California 2016

We have definitely gotten our summer off to a bang!  Life has been so just perfect lately!  That sounds smug or something, but I've really been enjoying our summer!  My parents came into town just before school got out and so we spent some time with them here in AZ.  Here's a silly picture of Owen's lunch one day... goofball!

The whole time they were visiting we were secretly getting ready to go to California with the whole family!  We hadn't told the kids though so we were being sneaky.  We decided not to tell them until we were in the car ready to go!  I can't find the video of the reveal, but it was more shock than excitement.  They were confused and shocked, then they got excited!

We had the BEST trip to California!  My parents paid for our whole family to stay in a house walking distance from Disneyland, and it was amazing!  It wasn't a huge house, and we had a lot of people, but there was room for us all to sleep and to party!  And there was a pool and a hot tub and a ping pong table so everyone's happy!  I just can't say enough about how much fun we had.  There was a lot of walking and family time, so perfect!  I don't have all of the pictures but I can't figure out technology right now!  It's probably for the best since I can't narrow them down, they all bring back memories!  So here's a few!  We did Disneyland and California Adventure for 3 days, we also did Seaworld, and Legoland, and a church/rest day, and a beach day!  We packed as much into 7 days as we could!  

Also Brenna's birthday was spent at Disneyland for the very first time!  This is a quilt my mom made for her, which she loves!  And it's super cute!  

We loved getting to know our cousins better!

There was lots of Rook in the evenings, just how I like it!  And tell me this wouldn't have been the perfect Nello hand... the middle had no counters either... ahh lost opportunities!  

I'm pretty proud of this picture.. I waited for like 15 minutes for the bear to walk back by!

I have to say that Seaworld was one of my favorite days... we just had so much fun the whole time!  Mason loves ocean animals so I got a little choked up watching him get to see them all in real life.. the whole vacation gave me many emotional parent moments as the kids saw magical things!

Man, Jeremy just loves carousels.. couldn't get him off of them at every single park!  (or it could be the runts next to him I guess)

Like good parents we took all of our kids who were tall enough (Owen included) on the Tower of Terror.. This picture makes me laugh because of how cuddled into Brock Mason is.  

I could go on and on, and I probably should, but for now I'll leave it at we had such a great time and we loved being with family and spending all of this time with the ones we love!  Thanks again mom and dad and everyone for coming!  We loved it!

CFP

This guy!  This is a little late, but I want it to be documented!  He got his CFP (certified financial planner) certificate this spring.  He worked very hard while working full time to take the 6 classes  he had to take and pass (which he did with flying colors each time) and then study hard for a comprehensive final that takes 6 hours.  He was a little nervous going in since it'd been 2 years since he'd taken some of these classes, but I knew he'd rock it, and he did!  He then had to wait 5 weeks to know if he passed or not.  They don't tell you your score or by how much you passed, but I know he killed it!  It's a difficult designation to get and I couldn't be more proud of my CFP!  Good job Jeremy!

Brenna's Baptism

We had a very special day in our family on June 4th.  We got home from a California vacation on the 3rd, then on the 4th, Brenna got baptized!  We are so proud of her for doing it, and it was a special day with a special spirit there.  It was our first kid to get baptized so it was new for us too.  She was lucky enough to have a bunch of family able to come, even lots from Canada, so that was special.  We missed a few though and we felt their absence also.  Here are a few pictures I took of her a couple of weeks before her baptism.  My sister got some better ones with her camera, but these I snapped on my phone.  I decided to make her a white dress last minute so I wanted some pictures of it! 

Her smile was getting cheesy, so we tried to not smile too!

This is her on the big day!  Before she got in her jumper.  She was nervous about everyone watching her, and tired of all of the pictures, but so pretty!

She didn't want everyone to see her in her jumper, but I think she looked just perfect! 

Jeremy's suit was a little short (of coarse) so he was bending!  

*almost* all of the family who were able to come!  Thanks for making her day extra special!

She had her Grandpa Smith give the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Another little girl named Shayden Scelzo got baptized on the same day so her family did the talk on baptism.  It was a very nice program and I felt the spirit as we went through it all. Her comments after include being scared of everyone watching her, and that mommy shouldn't have forgotten a towel (we had to wait for Shay to be done being baptized then for her to get dried off then ask to borrow her towel!) and that it felt good.  She is proud of her new scriptures, and fancy scripture bag and the pretty baptism jewelry she has, and also she's very proud of the blankets she got and the towel from the primary.  

We also enjoyed having a few families over afterwards along with some or our family!  The Dilworth's, the Skidmores, and the Thomas's came over after to help us celebrate and we had a lot of fun!  It's been a whirlwind, but a good one!  Loving the memories!