Summer #3

Manti Pageant

June 2009

It had been a long time since Ben or I had been to the Manti Pageant. I thought that the kids were probably old enough now to appreciate it and be able to sit through the whole thing. We invited my parents and Allan, and Allan brought his girlfriend Cami, to come with us. It was a good experience--rain, throughout the pageant, kids falling asleep, the baby not wanting to fall asleep, more rain, and people slipping down the massive hill at the temple because the grass was so wet. Courtlyne stayed awake and she seemed to enjoy the entire pageant.

I think it is magnificent to see the pioneer story portrayed alongside the stories from the Book of Mormon. It makes it all come to life. I realize how blessed we are to live now and have all the things that we have to make life easier. The Church is true. And I know the feelings felt during the pageant truly testify to me that Jesus Christ is our Savior.


My four lovelies playing at the park before the pageant started.

Carter posing with some of the cast members.


Allan and Cami - thanks for keeping us company!

Summer #2

Caeden Eats!

June 7th 2009

The doctors now say that you don't really need to give your babies solid food until they are 6 months old. But it is so fun to see them grow and move on to new things. Caeden gave us

A LOT of difficulty taking a bottle. In fact I finally resorted to putting a small amount of sugar in each one so she would take a bottle while I was at work. She definitely loved the sweetness. I think she liked it even more when Ben made her bottles because he put about a cup of sugar in the bottle. I felt really bad about it but the doctor said that it was not a big deal. GOOD- mom guilt gone! So I was ready to let her try to eat other stuff when she turned 4 months to see how that would go. Cal had to be right there to help feed her and see how she did with the food. She loved it! Now she wants to be at the table and have something put in her mouth whenever we are eating. She loves food! Especially the sweet stuff!

*YUMMY*YUMMY*YUMMY*

RELAY FOR LIFE
June 12th 2009

My reason to relay

Linda Measom--My Mom my hero!

One Sunday at dinner, at the beginning of this year, I asked my family if they wanted to do the Relay for Life again and no one really had much to say on the matter. After the table had been cleared and everyone was doing their own thing my Mom came to me and said she really thought we should do it. So right there it became my job to see that it got done. I told everyone we were going to do it so they had pLilenty of time to take work off and participate. If Mom wants to do it we need to do it!

Our major fundraiser was a cartwheel-a-thon that we held at NEBO gymnastics. the team girls all got pledges and then came in and did as many Cartwheels as they could in 5 minutes. Courtlyne did 140 and little Carter did 80! All the money raised the girls donated to the our Relay for LIfe team. We also asked for donations from our family and friends and many of them helped us by donating! Our team goal was $2000 and we made just shy of that with $1850!

The overall theme was 80's so we decided to put Courtlyne's breakdancing skills to use! We decide our team name would be BREAKIN' DOWN CANCER. I put Allan in charge of designing us some t-shirts since he is the artist in the family. They were great! We set up camp by the stream in the Payson City Park and prepared to spend the night walking the track, and not sleeping. We got rained on a little, then a little more but it did not dampen our spirits. It only dampened our cardboard dance floor that we brought with us to dance on in front of our tents. And boy did we dance! Everyone joined in, even Mom and Dad. People from all over came to watch (stare, laugh, etc.) as we ripped up the soggy cardboard. after one side was torn up we flipped it over and tore up the other side. Not that our dancing is anything amazing but we had an audience and a great time! Some of us stayed up all night-- some had to sleep to get to work in the morning, and some fell asleep just as dawn was breaking. It was a great inspirational night filled with love and hope for those fighting cancer and their families.

I love my Mom for putting up a good fight and pray she has many more Relays to come.

Mom and Allan
Sweet embrace, as Allan got there he gave Mom a hug and they both got a little emotional.

Survivor and Caregiver walk-

This picture still makes me tear up as I think of the relationship my parents have and the love and care they give to each other.

This is Courtlyne. She made it until about 5:30 in the morning then she crashed while trying to watch yet another great 80's movie with Grandpa Gary. He carried her back over to our tents and she slept for about 3 hours.

Cal woke up at about 6:30 in the morning. He actually got some sleep. He and Caeden went to bed at about 11:00 and slept through the night. He grabbed a banana to eat and climbed up on Ben's lap which, I think made Ben comfy and warm enough to catch some ZZZ's himself.

Holly and Jared trying to wake up!

Courtlyne, Carter and Hailee Smith breaking into the powdered doughnuts before the Relay had even started. Yummy!

It was a great time--I always dread the preparation and the feeling of utter exhaustion for a few days afterward, but it is always worth it in the end.

Summer #1

Nothing starts summer off quicker than two weeks of swimming lessons.

The first week of summer we decided to do lessons so they would be out of the way for any other things that came up during the summer. Unfortunately, not much else has come up! Although the kids suffered through some chilly weather we made it to the end without any rain outs! Yea!

Courtlyne working on the front flip.

Going down the slide!

She got pretty good at all of her strokes this year. She learned the crawl stroke, back stroke, breast stroke and elementary back stroke. She still needs a few more years of lessons to get really good.

Carter, cute as ever.

Jumping off of the diving board. Carter got pretty good this year during her lessons. I am grateful that none of my kids are scared of the water. They have all loved the pool from an early age. Carter is probably the most at home in the water.

This was Cal's first year of swimming lessons. He already loved the water when he started so it wasn't to much of an adjustment. He learned some fun songs to sing and he loved his teacher. She loved him too. Almost everyday when he got out of the pool she would head over to the other teachers and say how much she loved Cal and how he was the most favorite student she had ever had. He is a charmer!

Cal with his teacher Chelsea--Playing the shark game.