VETERAN'S DAY
I took this from Kira's blog. Had me in tears but thought it was so fitting for this week.

9 Ways you can show support for our military members and their families.

*Stand up when the National Anthem is being played or the Pledge of Allegiance is being said and put your hand over your heart. The National Anthem isn’t a time to cheer for your team. It’s a time to show respect for the good ol’ USA. Keep your eyes on the flag and your thoughts on the soldiers who died and those who continue to fight to protect it.

*Teach your children about REAL heroes. They may not play a sport on TV and make millions a season, but when was the last time a home run killed a terrorist? Uh….never! Children need to know that heroes aren’t found in Hollywood or on the ball field. Think about it…freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction!

*When you see a veteran…thank him. They aren’t looking for your thanks, but they’ll sure appreciate it. Imagine putting your life on the line for your country and watching your buddies die for it and watching the world around you forget about it. Veteran’s don’t forget. Neither should you.

*Display a flag in your yard. Investing in a big flag pole is not only patriotic…but it looks great, too! Convince your neighbors to do the same.

*Send a card to a deployed soldier. It’s not hard to get an address. I think just about everyone knows somebody in the military. Soldiers love to know that the people back home are behind them 100%. You don’t have to be in favor of the war(s). Politics don’t play a role when it comes to standing behind our military men and women.

*Military wives look really strong on the outside but they hide their fear well. When you see a wife whose husband is deployed, ask how you can help. She’s scared and sad and worn out. The answer she will give you is “I’m ok!” but help her out anyway. A note telling her how much you support her husband and appreciate her families sacrifice means more than you can possibly imagine.

*When you see a service member at the airport…stand up and cheer for them. There’s not nearly enough of that. Shake their hands. Tell them “thank you”.

*When a unit nearby is deploying or coming home…go out and support them. Take your kids. Life is hectic and busy…I realize that. The soldiers will appreciate it, but I promise you that you will get a lot more out of it than you bargained for. It’s hard to get caught up in your own problems when you witness a soldier saying goodbye to his/her family….and nothing can lift your spirits more than seeing them reunited!

*Remember during this holiday season that there are thousands of deployed men and women who would give anything just to be with their family. Spend a little more time with yours. Do a service for someone. Let your children experience how much joy they can get from bringing happiness to others.

Remember that the cost of freedom is high but Americans have always paid it. Do your part. If you can’t serve, support those who can!

TYSON WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU, WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY !

Still Trying to catch up !!!

May was pretty uneventful. Besides a million birthday's not much really happened. I am however glad when May rolls around because of course the last weekend being Memorial Day starts our camping for the summer. I love the mountains and wish I could just pull my trailer up their and stay the whole summer. Robert and I did get roped onto the committee for Fiesta Days. I will get even with Richard somehow someway. So stay tuned for details on that.
May also brought us to our 2nd annual scholarship given at Spanish Fork High School by "Colton's Angels". I love this group, it makes me fill so good when we make, donate , help and inspire other's to give and to appreciate life. If you don't know about Colton's Angels and want to, fill free to give me a call for details.
The excitement for June was when the Primary Chorister called and asked me to sub for her. I started laughing . Really I was laughing out loud. She asked me what was so funny. I told her that I can either sing or wave my arm. They DO NOT work at the same time. She said you will be fine, forget about the arm if you have to. I will drop my bag off to you in the next couple of days. That was that and I started practicing. If any of you have ever been in Primary you know just how honest the kids are. I knew that I was going to be in trouble come Sunday. Sunday rolled around and then my next dilemma came. I had to find some to wear. Not a problem you say.... well I knew that I was going to be getting a workout , you know trying to sing and move my arm at the same time. So I could not be over dressed. But then I had to make sure that I had something with at least 3/4 sleeves because I recently have a hugh problem with... you guessed it. Relief Society arms. If they for some reason did not laugh at just the leading, they would laugh at the RS arms. By the time I was done I decided it was not really that bad, but I was glad it was over. I am not going to wish that I never have to do it again, because if I do you guessed it, it will be my next dang calling.
Just a few things looking forward to July and August.. Our hike up Front Mountain, 24th of July,Ty & family in town, family reunion and a few other's ... Later

Part 2.... April

April 11th was our Anniversary. Where in the heck did 31 years go ? I am pretty sure that there were people in both our families that did not think we would last 1 year, let alone 31. I am so blessed to have had Robert come into my life. You know I just thought that I loved him back then. We are more in love now and with each day,month, year that passes that love just grows deeper and stronger. I thought that I would tell you 31 things that I love about Robert. We will see how I do.
1. He is so kind... to everyone 2. handsome 3. FORGIVING 4. funny 5. honest 6. Great Dad 7. Smart.. just ask Connie 8. handy- he can fix almost anything 9. tells me he loves me SEVERAL times a day. 10. Always on time... No always 15-30 minutes early 11. great listener 12. Awesome Papa 13. Loving Brother 14. great friend 15. helpful 16. peacemaker 17. loving 18. Did I say handsome ? 19. hard worker 20. thoughful 21. great example 22. says my cooking is great, even when it's not. 23. very supportive- my calling is his calling. 24. Does not complain when I want to see a chick flick. 25. loves to snuggle. 26. honors his priesthood 27. great cook- loves sweets 28. loves to dance-only knows the good old "bear hug" 29. respectful 30. Did I say handsome ? 31. just all around "AWESOME"
I could have kept going and going. Any of you who know Robert I am sure can think of more great things about him, but we will stop as he will already be mad. He is always telling me to blog about something/anything but him.
I love you Robert. Thank you for putting up with me all these years. I look forward to the next 31.

To end the month of April we went down to St. George with our "Bunco" group for our annual Spring weekend. We are so lucky to have these five couples as friends. They are all awesome. We had a great time as we always do. We play and eat and laugh and eat somemore and then laugh somemore. And I am looking forward to our Fall weekend in September.
Stay tuned for Part 3.

Catch Up.. Part 1 of 99

So Tyson returned home from Afghanistan after serving over there for a year. He was able to come home (Utah) with Lauren & Jordan over the Easter weekend. In Spanish Fork when our Soldiers come home the city welcomes them into town with style. Of course this parade had to be kept a secret from Ty or he would have found some way to sneak into town. Anyway ahead of time I convinced him to have some kind of uniform on when he got here because I wanted to take pictures very first thing as we only had a couple of days with him and he always finds a way to get out of the picture thing. I also let him know that there was construction on the Benjamin exit so they would have to come to the Main Street entrance. He knew something was up right when they got off the freeway as the fire trucks, police cars etc were all lined up along the side of the road right as they hit town. Of course he was not very happy with me, but I knew that he would get over it. It was raining so I felt a little bad because I knew that he and Lauren were going to have to ride on that firetruck from the entrance of town up to our house.

As they turned the corner off of main street to head up center street the American Legion was lined up along the side of the road. Thanks to my friend Steve Wilson he lined this up and it was awesome as they saluted Tyson and he in return. As the parade was coming down main street of course all the cars stop, the people come out of the stores, everything just stops for a minute to honor the soldier or soldiers who have returned from serving and protecting our freedoms. Everytime this happens I am the first one out to the street with tears in my eyes. I am so proud.

The scouts from the 22nd ward came at 5:30 the morning Ty was to come home and lined both sides of our street with their flags, it was an awesome sight. It was a great homecoming for Tyson.

Like I said it was Easter weekend so we got together to color eggs and everyone had a great time. Not just the little kids .....

But the big kids too.

And they are off. Along with the real eggs, I have several (like 100)plastic eggs with prizes in them. Of course after they collect all the eggs they are then divided out evenly between everyone. The kids open the eggs and get to see what goodies they have won .

A few years ago I thought that it would be fun to have an "adult" hunt. I think that my kids have as much fun on Easter as they do Christmas. Now with the adults I tried to get them to even it out when it is all done and they said NO WAY , you get what you get period. Each year as someone new comes into our family the others try to help them out and get them prepared by telling them to be sure to wear a dress or high heals or tight pants something to really slow them down. This year Trent,Emily, Tiff & Adam all had the same idea and came in their game clothes. It was pretty funny but Tyson and Lauren were not to be had. They all got their share and had a great time.

Besides household items there is money to be had, so if it looks like they would step on someone if they fell.... They would.

A great time was had by all. I love my kids. I am so thankful for the great adults they have become.

Stay tuned for part 2

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my Dad's 75th Birthday. I hope that he has a great day. I am telling you that the St. George sun is great for him because I don't think that he looks a day older than he did when they moved down there more than 10 years ago. He is so fun to be around everyone from Granny, his kids, grandkids, great grandkids, neighbors and friends love to be around him. He is so thoughtful and kind. One story about my Dad's kindness... He was working at a rest home and Christmas was just around the corner. One day my Dad asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he to him that he wanted a pair of those awesome suspenders just like my Dad's. They were rainbow colors. Not brown, not black, not grey but every bright color you can think of. Well my Dad went to work to find another pair, he could not so he took his , wrapped them up and made this man's Christmas. This is just one of the many many acts of kindness by him. Dad you are such a great example to me. I love you so much and I hope that you have a great day !

TYSON IS HOME !!!

Well I should say Tyson is in the United States. He finally arrived in Alaska on Sunday night. He was suppose to be there Thursday night but was delayed a few days. I am pretty sure that it was a very long weekend for Lauren and Jordan just waiting.

I can not even imagine the excitment when these men walked into the room where their loved ones were waiting for them. You know me... tears tears and more tears. I was at home crying just seeing the pictures that Lauren was sending over on her phone.

And I am pretty sure that it was a great site for the men to see their family. I can not even imagine having to leave my spouse and baby behind.

We as a family are so proud of you Tyson. Even though this has been one of the hardest things for me as a mother to watch and live through, I AM the proudest mother around. The sacrafice that is made for all of us is unreal.

Before Tyson joined the Army, I thought that I was a patriotic person. I love my country, the flag, my freedoms. But when you have a loved one that is serving our country it gives you a whole new perspective. My family will tell you that the tears flow pretty much all the time. It does not matter if it is the National Athem at a ball game, Hyums at Church or even the prayers at church when they are thankful for our servicemen. Yeah you name it, it makes me cry. BUT... that is what Mother's are suppose to do right ?

Tyson, we are all so proud of you. We all thank you for what you have done and what you are still doing. We are so thankful that you are back on US soil and we are so looking forward to March/April when we can see you in person again. I will be so happy for you when Lauren is done with school and your little family can be ALL together, even if it is in Alaska. But we do have our fingers crossed for a trainer job.

On the Davies side of the family we currently have 4 men serving our country. My niece Shari's husband Ben is serving and just left his family for awhile. Our nephew Shaun just returned home, and another nephew Jason currently serving also. Thank you , we love you , we pray for you and we are so so proud of each of you.

If I only had a brain !!!

So I get this email today asking if there was anything that I forgot about when I was updating the blog yesterday. Then I was reminded.... HELLO
Tiffany was married in October to Adam Jackson. Who if you did not know is wonderful to her and her kids. They went to High School together and knew each other and now find out the they both secretly liked each other. They just had to wait 10 years to connect. I love it when I hear Harley and Oakley call him Dad. We are so happy to have Adam as part of our family.

Yes... we are still alive

So Lauren told me that she was not going to update her blog until I did. I have been such a slacker. So I am going to try and be better and not let 4-5 months go by again. LOL
So in September we had our Ward Youth Conference. We took the kids to one of our members house in Alpine, you know you have to get them away from home or they want to come and go. Anyway we READ the Book of Mormon in 2 days. I told the kids that we would read, listen to the CD's and have the Bishopric summarize for us. They did not like that at all. They said if we are going to say that we read it in 2 days ... then we are going to read it. It was an awesome spiritual experience and everyone who was there will never forget it. I know that Robert and I will not.
In October Robert turned the big "50" I know you can not believe it. But he did. Also October was a sad/bad month for me. I had about 3000 pictures on my external hard drive and they were all lost. I cried like a baby.
In November Thanksgiving was great. This was the year for my whole family to get together, we had everyone there but Tyson, Lauren & Jordan and a niece & her husband so we had a great time. I also after almost 5 years as young women's president was release. I love my "girls" I know that it was time for someone else to have the opportunity but I sure do miss them. That same day I was put in as a Den Leader for the 8 & 9 year old scouts. I have not done this since Trent was 8. And let me tell you these boys are sure different than the YW. After the first week I told Robert that I was not sure I could do it, they wore me out. But finally this last week I came home and said I guess that I can do this. NOT for 5 years but I can do it.
December... This was our off year. So it was really quite boring. Tiff and Adam called and said that they had the kids for a couple of hours on Christmas morning and did we want to come and watch them open their presents. It is probably a good thing because other wise I am not sure that we would have gotten out of our PJ's for 2 days.
I can not remember that last time that I was excited for the new year to come. I have been so excited to January to come because that meant Tyson would be on his way home to American soil. We will still not see him until about Easter , but I can talk to him and hear his voice every single day. But now we are looking forward to April. And last but not least don't let anyone tell you that you are never to old to take piano lessons. They are getting harder, what is up with that ? I swear the only reason my teacher keeps coming is to have her weekly laugh. We will see how long I can hold out. I keep thinking all the times I told my kids that when you start something you will finish it. Me and my big mouth.
So there you go , the short version of the last few months, sorry no pictures. I hope that everyone has a wonderful 2010.