Madrid Spain

Tanton got his Mission Call!! He will be serving in the Madrid, Spain mission.

Wow! This is so exciting. The anticipation wondering where my son would be living and serving for the next two years. I am really happy about his call. I was super nervous that he would be called somewhere very unsafe (not that Spain can't be unsafe), I feel calm and happy inside.

Tanton was such a super sport when he received his call. I have always dreamed of him opening it with everyone gathered around ~ like you hear about. And that is how it happened! Brad, myself, and Abby were here. Sil and Marnie came over. Krista drove down from girl's camp -- just to be here when he opened it -- so Krista and Doug were here. My sis Stac came, my niece Kortni and her son Haiden. Tanton's girlfriend, Kylie, was right by his side, and one of Tanton's very good friends, Austin, got somebody to stay to work late so he could be here while Tanton opened it. ~~ and that is just in person- we had Tim and Melissa, who live in North Carolina on Skype, Greg on speaker phone from Salt Lake City and Colby (Tanton's brother) and Taylor (Tanton's cousin) on speaker phone. What great support! THANK YOU, THANK YOU! To everyone that came or phoned to support Tanton in this exciting huge new phase of his life. I know it meant a lot to him, as it did to me. :)

Tanton, Kylie & Austin

Tanton and AbbyDoug and Krista
Kortni, Haiden, Stacy

Everyone keeps asking me how I feel about Tanton going to Spain, leaving for 2 years!! You know, I am going to miss him like crazy, but I can honestly say that I have not ever seen a young man so excited, and prepared to go out and serve. That is where Tanton's heart is and that is what he is ready for and wanting to do. How can I not be just so happy and beamingly proud of him. He is going for all of the right reasons, for himself and for the people of Spain. Right now he is adding strength and spirit in our home, it feels great. The people in Spain will be blessed to have him for 2 years.... Now, check with me again after he leaves and I am sure I will be a mess!! :)

**on another note ~ the day after Tanton got his mission call Abby had a birthday - Big #12 and we went out to North Carolina for 5 days.... so I do have a few more posts to catch up. Slowly but surely.

About time for an Update....

Time just seems to be flying by so quickly, it seems that I have a hard time getting my blog updated lately... and the sad thing is that some of the most exciting things are happening. I hope I can stay on top of my updates a little bit better.

STATE CHAMP!!

Yes, our Abby has done it again. State Champion on Trampoline for her 4th year in a row. Now that is quite an accomplishment. I am so proud of her and all the time she puts in at the gym practicing and preparing herself to do such a great job. She must love it too, because she never complains. Gotta love that!!

Tanton graduated!! I honestly can't believe that he has gotten this old so quickly. I can still vividly remember when he was only a couple days old and I was taking him for a walk around the block in my arms. Now he could probably carry me in his arms (mind you, it wouldn't be too far). Ü He is such a handsome young man and I could not be more proud of him and the decisions that he has and is making in his life. I am very honored and grateful to have been chosen to be his mom.Doug, Brad, Krista, Abby, T, me and GregAunts Kathy, Stacy and KimMarnie's mom, Gavin, Marnie, T, Sil, Grandma Jeppson and Caden.

A kiss from both moms

We also had a new precious addition to our family. Little Natalie was born in March. She is so darling and sweet. She was born without the sense of hearing. Through the wonderful miracles of modern technology and medicine Tim and Melissa are hoping that she will be able to have her first cochlear implant by the time she turns one. We are flying out to North Carolina on Thursday to meet Natalie for our first time and be there for her blessing. We are so excited to see the whole family. It seems that so much time passes between each visit. I will keep you updated on Natalie's progression.

AND...coming up we are going to be having a BIG BIRTHDAY. Abby is going to be turning 12. Hooooray. Today was her last day of Primary. She was thrilled about that. We are also expecting Tanton's MISSION CALL this Wednesday. Oh, the suspense. I will post about these exciting and important events coming up in our family.

Surprise!!

Brad totally surprised me with a surprise birthday party for my 40th birthday! I thought I was going to dinner with a girlfriend, but lo and behold, I was going to dinner with about 60 friends and family from various areas of my life. It was such a surprise and so much fun.

Birthday girl ~ with "over the hill" hat on. I think over the hill is at 50? Because I'm not quite feeling it yet!Surprised!

Thank you so much to my hubby. It was truly an awesome night.

Family, childhood friends, work friends, neighborhood friends & just friends...

from all different areas of my life. Now this took some work to get them all together!
With 3 of my childhood/highschool/adult friends. We have been friends for 35 yrs!

Brad had a band (a very, very good band), and we danced after the dinner. Good times.
We even did the Hokey Pokey!
Later that weekend, Brad made me another cake.

40 was a great birthday! Thanks for everyone that came and a huge Thanks to you babe for planning it. Love you.

Tumble Princess

The tumbling season is going well. Abby has added a variety of harder skills to her routines, so she continues to advance in her difficulty. She is preparing herself for the National meet in Virginia Beach at the end of June. But next up is the state meet in Heber in a few weeks. She should be very proud, she pushes herself pretty hard and she really is amazing!

Time Sure Does Fly!!

Okay, so can you believe this tiny, handsome little 7 wk old boy is already a handsome young adult?!? I just really don't know where those 18 1/2 years have gone. And it is really starting to scare me just a little bit.
We had our final Hockey Banquet. It was very bitter sweet for me. I am a little excited that I will not be so busy with hockey anymore since I have been the co-trustee for the team for the past 3 years. But I am also sick to my tummy that Tanton is really done playing high school hockey. Wow! I am becoming so much more sentimental about all of this "growing up", graduating, and moving on than I thought I would be. I am the mom who usually can't wait for the kids to be 5 and start into kindergarten. It is really making me realize how precious time is and how quickly it passes. Tanton has really grown into a very responsible, kind, loving, handsome young man.....

But, look at these two sets of parents that love him so much, and are so proud of him! He knows that we all love and support him in whatever he does. I sure wish I had had so many parents around to love and guide me!
He does all of the work to be such a great young man, but we are there with full support.

I am so PROUD to call Tanton my son!

Hockey!

JEPPSON #57

Tanton, 11 yrs old front row left.... 7 yrs ago when hockey all started.

It is totally crazy to think that Tanton is done playing high school hockey! The season is so long, I thought that I would wait until the end of the season to write up a post all about HOCKEY. The year was a fairly good year for the Sky View hockey team, considering they lost 13 seniors last year....

Tanton was chosen to play on the all-star team at the end of the year comprised of players from all of the different teams through out the state ~ the ALL STAR players, of course. He played for team North and last night team North beat team South 8-2. Hooray! Tanton was one of 3 goalies (from the North), so each of them played 1 period. Tanton was the only goalie in the whole game that had a shut out! He did not allow any goals scored during his period. I am so proud of him, and what a great way to end his high school hockey career.

Tanton on all-star team ~ front and center goalie

Tanton and Tanner Gray

It has been so much fun watching him play for the last few years, I am definitely going to miss this.

Belize--a little Heaven on Earth!

Finally! I am blogging about mine and Brad's amazing vacation to Belize.
We flew into Belize city and took a very small "puddle jumper" over to the island Ambergris Caye (pronounced "key"). There is one main city on Ambergris Caye, San Pedro. This city has basically 3 streets. To go to most of the resorts or accommodations on the island you take a water taxi and head up North. What a beautiful island.

This first collage is some pictures around the island. We walked up and down the beach from our resort about 1/2 hour each direction, a couple of the pics are right in front of our resort so it is actually OUR BEACH which was Gorgeous. Remember: if you want to see any of the pictures more closely you can click on the picture to bring it into full view. :)

Here are a few of Brad and I when we were getting ready to go diving. We had our own personal dive master, Carlos. He was fabulous. He was born and raised on the island. He told us a ton about he island and the dive spots and all sorts of interesting stories. One of the most interesting stories he told us was that the name "Ambergris" means "vomit of the whale" because mother whales used to hang out up by the island when they were pregnant with their young and they would vomit. Well, the vomit was a black greasy substance that would accumulate on the beach -- and that is how the island got its name. The whales have since been scared off from all of the tourism. But I thought that was an interesting story. The other pictures were of us snorkeling in the park in Shark and Ray alley. You can see a few manta ray in our pictures.

These pictures are of our darling bungalow that we stayed in. We stayed at a resort called The Matachica which means small palms... it consists of everyone having their own little bungalow. Inside the bungalow you have your bed, a closet and a bathroom. None of the rooms had a TV or telephone. It was so nice. If you click and enlarge the pictures you will see that they are darling little places. We started out in the Kiwi (they are all named for their color) and they upgraded us to ocean front for our last few days of our trip -- which were spent in the Tangerine. The bottom right picture was taken from our Tangerine rooms front door, that is how close to the ocean we were. It was such a quiet and relaxing time, we could honestly sit on our beach and only see 20 people all day long.

When the sad day came that we had to come back home we went back to the town of San Pedro. I got a kick out of their airport. Check out these pictures of their baggage claim and their runway and the bottom right picture is where you wait until it is your turn to get on the plane! Such a simple place, and oh so wonderful. The other 3 pictures were taken during the 15 minute flight between Ambergris Caye and Belize City. Along Belize there is the worlds 2nd largest reef so the water is pretty shallow and there are several islands. It was a very pretty flight. You can tell how shallow the water is from the pictures. It was such a great vacation. I had such a super time with my husband, I really love the person that he is when we are away from all of the stress of work! :)
Are we going to go back again? You better BELIZE it!!