Dancers Making A Difference

Last night Taylor danced for a wonderful cause, Rising Star Outreach. It was a great night of fabulous dancing...a couple of dancers from New York even flew in to dance. All of the proceeds from the tickets sold will go to Rising Star to benefit people living in leprosy colonies in India and their beautiful children. I got really teary eyed more than once as we saw a video of the precious Indian people, who are suffering and in need.
Becky Douglas is the founder of Rising Star. Becky and her husband have 10 children.
One day, after visiting India in 2000 and seeing all of the beggars with leprosy, Becky called some of her friends over, and as they sat at her kitchen table she said, "We have to do something." And do something they did! They began this great organization. It is amazing to see the schools and job opportunities in leprosy colonies in 4 different states in India... that all began with good people wanting to make a difference.

Becky Douglas...a real life hero and our beautiful Taylor, who is growing up far to quickly!
It was a privilege to be there last night...I haven't stopped thinking about it.
I want to go to India with my family someday. I want to be taught by them. I want to wash their feet, care for their wounds and hold their beautiful children. Today I'm counting my blessings.

I just found this amazing video from the Rising Star website...

MM60

This is a classic old time picture. A whole group of us moms took the kids to the petting zoo at Bonnie Springs. I'm on the left, and then there's Mary Kay, Cindy, Sue, Donna, Megan, Aliene, and Lisa (she's holding Amy).
I still remember this day like it was yesterday...well, almost. What a great memory.

Mini Jimmer

Kaden's favorite athlete right now (along with a whole lot of other boys) is Jimmer.

Kaden looks like he could be his little brother!

The Formal

Last Saturday was "The Formal"...it is a big dance put on by three LDS Stakes in LV for the youth to go and enjoy a wholesome, chaperoned, fun filled prom. Over 700 kids participated. The couples sign up to go to a dinner hosted by different families who volunteer to cook a really nice meal and have them in their homes, and then the kids head off to the dance. This year the dance was on the top floor of the World Market Center, overlooking the whole Las Vegas valley....very cool. We had four adorable couples come to our home. We loved hosting them and it brought back memories of the girls dance days. They were so sweet and very grateful & they loved my orange rolls.
They probably each had 3 or 4! It was really great to be a part of their fun night.

Last Thursday we had some special visitors from Salt Lake, Elder Ochoa and Brother Deitlein.
They were in Las Vegas to put on a city wide Young Mens training meeting for the Las Vegas area.
We felt very humbled to have these fine men come and stay with us...
(and a special bonus, we got a lot of spring cleaning done getting ready for them to come!) I am in awe of all of the traveling they do, all over the world, to help wards and stakes with the Young Mens program of the church. They are away from their families a lot, and yet they are so willing to go and serve wherever they are asked to go.
They were both so gracious and kind. I feel like we have a special connection now, and we will always be friends.

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I know it's supposed to be Sring...but it feels like it's still winter outside right now! Windy and cold. So, here's a few Memory Monday pics of some cold wintry days from long ago. We sure had some good times back in the day...
Brian Head was always fun and we loved meeting the cousins there...it just didn't happen often enough!

Jennie and Chad would often come from BYU and meet us at Brian Head for the week end. Those were the days...

Look at a real oldie of my mom watching with worry as I jumped a hill with the snowmobile. What was I thinking?!

And here's Mom riding the snowmobile with her hair kept in perfect place with her scarf.
Her hair was always perfect!

Jennie, Amber and Justin waiting patiently for their turn on the snowmobile.

Bristol is 2!!

Happy Birthday Bristol... We sure love you!

Last Sunday, Brett, Azurdee, Bristol and Janika were in town and came over for dinner. We love it whenever we get to see them. They are the best ever. It's just hard to believe that two years have already gone by since this beautiful little boy came to bless all of our lives.

The kids new favorite dessert at Grama's house is Skookies...which is a hot, big chocolate chip cookie baked in a Skookie pan with mounds of cookie dough ice cream, chocolate syrup and whip cream. Oh my goodness they love it.
And of course we had to take a few pictures to send to our missionary...We miss you Ally!!
And Happy Birthday Bristol and Aunt Lisa too!

35 Years!!

I'm the luckiest. 35 years being married to this guy...wow...Happy Anniversary.I.Love.You.

We celebrated by going to Jackson's PineWood Derby and out for frozen yogurt after.
I know, we are real party animals.

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It was about 1983, & my mom and dad took us to California to go to a UNLV Rebels basketball game. Just Jennie got to go with us. It was quite a special treat for her. She still remembers Grandpa drying her hair with a blow dryer at the hotel and feeling like the luckiest little girl in the world.

Spring Football

It's spring football time again and the Fury had their first game last Saturday. Kaden played awesome.
Here is what it said in the game summaries on the league website...
THE LAS VEGAS FURY DEFEAT THE LAS VEGAS COWBOYS , 18-0
The LV Fury shut down and shutout the LV Cowboys 18-0. For the Fury, Kaden Renshaw wiggled 34 and 5 yards for touchdowns. # 11 Tyrre E. also scored on an 11 yard run for the Fury. The Fury offensive line provided running room for their running backs, as they rushed for 209 yards on 36 carries. # 15 Renshaw led them with 80 yards rushing and had 2 receptions. The Fury defense also dominated as they held the Cowboys to 25 yards total.

Oh my goodness, look at this cute picture that I just stole from Jennie's blog! Are my grandkids the cutest or what?!

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Chad, Jennie, Katie and Leah with Kurt Busch

With Las Vegas being NASCAR central this week end, I had to pull out this old picture for Memory Monday.
Jennie and Leah went to Durango High School with Kurt and Kyle Busch. Leah's favorite adult friend at DHS was Ms. Busch, who was the school banker. Leah spent lots of hours in her room and Gaye kept an eye on Leah and always cared about her. She was always so good to Leah and Jennie and is a wonderful, funny, caring, great lady. They still keep in touch. This picture was taken way back at the beginning of Kurt's career at a Jr. level race in California that Chad, Jennie, Katie and Leah all went to. It was pretty sweet to get to go into the pit area and get a photo with Kurt. I think they all had an idea that his future in racing was going to be really good...
but, they had no idea just how amazing it would be!

World Traveler

While we were having our birthday lunch at the Paris Hotel a couple of weeks ago, Amy was off to the real Paris. To say that this girl loves to travel would be an understatement for sure. She is taking a group of her students to Costa Rica in June...I'm looking forward to the pictures of that one. Amy is amazing. Can I sneak in your suitcase please?
I love you my world traveler!