Monsivais Family Updates

A long week...

2009-10-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."

It was an extremely long week.
So many of us ended up sick, or were feeling sick.
My Father was extremely stressed.
My Mother has been sick.
There has been a lot of laughs, and a lot of tears, as well as a few arguments, we are not perfect.
I hope this weekend will be better.
I'm looking forward to it.

Our Tio came to visit us. It was such a surprise. He sat in the rode and honked a few times, my Father was frustrated with it and went to look out the front window. At the same time he was saying "Is someone supposed to be leaving?! Who is honking?!... Oh it's Damian."

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
-H. Jackson Brown

Home at last.

2009-10-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

My Mother was able to be escorted home by my Father around 3:15 this afternoon.
She has a fever, and may be coming down with the flu, sadly.
She is someone to me, that if she cries, it makes me want to cry.
And if she's in pain, I want to do something about it because I can't stand to see her hurt.
Seems as though she rested all afternoon, but she did get the chance to eat dinner with my Father.
Yes, it is obvious she is still herself because as I type she is sleeping on the couch... And her movie is still running.
She is never able to sit through a whole movie.
She either gets too busy and runs off, leaving it playing.
Or falls asleep.
I love her.
It is so nice to have my Mother back home.
And it was so great to see my Daddy-o.
I love him so much. He has been a huge help.
He is way stressed, and I hope us children can help with that.

Thank you to everyone who has helped to feed us!!
For 3 nights people brought by dinner.
It was so sweet and so generous.
Thank you for your support!
The whole family appreciates it!!!

Truly Sad Update.

2009-09-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how much someones life can change in such little time?
If not, now you will.

Tuesday-
We were up at 6:00A.M., as usually. We ate breakfast and split up.
Joshua coughed all through out breakfast, so immediately after we finished, my Father went to call the doctors.
My Mother had to be at the hospital by 7 A.M. So both of my parents were out of the house around 6:30A.M. They didn't say bye, they just left. That really worried me.
Mara, Maria, Gabrielle, Emma and I all continued to get ready for the day.
At 7 Kaytlyn took Mara, our neighbor Josh, and I to school.
Gabrielle and Emma had gotten started on dishes, and making their lunch.
Maria left the house to catch the bus around 7:25.
Joshua and Samuel were home sick in the family room all day.
Gabrielle and Emma leaft for school just before 8.

As the day went on I found out that my Mothers surgery for the most part went well, but that she lost more blood than most people, so instead of staying one night, she has to stay two.
I also came to find out that it seems as if Joshua and Samuel have the H1N1 virus, also known as "Swine Flu".

After school I had a Dentist Appointment.
To my surprise, they decided while I was there that they would pull my tooth.
"Looks like you might have a wisdom tooth coming in about 3 years, so we should pull this tooth." -Dr.
"But that's not for 3 years? So do we have to do it now?" -Leah
"Well it's numb, so why not?" -Dr.
"Sigh... Rip it out." -Leah.
I just love the dentist.

At home dinner was brought to us by two of our neighbors. The food was delicious! I was sooo hungry that I couldn't hold back from eating. That was not very smart.
The food was so delicious. But it only made my mouth bleed for the rest of the night.

Hyrum called and came to pick the kids up to go cleaning at security metrics.
They all went, and from what I heard, they argued a bit, but nothing major, just basic sibling stuff.

After a long day I went to shower, after I got ready for bed I went to the kitchen for a drink. Peter had recently gotten home so he was at the table eating.
This is how our conversation went...
Peter: "Have they (Joshua and Samuel) been watching movies all day??!"
Leah: "Yes... Well no, they spent about 45 minutes inbetween movies trying to decide what movie to watch next."
Peter: "Ugh, if they don't sleep they aren't going to get better."

Wednesday-
My Daddy-o stayed the night with my Mother, she had a painful night and needed drugs to help settle her down. Around 9 A.M. she was walking around a bit, and in a little less pain.

Joshua and Samuel are still really sick. They won't really sleep.

Since my Father didn't show up in the morning for breakfast, as we expected, we didn't get up until 6:25, 25 minutes later than we normally get up.

The morning went by way fast, I was at school sooner than I realized.
Erin (My sister-in-law, Michaels Wife) was nice enough to help out.
She took Maria to her 9:00 ortho. appointment.
And brought me medicine.
After school Mara and I walked to the Dentist.
Yes I went to the dentist twice in a row. Not the most exciting thing.
Although I did tell the Dr. I enjoyed spending my free time in his Dentist office, that's why I came back, even after he unexpectedly pulled my tooth out.
Once again my face is fat. Oh the joy, I'm starting to get used to this.

When I got home my Father had been here, he stopped by to grab some stuff, I only saw him for a few moments before he was off to Law School.
I love my parents and all they do for me, and my family.

I hope and pray that my Sweet Mother can have the strength to make it through, as painless as possible.
And that Joshua and Samuel will be able to get better, because I know they could.
I really hope my little sisters can be smart, and make it without getting sick.
I am so thankful for my older siblings, and for what a major roll they are playing in helping their younger siblings out.

Genevieve, Hyrum, Kaytlyn, and Erin have been a lot of help, thank you!!

Extreme Art.

2009-09-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

In our elementary school we all had the chance to be a part of something called "Junior Achievement". It's pretty much a program that helps to get you a feel for what your going to deal with when you grow up. Business, family, Schooling, etc.

Each year they talk with you about something different, and each year they give you a magnet to do with the subject. These are some of the magnets we got while we were in elementary school...

Although they didn't look like this... On Monday Maria decided she had a brilliant idea and that we would rip off the picture on the magnets, and draw our own.

So of course, we did. Aren't they just lovely?

My Sweet Mother came home soon after we finished, we were worried that she would be upset about our "Great Idea". But my Mother, the sweet heart she is, said they were "Beautiful", and gave us permission to rip apart all the magnets and draw on them.

So there is our cheap art of the week.

Maria had a Birthday?

2009-09-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

Why yes, Maria did have a birthday. She is officially a TEENAGER!
We worked Saturday morning, so by 2 in the afternoon Maria was pretty discouraged.
But it was all good, she went babysitting, so my Mother, Mara, and I set off on our mission.
It all started with Chocolate Milk...

My Sweet Mother took me grocery shopping with her, which she hates to do. We walked around the store looking for vegetables, chocolate milk, and other things in between. Finally it was my turn, Balloons. We bought 70 Balloons, hurried through the line, and we were on our way.
Chocolate Milk was on a 2 for $1.00 sale. Or something like that... So we both got one. Not thinking about Mara who was at home putting streamers up in mine and Maria's room...

Mara did such a great job with the streamers! When I walked up to the bright bedroom Mara stated "I think I've officially made it so that you can't walk in without having to duck under streamers."

Little did we know, we were in for a rough time. I bought 70 balloons, plus we had quite a few from Mara's collection. I discovered that Mara could blow up, and tie about 3 balloons in the time that it took me to just tie one balloons... Things were not easy. This balloon had a hole in it.

"Where is all the air coming out of?!?!" -Leah Anne
"uhh... THE HOLE?!" -Mara
Two balloons ended up with holes, and I attempted to bandage... Well tape them up. This balloon was successful... The other one wasn't so lucky...

This was the other balloon... It didn't really work out...

Maria got home from babysitting and went straight to her room. She was all like

"Giggle giggle giggle"

After she saw her room. Mara and I made her, that's right, MADE her go to the movies with us. We went and saw Julie and Julia. Ahh! It was too adorable. We all enjoyed it!

We then decided we would get our pictures taken in the Photo booth thingy... Well we didn't have 3 one dollar bills. So it didn't work. We then decided we'd use our camera to take pictures of ourselves in the photo booth... that didn't work out too well either. But it was pretty funny!

Then Maria had a brilliant plan. She decided I should attempt to go up the down escalator. That's right, try to run up, the down escalator.

After I attempted that, we went outside to meet up with my Mother dear. She decided we should be taken to the Fast Food Restraunt Wendys. So, we went to Wendys. And ate food.

Maria was sooooo super happy... You just can't tell in this picture...

Mara was enjoying herself too...

As well as Kaytlyn... Okay... She was really eating a sour orange.

On Sunday Maria had her cake... Well she decided she didn't want a birthday cake, instead she wanted Birthday Brownies. So of course, she got what she wanted.

Gabrielle made the very delicious chocolatey soft brownies. And was really annoyed with Maria when she exclaimed that she was going to cut an "M" into the Brownies.

Gabrielle got pretty upset, and asked if she could just have a normal piece... This was about as normal as it got for Maria's brownie cutting.

As soon as Peter saw, he decided he wasn't that hungry for Brownies anymore. Too bad huh?

Website!

2009-09-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have updated my website.
If anyone is interested in looking.
It's nothing real nice yet, hopefully that happens soon!!

leahannephotography.weebly.com

I love my family.

2009-09-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

This is to you, your parents, your siblings, younger or older, your adorable children, your noisy neighbor, your cousins, and to the world.

I LOVE MY FAMILY

Tonight my Mother, bless her heart, took another daring quest. She drove Joshua, Emma, and I to her work, to clean.
What an adventure. We had been put in charge of cleaning 3 buildings.
We started with building 3, moved to 2, and then 4.

3 went by fast, I worked in the bathrooms with my sweet little sister Emma.
She told me about school, and her friends.
As we got ready to leave that building, and head for building 2 I could already feel that something would go wrong.

Emma had started to complain about how heavy the bag was that she was carrying.
It was dripping, and too heavy for her, so Joshua carried both heavy bags.
We got the top floor of the second building done and had moved to the bottom.
Joshua was swift, and had finished everything, all he needed to do was clean the main entrance windows.
He asked me to hand him the windex, and some paper towels. I stretched out my burnt brown arm and held it up for him to grab.
He held it by the lid in the air, and swung it a few times, messing around with Emma who was on the stairs below him.

I had walked around the corner to the bathroom to mop the tiled floor, when everything happened too fast.
I heard a high pitched shriek from Emma, I was up off the floor and over to her side in an instant, before I could even ask what had happened I heard Joshua yell at me, telling me to grab it.
Joshua had the top of the bottle in his hand, but the bottom had now fallen down more than half the flight of stairs, and was leaking on every step,
Without thinking I grabbed it as fast as I could and slammed it onto the ground. Running to grab the white paper towels to start dabbing at the stairs.
Joshua was already on it, he was not dabbing though, instead frantically apologizing to Emma, and swiping at the stairs.
I asked Emma to start on the floor, and talked with Joshua for a minute trying to get him to calm down.
I convinced him to go do the main door glass windows, and that I would finish the stairs.
After a moment he agreed to it. I frantically dabbed at the stairs, trying to get rid of as much blue windex as possible before my Mother saw.

After I ran out of paper towels I went over to Emma in the bathroom, I begged her to relax, and told her how sorry Joshua and I were. Letting her know that you could hear the hurt that Joshua felt in his voice.
I asked Emma if the liquid had gotten on her face, she said no, but that the bottle hit her head, and leg, spilling all over her body before it hit the stairs.
I felt awful. We quickly finished up that building before moving onto the last.

The last building, building 4 goes by so fast.
Joshua finished first, and My Mother next. Emma and I were the last to finish.
Well I was, I mopped the bathroom floor by myself.
When I walked out I saw Joshua talking with Emma by the pull up bar.
He had asked her how many she thought he could do.
She responded with 3, he then asked me, I said 7.
As he went to do it it wasn't completely on the top of the door frame, he went to pull up and the bar fell forward, taking my dear little brother Joshua with it.

He scrapped his knee on the carpet, and took some wood chips off the top of the door frame.
We all gasped. My Mother decided we would just set it off to the side. And figure out what to do with it later.
Surprisingly with everything that had happened, finished in about an hour and a half.
It was quite the night.

Rain rain PLEASE come again!

2009-09-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

Jeez! It's about time I got on here and updated!
Most might say the sun is what brightens their day and makes them smile.
As for me, it's the gloomy weather, the rains poring, our trees blowing, thunder growling like a fierce tiger, and lighting glowing. While Maria, Gabrielle and I are out taking photos...

Maria was soooo cute!

Yes. I picked out her outfit. Go me!

We laughed so much!

"One, Two... Two... Two... POSE!... Three."

My sisters are so gorgeous!

"Maria pose! No! Right now Girlie POSE!" -Leah
"Fine! I'm ready!" -Maria
"Aw, it's okay, I just took a picture of the clouds." -Leah

Gabrielle is such an angel!

"This is the look Gabrielle gives me every time I say something; 'uh... weirdo..."

Okay seriously? Cutie!

Maria was quite the Model for me.

Yay! Gabrielle took a picture for us... Well... She took about 6, but the first 5 times either me, or Maria... Or the both of us where not paying attention.

Maria was really good.

Flashing a smile.

"Just pretend like your skipping, no one will know you weren't really."

Gabrielle was spacing out most of the time. So we didn't get as many pictures of here.

What a cute little girl! I could just hug her forever!

"Look both ways before crossing the grass!"

I love black and white photos.

Here is my story, I'll keep it as short as I can! I know My brother-in-law Mike doesn't like to read long things! hahah.
Samuels Birthday was August 25.
One of his friends gave him a blue star balloons.
On September 5 Samuel gave it to me.
I decided I'd draw a smile on it, and name it "Charlyn" (Ch-are-lin)
Not being able to decide if it was a boy or a girl.
This balloon loves to wander!
It enjoys being in the bathroom, particularly the shower, and seems to be fond of my mother and Maria.
My Mother woke up Sunday morning with Charlyn right by her head.
She said if it showed up in the room again, she'd have to pop it.
I had to start tying it up so that it wouldn't be popped.
Seems as though Charlyn is getting old and tired.
I don't think it'll last much longer.
I had some great laughs while it lasted though!

Videos!

2009-09-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some random videos from the past three months. I'll update with stories soon. I promise! Just enjoy some videos for now! Thanks for being patient!

Oh dear...

2009-09-09T20:57:00.001-07:00

Sigh. I know I need to update the blog when my youngest sister Emma tells me it's been a while. Good grief.

I'll update it more sometime within the next two days. But here are some side stories.
There where about 20-30 hang gliders a few weeks ago.
It was so cool to watch them come from the top of the mountain!
But come to hear, one or two got stuck at the top, with injuries!
They had set up in the park 8 cop cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck.
All in the field by Wasatch Elementary School.
A lot of neighbors gathered around to see what was going on.

What to do memorial day weekend... Swim of course! On Monday, me along with all my little sisters... and Joshua, got to go swimming at Hyrum and Sylvias pool. It was such a blast!
I hadn't been swimming with Hyrum there before, it was extra fun though!

Joshua and Hyrum had some pretty sweet moves!

A few weeks ago, Maria, Gabrielle, Emma and I took our nieces and nephews to the park.
Right as we started we warned them that they would have to hold hands as we crossed the street.
Josh then reached out his hand to hold Mias right away. Josh is adorable.
Mia wasn't quite sure what to do.
So we took an extra 2 minutes at the beginning of our walk up there watching Josh show Mia how to hold his hand.
I love little kids!

Monsivais Family Reunion

2009-08-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

The George and Rebecca Monsivais Family Reunion 2009

In a hot dog bun.
(This is the reunion backwards)

The goal was to see who could eat 4 hot dogs, with the bun, and ketchup if you wanted it, the fastest. Samuel got first place. Hyrum second. And Jacob third.

Samuel received a hot dog belt buckle.

Anthony working on finishing up.

It was so nasty, but so much fun to watch the contest.

Even my nephew Josh who just turned five was participating!

Anthony trying to hurry!

Heidi subbed in for David because he had to work. Jacob said she had to do it because we hadn't quite accepted her into the family yet. Now she is officially accepted in.

Everyone was crowding around!

This was at the beginning. When Jacob, of course, was explaining the rules of the contest.

Everyone was getting ready. And laughing like crazy!

"The rule is if your going to hurl you do it to your left. Common courtesy people!" -Jacob

I guess he was trying to figure out the best way to do this.

Lets get ready!

Anthony was the first one to the table.

Emma and Genevieve where setting out the hot dogs.

We went to the Power Tumbling Gym early in the morning.

Everyone had so much fun. A few of us thought it sounded lame. But it was a blast!

Jen and Hyrum.

Anthony and a few of the other older boys climbed to the top of the rope and then dropped!

hahah. This was hilarious. Josh was helping Mike out. He threw the rope in. Told Mike to grab it with both hands. And then he tried to pull mike out. Turns out Mike got out and Josh got stuck in.

Gabrielle and I helping Zoe with the swing.

Just having a blast!

Sam brought his Girl Friend, Paige, to the Reunion. They had a lot of fun. She is a cute girl.

Happy Sad Face.

2009-08-14T11:32:00.001-07:00

This week has been very rough, and fun. I lost HUNDREDS of pictures on my computer. I told my dad what had happened. Soon both my father, and older brother Michael where searching for them. We where able to restore less than 100.

Just over 300 of the pictures we lost where from last week. Maria Mara and I got to go to Camp Mia Shalom for girls camp. We had a blast! There was sooooo much fun and laughter involved. It was my favorite year at camp.

On Tuesday Genevieve and Mike had invited us to go boating with them at Yuba Lake. Everyone was so excited. Peter drove David, Mara, Joshua, Maria, Gabrielle, Emma and I all over South of Nephi to Yuba Lake. We went water skiing, knee boarding, and tubing. Here are some shuffled up pictures of our day.

(If you want to see more pictures let me know! We took around 150 pictures.)

I didn't put any sunscreen on my chest for the first 2 hours. That wasn't smart.

Joshua and Peter had so much fun tubing!
One moment they where on.

The next they where gone!

But they where fine.(:

Mike also wanted a turn on the tube. As soon as he stepped out of the boat to get on it, he was in the water.

Another shot of Joshua and Peter enjoying the ride.

We where just getting started!

Genevieve and Mike brought their two dogs we had fun playing with them.

Joshua catching a football.

Dave throwing the football.

I always fell off of the tube.

And always had to swim back to Maria.

soooo much fun!

Kaytlyn and Genevieve are so pretty!

It was Josh's birthday on Tuesday! (Genevieve and Mikes son). He is soooo much fun! We all love him so much.

OMTOH

2009-08-01T17:44:00.001-07:00

OMTOH= Oaker Mountain Temple Open House.

I'm so thankful that my dad was able to get Peter down (Minus Kaytlyn because she had to work) tickets for the Oaker Mountain Open House. We where able to attend the 4:20 p.m. tour on Thursday July 30.

The temple was gorgeous. They had amazing chandeliers. They where so huge and just... stunning.
The car ride to and from the temple didn't seem to long. We where all so excited to be going, and the spirit we got from the temple left us happy on the way home.
Temples are incredible. I love to run. If I am ever having a rough time I'll go running in the morning over to the Provo Temple, just a few blocks away. Being around the temple always leaves an amazing feeling, that lasts.

After being home for no more then an hour the telephone rang (For what seemed like the 20th time since we'd been home). My mom came asking if I'd seen a lot of movies in the theater in the last year. I replied with a yes. And she told me to get the phone.
It was a Movie Surveyor. The conversation went for 4 minutes and I was done.
I jumped up and down in my slippers, spun in a circle getting myself wrapped up in our white twirly phone cord, sat, then lied down on my hard tile kitchen floor. The conversation lasted just over half an hour.
Now don't get me wrong, my parents and everyone else that knows me well will tell you I have no problem talking on the phone for 5 hours straight.
But when it comes to someone your struggling to understand, and asking the same questions about 42 different movies. It gets a bit annoying.
Luckily the surveyor could not tell I was getting tired and frustrated. She was sweet.

New... Website?

2009-07-29T11:46:00.001-07:00

The other day I decided I'd go to bed early. Time rolled around to 9:45 and I was all ready for bed. I sat on my floor to (of course) reply to all my texts that had come in while I was getting ready. It took a moment for my Peek (My phone) to load. So, I set it on the ground while I waited. My eyes started to wander to look for something to play with.

I found... Chinese handcuff under my bed. I believe it came in a party bag Maria got from my Mothers work party. I tried to put it on all my fingers, but I have the tiniest hands! It slipped off every one of them, except my thumbs! So of course, I put it on both my thumbs. I was so excited it fit!

At that moment my peek chimed letting me know a friend had sent me a new message.
I reached for my peek with my right hand when I realized,
MY LEFT HAND CAME WITH IT!

Half an hour later I was STILL sitting on my floor. With both of my thumbs STILL inside the Chinese Handcuffs. And that confused and worried look STILL on my face.

Maria walked in right at that moment. I felt so relieved!

It was like the time my older siblings loved that I fit inside our close hamper. So they'd make me sit on the ground, put the close hamper over me. Then put a doll house on top. I sat there for what seemed like hours as they went down stairs to watch TV and forgot the other part of "Hide-and-SEEK". It wasn't until the smell of Mac&Cheese made it up the stairs, and mom called everyone in for dinner that I was rescued. Older siblings are so amazing.

Maria was my rescuer in this situation. She laughed at my puzzled face as she walked in. She laughed at my worry and relief as she took it off. And still to this day is laughing that I sat there for half an hour, helpless.

I spent about 2 hours putting together the VERY START of my new website.
It is just the start. Remember that.(:
I'm into photography. And I already have people asking me if I can do photo shoots of them.
I am 90% official.
The 10% that I am missing is because I don't have one of those professional cameras.
I'm still working on it.
Everyone should check out the START of my website and give me feedback.
Please and Thank you.(:
leahannephotography.weebly.com

FHE Night Out.

2009-07-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

Maria and I with our stylish bags we found at the dollar store!

Maria sitting around.

Emma and I with a cotton candy ice cream cone.

Emma and I with a candy ice cream cone.

Spiderman (Emma) VS. Iron Man!

A Iron Man Squirty thingy!

Mara at the dollar store.

Me in the massage chair.

I jumped into an empty place on the shelf.

Of course we had a sunglasses picture!

My dad and I hanging out in some chairs.

I told my dad to stand next to the grill and act surprised.
Just so that he could get the feel for when I eventually buy him that grill.(;

The shed I told Maria she could share with my pet goat.

Maria and I on a couch.

Gabrielle chilling in a chair.

aw so cute.

It was all girls, and then my Father. We had a blast though!

Gabrielle 'Flying'

Everyone on the way into Sams Club.

Maria with her dream car. A gorgeous purple mini van. WITH purple rims.

The in between and after.

2009-07-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

Here's Jacob when everyone was coming outside to light sparklers.

There's Joshua and Peter in the back of Kaytlyns car when we left to go home.

Josh was really down near the end of the night. Dad cheered him up by 'playing music' with the unlit sparklers.

There they are again...

This was after the lunch in, and before the reception. Anthony and his youngest boy Sam where pretty tired...

Sisters;

2009-07-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Act Girlie.

Just smile!

Umm?

All the matching girls.

Mike assigned us all a face reaction. I remember that Kaytlyns was that she just got accepted to Princeton. And mine was that I just had a break up.

This was right after Jacob shoved his way through all of us.

Kaytlyn standing next to the reception sign.

Genevieve and Mike.

2009-07-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

hahah! It was way to hard to decided what picture to put up. So this post is just all about the Levie Family.
I was taking pictures of everyone outside. Mike walked by about 3 times and asked if I got him. Each time I barley got him. So I told him to pose for me and I'd make sure to get him.

Genevieve wanted a picture of her family. They are so adorable!

"Okay guys! Act like yourself!"-Leah. I think Mike did a great job.

Genevieve would not stop laughing! I don't blame her.

Such a cute family!

"Josh: Pretend like the president asked you to visit his dog!"
"Genevieve: Pretend like you just won Prom Queen!"
"Mike: Pretend like you where just asked to join the circus!"

After all the other pictures Genevieve said "Wait! Did we get a normal picture?"
So here's the 'normal' one.
I love this family!

Car!

2009-07-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

Davids friends decorated the car... And did an excellent job!

The decorated all the windows, including a soccer ball on the passengers window
(Heidi's window).

Yes. Dave and Heidi where just married.

The drivers window...

The trail of balloons on the back. They later added Red Bull cans for noise.

Dancing!

2009-07-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Of course, David and Heidi started off the dancing.

Then Heidi's Father cut in...

And my Father cut in...

While David danced with his Mother...

Next My parents, Heidi's parents, and David and Heidi all danced...

There they are...

Here's some of my family watching a little later...

Kaytlyn and Joshua soon got in on the fun...

Same with Genevieve and Mike...

David asked all his sisters to dance with him...
So above is Dave and Genevieve...

Kaytlyn and David.

Mara and David...

Gabrielle and David...

And Michael asked David to dance.(:

The reception.

2009-07-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

By the end of the night you could tell Josh was done. Dave smiled at him and gave him a high five as he walked passed. That put a smile on Josh's face for a bit.

Josh caught it!

Gorgeous Heidi telling Maria and I we couldn't catch the weddingbokay if we where taking pictures.

Heidi and Dave cutting the cake after a very long day.

Here is there gorgeous square wedding cake. The entire cake was real!

I love this picture! Everyone was lighting there sparklers off of Josh's. How adorable!

There was so much to eat! It was all cake! So delicious!

The delicious slush type stuff... yeah... Apparently it tasted like a mint plant?

Ha! Yes! I got a picture of Samuel!

Josh leaned his head all the way back to put the cherry in his mouth. It was funny.

Heidi and David visiting with people... You can see how much David pays attention.

Monz jersey for Dave.

Quick relax! There's a break!

Lunch In.

2009-07-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

The lunch in was amazing! The tables where so gorgeous! Our neighbor, and home teacher, catered for the lunch in. The did such a great job!

The food was delicious! There was a salad, then -above- is the main course (Delicious chicken!), and for desert was delicious cake!

David and Heidi where not the first in line. But they did but in.

Above is David and Heidi listening to people congratulate them, and give advice.

Mom sat at a table for part of the time, with her sister Sheila, and Sheilas husband Bill. Along with my Grandma (Her mother), and Aunt Mary.

This was the table to be at. With Genevieve Mike and Josh. Jake and Jen. And Hyrum, Peter and Mara. A table with Genevieve and Jake is funny enough. But add all those other people and you've got a party!

This is the table Samuel and I sat at. Anthony and Missy with their four adorable children. I sat next to Parker, haha that boy is a bundle of joy. He's so funny!

Even though Zoë thinks she loves Uncle Sam more then she loves me, I still love her. She's such a cutie. She was showing "Uncle Sam" how much smaller she is then him. Here's her hand, measured up to his.

The Temple.

2009-07-13T11:36:00.001-07:00

Here is an idea of how reverent we are at the temple...

Sam was a bit upset that his mother (Missy) was leaving him. After he was put into Joshua's arms, and watched his 3 siblings run around a flower garden he started to cheer up.

Maria and I sat around outside with Anthony and Missy's kids for a bit before going into the waiting room.

After a while in the waiting room Zoë was done and decided she'd take me on a walk.
Of course, we found a bug. This time it was NOT a potato bug. It was a Lady Bug.

We all sat outside the doors waiting for David and Heidi to come out. Josh did something for Jacob, and his reward was a hard candy.

I think he enjoyed it...

Took a lot of concentration.

Mom seemed to enjoy the time she had to visit with her Aunt Mary. They talked, laughed, and smile a whole bunch. My Grandma, and Aunt Sheila came to visit. A lot of my moms family was there. I'm glad they could make it.

Dave&Heidi

2009-07-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

David and Heidi got married July 11, 2009.

Heidi hugged every little girl that walked up to her, even if she didn't know them.

David walked out of the temple and had Heidi's hand in his for about 3 minutes, then everyone was all over Heidi. Don't worry Dave. We love you!!!

David is now married!!!

What an amazing couple. I'm excited to get to know Heidi more.

All pictures posted on the blog are taken by me, or my Father.

Amazing couple.

Hurry! Run away!

Doesn't get much cuter then Dave&Heidi.

They both have amazing smiles.

Kissing? Again?!

This is the first post.

These are all photos from the temple. Right after they where married.
It was such a beautiful wedding.
And so much fun.
We are all glad to have Heidi in our family.
She is adorable.
And we are so glad that David found someone he loves and wants to be with forever.
They are great together.
At the reception I heard so many times that;
"They are just so perfect!" "There is a special spirit with the two of them." "There is nothing wrong with that couple."
It's all true.

Congratulations David and Heidi!
We love you!

Slip-n-Slide!!!

2009-07-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

Our "Joint Activity" was planned by my group, the mia-maids. There's only two of us. I voted we go dirk biking of horse back riding. But my leader disagreed. We ended up doing a water party. Slip-N-Slide at Rock Canyon Bowl. It was more fun then I thought it would be!
Mara went down the slide a lot. She was in the group of the first people to go down. Looks like she had a blast!
Here's Mara and two of our neighbors. The went down in a train together.
The young women president, far left, said that she'd go down if I went down. I convinced my little sister Maria, and a new 'neighbor' Cami, to come with. We all went down in a train, and splashed right into a mud puddle. It was a blast!!

Here's Mara going down with some beehives. Woo!!

Maria and I didn't really want to go down at first. We spent the first while sitting and talking, along with my friend Jared Jr. We had quite a few good laughs.

I think that over all Wednesday Night was so much fun!

There was a group of people ice blocking that ended up coming over and joining our mutual group. They came and got wet and muddy in their clothes!

I saw a friend from my Seminary class. I talked with him for about 10-15 minute about life. And asked him what he was doing at Rock Canyon. He said his friend just got his mission call yesterday (Wednesday) and that to celebrate he invited all his friends and family to go ice blocking.

I thought that was a pretty fun idea! Beside the fact that it's 'illegal'...

B.I.A.B.D.?

2009-07-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

I believe it's B.I.A.B.D.

On Monday I went to work. It was an iffy day. Everything was going great, until I realized we where having a little too much fun and an hour flew by so fast! The girls where late for Choir. I helped to get their shoes on and rush them out their house.

I was then at the house with a very clingy but adorable little boy, about a year old. And his older brother, who is 5.

The older boy had been eating a ring pop and when he finished he set it on the ground. I rolled my eyes and said, "Oh Henry! That's not where trash goes." I picked it up and took it to the kitchen trash.

When I came back he asked if we could play outside. Of course, I said yes. I looked around the room for my peek (My 'Phone'). I didn't see it anywhere. When I'm with the kids I always make sure I have it just in case of an emergency and I need to contact someone really fast and there's no other way.

Panic set in, for some reason...hahah. I looked everywhere! Through all the toys, the bed, rocking chair, drawers. I could not figure out where they went! I walked into the kitchen to get the phone and call my dad. I told him that I "seemed to of miss placed my peek", and asked if he would text me. Of course, after a moment of laughter he said yes.

I continued to look around, I let the kids play in the backyard and went to look in the nearby rooms, thinking maybe they'd of picked it up and taken it some place else.
2 of the near by rooms where the girls room and the bathroom. Not being successful in the girls room, I checked on the boys, then continued to the bathroom. I looked in the tub, on the counter, and even in the toilet!
I was getting so frustrated, and was on the verge of tears (Ridiculous I know!). I just didn't know what to do.

I walked into the backyard and sat on the ground with the boys. Out of habit, whenever I sit down, I pull my peek out of my back pocket. So, that's what I did. I pulled it out, and set it right next to me. I continued to play with the boys for a moment. When I realized,

MY PEEK WAS IN MY BACK POCKET THE ENTIRE TIME!!!

I was sooo frustrated! I couldn't help but laugh. I told everyone texting me that morning to not text me, 'cause I'd be working until noon. When I got my dads text I thought I was just halucinating. I didn't remember picking up my peek when I left the room to throw away the ringpop.

When I texted my dad back letting him know I had found it... In my back pocket. He replied saying: "Like I've said to others. Blonde is as blonde does. Or in other words- Blonde is a state of mind! Love you Leah!!!"

Reminds me of last Thursday. I was at my dads work. One of his coworkers was talking with me and Joshua. This is how the conversation went;

Coworker: So how many are younger then you Leah?
Leah: mmm... 5.
Coworker: Oh how fun. How about you?
Joshua: 3 younger.
Leah: Oh. Then only 4.

Blonde Is As Blonde Does.

Shopping Fun.

2009-07-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

Genevieve invited Me, and Maria to go shopping with herself, and her boy Josh. We ended up searching through both the University Mall, and Provo Town Center for a single dress.
I picked up a map for Josh to use, not thinking he really would use it. But he did. He continually checked the map to see where we are on it. He could almost always tell by looking to see where the pay phone we used, was on the map.

No shopping trip is complete without getting a picture of yourself with sunglasses on! How precious!

We walked through so many stores. For some reason my legs where really tired. I found a random chair and sat on it. I sat and texted for just a moment while Genevieve, Josh, and Maria looked around for a dress. I looked up and around, and saw the tag on the dress closest to me. It says "I AM WASHABLE!" I then shouted "No way me too!" I insisted I get a picture with it.

We almost all had matching glasses on. Josh's where the only ones that where kind of different. His had stars on the side. I handed him the red ones. But he asked his mother if he could switch the red for her white ones.

Maria took the picture of us above, but couldn't fit herself in it, so I took her individual picture.
While we walked through this one particular store, we passed by this super cute dress. Genevieve said "Oh my gosh! This looks just like you Leah!" I replied with "Really? It looks like a dress to me!" Obviously you can tell I was SO tired and ready to go home.

Just so You Know.

2009-07-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Just so that everyone knows I'll let you know what I'm going to be doing.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's are usually pretty long and busy for me.
I've got so much in such a little time to get done.
I've decided that every Sunday I will update my blog.
And maybe every Tuesday and Thursday depending on what's going on.

My dad suggested that I start a website.
I've decided that I should probably start.
I've officially decided what to do the website on.
And I'll update everyone about it.
I'm going to start my website next week I hope.
Once I have everything up and running, I'll make a post about it.

4th of July Weekend!

2009-07-06T16:53:00.001-07:00

This is going to be a very long post! Hope your ready for it! Here is a mix of pictures of events that happened July 2-5th. Enjoy!

This lady came up to me on the 4th and asked if she could take my picture. I said yes and then asked why. hahah. She told me that she was from a 'group' and that my picture would be in the news paper on Thursday. And that it would be on the internet. She handed me a card. Said I had a great smile and voice, and walked off. I was so confused and some what shocked... I laughed, and went on selling cotton candy.
Here's me and Zoe sitting on the couch before she asked me 18 times if she could brush through my hair.
Zoe was so excited when I said yes, she could brush my hair, she went running over to my bag in a great big hunt for my hairbrush.
Here's me and Zoe after she brushed my hair. She was so happy and proud!
Joshua Maria and I had a Etch a sketch contest. To see who could create the best flower. This was Maria's creation.

On Sunday we celebrated Kaytlyn, Hyrum, and Jacobs birthdays. After dad played the birthday song on the piano Sam got on his lap and played songs with my dad. It was so cute!
Here is beautiful Kaytlyn smiling for me after she blew out 18 CANDLES!
There is Kaytlyn's Birthday cake!
Jacob was getting ready to sit down and blow out all his candles on his cheese cake!

My little brother Joshua, and I spent Thursday-Sunday at my oldest brother Anthony's house with his wonderful wife Missy and two of their children Zoe, and Sam. I had such a great time!
Joshua and I watched the kids while Anthony and Missy cleaned out their van.
It may look like Sam is sucking on the sucker, but he was actually sucking on the stick.

"Hey Sam that looks like a really good sucker, I bet it tastes even better on the other end!"
-Joshua.

Hyrum helped my mom lite the candles on the cakes.
There are both Hyrum and Jacobs cheese cakes.
My gorgeous mother finishing lighting the candles with the help of Maria.
Zoe had so much fun with Joshua! She kept asking for a piggy back ride!
Once Joshua told her he was too tired and weak, she decided she would just sit on him instead.
Zoe and Joshua had about a 10 minute talk on "My Little Ponies". Zoe said she didn't watch that show, but still asked Joshua if he would get her the "Christmas Special".
Zoe kept on tackling Joshua while we where playing in the front yard.
It's kind of a bad picture, but it was soooo cute! Joshua's spinning Zoe around.

Joshua looks sooo big compared to Sam!

Zoe is such a cutie! Friday morning I was eating breakfast while she sat by me telling me about how much she can do, and how she knows EVERYTHING. (She really exaggerated the "everything" part.) I told her I didn't believe her, and she said "Well you should." I replied with "Haha okay then, what's 2+2?" She looked at her cereal bowl. Paused for a moment. Looked back at me, and shrugged her sholders. I just laughed, smiled, and said "Hahah. Yup. That's what I thought cutie."
Joshua had lots of fun with Zoes "Dora the Exploror Power Wheels Car". He drove it right up the wall... Literally.
Joshua kept chasing Zoe around, and tickling her. After she couldn't take it anymore she came running to me, sat on the step above mine, and wrapped her arms around me begging for help. What a cute girl!
Saturday Joshua, Missy, Anthony and I spent nearly all day at the park selling cotton candy, and drinks. Those where our soda options.
After a few hours of hardly an customers I was pretty tired and didn't know what to do. I remembered I had a camera and told Joshua to take a picture with me! I said "Look alive Joshua!!" And that was his response.
Zoe had so much fun playing on the blow up toys and bounce house. One of her favorites was this one, "The Monkey One".
Here's a picture of Missy's Cotton Candy Machine, and some finished bags.
Yummy! By the end of the night I was so exausted, and had eaten too many "Sad Bags" of Cotton Candy that I was just so ready for bed!
Here is a picture of the fireworks West Point did on the night of July 3rd. They where so cool!

And again, those fireworks.

Anthony and Missy took us over to Missy's mothers house to go swimming. Afterwords we found a pare of Zoe's sun glasses. Joshua and I both tried them on before handing them over to Zoe.

Aw so cute in Pink! hahah.

Sam is such a cute baby! I spent a lot of time with him and Zoe on Saturday. They are so much fun! Two of the cutest kids I've ever encountered. Sam was a very quiet baby too.
Joshua played with the kids a lot! Here he is doing push ups with Zoe and another girl from Missy's Daycare.

Joshua holding Sam. How precious. haha.

Zoe made me a Bracelet and a neckles, and made Joshua a bracelet. Earlier that day she had made herself a neckles, and two bracelets. They are so cute!
Zoe loved Joshua's piggie back rides. They played with a toy that when you threw it, it sticks to the wall. Joshua would throw it up so it would stick to the roof. Zoe tried but couldn't throw it hard enough to get it to stick. So she hopped on Joshuas shoulders to throw it up.
We watched a few movies while we where there. Zoe wanted to be with us, even if it meant just sitting there to watch a movie. But that was her least favorite.

Random?

2009-07-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

Below are a few pictures that I believe I've failed to post before. But here they are now!
Above: My dad playing the guitar, and me with a guitar.(:
Above: The firemen came and sprayed water into Kiwanis park. It's a tradition they've been doing for years. All the neighborhood kids, including any other kids that happen to be near by, love to go running through. The firemen seem to enjoy watching too.
Above: Maria and I spend a lot of time together. One day we where out in the back, she picked up my feet (As seen in the picture) and almost flipped me over on the hammock!
Above: camping out. We spent the night in the Tent a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun.
Above: Again, in the tent, after everyone had woken up.
Above: haha okay so Maria and I stayed up watching a movie, and then went out to sleep in the tent with Gabrielle and Emma. It was around 11pm. And very very dark outside and in the tent. I brought out the camera and turned the flash on to get some cute pictures. It was.. a little too bright for the both of us, but mainly Maria.(:
Above: We all have daily jobs that we should be doing. One day Maria signed up for "Weeding". She wasn't very excited about being out there weeding, in the hot sun. So I went out to keep her company.
Above: haha. I love my little brother! Before trek we went to drop our buckets off for the final weigh in. After we dropped them off we went to 5 Buck Pizza to get something to eat. Mom and Maria ran in real fast, while Joshua, Mara, and I stayed in. I told Joshua to turn around so I could get a picture of him and this was his face reaction. hahah!
Above: This was right before we went to the Utah Lake. In that jar was sand and some clams from the beach. It looked so cool and way nice until one of the clams opened! Then it started to stink. So Kaytlyn convinced Joshua to pull the clams out. It was really funny to watch. (The little blonde girl is our neighbor Avery Jane.)
Above: Again, one of Joshuas faces for me and the camera.(: Thanks for putting a smile on my face Joshua!
Above: This was the puzzle that took Mara and Maria just one night to finish. They did it crazy fast.
Above: When I get to the point where I just don't know what else to do I make cards for people that really touched me that week, or someone that I've been meaning to thank. It took me such a long time to make 3 cards. I couldn't decide how to decorate them. Then I couldn't figure out how big to write and... yeah. You get it. I worry.(:
Above: During the school year instead of a class play Gabrielles class did this "Wax Museum" thing. They all picked someone in history to learn about. Then all the family and friends come, press a button, and then the kids would talk about their person as if they where them. That sounds confusing... But it was soooo cool and creative!
Above: Gabrielle also participated in the "Hope of America" at the Mariot Center. The flag in the picture is tons of children from 5th grade in elementary schools all over Utah I believe. The Hope of America concert is so much fun, and very interesting to watch.
Above: Oh you've got to love Sundays! Here is Mara helping Emma with her multiplication cards. Joshua just laying around to be involved and not left out. And Kaytlyn goofing off with the 3 of them. Maria was in a different part of the backyard trying to throw a tennis ball in the air and hit it with a baseball bat.

Youngest one of the bunch.

2009-07-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Emma asked and asked until mom said yes, she could go to a friends house. Emma was so excited! She went to play at her friends house for a few hours that evening. Mom and Dad had taken Kaytlyn Joshua and Maria out for a graduation dinner. And Peter was at work.
So Gabrielle, Mara and I where stuck at home. And Samuel was here by choice.(:
Mom had asked me to make Grilled Cheese for dinner, I burnt myself on nearly everything possible.
As Mara Gabrielle and I sat at the table eating we got 5 phone calls from Emma and her friend "Prank calling" our house. Oh boy did we get soooo frustrated!
While Mom and Dad where out with the other kids Emma and her friend had called my Mothers cell phone 3 times as well. My mom got worried for why she had been calling, cause my Mother missed the calls. So she called back in some what of a panic reminding Emma that she would pick her up at 6, and asked why she'd been calling. Emma replied with a lie saying "What? I didn't call..."
Mara Gabrielle and I where so annoyed of the phone calls we'd been getting from Emma at home that we took everything, including the sheets, off of Emma's bed and shoved them in a garbage bag, then placing the bag on the back porch.
When Mom and Dad, along Maria and Joshua (Kaytlyn went to work after eating out with them), came back after dinner, and after picking up Emma, everything was normal.
Until Emma went running up to her room and came down in tears! She was so shocked by her beds appearance! She went straight to my Mother crying and crying trying to tell my Mom through her tears what had happened to her bed. After Gabrielle had told Mom and Emma what we had done, surprisingly Mara and I didn't get in trouble!
Mom told Emma that what she had done by prank calling her cell phone during a dinner was rude. And that calling the house 5 times was unnecessary and not nice. After the talk my Mom gave her, and after we gave her bed set back, she still continued to cry.
It all turned out great though. The next day we where all laughing about it.
We taught her a lesson. Now she knows not to prank call, ever again.

I <3 Яia!

2009-06-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

Signature: Ever since I learned to write in cursive I've wanted to create an amazing signature! I still haven't found that amazing signature yet. So right now, whenever I want to mark my name on something, I always put leah with a period. All lower case cursive with a dot at the end. ha!
Chalking out: Maria asked me to play with chalk outside. So we went outside, she wrote and decorated my name, and I wrote and decorated hers. Well done Ria! It's soooo cute!

Яia: The first drawing I did, didn't really work so I moved onto another one.

Drawing: "My name doesn't start with an 'I' or 'K' Leah Anne!"

Starters: This was the beginning of my first drawing.

Rose Pedal: Maria wanted to pick a rose from my mothers rose bush, I told her no cause they're not her roses. She gave me a 'mean' look and still went toward the bush. She came back with one white pedal. And threw it at me. She then went on to tell me that at my wedding she was going to throw white pedals all over the place. I ignored her story as I put the pedal on my ring finger and told her that was my wedding ring. She said "No! It can't be! I'm passing those out at your wedding!" I responded with "Oh... Then everyone can have a wedding ring just like mine!"
Shadows: I love shadow pictures. It only took about 14 pictures to get this one. Maria says it's a star. I think it looks like a windmill!
Jumping: Yesterday I was obsessed with jumping pictures. But we didn't seem to get any good ones. This one was pretty funny though.

Handstand: Here is Maria, of course, showing off and doing a handstand.

Jungle Gym: Like I mentioned. I really wanted a jumping picture. But just running and jumping didn't work out too well for me. So Maria convinced me to get on our "Jungle Gym" And jump off! It sounded like a really good idea at first. But once I was up there and tried to stand up. It was a really really REALLY bad idea!

Summer is Gorgeous.

2009-06-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Summer time is a wonderful time. When everything is green. The flowers are out, the sky is blue, and everyone's enjoying the weather. And then here we are...

Texting...Inside...

Sitting on the couch...Inside...
Playing video games...On the couch... Inside.
Watching each other play video games... On the couch... Inside.
Eating Ice Cream...On the couch... Inside.
Doing puzzles...On the couch... Inside.

Eating...On the couch... Inside.

Like I said. Summer days are amazing. It's so beautiful outside. There is so much to do. Don't waste your time!

Family Fun!

2009-06-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

Sisters are amazing. Sure we have our ups and downs with them. But this was definitely an up!

Sylvia invited us over to her house to go swimming. Of course, we took her up on the offer. Genevieve brought her amazing son Josh (, and Kaytlyn took all her younger siblings.

There is not much to say... Everyone was in the pool the entire time. Except for Emma who is sick. She sat on the side of the pool, and would throw things in for her older siblings to find.
Josh and Mia had a great time in the hot tub. Josh would lean back with his life jacket on, and let the jets in the hot tub spin him around. It was so fun to watch him. Mia would come along the side of the hot tub and take the bubbles out and put them in the pool. She's a cutie.

JUMP! Most of us got our own jumping pictures. Check them out!

And that's that.

Bell Tower

2009-06-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

Dad took Mara down through Emma to hear the Bell Tower Choir. We could have just sat in our back yard and listened, but I'm glad that he took us over closer.

Maria, Emma, Gabrielle, and Mara stood on the over pass for quite a while at the beginning. Afterwords they sat in the van to read.

I loved listening to the bells but I found it hard to concentrate on something I couldn't really see happening. As I sat on the grass in the parking lot I noticed these cars. About 7 minivans in a row! Obviously, we live in Utah. (:

Oh how lovely. My wonderful parents! They are so adorable! I just don't know what else to say!

So let me explain about this video... I promise we are not that bad of singers!
This was Mara and I goofing off while listening to the Bells.

Six Flags Magic Mountain!!!

2009-06-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of June my wonderful family, along with a family friend went to where we call home. Whittier California. Here are some photos from our fun packed trip!

Minutes before we left the Monsivais family got together to take a family picture. In this photo is my dear sweet Abuela. Her two sons, My brilliant father and My adorable mother, My Tio Victor and Tia Jessica, as well as their two boys. And me with 7 of my siblings.

While everyone was getting outside Ita, Gabrielle, and Emma where standing together. They are all so gorgeous!

It took a few minutes to get everyone out there and ready. So Joshua decided he'd let Karla practice taking pictures. He showed off his cherry red muscles for about 3 minutes.

Very simple explanation, Peter sitting around before we left. What a handsome boy!

The last day we where there we went to the beach as well as the 99 cent store! We only had a few minutes to go get some snacks and such, and of course, goof off.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in California!!
We all had such a terrific time! Here are some photos of our wonderful day at the park.

Peter, Joshua, Maria and I waited in line for about 30 minutes for the ride "X2". We went on it right after lunch. I'm so glad I thought to bring my peek with me! I was burning up in line, and would have lost my mind if I hadn't of!

Gabrielle does really good with Roller Coasters!

Gabrielle and Emma spent a lot of time together, Emma is a total chicken, and Gabrielle can be quite brave.

Emma really enjoyed the small, slower rides.

Mara ended up spending time with Mom, Dad, and Emma after a while. Looks like they had fun!

This was "SUPERMAN" Peter, Kaytlyn, Karla, Joshua, and Maria went on it and said "It wasn't worth the wait!" You are set into a roller coaster cart and shot at 100mph forward, and then up into the air, held for a moment, and then you fall backwards.

Emma loved this swing ride. After lunch she made everyone go on it with her. Of all the rides, this was the one that made Kaytlyn and her best friend Karla sick.

As I mentioned, Mara hung out with Emma. And Emma is one of the biggest scardy cats you will EVER meet!

My Father and Emma. And no way! Emma was brave enough to take her hands off the holding bar!

Here is everyone on the swing ride that Emma made us all go on after lunch.

Dad took Emma on the bumper carts.

Dad, Gabrielle, and Emma on the trolly.

Dad, Emma, and Gabrielle on the merrie go round.

Gotta love 'em Parents.

2009-06-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

As we all should know, last Sunday was 'Fathers Day'. As I went through my pictures on the computer I realized I have pictures from Fathers Day. Hope you enjoy!

Fathers day was a pretty bright day. It was Sunday so we spent the morning at church. After church we all did our own things, weather it be watching a church related movie, reading, taking a nap, or helping with dinner we where all pretty 'busy'. Time flew by as mom asked for one of my sisters to get everyone in for dinner. We said prayer and, of course, started at the food.

Joshua's birthday was on June 17th, he is now 14. For his birthday dinner he chose to have "Fajitas". (YUM! My all time favorite!)

David and his fiance came over to eat, as well as bring Dad a Fathers Day gift. They got him a small duffel penguin bag. That when you squeeze it's nose it makes noise. We all got a good chuckle from it.

Nearly everyone in the family stopped by either on Sunday, or the Friday or Saturday before. Even Anthony and Missy came over with their 4 kids. Parker and Carson were very talkative and as always all 4 of them were fun to have around, as well as the fun sweet spirit of Missy and Anthony.

Everyone seemed to have a good time with each other. Genevieve played with all her nieces and nephews as well as spending time with the older kids too. We got a real good laugh after telling her a joke and waiting for what seemed a long while for her to figure it out. She's such a fun person!

As I mentioned Joshua's 14th birthday was on June 17th. His birthday Sunday ended up being on Fathers day. When it came time to sing to him and have him blow the candles out it seemed as if Genevieve's son Josh was more excited. He plopped himself on a seat right next to the cake and attempted to blow out the candles. He's such a cute kid!

Joshua was laughing so hard he couldn't seem to get enough breath to blow out his candles.
Hyrum kept bugging Joshua, by blowing in his face trying to distract him. And it worked. It took Joshua quite a while to get all 14 candles blown out.

Summer Job.

2009-06-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

I am always so worried that my summers will be "boring", or that I will "waste time". But this summer is different. I was offered 2 nanny jobs this summer.
One is three days a week for the First Counselor in my Bishopric who has 4 very intelligent and adorable children. I love spending time with them, I don't see it as a job. But more like a hang out. We go to the park almost every time I am with them. They love to act out plays and be outside.
The other job I have is once a week for a Sister that was my Beehive leader. She has 2 of the most adorable girls I have ever encountered with. They too, love to walk to Wasatch Elementary and play at the playground. I love the time that I am able to spend with these 6 children. It's been such a wonderful experience. Even though it's only a few hours each day it's already helping to prepare me for being a mother myself. I've been able to connect with each of the kids, the parents of the little boy on my lap in the photo have been so worried to leave him with anyone. But every time I've gone to watch their children they've told me they are so grateful because he never cries with me. I love these children. They are so sweet, and truly children of god.

Park City!!

2009-06-26T12:53:00.001-07:00

Last week Genevieve and I spent a few hours together shopping. But that wasn't enough. So yesterday Genevieve took Maria and I to Park City. It was quite the ride there, with confessions and random stories. We spent 2 hours walking in and out of stores trying to find something cute to get. Apparently it wasn't a good day to go shopping.

"We only got one shirt! And that wasn't because it was cute, it was cause it was cheap!" -Genevieve.

It was an interesting shopping trip, complete with laughing and of course a picture of us in sun glasses! On our way home we stopped in Heber at "Granny's Drive In." Famous for their Shakes. Soooo Delicious! Along with a side of Fries and Fry Sauce. mmm mmm mmm good!

Every time we go shopping, or Genevieve and Mike are busy and need someone to watch Josh, he comes over to play at our house. He is soooo much fun to have around. He has been raised extremely well. He is very polite, and makes everyone laugh. I'm so glad he is my nephew! When he is over he'll watch movies, play outside with the kids (like basketball). One of his new favorites is playing "Jelly Car" on the computer. He has also sat around and watched youtube videos with Maria, Joshua, Kaytlyn and I.
We love having Josh around!

Summer Time Updates

2009-06-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly a month since we got out of school for summer.

Gabrielle and Emma Just finished Summer School yesterday. Everyday they spend hours playing with the neighbors children. Each morning both of the girls are up around 6:30 or 7 watching Television or something along those lines, and are usually dressed at about 8:30. They are becoming really good at providing for themselves. Gabrielle and Emma make delicious brownies!

Maria is quite the mellow one I suppose. She has been sick for a bit now. Usually getting up for scriptures at 8, then laying in bed for a while after words. She seems to be online a lot during the day, as well as occasionally getting her job done.

Joshua is a teenage boy. Always doing pretty much whatever he would like. I'm guessing one of his favorite hobbies is annoying his sisters. As I've mentioned before he takes advantage of being nearly 8 inches taller then me. He loves to tell me what to do, and what's 'right and wrong'. He has been spending a lot of time with neighborhood friends and down in his room with the video game systems. For his birthday Kaytlyn and Peter gave him a new basketball. Nearly every morning you can hear him shooting hoops in the backyard.

Mara has been done with Simulators for a week now. And will be starting rang on July 6th. My sweet mother has been taking Mara out driving for about an hour or two each morning to get hours in. Sounds like Mara is getting to be a professional! Mara has been put in charge of getting everyone ready for scriptures at 8. Her and Maria have been doing puzzles lately. A few days ago they finished a thousand piece puzzle in a few hours. Mara spends hours watching television, goofing off online, sleeping, or hanging out with her Best Friend Zoe.

Kaytlyn and Peter have both been working quite a bit. On their free time Peter seems to be out with some friends from work, or with Joshua playing games. He has been to the movies quite a bit lately as well. Kaytlyn seems to enjoy spending free time with her best friend Karla, watching Gilmore Girls, reading, or going places with us kids, she took the younger kids bowling a while ago.

Samuel works from 6pm.-4am. (shiv! -sam.) When he gets home he either stays up to watch a movie and play games, or just goes right to sleep. He's usually up around noon and after that is back to games, movies, or the internet until work. The other day he brought a girl over to finger paint. It sounded like they had a great time. It was sooo cute!

Mom and Dad have both been working. Because mom has been taking Mara driving in the morning, she has to stay at work later. Dad is usually home around 4:30 just in time for dinner. Today Dad stayed in Provo. He is at the Law School Library studying, or so I heard.

Family Time.

2009-06-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

To start with, I love this picture of us all eating ice cream. It's just so... Us. Monday night is Family Night as we all know. For dinner Joshua made everyone hamburgers. We ate together as a family on the top level of the backyard. It was so gorgeous outside, the sky was such a perfect blue, with a splash of purple. As soon as Maria and I where done with our hamburgers we started to play "HORSE" with a basketball. Maria said I lost, but I disagree... hehe.

After shooting hoops for a while with Maria and Joshua I decided I was in the mood for ping-pong. I played for a couple minutes against Maria and Peter before we went up to the school. My sweet Mother took Peter, Mara, Joshua, Maria, Gabrielle, Emma and I up to Wasatch Elementary School to work on Joshua's Eagle project. I think we got quite a bit done.

After we finished up at the school we walked home and were only there for a few minutes before we all got into the van to drive over to Maceys (the grocery store). They were having their yearly "Retirement of the Flags" type of deal. They had about 8 flags that one by one they set on these two tables and burned. It was nice to be able to go and hear what they had to say. Here is a video, not the best, but this is what I got recorded;

After the ceremony Mom took us to get ice cream cones.
Gabrielle asked for a medium sized cone, usually the mediums are given to you in a cup. But they didn't do that with Gabrielle.
She stood for nearly 35 seconds trying to put money back into her wallet. I watched just waiting for her ice cream to fall off the cone in her hand.
After about 7 seconds I warned her it would fall. She seemed to ignore me. Until 42 seconds had passed and her ice cream fell off right when I was going to turn and talk with Joshua.
I saw it in the corner of my eye, and not expecting to catch it, I still stretched my arm out, and to my astonishment my hand was freezing! Chocolate stained my hand with stickiness.
In panic, still in shock of what had just happened, my arm shook as I tried to fit it back onto Gabrielle's cone.
Everyone was laughing, they were so surprised that of all people I, Leah, had caught it. I am still surprised I caught it as well.

After that the night was pretty much over. Just a car ride home, trying to see who could eat their ice cream the fastest. When we got home everyone was just relaxed, watching movies, television, reading, and online. Monday was a good day. I love Family Night.

Memories.

2009-06-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

Things have been a bit... full lately. Everyone has been in and out of the house, doing our own things. Here are some pictures of
what some of us have been up to lately; (P.S. Sorry it's sooo sloppy!)

(UP:Kaytlyn, Car, and Maria's... Leg. After we bought shirts from Downeast we were running out to the car, because it had been raining. I was trying to figure out what flash was best and this is one of the pictures I got.)

(Me. I have this habit of trying on at least 3 pairs of sunglasses at every store that has them. This was one of my favorite at Downeast. "Bug eyed Standout Orange Sugn glasses.")

(Maria, and Kaytlyn. As we begun our shopping at Downeast Maria was very... Thrilled to be there, I suppose... She was leaping all over the store. It was quite the site.)

(Me. We got our skirt for Davids wedding at "Urbin Trends". Such an adorable girly store in the Provo Town Center. It's very small, but very cute. The outfit behind me in this picture is one of my favorites, that I still would love to get.)

(Me. I love dresses. I would rather wear a dress then a skirt. Kaytlyn had me try on this dress to see how it would look. Obviously it didn't look that good cause I didn't get it. Oh well.)

(Kaytlyn took Mara Maria and I shopping to look for a wedding outfit for Davids wedding that is coming up. We went to Downeast Outfitters to find a shirt. While Maria tried the outfit on, Mara and I went to try random things on. This was a jacket we found. This 'Jacket' cost around $200.)

(Coins. I've been collecting change for the last few months. I have a reason for my change collecting, but it doesn't seem to be working out so well. The other day as I counted my change, I started to mess around and make shapes with it. In this picture I put my hand in the middle and put the change around it.)

(Maria and I have this huge craving for Maceys grocery story Ice Cream Cones. We finally convinced Kaytlyn to take us by Maceys to get some, along with coco powder to make cookies. Kaytlyn took Mara Maria and I to get ice cream for; Emma, Gabrielle, Maria, Joshua, Mara, and myself. It was a pretty crazy car ride home but we made it!)

(Left: Kaytlyn. We went to the mall to buy our skirts for Davids wedding. We had quite a bit of laughs. I've been spending a lot of time with my sisters lately. I'm loving it!)

(Me. Joshua got a hold of the camera last week. I was on the computer and watched him take pictures of me, Mara, himself, as well as nearly everything else in the familyroom. Including the clock, wall, cabnints, couch, etc. Within 15 minutes after he started to take pictures, he fell asleep on the couch.)

Our BUSY Saturdays

2009-06-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

By the picture shown above, it's obvious that we are hard workers. Saturday is the busiest day of the week... Well, kind of.

(Right: 2 very tired girls. Even after eating a green sucker)
YAWN! Just before 7 A.M. my wonderful Father woke Maria, Joshua and I up, so that we could be ready to help clean our church building at 7:20. We where all out in the car ready to go when my father walked out the door with a crying Gabrielle. She had woken up a few minutes before to "use the bathroom" (She said). Mom told her that since she was up she should just come with us to help clean. She wasn't too fond of that idea.
Maria and I where put in charge of cleaning the windows. We got about half the building done before we really started to goof off. I'm sure we where appreciated when we did our work though. (:

Dad and Gabrielle worked on vacuuming the walk ways together. They did an excellent job and finished really fast. Well done!
There was one other family, and two other Brethren that helped clean the church with us. It was nice, and went by really fast!

So... He's a teen? What do you expect? Joshua was put in charge of cleaning the Bathroom floors... though I never saw him do it, I'm sure he some what did it. I found him in the Priesthood room setting up chairs (at least that's what I think he was doing before I walked in). I walked into the room and right away noticed they had chalk. My first thought was to run to the board and start to draw. So of course that's what I did. Joshua found a bible while I was drawing. And started to tell me about it. This is what I got on Video...

[*Note. Sorry it is sideways. It was just the way I was holding the camera... Forgot to switch it.]

Dad wanted to make sure I got pictures of everyone working. So here is proof as to how hard us Monsivais kids can work.

After we finished up at the church we went home to eat our Mother wonderful Saturday morning Pancakes. But instead I was shocked to see...

My youngest sister Emma (Age 9) cutting up Strawberries for breakfast. About 15 minutes later I walked up to the kitchen again and saw her cooking pancakes. It wasn't so much of a shocker this time since just a few days ago Emma and her friend made brownies for fun. She has been growing up real fast and has gotten quite mature... Well... Somewhat. She still has a huge attitude, and has gotten really good at trying to boss me around. She has accomplished the hobby of "Talking Back". I'd say she gets a gold metal in the category of "Little sister"

There has been quite a bit of "Age Talking" today. As I made "No bake cookies" I messed up a bit. As Maria did the dishes she was trying to direct me along as to how things are done. I got very frustrated but responded to her attitude with
"I'm calm I'm calm. I grew out of my 'Terrible two's' last year."
Within a few minutes my mother was telling me I couldn't put a wet measuring cup into the sugar. I responded with
"I know I know. I'm not 3 anymore... I'm more like 3 and a half now."

It started to rain around noon today. Though the sun was out it still rained, with fairly good size drops. After a few minutes it was done. Until about 1:30. As I finished up my cookies it started to rain so hard. It got very dark and the wind was blowing like crazy. Maria looked out into the park from the kitchen window and said "Wow! It's already broken off branches!". The wind was very strong. The sky got dark extremely fast to go along with the constant thunder. An hour later it was all over. I love rain storms, so it was fun while it lasted. I hope we get a lot more of them throughout the summer.

Martins Cove

2009-06-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

Bright and early Monday morning Kaytlyn down through Maria attended Stake Conference. This year we drove out, via Le Bus, to Wyoming. Although it was a very long bus ride, it was so worth it! On the bus we where put into "Families". [[Those where the people we would be sharing a tent with.]] There was about a 7 mile walk with nearly 100lbs worth of clothing, water, etc., on a handcart that we where required to take along the trail to our camp site. It was rough, but such a wonderful experience.
On Tuesday, our second day there. We walked a few miles to reach "Martine's Cove". What a wonderful experience. Sister Santiago and her sister, Sister Harper, sang Hymns, and other pioneer songs the whole way there. As they lead everyone else around us into song, the spirit was so amazing. It was so wonderful. Before walking through the cove we ate lunch, and then got a blessing from our Stake President. It felt amazing.
I walked through the cove with two of my good friends, Alan Barney, and Josh Gootee. I was filled with gratitude to be able to walk through with them. Throughout the time I've known them they have been an insperation, and so kind to me. The spirit that comes with these two young men is just unbelievable.

After everyone was out of the cove, we headed over to the river to hear a story. And have the chance to walk through the river. I didn't go in, and I wish I had. Though, Kaytlyn, Mara, and Joshua went through, along with so many other youth. It was way nice to watch them walk through. A lot of the young men offered to carry across so many of the young women, it was just unbelievable and kind.

The walk back to camp was a real rough one. While not having eaten much in the past two week, I had gotten myself real ill. I tried to hang in there and just go through with it. But being dehydrated, and exposed to too much heat, heading toward heat stroke, it was real hard. We got to a point where all the men where taken to the top of the hill, and us women sat on the grass. The 1st councelor in the Stake Presidency talked with the Women about how big of a roll we play. While the 2nd councelor in the Presidency talked with the men about... men stuff.
The Young Women then took the carts and had to, by ourselves, run up the hill while the men watched us, not being able to help. The feelings, and responses I heard from some of the young men was just so unbelievable touching.

Later that night we had testimony meeting. The stake presidency bore their testimonies then sent us back to our individual camp fires to have smaller testimony meetings. It was nice.
Pretty early Wednesday morning we left for home. The walk back to the buses was cool, then very hot, then for about the last 3 miles it rained so hard. That was one of my favorite moments.

While it rained and everyone got soaked I felt the spirit most. As I mentioned before, Josh G. bring a lot of courage, and warmths. He pulled that hand cart the entire way back to the bus. Without any complaint, in a short sleve white shirt. While everyone else moved out of the way so that they wouldn't have to walk through the mud, Josh just took that hard cart straight through. Not even thinking twice. Just thinking that we could get sick if we got stuck out there for too long, he wanted to get us all into warm clothes, and on the bus as soon as possible, without becoming real ill. He was so sweet. It was... incredible.

Youth Conference this year has been my favorite. It is one that I will remember, and cherish forever. I am so glad that I chose to go, instead of going because my parents said. I chose that I would go, and enjoy it.
One last thought, a few days before I went to youth conference I was talking on facebook with my friend Jordan N. (Who is in my stake.) As I told him how I felt about going on the trek and how it just didn't feel right to me. He replied telling me he was in a hurry and had to go. Seconds before he logged off he said "Leah. You will be blessed if you go on the TREK." Those words just hit me so hard. He made my experience at trek amazing by saying those words. It changed my attitude about so many things. I'll always be thankful to him.

Super Saturday.

2009-06-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

Today was Saturday. Not really different from any other day in the summer, except for the fact, it's the only day before Sunday. After taking a morning time shower I got on the computer to chat with friends. A few moments later I found out that we where going to the "Utah Lake Festival". My first thought; "Oh no! My hair!". It was still soaking wet, and I figured it'd frizz. ahh! Well, we still went. Kaytlyn down to, the youngest, Emma got into the car with my wonderful Father and drove out to the Festival. They had facts, face painting, fishing, and food. It really was a party! We didn't stay very long. Just long enough to see what was going on, vote on some pictures. And have my Father take a picture of us children in front of the Lake. It was a nice way to spend my morning. (:

After the lake we drove by the "Provo Farmers Market". But decided we would go look around there next Saturday. (They will be there every Saturday throughout the summer.) We went home and got work done, then played around. Youth Conference starts bright and early Monday morning at 5 o'clock. My sweet Mother unpacked and repacked with us kids for the TREK double, then triple checking to make sure we had everything. Just after 5 we went to the final weigh in at the Stake Center. Finally! After words we went to buy pizza for dinner.

After dinner my dear Mother took Maria, Gabrielle, Emma and I to the Provo Town Center to see the new movie "UP". It was a very fun movie. I'd suggest it to pretty much anyone. (:
-Here is a photo of Maria and I just outside our car after the movie-
After failing at trying to convince My mother, along with Maria, to go to Maceys and get ice cream cones. We went home and ate some ice cream we had there. Of course. It was delicious.

Today was quite the day. I love being able to get out. And even better. Getting out with Family! They can be a blast. (:

Too much!!

2009-06-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have sooo many pictures from the way too and from California, and everything in between, that need to be uploaded and posted. But I just don't seem to find the right moment to get them up. So gradually over the summer I will update everyone with what happened in California this summer.

Now, lets go back in time to Wednesday June 3, 2009.

We arrived home about half past 7 in the morning. Most everyone was exhausted and went straight to bed. I was one of them. I slept from about 7:45-10:30. The rest of the day was... hmm... how should I put this... a "Relaxing Hectic Day"? Everyone sat around, watching Movies, playing games, catching up with friends online, or playing with the neighbors kids. It was kind of nice to be back. That night was when it started to get crazy. Mom was trying to get everything organized, and went out shopping for the youth conference TREK trip Kaytlyn, Mara, Joshua, Maria and I will be attending. (So nice of her.) As it neared 5 or 6 o'clock at night mom was just finishing up my 2nd skirt for the TREK. As us kids that will be going, packed our buckets that aren't allowed to be over 17 lbs.

(Surprisingly my bucket weighed the least, 10.5 lbs. and only filled up half the bucket!)

I finished packing, and needed something to entertain me until mutual, so I took photos of everything going on.

-Mother dear finishing my skirt.

I asked Ria to show me how excited she was for TREK, this was her response. Classic. Ria and I are not very excited to be going on TREK. Yes we know we should be excited. But it just hasn't hit us yet. We have talked it through, and are trying to be positive about the whole thing. I hope it all turns out well!

So... We are girls? I forgot what these expression are. Probably something along the lines of
1. "What does your face say to meeting at the Stake Center by 5 in the morning?"
2. "There's going to be dancing!"

What's cooking?

2009-06-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

Today was everyone's first day on the job. My sweet mother put together a list of jobs for us to accomplish today. Everyone was lucky Maria was assigned with the job "Cookies". Maria and Kaytlyn worked together in the kitchen making "No Bake Cookies" and "Oatmeal Cookies". [[Two of my personal favorites!]]

Getting closer to the end of making the cookies, Kaytlyn headed off to work, (At Famous Footwear). So I helped finish up. (:

Joshua was put in charge of mowing the Front and Back Lawn. Besides being a bother to me while I was trying to do my job, Weed Whacker, he did an excellent job and finished up fast. After he finished his assignment, he Gabrielle, and Emma walked up to Wasatch Elementary School to count and measure... things... on the black top for Joshua's Eagle Project he hopes to accomplish this summer.

After he finished up at Wasatch he came home to play some video games, of course. He asked if he could play "Wii Fit". And got right on it. He loved it so much! Him, Kaytlyn and I got a few good laughs out of it. Watching him 'exercise' was lots of fun. He's got a lot of "Upper Body Strength." ha. I love my little brother!

For today, Emma was responsible for "Picking Up".

[[Side note: Kaytlyn took everyone to the Library today to get some books. As we where on our way Kaytlyn was making sure we all knew what our jobs where. As she went over it, and came to Emma's name she said "Emma: Picking up... hahah. But that doesn't mean picking up boys!" Emma replied with something like: "I get to pick up boys?!"]]

Emma Picked up in the Living Room, and Family Room.
Afterwords she got Gabrielle to play the Wii with her.
(As shown in the picture above.)
They seemed to have a great time.
Summer should be a blast!

Everyone's at work.

2009-06-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

School ended a week ago. So summer is in. As school was finishing up, I asked my friends what their plans where for the summer break. The majority of the replies I got where; "Oh, just sleeping in until at least noon!" Sighh. I wish more people would realize what god has given us. And what we are able to do. There are so many arts and crafts, and other fun activities you can do. That don't cost money, or are hardly expensive. I'd suggest that everyone gets their recommended hours of sleep, but do that by going to bed early, and rising early.

-In my family this is what we do in the summer time;

It was decided last night that we have Breakfast and Scripture Study at 8:00 A.M.

Gabrielle and Emma asked to be signed up for summer school at Wasatch Elementary Monday- Thursday. So they attend that from 9-12.

Meanwhile Maria, Joshua, Mara and I try to get our jobs done. My dear Mother and Father are both working. So it's up to us to make sure that the house is clean and presentable. Mother dear writes out our names on a paper, and lists one job per day, that we will do for the next two weeks. I think it's a wonderful idea.

When Gabrielle and Emma come back from Summer School they are responsible for getting their daily job done. There is usually no complaining when my mother writes out the list like this. Once we see that others have things to do as well, we visually see that it's not unfair at all. We all live in this house. And we all need to do our part to make it a "Heaven on Earth."

The Ending.

2009-06-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

Looks like our trip is coming to an end. This trip we:

Saturday

Arrived in Chino California at Aunt Sheila's house Saturday night to see the newest, and cutest baby in Chino, Abby and Jordans new daughter.

Loaded up again, and went to drop by Grandmas house to say hi, and drop some stuff off, then go to dinner at Ita's house.

Sunday

9 O'clock in the morning we where at Grandmas Church. Then by 11 O'clock we where at Ita's ward for another hour of Sacrament meeting.
From Church we went straight to Rose Hill Cemetery to visit Benjamin's, Ito's, and other family members grave sites.
Then Sweet and Sour meatball's with Grandma.

Monday

For Breakfast we had Mini Muffins. Yummy.
By 8 we where on the road, I think, headed for Six Flags.
We spent the day, from 10:30-6 (Open-Close) at six flags.
Got dinner, Inn-n-Out. (DELICIOUS!)
Went to Ita's house to say hi. We where all very grumpy (Except me of course, (; )
After we got back to Grandmas, most of us where knocked out.
Kaytlyn, Karla, and Peter went to Target to get peter Board Shorts.

Tuesday

Grandma gave us "Before Breakfast Appetizers" they where delicious strawberries.
We then went and had morning rice, and menudo at Ita's.
Then went back to Grandmas to change and get ready for the beach.
Went to the beach, and spent the afternoon there.

Now

Kaytlyn, Karla, and Mara just went to Jump the wall and run over to the 99 cent store.
While Maria and I sit and talk.
Mommy took the other kids to Ita's house, it's Ita's birthday so we are having her Birthday dinner over there.
We are leaving California at 6 (6 California time, 7 Utah time), and should be there around 6 tomorrow morning.

Two Minute Briefing

2009-06-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!
This morning has been very... interesting. Everyone has been running all over grandmas house.
I just finished breakfast, delicious mini muffins and fruit, so mouth watering!
I have been in and out of the back bedroom, where my parents are staying, fixing my outfit, hair, and make-up all morning while my favorite daddy sat working on some stuff at the computers making those Father like comments as I walked in and made my funny noises when my hair didn't look right.
As I was doing my hair for the last time, so I hoped, Dad was clearing off pictures from his phone.

*Reminder; today is magic mountain. He wants room on his phone, and camera to take pictures of his lovely daughters... and 2 of his sons screaming their heads off.

When dad chuckled and said "Oh gosh you girls are silly." I knew he was looking at the pictures I recently posted. Of us girls getting ready in the bathroom.
hahah I love the memories pictures bring from the past. It's always like a news flash.

Speaking of news, you all should become followers of my dads news blog. He updates it regularly and always has great input. I was listening to my Grandma, and mother dear talk about it yesterday. I've looked at it too and it's just really well done. You should all go and check it out, that would be wonderful!!

http://noticed.twominutebriefing.com/

Home sweet home.

2009-05-31T16:03:00.001-07:00

We safely made it back to one of our families favorite spots. Whittier California.

Yearly our family makes a trip to our home town Whittier California, just outside of L.A. (So I'm told). It is always such a delight.
We hardly have any problems during the 10-12ish hours it takes us to drive there.
The time in the car is usually spent: Sleeping, laughing, talking, or eating.
I loved, for the last hour, co-piloting and listening to the 4 different conversations going on in the back, that all, some how, ended up forming together into one conversation.
We safely arrived to my grandmothers home just around 5, I think, Saturday night. We then later went to eat dinner at my Tio Victors house.
We had a great time seeing our cousins. As well as finally getting to see Mikeys new finished home. It's so gorgeous.

Today was Sunday, duh. Church was at 9 so around 7 everyone was eating cereal, or grapefruit, YUM!
Getting closer to 8:15 us girls all hurried to finish brushing our teeth, doing make up, or fixing our hair.
I suppose daddy thought it was silly of us, and way funny that we would cram us 4 girls in and out of 1 (1 of the 2) bathroom doorways. So he took a photo,
here is Mara brushing her teeth.
Maria brushing her teeth while I do her hair with my eye liner, and mascara in my mouth,
and Kaytlyn getting ready to brush her teeth right after fixing her hair.
It was quite the morning.

We attended Sacrament meeting at Grandmas, then went over to Itas ward for their sacrament meeting. Even though we where all really tired, it was a great experience.
After the meetings we all got back in the Van and headed over to the Cemetery to see our beloved brother Benjamin. Along with Ito, and other wonderful relatives.
The Cemetery always brings such a wonderful feeling to me, I really enjoy every opportunity we can while we are in California to go to the Rose Hill Cemetery to see Benjamin.

After the Cemetery we went and had lunch at Itas while we visited. Lunch was DELICIOUS. We then came back to Grandmas house and now currently having "nap time". Dinner will be around 6. Grandma says we are having meatballs... well at least I hope! (:
I love California and wish we could come more often, but once a year is just fine with me.
I'm so thankful to the lord for providing us these opportunities to come and visit with Family.
It really is just so wonderful. The weather has been a bit cold. But of course, gorgeous.
It was so nice on our way here talking with my daddy about the weather, and places that we where passing by, he knows SO much. I love talking with him.
Tomorrow is Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Hopefully Tuesday will be the beach.
Then Wednesday we should be back to Provo in the late afternoon.
So a very short trip, but well worth it.(:

Random Pictures?

2009-05-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Cute little nephew Josh (Genevieve and Mikes Son). With Kats Senior Ball Mask.

After Family Dinner on Sunday, Mother and Daddy sat outside by the tent.
How adorable. I LOVE THEM!

Kat, and her best friend Karla went to Senior Ball in the same group.

Friday night we had a little camp out in our backyard, some neighbors came to cook hot dogs and such, it was a lot of fun. Daddy and I played the guitar.

Kat is a Honor Graduate.

Me, at MIA- Graduation Night.

Joshua was taking random pictures, so I took one of him.
[[Graduation MIA Night.]]

Maria (Top) and I (Bottom (: ) Where seeing who was darker.
*NOTE!= Don't draw on your Temple, parents are not huge fans of it.

Joshua was taking random pictures during the MIA Graduation Night.

Walmart

2009-05-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

This summer Kat, Mars, Ria and I are going to be attending our Provo Peak East Stake Youth Conference. (Wow talk about long name!) This year we will be going on the "Trek" (Also known as, Martins Cove).
Monday night my mother took Ria, Mars, and I shopping for fabric for our skirts and bonnets. All the young women where put in charge of making a skirt, that goes down to your ankle, and a bonnet, to protect you from that firey ball up in the sky.
It only took us about 2 hours to pick out what fabric we wanted.
Mars will tell you "It only took me like 30 minutes!"
Ria will say "Mine just took under an hour!"
And my mother will probably say "Leahs took the longest! Ugh Leahs now a days!"
haha(: It was a wonderful time to spend together.

My mother and I almost got 5 hours in of spending time together last week.
Monday we didn't have school so my mother took me to get my DRIVERS PERMIT!
Yes, I got it. My mother took me to go driving almost a week later, but I still went,
I made up excuses for my bad stoppings, such as:
"Oh My Gosh! wow. Sorry mom! There was a penguin!"
Yeahh... She didn't seem to believe me for some reason...
Anyways, that took about 2 hours on that monday.
Then (The next time I can remember...) Thursday she took me to the doctor (Ahh! :/).
That only took about 2 hours. She wasn't very happy she'd been missing so much work.
I tried to convince her to hang out with me for one hour on Friday.
She disagreed right away! Her excuse was that she had to go to work,
psh! (: I LOVE MY MOMMY!

Swimming.

2009-05-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Peter.

haha. Girls. Ria. Emma. Kaytlyn.

Mia getting in the hot tub.

JUMP!

hahah oh wow.
Peter. Joshua. Mars. Leah. Ria. Gaby. Mia. Kaytlyn.

You've gotta love your family time.

Tio and Niece.

Sisterly Love.

2009-05-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

White=Leah. Brown=Ria. Black= My very own baby brother Josh.

Special Project

2009-05-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

There is a huge story behind this.
And it's on my list of things to do.
But I need everyone's help.
I am working on this HUGE project, but it wasn't until this morning around 3:18 A.M. that I realized I couldn't do it alone.
If you would like to help me fulfill this project that would be amazing!
All I'm asking for is donations of Coins.
Most people say they HATE coins.
So here is your chance, I will take your change! (:
I'm thinking I'm going to end up doing a fundraiser in a little bit,
If you would like to wait,
If not, just send me an email, if you will be willing to donate some change,
And I'll tell you what it is for too!
Please and thank you sooooo much!
-Leah.

-Email me if you would like to help out:
monsivais.leah@yahoo.com

leah+scissors=?

2009-05-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

me and cristian.

May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, was quite the day.
May 5th was a celebration for the conquering of a war in Mexico, as well as Genevieve, and Mikes Anniversary! They have been married since 2001, and have one adorable little boy, Josh who will be turning 5 this year.
Back to the topic, On May 5th I was sick of my hair, so I decided I would get it cut. But I'm so tired of saying "I want a trim" and losing 6 inches. So I decided I would just cut it myself.
It took me about 3 hours to wash, dry, laugh, freak out, drop 7 pairs of scissors, 12 combs, and end up with a new hair cut.
Lots of people have said it looks pretty good, surprising.
Today I just decided that I really liked it! But I was also think "Hmm I wonder if I do this, would it look cuter?" the answer, "NO" Just a few hours ago I accidentally cut my bangs, the most important part of my hair, too short! And only part of them! ahh!!!
I just can't stress, or it'll take forever to grow up.
Note: Let someone else cut your hair, you probably shouldn't do it yourself.

Reminds me of when I asked Ria if I could cut her hair about 2 years ago, well just her bangs, poor Ria said yes. She has a callic and silly me pulled on her bangs when I was cutting them, they ended up just about an inch long. AHH!! Wow was in in trouble!!

By The Way, I cut my own hair, and my friend Cristian, in the photo, asked me to cut his hair too, So I did, how he wanted it. He said he liked it. I was soooo surprised.

Lost.

2009-05-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Lately everything has been a bit too crazy for me to be able to get online and update.
I will get to it really soon though! Hopefully Monday.
I'll let you all know about Cinco de Mayo. And all the other fun stuff my family and I have been up to.
Today is a pretty relaxed day.
Right now Ria, Mars, Joshua, and I are watching a movie, While mother, daddy, Kat, Gabrielle, and Emmy, along with some neighbors are working on the garden.
Ria kept asking about what type of garden we are having, I told her plenty of times it was going to be a green one but she didn't listen. Mother finally told her it was going to be a vegetable Garden.
(sighh. oh great. more tomatoes yuck!) I'm really excited. (: haha. I really hope we plant green peas! yummy!

Dress up time!!

2009-04-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, David and Heidi are getting married! I am not quite sure on the date. But I know it is in July. A few weeks ago Peter took Mars, Ria, Gabrielle, and I to his store, Down East outfitters, to try on outfits for the wedding.
Because of my out going attitude why we where there, I ended up trying on all of our options.
Here are some pictures of the outfit options right now...

Lets make some noise!

2009-04-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

I really wish I had so much to say about this.
But sadly I am not very informed.
What I do know though is that Kaytlyn recently had her last Jazz Band Performance!
Mara was also in it, but Mars is only a sophomore this year so she still has 2 years to go! yay!! (;
The concert was the day of our stake Young Woman's Recognition so sadly Ria and I couldn't go, I know that some family, and a lot of friends attended.
And that it was WONDERFUL!!
Kaytlyn is seriously sooo amazing! I love how much you sets her heart to things, I have recently grown really close with Kaytlyn, we have so much fun driving around in her "dolphin" car. Kaytlyn has a laugh that really touches people, it is so adorable. I love her lots.
By the way, Kaytlyn is moving out this summer! She is planning on moving into the basement of Michael and Erins house with her best friend Karla. And will hopefully be starting school at BYU soon!