Ivins Princess Pageant Coming UP

Well its that time of year again for the Ivins Princess Pageant and since I am the Pageant Director I need to get my rear in gear and get directing. I took the girls to take some last Royalty pictures for the flyers and advertisments and this is what we got. They are such good girls and I am so glad to not have a daughter participating this year. I am glad to just focus on the pageant part of it, instead of worrying about my daughter's talent, sportswear, etc. Its such a great learning experience for each girl to participate in. I encouraged my girls to do it, not that I hoped they would win, but to have another experience under their belt. They meet new girls and see things from a different perspective. They both have loved participating and serving throughout their year in the royalty. They have never been in so many parades. Cecilee didn't enjoy the parades as much as Cambria but she brought her own style. She always wore Black Converse under her dress in the parades. A funny story was: an older man came to her and told her that she has ruined the image of a princess by wearing those shoes. She just gave him her CECILEE glare and told him, "I never asked to be a princess". That was totally a Cecilee moment. She tells it like it is and she is not prissy about it.

He finally came home for a whole week!!

I finally can schedule my life. Bryan came home on the night of valentine's day 15 minutes before midnight and was home for a whole week. What a wonderful surprise. He wasn't supposed to be home until Monday morning, but he went to his boss and asked if he could skip work on Sunday and come home 1 day early so that he could see Cecilee play in her soccer tournament on Monday morning. He drove home so that he could keep his promise to me about having a valentine surprise for me before valentines day was over. He walked into the house at 11:45pm and I was still up waiting for Cambria and Paula to come home from Prom. So I thought that it was one of them coming through the door. You could bet that that was the greatest surprise. I love it when he surprises me. He was so dead tired after working for 28 hrs straight and then driving home without a nap, but he couldn't wait to sleep in his own comfortable bed.

I have had a permanent smile on my face for the past week. I love having him home. We spent alot of time together with just the two of us, especially after we got the kids off to school. It was so good to have my best friend back in town. I love him so much. It was nice to have another helping hand take kids to practices, dance, etc. Trevor got some good alone time with Bryan also, on Tuesday Bryan got the jeep and guns all ready so that when Trevor came home from school the two of them took off the mountains to 4x4 and go shooting. They came home covered in mud. The jeep was caked in mud, but they had more time together washing the jeep. They both had big smiles on their faces from their adventure.

Well today he went back and I was thinking that it was getting easier, until I hugged him and saw the tears in his eyes. I could tell that he had been crying for a little while before he came to get me. I asked him if he was OK, and he just said that he doesn't want to leave us and that he already misses us. We just held each other and cried. WHY!!!!! Do you ever wonder WHY we have to go through certain things? What am I supposed to learn from this whole experience? I want to hurry and learn it and move on. I want my husband home with me and my kids and I want to have family prayer together here not over the phone. I want him to lock up the house before we go to bed, and him to yell for the kids to have family prayer and him to wake us up for scriptures in the morning, I just want him here with me. I want him on the other side of our bed and not a pile of pillows. I love looking out the window and seeing him tinkering in the yard or playing 4 square with the kids or playing football with Trevor. Or what I thought that I hated the most was always watching football on TV, I want him in the family room watching football with Trevor.

Someday our life will be normal again. I just hope that its sooner than later. I am tired of crying and I think that I am aging everytime he leaves again. I am getting more wrinkles from crying my eyes out. I know that I am learning to not take things for granted. To savor every moment with him and to love him despite his faults. Which I know we all have faults. I am so grateful for the man that I married and the sacrifice he is making for our family. I know that this job is NOT easy and as he is out in the freezing cold, while we are warm in our beds, I am so grateful and I love him more every day I think about his sacrifice. I love you Bryan and Thank you.

He will be home in 2 weeks for 1 whole week again. I am so glad we have a schedule now.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Our Whole Family
My mom and dad with all the grandkids
Clay and Julee & their 5 kids: Kiana, Tayvia, Ammon, Keawe & Cali

Tonya and Bryan and their 5 kids: Cambria, Cecilee, Trevor & Sydnee &Paula (Our Foreign Exchange Student)

Irene and her 3 kids: Lisia, Hannemann & Teancum

Adam and Becca and their two boys: Devan and Josh

Joe and Janette and their two kids: JT and Janessa & one on the way.

Max and Sunshine with their two kids: Jaden and Raya

Tia and Andy with Major

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My mom's birthday was yesterday, February 21st and she turned 59!!! Wow, I remember her 30th birthday, time has truly flown. Well all she wanted for her birthday was to have family pictures done and a fun day at the park. So I made a few phonecalls and made it all happen. We decided to meet at Tuacahn in the front and take family pictures there. And then after 2 hours of taking everyone's picture we went to the spinning park and had fry chicken, 6ft sub sandwich, salads, and birthday cake. We love being together as a family and we have so much fun with each other.

Junior Prom

Cambria and her date Christian

Paula & her date Cody

Cambria and Paula

Cambria and Grandma and Grandpa Horlacher

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Tonight was Junior Prom for Snow Canyon High School. Cambria went with a boy named Christian and Paula went with a boy named Cody. Bryan's parents happened to be in town for a family function and wanted to come by to see the girls leave for prom. Paula was picked up first so I had Cambria get in her dress so that I could get some pictures of both of them together. Cambria originally was going to wear the brown dress, but then as her date got closer to coming she decided she didn't want to look like all of the other girls in her group. The brown dress happens to be a very popular style dress and most of the girls in her group have the same style dress but different colors. Cambria is the type that doesn't want to look like anyone else, so she changed very last minute. Both girls looked so beautiful. Cambria was nominated to be on the Junior Prom Royalty. She felt like it was such a honor to be nominated by all of her classmates. They had a wonderful time on their day dates and had so much fun at the dance. I can't believe how time has flown by, I totally remember my Junior Year and my dances. CRAZY!!!

Cambria received her Young Woman Recognition Award

Congratulations Cam! (L to R) My Dad, Mashayla, Jan, Brody, My Mom, Cambria, Me, Cecilee & Paula

Brody came to support Cambria.
Brody's mom and sister also came to show their support
Paula wanted to take a picture with her new grandparents. They love her just like all the others.

Last night was a beautiful night, it was New Beginnings for our ward and they had the theme as Top Secret Agents. They had Mission Impossible music playing and so many cute special affects. Then towards the end after they went through everything a Special Agent needs to do to earn her top award they presented Cambria and Stephanie Coulum with their medalians. It was such a special evening. My mom and dad came to support Cambria and thank goodness they were there, they called up the father's to come and put the medalian on the girls, so my dad stepped in for Bryan. Cambria spoke about her experience and then my dad shared a little thought with everyone. I love my dad and I am so proud that he is MY dad. It was such a special evening. Paula is so cute and is loving being involved in the Young Women Program she decided she wanted to work on her Young Woman Recognition Award and have it completed before she goes home to Brazil at the end of May. She is an inspiration for all of the other girls. I love the Young Woman Program and I have a great testimony about that inspired program.

Girls Sleepover Time

B U B B L E T I M E !!!!!
Look at those cute toes!!!
The girls putting on their makeup

Our fancy girls

They even had the fancy shoes to go with the beautiful dresses.

We had a couple of Sydnee's cousins come and sleepover. They wanted to make sure that they had a good sleepover, so we started with a bath. They had been playing all day and they were stinky, so we made sure they were soaped up and clean for a fun filled evening. After the bath and the bubble fight they had pedicures with polka dots. Then they played with the makeup and played dress up. I had a friend bring over some dresses from a few years ago that she wore to her dances and thought that we might be able to use them. The girls were dying to try them on, so I let them. That is typical girls, fancy dresses, makeup and glamour. They were so cute and I am glad that they had so much fun. Sydnee loves having her cousins over. Childhood memories are those that will never be forgotten. I hope that this was an evening that they will always remember.

My kids keep me laughing!!!

SYDNEE our baby
Trevor or little stud

Cecilee our spice of life - Check out those lashes, they are real!!!

Cambria our Oldest and most intelligent child, hahaha

My girls received these glasses as part of an invitation for New Beginnings and all of my kids thought that they needed to have pictures taken in them. So here they are. That is one thing that is not lacking in our home - HUMOR!!!! We love laughing, it's a great form of medicine.

Cambria's Group Cheer Picture

Cambria's cheer squad had group pictures today at the Dixie Rock Park and they turned out pretty nice. Their cheer squad is filled with alot of beautiful girls, (of course their cheerleaders, that's a pre-requisite, right). I took a few pictures behind the photographer, because of course I had my camera in my pocket. The weather here is absolutely beautiful.

What a great Surprise!!!! A wonderful weekend!

Dinner with Bryan before he hits the road. This has always been his favorite time of the day and on Sunday's, spending time as a family eating, laughing and enjoying each other's company.

All of us went outside while Bryan was grilling the chicken and just loved being outside as a family and enjoying being together.

Bryan grilling the Teriyaki Chicken.

Cecilee wanted to take a picture with Bryan and I before church.

Bryan and his football buddies after dinner. He really enjoyed hanging out with them.

Bryan and the kids right after everyone broke their fast. Shoving food in their mouths.

Trevor's basketball game

Trevor's basketball team

After the game against DIXIE!!! Hooray, we won and what a great feeling that is!!!

Cambria with the WARRIOR, before she cheers.

Cambria getting ready to cheer at the game.

The cheerleaders warming up before the game.

Bryan wanted to go and watch his daughter cheer at a basketball game. This was he first and probably only one he will get to see this year.

I received a call from my husband Friday morning that he was off for the weekend and they are allowing him to come home. I was soo excited, I almost couldn't work because I couldn't wait knowing he was on his way. He was so excited as well. I had made him a care package a few weeks before and put some goodies in the package and there was one in particular that he wanted to cash in on, so when I called him, "He said, I have one thing to pick up at the hotel and then I will be on my way." hahaha He got home just a few minutes before we were leaving to go and watch Cambria cheer at PineView. So of course Bryan wanted to get in as much of his family as he could in the few days that he had. He was looking forward to going to the game and watching his daughter cheer and seeing some of his football boys play basketball. He sure misses being around for all of these things that we take for granted. He was like a celebrity there, everyone was excited to see him back and just wanted to talk. Bryan loved being there and visiting with everyone. Then one of my friends came up and said, "Oh, how long has he been home?" I told her not quite an hour. She said, "WHAT, why are you here? You two need alone time." I told her that Bryan wanted to see Cambria cheer, (this was halftime) she said, "OK he saw her cheer the first half, leave your kids here and have Cambria bring them home and you two go and have alone time." She just made me laugh!!!! Well needless to say, we left and went and got salads at Durangos. It was so good to be together again.

The next morning all of the kids (Trevor, Cambria, Cecilee and Paula) all went to EFY and the only one home was Sydnee. So we decided to take this opportunity to take her to breakfast and let her feel special with just mom and dad. I could see in Bryan's eyes that he was just soaking it all up, just watching Sydnee and her ordering her breakfast and the way she was telling us about everything in her little world. I could see he didn't want to blink anymore, because all of his kids just keep getting bigger and older. When the kids got home, it was like old times, the girls came and laid in the family room with all of us and told us all about EFY and the wonderful speakers. They also had other fun stories to tell Bryan. I catch him more so now than before, soaking all of these moments in and enjoying every minute. I find myself doing the same, and not worrying so much about cleaning my house, getting things done, etc. Just enjoying every moment with the ones that I love the most. These moments are going to be gone tooo soon. That evening I had invited a few of Bryan's friends that he coached with at the high school over for Teriyaki Chicken, Rice, and the Ultimate Chocolate Cake (from Costco). They had a blast just talking football and catching up. I know that Bryan misses so much from his life here at home that I want to make it a good visit for him everytime he comes home.

We came home after church and grilled some more chicken and just enjoyed the beautiful weather outside in the back as a family. I know I am ridiculous with my camera, I take pictures of the stupiest things sometimes, like the back of Bryan barbequing, him playing with the dogs, or him just looking at nothing. I now don't take anything for granted, I savor every minute with my husband and my children. When the kids were younger, Bryan would ALWAYS tell me to take time to enjoy the kids and not worry so much about cleaning my house and doing chores. That, that stuff would always be there. I am now getting it, now that I only have a few more years before I start having children leave my home, but I am enjoying my life and taking time to enjoy them.

Bryan left after dinner and his 20 minute power nap, I had to snuggle into that power nap and enjoy him holding me one last time for at least a couple more weeks. Gosh this doesn't get any easier. He called me when he passed Cedar and he was crying and thanking me for a wonderful weekend. We both were ridiculous on the phone crying like babies and expressing our love to each other. I know that this will pass and I need to be strong. I did get another blessing from my husband before he left. I need strength and I know that the blessings that he gives me helps me get through this tough time.