After BBall Practice Shenanigans...

Makay and Katelyn decided to take some pictures after practice tonight...  The SMHS letters inspire a lot of these kinds of pictures, I think!

Hyrum is HERE!!!!

Jenell had her baby today!  Hyrum Dean DeGraffenried finally made it here!  He weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.  He was born at 12:07am.  What a beautiful baby!

An Amazing Letter of Recommendation for Brooke...

One of Brooke's Math teachers at SMHS wrote this letter to BYU at Brooke's request.  Mrs. Malmos has been a favorite teacher of Brooke throughout high school.  Not realizing that BYU would only accept clicking through their own recommendation list, Mrs. Malmos wrote this letter about Brooke.  BYU will never see it, but it is a pretty neat tribute to not only Brooke's academic talent, but also to her as a person-- her character and integrity.  I love getting these kinds of letters from people about my children.  It makes me so happy to know that they are growing into such great people and will give an amazing contribution to this world!

Katelyn's FIRST High School Basketball Game V. Higley!!

Katelyn had such a great game tonight!  It was her first time playing as a Mustang on the Freshman team and she looked great!  She was even fighting a cold too!!!  She had tons of rebounds, several assists, 6 baskets and a couple free-throws. They won the game 36-32.  (She had an even more awesome game a few nights later at the Liberty game!  They won that game as well with a score of 36-21.)  I LOVE to watch her play because she plays with TOTAL focus, hard work and dedication.  She never slows down and gives it her all!  She's fun to watch.  These pictures aren't the greatest...taken with my phone and phones don't do the greatest on action shots... but here they are anyway...

A Sneak Peak at Brooke's Senior Photos!

This girl is so photogenic!  I love this shot...  Found this on Instagram posted by Claire Waite Photography.  Claire is doing a great job on these pictures!

An Arizona Sunset Hike...

Everyone who wanted to came on a sunset hike tonight.  (I wanted to do a sunrise hike but that got voted down by all my teenage daughters who love their beauty sleep!!)  We had a great time and it was a beautiful sunset.  We hiked the Thunderbird Mountain trail by the temple...one of my favorite hikes!  Allison and Joshua, Robin and Megan, Katelyn and I all went.  Oh and Piper and Dexter, the dogs, also came.

Hangin' Out at Mom's with the Family!

It was so nice to relax and slow down a bit these days off for Thanksgiving break!  Here we are goofing around...as usual.  I think football was on TV too...

A Beautiful Thanksgiving Day!!!

This year all of my sisters were able to make it down for Thanksgiving!  I can't remember the last time that happened...  We didn't have all the cousins, but we enjoyed everyone that was able to come.  It was fun to see Tiffany!  She just barely got home from her mission to Natal, Brazil.  It was fun to talk to her in Portuguese!  I also LOVED having all 4 of my own girls home for the holiday!  It was so comforting to know we were all sleeping under the same roof again!!!  We had so much fun and great memories were made.  Bill found this picture by Del Parson for Megan for her birthday... it's a little bit late, but he wanted to find just the right picture.  I really like it, and I know that Megan likes it too!  It is perfect!  There's also the perfect shot of all the girls getting ready in the bathroom together!  Good times!  Brings back a lot of memories from when they were younger!

Robin organized some "Minute to Win It" games before we ate our Thanksgiving dinner.  We had a lot of fun playing them and enjoyed being silly together.  Megan and Tiffany were the team leaders.  (I was on Tiffany's team, and our team won!)  The best game was putting on the frozen t-shirts the fastest... the Redfords are here from Utah and were hot the whole time they were here and so were able to get those freezing t-shirts on pretty quickly!  Hahahahaha!  (I think this is the warmest Thanksgiving we've ever had here!)  We enjoyed a very yummy Thanksgiving dinner with the Higbee family in our ward!  They enjoyed the day so much with us and kept thanking me for inviting them and sharing our dinner with them.  Kristine especially enjoyed when, later on, Tiffany told about her mission experiences and shared some neat things that happened on her mission.  Kristine just soaks everything up that is family and gospel oriented!  I think she is such a faithful and amazing person!!  We documented the family well, as we took pictures after our dinner of all the family, Mom and all the sisters, my own family with Mom, my girls with Mom, and all of the grandchildren here with Mom.  Then we got some cute ones with Kristine, Alyssa and Mason!  Can't forget them!  It was a gorgeous day!  I have so much to be thankful for!  I love my family so much!!

Sneak Peek of Brooke's Senior Photos!

I love this shot!  Claire did such a great job and has already started to edit the 100's of pictures she took today!

Breakfast and the Gilbert Temple with Brooke After Her Senior Photo Shoot!

It was a very early morning, as Brooke and I had to get up to go to her Senior photo shoot in downtown Phoenix.  Claire Waite did her pictures and was so fun and easy to work with.  She got some great shots of Brooke!  We finished with the shoot around 9am and then headed to breakfast because we hadn't eaten.  We invited Dad to come eat with us too, and he brought her ID because she forgot to grab it for her flight out today to go see Megan up in Provo.  (They'll fly back together on Tuesday to be here for Thanksgiving!)  We ate at BJ's and had a yummy breakfast, but then ordered pizookies for dessert... Brooke could hardly contain herself!  She LOVES pizookies!  Then, on the way over to the Mesa Gateway Airport, we had some extra time, so we stopped at the Gilbert Temple and got some pictures together.  It was a really fun day with Brooke...I'm going to miss her while she's in Utah!

 

Swim Team Awards Banquet

Tonight officially marked the end of another swim season at SMHS!  It was Brooke's last swim season and already the end of Katelyn's very first season!  I can't believe how fast it went!  It seems like they were going to their first practice in August jus a few weeks ago.  I really enjoyed the evening and had a sweet feeling inside...I'm so proud of my girls and the efforts they make to expand their talents and to do things that are hard!  They both brought home a lot of awards tonight including letters...Katelyn got her first one at SMHS and Brooke earned another by receiving her bar.  They both received the Mighty Mustang Award by never missing a practice or meet the entire season!  I think that's a huge accomplishment in and of itself!  They both got the team gift (sweat pants) and Brooke got a warm up jacket for the senior gift.  It has been a fun season with a lot of fun team mates and friends!

 Brooke and Westin Dawe

 Westin, Brooke, Katelyn and Callie Gregory

 Callie and Brooke

 Julia Richman and Brooke

 Brooke and Hannah Young

 The girls with Connor Herrin

 Katelyn's haul...

 Brooke's haul...

Their Mighty Mustang Awards!

 

A picture from the slide show tonight from earlier in the season.

L-R: Katelyn, Ella Erickson, Kayden Brendel, Sarah Holder, Ellice Richman, Gaby Tellez, Connor Herrin, Brooke, Callie Gregory, Hannah Young and Alyssa Scanlon.