February and March

I am getting a bit behind on my monthly posts.  

Cole just grew up way too quickly.  We celebrated his 18th birthday in February.

In just a few short months he will leave for BYU summer term and then on

a mission.  

Meg imparting some Spanish language lessons to Ike.

Cole rented a puppy for a few hours. 

Genius business plan devised by his friend, Marissa.

We took the family to see the Imagine Dragons for a second time.

This time around,  Cole and Summer brought dates and were off on there own.

We were lucky enough to have my brother

 Chad, Carissa and baby Elle to stay with us for a long weekend.

We loved every minute of it. 

We love to get together when someone comes in town.
4 of my siblings live here and the rest are in Hawaii, Idaho, and Missouri.

 Sister in laws on the front row Carissa, Meghan, Carlee.  My sister Michele and brother Clint in the back.

Meg is loving her club vball season.  She is a great defensive player

and is finally enjoying a winning season.  It is refreshing not to be the
"Bad News Bears" this time around.

Ike is pretty obsessed with basketball these days.  

He keeps a record of his stats after he comes in from shooting baskets in the backyard
and lives for his weekly games.

City Champions-
Undefeated all season

Cole got asked to speak in Stake Conference ( around 500+ people attending)  

He was really sick that day.  In fact, he had missed his volleyball tournament

and slept up until the time he got showered and dressed. 

He spoke on preparing for a mission and sharing the gospel.

I was so nervous for him up until he started speaking.  He was so relaxed 

and heartfelt that all my own nerves melted away.

  Nobody would have guessed how lousy he felt.  

In closing he shared this quote

My Missionary Commission

by Elder Bruce R. McConkie

I am called of God.
My authority is above that of kings of the earth.
By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him--to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me.
My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts; my doctrine is His doctrine.
My Commission is to do what He wants done; To say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous Latter-day work.
How great is my calling!

No loving mother would send a son off to an unknown destination 

for 2 years without believing this

to be true. 

Speaking of missions...Kami Brimhall just left to serve in the Canada Winnipeg mission.
She was one of my laurels.
I have watched this beautiful red haired girl grown up into the most amazing young woman.

Cole's last season of high school volleyball is underway.  

I love watching him serve.  He can really hit that thing hard.

It is not easy for my 90 year old grandpa to get around these days,
but he wanted to come and watch Cole play.  What a guy!

Bailey Arnett took Cole to Sadie Hawkins dance this year. 

Our dear Croatian friend, Zvonko, came for a visit.  

We haven't seen him in 2 years but

we stay in pretty close contact through emailing. 

He is one of the kindest men I have ever met. 

We love getting a letter from our missionary cousin, Rock.

He is currently in Belize.

At Azbrainfood, we held an appreciation breakfast for all of our wonderful volunteers.

I have met the most dear, charitable people through this organization.

Our high school's student council organized a 10K run "Running with the Bulls"

with proceeds benefitting brainfood.  Nothing works as well as when a community

supports their own.  It is a beautiful thing to see unfold.

It has been a year since the passing of Ross.

We all think and speak of him often.  We still feel his influence around us.

January 2014

Happy New Year

One of our favorite traditions is spending New Year's Eve as a family.  We team up with several fun families and everyone pitches in with games, dance prizes and breakfast. 

Tom's sister Ruth always holds a big dance-off.  She places several numbers taped down on the sport court and while the music plays, everyone dances around.  When the music stops you bogey on to a number.  If Ruth calls your number, you pick it up and come claim a prize.  The prizes progress from goofy to cool.  The longer you stay in, the better the prize will get.
The only downside to staying in the dance is that you have an audience.
I know my kids are always relieved to see me get out in the first few rounds.

After we got our groove on, we held a big breakfast.  Pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs and spam.
Yes, SPAM-and it is surprisingly so yummy sliced up and cooked on the grill.  The Cowley family introduced us to this delicacy.  The Cowleys also put on an amazing firework display.  

We held our annual Polar Plunge on New Year's Day.

This is as tough as we Arizonans get.

The kids jump in the pool and swim across to the hot jacuzzi.  

Kate Bunker, Sophie Sampson, Charlie (friend), Travis Tingey, Ike, Ava Sampson, Bret Bunker, Blake Tingey, Luke Shill and Cole

Rachel and Carol Tingey along with my mom


Since they were willing to participate, we fed them lunch.

These two cool cats rode home with the stereo pumping on Jack's new hog.

Tom and I got invited to a lunch with some of my old high school friends.
So fun to laugh and catch up with these guys. A couple of fun facts about this group.
My cousin on the far left, Jason Bagley, helps create those Old Spice commercials.
He has even won an Emmy, so he had some fun stories to share about that.
The girl to my right, Christeena (Riggs) Driggs who is married to my good friend Jeff Driggs, was a Broadway star.  Among some of her roles, she has played
Glenda in Wicked and also Cosette and Eponine in Les Miserables.  They currently live in NYC with their darling two little girls.  We got to spend some time with them when we went there in October.

Family Picture Attempt

Getting a grandchild picture is like herding cats--pretty darn near impossible.

Faces are cut-off and toddlers are escaping left and right.  

This was the best we could do with my lack of photo shop skills.

I never pass up a chance to get a picture with these 4 together.  

I can't stand to think of 

Cole flying our nest in a few months.  

My brother Clint's family.

Chad with Carissa and baby Elle

My sister Aryn's family

My sister Michele's kids.  

My step sister Kippy's family

My step brother Clay with Heather and cute Jenna

My step sister Shelley's family- the Cooley's

After the family photo challenge, we celebrated Big Grandpa's 90th Birthday.

We sure love this man and his big laugh and sense of humor.  

I am so grateful for the fond memories 

and traditions that are connected to him.  

After the holidays were all wrapped up and the kids were back in school, 

I headed to snow covered Idaho to help my sister Aryn organize her new house.  

I mostly just cuddled her 4 month old baby Jack for hours and had lots 

of conversations with 5 year old Luke.

The Sampsons have a happy home and it was so nice to see her Idaho life.

Ya, not a good photo of me....but look at little Jack.  I am in love.

My sister is always so thoughtful and she had this welcome basket waiting for me.

She knows my fav treats.

Isaac performed with the "Junior Suns" at the Mountain View H.S. pep assembly.

This was started years ago when Cole was little and somehow it has kept going all these years.  

They put on a little skit and then compete against some of the starting varsity players.

Isaac has loved it but did announce his retirement due to "getting too old to be cute."

Some of the varsity players and Head Coach Gary Ernst.  

Coach Ernst was there when I went to Mountain View- way back in the day.

Cousins

So I thought this was a fun birthday idea that my sister in law Carol cooked up for her daughter Coco's 16th birthday. She rented a limo and it took Coco with her cousins on a progressive dinner.  

They had a stop for appetizers at their cousin Molly's house, salads at grandma's, dinner at her friend Tessa's, and the dessert was served back home where friends gathered for a surprise party.   

The girls met at our house so 

I grabbed a couple of shots before they went to pick up

the birthday girl.

When an LDS temple is built and finished, they hold an open house so that the public can walk through and see it before it is dedicated.  We went through the Gilbert, Arizona temple open house.
It is about 20 minutes from our home.
A lot of what we do in the temple is centered
on eternal families so it was neat to go through it with our children.

Photo courtesy of LDS Newsroom

Meg's club volleyball season is in full swing.
She plays the position
of libero and isn't afraid to dive for that ball. 

For Christmas this year, we gave some of our college friends tickets to Toad the Wet Sprocket, a band that was popular "back in day."  They are one of Tom's favorite bands and he likes to blast their music while in the shower.  I think our neighbors can probably hear him singing along.

When I uploaded this photo that we took at the concert, I noticed that it was photo bombed by a

guy I went to homecoming with my junior year of high school.  He is the dark haired guy, on the right, with the big smile.  I didn't run into him that night, but he made it into our photo.  

Small world