Kela's Special Olympics

Kela is sporting her newly made scarf and beanie...compliments of Noah. (Well, Noah made the beanie and I made the scarf--Noah actually made the beanie for himself, but Kela decided that it belonged to her, so now Noah is making him a different one. Haha! Girls rule!) Kela absolutely loves her new Fall Fashion! She even wants to wear her accessories to bed. I've had to sneak them away from her just so I can wash them. What a silly little girl!

4 November 2011
Kela's school signed her up for Special Olympics and Gabriel volunteered to help with the events. I was sad that I couldn't attent, seeing as how I have mandatory school! Ugh! However, Dad was able to get off of work and cheer his little girl on! Both of them gave Kela some love before leaving the house.
Oh, this is Kela's walker that she uses at school. Gabriel says that she is so fast in the halls with it. It makes her fearless and she just runs all over the place. LOL!
What a good brother! Gabriel loves helping his little sister and is constantly supporting her! He makes me very proud!
Here's Kela representing her school, Shadow Ridge High School--the Mustangs!
Hahaha...look how little she is!
I'm guessing they're learning what they're supposed to do. ????
Kela is pumping up the crowd!!!
Dad said she laughed the whole time!
And, he said he has never seen her run as fast as she did either! :)
Kela getting her high fives!Don't forget Dad!!!
It looks like Kela is dragging her helper. hahaha!!!!

Go, girl, go!!! Apparently, she loves soccer!

In the meantime...
Gabriel was one of the coaches for his school and the other kids who were actually able to play the game of soccer. He pumped them up and ran beside the kids, telling them what to do.
Notice the disappointment in Gabriel (#25) after his special needs boy missed the goal! Hahaha!
He was very proud of his team. :)
He's congratulating them.
His team ended up winning, so it was all good.

Kela had an awesome time! WooHoo Speacial Olympics!!!!

Cuban BBQ

24 September 2011
We were invited to a Cuban BBQ at a friend's house and it was amazing! The Fisks roasted a whole pig in their pit and had all kinds of great side dishes, and hosted about 60-75 people. Here the boys are eating some of the skin (pork rind). They said they loved it! It was a wonderful social event to just go and hang out with great folks. Thanks! It was awesome!!!

Youth Conference--"Xcentuate the Positive"

17 September 2011 Gabriel and I had Youth Conference this fall and participated in a great service project. We went to a Las Vegas park and pulled weeds for the community.

That is a BIG 'ole pile of weeds!!! Have you ever seen that many WEEDS???? Honestly, it didn't even take that long with as many hands as we had. These are the group of girls that we had show up.

Gabriel worked really hard and did his fair share...always so proud of him!

We had a great lunch together, but this photo was actually taken by our bishop who texted it to my husband to mock him for his family wearing ORANGE! We got a kick out of that.

We had a motivational speaker you spoke to us about "xcentuating the positive," which was our theme for the weekend. His name is "Wheelz" and he is prapalegic who does tricks on his wheelchair. He has a world record of completing two backflips. He has a great attitude in the midst of his circumstances and was a great example to our youth on how to keep things in perspective and live life with a positive outlook.

The youth were very impressed with him and wanted to take pictures and get his autograph. His signed the back of my shirt. :)

Later in the evening, the youth had a dance.

Gabriel and another girl decided to dress 80's style. LOL. Can you see the mullet he's wearing?

Austin and Gabe

Gabriel loves to dance with the ladies.

There's a little down syndrom girl who likes Gabriel a lot and she got very upset with me when I kind of interrupted their dancing to take a picture. Hahaha...she was so jealous! Gabriel is always so sweet to her and gives her lots of attention.

She finally forgave me, though. :)

I have some great videos of the youth dancing together. I think they had a blast!

Neon Gabe

9 September 2011 Here in Las Vegas there was a young high school girl who was raped, stabbed 40 times, and then burned by some Sick-O. At the football game, the other students dressed in neon to honor her. Here's Gabriel about to leave.

1st Day of School 2011-2012

29 August 2011 Gabriel was up bright and early (5:00 am) to make sure he made it to seminary.

And, of course, he had to sport his Spongebob bookbag. LOL...a boy with confidence!

Kela's bus arrives at 6:30 am. Can you tell she's not fully awake?

She would not look at the camera to save my life!

My two high schoolers!!! Both sophomores!

Noah gets dropped a little before 7:00 am so I can get to school by 7:30.

3rd grade. :)

LV Temple with Youth

16 August 2011 I went to the temple with our Young Women and had a great time (I'm at the front left). It was the first time that I've gotten to go to the baptistry at the Las Vegas Temple. It was bigger than the others that I have been to...pretty cool! However, the best thing about this trip was getting to be there with Gabriel. It was very special because it's the first time I've been to the temple with him. His first experience was a trip to St. George and the other times I was not in the youth program, so finally having this opportunity to be with him was great! (There are some other photos floating around out there somewhere of us and I will have to get them. I hope they are clearer than this one.) I hope there will be many more days like this to come. Of course, Gabe had to get a pic with Ashley. She's amazing!

TP Dresses at YW

10 August 2011

We had a fun Young Women activity the week before the youth went on their temple trip to excite the girls about temple attendance. We had two of the girls give beautiful testimonies of the service they have done at the templ recently, and then we split the girls up into groups and had them design modest dresses out of toilet paper. Right now they go to do baptisms, but one day they will go to be sealed to their family and we wanted them to think about that. The girls had fun coming up with their designs.

Then afterwards, the girls ripped off the toilet paper and a few of them saved the paper, along with all the rolls that weren't used and decided to go TP some friends' homes. Hahaha...gotta love the minds of a teenager. Of course, Gabe ended up being involved. He's done a few houses the last couple of weeks.

White Water Rafting

20-24 June 2011

Gabriel left for scout camp to go to Moapa Valley, Utah to white water raft down the Colorado River (class 3).

(photos taken with disposable water camera...not good quality) Bus ride

Tour group helper: Lexi

with Lexi

Campsite. All meals were cooked for the scouts by the tour group.

About to hit the water.

50 degree water....brrrrrr!!!!

Jumpin in the raft and flipping them for requirements.

Gabriel had a blast. Even though the water was cold, he stayed in it as they had "raft wars." Each raft had to battle the others by sneaking up on them and flipping them. Gabriel's group dominated the camp. Gabe said this trip was the best scout camp he's done so far. He LOVED it!!!
Gabriel returning home and telling us of his experience.