Class of 2015!

      Seminary graduation was Sunday evening for Kayli and it was a very nice program.

The church hallway doesn't have the best light.

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kristin popped in and showed their support for Kayli.

Kayli and Toni

A good portion of the seminary graduates from our ward along with our great Bishop.

   Thursday it was the high school and Sixth grade graduation. We were lucky enough to attend Isaac's 6th grade graduation in the morning and because Bronco Mendenhall (BYU's head football coach) has a son that's a 6th grader at Isaac's school they were privileged to have Bronco speak at their graduation and he did an amazing job.

Isaac being called up to the front, just like a real graduation ceremony.

Bronco's theme was setting goals just a bit out of reach and then accomplishing them. (Isaac's on the far left resting his head on his hand.)

Grandma Baker and Aunt Kristin were glad to be there to support Isaac. (And Kristin was especially glad to be there to hear Bronco Mendenhall.)

       After Isaac's ceremony it was off to Kayli's graduation, which was held at UVU and with 768 graduates just from Lone Peak High School as well as other high schools using the same facility before and after Lone Peak, you can just imagine the traffic and crowds. Thankfully we made it in before the graduates filed in and thankfully Kayli got there early enough to find a spot in line thanks to her Aunt Kristin taking her a little bit earlier. They had to play the graduation song twice before everyone was seated. It was actually a very nice ceremony and was just under two hours despite being the largest graduating class ever for Lone Peak high school.

Right before leaving for the big event.

They don't line up alphabetically so the kids can sit with their friends so luckily Kayli found Toni to sit by.  (Kayli and Toni are about dead center in this photo.)

Here's the group there supporting Kayli. (Don't miss Heidi at the end peaking out. She made an extra effort to be there because she's been having a bit of a health issue and this was a bit ambitious for her but Kayli was grateful she was there.)

These two boys were real troopers at the long graduation ceremony.

That's a lot of high school seniors!

We made it through the crowds to find Kayli with her official diploma!

The aunties left a little early from the graduation so this was their first chance to congratulate Kayli after the ceremony.

Charlie hasn't even started her school years and her big sister is done with hers, at least the required school years.

All the kids on Kayli's big day.

     After the graduation we had a little barbecue and made shish kabobs for the first time and they were FANTASTIC!

This is before grilling.

    And this morning we made some yummy marshmallow cream covered strawberries that we saw a photo of. We pretty much NAILED IT!

Here's the photo we saw.....

And here's how ours turned out.....

Maybe more of an EPIC FAIL! (They did taste good though.)

      And not to be forgotten Carter had a pretty eventful Cub Scout pack meeting this week where he competed in a space derby and came in 1st out of about 17 boys. The secret weapon was lubing the rubber band with a little KY gelly. (There's nothing weird or awkward about that.)

There's the winning space rocket!

      And when Grandma visits there's lots of moments like this....

Whispering.

Then the laughter!

     It's been an eventful week to say the least. I've been doing a little reflecting and also looking into my future and when I realized Kayli will be 34 years old when Charlie graduates high school it kind of freaks me out. It also seems like I will have children in school for what seems like an eternity but seeing Kayli graduate gives me hope for the other six getting to that point. I'm just glad the week has gone fairly smoothly and I'm very grateful that my mom made the long trip here to support Kayli, it meant a lot to her. Now let the insanity of summer vacation begin!

Tiny vest, Spider-Man & Graduates

      So Jackie suggested I should have posted a photo of McClane in his tiny vest to go with Mark's mother's day poem from last week and I agree so better late than never.

Charlie is the youngest of five brothers and so dress-up is a little different around here.

Cutest spiderman ever!

     And when moms eating cake and Charlie wants to join her this is how she comes to the "party".

Largest spoon in the drawer.

     And here are a few photos from Kayli's ward Senior/graduate dinner that we attended a couple nights ago.

Beautiful outdoor/indoor patio at the home of one of our more "affluent" ward members. (The 72" TV came down from a hidden spot in the ceiling.)

Decor is always over the top.

    Kayli had these two girls as some of her closest friends over the years.

Kayli, Kelzie and Toni, Friends Forever!

They can be pretty silly when they get together.

     And here is the whole ward group graduating this next week.

     And here's the young women with the young women's president and our amazing Bishop.

    And all the graduates got a little goody bag to take home.

     The whole night was great and I'm so glad the ward goes to such great efforts to honor all these amazing youth for making it this far. This Sunday Kayli will be graduating from Seminary and then Thursday will be the big high school graduation. I can't believe I'm the mother of someone old enough to be graduating high school, and why can't the other six graduate with her!? (I'm just getting started!)

Mother's Day and a 1st grader

     This year for Mother's Day my only request was not to be given a receipt after given a gift. There's nothing more depressing than writing down the amount of your gift in a check register that has very little funds in it. I did give Greg coupons for Papa Murphy's pizza and pots of flowers in case he needed a little inspiration. He executed everything perfectly, and NO RECEIPT! (Now I have to come up with money for what he was saving up for.)

       Here's what I woke up to Mother's Day morning.

Gorgeous! Even better than I imagined!

     Greg had intended to have them in place on the deck and the deck all swept off and clean but the weather was not cooperating. It wasn't until later that they were able to be placed in their proper locations and the deck was cleaned off. (The deck being cleaned off only lasts a very short time.)

     And we did enjoy our Papa Murphy's for dinner. There's nothing better than a no hassle dinner on any day but especially on Sunday. 

      I also received this fun note/poem from Mark for Mother's Day.

      If you can't read the photo of the note, this is what it says, "My name is Mark and you are my mom did you know you are the bomb? Sometimes you let us have our fun but then you say come here Hon, you then ask me to do some jobs but I start whining like Calvin and Hobbes, you then get really mad and I get very sad I wish I would've just done what you asked instead of being a little a#!. I'll try to help instead of pout so then you will not shout. McClane is wearing a little vest I hope this Mother's Day is the best."

     The other fun event of the week was Brock's first grade program. He and his fellow first-graders sang several cute songs about good manners. Here's a photo or two of him before the program. I refuse to take photos or video during the program because it's so annoying when all the other parents are doing it as well and it's hard to get a good view without interference.

    And here's a cute photo of Charlie snuggling up with Isaac.

        So that's our week in a nutshell. This coming week begins some of the graduation activities for Kayli, which should be fun. (How did we get to this point?!)

Reminiscing!

      With Kayli's upcoming high school graduation there was a request from our ward for photos of all the seniors so they could put together a slideshow to present at their annual senior graduation dinner. This will be our first time attending the special night and I definitely had plenty of photos to go through and pick from. I thought I would share the photos I chose on this weeks blog post.

How cute is SHE!

Cutest Raggedy Ann EVER!

My modesty standards have definitely changed since this photo was taken.

So sweet!

Are you kidding me!? Look at Isaac and Mark!

We use to have just little people to worry about. Look how cute they all were.

I love Mark's winky face. And that could be McClane in place of Isaac.

       And this last one was just to tease Kayli, I did not share this for the official slideshow! I may be mean but not that mean. (Only mean enough to share it on my blog!)

Curlers gone WRONG!!

    And just in case you forgot what Charlie looks like because there's absolutely no resemblance to Kayli whatsoever, here's a photo of her for comparison.

     The graduation dinner is in a couple of weeks and I'm excited to see what it's all about. It was definitely fun to have an excuse to go through several family photo albums and remember when we had fewer children and NO teenagers! Time flies when you're having fun, that's for sure!