Wowweee!!

It's been a loooonnnnnngggg time since I've posted anything! Our summer has been super busy! At the beginning of June, my 2 girls and I went to Girl's Camp for our church for 4 days. We had a ton of fun and got very little sleep!! The 3rd week of June, we had a family reunion that lasted a week! It was so fun to get to see all my brothers and sisters.......there are 9 of us! 3 live in the town we grew up in, I live about 45 minutes away, then I have a brother that lives in St. George, Utah, one in Panaca, Nevada, one in Chattanooga, Tennessee, then I have a sister in Burley, Idaho, and another sister in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The airlines made a lot of money off this reunion!! Plus, ALL of my nieces and nephews, some of my aunts and uncles, and some cousins were there too. We had about 60 people in my mom and dad's house at any given moment! It was chaotic but fun! The whole reunion was a complete surprise to my parents. We decided we would celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary too while we were all together. We had a special presentation on the last night and we talked about our memories growing up. We also had all of the old 8mm film put onto DVD, then I made a DVD with family photos and put in clips of the 8mm. It made everyone cry!! There was film of my mom and dad with my oldest brother, who is now 48 years old! It was so fun to see it all!! I'm attaching a couple of pictures of us. (as I was going thru the photos, I got a little teary eyed!) This first one is the Friday night presentation. This is just a small portion of us! There are more on the other side of the camera and off to the right and left!!Here is a picture from the opposite corner. That is my wonderful husband in the cowboy hat....he's crying and if he knew I put this up he'd probably make me cry!! LOLThis is a picture of the food for that Friday night. My brother-in-law is a chef and caters, so he set up this AWESOME table!!! I made the cake! It was my first attempt at making a tiered cake! It turned out ok. On the top layer there is an oval with a 50 in it.This next photo is one of the family pictures we took. It was funny when the photographer got there he said.....ok, y'all get into family groups first, then we'll go from there.....we looked at him with a puzzled look.....and he said, well you aren't all brothers and sisters are you??? We all busted out laughing and said uhhhhh yeah we are! I'm the one on your left on my knees. I'm the only one that didn't get the memo about wearing a POLO style shirt! DUH! At least I knew to wear white! This photo wasn't taken by the photographer. My brother-in-law took this one while the photographer was taking his. These photos were taken at Sam Houston State Park in Moss Bluff, Louisiana which is about 3 miles from my parents' home and where we all grew up!
This last photo was my idea. We wanted something casual with just the kids in it. It is my absolute favorite!!!! I love it! I just realized I put my glasses back on in this one!

If you aren't religious, you may not want to continue reading. If you are, then you might!

One last thing, my oldest brother.......he's the bald one......ok, there are a couple that are bald looking! LOL He's the bald one on the right. Well, he has led a pretty rough life and has made some less than good choices in his life. He started smoking at age 12 and got into alcohol and drugs as a teenager. He is no longer a member of our church because of some of the choices he has made. Well, while we were together, he realized that family is so important and that he wants to be able to spend eternity with all of us! He quit smoking on the Sunday after the reunion was over and has been going to church! We are so amazed because we never thought we would see this day! He asked my dad to please not die anytime soon so that dad could re-baptize him!!! I just want to say that I'm so thankful for the atonement of Jesus Christ that makes this possible! I'm not one to be "preachy" and I hope this doesn't turn some of you off, but I'm so happy that I can't not say something. I don't EVER and I do mean E-V-E-R get up in church to bear my testimony because.........well just because I don't. I don't like to be up in front of everyone showing my emotions. Anyway, I did this past fast Sunday at church because I thought I would be the most ungrateful person if I didn't share this with my ward! So many people came up afterwards and told me how heartfelt it was and how touched they were by it! I didn't do it because I wanted people to say something to me......if fact I was kinda hoping they would forget it! LOL If you have someone in your life in a similar situation, never give up on them!! You never know if and when they might turn their life around and come back into the fold!