Update on Elder Bean!

Devin's been gone now for two weeks! We've recieved two emails from him so far, and he's having a great time! He loves his companion and his whole district. He says that they all get along really great! The MTC is a lot of work! They wake up at 6:00 every morning then spend as much as 12 hours a day studying the scriptures and learning how to teach the gospel. He loves to feel the spirit constantly and he's learned that without the spirit it would be extremely hard to teach anybody. He loves to receive letters and packages, so if you're wanting to send him something, here's the info!

If you want to write a letter, dearelder.com is a great way! You just type it up, then they print it out and give it to him! You'll need his MTC address, so here it is!

Elder Devin T. Bean
MTC Mailbox #154
AZ-TUC 0817
2005 North 900 East
Provo, Utah 84604-1793

Keep in mind that he won't be in the MTC for much longer! He'll be there until the 17th then he's headed to Arizona! Also, here is his email address...

dbean@myldsmail.net

Here are just a few pictures on the way to the MTC before we dropped him off!

Elder Bean!

Devin got his mission call! My mom and I were at Girls Camp this last week, and we told Devin that if he got his call while we were gone that he could NOT open it without us!
So we're sitting down at the amphitheatre at camp on Wednesday listening to our stake president give a talk. I glance down at the parking lot, and see a red van just like ours! I thought to myself, "Well, there are lots of red vans like that, it can't possibly be ours." Then I noticed the sticker on the back window, and knew it was our van! I leaned over and told my mom, and right after that, the camp nurse came over and said that there was someone here to see us. On the way down to the parking lot, we talked about how they might be pulling a prank on us because we couldn't see Devin or Bryce. But then they got out of the car, and we knew that they were here to open Devin's mission call. We ran the rest of the way, and Devin opened the envelope...

Dear Elder Bean:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Arizona, Tucson Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, July 28, 2010. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the English language......

Sincerely,
President Thomas S. Monson

He is right on the Mexican border for his whole mission. He will serve in Tucson along with parts of New Mexico and Texas.
It was really fun to have them drive all the way up there to open it with us. Devin even made the comment, "I'm probably the only elder that got to open his call at Girls Camp!" He's going to make a great missionary, and we're so excited!

Bryce's Graduation!

Jennifer's 10th birthday!

Jennifer is now 10 years old! Her birthday was on May 23, but I haven't blogged in a while, so I'm doing it now! The night before her birthday, I taped streamers across the door, so that in the morning she would have to break through it! Here's a picture from the outside...

My mom also won a coupon for a free balloon bouquet at Pioneer Party when we did the 5k at my school. We went and got that, and I tied it to the banister with some more streamers.


In the morning, Dad made her a hashbrown and egg breakfast while she opened her presents. She got some perfume and body wash along with an iPod shuffle! We also got three tickets to the Miss Lehi Pageant for my mom and I to go with her for a "girls night out" sort of thing.

She had a birthday party on Friday with some of her friends, and my mom ended up being sick that day, so I threw the party by myself. (It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.) I made this cute cake...

Here are some pictures from the party...

Lovin' my new camera!

I FINALLY got my camera! It seemed like every time I found a camera that I liked, the store wouldn't have any in stock. I was getting quite frustrated, then my aunt Heather showed me her camera, and I loved it! After weeks of looking for it, I got online and found out that it wasn't sold in stores! Ironic, huh? Devin helped me order it online, and it ended up working out perfectly because it got here just in time for me to take it to Clear Creek with me! I absolutely love having a camera with me everywhere I go again!

Bryce goes to PROM!

Bryce decided that he wanted to go to Prom this year with some of his friends. He asked a girl that he knows from Lehi High school named Jillesa, and she said yes. For their daytime activity they went and did go-carts and went to Wendy's for lunch. They had their pictures taken at Westlake, then they went to dinner at a really fancy restaurant named Tuscany where they even park your car for you. The dance was held at another fancy place in Salt Lake called La Cay. He had lots of fun, and here are the few pictures that we got before he ran away!

Look how handsome he is in his tux!

Blowing kisses from his car!

Devin insisted that he wore the sunglasses...

Here is the corsage he got for Jillesa.

My first 5k!

This all started after basketball season ended.

I made a goal for myself to work on getting better at running. Since then, I've joined my school's track team. I'm running the 4oo meter race, which is probably one of the hardest races that there are because you're sprinting for one whole lap. I was going to try to do something else, but I decided to stick with it, and I'm actually starting to enjoy it. Our first track meet is on Wednesday.

As soon as I told my young women leaders that I was doing track, they were so excited! One of them ran the 4oo when she was in school, and she was so happy that I was going to do it. My other leader is a crazy runner! She runs races all the time and told me that I should run one with her. First she mentioned a half marathon, but I told her no way could I run 13 miles, and that I would do a 5k with her instead. So we looked around and found out that our stake was doing one on the 20th.

So this morning I woke up at 7:30 and went to the stake center to run a 5k! My young women leader ended up not even coming, but my friend Tyson did. It was my first one, and there were mostly adults there, but I was excited. I really didn't care if I finished first or last, I just wanted to finish. I also had a goal to run the whole time without stopping to walk. My mom, Bryce, and Jennifer came in the van to cheer me on.

Today I ran a 5k (3.1 miles) in a time of 33:08. I finished towards the end of the group, but I wasn't last. I never stopped to walk. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and it was even fun! I think I'll probably try to run another one and see if I can beat my time.

VaLEnTinE's DaY SuRPriSe!

I know it's a week past Valentine's Day, but I still wanted to put this picture in a post. This is what my dad did for us girls! He got us all roses and a card, then he got Jen a teddy bear, a dog for me, and a box of sugar cookies for mom. Thanks Dad! Love You!

Jennifer's basketball game

Jennifer had a basketball game today, and she did great! She was playing awesome defense, and she made a basket too! Here are some pictures!

Basketball pics

Click here to see my team picture...
http://www.simplephoto.com/SC/index.cfm?fuseaction=EventLoad&eid=11413406&fn=CoryAdamsPhotography
After you get there, click the button that says to enter the gallery, then you can go through all the individual pictures of us if you want! Mine actually turned out really cute! (If you can't find me, I'm number 14!)

Click here to see Bryce's individual picture...
http://www.simplephoto.com/SC/index.cfm?fuseaction=dspImg&iCnt=36&tpg=2&CFID=4447&CFTOKEN=D624CF7B-611D-C4DC-A4BE17D1B38B8D0C&rand=121F462E-104C-160F-CD2E11BB8DC1E3C4

Here's his team picture...
http://www.simplephoto.com/SC/index.cfm?fuseaction=dspImg&iCnt=68&tpg=4&CFID=4447&CFTOKEN=D624CF7B-611D-C4DC-A4BE17D1B38B8D0C&rand=9B23A979-B149-12EA-546613233ECBC36F

And they took a picture with all the senior players, so if you want to see that, here it is...
http://www.simplephoto.com/SC/index.cfm?fuseaction=dspImg&iCnt=69&tpg=4&CFID=4447&CFTOKEN=D624CF7B-611D-C4DC-A4BE17D1B38B8D0C&rand=903B4875-6D1C-170A-7380148436D40A92

Basketball seasons almost over, and I'm so sad! It's been a blast, and I'm definitely hoping that I can be on the team again next year!!!

Great Idea!

Usually we don't put out our stockings until Christmas Eve because we don't really have anywhere else to put them but on the couch. But now we have a beautiful new banister! I thought it would be fun to hang all the stockings by ribbon kind of like you see them hung in movies. So my mom and I found some pretty white ribbon at Wal Mart, and it ended up working out great!

There was just enough room to hang all 6 of them!

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Getting caught up!

Wow! Wow! Wow! So many things have happened lately! Some are absolutely and totally exciting! And then some are, well, not so exciting. Our computer wasn't working for a while, so now I'm going to try to catch everybody up on everything!

First, I should probably mention that.... MY VOLLEYBALL TEAM WON THE TOURNAMENT!!!! AND WE WENT UNDEFEATED THE WHOLE SEASON!!! It was so awesome and crazy, and completely intense! More than once the game was in my hands when I was serving! If I missed one serve, than we lost. But no fear! I was able to pull through, and my team did an amazing job, too! (I guess I should specify that this is my city team that I'm talking about.) Afterward, we had a super fun team party to celebrate, complete with pizza and some very yummy ice cream cake! We also each got a cd with pictures of the team on it.

This next one would fall under the "not so exciting" category. My camera decided to be stupid, and not work anymore! It turned on, then would not turn off. The lens was out, and was completely stuck, refusing not to go back in. This was especially irritating because I was supposed to take lots of pictures for the yearbook at school in 2 days when this happened. I wasn't as worried as I should have been, because when my dad bought the camera, he also purchased a one year replacement plan. He bought it last November, so we were safe. Or so we thought. He took me to Walmart, and it was a huge pain. We showed them the receipt, along with the camera and everything that came with it. They kept telling us that we should have gotten a pamphlet (which we didn't) and that would show us what to do. We ended up speaking to the assistant manager of the store, and he helped us. We went back to find a camera to replace mine, and they were completely out! After another round of what we went through before, we were able to get our money back on an in-store-credit card. I still haven't had to chance to get a new one, so that's the reason for the lack of pictures.

Next on my list....... Halloween was lots of fun! Jennifer dressed up as a mouse complete with a nose, ears, and a tail. I was a mime, and I loved it! I tried to go without talking at school, since mimes don't talk, but I gave up after 2nd period! I went trick-or-treating with my friend Olga over in her neighborhood, and my mom went around with Jennifer. We did get a picture or two of our costumes on my dad's camera, but I'll have to post those later.

And the latest, most exciting news of all......... drum roll!.............. Bryce and I both made our school basketball teams! Tryouts were last week, and mine were at 6:00AM! And that's when practice is every morning, too! Our first game is on the 24th, so we've been working really hard to get ready. I knew that we'd be doing a ton of running, but it's been wearing me out completely! I've been losing too much sleep, so I haven't been feeling well for the past 3 days! But I'm still really excited to be on the team!

I think that's about it, but if something else happens, then I'll be sure to fill everybody in!

Volleyball, Volleyball, and more VOLLEYBALL!

Holy cow we have been Volleyball crazied lately!! I'm playing on two different teams and Jennifer is also playing on a city team. Put together with Bryce's football, keeping up on school work, basketball on Tuesdays, and also trying to spend time with friends.............. wow! But I'm learning a lot about volleyball, and I've improved a lot since I first started. Jennifer and I spend lots of time in the back yard practicing with each other, and she's getting really good! I'm having lots of fun, and I'm meeting lots of fun girls!

These are pictures from my school team. This is one of the games that we've won- against American Fork- and we've definitely improved a lot as a team!! At the beginning of the season we were, lets say "not so good." But lots of practices and games have helped us get a little better. We have lots of cute cheers that we do, and we do a little dance every time we serve an ACE. It goes like this.... "Boogy- Boogy- Ha- Ha- Ace! That's a picture of us doing it on the top right.

This is my city team. The Women in Black! So far I think we've played 5 games, and we're UNDEFEATED! We've got some really great servers on our team, and we play great, too! I really like my coach because he helps us personally work on what we need help with. He's been working on my serve with me, and I've got it to where I can get it over every time! Whoo hoo! I've made lots of friends, and the girls on my team just crack me up!

Jennifer is quite the little player now! She gets her underhand serve over pretty much every time, and she gets lots of great hits every game! Today she served 5 serves in a row, then they stopped her becuase that's as many serves as you can do at their age. I guess they wanted to give the other team a chance!


Anyway, even though we're pretty crazy over at our house, we're having a great time! If you're interested, I have 2 games every Wednesday, and Jen and I both have a game every Saturday too. The tournament should be starting soon for both my teams, so that will be fun!

Bryce's football game!

Bryce is on the Westlake football team this year, and we are absolutely loving going to his games! These pictures are from the JV game that Bryce played in........ He scored the first two touchdowns of the game!! The first one was a 70 yard touchdown, and the second one was a 35 yard touchdown! Our team won! The end score was 28-18, so it was a really great game! Dad just got a really nice new camera, so he was having fun using his zoom during the game. He got some really good pictures of Bryce!

Bryce running for the ball!

If you haven't already noticed, he's number 16!

It was really hot out there!

Ha ha, this is a funny picture...

Anyway, it was a really great game, and it was lots of fun to watch! Grandpa White came with us, and Dad was able to make it too!

Family Day!

We went to the family day up at the base where my dad works and it was really cool! They had a little ceremony at the beginning with a huge flag hanging up and then they had some airplanes and helicopters that we could look at. We even saw three of them take off down the runway. They had some blow up things and lots of food and music too.

The huge flag at the ceremony.

One of the airplanes.


Parts of the planes.


The helicopters.


The planes taking off.

We had a great time going together, and hopefully we can go again next year!

SWIMMING!

My mom signed up for a class at the Legacy Center, and they had a swim party for those people and their families. So all of the kids went with mom and we had a great time! It was at night, so it wasn't too hot outside and hardly anyone showed up! It was like we had the whole pool to ourselves, plus they finally opened the slide after three years of saying that they were going to fix it! We loved jumping off the diving board and going down the slide, and mom was great at taking the pictures since I was soaking wet!

Devin was great at doing flips off the diving board! Devin and Bryce both have a really bad farmers tan on their arms and neck!

Bryce was the only one that was actually diving off the diving board and he was really good at it!

I tried to do a flip off the diving board and I ended up doing a belly-flop! My thighs were really red the rest of the time.

Jennifer was having a great time even though she did end up doing a few belly-flops! She was a really good sport by going off the diving boards and down the slide with us.

It was lots of fun and I hope that we can all go together again before Devin leaves for his mission in less than a year!