Preece Family Reunion 2010

Our family loves the Preece reunion!
Every year it is at Bear Lake. (Mace getting up on the knee board)

We have a great cabin, and lots of food.( this pizza is 3 feet wide)

We boat,swim, and play at the beach.


Some of us like to read.

We play games.

We geo cache ( great finds this year!)

The nieces painted all the toes- every girl and boy, every mom and Dad and grandma and grandpa got a mani and a pedi.

Grandpa rented the big cousins a bike for the afternoon-and shaved ice!

We love our family! They are the bomb diggitys! We cant wait for next year!

New School Year 2010-2011

This year I have an 8th grader. She is happy she is no longer a "Sevie"!

And we have a 6th grader. She is happy that she is the queen of Elementary School!

And I have the cute 3rd grader-who loves his teacher!

We are hoping for a great year! AND Mom loves a schedule!

Girls Camp!

I was the Girls Camp Director for my ward this year. OMG! It was one of the best years that I have ever had at Shalom. NOT to mention that La was there with me! We had 34 of us in our ward there this year.
Our theme was "Super Heroes" and our ward theme was "Latter Day Angels" (hence Charlies Angels)

Here are all my Angels! I love each of them!

Here is my very Favorite Angel!
And here are all of the angels the last night with the bishopric. "Blackhams Angels".

Cant wait for next year! Megs gets to go with us!

Slugger!

MEG LOVES SOFTBALL!


Megs decided to try her arm at softball this year, and it turned out that she LOVES it, and she is pretty darn good. Her team won the city championships!

AND she had the most RBI's for the season, and was voted best hitter by hear team.

We love to watch her play!

Slacker Post of all posts....

So its true, my life has gotten away with me. I have not posted in for forever. This is my journal for heavens sake! So here is me and my attempt to catching up. Sorry for the delay to all of our readers.
JULY 2010
Center Stage Boot Camp...La had an intense week of dance.
Although it's hard and rigorous-The Jr, Teen and Seniors love
this week!
Junior Company is ready for Nationals!

We love Junior Company!

Mason's New Do

Here is Mace's new hair do that he is sporting for the summer.

A side view-



NOT!

Ok so he is cute with a buzz!

Happy Fathers Day to the BEST Dad EVER!

We were on our cruise for Steve's Birthday so he didn't get the big hoopla for his birthday with the kids. BUT we really tried to make Fathers Day special for him. Because really, he is the BEST dad!
Sunday morning started off with our fun gifts to Dad-
Mikayla gave hime a huge candy poster- it rocked! It said: Dear Dad, Everyone knows that my
"POP ROCKS"! I love how he is "Extra" nice to me and brings me "mounds" of joy! I love his "kisses" and the way that he "snickers" when he teases me. He may be an
Idaho Spud" but he is no "Milk Dud"! He's a "Whopper" of a Dad. I am glad that I can be one of his "3 Musketeers" Love Mikayla


Meggie worked for hours on her gift. She is our little artist. She did a chalk drawing of the BYU cougars. It will be framed this week. HE LOVED IT! It will be going in his office. She also made him some carmel corn and a card. She is such a sweetie!

Mace and I we bought him his new favorite "Days of Wonder" game. It is called-"Shadows Over Camelot". It rocks! Mace refused to get a photo.


We went to church and the primary kids sang to the Dad's and the youth gave them all hot fresh cinnamon rolls.

We made his favorite dinner or teriyaki chicken and rice. Kayla made his favorite dessert called "Surprise Pudding". I hate it, but he loves it so he gets it at least once a year.

Meg was in charge of our Family Home Evening (we do it on Sunday's because we are busy on Monday nights). She had a fun unscramble game that she did. Steve loved it. We had to unscramble letters to make words that discribed Steve. Here are some of the words that he got.
-smiles, happy, nice, friendly, hot, kind, loving, works, priesthood, laughs, winner, bald, sporty, cool, understanding, respectful.

We then had a quiz to see how well we know our Dad. He got some funny laughs and responses.

We watched a great clip about fathers from Elder Kristopherson and had dessert and played the new game. It was a great day. We love our Daddy, he is the Best. He learned from the best too. We love our grandpa's, they are great examples to us all.

Pirates Treasure

Well I am all about free right now. All of our resources went to Megs vocal tour and any other resources are going to Mikaylas National Dance Comp next month in LA. So we do lots of FREE stuff right now. One of our favorite things is geo caching. I know, I know sounds crazy to many of our readers, BUT we have founds some really cool places over the past few years. It's been fun and adventurous. I (we) will always be grateful to Aunt Kristel for showing us the addicting ropes. Yesterday check out the beauty--

We were up Provo Canyon looking for the Pirate Treasure. It was a little hike. Mikayla had a little freak out at one point because she is anal about staying on the trail. BUT it was beautiful and Fun and a great little excercise. WE found it too-

D and Mace found it! It is always a race to get to it first. This cache was awesome because it really was pirate booty. We had to leave pirate treasure and we got to take pirate treasure.

If you ever want to go and learn the ropes call me...we are always up for a new adventure. Next week we are going to do one on the bikes. It's about a 6 mile ride on the Provo River trail. Should be fun!
The treasure for me is the beauty all around, and watching the joy of the kids play a giant "eye spy" game. Happy Caching! I forgot to mention that we left a travel bug from 2 years ago.

Geo-caching 2010

For some odd reason we didnt do a ton of caches last year. I keep wondering why we didnt. This year has been a slow start because of the weather, but we have started. Thursday I took Mason and Dayton geo-caching. They both found the first two of the season.
They both love it! D has finally figured it out and was bummed when I only had 3 ready to go. BUT I promised him that I would plan some more for this week.

Oh the thrill of the find!

I highly recommend this activity with any kids. It's fun and it's free and there are some really cool places out there. Just go to www.geocaching.com and sign up for a free membership today. It's easy. If you dont have a GPS unit, you can rent them at the scout office for $5 a day. AND geocaching is fun for a most excellent scavenger hunt for family reunions.
I

The Happiest Place on Earth!

I LOVE DISNEYLAND! It truly is the happiest place on earth. I love the magic, and I love feeling like a kid and I love running from ride to ride. I love being there with my kids and Steve too.

This year our Meggie and her vocal group "Extreme Kids" went on a vocal tour with Center Stage. If you are an avid reader, or have followed us through the years, you know that Center Stage is a very big part of my girls lives. They love it, they love their directors and they get the best training there. So we sometimes have to bite the bullet and go on these little expeditions. So sunny California here we come!
Lucky and fun for us that our good friends the Ellis's wanted to come too. When Mikayla was like 6-7 her little dance group did the same tour. The Ellis's came then too and have not been back since this past week. So it was fun for all of us.
Our story begins at 5 am on May 30th-We loaded the cars and were off----

We caravanned the entire day. Might I mention that I DO NOT like traveling in a van with 3 kids for 12 hours. Stopping every two hours too pee or because they need food. Plus the fighting over what movie to watch (whats up with that? I never got to watch movies when I traveled when I was a kid!) I certainly thought that they would sleep at least for a little while. Mason tried but it only lasted about 20 minutes! Seriously! They were way to excited! Being the nice parents we were, we did stop for them occassionally and fed the beasts.


We made it in just enough time to let the kids swim. They had a blast! Center Stage provided an excellent pizza party for the families. Thanks Alex and Robin!


We stayed in an awesome hotel for the week. It was called "Homewood Suites" by Hilton. OMG! Is all I have to say! They provided us with breakfast and dinner everyday! We had full kitchens in our suites and pull out bed in our living rooms. It was perfect for our families. They were fairly inexpensive too. It was great! SO we bought a (brace yourself) 5 day hopper pass to Disney/California Adventure. It was the "bomb diggity!!" LOVED IT!

So Monday Meg had classes all morning at Disney. Learning how to act, dance, sing, audition etc. The rest of us PLAYED! Her nose was a little bent but she loved the classes.


Mace was crazy! He was so happy! He was tall enough for all of the rides and he was a complete dare devil! His favorite ride was California Screamin! He must have rode it 5 or more times. He loves the thrill. All of the kids rode EVERYTHING! I was proud of them. Their mama dont raise no sissy la la's!

On Tuesday Meg performed at Disney. They did a cute job. A few jitters their first time out, but it was great.


Wednesday was a free day for her group, so we played and played at Disney! Unfortunatly Jake and James got some stomach bug. I was stressed all week that we would all get it. I think Jules was a little worried too.
Thursday Meg and I went to Knottsberry Farm. We didnt buy passes, because we are not big Knotts lovers-but she performed and we came back to Disney. By this time Steves response to life was this..."I am half way through my life and there is so much to see, and all I ever get to see is Disney land and Disney world!" I didnt feel sorry for him. He needed to find his happy place!
ps--Josh was sick today!
On Friday we went to Universal Studios! LOVED IT! The kids loved it, especially La! She is a movie junkie. We had a great day, and I highly recommend going to anyone whose family is over 8. The rides rock, but the attractions and shows were the bomb!

The kids put on their best show yet!

The kids loved all of the movie characters walking around and they loved talking to the Shrek Donkey. Mikayla sat there for 20 minutes just laughing at him.

There were so many high lights of the trip. Kids spent a ton of time and money pin trading. It has become a new hobby for each of them.
We got back early evening from Universal and the girls and I ran back for the last few hours of Disney. I was sad to leave but felt great that I got to ride Peter Pan one last time before we came home. One thing that we discovered was that Mikayla is as big a Disney junkie as her mom! We love it and cant wait to go back!
We had a great vacay Daddy and thank you for taking us!

Here is what I have decided....

May is just as busy as December! I want it to be over! I keep trying to enjoy it (and I really do), but oh my- will it ever end?
We started our month with our daughter Megs little play that the Activity Day girls have literally been working on for months. Megan was the large dragon. I did NOT get a good photo of it, but I did try.

Then, I was recently called as our Girls Camp director (yes a little late in the year). We had to do a mad dash to do our fund raiser.

We did a carnival, and let me tell you, I stressed and fretted, BUT we pulled it off! We had some great miracles and some great success. I am happy to say that we made enough money for our girls. I love those girls! They are great!

We experienced the "Hope of America" at the Marriot Center. Megan and the 5th graders from all over the valley all performed in this amazing performace. It was great. Mason also participated and got to wear his scout uniform and sing too. We loved it. He was the part celebrating Scouting for 100 years.


Mikayla had her 13th Birthday the same night as the Hope of America...she didnt get to go because she had dance. So she celebrated on the weekend with all of her friends. I cant believe we have a teenager. We love her and are so glad she is part of our family. Happy Birthday beautiful girl.



Mothers Day was spent traveling to New York with Steve for our Aflac state convention. I got to spend it in Time Square. ( It was freezing!) I missed my babies but it was fun to be with Steve-o!


We went on our cruise to Bermuda with Aflac. It is a post in itself. When I decide if I loved it or not I will make a real post. We did spend Steve's 45th birthday in Hamilton Bermuda. I love Bermuda, it is my new favorite place to go.

Steve, Justin, and John (our management team leaders) have all declared Fridays to be their Bermuda Day. I try to not be around them when they look like the native Bermudians.


We came home to rain and ball games for Megs. She loves it and is pretty darn good at it.

We had Girl Scout end of year party and graduation. I loved my little girl scouts.

We cut off La's beautiful long hair. I was sad, she was not!


Amidst all of this, I work, I clean, I drive, I dont sleep, I work some more and I cook, and do laundry, and I cry because I am tired. Do moms get paid?
Tonight I did a camp clinic. I have decided that these girls will make my calling all worth it.



Ok so really, I might be tired, but I think I have decided I wouldnt trade my life. It's all good! Really good.