Girls Camp

Well, it was AWESOME!!!!! I had such a great time with the girls and the other Young Women leaders, I was actually a little sad to see it end. Only about half of our girls were able to make it up to camp, and so that was a bummer. But on the other hand, it made things easier for us to handle, and we had some more time to bond with the ones that were there. I adore them all. The following are some notes I found in my mailbox.

They surprised me but made me feel so good. I was very touched and grateful.

They know I prefer to be called "Amanda" over "Sister Bishop".

"Sister Bishop" makes me feel old and it sounds too formal. Very fun girls! NO fights, tears and friendship breakups the entire time. It was a miracle.
Our group below.

My two counselors were there the entire time, and one of our advisers.

These ladies are a BLAST! We stayed up too late every night in our tent gabbing.

One girl went home sick before we took this :( Poor girl.

The last night we had my secretary and Laurel adviser come up along with our Bishop.

Our Bishop is so much fun! He stayed up with us until 11pm the last night playing this game with us in which you sing a song and dance your heart out. Borderline inappropriate, but pee your pants funny. It made me laugh so hard it was painful. Great man.

I also suckered my best friend Megan into coming up with us the whole week. She hasn't been active in the Church since she was a teenager, so it was great to have her there participating with us. She was a great help too.

The testimony meeting was nice. I gave the girls each a birthday candle and they had till the flame was run down to share their testimonies. (About 6 minutes.) With that and the little talk about what a testimony should be before we began, it went well. No long-drawn-out sob stories about family and friends drama or medical issues and so forth. Real testimonies.

The Spirit was strong and I really grew from it.
I feel relieved it's over though. It was a lot of work. But worth it all the way!

Eden

Today is Eden's Birthday!
She has brought us intense joy,
laughter,

and gratitude.For 7 wonderful years.

We love you Eden!

Happy Birthday to Emily P. Waite and Mark too!

Love you both a lot as well. Have a great day!

What our munchkins have been up to...

I just had to include this very strange photo I found on the camera. I am guessing this is Eden's foot. She is seeing just how far she can stretch that space where toe jam can accumulate. Weird.... So during the school year, I don't really like putting my kids in extra-curricular activities. I don't like sending them off to school for 8 hours, then just when they are getting back, sending them off to something else. I found my solution a few years ago. Each Summer I let them choose 2 activities they want to do during the Summer and support them in those activities then. As they get older, I might change and let them do things during the school year, but for now, this has worked. They have all chosen swim lessons the past 3 Summers. You'd think they'd be awesome swimmers now, but not so awesome yet. They like the lessons though. They have also chosen other activities like dance and sports before. This Summer here's what they chose:

Eden chose to do an art camp through Meridian Parks and Rec. The teacher was great! It was Mon-Fri for 3 hours each day last week. She learned a lot and had a blast. She loves art. She also chose to do swim lessons at Roaring Springs.
Eden at her art camp. She lost her first tooth last week!
Becca chose to take gymnastics lessons. She'll go every Monday afternoon for 45 minutes the whole Summer. Her first lesson was last week and it was SO cute to watch! I love seeing little girls in leotards. She will be taking swim lessons too.
Celeste chose "Tumble Time" Day Camp. I signed her up for a week. It was this past week. They did gymnastics each day, and a field trip. They also had Spanish, karate, dance, crafts, science experiments, and more. It was awesome! She also chose swimming lessons at Roaring Springs.
Jonah chose to do exactly what Celeste did. He really enjoyed the camp last week too. Swim lessons for all the kids start next week and go for 2 weeks.

I leave for Girls Camp tomorrow morning.
I will miss my kids! I'll especially miss Steve. I don't like being away from him the most. But I'll be back Friday nice and filthy and with lots of fun memories. I do enjoy being with the Young Women. I don't think I am the best example for them. I tend to turn into a teenager myself when I'm around them. But I think they know I love them and enjoy serving them.
Thanks Amy for taking my kids for a couple of days!!! That is so incredibly nice of you. You are amazing. Thanks Steve for taking a couple of days off too and for being a great Dad. You do a wonderful job supporting me in my calling.
See the rest of you in the blogging world later.

Father's Day

I want to give a little tribute to three very important men in my life.
First. My Dad. This photo was taken of him over 10 years ago. It's a classic Dad expression. I loved when he would make these faces! Still do. I love my Dad. His humor is probably my favorite thing about him. He also tells great stories. He did so much for me growing up and still does a great deal for me. I remember him doing my hair in the morning before I went off to elementary school. I remember him telling me to pretend to cry while he pretended to spank me. And I probably deserved that good spanking. I remember when he would wake me up for seminary early in the morning acting like he was a cheerleader and cheering some familiar Bakersfield High School cheers. He's a great man. I want to echo what Grandpa Waite would say. "Love ya. Appreciate ya. Grateful for ya." Now to my father in-law. I really think I could not have a more perfect father in-law. He's the greatest. He is a really kind and happy man. He has always treated me with such tenderness and has a way of making you feel so good and so loved. I love him like I love my own father. And I have thanked my lucky stars many times for such wonderful in-laws. He also raised the most important man in my life. He did a fantastic job of it too.

Finally there's Steve. Having children with Steve is a dream come true! I am so madly in love with this guy. I love the wonderful friend he is to me. I love the righteous man he is. I love the kind of father he is. I love everything about him. I am extremely blessed to have him as my husband.

Happy Fathers Day Dad Waite, Dad Bishop, Steve, Grandpas, and all you wonderful fathers out there!

Fixing the family photos

So I thought I'd add Riley into the photos. We all missed having him there with us. He was on a little trip with his other Grandparents. Wingardium Leviosa!

Seriously, Sherod and Emily, if you want to send me a photo of him, I will do a real photo shop job and our family will be complete.

The reception

I'll start by including this picture of Jonah. It says a million words. Some of those including the fact that for the past few weeks Jonah has been swinging between two extremes. 1- Way too hyper and 2- Way too grumpy. Very rare you'll see him somewhere in-between. We are hoping he will be feeling better soon. He's driving us nuts. Now to the reception. It was in my parents back yard. The weather was perfection and the decor was even better. Everything was over-the-top gorgeous. And stupid me didn't get the pictures to prove it. All I got was this one of the dinner tables. They had more tables and hoers derv's set up by the pool with Lily pads in the water. Very pretty. The yard was all decked out. There was a very scrumptious dinner served in courses. And some dancing and videos. A few people sang songs with their guitars. We really enjoyed the evening.

Molly with her big beautiful grin and her unnaturally long lashes. Those are real lashes people; no fakies.

We took a bunch of family photos before the reception started. And boy is it hard to get everyone to look at the camera with a smile! You wouldn't believe all the photo shopping I had to do. I think I had to change out about 10 heads and a few bodies on the following pictures. It was nuts. And even then there were a few kiddos that never got a great shot. Oh well. I just went through all the photos and took the best head or body from each one. Don't go looking for it though, I get all paranoid about my sloppy photo shopping.

My parents, siblings, their spouses and children. There are 8 children in the Waite gang. 4 boys and 4 girls. The 8th child is Sam and he's 17. My siblings in age order: Anna, Tim, Sherod, Emily, Me, Andy, Molly, Sam.

My parents with 18 of their 19 grandchildren. Numbers 20 and 21 are baking in the oven. Riley is missing. More on Riley later.

Our happy little family.

More from California

Anna and her family, Tim and Brenda, Emily and her family, Sherod and his family, and my family all went to the beach one day in Monterey. Crazy windy that day. So we didn't make it very long. As you can see below. I got a kick out of this. Becca Boo having the time of her life.

Our little lady Celeste.

Eden trying to be a super model.

Becca on the airplane. She loved it. It was so fun watching her. When we were going through airport security, they let us all through but said they needed to do a "pat-down" on Becca. It's like in effort to not appear prejudice, they chose the most innocent looking person to search. I was dying for my camera at that moment!

More from Molly's reception coming your way.

Molly did it!

First there was Brangelina. Now there's Scolly! Scott's groomsman came up with that when during the wedding toasts, overcome with nerves, he fumbled over his words.
Scott and Molly tied the knot on Thursday in Big Sur California. It was a beautiful place and the wedding went well. Here's some photos for your viewing pleasure.
First Dad taking Molly down the aisle.
The wedding party waiting for the bride.

Bishop Holly did a nice job on the ceremony.

Cover your eyes. These guys aren't embarrassed to really kiss in front of everyone.

Husband and wife walk away.

Molly and the flower girls, Kennedy, Celeste and Blythe. Oldest daughters of each of Molly's sisters.

One thing I can say about Scott is, he is a genuinely very nice guy. He treats Molly really well and he likes to please her. His family is super nice too. Scott gives great bone crushing hugs and always seems happy and laid back. We all really like the guy. Can't help but do so.

I'll post more on our little trip later.

We're headed out!

My beautiful baby sister Molly is getting hitched! We are headed off to California tomorrow to be there. We are so excited about seeing all the family and loved ones. Molly probably wont like this photo, but I love it. It's a reminder of some seriously fun times together!

Now does anyone have any ideas on how I can shed about 10 lbs in 24 hours? I hate being fat at events like these.

Changes coming our way

After 7 years at Steve's company, he's decided to leave. He gave them his resignation today. He offered to work for the month of June, then off he goes to something new. His job was pretty good for about 5 years, then it got gradually not so good. He started looking for a new job casually a couple of years ago. With changes in management, about a year ago, it got bad. About 6 months ago, it got even worse. The kids and I haven't seen him around very much and when he is around, he is so stressed out with his job, it has really taken a toll on our family. The environment at work has been extremely difficult to deal with. We finally decided over the weekend that it wasn't worth it anymore. He has had some interviews lately and we are hopeful he'll get a new job soon. In the meantime, he thinks he'll try his hand at contract work. Fortunately, we are doing ok financially and we have enough saved to get us by for quite a while. And now he actually will have time to job hunt!
If anyone's got any leads, let us know. He's brilliant, in my partial opinion. Here's a little glimpse of his experience:
Graduated HS top of his class and got a full academic scholarship at BYU Provo.
Graduated from BYU with a bachelors degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering in 1995.(Math minor.) He's done programming, networking, IT and system administration the past 13 years. He worked professionally some before graduation as well.
Get with him if you want more details about his expertise; because I can't give you many more specifics.