Celebration of the Arts 2013

 Wow!  Celebration of the Arts has come a long way in the past few years.  It was an amazing year and I am so glad that I got to be a part of helping it all come together.  I do love my volunteer work at the school.  This is Pipers class project.  So very cool!

 Piper submitted a painting/drawing, which didn't really fit in category, but it was entitled friends and you can see it just above her head.  It's her and her girls.

 Tyson submitted a photo of our random Harry Potter memorabilia.  The theme was Magical Moment.  He came up with the idea to take pictures of Harry Potter because of the word magical.  He told me that he though Harry Potter was magical . He took first place in photography for the 1st and 2nd grade!

 JD submitted photo's of horses and a hawk that he had seen in a field.  He really wanted to take pictures of the Ivins Reservoir  but it was to low, so we drove around looking for something to inspire him and the hawk caught his eye at first, but the horses quickly distracted him.  He got first place in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade category!

 Oh, what an experience this little performance was! We talked about putting the girls in and having them clog and then we decided not to.  Well, the girls had other ideas.  They walked into auditions and performed without practicing and without music.  They did awesome.  Then we practiced their hearts out for the next 10 days and did amazing!  I was so impressed with how well they performed.

 This picture is my favorite.  Look at all that sass!  They finished strong!

 First place for the girls as well!  Adilyn, Addison, Piper, Jordyn, Maizy and Ailey!

 Baylee clogged as well and they got 1st place in their age division!  All the buddies in a row!

Besties!

 This was Tyson's class project.  A monkey with a banana on his head.

JD's class project was of a picture of the famous boxing match of Jack Dempsy versus Furpo.

Here is the photography display. You can see JD's horses kind of in the center on the wall and Tysons picture is the bottom right hand corner!  So proud of my talented kids!

Random Awesomness

 I'm so blessed my kids play well together most of the time!

 Cason's Army Party

 We are obsessed with CSI Miami.  JD got some aviators just like Horacio Caine.

 Working on a belt loop with Tyson and Bentley for cubs.

 Just a random, random picture.  It's pretty cute though!

 7 am, it's snowing, let's put on our cowboy hat and hang out in front of the door picture!

 Ummm, some blue ring pop awesomeness with a little weirdness thrown it.

 Jumping on mom s bed with my arm warmers!

Gangnam Style on the wii.

I love this picture!  He looks so grown up. And someday, I am positive I will see this kid in a uniform for real.

Dixie Rock

 One of the benefits of living in Dixie?  65 degree weather in January!  After a few weeks of freezing temps, we had a 65 degree day and it fell on Martin Luther King day!  Day off and nice weather, calls for a afternoon of fun!  I love this picture of Piper.

 JD and Tyson are much braver than I am.  Braver than I care for them to be, but I guess it's good that they take risks and try things.  I do remember when I used to be that way.

 Andrea and the kids met us there and we spent the afternoon hiking all over those rocks.

 Tyson is a mount goat.  He gets that from his dad.

 The view from the top is breathtaking.

 The little girls even did the Narrows.  Sam was a trooper to help them get to the end.

 Meditation and gang sings from the Doty kids.

 I love all these pictures.

We did lose Tyson for awhile though.  He wouldn't stay with us and ran ahead to the big cave.  We told him to wait there, but it was taking us to long so he came looking for us.  Of course by the time we got there, he had already went all the way back to the Dixie Rock.  I was reaching the moment of panic when I got a phone call from a very nice man, who was there with his children.  When Tyson realized he was lost, he found a family with children and told him that he couldn't find me.  He then had them call me.  I'm so proud of him for remembering that lesson to find a mom with kids and also for having my phone number memorized.  So glad he was safe. Even with that scary few moments, it was a great day.

Out of the Mouth of Piper

My favorite time of day is in the small window of time, just before the sun comes up, when I have always had a child crawl in to my bed and snuggle. It's the best. This morning Piper was laying with me and I said, "Who is my favorite girl?" She replied with, "me." Then she say's "Who's my beautiful girl?" And then she said, "you."

How sweet!! And then she rolled over, put her cute little hand on my face and said. "But you have an old face!" Not so cute! She's honest!

UNO

We got Uno for Christmas and I think we've played it every day since.  My kids love it! I'm so glad, it's something fun that we can all do together!

Black and White

I've been loving the look of black and white lately.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Wowza Piper

 These two pictures were taken the day of Tysons baptism.  I just came across them and had to share! The reason there are so many pictures of  Piper is because she sticks around for me to take them. Plus she's kind of a ham, (obviously) and enjoys being the center of attention!

Tyson's Baptsim

* I am trying to get caught up, but wanted to write about this before I forget all those mushy feelings!*

 Tyson was baptized on January 5, 2012!  Josh baptized him and Grandpa Scott confirmed him a member of the church. Grandpa gave him a wonderful blessing. He was reminded that the Holy Ghost is his friend and that as long as we makes good choices, He will always be with Tyson.

Tyson has been so cute about the whole series of events.  He giggled the whole time that the stake baptism director was introducing him and he was so sweet. I love that he's a giggler.  He's been so excited to get the Holy Ghost. He was so nervous about the whole thing.   But he does love to be the center of attention.

I am so proud of Tyson and his decision.  We talked about this decision for the past year. Lot's of special conversations, because I wanted Tyson to make sure that he knew what he was committing to.  He has such a sweet spirit and heart.  We are so blessed to have him in our home.

 This is the only picture I got with my guy and it's blurry, but oh well.  We didn't even get a chance to have a family picture!  There were so many people and so much craziness in between it all.

We had so much family come and we were so excited.  Uncle Danny and his friend Stacie came down from Salt Lake, Great Grandma Doty was here as well.

We are missing a few kids in this picture, but here are most of the cousins. They had so much fun running amuck and bouncing in the bounce house.

January 1, 2013

 We were inspired by our Christmas excursion to the snow, to break the tradition of shooting on New Years Day.  We opted instead to take the kids to Pine Valley and spend the day sledding with our friends the Schwendimans.  We had so much fun!  The wind was freezing, but we survived.

 We took the snow mobiles up and pulled the kids around on the tubes and let the kids sled down the hills.  We had a bonfire going and had hot chocolate and hot dogs to roast.

 Kids love snow!  It's a fact that you will have a good time, if you keep them warm and throw them in the powder.

I love this collage.  JD got to ride on a snow mobil for the first time.  Tyson kept sliding over the snowbank and each time he would pop up and say, "I'm okay, I'm okay!"  And Pipers hair was frozen.  That last trip on the tube was what did her in.  She came back with frozen hair and was done.

It was such a fun day though!