I will miss...

my wonderful calling and these amazing ladies.


But it was time. I felt it and the Lord felt it and he let the Stake Presidency know it was time for a change. Thursday night we had a stake leadership meeting and when it was over, President Worthen came in and let us know that we were getting released on Sunday during stake conference. I think it was quite a surprise for my counselors, but i had a feeling it was coming before girls camp. I couldn't seem to get excited about camp this year and I was having a really hard time making decisions about it... I believe that was Heavenly Father preparing me for the release. I now know that I wasn't suppose to make some of those decisions and plans. I love how church callings work. Heavenly Father is definitely in charge.

I had amazing counselors and secretaries to work with. I could not have done it without them. They were so supportive and worked so hard. We got along great! We missed Barb when she moved and i wasn't sure how someone else would fit in... But Lisa was amazing. She jumped right in and got along great with us. I know it wasn't easy for her to be the new one.

Here are a few things that I learned and loved over the last 3 years...

Learned to listen to the Spirit
Loved my presidency. I hardly knew them 3 years ago. Now they feel like sisters.
Loved my ward yw leaders. They worked so hard!
Loved the YW! All of them.
Learned that my stake presidency are men called from God. I learned so much from them.
Tried to learn how to balance family and church.
Learned how to work with 2 different YM presidencies and high counselors. They are amazing men. I appreciate all they did for me. I know I made them crazy at times.
Learned that Girls Camp is one of the most important weeks of a yw's life.
Learned that youth can lead if you let them.
Learned that it's hard to let go and let youth lead.
Learned that I need to delegate better.
Learned that Barb was a great organizer.
Learned that Nathell could cook anything.
Learned that Heather could make anything look pretty.
Learned that Lisa has an amazing voice.
Learned that you can have a productive presidency meeting at Jamm's for breakfast.

It's been an amazing 3 years! Time flew by. I love the YW program and know that change lives and is an inspired program. I will miss this calling, but look forward to what comes next in my life...

listening...

I am sitting at my mother in laws computer listening to John, Tanner and Grandma play the game "up-words". It is her favorite game and she is playing with her favorite son... happiness is. She reminded him that she has the instructions in the box in case he tries to cheat like last time... haha. John won when they played at our house, but she claims he cheated... that won't happen this time! Grandma isn't feeling well. We just found out last week that she has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Big bummer. We decided we better come visit her while she is still feeling pretty good. The boys were happy to miss a few days of school : )

We were shocked when we walked in last night and saw her. We had just seen her at our house in January and she has changed quite a bit since then. So sad. We are grateful for the Plan of Salvation! What peace and comfort that brings to us at times like this. I am sure Grandpa Barnes is anxiously waiting for for! But we're not sure we are ready for her to join him...

I am so behind on my blogging... I need to write about out recent company, youth conference and Mitchell's volleyball, Ashley coming home... it will have to wait. All my pictures are on my home computer...

The game is getting intense... they just got the dictionary out! My brother Mark and his family are on their way up to see us... they only live 40 minutes from here. I love both sides of my family!!

Easter

Easter Sunday was wonderful! We loved watching General Conference! It was so inspiring. I love having Easter on Conference Sunday. The talks about the Savior and his life were amazing.

We had a nice treat... my 2 sisters are in town for their spring break. So, Scott and Jenn came over and we had a nice big Easter dinner and a little egg hunt. Afton was a little small for the hunt and the others were too big for it! oh well. They all had fun. I didn't get any pictures of the adults... oops. Here are a few shots from the day...

Afton got a new toy... not sure who enjoyed it more??

We dyed some eggs...

Afton trying to eat an egg with the shell still on it... yuck!

We finally pealed it for her...

Her first hunt!

Andrew trying to hold on to his stash...

Mitchell....

All the kids... its always fun to hang out with the cousins!

Spring Break 2010

We had a great spring break last week. On Saturday we went up to a friends cabin in Brian Head, UT. The snow was so deep! It was amazing! We went sledding, played in the snow and just relaxed! The satellite was broken and was secretly happy about that. No nickelodeon, espn... just quiet. We did watch a few movies... that was fun.

When the ski slopes closed at 4:30 we went sledding down the ski hill. Each time we went a little further... but what you go down, you must walk up... that is until we got smart. We went all the way down to the chair lift and the thought of walking all the way back made me very tired. So, I suggested that John and Mitch go back and get both cars and come pick up Tanner and I and leave one car at the bottom. SO the next time we went down, we drove up. It was a BLAST! The end of the hill is really steep. I screamed the whole way down dragging my feet to slow me down. We all laughed so hard we were crying. It was great. The only bad part, is that Ashley wasn't there!

Tanner headed down...

Mitchell passing me...

John cruising...

We went farther than you can see in the picture! The boys are hiking back up...
we definitely got our exercise!

On Monday we went skiing and snowboarding. We had hoped to get Tanner into a snowboarding class, but they were all full. So, we rented him a snow board and Mitch tried to teach him. But it didn't go so well. So, after an hour and lots of tears, I took him back in and traded the snowboard for ski's. We only had a few tears and after the second run, he was a pro. He didn't want to learn to turn, just stop. So, he snowplowed straight down every run. But he was happy and that is all that mattered. We will work on technique next time : )
Here is Mitchell snowboarding... he did great for only his 2nd time.

John and I on the chair... the sun was shinning and it wasn't crowded. It was wonderful... we had learned one hard lesson... don't use 7 year old sunscreen. We got SO sunburned. John had a bottle in his suitcase and I said it would still be good... but we got fried. oops... we did a little research and everything says to get new sunscreen every year. Time to clean out the closet.

Yes, that is the roof!

John and Tanner wrestling as Mitchell slept...

I attempted a puzzle... that is as far as I got...

Tanner and Mitch played a lot of pool...

On Tuesday John headed back home and the boys and I headed North. We stayed with my parents in Lehi. We had fun hanging with Ashley, cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. Tanner got very sick on Wednesday. He got the stomach flu. No fun! Poor little guy.

I got to go to the YW open house training in Salt Lake. It was amazing!
I feel motivated to get through this busy YW season!

Thursday we went up to Uncle Todd's house. It's always fun hanging with them. The kids are so cute!!! Angela and Shawn joined us! So fun to see them.
The girls LOVE their cousin Ashley! And Ashley LOVES them. Last time we were there, Ashley took the girls to the store and bought them a treat, so cute little Charity came and asked me for the keys and some money... i asked her why and she said so the girls could go bond!
So cute!

Charity is taking a clogging class... she was showing us some moves!

Mitchell jamming...

Grandpa teaching Grandma how to use her new camera.

Ashley playing with little Justin.

We wish we'd had more time to visit more friends... next time. I can't believe the semester is almost over... Ashley will be home in less than 3 weeks. We are so excited! I miss my little girl.

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!