Gotta love 'em Parents.

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.

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!!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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. (: