End Of A Great Season

This team was a real treat. Although we took a year off from soccer, Raegan still happened to have several of the same team mates from before. A great crowd of kids!! Each player brought such wonderful qualities to the chemistry of the team.

Last minute, I decided to do pictures. Twice the league had professional pics lined up, but rain always was a issue. So the last game I did them myself. Bummed we had one player Wyatt missing, but it was the best we could do. Trent absolutely loved being a coach...and by the end of the season, Raegan loved having her dad as coach too.

Go Dynamite Tigers!! Yep not just tigers...Dynamite Tigers! That was the consensus.

Trophy Time

It's so fun to see the smiles on these kids faces...they are so proud!

So proud of you sweetie! You played an awesome season!

Tornado Relief Effort

Although we love living here in Georgia, there is a trade-off when it comes to the Weather. The Spring and Fall months are absolutely perfect, the summers are boiling hot and the winters are mild. However, we get more than our fair share of violent weather, storms, etc. here that regularly keeps everyone collectively on their toes.

A few weeks ago as many of you probably saw in the news, a string of Tornado's came through the Southeast and decimated a large amount of area in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. Although the overall extent of the damage in Georgia was not as bad as some of the areas of Alabama, there was still major destruction.

Our Stake was called to work on helping our brothers and sisters out in our area after these recent storms. This is the 3 time our Stake has been called to go serve destruction zones, the first coming after Hurrican Katrina, the second being the flooding North of Atlanta last summer and now these tornado's. So, once again we slapped on our Yellow Mormon Helping Hand T-shirts and went to work.

Being a couple of weeks after the storms hit, the majority of the work left to be done involved removing trees from people's property, etc. I've attached some pictures of us doing this work last weekend.



The main property that our crew worked on was this home of a 68 year old couple. Their story was so sad and frightening for them, their house is a one story home and when they heard the Tornado approaching, they crouched into a small crevice underneath a cabinet in their laundry room. The Tornado made a direct hit on there home and 10 seconds later, this is what was left of it (See the picture of the arrow to see the area this couple huddled in as the Tornado hit):



I did not have time to take pictures of the entire area, but there were dozens of houses that looked like this, all over the countryside. This a rural part of Georgia, the devastation is more than I can put into words.

Our Stake is being called back into action this coming weekend and likely more weekends in the future as well. Serving our brothers and sisters in their time of need is one of the greatest things we can learn to do in this life.

Tree Fall-ing

So we had quite the tornado weather sweep through our state about a week ago. Luckily we weren't affected with any damage. But a few days later, this past Tuesday night, I was sitting at our kitchen table when I heard a loud cracking. I recognized the sound from over a year ago when our first tree fell over in the middle of the night. I looked up and sure enough, one of my favorite trees in our yard was on its way down. Blessed again, it wasn't any where near the house. But this was a HUGE tree and all I could do was just stare. 'Whoa, did that just happen?'

What a huge break in the roots! According to a neighbor, carpenter ants have played a part in this event.

As you can see the kids have absolutely loved having additional playground equipment to play on...for the time being.

Ammon too...

Yesterday, Saturday, a group of guys from the ward came over after a long day of service out in Griffin. The tornados had ravaged Spalding and Paulding counties and the stake rallied together to help out the community. After that long day of cutting down trees, they continued their service and helped cut down our tree into pieces. Such a testimony of service! I'm so thankful to these men. It was amazing how FAST they were too. Trent and I were out the day before with two chain saws thinking we could do it, but wow, it was a huge task. 7 guys 3 chain saws...great team work!

Here is the end result. This tree is so dense in the middle (either a Beech or Elm Tree) it was very difficult to get any further. The same neighbor from before, came out and helped cut up more, and is planning on coming over again to finish the job. It's amazing the good people we are surrounded by.

Stone Mountain Laser Show

About two weeks ago, Easter weekend, we decided to go to the Stone Mountain Lazer show. I was a wonderful afternoon. We got up there around 4pm and just let the kids play catch, climb trees and the rocks and then ate a packed dinner on blankets on the lawn in front of the mountain...then around 9pm the show started. It was a lot of fun.

I love this picture of Jarom, it looks so dreamy with the sun rays...

Several of my monkey's in the tree.

I love my monkeys!!

Someone was a little jealous of the big kids...

Rian took these two pictures. She did a great job. And I figured I should be in a picture now and then...even if I didn't know she was taking it.

A little info:
The largest base relief sculpture in the world, the Confederate Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate leaders of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (and their favorite horses, "Blackjack", "Traveller", and "Little Sorrel", respectively). The entire carved surface measures 3 acres, about the size of three football fields. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet, and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain. The deepest point of the carving is at Lee's elbow, which is 12 feet to the mountain's surface.

Kids liked watching the train...come and go. Ammon loved it!

Walking on the tracks...this was a lot of fun (another dreamy picture)

Kids learned about putting pennies on the train tracks and making wishes...

Oh no! Save Me, Save Me!

The bubble man came by to entertain our area of the lawn...this was pretty neat to watch...especially with Ammon! The bubbles he made would be huge!

It's Show Time! Ammon wasn't too keen on the loud fire works, but it was such a great atmosphere, beautiful weather and a great crowd! Wish I could have taken better pics in the dark...

Jarom Is The Big 1 - 0

Happy Birthday to my big boy Jarom! We love you and are so excited you are growing up into such a strong young man. You may not request any extra attention or require any big surprises, but we notice your special strengths and nobility. Your testimony and spirit are so strong and bright, in shines brighter everyday. You are our little hero. We love you Jarom.

Sunday May 1st was Jarom's birthday, it also was the rededication of the Atlanta, Georgia Temple. Although we had tickets to be in the temple, we decided to help other families out by watching their kids 1st session and then they watch ours 2nd session. So Jarom had quite the audience at breakfast with the big stack of pancakes. (We had 6 additional kids under the age of 8) Jarom and Rian had the opportunity to attend the rededication. What an honor.

Jase (Missy's little boy) turned 1 the day before Jarom. So we had the traditional eating of the cake. Ammon wanted to help out, but looks as though in the end, Jase preferred a healthier way of eating.

Temple ReDedication

The Atlanta, Georgia Temple has been closed for nearly 2 years and was just rededicated Sunday, May 1st. As soon as opportunities opened up to serve I was ready to go. I was able to be a tour guide for a day when the temple was open to the public, and I was able to help make costumes for the youth for the Youth Cultural Celebration the night before the dedication. It was such an honor to participate in any way possible.

I had a few ladies help out


Yep, that spool says 80 yds ... from our ward we had 16 YW and 16 YM participate. We made skirts and tops for all the girls and football shirts and pants for the boys.


Painting was really a lot of work, both front and back, but worth it.

The girls practicing at the stake center.

Finally the big night. After a short 3 months cramming in practices and costumes, the youth were ready to perform for our beloved prophet.

Our seats were way far away up on the balcony, so the best shot I could get was from the giant screens. This will probably be the closest I will ever get to the prophet, but it was really neat. I did catch a glimpse of what it may have been like when the Savior was on the earth. Just that reverence and respect of a wonderful man who is so dedicated to a noble and eternal purpose. I almost wanted to tumble over people to be able to see over the balcony edge to see the prophet move through the audience to his chair. But all I could see were others standing ahead of me catching their glimpses...it was still an honor to know I was in the same room.

The start of the performances all the youth, all 2,100 youth, gathered on stage and around in the aisle to sing and set the mood.

Singing in the Rain...how appropriate for Georgia! I thought this looked kind of cool.

These are the girls from our stake. Some of the girls are up front are from our ward. These are the costumes in full action.

The boys in the stake. They did a great job too. The costumes turned out great.

Finale! A huge banner of the temple. So proud of the youth. What a great opportunity.