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.

Just a tease !

So this summer has been so busy. I am really going to try and keep up on my blog. For now I have put just a couple of pictures from July's activies. This next week I will blog in detail about each of our summer activities.
Tyson was able to come home from Afghanistan for a short visit. While he was here of course to the dismay of my family we did take a new family picture. I had to promise that there would not be any kind of color theme , or that we would not have to go to some "special" place. So here we are in the front yard.
No matter who's pictures I am doing after we get done we have to have a fun picture. I should start doing this picture first to loosen everyone up. P.S. Emily. I said pull a face... not cover up your face. LOL

The reason Tyson was able to come home was because he and his beautiful wife had their first baby on July 10th. Meet Jordan Scott Davies. 8lbs 9oz 21 inches long and a week past his due date. First I was sure that he was going to come on the 4th of July in honor of his Dad serving our Country. But then I was sure that he was holding out until his Dad got here. But because of some travel problems he came the day before his Dad got here. But he is here, healthy and beautiful.

We all took a day off work and went up to Payson Lake while Tyson and Lauren were here. We had so much fun. Why is it that we have this lake 30 minutes away and we never go there. Everyone had a great time. The kids were not sure at first about going out into the "deep" water, but once the guys stopped teasing them, they had a ball.

I am pretty sure that Erika wanted this duck and see who the biggest tease is....

Just this last weekend we had our Garbe Reunion... We went up to Chris and Debbie's property in Avintaquin Canyon. It is beautiful there. Everyone had a great time. I got up Saturday morning with a migraine from ----. I was so bugged because I missed out on most of the day. But I still have some great pictures.. More to come. Kevin was the only sibling that was not there. We missed him. Trent and Emily had a family reunion in CA . So Tiffany, Adam & kids were the only family I had there. Looking forward to next year as Tyson will be home and we will be changing the weekend so that Trent and Emily are not in CA for the Smith reunion.

Thanks to the Hales family who was in charge this year. You are all awesome.

Be sure to watch this week for more , more and some more pictures from the summer.

It's Almost July !!!

So we made it through May. Of course everything went just fine. June has been just about as crazy. The first weekend our "Bunco" group went camping. We have six couples who have gotten together once a month for dinner for over 10 years. I love these people, they are our best friends. We have camped together, vacationed together, pulled off weddings together, we have been through sad times and happy times together. I just don't tell them enough how much I love and appreciate them.
The next weekend Robert and I went from Thursday to Saturday with the Young Women of our ward for our Certification Camp. We have done this now for a couple of years. We get ALL of our Certification done so that while we are at Stake Camp we can have fun. And we do.
Robert had the ward Father's and Son's the 3rd weekend. Trent, Oakley were able to go with him and I think they had a good time. They did miss Tyson though.
July is really just around the corner now and I am looking so forward to it. There is of course lots of camping. Trent and Emily are blessing Lexi . Girls Camp. Tyson and Lauren's baby Jordan birth-day, and Tyson coming home for a week or so some time in July. Not sure of the dates yet, but when I know I will let everyone know so we can get together. You know I am always looking for a reason for a party.
I have sewing like crazy to do.... So many projects, so much material, where is my sewing room ? Some friends are getting together to sew every Thursday evening. I am going to try and fit it in my schedule. LOL
Sorry no pictures I will get them off my camera and share.