He Lives - Celebrate Easter Because Jesus Christ Lives

Elder Prescott update

Elder Prescott has now been out on his mission for almost 5 months! I cannot believe it has been that long! Even though we miss him, we know he is doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing! It's worth the sacrifice - especially every time he sends me a picture of his smiling face! I love that he is becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ, you can see it in his countenance!

Since these pictures were taken, Elder Prescott has been transferred & is no longer with Elder Huata nor is he in the same district with these other missionaries. I'm so thankful that he has served with some awesome young men so far. It is wonderful to see the change in him as he has learned to love so many different people. That alone is a witness of what the spirit of Jesus Christ can do for a person! I am so thankful for the members in Utah too - I can't tell you how many times I've received random texts with pictures of him & his companion. It brightens my day every time! Next time you have missionaries over, snap a picture of them & send it to their parents. It is a wonderful surprise & they will LOVE it! Most of all I am thankful for a son who is willing to leave home, his family, his friends, his band, his skateboard, a comfortable life & everything else to teach others of Jesus Christ & God's plan for us. It is truly amazing to see the transformation that is taking place in HIM as he searches for people to bring them a truth that will change THEIR lives.

Big Day

I have been trying to post this for over 2 months! July 5th was a BIG day for this cute little family! Wyatt & Kathryn were both baptized on the very same day. I feel so privileged to have been there to witness such a wonderful event. I know that this is only the beginning for them. Love them!

Bitter Sweet...

As a parent you never know if what you are doing makes sense, or if you are really ruining your kids... or if the things you do help them become better people. It's really just hit & miss... there's no training classes or manuals. That's weird, right? I always thought it was funny that they seem to prepare you better to drive a car then they do to be a parent & really which is more important? Once you figure out how to drive, you just have to pay attention in order to do a good job. But being a parent is a life-time commitment, an on-going job that is 7/24 and really doesn't stop just because your children grow up. We always care, forever love & want the best for our adult children as much, if not even more than when they were little. Last weekend we were able to be in the temple with 3 out of our 4 sons, along with our daughter-in-law, extended family & many friends. All were there to be with Simon as he received his own endowments before serving a mission for our church. It was one of the best days of my life!

I can hardly believe they are all pretty much grown up and that they are choosing to do what is right, follow the commandments and stay close to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It makes us so happy! Who would have thought that these 4 goof balls would grow up to be such awesome young men?! I have loved them since before they were born & the love I have just continues to grow every day, every year. Never in my life did I think I was capable of love so deep & so unconditional. They truly make my life complete.

Since Friday, the week just continued to get better & better! Sunday Simon spoke in church, along with Noah & Jamey. It was great to hear their testimonies & witness the change in Simon. On Tuesday night we gathered together as Simon was set apart as a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and then to hear him again bare an awesome testimony. The spirit was so strong and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. I sure do love these boys of mine... glad to know that we didn't wreck them.  Simon is now at the Mission Training Center learning all that he possibly can before he is sent out into the "field" to find people who are looking for more. Can't wait to hear how lives will change as he brings others unto Christ.

A wedding

December is a crazy enough month as it is in our family.... Not only do we have birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas going on, but this year it got a little more busy with a wedding too! It was pretty exciting as Nate is the first of the grandkids to get married on the Prescott side of the family... And Alyssa is the first daughter to join our immediate family too! It was an exciting way to end the year.

If you'd like to see the wedding video go here:

http://vimeo.com/84280243

I don't have any of the "official" pictures back yet, but here are a few from my camera phone. (Please excuse someone's head in these!)

 Coming out of the temple.

 Officially Mr. & Mrs. Nate Prescott

 We gave the nieces & nephews bubbles to blow while we waited from the happy couple to come out of the temple. I'm pretty certain the bubbles made for some great pictures. Can't wait to see them!! It also kept the little ones entertained while we were waiting. Win/win.

 Just some of the people waiting for the newlyweds to come out of the temple.....

 Of course, it wouldn't be a Prescott event without some random goofy pictures. Had to take one of all the different socks!

 Alyssa is such a good sport! She fits right in with these guys, we love her so much & are so very happy that she is apart of our family! LGP

November & December birthdays

November & December are pretty busy birthday months for our families: November started off with Dee Dee's birthday, within a week later it is David's birthday & exactly a week after that it is Jamey's birthday! 

 December started off with Simon's 19th birthday! Yikes, when did he get that old? (love that these 2 are best friends! Warms a mother's heart).

The middle of December is Kevin's birthday. Happy birthday Kevin!

Just after Christmas we celebrated Noah's birthday, still hard to believe that my baby is 17 now & in high school. Just yesterday all of the boys were in Elementary school.

Besides birthdays, Joy & Max celebrated their wedding anniversary!

Happy Anniversary you two love birds!! 

October Birthdays

October is the month we celebrate two of my favorite people's birthdays.  My brothers Danny and Bill.  They melt my heart.  Danny and I are closest in age (he is 7 years older than I am).  We were the only two living at home for most of my childhood memories.  We fought like crazy, but we are still buddies.  He by far had the hardest life of any one person I know.  But we could always talk.  Sometimes he didn't like the "little sister lectures" that he got, but he'd call back.  

9 years ago he was brutally attacked and has traumatic brain injury.  He remembers things from when we were kids, but nothing of his attack or the time period surrounding that part of his life.  Which is great!  He's happy, except when I tickle him.  He really gets mad.  But it's so fun to tease him!  Unfair advantage, but you know what they say about payback!!  

He thinks he's 30 years old.  Yep, 7 years older.  haha  Mom and I had a great time visiting for him for his "30th birthday".

My other special brother is Bill.  He was born with Cerebral Palsy.  He's not real chatty.  In fact, if you get 10 words out of the guy, you did pretty good!  He's too cute.  He just turned 62.  Bill is my 2nd oldest brother.  He loves dumping out birthday cards, opening presents, and going out to eat.  Apparently he loves the Dodgers, too, cuz he took in a lot of Dodger loot tonight at his party.

Happy birthday to two of my big bros.  I love you tons!!

2nd Annual Ward Campout

This year our stake bought in to a campground with some other stakes, and we get an awesome deal when camping there.  So this will probably be our new place to camp as a ward.  Which is okay by everyone we got comments from.  

There was shooting

 and archery

Joy was a great shot!!  (at rifle shooting too)

 and swimming, although the water was FREEZING!

 And so much wildlife!!  This hawk was HUGE!!!  I thought maybe it was a statue, but then I saw it's feathers blowing in the breeze.  We walked around to the other side and it turned it's head a little, but it just sat there and was waiting for breakfast.

It's hard to see, but there are deer here.  A large buck with amazing horns and 2 doe, and a baby.  

and people having a great time :)

 I don't have the zip-line pictures yet, but THAT was fun!!  I was a little afraid to do it, but heck, if Joy can do it I HAVE to do it!  haha  If it wasn't such a long line and so many people waiting for turns, I would've done it again and again.  

It was rushed, like everything else we do, but it was fun.  I heard lots of feedback that people want to start doing a ward campout twice a year.  Sounds like a great idea!!!

My Luchadores

I wanted to have a lot of family time this summer since the kids wouldn't be home from college for long, and since we only had a couple weeks to spend with Troy between his mission and college.  When I saw the Padres schedule of giveaways and saw Luchadore Night, I couldn't contain myself.  We aren't super big sports fans, but I thought it would be a lot of fun and knew the kids would like the masks.

 

David has some pretty good hook ups from work, and we got 4 awesome seats right behind the Padres dugout.  We were one seat shy, and asked our friend Harrison, who works for the Padres, to try to get us another ticket in the same area so we could all go.  We made it work and had a fun time.  The Padres even won!! 

 

from our seats

 

My Luchadores

 

It was a blast!!!!

Decathalon Challenge

One day Troy & Eric were talking a lot of smack to each other.  They came up with the idea to see who was better at more things, and asked David to plan a decathalon of games and see who was the ultimate best.  David thought it only fitting to include Jason, to Eric's dismay.  It took awhile to find the time to get things done, and some challenges had to be changed (like racing up Cowles Mtn due to the heat & lack of time - Eric was SOOOO happy about that cancellation).  Here are some of the things they did...

 

juggling, tennis, bop it extreme, spit the gumball as far as you can, pool, shotgun shooting, hackeysack, flipping quarters from the arm to hand and a hard computer game.  (I'm sure I'm forgetting some.  And they never made it for basketball freethrows and paper airplanes.)  It was hilarious to watch.  They sure got competitive and gave each other a hard time, all while laughing our heads off. We remembered to take some pictures along the way.

 

Shotgun shooting

Pool 

Spitting Gumballs

 

Quarter Game

Hackey Sack

 

Computer Game

 

Tennis

 

When David planned the games, he tried to make it all random things that nobody would have a giant lead.  It's funny that we didn't know that Troy learned how to juggle in 5th grade and killed the other two, and that Eric had played the computer game before and beat the other two by quite a bit.  It was so fun and I'm glad those two came up with such an idea.  It was such fun family bonding time.



Labor Day Pool Party

It's the end of summer, and as always, we have to go out with a bang!  It seems like our pool parties are a big hit, guessing by the number of people that attend.  Sometimes I wonder if people are just over them, but they still come, so I guess not.  It's also been really hot, so who wouldn't want to cool off? 

This time we had about 80 people.  This first picture below is my attempt at doing a panoramic picture on my iphone.  Yeah, it didn't work.  But I think I was able to capture the good time everyone was having.

I went in the pool for a little while to cool off, but it was just a little too crowded for me.  But it did feel good!!

Not sure what they were doing, but good action shot!

The jacuzzi is a good way for the shy-not-so-sure-if-I-want-to-swim beginners.  They were also probably afraid of all those crazy people!

Food, fun & friends.

Some were just plain worn out after a couple of hours of fun in the sun.  I couldn't resist a picture Mason & Lillian napping & reading.  Lillian fell asleep.  Mason woke up and started patting her arm to wake her up.  Pretty darn cute!

 

Summer, I always hate to see you go.  You're my fave.