Brad & Cindi Pearce Family

Where in the World is Tara Going?

2012-01-18T07:23:00.001-08:00

Tara officially sent in her missionary papers this past Wednesday. In our front entry hall we have set up some maps and anyone who comes to the house (UPS man/wrong address/neighbors/salesmen) have to make a guess as to where she is going. If you can't make it by the house just send me a message of where you think she will go and we will put a flag up for you!

A USA Map!

A World Map!

We have Great prizes for the winners! We have stationary to write Tara letters on, colorful pens to write her colorful letters, birthday, Halloween, & Christmas cards to send her when she is gone. As well as the Grand Prize of......books of stamps to use to send her letters!

Welcome Home Jordan!

2012-01-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

We went to pick up Jordan, in Paris, on July 21st. Brad had a work issue that kept him from coming until the next day, so Jordan and I spent that first day just walking around her neighborhood in Paris.

Here is Jordan in front of her favorite garden!

Every time we have gone to Paris, it has either been for work or with our kids as tourists. This was our first time to just get to mosey around the city, sit in the gardens and have absolutely nothing to do or see. It was so fun.

Jordan's apartment was only a few blocks from Notre Dame.

This is where you exit on the Bastille metro stop. It is where Jordan lived. If you turned the camera around her apartment is right behind us.

Sitting on the Seine!

We were able to visit all of Jordan's favorite gardens!

On Sunday we went to church. It was fun to meet Jordan's district and watch her at work. We were able to attend a baptism of a man that Jordan had been teaching on Saturday and watch him get confirmed on Sunday.

Jordan saying good-bye to her companion! She had trained Sister Smith so it was like watching them cut the umbilical cord.

Then we rented the smallest car ever and drove up to Normandy.

Along the way we stopped and had lunch in this town called Rouen. Whenever I have watched Beauty and the Beast, I always thought it was weird that Belle was in France because it just did not seem like the France I knew. But after going to Rouen, I know where Belle lived. I kept expecting a little baker to step out of his shop and say, "Bon Jour!"

The buildings were all so colorful. The whole time I was there I felt like we were at Disneyland in a little French Village.

After we left Rouen, we went up to another little town called Caen. This was where Jordan lived for 4 months.

This is a view of the city from William the Conqueror's Chateau.

Another picture of this cute City!

The front of William's little chateau

I don't know if you will remember in Jordan's letters when she talked about getting pooped on by pigeons EVERYDAY walking under a bridge on her way to the church. Well funny thing is, she forgot to mention it was a 1,000 year old bridge that was the entrance to William the Conqueror's Chateau. I think when you live in places like this, you forget that us Americans think stuff like that is totally cool! I think she should have felt honored to be pooped on by those pigeons.

Here is the entrance to her apartment.

Caen was just as cute as Rouen, and I could not stop taking pictures. This is the street where Jordan lived. The whole middle of the town was filled with bright buildings and cobble stone streets that were only open for walking.

Still walking around Caen.

After leaving Caen we drove up to the World War 2 sights. Here is one of the guns on Omaha Beach.

Here is a map of the beaches and you can see Omaha Beach in the background.

Walking down to Omaha Beach!

On the beach

After we walked down to Omaha Beach we went and visited the American Cemetery.

It was amazing. That's really all I can say. I think you would have to go there to believe it.

After we left the cemetery, we went and visited more of the beaches. Here is Brad in a crater made from a bomb hitting the ground. The entire area for miles was just like swiss cheese with these craters.

You can see on the left another big gun and Brad and Jordan walking down to the edge of the cliff. This is the cliff where the Americans came and climbed up on ropes to the top of the cliff to overtake the Germans.

The thing that was most amazing to me, is that this entire area is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places I have ever visited in my entire life. It was hard to even picture the fighting and loss of life that took place here.

And the highlight of the trip was going to visit with Marie Laure and her kids in Caen. This a lady that Jordan and her companion started talking to on a bus one day. Marie Laure told the girls that she thought they "glowed" when she saw them and wanted to visit with them. Marie Laure was baptized this past spring. Here is Brad looking at a picture book of Jesus with Gabrielle.

Here is Jordan with Rapael, Marie Laure and Gabrielle. It was amazing to watch Jordan and this little family sit on the floor together and chat like they had been best friends forever. Even though Brad and I couldn't understand a word that was said, it was easy to see how much Jordan loved this family and how much they had meant to her and vice versa. Marie Laure asked me how could I have ever let Jordan go out on a mission and leave us for a year and a half. After sitting in this little family room and watching them all together, I had an easy answer. I told her that I could let her go for a year and a half, so that she could come and help families like hers find the gospel so they could be together forever too!

Stephanie's Wedding

2011-12-04T12:09:00.001-08:00

My niece, Stephanie, got married in July.

Here are Tara, Steph & Halle at the Mt. Timpanogas Temple

Halle took her job as a flower girl seriously and did her best not to let Steph's dress drag on the ground!

Utah State Gymnastics Championships!

2011-10-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Halle competed in the Utah State Gymnastics Championships in June. The season begins in Feb and there are 6 meets over the next 4 months. The scores at all of the meets are added up and the top 25 girls come to Salt Lake City in June for the State Championships.

I didn't want the suspense to get to you, so I started with a picture of Halle and her medals.

Halle scored,

9.575 on vault - 2nd Place

9.475 on bars - 1st Place

9.325 on beam - 3rd Place

9.3 on floor - 3rd Place

37.575 - 1st Place All Around

Halle was the Utah State Level 4 All-Around Gymnastics Champion!

State Tennis champions!

2011-10-31T18:21:00.001-07:00

John & Matthew both played tennis this year for Timpview! Timpview won the state championship as a team!
John played #1 singles and Matthew played #2 singles, they both won the individual state championship as well!

Here is the team with the trophy!

Here are 3 individual state tennis champions. Matthew and John both won in the 4A division and John's doubles partner and friend Keaton, won the state championship, playing #1 singles in the 5A division. Keaton came out to cheer on John & Matthew!

We had a lot of family come up and watch the boys play their final matches! It was great to have everyone there.

Les Miserables!

2011-10-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

My niece Katie was in the play Les Miserables at Orem High School. She invited Halle to come be in the play with her. Halle loved it so much and had so much fun!

Katie and Halle after one of the shows!

On stage, getting ready to take their bows!

John & Jr. Prom! April, 2011

2011-10-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

John had a great time at Jr. Prom! He went with his cousin Jacob and a big group of friends. For their day date they played the amazing race and had to find clues all over town. One of them included riding a public bus to an apartment complex at BYU. It was hilarious to see a bunch of kids from Provo, Utah try to figure out where you can even find a public bus and how to get somewhere in town.

Everyone eventually (one group arrived an hour and a half after everyone else) made it to the party at the Jensen's after. This was followed by Dinner and the dance and then a swim party after the dance. It was a lot of fun!

Here is John getting ready to go pick up his date for Jr. Prom! He borrowed his G-pa's sportscar for the big night!

John & his date

The entire Group!

I'm back! Christmas 2010!

2011-10-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

K, so I know, I took a break from blogging. But I am back and just adding a few updates from the year!

Josh & Halle with Santa!

Everyone got "monkey suits" for Christmas Eve!

Halle on Christmas morning!

Jordan and her companion celebrating Christmas in France!

Jordan spent all but 4 months of her mission in Paris or in a suburb of Paris. On Dec 22, she and her companion moved to a small town named Caen in Normandy, where they spent the next 4 months. They arrived in the middle of a huge blizzard that shut down the entire city, didn't know a single person in the town, but still got settled in nice and cozy and had a great day! (She did get a monkey suit, so I don't know why she is not wearing it!)

Soldiers Hollow

2011-01-12T16:14:00.001-08:00

We have a new tradition (2 years) of renting out the Soldiers Hollow tubing hill & lodge with 100 of our friends for a private party on the Monday Night before Christmas!

I was so worried this year because we didn't have any snow, I was actually calling Soldier Hollow on Sunday asking what our options were if there was no snow for tubing. Luckily we woke up Monday morning to a HUGE Christmas Storm. It was so fun to be up there with the snow coming down, Christmas music playing over the speakers and so many fun friends & family members to visit with!

Here is Matthew with his cousins Caroline & Justin warming up with

Hot chocolate & doughnuts inside the lodge.

Matthew Cunger, Brittney, Cari Driggs, Halle & Steph!

Caroline, Justin, Jacob, Michael & tough guy Matthew!

Brad, Cindi & Tara!

Gingerbread houses!

2010-12-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

Last night we had our annual gingerbread decorating contest at Lisa's house.

Girls vs. Boys.

Here are the girls with their house. They made and decorated the North Pole complete with elves and presents inside! They even decorated one side of the roof with an 80's style pattern, hoping to appeal to the judges!

And here are the boys with their gingerbread "house." The boys declared before the contest began that they felt as though they have been "ripped off" in past years because the judging panel (the mom's) don't always appreciate their designs. Reminder: last year they decorated the death of Osama Bin Laden complete with army men and blood. They tried to explain that would mean world peace, but still lost to the Girls.

So this year, the boys went for full out judge manipulation! They made a decoration in honor of Seour Pearce, who is serving a mission in Paris France, and "sharing the Gospel, and spreading Good will and Peace!" heehee
Notice the church building (where Jordan attends church and the "Called to Serve" (in french) banner at the top.

(Anyone who has been a missionary mom knows that there is no way I wasn't voting for this "house" to win.)

Here are the highlights, you can see the Eiffel Tower, and I loved the missionary tag complete with Jordan behind it with her blond hair!

From the top view you can see the outline of France with the ocean (blue) and Spain, Germany & Italy (Purple) around the edges. Also the brown thing in the corner is a book of mormon.

And here are the boys celebrating their victory!

And here are the judges. We have told everyone we will start accepting bribes for next years contest, beginning....now!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T19:58:00.001-07:00

This year Brad, John & Matthew had to go to Las Vegas for a tennis tournment over Halloween! Brad has 4 seniors this year on his team, so he has been out recruiting almost constantly the last couple of months.

So, Josh, Halle & I were alone at home, Josh ended up sick for trick or treating, but we still managed to have a fun night!

After going to New York City this summer, Halle was inspired to be the Statue of Liberty!

Josh was a BYU football player (again). His inspiration is his cousin Tyler! Josh was actually a little bent out of shape that I made him wear his BYU #31 (Tyler's #) uniform again and wasn't willing to buy him an Oklahoma Sooners uniform. Tyler just started dental school @ Oklahoma. I told Josh I would get him a Sooner's t-shirt but if he wanted to dress up like Tyler again, he had to stick with the BYU uniform at least for this year. Maybe next year he can dress up like a dentist!

Brad, John, Keaton Cullimore, Matthew & Kirk Cullimore dressed up like a herd of cow's for Halloween! They showed up for their matches wearing these costumes at the tennis center in Las Vegas!

John & Brad

Here is John at the desk checking into play his semi-final doubles match!

Keaton warming up for doubles!

John warming up!

They took off the costumes for the match and won that match and then won the final match the next day!

My favorite Fall Tradition!

2010-10-12T11:12:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite fall traditions is going to look at the leaves up at Sundance. We always drive up between conference sessions on Sunday. It is so pretty up there, I have to remind my kids that not every place in the world looks like a postcard!

Josh, Halle, Tara, John & Matthew

John & Halle

Brad went and put on this orange shirt to really "get into the spirit of the fall season!"

Matthew & Josh were on a bug hunt!

This is looking out as we are driving back down, you can see in the background where we ski all winter!

John & Keaton!

2010-09-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

John & Keaton won their third doubles tournament in a row last week in Las Vegas! They won a national tournament in Carmel, California a few weeks ago. Then they won the BYU invitational, at that tournament they beat a BYU team as well as 2 University of Utah teams. And then last weekend they won the Agassi tournament in Vegas! It has been fun to see them doing so well!

Homecoming!

2010-09-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Homecoming @ Timpview! This was John's first school date dance. They started the day by going up the canyon to a cabin @ Sundance and having lunch and a bon-fire.

John went with Madeleine Pinegar.

After lunch they hiked to Stewart Falls!
Madeleine, John, Kelsey Matthews & Keaton Cullimore.

Here is John getting ready for the dance.

John's good friend and doubles partner, Keaton, came down to go to Homecoming with John and his friends. Here is Matthew helping Keaton tie his tie for the date! When I walked in the room and saw Matthew up on the couch behind Keaton (because he can only tie a tie from that direction) I laughed and laughed and then had to run get my camera.

Dallas Warner, John, Keaton & Jacob Jensen all decked out ready to go!

Here they are with their dates!

Madeleine & John

At dinner!

After dinner they went to the Jensen's and ate crepes and played games!

New York!

2010-09-16T07:40:00.001-07:00

Brad and I had to go to NYC for USTA meetings. We took Josh & Halle with us and had a great time.

This is right outside of our hotel (the Grand Hyatt). You can see the Chrysler building in the back.

Josh & Halle in Times Square!

Inside Toy's-R-Us @ Times Square. This is in the lego section (that entire empire state building behind them is made out of legos).

Here they are in Grand Central Station, we had to go see the clock where Melman got his head stuck in the movie Madagascar!

We ran into Sponge Bob on the street!

Brad, Josh & Halle looking out from the top of the Empire State Building!

Another view from the top!

The total tourists!

We rented bikes and took a 6 mile bike ride around central park. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

And then rented remote control boats to drive around one of the ponds in the park.

Another highlight was meeting our niece Kimber for the afternoon. She took us to lunch at Max Brenner - Chocolate by the Bald Man. It was so tasty and a super cute restaurant.

Halle in front of the chocolate shop/restaurant!

We then walked with Kimber down to South Seaport and looked at the boats and ferries! This was a really fun area! It was so fun to see Kimber and also to get an "insiders" view of NYC!

Josh & Halle wanted to go on the "Beast." It is a speedboat that takes you on a 30 minute boat tour down the Hudson to the Statue of Liberty!

In front of the Statue of Liberty!

Brad, Josh & Halle at the US Open!

And for sure one of Halle's highlights (and mine too) was the American Girl Doll Store. We walked every inch of the 4 floors looking at the displays. Halle wanted to make sure she got the perfect outfit for her doll.

Inside the store, you can tell this is one happy girl!

Here they are about to get on a train. We spent plenty of time on planes, trains and automobiles. By the end of the week, I would start walking to the subway station and Josh would be hailing a cab for us because they had walked miles and miles!

One night Brad took Josh to a Yankee's game. Here they are on the subway riding out to the field.

Josh in front of the New Stadium!

They had great seats, look how close they were to Derek Jeter!

While the boys went to watch the Yankee's, Halle & I went and saw Wicked! She loved the play even though she isn't totally convinced that the wicked witch was just "misunderstood!"

With her program after the play!

Jamaica!

2010-09-15T08:18:00.001-07:00

Brad and I were able to spend an amazing week in Jamaica! It has been so long since we were able to get away for a "real" vacation. This is our beach, it was so great to grab a mat and float around the ocean watching the beautiful sunsets.

We stayed at a resort (and literally NEVER left) that had everything we needed. You would just grab a ski off the rack and jump out in the water and the guys would throw you a rope and pull you around the bay. We also were able to go scuba diving every afternoon!

Brad loved skiing!

We were too busy relaxing to remember to take pictures, but I did grab one of this huge sand crab trying to sneak up on us!

Lake Powell!

2010-09-13T11:48:00.001-07:00

We had a great Abbott family trip to Lake Powell this year. Everyone except for Jordan was able to go down and stay for the entire week. That is getting harder and harder to make happen. We had so much fun!

Here are Matthew Conger & Halle trying to row their raft across the lake. We didn't worry to much that they would get too far out, because Halle took a super soaker instead of an oar to do her part, so Matthew just kind of rowed them in circles!

Matthew Pearce

John after a ski run!

David, Katie & Josh

Josh & David taking the Bayliner for a spin!

Here are Halle & Katie during one of our nightly "dance parties." We told everyone to only pack the "necessities" for the trip, so we were fortunate that the Disco Ball made the list!

Halle & Steph!

John playing the "catch the ball while jumping off the top of the houseboat" game that keeps the boys entertained for hours and hours!

Josh playing!

Here is John trying to get the ball going down the slide

Success!

Halle

Michael, John & G-pa keeping up with their images!

Josh & Halle

Brad going out for an early morning ski-run!

Europe!

2010-09-01T07:25:00.001-07:00

We took John & Matthew to Europe with the BYU team this summer. I blogged everyday on the BYU blog, but never got around to blogging here. www.byutennis.blogspot.com

Summer!

2010-08-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

We had so many great trips this summer. It made it almost impossible to blog. I feel like all I did was pack, do laundry and unpack and pack again. So I will try to give some highlights!

One of the highlights was going to Mexico with all of the adults in my family at the beginning of June!

Chuck, Oranee, Brad, Cindi, Kirstin, Nelson, Dave, Ali, Lisa & Kib

@ Lover's Beach!

We spent a lot of time on our beach just relaxing!

We found so many great Taco stands. This was one of our favorites. It was on the 9th hole of the golf course by our resort!

Brad doing some climbing!

This is Brad & Nelson trying to decide how far to push themselves in the waves at "Divorcee's Beach!"

Of course they had to go all the way out and brave the biggest waves!

This was the pool at our beach!

Last Gymnastics Meet of the Year!

2010-06-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the last gymnastics meet of the year for Halle. She had a great season and ended with great results at her last meet! Here she is with her medal!

Here she is on beam. She got a 9.4 for her beam routine!

More Beam!

She earned a 9.4 on Floor as well! That is her highest score she has earned on floor this season.

A good landing! She has been working hard on her "sticky feet!"

On the bars she earned a 9.3!

Here she is on the medal block after the meet! She took 1st place in the all-around competition!

Another Perk of Living in Utah!

2010-05-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of living in Utah is being surrounded by amazing leaders & General Authorities. Last week, John went to watch his friends play in the Timpview JV region tennis tournament. We looked over and saw him talking to Elder Holland. John came back over to us and we asked him what he was saying to Elder Holland, and John said, "Jeffrey R.?!?!?!?"

We told him, yes, that was Jeffrey R. Holland he was just chatting with. He said that they had just told him congrats on winning state last week & asked him how he had managed to come back after being so far down in the match.

I made John go back and shake Elder Holland's hand and apologize for not recognizing him with his hat and sunglasses. (I also made a commitment to not let John sleep through conference anymore!) When John apologized for not recognizing him, Elder Holland responded by saying, "well, you're the famous one!" Elder Holland was really sweet and chatted with John some more.

I don't have pictures but Matthew went to a Jazz/Lakers play-off game (the one where we lost by 1 point) with his tennis friend Paul Monson. They left really early in case there was traffic and ended up in Salt Lake about 2 hours before the game. So they were trying to decide what to do, Paul's dad said, "let's go see grandpa." Well, Matthew has been to the games before with Paul and has gone to his Grandpa's house to pick up the tickets, but never to visit for a couple of hours. Anyway, they went and spent some time visiting President & Sister Monson.

After the visit Matthew, Paul, his dad and President Monson all went to the game together. Matthew had no idea that President Monson was going to go the game with them. I asked him when he got home what he said, and I got a typical Matthew response, "I tried really hard not to talk because I was worried about what might come out!" He said he was worried a "Laker's suck" or something might just slip out. But good news (and the news that made mom the happiest) was that President Monson told Matthew that he must have a good mom because he was so polite and well-mannered.

I am grateful to have leaders that even though it was a small thing, both took the time to give each of my boys a small compliment. Both of those compliments left strong impressions on John & Matthew & really meant a lot.

When we told Jordan these stories, she related a story of an investigator who referred to President Monson as "he" and was worried that wasn't respectful enough. I think sometimes we take it for granted that we are surrounded by apostles & a prophet here in Utah. So I am grateful to live here!!! And I am grateful to have leaders that would take the time to help build up my kids confidence and make them feel good about themselves.

State Tennis Champion!

2010-05-23T09:22:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the High School State Tennis Championship! John played #1 singles for Timpview. Here he is hitting a serve!

John is a sophomore, in the semi-finals he had to play against Devin Lane. Devin has never lost a match in High School tennis. Devin won state as a Freshman & Sophomore and then had a broken ankle and couldn't play in the tournament last year. Devin is signed to play with the University of Utah next fall.

Brad was able to coach John during the match. In normal tournaments, there is no coaching allowed, so this was a great perk.

Here is John shaking Devin's hand after John won the match 6-2, 6-3!

Next John had to play University of Utah's other top recruit, Matt Cowley, who won state last year. John had less than an hour break after playing Devin and came out on the court a little tired. He was down 0-6, 0-3. He knew if he could pull this off, his team would have a chance at winning the team championship, so he just kept fighting and came back and won the match, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4!!! So John beat 2 past state champions (both seniors) to win the State Championship! And of course, there is NOTHING better than beating Utah's 2 top recruits!

Here is John coming to get his trophy!

His team ended up coming in 2nd place. They lost by 1 point! This was an amazing feat considering the only player who was on the varsity team last year was John!

Here is John with the family after the match! Thanks so much to everyone who came and spent an entire Saturday watching. My ENTIRE family was there to watch. Ali, Lindsey, Brittney, Katie & Kirstin were all there and had to leave early before we got any pictures, but thanks everyone!

Life is Crazy!!!

2010-05-17T20:14:00.001-07:00

This past month has been crazy. There are literally days where I think I might have a complete breakdown, but then I realize I don't have time! In the past month we have been to Vegas twice (5 days each time), Palm Springs, region high school tennis tournament, state high school tennis tournament, gymnastics meets, MWC championships, U of U match, & on top of all of that we are trying to keep everyone caught up in school and to all of their other practices and activities!

Here are Josh & Halle at the pool on one of our trips to Vegas (I can't remember which one, they all run together)!

Here is John with the Timpview Team after winning the divisional tennis tournament! This year instead of competing by regions, they divided the state in half (North & South) and only had 2 divisions. Timpview took 1st place as a team & John won the divisional at #1 singles. He only lost 1 game in the entire tournament!

Here is Halle & her teammates waiting for their turn on the floor at the last meet!

Here the girls are waiting for their ribbons. I somehow missed a picture of Halle with her ribbons, but she tied for 1st all-around with a score of 36.45! She earned a 9.15 (2nd place) on floor, a 9.05 (2nd place by .05) on bars, a 8.75 (4th place ) on vault, and a 9.5 (1st place) on beam!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

Here are Josh, Halle & Halle's friend Maddie dying the Easter eggs to get ready for the Easter Bunny!

I wanted to take pictures of them searching for the eggs, but they were running way to fast!

Luckily Matthew stepped in and helped the little kids find the rest of the eggs.

Josh & Halle with their loot!

The best part about Easter was having Brad home for the day and being able to watch General Conference! You can see that Josh & Halle have both missed having their dad around!

Viva Las Vegas!

2010-04-03T19:35:00.001-07:00

We are in the middle of tennis season, which means we occasionally see Brad pass through the house for a few hours. This time of year, there isn't much to blog other than tennis, tennis, and more tennis. This past week I took the kids to Vegas for John & Matthew to play in a sectional (6 states) tournament.

In our family we have an unwritten rule that everyone helps the person just younger than them in tennis. For example: Brad plays with John, John plays with Matthew, Matthew plays with Josh. So I thought it was so cute when Halle went out to hit, to see Josh jump out there and show her the right way to hit the ball!

Halle hitting!

Josh hitting!

The best part about tennis tournament is that the kids get to see their tennis friends. Here is John with Keaton Cullimore (from Salt Lake), Yannick Mahlangu (from Vegas) and Matt Oddonetto (from Boise).

John serving!

John's doubles partner, Keaton, told us that he had never been to the Bellagio to see the fountains. We were surprised because the boys play tournaments in Vegas 3-4 times a year. We decided he NEEDED to see the fountains!

Here the kids are in front of the Bellagio!

Legally Blond!

2010-03-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

Two years ago while we were in New York, our niece, Kimber Crandall told us the musical Legally Blond was really cute. We had the kids there with us and ended up seeing Wicked instead. After the kids left, Brad & I went to see Legally Blond and LOVED it. We were so sad that Jordan & Tara didn't get to see it. So when we heard it was coming to Salt Lake we bought tickets immediately!

Here is Brad & Tara in front of the Capital Theater before the show!

Here we all are! Tara loved the play as much as we did.

K, It was TOTALLY Tara's idea (well maybe not totally, but she was more than just a willing participant)!

2010-03-05T16:30:00.000-08:00

Jordan is leaving the MTC on Monday and Tara & I really wanted to see her one more time, but we knew that it would make Jordan cry. So we wanted to see her without her being able to see us. So we came up with this great idea. We would hide and spy on her when she was walking up to the temple.

So here is Tara in her camouflage hiding and looking through her binoculars!

Tara making sure Jordan couldn't see us!

I think Tara had forgotten that it had snowed, so I actually thought my camouflage worked much better than hers.

Mission Accomplished!
Here is Jordan with a group of people walking up to the temple.
Her hair made her easy to spot!

She never even glanced our direction!

I actually had my camera zoomed as far as it would go and then cropped the pictures even more on the computer at home!

It was so awesome to see her, even if only from a distance!

Jordan's school assignment!

2010-02-24T18:45:00.000-08:00

Halle and I were on youtube and found this video. Jordan would KILL me if she knew I put this on our blog, but we thought it was totally cute and are putting it on anyway, and there isn't much she can do about from where she is! (haha) This was a skit for one of her classes at BYU! (It's kind of hard to hear jordan because the camera was on the opposite side of the auditorium and right by the piano, but if you've seen this song in Les Mis, you will know what she is singing!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajO5F-FNW0I

One of the things I LOVE about living in Utah!

2010-02-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

One of the best perks of living in Utah, is that during the winter the elementary schools let all the kids out early one day a week, for a ski day. They will bus the kids up to Sundance and bring them back down to the school in the evening if they don't have a parent to take them skiing! Our ski day is Thursday, so Josh, Halle & I try to go up every week. Brad was able to make it up with us last week for a few hours.

Here are Josh & Halle!

Halle cruising down!

Josh & his classmate Charlie heading up on their own!

Jordanrpearce.blogspot.com! Don't forget the "r"

2010-02-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

We received Jordan's first email home which was a big relief. I had been picturing her in the MTC crying and homesick, so it was nice to know I couldn't have been more wrong, she is doing great. Her email is posted on her blog!

Au Revoir et Salut Soeur Pearce!

2010-02-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

Jordan went into the MTC this afternoon! I have started a blog for her mission where I will put on pictures and her letters. I have more pictures on there of all the cousins and friends coming to say their good-byes. Here we are in front of the MTC sign!

Blog: jordanrpearce.blogspot.com

The family and the grandparents in front of the MTC!

Being escorted inside by the Elders. They were really cute and doing a good job of talking with her and making sure she didn't fall apart!

Halle's 1st Gymnastics Meet!

2010-02-09T15:58:00.001-08:00

Halle had her first gymnastics meet last week. She did awesome! They have 3 meets and if they can get an overall score of 34 at any of the first 3 meets they can go on and compete at the next 3 meets, as well as move to the next level in June. She earned a 34.6 at this first meet!

On the beam!

The bars!

You can see she has her salute down!

This is Halle with her scores after the meet!

Go cougars!

2010-02-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

Tennis season officially started this last month. The team is doing great with a 6-0 start on the season. Here they are celebrating after one of their victories!

The huddle before the match starts!

Chip came to town this week to visit and watch the team play,
it was sooooo great to see him!

Here is Josh & Cosmo. Another funny Josh story: I told Josh to go over to Cosmo because I wanted to take his picture. He wasn't too happy about it and said, "I'm not stupid ya know, I know he is just a break dancer in a cougar costume, and I know because I just pulled his tail off!"

Snow, snow, snow!

2010-02-07T16:24:00.001-08:00

We have had so much snow this year!

Here are the boys trying to find a pathway to the street.

Halle & Jordan making a snowman!

Josh, Jordan & Halle with the finished product.

Merry Christmas (yep, a little late, ok a lot late!)

2010-01-31T14:59:00.001-08:00

We had a great Christmas this year! We spent Christmas Eve at home. Josh & Halle wanted to make and decorate cookies!

Of course, pretty quickly the rest of the kids wanted to "help!"

Christmas Eve dinner!

After dinner we watched home movies and
opened our Pixie presents!
Tara & John

Matthew & Jordan

The kids LOVED their matching BYU Pajamas (well most of the kids, ok, some of the kids LOVED their pajamas)

Christmas morning!

Happy Birthday Josh, Dec 21st!

2009-12-26T08:40:00.001-08:00

Well josh didn't start his birthday out on the brightest note, he had to have a tooth pulled first thing in the morning and because the tooth was so infected it was hard to get it completely numb! Here he is trying to recover from the trauma.

Fortunately, Josh recovered quickly and that night we rented out Soldiers Hollow sledding hill for a private party, we had about 150 friends come up sledding with us! It was so much fun!

Happy Birthday to Josh, our best Christmas present ever! This was Josh's picture for his birth announcement!

Josh @ 7 months!

I decided to put some of Josh's favorite things on this post!
Josh loves playing tennis and has already won 5 trophies!

Tyler and BYU Football are on the top of Josh's favorite things list!

Josh LOVES boats, here he is getting an early start! Josh would just go sit on the Polaris' waiting for someone to come give him a ride.

A few years later, still sitting and still waiting for someone to come give him a ride!

Josh is the most helpful kid on the boats, he always wants to tie up and do all the ropes by himself.

Last summer Josh pulled me aside and privately (very proudly) told me that he "was only 7 years old and knew how to drive 5 different kinds of boats, a polaris, a ski boat, a cabin cruiser, a dinghy and a yacht, and it could be 6 boats, because he knows how to drive both polaris'!" Go Josh!

Santa makes the favorite things list for sure!

Another favorite, his dad & skiing!

Happy Birthday Josh, we love you!

Happy 21st Birthday Jordan!

2009-12-12T07:11:00.001-08:00

I didn't mean to start with this picture but somehow it ended up here, I just wanted to wish Jordan a happy 21st birthday and let her know how proud we are of her and how much we all love her! The boys on Brad's tennis team always tell me and Jordan that we are like the same person and say the same things and even think the same things. I am always proud to be connected to her in anyway!

Here is Jordan a couple of days after she was born. Being our first baby and the first grandchild on both sides of the family, it was months before she was put down or didn't have a crowd around watching every grimace or diaper change!

Here is Jordan on her 2nd Birthday!

I had to put in this picture, not because it was the greatest picture I had of Jordan, but because it reminded me that I have gotten old enough to have a 21 year old daughter.

Here is one of my all time favorite pictures of Brady, Steph, Tara & Jordan. If Brady hadn't died they would have all been in high school for one year together (9th, 10th, 11th & 12th grade).

Jordan & Tara! One thing I really love about Jordan is that she has always taken her role as the oldest cousin and sister seriously. She has been such a good example to her little brothers and sisters and has really loved them and taken care of them all!

Grandpa & Jordan, there are certain perks to being the first grandchild. My younger kids will probably never see an igloo unless they go to Alaska!

Had to put in this picture because it is probably the only picture in existence of Jordan cooking. I know this because this is probably the only time she has ever cooked something!

Steph & Jordan before homecoming.

I was sad thinking that my little girl was growing up and then saw these pictures and realized she will never really grow UP! Sorry Jordan, I couldn't help myself with that one!

Since Jordan has been in college her birthday has always been in the middle of finals. Of course she has a final today at 4 pm, so here we are celebrating at 7 am, as she is walking out the door to the library!

Happy Birthday Jordan, we love you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-12-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

Here are the girls slaving away in the kitchen!

The whole Abbott Family! (or most of them)

Brad, John, Matthew & Josh all went to California. Brad had to do some recruiting so the boys went along. We ended up having a girls weekend with lots of chick flicks!

Go BYU Football!

2009-11-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

Josh is the ultimate BYU Fan!

Here is Tyler warming up before the game.

Tyler came over before the game so that we could get a picture of him and Josh in their uniforms.

Matching #31's!

We had a great time with Josh at the game!

Josh asked me to buy him a binder so that he could make a playbook, to write down good plays BYU makes or come up with new ideas for plays. Here he is faithfully writing down his plays during the game.

It was freezing cold at the game, I kept telling Josh to put on his coat (which is also BYU), but he kept saying he didn't want to wear it. I told him that even the players put on those big jacket things when it gets really cold. He told me that when Max Hall puts on his jacket he looks like he needs to go on the "Biggest Loser," so he would rather not wear his jacket. Finally the cold got to him and he put the coat on!

Congrats to AJ & Kelsey Young!

2009-11-21T21:56:00.001-08:00

AJ Young (a member of our tennis team) got married in the Salt Lake Temple on Thursday! We were lucky enough to be invited to the temple with them. It was a really touching ceremony, and so fun to see how happy and excited AJ & Kelsey were. Here we are with AJ, Kelsey & AJ's parents!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

Halle & Josh getting ready to go out trick or treating!

We just happened to run into our favorite BYU Football player, Tyler, at Lisa's house.

The family (and Keaton) all dressed up!

Big Foot (grandpa) kidnapping the pilgrim!

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

2009-10-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

The other day Matthew complained to me that he thought he got bit by a spider during the night and was so itchy. I didn't really think too much of it. A few hours later, he told me he must have bed bugs because he had a lot of bites. Again, I didn't think too much of it and told him to bring up his sheets. After another hour of constant complaining I finally went to look at him. When he took off his shirt I couldn't help but laugh, he was COVERED in hives and rashes over his entire body (literally head to toe). I felt bad laughing but this was so obviously not a bite but something else, we took him to the doctor and they confirmed that he was having a severe reaction to his amoxicillin.

I told Matthew if he ever had this many bed bug bites we would have to move!

The Verdict is In!!!!!

2009-10-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

Jordan's mission call FINALLY arrived on Saturday. All of our cousins were out of town for fall break so we waited until Sunday night to open it! (Longest 24 hours of our lives)

After 105 guesses (as to where Jordan would go on her mission), represented by 105 flags on our maps, that spanned:

23 States

44 Countries

and 6 continents (Jordan was glad that noone guessed Antarctica)

the time had finally come, and all of our friends & family crammed in to hear where she would go!

The Drum roll Please!

PARIS, FRANCE, LEAVING FEBRUARY 10th!

As you can tell, we were all pretty excited! Everyone who knows Jordan knows that Paris is her favorite city in the World. We had 11 winners who guessed Paris.

The roommates! And congrats to Rebecca (2nd from the left), she just got engaged last Thursday!

Luckily Jordan could find Paris on the map!

Josh's Hero....Tyler

2009-10-11T10:17:00.001-07:00

We have some serious hero worshipping going on at our house. Anyone who knows Josh, knows that he is quite strong willed, so we have to start on his Halloween costume really early to make sure it meets his standards.

This year without hesitation he said he wanted to be a BYU Football player. I was excited because that is an easy costume to find. A few minutes into the search I realized that not just any BYU football uniform was going to work. He NEEDED to be #31. That is the number of his cousin Tyler on the BYU Football team. Josh is a HUGE Tyler fan, if he can't make it to the games he will sit and watch every minute of the game on TV, just hoping to see Tyler, and Tyler gets on TV all the time, so it's worth his time.

So now the funny story part: After I received the costume I had Josh try it on. Josh asked me if I had under armor for his arms so he didn't get cold. I told him that he could just wear a sweatshirt under and then he would be plenty warm. Josh informed me that he couldn't do that because it would make him look fat. So I informed Josh that lots of football players were fat so it would be perfect. Then Josh informed me that blockers were fat.

So I informed Josh that it was Halloween and he could be absolutely ANY position he wanted to be, that he gets to choose, so he could just be a blocker. Then Josh looked at me like I was the dumbest person to walk on this earth and said: "I am the back-up punter (the position Tyler plays), and the back-up punter isn't fat!"

Timpview Cheer clinic & Conference weekend

2009-10-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

This is Halle and her 2 BFF's (Maddie & Sophie). They all participated in the Timpview Cheer clinic and were able to cheer for the first half of the Timpview football game.

Here they are in action!

During priesthood the girls decided to go see the remake of the movie "Fame."

Poor Josh had to come along, because he wasn't old enough to stay home alone or go to priesthood. He was THE ONLY boy in the entire theater. Everyone else must have had the same girls night out idea during priesthood that we had. You can see he brought his DS complete with headphones!
And for those waiting, we expected Jordan's mission call yesterday but it didn't come. The Bishop checked on it and the status still says, "ready for assignment." We are hoping that it comes next Wednesday, I will post something as soon as we hear anything.

Where in the World is Jordan...going?

2009-09-30T08:21:00.001-07:00

Jordan officially sent in her missionary papers this past Sunday. In our front entry hall we have set up some maps and anyone who comes to the house (UPS man/wrong address/neighbors/salesmen) have to make a guess as to: 1) where she is going, 2)what date she is leaving, 3) what language she will speak, if any. If you can't make it by the house just send me a message of where you think she will go and we will put up a flag for you!

A USA map!
A World Map!

We have GREAT prizes for the winners! We have stationary to write her letters on, colorful pens to write her colorful letters, birthday, halloween, & Christmas cards to send her when she is gone. As well as the grand prize of....books of stamps to use to send her letters!

John's First National Tournament Win!

2009-09-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend John and his partner JP Boyd (from so. cal) won the doubles at the National Agassi Tournament in Vegas. John has taken 2nd a few times but has never won in the finals! JP and John in action!

Walking off the court victorious!

BYU Football!

2009-09-22T11:15:00.001-07:00

Josh at the BYU Football Game on Saturday! He had so much fun!
Josh waited until the bitter end of the game, because the most important part of the game for him was seeing his cousin Tyler (who plays on the team) after!

1st Day of School!

2009-09-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here are Josh & Halle on their first day of school! It is so sad that after 21 years with someone home with me, Halle started 1st grade. For the last few weeks she has been feeling so sorry for me that I will be home all alone. She keeps giving me ideas of what I can do while she is gone, such as go to work with Brad or go shopping with my friends. She also told me that I could sign up and go to school with her to help her teacher and then we could still be together ALL of the time. Here is Josh & Halle with their cousins, Brittney & Matthew & our friend (almost family), Kai (Hirsche) Rumsey outside of Edgemont on the first day!

Halle and her teacher Mrs. Garner

Halle all ready to go!

Matthew & Me & San Antonio

2009-09-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

San Antonio is one of my all time favorite cities. I took Matthew and his friend Yannick there for a tennis tournament a few weeks ago. Here they are eating chips & salsa on the Riverwalk!

Another picture on the Riverwalk.

Matthew at the Alamo!

Phi Kappa Phi

2009-08-30T21:07:00.001-07:00

Jordan finished her 1st year of nursing school and her second year at BYU. She became a member of Phi Kappa Phi this year. We are so proud of her and what she has done at school. She still has managed to keep her 4.0 gpa, even though it's killing her siblings because they want her to fail something (or even get an A-) and take the pressure off of them. She is loving the nursing program and will be a great nurse. I'm happy to say that she has taken over all scrapes and anything involving blood at home.

Tyler & BYU Football at Pack Meeting!

2009-07-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

This was Josh's first flag cermony!
Our cousin Tyler (who is on the BYU football team), came to Josh's Pack Meeting and talked to all of the boy's about what it takes to become a good athlete and about sportsmanship. He brought some of his teammates from BYU and they all took a few minutes and talked to the boy's. They did a great job!
After their talks they played a game of football with the boys. This was so fun, I mean how many 8-10 year old boys get to play football with REAL BYU football players!

The BYU boys were so cute and fun with the little boys. After tonight, Josh might just be the most popular guy around, for having such a cool cousin!

The Huddle

Tyler giving some pointers!

Josh & Tyler!

Here are some of the cub scouts with the BYU Players!

Have to LOVE Summertime!

2009-07-15T09:41:00.001-07:00

Brad has a few weeks off this time of year and is a strong believer that EVERY minute should be spent on some kind of fun activity. Here is Halle, Josh and Brad hiking up at Sundance!
Bridal Veil Falls
We made it almost to the top!
Yesterday we hiked up to the Y. Funny story: At the bottom of the trail there is a sign with a map, I didn't look at it too closely I just saw something that said .17, so I told Matthew he should sprint up the trail to the Y because it was less than a quarter of a mile and it would be good conditioning for him. He took off running as the rest of us walked. At the first corner I saw another sign and realized the .17 was the distance to the first corner (there were 11 corners). Matthew ran almost the entire way! He said he kept thinking that he couldn't believe what a wimp he was being because he was so tired and it was ONLY a quarter of a mile!

Here are Halle and Josh walking from the bottom of the Y to the top.

When we finished the hike and got in the car Halle told us she "wished she hadn't gone with us because her entire body hurt, even her DNA"

Happy 4th of July!!!

2009-07-13T00:57:00.000-07:00

The highlight of the parade (at least for us) was Halle cheering with the Timpview Cheerleaders! My sister, Lisa, is the cheer advisor so she invited Halle to be in the parade with them.
After the parade we went swimming at my parents and then Brad took all of the kids to the park to let off his rockets!

Later we went to Dave & Ali's house to let off our fireworks!

Halle is still scared of the fireworks, so she watched the show from the window!

Jordan, Tara & Lindsey

James & Abbie's Wedding!

2009-07-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

One of our tennis players, James Ludlow, got married last week! We LOVE Abbie, so we were so excited for him. It was also great because some of his old team members came in town for the wedding, so we had a mini reunion. Here are Jonathon, Chippy, Abbie, James, Cassidy & Zach at the wedding dinner the night before the big day!

Two times, thirty minutes, the same Policeman!

2009-07-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

I know this isn't a good picture, but I got pulled over 2 times this morning for speeding by the same policeman. Once on my way to Target and once on my way home. I almost had him convinced that OBVIOUSLY the speed limit is too low on that road. The first time he pulled me over, I told him that I had a lot of things to do and his taking my time wasn't helping anything and that if he didn't hurry I would have to "double speed" to get caught up on the day. So when he pulled me over on my way back from Target, I let him know that I was 15 minutes behind on the day because of the time he took earlier, so I had no choice but to drive faster. He actually openly laughed at me and told me this was a first for him, he said he had heard every excuse there was but never that it was HIS fault someone was speeding. He didn't even give me a warning the second time he just told me to slow down. So then, of course, I told him I needed his picture for our family blog!

Brad inducted into NCAA Tennis Hall of Fame

2009-06-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Daily Herald had a huge (almost too big and embarrassing) front page article on Brad being inducted into the NCAA Tennis Hall of Fame. This was the picture that was on the front page.
They used 6 pictures in the article, I copied a couple of them and added here. This is Brad at the NCAA tournament in 1986.

This is a picture from the UCLA newspaper while Brad was in school.

And here is the article from the Herald:

Brad Pearce, once a local high school tennis star, made his way from Provo to UCLA after taking cues from his father. It was 1984 when Pearce matriculated in Westwood, bent on the idea that if pops can't beat 'em, might as well join 'em.
• HE TURNED DOWN THE COUGAR CAMPUS, where his father, Wayne, had been the men's tennis coach for nearly 20 years, and became the type of collegiate phenom that dominated for two years, went pro and was spectacular enough to be connected to the Los Angeles school again on May 20 with an induction into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association hall of fame.
Those days as a Bruin still bring a smile to Pearce, who now happens to have just finished another year coaching -- at BYU.
"I had a few great wins, a few good days in the sun," Pearce said. "I'm not retired on the beach somewhere with a bunch of Grand Slam trophies, but I think I found the next best thing: Still being on the court."
Doing that as a player, in college, was basically the last time the sport came so easy to him.
More succinctly, it was the final two years when tennis was the biggest concern in his life.
There were good days ahead, sure, as he made a living from tennis. He played nine professional seasons after being a phenom at UCLA, where he was a two-time first-team All-American, singles & doubles (1985-1986), making a name for himself in the prestigious Pac-10 Conference. (UCLA, USC and Stanford are still annual powerhouses.)
Tennis trekked him to every continent but Antarctica -- a "bucket list" trip, he says, that will be made sometime -- and he experienced the cheers and fame of playing on the hallowed Centre Court of Wimbledon.
That was 1990, his finest hour just four years after leaving UCLA. The world looked bright again, his focus pure, as Pearce met Ivan Lendl in the most famous stadium in the sport.
Pearce's mother died shortly after he turned professional, which derailed the selfish focus required to reach the pinnacle of a sport like tennis. Pearce had also started a family with his wife, Cindi, whom he met in high school.
The match in England against Lendl was a coming-out party for his game. And it happened on July 4 as well, meaning a national television audience at home could turn on NBC and see an American patriotic tribute to a man who is still one of just 16 Americans to reach the quarterfinals in the grass-court tournament in the past 23 years.
Watch the footage, and yes, that's Jimmy Connors and Dick Enberg raving about the opportunity created by a baby-faced tactician from some place called Provo, Utah.
Pearce wound up narrowly losing the first two sets, then took the third on two of the best points of his life. He hit a running volley from about mid-court to stun Lendl -- at that time, to his sport what Michael Jordan was in his prime of basketball -- and then hit a beautiful backhand serve return to take the set, 7-5.
Pearce has a seven-minute DVD compilation of that day, but still can't stomach watching the whole match. He lost the fourth set, at one point feeling that a bad line-judge call turned momentum. (Video review was still just a twinkle in tennis's eye.)
Pearce wound up reaching a best ranking of No. 71 and was also capable in doubles. He would win four ATP Tour titles.
He was inducted into the college hall of fame recently, joining a prominent list of Bruin alumni like Connors and Arthur Ashe -- two names that made Pearce's decision to go to Westwood an easy one. By then, his father had retired from coaching.
Now Pearce gets the best of two worlds, he says. He is the head coach who has followed in his father's footsteps and also made a sport for his six children. (The Pearces' son John played No. 1 singles as a freshman this season for Timpview and advanced to the Class 4A state semifinals.)
And his Cougar teams also routinely play at UCLA, where he is still friends with Billy Martin, the Bruin head coach who was an assistant when Pearce matriculated.
An annual joy for Pearce is to hit Westwood Village with his current teams and take them to the same cookie shop where he would get his chocolate-chip fix when he was their age. Cookies then were four plus a milk for a buck. Now, it's still three and a wash-down, for only a quarter more.
Pearce had to be removed from the college game 15 years before his former coach at UCLA, Glenn Bassett, could nominate him. Pearce went to College Station, Texas, for the induction ceremony.
"All I can say was that it was a humbling experience," Pearce said. "To be connected with some people that, the overriding feeling is one of humility to be included. There are so many people involved that I looked up to, just like a lot of tennis players do."

Happy Graduation Tara!!!!

2009-06-07T19:44:00.001-07:00

Last Friday Tara graduated from Timpview High School!!! We are so proud of her and what she accomplished in high school. She graduated with a 4.0 gpa and received the principal's award for outstanding accademics, leadership and service!
The Accappela choir sang at graduation! Tara is somewhere in there.

Here is Tara with all of our family members that came and sat through a LONG graduation ceremony! Thanks everyone for coming.

Tara with some of her friends!

I was on the committee for the all-night party at Timpview to celebrate graduation. Here Brad and I are checking people out before they can come in, we had to make sure they were Timpview graduating seniors.

We made it home about 5 am, after a really successful, fun party!

John & Jacob & State Tennis!

2009-05-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

John & Jacob played tennis for Timpview High School this year! Their team won their 7th state tennis title in a row! John ended up playing #1 singles for Timpview's varsity team & he and Jacob were able to play a few doubles matches together during the season.

John & Jacob were undefeated as a team!

John's friends wore these t-shirts to the state tennis tournament to support him. On the front they had a picture of John playing tennis.

And on the back they said, "He's Kind of a Big Deal!" His friends were so nice and his best supporters at the matches.

Here is the team with all of their friends and family right after winning the state championship!

Senior Ball!

2009-05-23T18:35:00.001-07:00

Here is Tara getting ready for the Ball! Her cousin Kaitlyn did her hair, and my mom, both my sisters (Lisa & Ali) and two of my nieces (Lindsey & Brittney) came to help her get dressed and see her off. It actually took all of us working to get her ready (including Grandpa dashing to Lisa's house to get Static Cling at the last second). Thanks to all of you for helping!
Here is Tara with her date Bryce!

Vegas!

2009-05-17T00:39:00.001-07:00

Friday night Tara and I took our trip down to Vegas to see the Donny & Marie Show! We flew down in Donny's plane, I was a little nervous when I saw the size of the plane!
Here we are on the plane!

I felt a little better that Donny's son Josh came with us, I figured it must be pretty safe!

After we arrived in Vegas we were picked up in this limo and taken to the Flamingo where the show is. When we arrived at the Flamingo we had room service ordered to Donny's dressing room and sat in there and had dinner with Donny and his assistant. We stayed and chatted until someone knocked on the door and announced that it was 10 minutes until Showtime. I was a little worried that we had kept Donny from getting ready, but he made it out on time. We were seated at the table right in front of the stage.

The show was so good, both Tara and I LOVED it and want to go back!

Donny & Marie were amazing!!!

Josh's First Pinewood Derby

2009-05-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Josh just had his first pinewood derby. Here he is with grandpa getting the car ready for the finals. Grandpa couldn't sleep the night before the derby because he was up researching last minute ideas to make Josh's car faster. I got a wake up call early in the morning telling me that Brad and Josh needed to get to his house ASAP to do some last minute touch ups on the car. So thanks, Granpa, for helping Josh make a great car!
Here are the final four!

Josh took 4th place. My competitive side came out when I walked in and saw 2 other wards had come to race against us. If it had only been our ward he would have been in 2nd place! But after the race both Brad and Grandpa interrogated the "Pinewood Derby World Champion" who was there running our race. They both went home and filed away all of the tips for next year. I won't be surprised if Grandpa makes us start working on his car for next year, right now!

Another day, Another Holiday!

2009-05-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

Tara on her way to a Cinco de Mayo party!

Going away party for Steph!

2009-05-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

My niece Stephanie left for 3 months in Jerusalem this past Tuesday. Monday night we had a fun going away party for her. When Steph told Halle that she would be going away to Jerusalem for a few months, Halle asked Steph where Jerusalem was. Steph told Halle that it was where Jesus lived and that she would be able to walk in the same places that Jesus walked. Halle looked right at Steph and asked her how she knew which cloud it was (that Jesus lived on). A few days later I was driving in the car and Halle asked me if Stephanie would be getting off of the plane when she got to Jerusalem. I told her that she would, and Halle wanted to know, "what would keep her from falling through the cloud."

Happy 6th Birthday Halle!

2009-04-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

First, let me start by saying, I can't believe our baby is 6! It actually made me sad to go back and look at these pictures. Here is Josh with Halle, he was so excited not to be the baby anymore!
Halle eating her cake on her 1st Birthday!

Josh & Halle on halloween!

Halle has always loved her big sisters more than anything. She was so sad when Jordan moved out and is sad to even think of Tara leaving in the fall.

Another Halloween!

Happy Birthday Halle, we love you!!!!

Happy 18th Birthday Tara!!!

2009-04-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

Tara had to have been the world's easiest baby. She really never cried, never really demanded anything and was always just happy to be whereever she was. Brad and I actually had a conversation when she was about a year old trying to remember times she had cried and needed something, we coudn't come up with many. As a matter of fact, we were in Paris when she was about a year old and she had just been kind of whimpering and crying for a few hours. I was so worried about her because crying and complaining was so not like her. Finally, we took her back to our hotel. I took off her shoes and she immediately stopped crying. So I took off her socks and saw that her feet were bright red and blue from being in shoes all day that were to small for her. Even when she was in that much pain she had tried so hard to not complain to much and just tough it out.
As she has grown older that hasn't changed much. I have always had to work hard to make sure she gets some attention because she never demands any and hardly ever even asks for anything. She has always just been an easy easy kid and teenager.

At professional tennis tournaments there are cars to drive the players where they need to go. Tara was a total chit-chatter when she was little and would strike up conversation with anyone. One time we had a long ride from the courts at Wimbledon to our hotel and we were sharing the car with a female tennis player. Tara could not stop talking to this girl. Finally I told Tara she ought to stop talking to this girl because it might be bugging her. Tara immediately said, "I'm not bothering her," and the girl turned to Tara and said, "how do you know your not bothering me?" (She was being totally serious.) We laughed about this non-stop for the rest of the night! It was just SO Tara!!!

Tara has to be one of the nicest people I know. She asks me everynight if there is anything I need help with before she goes to bed. I am so proud of Tara and what a nice person she is to people. She genulinly cares about people and thinks of others before herself.

Happy Birthday Tara, to one of my very favorite people ever!!!!

Happy 15th Birthday John!

2009-04-08T10:17:00.001-07:00

When John was born both Jordan & Tara were excited to have their very own little baby to play with! He has always been a lucky guy to have 3 mom's to take care of him.
This was John's favorite hiding place from the girl's when he was a baby. It was hard for him to get much time on the ground to play!
John went through a stage for about a year where he always wore a baseball cap, then he moved onto the dress up stage. For the next two years he was always dressed up as something or somebody. This must have been "cowboy day."

In first grade John spent his days running from the girls. I used to complain because he always had new holes in the knees of his jeans and he let me know it was because all he did at recess was try and get away from the girls! But he was so cute, who could blame them?

It didn't take long for John to realize that the girl's weren't so bad! Now he spends his days enjoying every girl that chases him and trying to figure out new ways to get girls to chase him!

Happy Birthday John! We love you!

April Fool's Day!

2009-04-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

Tara is the student body president at Timpview and heard that the Provo High (our arch rivals) president was just kicked out of his office for some misdeed. So Tara and a few friends decided for April Fool's that they would tell everyone at Timpview that Tara would be leaving Timpview to go over to Provo High and be their president for the rest of the year. She even borrowed a Provo High student government sweat shirt to wear to school on April Fool's Day. All day long people were coming to Tara (some almost in tears) to say good-bye, there were cards being made for her and good-bye parties were being planned for her. She received so many text messages wishing her well, many from people she hardly even knows. Finally at lunch time we thought it was probably time to let everyone know, that it was an April Fool's joke, before it got even more out of hand. I added this picture because Tara dresses like this almost every day for school. She hardly owns clothes that aren't orange and blue. She lives, eats and breathes Timpview High! As a matter of fact for Halloween she borrowed the Provo High Bulldog Mascot costume and wore it to Timpview with a poster hanging around her neck that said, "I wish I were a T-bird!" Anyway, we all had a good laugh because it was so funny that people could believe Tara could even walk the halls of Provo High let alone transfer there!

Viva Las Vegas!

2009-04-01T09:20:00.001-07:00

The best part of tennis and all the trips we take is the friends the boy's have made. Here is Keaton Cullimore, Grant Taylor, Matthew & John at the Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas.

We happened to run into Andre on our way in to the courts one day. We haven't seen him in a couple of years so we thought we should get a picture or him with the boys now!

Our friend from the tour, Darren Cahill, is working with Baghdatis so we were able to get a picture of the boys with him too! John & Matthew were pretty excited about meeting him!

BYU Tennis ALL Weekend!

2009-03-28T09:19:00.001-07:00

We had BYU Tennis matches this week on Thursday, Friday & Saturday! Here is Jordan, Rebecca and a few of the boys!
After the match on Thursday, Travis opened his mission call. He was called to the Riverside, California mission!

Life is a Party! (or at least Tara's life Is)

2009-03-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Tara and her friends on St. Patricks day. I don't know what Tara will do next year when she doesn't have a dress up day every week!

Girls Week & Morp

2009-03-18T21:09:00.001-07:00

Morp!

The girls kidnapped the boys and started the day off with a disco breakfast at our house at 4:30 am. We had tie-dye and smiley face pancakes! (Notice the John Travolta pinata). We decorated the house and had disco music playing. I am always turning down the kids music but at breakfast they kept turning it down and I would be over there blaring it! There is nothing that will ever beat the 70's and disco, except maybe the 80's!

The only picture I have so far of Tara and her date Lincoln. You can't quite see the peace material and go-go boots.

Tara and some of her friends during Girls Week! The boys had t-shirts that said "We are God's among Women," for boy's week, so the girls answered with these t-shirts that said, "You may be God's, but we are your weakness." It had a picture of Hercules with Meg on it!

Savage Day!

Doing something, but not quite sure what!

Gangsta Day!

Happy 13th Birthday Matthew!

2009-03-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

Here is Matthew's first picture with his brother and sisters! Matthew was so funny and mischievious as a toddler, I love this picture of him because it reminds me so much of his fun personality (complete with swollen lip and broken tooth)!
Matthew & Jordan. This may be the only picture in existence of Matthew sitting still during his toddler years. He was sick and Jordan was trying to comfort him. I took this picture because I thought it was so funny that she went and put on that apron just in case he threw up on her. We could already see the nurse inside of Jordan starting to come out.
Happy Birthday Matthew, we are so excited to have another teenager in the house!

I'm not putting every tournament on here, or you would get really sick of them! Just the highlights!

2009-03-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

This past weekend the boys played in the tournament at Gold's Gym. Matthew & Josh played doubles together and won the boys's 12 year olds. Matthew won the 16's and John lost in the finals of the 18's but that was not quite as exciting as Josh getting a trophy!

An Interesting Night

2009-03-03T18:07:00.000-08:00

Last night I took Matthew to a tennis match in Salt Lake. Tara and John were home watching Josh & Halle. Josh & Halle decided that they wanted to sleep in our room so they snuck in there and locked the door (it has some serious locks on it from the previous owners). When we got home around 11:30pm, both Josh & Halle were sound asleep on our cozy bed. We banged and yelled and Brad even climbed up on the balcony and could peek in and see them both out cold on our bed. We were never able to wake them up so Brad and I both spent the night on the couch!!!! Finally about 7 am they emerged and were very well rested!

Tara at Disney!

2009-03-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

Tara and a lot of her friends are members of our High School Choir. Their group went to Disneyland to perform and participate in workshops. They had so much fun!
Last year they ran into this fiddler in the park who asked them to be a part of his hoe-down. This year they ran into the same man and he remembered them from last year and had them come dance in his hoe-down again!

John & Keaton at Disneyland

2009-02-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

John went with his friend and doubles partner, Keaton Cullimore, to a National tournament in California over President's Day.

They were rained out one day so they were able to spend the day at Disneyland!

Josh learning Construction Management

2009-02-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend our cousin Tyler had a friend (Matt) who had to teach someone to build a house for his construction management class. Matt could only explain things but could not touch anything himself. If he could get somebody 8 or under to do it, he could receive 10% extra credit. So Tyler called Josh to build this house for Matt. Josh had so much fun and loved doing it! We were happy to hear that Matt got an A on his project.

Tyler, Josh, Halle & Matt

Funny Story: Tyler told me that while making the house, Josh told Matt that he wanted to put spartans (yes, like gladiators) on the roof. Matt asked him why he would want spartons on the roof and Josh looked at him and said, "why WOULDN'T you want spartans on the roof." I suppose he KNOWS that everyone secretly wishes they had spartans on their roofs.

Hilton Head - PTR Convention

2009-02-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Brad did an on court presentation on teaching the modern tennis game at the annual PTR meeting in Hilton Head, South Carolina. The PTR is an association of Professional Tennis Pro's.

This is a picture of the attendees with flags representing all the countries that had participants there.

Halle at the Timpview Cheer Clinic

2009-02-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

Last week was the cheer clinic at Timpview. Halle looks forward to this the whole year. They get to learn cheers and dances all week and then perform at halftime at the Timpview Basketball game!

Sub 4 Santa Rewards Assembly at Timpview!!!!

2009-02-02T11:53:00.001-08:00

At Timpview every year they do a big sub-4-santa fund raiser. Today was the rewards assembly for raising so much money!Tara was in charge of this assembly, I know I'm her mom, but it was great!
As a reward for reaching the sub-4-santa goal of earning $25,000, Donny Osmond came and had a drawing for 6 kids and a guest to fly on his private jet to Vegas, get picked up in a limo, go to dinner and then to the Donny & Marie show, and then fly them home!!!! Donny's son Chris is a student body officer with Tara and arranged this. After Tara heard about a month ago what Donny was going to donate she has hardly slept she has been so excited, this may have been the hardest secret Tara has ever had to keep!

Tara is the biggest Donny Osmond fan anywhere!!! When she won, I thought she would pass out!!!! Tara and I can't wait for the trip, she says she is keeping it on the down low that she is taking me thinking all the kids at school will butter up to her until she picks who is going!

Tara watching as Donny explains the reward to the kids!

Tara, Donny & Chris Osmond after the assembly!!! After Tara won one of the tickets to Vegas, Donny didn't want the school to think it was set up so he still drew 6 more kids names!!!!Tara & Donny - Notice the Donny & Marie shirt

The kids wouldn't let him leave without singing! (He sang Mulan)

The crowd loved Donny!!!!

The teachers whose classes brought in the least amount of donations for sub-4-santa had pies thrown at them!!!

Some boys getting waxed!!!

The teachers in the pie eating contest!

Carrie Whittingham won!

Halle at Gymnastics - Excuse the quality I was far away in an observation room looking through dirty glass!

2009-01-28T22:37:00.000-08:00

Halle gets asked about twice a week if she plays tennis, she asked me to take these pictures and post them on our blog so that everyone will know that she likes tennis, but she likes gymnastics much more!

Halle with her teacher Jody

Preference - still waiting for the date pictures!

2009-01-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

Tara and Megan decorating for the dance!

The Snowball Sectional Tennis Tournament

2009-01-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

John & Matthew just finished playing in our sectional tennis

tournament (kids from a 6 state region). They both did really well.

John took 2nd place in singles (in the 16's) and had a great

win over a kid from Las Vegas that was ranked as

high as #6 in the country this year.

Matthew took 7th/8th place in the 14 year old division.

They both won their divisions in doubles.

Overall it was a very successful tournament!

John & his doubles partner Grant Taylor after their victory in the Finals! Matthew played with Kevin Colopy. I was busy running the tournament desk and missed that victory picture.

Skiing!

2009-01-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

Brad & Josh
The whole family went skiing but somehow
everyone else avoided the pictures!

First BYU match of the Season!

2009-01-17T22:16:00.001-08:00

Friday was the first day of the BYU Tennis Season. They beat both Utah State and Weber State and the team looked great. They are going to be really good this year! Everyone on the team but Jonathon is back and we've added Roman and Georgy.

We had a great crowd and
Cosmo showed up to cheer on the team!

Christmas Eve

2009-01-15T22:30:00.000-08:00

The boy cousins

The girl cousins

All the cousins!

14 days, 26 people, small spaces,

can do this to you!

All the cousins in their Hawaii Pajamas.

A more dignified group of people!
Nana & Gpa, Nelson & Kir, Brad & Cindi, Kib & Lisa, Dave & Ali)

On Christmas day we kayaked and hiked to "Secret Falls" in Kauai

2009-01-15T21:32:00.000-08:00

Cindi, Halle & Jordan before they got caught in the trees and almost capsized. Thanks to Dave for saving us, as everyone else passed us laughing (actually Lisa gets some credit for offering to save Halle!)

Brad & Josh. Josh had the best job, taking care of the squirt gun.

Tara thought we were on a Gondola, but I think Steph enjoyed being serenaded.

John & Jacob

Justin & Matthew

The waterfall was worth hiking through the mud.

2009-01-12T14:54:00.001-08:00

I'm not 100% committed to this blog but really thinking about it! I suppose I should try it for a little bit and see if I can do this!