Preschool Graduation

My daughter Savani has finished her two years at Jacque's Preschool and has graduated. We had her preschool graduation last Friday night. This is her right before the performance and graduation began.

This is her class performing on stage. They sang lots of songs about things they learned each month. It was a very cute performance. She was so excited for it and they had been working on this for the last month at preschool.

Savani is being presented her graduation certificate and her memory book that they have been working on all year. Also they asked each child what they wanted to be when they grew up. Savani said she wanted to be a princess. We told her she would have to find something else to be, because she is already our princess. Cheesy I know. :)

Our little girl all grown up and ready for kindergarten.

These are two of her teachers at the preschool, Ms Lori and Ms Jan. They were fabulous!

This is one of her best friends from school, Jackson. We were able to carpool together which made the school year so much easier.

Grandma and Grandpa Newman were able to attend.

My baby's last day of school. I keep saying this but it's so true. They grow up too fast! I can't believe she will start kindergarten in September. What a great year!

I also wanted to journal about my birthday/mother's day/anniversary gift. I have been wanting a piano for a few years now, and we were finally able to get one. I am so excited. I love playing it! Siera is taking lessons, from my Mom and Joshua is going to start. We love having it!

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!!

This past Saturday we threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my Mom. She was shocked to say the least.

We sent her a fake invitation to someone else's party and so she had no idea.

She was very surprised to see my sister Tara there who lives in Vegas and she had no idea she was in town. It was great!

We invited close family and friends. Not too many people, but she said it was perfect who we invited. Yay! That was a relief since I was the one who was in charge of the invites.

Both of my brothers with their wives and kids.

My Mom with her birthday cake.

We put together a little program for my Mom. We started out with all the grandkids singing "I love to see the temple" for her. Then each of my siblings got up and told a favorite memory of my Mom growing up and then we had each of the grandkids say their favorite thing about Grandma. Also Siera sang Families are Forever and Caleb my nephew performed a comedy routine. They are my Mom's 2 oldest grandkids. They did a great job!

It ended up being a great night! We knew my Mom didn't want any type of party for her 60th, especially not a surprise party. Me and my sisters were nervous and didn't want to upset her. She kept telling us she was embarrased about her age and didn't want to celebrate. But we overruled that. My Mom is such a fabulous person and we wanted to celebrate her! Happy Birthday Mom! Here's to many, many more to come!

Happy Easter

We had such a fun Easter weekend. The best part was that my sister Tara was in town with her adorable son Drew and we got to hang out all weekend. I didn't take any pics, but it was so fun having them here and we did lunch and of course shopping and dinner with her,my Mom and sister Cindy. I sure treasure those times we spend together.

We also had the pinewood Derby. Although it's a great looking car, it didn't do too well in the race. Hopefully next year will be better. (Be nice you Ute fans):)


The kids had a great Easter. This is them at my Mom's house getting ready for the annual Egg hunt. We numbered all the eggs this year and each kid had to find their number. It made it a little more fun for the older kids, it took them a little longer to find all their eggs.

Me and my girls in our Easter dresses.

The kids right before going to church.

Savani had a fun Easter Egg hunt at her preschool too.

Our family road trip & celebrating Joshua Solo's birthday

Warning lot's of pics a head!
So we had a family wedding to go to in Arizona. Since Jetblue does not fly to Arizona from Salt Lake we decided to fly to Vegas to cut out some driving time and rent a car and drive from there the 4 or 5 hours to Phoenix. Since I have worked for Jetblue the last 6 years, my kids have been very spoiled. We have not really taken a road trip. We have flown everywhere we go. So as soon as we get in our rental minivan, my kids start asking, where's the TV and every 5 mins, they were asking when we would be there. It was very good for them to not have access to a Tv and to actually look outside at the scenery and enjoy the drive. Thank goodness it was only about a 5 hr drive. So after flying into Vegas we had lunch with my sister Tara and then we headed off to Phoenix.

Joshua was in the wedding party and here are a few pics of him in his tux.

We had to call in the size measurements and because we weren't able to do a fitting, when we got the tux, it was a tad small. It was okay though. I still think he looked very handsome. The wedding was on Sat 3/14 which ended up being his birthday as well.

This is taken at the Mesa, AZ temple. That temple is beautiful. One of my favorites, I think.

This is a picture of all the groomsmen with the groom. It was a huge wedding party.

This is all the family for the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding.

In between the reception and the temple that morning we had some time to go back to our hotel and Lloyd took the kids swimming.

I was happy that Joshua was able to do something fun on his birthday. They had so much fun. The weather was beautiful in Phoenix. After the wedding reception that night we went to Baskin Robbins so Joshua could have a yummy birthday dessert. Can you say chocolate peanut butter? YUM!


So I mentioned we rented a minivan. It was awesome. Props to the minivans. We loved it. I am wanting to now trade in my suburban. It was so nice to pull in and out of parking spaces with ease.

We drove through Hoover dam.

The one sad thing about the trip is Milika was really sick. She had fever after fever and a runny nose and so it was hard to enjoy ourselves with her being sick.

They are building a new bridge over the Hoover Dam. It was crazy. If you can tell by my fabulous photography. The bridge is going to curve up very high off the ground. I can't wait to see it when it's done.


We drove from Phoenix back to Vegas on Sunday and we had dinner with my sister Tara. She was so sweet. She decorated her house and made a birthday cake for Joshua. He loved it. Thanks again Tara for doing that and making him feel special.

We ended the trip the next day with lunch at the park in Vegas.

Then flew home that evening. It was a great trip and fun to see family.
Oh and on a side note, just so I have this journaled. Joshua just finished his basketball season. I am a loser because I did not take one picture of him playing basketball. We took a video every game, but forgot about pictures. Anyways, he was in the Dimple Dell league and their team won the tournament and they were also in the AAU tournament that their team took 1st place in as well. They have a great team with some very talented boys. We hope to keep the same team together next year.

Viva Las Vegas

This past weekend I was able to take a trip to visit my sister Tara in Vegas. My other sister Cindy and her son Noah and me and Siera flew out there Fri morning and came home Sunday night.

We had such a great time. This is us goofing around, playing American Idol on X-Box. Siera and Noah really had fun karaokeing too.

We went to the Mandalay Bay and saw the shark exhibit that they have there. It was really great. The kids all really loved this too. Siera pretending she is underwater .

They have some really great parks in the area that my sister lives in. I love it there. It's far away from the strip and it's beautiful. When your there you don't even feel like your in Vegas.

The weather was gorgeous and it was so great to spend time with my sisters. We went and saw a chic flick together. He's just not that into you. We laughed and stayed up late talking, we ate horribly and had so much fun! I love them so much and are so glad that we have great times like these to look back on and enjoy. Also I feel so lucky to have such a fabulous husband that supports me and takes care of the kids while I go take some time for me. Especially this time, where I was able to take Siera, who does so much for us in babysitting and taking care of Milika. It was nice to be able to treat her and have some good mother daughter time as well.

Quick trip to Cali

We went this past weekend on a quick trip to California. We took the kids to the Long Beach Aquarium. This place was Awesome! I am so glad we took the time and went.

It's kind of hard to tell in this pic but the kids are standing in front of a huge fish tank and it has a scuba diver in it. They had 3 or 4 of these tanks with scuba divers. They were feeding the fish and talking to the kids through the tank. It was really neat to see.

They had several places where the kids got to pet baby sharks, sting rays and star fish. They loved it and couldn't get enough of it. This place is a little pricey. It's $25 for adults and $12 for kids to get in. I think it's worth it though. There is so much for the kids to do and see and get to experience. The best part for us was that jetblue is a sponsor and we got in free. yay!

We drove over to the Queen Mary to show the kids. Lloyd told them a story that the hotel Queen Mary is rumored to be haunted. They thought that was pretty cool and want to stay there.

The reason we went to California is for Lloyd's nieces 21st birthday celebration and also his other niece Dinah received her mission call to serve in Scotland. So it was a big celebration for both. This is a pic of the table they were sitting at to honor them. Gotta love the pigs! :)

This is Lilio who had the 21st birthday with Solo and Lolohea and their cousin Paul. (using my kids tongan names)

The two beautiful girls we were celebrating. Lilio and Dinah. Such great girls! It was a fun trip to get out of the cold and be around family.