest eaters aren't home.

Michael is on a mission and Ben was at gov camp. We had leftover spaghetti for days!

Activity days

Tya Nelson and I were in charge of an activity for the 7-11 year old girls in our ward. We did an evening of camp activities. It was really hot but we had a great time. 

We had hot dogs for dinner and then we made chocolate chip cookie s'mores.

One of the activities was corn hole. Always a favorite.

Decorating bandanas for a craft.

Sweet Mary helped us by teaching the girls camp songs. 

June happenings

Luke, Sara and I are reading Mustaches for Maddie. They love to play with these magnets while we read.

Sara made this blanket for Holly's baby Owen. She loves to crochet.

Ben and Luke love to play basketball at the park.

Mountain biking practices have started again.

Usually Ben drives he and Luke to mountain biking practice but I had the chance to drive them for practice at Solitude ski resort last week. It was lovely to escape the heat and enjoy reading while the boys attended practice. The mountain air is amazing.

Mary is taking online Health and Fit for life this summer so that she has space for Orchestra and Dance 3 in her schedule for her Sophomore year. We moved our office desk so that we have 2 workspaces instead of one. It has been a game changer.

Sara is taking an online reading class this summer. She is a little behind her grade level in reading comprehension. So far this class has been helpful.

Sara discovered paint-by-sticker at her friend Mabel's house. We bought a book and it has been fun for the kids to do.

Luke and his friends from church had an overnight campout at Crystal Hot Springs. Luke said it was a blast! I've never seen Luke as tired as he was when he got home the next day. I don't think these boys slept much!

Bathing the puppies is almost a daily occurrence in our house :) They get stinky when they sit in their own urine over night. Yuck!

Dad left for a work trip to Houston this week.

He has been sending us pictures of Texas. Looks amazing!

I joined a salad group in our neighborhood. We all take turns making salads for each other. It has been so nice to have a delicious salad lunch everyday. The salad I made for the first round was a chicken broccoli salad with homemade poppyseed dressing (3rd picture from left on top).

Braces

Luke got braces on June 8 and they kept his expander in! Poor kid! He has a mouthful of metal but he is such a good sport about it.

Lookin' good Luke!

Student government camp

 The first few days of summer Ben went to student government camp at Utah State.

They dressed up as fishermen for the dance battle.

(Don't worry- the sunburn is actually make up. Whew!

I panicked because the 'sunburn' looked so real).

They won the dance battle.

Ben came home with a hoarse voice from cheering so much. It was so fun to hear about all of his experiences. I'm so glad they were able to attend stud gov camp this year (last year it was canceled due to COVID). This amazing group of kids is in for a great year!

Stop it already!

I've wanted to freeze time for years now but our kids just keep growing up. Our measuring wall in our closet is proof! I'm grateful for every day with these amazing people!

A movie in the theater

On June 11, Todd and I went to see A quiet place 2 in the theater. It has been over a year since we've seen a movie in the theater because of COVID. In fact, we can't remember the last movie we saw in the theater. We took our 2020 popcorn bucket that can be used through 2021. The kids and I noticed that the popcorn bucket says that it will expire on December 31, 2020- NO EXCEPTIONS. I'm glad they decided that a global pandemic was an exception to extend the popcorn bucket through 2021.

Hooray for going to the movies again and hooray for movie popcorn!

Last day of school

Luke's last day of 7th grade. Luke did great during his first year of middle school!

 Mary's last day of 9th grade at So Jo middle. She had early morning seminary the last semester. She was amazing at being on time for a strict seminary teacher that starting marking tardies at thirty seconds after 7:00am. Ben usually dropped her off on his way to Bingham but I was able to take her on her last day.

Mary and her friends were able to attend a very hot 9th grade Lagoon Day.

Looking at yearbooks on the last day of school.

Sara had a great 4th grade year. My friend Stacy Holmes was her teacher and she was great to help Sara catch up a bit after a rough end of third grade year doing online school.

Sara's dreams came true when she was able to ride her bike to and from school with her friends the last two days.

Ben had a great Junior year. It was a tough year to be SBO of Assemblies because he was only able to do one assembly in person, but he made the best of it.

Love these kids! We are so grateful for their teachers and administrators that helped make this challenging year successful. The COVID pandemic was difficult to work around but they did it!