Temple Trip

I was able to take the Young Women to the temple today to perform baptisms.  This has got to be the best part of my calling as YW President.  I love to go to the temple and I love to see the youth serve our Heavenly Father by sacrificing their Saturday of sleeping in, to drive 3 hours to the temple, to work in the house of The Lord.  Is there anything better?  This is the one place I feel complete and utter peace.  It truely is a sanctuary from the worldly cares.  I would love to start each day by going to the temple.  I hope someday that is possible for me.  I was also able to drive a few of the new girls who have moved into our ward, and get to really learn about them.  They are sweet girls and we are lucky they have joined us.  

It was a wonderful day all around.  I love to see the temple!

Daddy Daughter Date

We spent 40 minutes to get all those curls, but she wanted to look her best for her date with daddy.  The church was having their annual Daddy Daughter Date and Taryn has been so excited about this night all week.  She told Vaughn last night, "Daddy, tomorrow is our date night!"  said with sheer enthusiasm.

The dress is on, the hair pulled up with lots of bobby pins, and hair sprayed to the hilt, she was almost ready for the dance.

I love how her hair turned out.  Beautiful huh?

This belle is all ready to go out with her daddy.  Pretty girl. 

What a cute couple. I can see her in 12 years going to prom.  Sniff sniff.  I wish she would stay this little forever.  She looks so much older here.  Oh, just love her.

The princess is in her carriage and off to the ball.  

Afterwards: 

Taryn loved dancing with her dad.  They ate and danced and had a wonderful time.  I love these little moments.

On a side note, Tyson and I had a mother & son date.  We went shopping for some trading cards for him, a new running jacket for me, and then we topped off the night by having ice cream at Bruster's. Tyson and I had fun hanging out and just talking.  We hardly ever get to do this, because we are always running here and there.  It was nice to spend some relaxing time with my little buddy.

Vaughn's Big Day

The decorations are up...

The six hour, Southern Salted Carmel Cake has been made....  Now we are waiting on the birthday boy.

There he is.  We had everything ready for Vaughn's birthday dinner/party.  

I would have put 36 candles on the cake, but we didn't have enough room.  Ha ha ha

Vaughn, like the rest of us, enjoys opening presents.

We got him a nice, new backpack, a French cuffed shirt and lots of hugs and kisses.

He got money from family so he can go and buy what he wants.

And his parents sent a picture of him, his dad and Tyson.  Three generations of Jackson men.  Happy birthday babe!

First Day of Preschool

Taryn had her first day of Preschool and she was thrilled to say the least.  I bawled, and she rolled her eyes.  My baby is all grown up.

She had to wear the new shirt Grandma T bought her for her first day at school.  The school I enrolled her in is actually run by high school students and is at the Karns High School Tech School.  The preschool is overseen by a master teacher who is teaching the high school kids how to teach.  I think the big kids have just as much as the little ones.  It is 5 dollars a day and they feed them lunch.  What a deal!

This girl was so ready to go.  She misses the cut off date for Kindergarten by 20 days.  So she will start Kindergarten turning 6.  I am okay with that.  I would rather she be the oldest and not the youngest.

I thought we would buy a princess backpack, but Taryn wanted the sparkly Smurf one.  I was taken back.  I didn't think she even liked the Smurfs.

Had to have a first day of school picture with mom.  Love my baby doll!

She had so much fun the first day, that she was ready to go to the second one.  She also wanted another picture to commerate her second day of school.  Love this girl. I am so glad she likes school, but it makes me teary to see her grow up.  When did she get so big?

Ragnar Running with the Supermoms.

I am running in a 200 mile race with 11 other ladies in October.  This race is called Ragnar.  I have been training for this for months.  When I started training in June, I could barely run and mile and every bone, joint and muscle would ache for days.  Then I was running two miles without much protest from my body.  I am now up to 4.2 miles without issues.  This is one of those things that you put on your bucket list.  We each have to run 3 separate legs.  My first leg is the first one of the day starting with a 7.8 mile run.  Holy Cow!  I haven't run that far yet, and I stress the yet.  I have time still to train, thank goodness.  My second run is 3.5 and then rounding it off with a 5.4 mile run.  I hope my body can with stand all the training I am putting it through.  I am on a schedule to run M, W, F And Sat.  On Tuesday and Thursday I cross train and lift weights.  I can actually say I am in better shape now than I have been in years.  I totally hate to get up and run in the mornings, but once I complete the run, I am so glad that I did it.  I can't wait for this race.  It should be a good bunch of memories.  

Everyone Leaves and Baseball Begins

I hate the day when family leaves.  It always comes so quickly.  Tyson was mad he had to go to school and miss taking everyone to the airport.  Poor guy.  We had a quick breakfast at the Waffle House with my mom, sister and Trit.  I wish I could stop time at these moments and live there for a while; an hour is never enough.

Trit and cousin Taryn.  She loved being around this little guy.  I hope it isn't another year before we see him again.

I tried to get one more smily picture with him, but he wasn't going to smile, so I did.

I love my little sis.  It is too bad we don't live closer together.  I could spend more time with my nephew and my family.  Oh well, such is life.  We sent everyone home and after Tyson came home from school it was homework, piano and his first baseball game.

He was ready to play.  He loves this sport and has improved each year.  This was a heck of a wind up and he hit the ball to left field.

I wish all our family could have seen him play.  Maybe another time.  It was a great weekend to have everyone here with us in Tennessee. Thanks all for coming. We miss you!

Tyson's Baptism 2013

My beautiful little family at Tyson's baptism.  This day has come so quickly.  One minute he is 2 and we are playing on the beaches of St. Marteen and the next minute his is 8 and getting baptized. 

I am so proud of him and his decision to be baptized.  He is such a good kid, with the kindest heart and loving personality.  He is such a great example to his little sister, dad and me.

This is Tyson's primary teacher, Cheney Groberg.  She is amazing and Tyson likes class with her.

Tritt and Tyson.  You can tell they are cousins.  Those are some handsome boys!

After the baptism family photos.  Tyson's baptism started in the RS room where the font is, but after the actual baptism ceremony, the bishop moved us all into the chapel, because we had so many people come to support Tyson.  He had 85 people there to his baptism.  He was so touched to think that so many people we know came to support him and his family.  I couldn't believe it.  I was feeling the love.  Wow!  Grandma Jackson and Uncle Brett gave the talks, my mom and sister took care of the music, Vaughn baptized him with Papa Jackson and Brett as witnesses, and I gave a prayer. It was such a nice program.

A picture of the whole family that came to support Tyson.  Thanks everyone for making the treck across the country to be with us.

Three generations of Jackson men.

Grandma T and all her grandchild.  Aren't they cute!

Grandma Jackson and her two grand kids.

Papa and Grandma Jackson with my precious babies.

A funny picture I know, but it was the only one with Uncle Brett.  And even though Papa Westwood wasn't present, we all felt his presence and know that he was smiling down from above at Tyson and his awesome choice today.  I am so proud of my big boy.  He is going to make an awesome young man and missionary some day.