{A Sneak Peek at some FABULOUS Pictures}

if I don't say so myself!

{Happiness}

Once again, I'm behind.....but this past Sunday was a special day for our family and I couldn't wait to catch up on everything before I shared!"Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood" by Avard Fairbanks, Temple Square, Salt Lake City.

On Sunday the 3rd of July, my sweet husband was ordained an Elder in the Melchizedek priesthood. For those who are not of our faith, we believe the priesthood is the eternal power and authority of God. Through the priesthood God created and governs the heavens and the earth. Through this power He redeems and exalts His children, bringing to pass "the immortality and eternal life of man". God gives priesthood authority to worthy male members of the Church so they can act in His name for the salvation of His children. Priesthood holders can be authorized to preach the gospel, administer the ordinances of salvation, and govern the kingdom of God on the earth.

It was a day of complete happiness for my little family. We have waited patiently for this day to come. The Spirit was so strong and I was truly overcome with the peace and joy. What a great blessing this is for all of us!

{Great Big Giant Catch-Up}

I just realized that I blogged exactly once June and once in May.... how pathetic is that? Hopefully life has settled down a bit, and I can sort of keep up. As busy and crazy as the last few months have been, they have been good months, really good months. There have been some changes around here, and good things happening, that I hope to blog about soon. As behind as I am, I decided it was a good time for a monster catch-up post. So without further a-do.... May and June (and a bit of April) in a nutshell!

Kaleb tested to advance to a Yellow belt at Karate...... and passed!

His regular teacher Miss Camille was out of town, so Miss Monica tested him. She told me later, it was the first belt advancement she'd done. Because Brock is a belt higher than Kaleb he got to participate in the stomach punch ritual!
Carlie participated in the State Tumbling competition. She placed 4th on her floor routine.

She was pretty un-happy with her one trophy when she saw some of the other kids getting two. She didn't quite understand that they competed in two events and she only did in one!

I finally did get a little smile out of her!

Kaleb earned his Wolf badge at Cub Scouts.

My three cute baseball kiddos!

Kaleb and Carlie are both done for the year, but Brock is still playing. That I can handle, but when we had 4 practices a week and 5-6 games a week, I was a bit base balled out!

Brock- Majors

Kaleb- Minors

Carlie- T Ball

My mom, my sister-in-law Katy and I spent Mothers Day weekend in Salt Lake. We met up with some of my Aunts and Cousins to participate in the Race for a Cure. I always am so touched by the crowds of people and those they participate to support or remember. I've set a goal to RUN next year, not walk. I'm not a runner, but I really want to give it a shot and figure, I should be able to be ready in a year, right?

Kaleb participated in his Elementary School program. This years theme was "We Sing of America". It was weird only having one child participate.

Kaleb's grade danced to "Surfin' USA" and each had to design a surfboard. Kaleb wanted pink flames and luckily he has a talented dad, who sketch out a design, grabbed the paint and went to town painting!

My adorable preschool class had a little graduation program. They each had a little part, and sang a few songs. We had to move it to the church building because of the weather, but it still turned out pretty good.

Aren't they stinkin' CUTE? I really miss them since school is out!

We couldn't come up with a good weekend this summer for our family camp out, so we borrowed my sister in laws family cabin at Duck Creek and had our weekend early.... in the snow :)

The kids (and some of the adults) had fun playing Just Dance on the Wii, and those who didn't dance had fun laughing.

The boys played lots of chess and spent a bit of time outside.

Kaleb ended the school year with a bang..... he broke his arm on the 2nd to last day before summer break!

He made sure the Doctor knew that he wanted a pink cast when he came back to have it set, and pink he got! Silly boy!His pinewood derby car had to have pink on it to match his cast!

Carlie had a bast helping to decide which car won!

Kaleb's car ended up taking second overall!

There you have most of the last few months in a nutshell!

{Don't Give Up on Me, Pretty Please}

It's been busy around here, like crazy busy. Between baseball (still), the end of school, Preschool graduation, broken limbs, Primary, the town park (for Derrick) and the towns insurance policy (me), Girls camp, and a much needed little family vacation.... there just aren't enough hours in the day. I want to blog, I really do. And I have so many things that I want to share (some are SUPER good things, like really, really good). It's on my to do list, but not as close to the top as I want it to be. So I'm begging, don't give up on me. Pretty please? Any day now there will be a list of posts.... soon I hope. In the meantime, all these crazy {MO}ments are creating memories, right?

I just had to add one picture, cause posts MUST have pictures, right? And this was one of my favorites from our little vacation, so I must share it!

{Flashback Friday}

Yea, yea.... I know it's Sunday. Give me a break, Friday was a crazy day, and Saturday was too. Who am I kidding, this time of year is just crazy for us, so let me just pretend it's Friday, okey dokey?
The reason for all the craziness???

BASEBALL!

All three of the kiddos are playin'. Brock-Majors, Kaleb-Minors and Carlie-TBall (and I'm the lucky mom who happens to be co-coaching those cute lil' ones with my sister). Anyhow, that means 5 practices and 5-6 games a week for this family, not to mention all the other regular things like Scouts, Karate, Tumbling and Piano. Ready to jump back to the 80's?

1984 (I think?) Can you find me? Yep, I'm the hat-less girlie!
1985
1986
Don't those Beckstrand girls make fantastic sign holders?
1987- We moved onto girls softball, once again sign holders.

So, with all these years of baseball pictures, you'd assume I had some mad ball skills that passed onto my offspring, right? WRONG! In all honestly I stink at all sports, and really can't figure out why I played that many years of Little League and then played Church ball too? Seriously, I was the kid they stuck in right or left field and then prayed no one hit the ball there? The only kid I see taking after me is Miss Carlie who I'm finding cares more about how she looks in her uniform and gets quite upset when we try to correct her batting stance..... she likes her diva pose, dang it! (need a visual.... scroll down to the {Preschool Craziness} post, add a bat and you've got the T-Ball Diva!)

{Little Miss Tumbler}

Can we say BEHIND?!? Again? I swear I just can't seem to keep up with this blog. The kids have been busy lately and that means this mama's been busy too. I thought about doing one big "Katchup" post, but I felt like some of the things deserved their own post, so I decided to do them all at once.... if you'd like to know what all we've been up too, keep reading after this post!

Last Saturday was spent at a little Tumbling competition in Spanish Fork with Miss Carlie. It was the first one we've taken her to and she'd been counting down and practicing for weeks!

Doesn't she look cute warming up with her fantastic teacher Miss JoAnn? She did a great job on her passes, so great that..... she took FIRST place out of the eight girls in her age group!

and of course she had to strike a pose with that medal!

{Orange.... the Color of the Week}

Last week Brock spent his hour (plus almost another half) at Karate testing for his Orange belt, and I got to stay and watch and see all the progress that he's made.

There were three others testing at the same time, so the process took a bit of time. Each child has to demonstrate each and every skill they've been taught since the beginning and Miss Camille gave each skill a letter grade.

They showed off punches, kick, Kata's and lots of other skills. They also had to answer 3 questions. When do we use Karate? Why do we show respect? And tell us 5 things that show proper manners? Brock also had to have a signed page from his school teacher that said he conducts himself in a proper manner at all times, and a place to comment if there was anything he could work on. When the testing was finished and scored, Miss Camille hits them with the new belt and any higher ranking class members line up to give a punch to the stomach! I think this week orange is my new favorite color. He's been working on this a long time, and I'm proud of him!

On another note, remember that "little" four wheeler accident my little man had a bit ago? Well, part of the deal was HE had to fix my bike, and pay for all the parts. Brock asked Grandpa Dearden, who just happens to own the Polaris dealership in town, for a job so he could earn the money for the parts. They hooked him up with a pretty fancy Polaris work shirt and he grabbed his tools and headed to work. How cute is he? After working each day, Derrick put him back to work tearing down my bike. He showed him what tools he needed, and told him what bolts to take out and left him to work. I'm happy to say he finished the job right in time for the weather to be about perfect for some riding! (and hopefully he learned a good lesson int he process).