Goodbye PJ for now

Last Thursday morning my cousin was killed in a car accident. As I write this I am still in so much shock and disbelief. He was one of my very favorite family members. I adored him. He was such a kind and respectful person. Everytime I saw him he gave me a hug and was always so sweet. Our families were very close growing up. We spent all the holidays together and family reunions every summer. We all loved hanging out together. He's had a hard life over the years in struggling with diabetes. I am so greatful that in March I was able to go to the Bountiful temple to see him sealed to his beautiful daughter Zaida. I am so greatful for my beliefs and knowing families are forever. The funeral was very nice. My brother Kelly spoke and his brother Tim. Their talks were wonderful. His sister read an entry from his journal that he had written on Aug 13th. He said how much he was excited about starting school and pursuing his dream in law enforcement. He was able to attend one class before he died. He also said how he knew that this was a new start and beginning for him. Amazing! They gave some open time for family and friends to speak as well. His good friend Isaac performed a couple of beautiful songs. He will be missed dearly by so many!!

The casket and flowers were beautiful!

Me and my sister Cindy with my cousin Tim, PJ's brother. I love him. He is such a wonderful person!! I am so thankful to Tim and his wife for all the family parties they had that I was able to go to and see PJ. Also to my uncle Mark for the annual Memorial Day BBQ's. Those BBQ's will never be the same.

Our family all together at the burial.

His siblings and parents.

Some memorabilia of PJ's. He was a huge BYU fan and so you know him and Lloyd got along great. He always watched the BYU football games with his Dad.

The family gave all of these beautiful marble plaques to close family and friends. His brother Tim told me they want to make sure he is not forgotten. I was so touched by this and I love it, it is sitting on my piano where we can remember him always.

Some of my favorite pics of him in the last year or so.

I love this picture of him and his daughter Zaida.



Isn't he adorable?? It's interesting how death affects us. My uncle and aunt Pj's parents divorced about 10 years ago and it kind of divided our families a bit. It was so great to all come together during this time. After the funeral that night my cousin Tim invited all of us to his house that evening. It was such a great time to hang out together. Time is precious and you never know what may happen with your loved ones. Life is too short. We love you PJ and can't wait to see you again!!

1st day of Kindergarten

First day of kindergarten for my Savani. She has been so excited and is very ready to go. I am so excited for her. Her teacher is very nice and so far she is loving school. She goes in the afternoons and it has been nice to take her to school and then come home and put Milika down for a nap and then sometimes I even get a nap. Wahoo!


Savani with her good friend Kaelia.


After school, she had a great day.

Back to school they go

Okay so I know most of you will think I am crazy, but I was so sad to see my kids go back to school. A big part of it was that I was not sure that I was ready for the routine again of getting up early and to bed early. ugh! Also I get sad when I think of how time just flies and flies by! It feels like yesterday that I had Siera and now she is in 5th grade and almost 11. Honestly where does the time go??? I really makes me sad. On a happier note, the kids were so excited and ready to go back. It has been nice not to have fighting and boredom being going on all day around here. Savani will start school on Monday and so it will just be me and Milika. Good times, I guess! I hate that summer is over, but hey what can you do??

Are you ready for some football??

We are in full swing of football now. Lloyd is coaching Joshua's team, which is great because he gets to drive to all the practices. I love to go watch once in a while and love that I can leave when I need to. Lloyd is such a great coach for these boys and I am so happy that is working with them. So far practices are going great and both Lloyd and Joshua are excited about their team. Go Cyprus Gremlins!!








The girls entertaining themselves at practice.

Youth Conference

A couple of weeks ago we had our wards youth conference. It was a fabulous time. My husband is YM Pres and I serve in YW. It's a lot of fun to serve together. We started our youth conference on a Fri afternoon. We had the kids start with a fun game called Road Rally. They were split into teams and they had to do different types of tasks on this, it was kind of like a scavenenger hunt. It took 2 hrs for them to finish. They had to do different things like a chinese fire drill, sing a primary song to someone putting gas in their car and getting a married couple to kiss. They had a blast doing this. Here are pics of them in their teams.







After that we came back to our house and had a BBQ in the backyard with everyone. Yummy!



After the BBQ & playing games at the school by our house until it was dark, we came back to our house and watched a movie on our garage door. We watched Forever Strong. It was really fun to watch it outside. Props to Jess and Jason for hooking us up with that!


We had the youth come over the next morning for breakfast at our house before heading up the canyon.




After breakfast we headed up the canyon to our day camp spot in Cottonwood Canyon. It was a nice spot with lots of trees and shade and picnic benches with a big fire pit in the middle.

The kids went on a 5 mile hike up Cottonwood Canyon. The kids did great!





Eating lunch at the top of the mountain on our hike.


There was a lake at the top of the hike that we went on. Some of the kids really enjoyed getting wet and playing in it.





The kids cooling off after the hike at a creek just by our camp spot.









Chillin and visiting after the hike.

After they relaxed for a bit after the hike, we had them do some different activites around the camp area. This activity they had to match the names with the prophets as fast as they could.

This game they were blind folded and had to find an item without any help. When they got frustrated they could have their team mates talk them through finding the item.


This game they had to jump over this rope that had bells without ringing the bells on the rope. They had to get their whole team over and see how fast they could do it. They loved this game.


Enjoying a great dinner before our fireside and speaker program started. We asked my old Stake Pres that I grew up with Pres Buttars to be our speaker that night. He is such a powerful speaker and motivator. He has been a mission president and had a lot of great stories for us. I know he really got through to a lot of our kids. They couldn't quit talking about him.


On our way home after an awesome weekend and day. We are so blessed to be able to work and interact with these kids. Me and Lloyd feel like their parents, we don't stop worrying or thinking about them. They are the best youth.