Don and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary last Tuesday. We laid in bed and watched movies till the sun came up. "27 Dresses" was the favorite of the evening. So it wasn't the most adventurous anniversary, but that will come next weekend. We found a hotel room in Flagstaff, where we will stay Friday, and attend a dog show on Saturday. We're even taking Darcy, I'm making him some little bows, and I got him a cute little t-shirt for the occasion.

Here are some fun facts about Don and I that you may not know:
Don was born on Aug. 23rd - I was born on Aug 20th.
Don's full first name is Donald, but he goes by Don - My full first name is Fawn'Rel (don't ask), but I go by Fawn (so our names rhyme).
Don's middle name is LeGrand - my middle name is Lee, and now we share the same last name! Don is the second of 12 children, I am the second of 2 children.
Don thinks before speaking, and I speak before thinking!

The list could go on and on, but I'll just say that some things were meant to be! So, I guess I'll keep him at least another 10 years or so!

We want to get a picture for our anniversary, so we'll have to do that soon. When we do I'll add it to our blog. Today Don and Ammon are heading out for a Fathers and Sons overnight camp out. Ammon wanted to bring Mader, but Dad said no. It's probably for the best though, because Ammon will be spending too much time doing other things. I'm sending them with a camera, so I'll add pics of that outing too!

Just couldn't resist adding this pic!


Can you believe what Pippin will put
up with for a little attention - is that
a smile I see under all that hair?

The dogs don't seem to appreciate getting their
pictures taken, but the kids are just little suckers
for that camera! Too cute!

This has been a great day - for DON! He loves the rain, but it doesn't help me load my furniture and misc. items to take to donate at the DI. I was also going to haul a load to the dump! Sam wanted to go anyway, but I don't consider sliding down the muddy hills at the dump a good time!

The girls (Sam, Heather & Savanah) went to get their braces adjusted this morning, so now their moaning about only being able to eat applesauce, yogurt, or anything that doesn't have to be chewed, poor babies. I think they would know real pain if they had to pay the BILL!

Savanah came home excited because she and Heather have been in a "race" to see who gets their braces off soonest. Heather was pretty confident since she's 18 mos. older. But she still has one slow-poke tooth that hasn't dropped yet and the Dr. told Savanah that the next time she comes in they will take x-rays, do some minor adjustments and the visit after that (probably September) she will have them off! Poor Heather turns 16 in September and was hoping to get them off before she started dating, but she's adorable anyway and I doubt it will stop the boys from asking her on a few dates, maybe it will slow them down from trying to kiss her... maybe I'll tell the Dr. to just keep them on till their, oh, say...25!

Today I spent some time posting ads for studding Darcy (my cute little Yorkie) and Mader (my cute, not so little Boxer). It's time consuming, but hopefully with good results!

Now I'm off to take a shower and probably get struck by lightening - I never did look good with a perm!

The girls had to dress in Book of Mormon times
This is a pic. of all of us before they left.


Here's a pic of some of there friends there at the
Conference.


Here's a pic of Heather with one of her friends.


This is a pic. of Katelynn at the Family Camp
Out.


This is a pic. of Sam with one of Bond's kids at
the Family Camp Out.

Do you ever feel like things get too complicated? Or wonder why it couldn't be more simple? The last couple of weeks have been good and hard. We've had lots of shifting and changing going on. I think it has something to do with mixing up priorities, or not seeing the whole picture. Concentrating on the little things, instead of realizing that in the vast scheme of things, this one issue won't change the blessings the Lord has in store for us unless we allow it to consume us and lose our focus on the goals that really matter.

For the rest of this week, and possibly many weeks to come, we will be working in "blessing" our home. Getting rid of things we don't need and making more room to enjoy the times we spend here. I have some plans to paint, replace doors, and re-tile, but we may run out of money before we run out of repairs. So we'll see how it goes. I will post before and after pictures when it's done.

On another note, I'm posting pictures of the girl's Youth Conference, and the Ward Family Camp Out.

The camp out was fun, but I couldn't bring Darcy, who has a camp out that doesn't allow dogs!? Needless to say, we came home early!

A lot has happened since I last wrote. Sam turned 17, my mom moved into our master bedroom and the house looks like a tornado hit it... well, actually it looks like Mom spent the last 10 weeks in bed and the kids (and Dad) were left to fend for themselves!

But now I'm feeling much better and even though my energy doesn't seem to work for me till around 4PM and dies around 4:15PM, I'm still managing to get a few things done.

The girls went to Youth Conference (and had a blast - pictures and more about that later) and are now grounded from going ANYWHERE and have to get up at 5AM (which is saying a lot for them) and go to bed by7PM till they get caught up on their homework, this may sound extreme, but after being 3 months behind for most of the school year, they're actually working on it.

This week I have the kids really scared because I pulled out my Fly Lady "Control Journal" and started talking to them about routines again.

Have I mentioned that I just LOVE that program? I swear, it can turn chaos into a total dream in a matter of days! Very cool, check it out!