Tanner's band concert

Tanner had his first band concert tonight. He was very nervous! It was cute. He did a great job! He plays the electric bass guitar and he is really enjoying it. He has the best band teacher in the state of Nevada... or the whole country... he is amazing. We are sad that he is retiring... this is his last year! Bummer. Mitchell has such a great experience in middle school with him, I was hoping that Tanner would have the same. I guess we are lucky he got him one year!

Good job Tanner!

Volleyball season...

Mitchell made the JV volleyball team this year! He is having a good time! I love going to the games to cheer him on. (i tried to go to his game on Thursday, but i went to the wrong high school. I thought it was at Cimarron, but it was Centennial! oops. I missed it! I was so mad at myself!... i'm getting so old!) Saturday he had a tournament up at Shadow Ridge HS. It was along day, but enjoyable! They didn't play their best, but I saw a lot of improvement by the end of the day. They have some new players this year and a new coach, so it's taking a little time for them to get into their rhythm. Mitchell played great and had a good time... that's what matters!

Ashley was in town this weekend! It was so nice to have her home! I can't believe the semester is almost over and she will be home for summer! I'm not sure how i didn't get any pictures of her! She came to most of the tournament with me. It was fun to have her with me! Johna dn tanner were at a camp out Friday and Saturday, so Ashley and I had a girls night out on Friday. We had the sisters over for dinner and then the two of us went to the movies. It was so fun! I love her and miss her!

I took my new camera and tried to get some good shots... as you can see, i have a lot to learn about photography!

Up for a hit... (those Western players could jump! Look at the guy in red...)

having fun!

Getting ready to serve.

he's #4

Serving...

We finally won a game!! Go Bonanza!!!

He remembers....

My cute husband remembered that 22 years ago today he proposed to me! Look what he brought home from work today!

Here is a close up of the note... not sure why the color changed...

I am so lucky!! I love you so much John!!

Crazy week...

Last week was so crazy. I barely made it. There was something every day and night! I got a call from my brother Todd on Tuesday and he told me that his family was in St. George and they wanted us to meet them in Mesquite for dinner. I was making dinner for someone in the ward, had a New Beginnings to go to and Mitchell was at a volleyball game and John was out of town... So, it wasn't the best night to drop everything and go, but I thought about how much I love his cute little family and how much I miss them. So Tanner and I met Scott, Jenn and Afton and headed up there... that is, after I dropped my dinner off and I made sure one of my counselors was going to the new beginnings. (Thanks Heather!) Dinner was great and the kids were so cute! And it was fun to visit with Todd and Sharolyn!

Cute baby Justin!

We ate at a yummy Japanese place... Emily, Todd, Sharolyn, Charity and Scott

The boys, Brendon, Dallin Tanner and Justin

The entry of the restaurant had a cute little koi pond with a bridge over it... the girls loved it!

Emily, Charity, Dallin and Brendon
We ate and then headed back to Vegas. We were home by 9:30. It was fast, but fun.
I am glad we decided to go.


The rest of the week was crazy with church stuff. I LOVE my calling! It's just a busy time of year... Meetings, an overnighter, a dress swap and more meetings... Friday night was our annual YCL (youth camp leader) overnighter. It was great! We have an amazing group of ycl's and camp leaders this year. I am so excited. It was fun to get to know them all a little better. We played games, ate food, planned for camp and tried to sleep. The girls actually went to bed around midnight... but I couldn't fall asleep until about 3am and the sun woke me up at 6am....They need some Sunburst Shutters in the cabin! haha.

Cute girls!! Love them all!!!!

Camp leaders trying to get organized!
and below is my presidency relaxing while the camp leaders were in charge!
We missed you Lisa!

I got home from the overnighter at 10am and had to be at the church for our dress swap at 11:30... we had a dress swap for a formal dance that our stake is invited to in April. It went really well. The girls we so cute getting all dressed up in beautiful dresses! They were like little princesses. It was worth every ounce of work that we put into it to see them happy.

Sunday was a hard one for me... I had a meeting before church, a youth conference meeting after church and a PPI with the stake president after that and New Beginnings after that... I had a bit of a breakdown at the Youth Conference meeting... things weren't going quite as i had imagined and i ended up in tears in the hallway... a bit embarrassing... I wish I could go back in time and re-do the meeting. The kids probably think I am wacko. I got myself back together and went into my ppi. I didn't make it 1 minute before i broke down again... All he asked was how things were going... Sorry President Schlauder! I am sure he is used to dealing with girl emotions with 5 daughters! I am doing much better now... I'm not sure why I am writing about this, except that this is the only journal I keep theses days and I want my kids and grandkids to know that it's ok to cry sometimes and I want them to know that we all have to learn how to balance things and slow down a bit. Needless to say, I didn't make it to the New Beginnings. And on top of all that last week, I started a new diet... maybe I was just having sugar withdrawls! But the good news is that I lost 6 lbs in my first week! yahoo!

This week has gone much better... taking it a day at a time. I am watching Afton all week and it has made me stay home and get things done around the house. I needed some home time!

weekend fun

I got to spend the weekend here with my honey!

John had a convention in San Diego, so we spent a few days at Dix's beach house. John had classes all day Friday and most of Saturday... so i had plenty of time to read this book... It was a sad and happy one. I cried like a baby... I think John thought I was insane when the tears wouldn't stop. I had to grab a whole box of kleenex!

As you can see in the pictures, the weather wasn't great. I tried sitting outside to read my book on Friday, but it was just too cold. So, I sat inside and laid on the floor where the sun was coming in the window... I could still see and hear the ocean, so it was almost perfect.

I talked John into skipping his Thursday night dinner in the city so we could go to the little street fair that is every Thursday night in Oceanside. We ate lots of greasy fair foods and had fun looking at all the little booths. We picked up some fresh strawberries for breakfast. They were delicious! Would you believe that my little camera battery was dead and I forgot my charger... so I didn't get any pictures of us that night... bummer. Then it was rainy the rest of the weekend and i didn't want to cary around the big camera. So, no pictures of us...

We were eating lunch at Ruby's on the end of the pier on Saturday when my brother David called to tell me the good news that he was engaged to Rebekah! I am SO HAPPY for him. She's a great girl and she makes him very happy! We are anxious to hear details on when and where the wedding will be. She will be a great addition to our family!

I love little getaways with my favorite person in the whole world! Love being with him!

The Sisters...

One of the best thing about John's calling is that we are able to get to know the sister missionaries really well. They come over a lot to talk with John and sometimes we get to go teach lessons with them. We have been so lucky to have such great sisters. They have been great examples to our family!

Last week Sister Rumler asked if I could drive 6 of them up to Red Rock for their P-day. Keri came with me and we had so much fun with them. They were so excited to get "out" of the city and just goof around. But let me tell you, they were still missionaries! I stopped to get gas and one of them got out and totally talked to the guy next to us and gave him a pass along card and then when we were walking down a trail, the same sister talked to some people on the trail and gave out another one! great missionaries.

We were a little worried that someone might get hurt! We went pretty high!

We didn't want to have to call President McCrackin and tell him one of his sisters was out of commission for a while...

Sister Johnson and I made it up first! She's my Washington girl!

Sister Vomocil and Sister Todd. Sister Vomocil was in our ward last summer, we loved her! She goes home in 3 weeks!

Sister Johnson is serving in our ward now... she is great! If you look in the background of this picture, you can see the other 3 sisters! They didn't want to jump down this one part, so they tried to get to us another way... they ended up way over there! We eventually got back together!

babysitter

I got to babysit my little niece 3 days last week! She was sick and so was her babysitter. So I got to take care of her. She was so cuddley since she wasn't feeling good. Shhh... don't tell Jenn that I let her fall asleep in my arms... and I never laid her down, just kept her in my arms asleep. So fun. I love babies!

We had a little photo shoot on Friday...

She wasn't sure about the grass...

Tanner LOVES her...

We got lots of smiles when dad got home...

It's fun being the only Aunt around!

catch up...

I wonder how many posts I have titled "catch-up"???

Things have been so crazy, I haven't had a minute to blog... I have been busy with my stacyjulian.com work, organizing some filing cabinets, organizing digital photo's, feeding kids and everything else that goes along with being a mom.

These are a few things that I have been wanting to blog about...

1. Mitchell answered Megan's Sadies invitation with this cute cow...(remember she asked him with a cow heart??) we cut open the cow and placed a few chocolate hearts in there and one big one had "yes" on it. Do you know how hard it is to find a stuffed cow?? 10 stores later... The big date is tomorrow... should be fun.




2. Ashley came home 2 weekends in a row... We loved it! The first weekend in February she came down with my niece Angela and her husband Shawn and my nephew Kevin. It was so fun to have them all here. They played a lot of games on the Wii, did some shopping, the boys jammed on the guitar, Shawn played some soccer in the rain and we watched some good movies. Kevin just returned from his mission to Chile, so he is catching up on all the movies he missed out on... It was so nice to spend some time with Kevin since he just got home.

3. Last Wednesday we wer getting the boys out the door for mutual and there was a knock on the door... it was my cousin Brent McAllister! He was here on business staying at the Red Rock and he googled our address and jogged down! It was great to catch-up! He lives in Spokane... he moved there right as we moved away! bummer.


4. Ashley came home again last weekend. We had a good visit with her! We played some games, ate some good food and just hung out. She applied to be an RA next year and she just found out that she got it. She is so excited! So are we, they pay her room and board! All she will have to pay is tuition and books next year. Good job Ashley!!
this is the only picture we took all weekend... oops

5. Valentines day was wonderful! I LOVE my valentine so much!! We went to dinner at Kona Grill and Saturday night and saw the movie Valentines day on Friday night... so it was a great weekend! I forgot how much I loved Kona Grill! We haven't been there in a long time. They have the best salmon salad. yum.

6. I'm sure I am forgetting something... speaking of forgetting... Wednesday was a bad day... I had a visiting teaching interview at 10:30am. I got a reminder call the night before, it was on my calendar AND I got an email that morning reminding me... after checking my email I went walking with Kaleen. On my way home I drove past the church, saw a bunch of cars there and thought to myself... "I wonder what's going on at the church... hmm..." no recollection of my interview at the church... go home, take my time showering, get dressed, then get on my computer and see my email! ugh... it was 11:00. I rushed to the church and had my interview... I'm loosing my mind. Then, that night I went to El Camino wards New Beginnings and when I was changing my clothes when i got home I took off my skirt and I had 2 slips on! How does someone put 2 slips on without seeing the first one?? I guess I was in hurry... I'm getting old!

So different

I've been thinking a lot lately about how different each of my kids are. Isn't it strange that they all came from John and I and they have been raised in the same home, but they each have their own personality! I know it's nothing new, but i have been noticing the differences lately... here are a few...

1. If I wasn't home the minute Ashley walked through the door she called me and asked where I was... Mitchell on the other hand, comes home and could care less if I'm not home. Never calls me.

2. Wake up... We would have to go into Ashley's room and wake her up at least 3 separate times to get up for seminary. I think I've had to wake Mitchell up 3 times all year... he gets up on his own everyday. Tanner is much more like Ashley.

3. On film... Tanner has been spending his spare time making silly video's on the computer. He loves to take pictures of himself and loves to sing to the computer. He will then post these video's to facebook for the world to see. (you should really go look at a few, they are SO funny.) Mitchell on the other hand, likes to sing in private. He goes to his room, shuts the door and jams on his guitar and sings along. He stops if he hears anyone upstairs... He and my nephew Kevin we jamming together last weekend when he was in town and we wanted to hear some of the songs they were practicing... Kevin was game, but I had to pay Mitchell to sing a few of the songs. I think Jenn and Angela video taped it without him knowing... I need to get a copy. So different!

These are just a few of the many differences that I have noticed lately... I love each one of them and their differences!

Grandma Barnes is 75!

We had Grandma Barnes here all last week for her birthday. She had mentioned to John last year that she wanted all of her 6 kids together for her 75th birthday and she wanted to see The Phantom of the Opera. We were able to get her part of her wish. Two of her daughters surprised her on Friday night, Cathi came from Mesa and Edie came from Wyoming. We were SO HAPPY that they made the effort to come. It meant SO much to Grandma. I wish the others would have tried harder to be here.

We played games Friday night... Saturday we picked up Edie's best friend who was visiting her mom across town. Then we went shopping and had lunch at Cafe Rio.

Saturday night we went to see The Phantom tickets and got a backstage tour after the show!! It was AMAZING! If you haven't seen Phantom in Vegas, you need to. The theater is beautiful and it was built just for this show.

The big surprise!

Cathi and Edie

Cafe Rio...

Edie was craving Cafe Rio... they don't have those in Wyoming!
Cathi, Mandy and Edie

Edie and Tanner...
(don't ask why Tanner wasn't at a scout merit badge clinic...)

Dessert at the Grand Luxe before the show! Me and my honey!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

The show!

On Stage!

It was a birthday that she will never forget! Happy Birthday Gram B!