Forever Friends.....

Lately I've been thinking about all my kids friends. With all the talk in the world about peer pressure and bad influences, I feel like my family has been extremely blessed with influences for the good. My kids have had wonderful, fun friends in and out of the Church.

The past few years before Taylor left on his mission, he and the Lovelace boys were inseperable. He and Eric in particular. They worked out on weights and hung out on a daily basis. They spent many nights playing video games all night and fishing all day. Notice the weight-gain/muscle building concoctions in the windowsill!
Gotta LOVE Sidney (below) and Alex (above)! Whitney and Mary Catherine have spent MANY MANY MANY days and nights with the Powell's playing with American Girl dolls and swimming and dreaming of the day when they can all get an apartment together!

That Taylor Zachary is everybody's buddy.... what a great kid!

Love this picture of the Pogue boys (Big Taylor and Evan) and the Zachary boys (Alex and Little Taylor). What wonderful men they are becoming.

Whitney's good friends from school Megan, Rhonda and Danielle.

Can't even tell you how much we love Evan's friend, Blake. They have been great buds since second grade! He's been on two memorable vacations with our family.

Can't think of a "friend's post" without Mitchell! Mitchell and his family moved in next door when the boys were in Kindergarten. They have been together daily since playing soccer, basketball, baseball, football- you name it, they have played it together

Mary Catherine and Whitney have always been friends! We met Mary Catherine when she was two months old. Whitney called her "Mee Mammin" before she could say Mary Catherine. We love that girl. She and Whitney are definately "besties"!

So many more friends have influenced our kids that I don't have pictures of....... to name a few, Ivy's friends Candace (who now has kids of her own) and Marca. Ivy- you can do your own blog about the miles and miles you and Candace put on the doll strollers around the block. Also, all the books that you and Marca read together laying in your bed. Taylor's golf buddies will always be close to his heart. Brett, for sure, being a "forever friend". Let's not forget Quintin who has been a neighbor and friend since Kindergarten. And Whitney and Kathryn will always be buds.

Thank you all for playing such a huge role in the lives of our kids............we love you!

Reflecting 46~

First of all, what is a birthday unless you get up close and personal with Jo?!?! A piece (or two or three.......) of Jo's Party House cake that is. Thank you Zachary's! Yes, today I turned 46 years old. It's amazing to be this age and not really feel that much different than I did years earlier. I always figured by the time I was this age, I'd be alot wiser than I actually am! haha ......but seriously.

I wish I had taken some more pictures this week-end because it's really been fun. Friday night we went out to dinner at Steamboat Bill's with lots of good friends. Brad had crawfish and I had boiled shrimp. Fantastic as always! Even better that Brad had a gift card for there that he had gotten as a safety prize at work. (fantastic FREE food is even that much better).

For months Whitney has been saying she is hungry for a "turkey dinner". We were camping over Thanksgiving and ate dinner out at Piccadilly. I was great with it but guess it didn't cut it for her. My mom called Friday or Saturday to invite us over Sunday for Whitney's "turkey dinner". It was a full-fledged holiday meal complete with the turkey, rice dressing, cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, etc. You name it, she had it! It was wonderful. Finished that off with birthday cake to celebrate my birthday along with my brother's and nephew, Dillon's. Mom even brought out the holiday table cloth!

So today was my real birthday. I went out to lunch with Andrea, Susan, Kristin and Jennifer. It was fun as always. It's such a blessing to have such wonderful friends. Tonight we had the elders over for dinner. Brad grilled hamburgers outside so that was nice. It was a little chilly but we enjoyed it. The Zachary's brought the Jo's Party House cake. It was heavenly!

Alot happened between my 45th and 46th year!

• My oldest daughter Ivy got married to Calder Huntington June 2 in the Houston temple. Had a reception here at our house in Louisiana then flew to Las Vegas for the reception there.
• Sent my oldest son Taylor off to college at BYU-Idaho.
• THEN sent named son to Toulouse, France on a 2-year church mission.
• Lost 60 lbs-feel better than I have in years (no more high blood pressure, aches or pains.
• Second daughter, Whitney, started high school, took driver's ed and got driving permit.
• Got released from stake YW the same week my husband got called to stake YM.
• Spent first Christmas ever somewhere other than home! Minnesota with Ivy & Calder :)
• Rode a bus to West Virginia to go white-water rafting with the Stake Young Women.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things but those are some highlights. As you can tell, it's been a year of transition. But good, all good. I feel like I have been tremendously blessed this year.

Who loves......

my new red shutters and door?? Besides me, I mean.....

I've been meaning to post a picture of our new paint job. It really looks good and believe me, has been badly needed for many years. Every time I've wanted to take a picture, the yard has looked bad. Evan mowed today, so here it is.

He made it........

First of all, thank you all for your sweet comments on my last post! I LOVE comments and I think I hit a record......appreciate all your support and kind words. Wednesday afternoon I was at home and got a call from a nice Elder from the Toulouse France mission saying your son has arrived. We knew he had because like big nerds we had tracked his flight all the way across the Atlantic. We actually went to bed before he flew into Paris but followed him online over half way. In fact in my last post, we captured the image of him being almost half way. We recognize the geekiness of this and are ok with it........ Today (Friday) we received an email that he had been assigned to Vitrolles. It's on the southern coast of France, southeast of Toulouse. His colleague's name is Elder Clyde but that's all I know. We should hear from him on Tuesday.

Here is a picture of he and Elder Clyde and the mission president, Craig Merrell and his wife. So now that he's there, let the adventure begin!

General Conference Weekend.....

Absoluetely loved general conference this time. Felt like so many of the messages were just for me . I always love conference. There is something so wonderful about sleeping late then watching "church" in your pajamas. President Monson was awesome! We have always loved his humor. Vicki- so jealous you were there. (not really jealous- but happy for you). The weather was beautiful all weekend.

During and between sessions of conference, I spread my stuff out all over the table and worked on the Teacher Appreciation Dinner invitations. My job this year was making the invitations. The theme is "You are the Apple of my Eye!" All the kids at church invite their school teachers to a nice program and dinner to honor them. It is always wonderful and the teachers love it. Didn't the invitations turn out cute ?!? There were 100 of them.


Taylor's last email said he was flying out on the ninth of April to France. Well, I didn't schedule to work that day so I wouldn't miss his call. I did work today but had my planning period from 9:50-10:50. I decided to run home and put some clothes in the dryer, etc. The MINUTE I walked in the door the phone rang with a Salt Lake City number and an automated thing asked me if I would accept a collect call. I pressed one to accept and got disconnected. I tried two or three times to call the number back. Finally Taylor answered! He said, "I realized after I sent that last email that I told you the wrong date!" Somebody was definitely looking out for me and letting me get that phone call. Taylor sounds great. We talked about 20 minutes and he had to board the plane to Atlanta. About 3:30 he called back from the Atlanta airport. It was just in time to talk to Whitney and Evan. Brad was able to call him back on the airport pay phone and chat for a little while. He hung up when he had to board the plane for Paris! He is excited and upbeat. Hope to hear from him soon.......

AMERICAN IDOL

David, My cute daughter will be 16 next month........................

I'll admit I'm a little obsessed with American Idol. I have enjoyed every single season. This year my hands-down favorite is David Archuleta, the adorable 17 year old Mormon boy from Murray, Utah. He has an amazing voice and I remember him from StarSearch years ago.

New MTC Pictures

Elder Pogue (our son Taylor) is on the right with his companion Elder Davis from Tremonton, Utah. They actually don't use the term "companion" in the French missions. They say "collegue". The word companion is taken to mean something else there!

The whole district "striking a pose". Taylor is on the far left. They are all headed to Toulouse except for one girl who will go to Figi!

Apparently it's not all study, study, study! Here is a little fun with the camera.