Mesquite Junior High Presents....

My four younger Arizona cousins were all in the play Cinderella and mom and I went to see it tonight. They did such a great job and looked so fabulous in their costumes, I took tons of pictures, but I put up only a few, but still a lot. lol




Cousin Laura front and center in her beautiful towns person dress (the green and brown one) sewed by my oh so talented aunt Elaine. She looked so gorgeous and so grown up!!

My cousin Max is the little boy in the middle in brown.

Cinderella's grand entrance to the ball!! It looks way good for a Jr. High play for sure!!

These were the wicked stepsisters. They were hilarious and therefor my favorite part.

Max and his gold pants- he looks so cute!!! He really did quite well for a six year old, being up on stage and standing exactly where he was supposed to and what not.

This was darling, each of the boy escorted a flower girl to the staircase. Maxy is the perfect gentleman!!

Cinderella and the prince ride off in their carriage. (The girl in pink- top left- is my cousin Allison)


Last but not least, in the Dark blue shirt is my cousin Jake.

Can I take Her With Me?

Ahh Annie is just too cute!!! If she fits in the bucket she can fit in my suitcase right?

Packing Up

Mom said that before I left I had to pack up my room. Everything except, my bed and the empty dresser had to be gone, packed up or gotten rid of. I decided that since this wouldn't be such a fun thing to do I would get a head start on it. I went ahead and packed up all of my things that I will not be needing for the next thirty days and got them ready to go up in the attic. I was told by mom, Jennie and Amy that I must get rid of LOTS of my boy clothes so that when I get back I could be girly (or at least more girly) and find myself a husband. Being such the obedient girl that I am (lol), I filled up TWO giant garbage bags of "boy" clothes to give to D.I. I am glad the packing up is over with!!

I never realized how many clothes I had until I pulled them all out and started sorting

I had to make some smaller boxes to put up in the top part of my closet, the heat sensitive things like DVDS, CDS, and photos go up there since it is AZ after all and who knows what would happen to them in the attic!!

DI bags!!! Yay!!


The boxes are all stacked on top of each other, so you can't tell but there are ten of them, so they have to wait in my room for a little bit until dad has time to build more shelves in the attic! lol

49 Forever!!

Dad turns 49 tomorrow and since the whole fam is always together on Sunday evenings we decided to celebrate tonight (and then again tomorrow night at Joe's for his free Birthday dinner). IN honor of his being so old we all wore black to morn his youth. Dad is not very observant and did not realize that the 5 people sitting at the dinner table with him were dressed in all black. We had to point it out to him. Kevin and I decided that since we will not be here next year for when he turns 50 we would give him an extra hard time this year!! But he wasn't having any of it- he is confident that he will be 49 forever!! Silly Daddy!

The family (Except Sarah- taking the picture)


Cheesy Smile!!

He's got enough hot air to blow out all the candles!! lol

We are crazy!!! But we like it that way!

I Wanna Go!!

If you know me very well at all then you know that I am NOT PATIENT!! I am so ready to already be gone, on my mission, in the MTC, out of AZ, serving the Lord.... I just wanna go!!! I am having such a hard time with this last month. I want to spend time with family and friends and try to keep preparing spiritually and physically, there is so much I want to do, plus I feel like I will never feel prepared enough!! I am starting to feel a little inadequate and I am becoming lost, confused and sad!! It is so hard to know you are willingly giving up SO much only to have doors slammed in your face, but at least I KNOW it's what I am supposed to do, it's just hard!! I am sorry you have to listen to me whine, it's just what's going through my head right now. I want to get this last month over with!! I don't know how much longer I will last like this. I used to say that the worst feeling ever was waiting for my mission call.... but I was wrong!!! This last month is the WORST EVER!!!

Dressing Like A Missionary

Alright a few of you have been bugging me about these pics so here ya go! I took several pictures last week as I tried on different outfits before church and then again this Sunday after church. Many of you I am sure cannot believe that I am wearing these clothes- and in all honesty I can't either!! Anyway so here are some of my mission clothes, most of the tops are courtesy of Amy- she has bought me so many cute things for my mission and I am truly grateful for her help!

Annie's New "Kicks"

Annie and I went shopping at Chandler Mall today and I found a few things for my mission and then we wondered into Journey's Kidz and I ended up buying Annie the cutest pair of Etnies (skate shoes- for those of you living in a cave or something) and she loves them! She kept saying shoes shoes and grabbing them, but she can't take them off- which is quite nice!! So anyway I took a pic of Annie in her new kicks and her new shirt (you have to have a new outfit to go with your new shoes!!) I LOVE to spoil my girls!

Cheese! This girl loves to play with my car keys!! They are about the only keys she is allowed to have because everyone else has the automatic lock keys with panic buttons on them. I guess Annie found about the only positive side to having a ghetto car. lol

Too cute plus they match almost everything!!


Annie loves to dance now, so I got a little video of her dancing a bit, but it's not very long because she is so easily distracted in my room (so much to get into!)

Snow Day!!

Yesterday I took my girls up to Flagstaff to play in the snow and we had the BEST time!! My friend Jennie and two of her daughters went with us and we made the three hour trek up there with a car full of girls. I was so glad I was able to spend this day with my Skousen girls (except Annie- baby and snow, not my idea of a good time) and Jennie, Erin and Em.

Best Snowman EVER!! If you can't tell, I am the one who brought the stuff for the snowman. He is Steve Nash the snowman with a PHX Suns hat and T-Shirt!! Special thanks goes out to Kilie's boyfriend Kurt (top middle) for helping us shape our snowman.


Little Kiley, me, Big Kilie

Maicy rolled out a perfect snowman head!


Erin and I are as silly as they come!

My Hailey Punk made a cool "chair" out of snow and I sat in it!! But it kinda froze my butt, I have no idea why. lol

My friend Kilie who goes to NAU came and met us there for a little while- I was so excited to see her but sad that she had to go to work, so couldn't stay!


The whole Snow Day crew!!

Being crazy!! My favorite!

Hailey, Emily and Kiley sledding down on the big tube


Zoom! Erin and Emily

Ahhh! Spill, crash, cry! This for sure was not the worst of our "slams" I caught about 5 feet of air going down by myself on one of the sleds and then I went one way and the sled went the other and I fell hard on the packed snow- right on my hip (the one with arthritis and two fractures) oops!! Ya so suffice it to say my butt is now swollen, red, black, purple and blue.

New Best Friends! Emily and Kiley

Me and my Hailey Punk

Argh!! For some reason I was the target of ALL snowballs and Jennie took this pic right after one of the kids threw one right at my head!

Throwing up snow and having land in your face- does that sound like fun to you?

Work'n together

Wee! I go fast cause I'm so fat- lol!



Hailey- making a snow angel

Look at me!! Says Erin.

Look at that face!! Too cute- loving the snow!

One mad snowball fight!


I figured that on the three hour drive home the kids would all fall asleep from being so exhausted- ya I was wrong! Thank goodness for modern technology and personal DVD players!! All in all it was a day that I will never forget and I doubt my girls will either!

Suns vs Sonics

Me and Ingy Pie


Ingrid and I had fun goofing around at the game Friday night and watched the Suns squeak out a win against Seattle!