Soccer Wrap-up, Preschool graduation, and Reading

Wow, May was a busy month!  Here are a few happenings with some of the little ones...

Annie went to a little birthday celebration for her cousin London.  She was so excited...Sophie stayed home with Mom.  

Annie graduated from Preschool!  

They had a really cute little program.  She stood up and recited the nursery rhyme, "Peas Porridge Hot, Peas Porridge Cold, Peas porridge in the pot NINE DAYS OLD!"all by herself.  They also sang a lot of songs.  I loved it! 

Here she was on the first day of Preschool back in September. She has grown so much!  STOP!  Stop I tell you!  

 Annie with her teacher, Miss Deana.  She was just the best.  Annie loved every day of school! 

Each year the kids each make a square for a quilt and Miss Deana sews them all together and brings it to Primary Children's Hospital to give to someone that could use a little extra love! 

This school year really FLEW by.  I can't believe she is off to Kindergarten in the Fall.  And you know what that means... Junior High is around the corner! 

Luke finished up a terrific soccer season.  It was so fun to have him on such a great team!  (Last season he was on a team with all new players to the sport.)  Luke made a lot of goals and it really made up for the fact that spring soccer in Idaho is FREEZING!  It was so fun cheering you forgot you were freezing your buns off.  He learned a lot  and definitely improved! 

Luke had a great coach.

Luke is great about waiting his turn and being a team player. 

Last pep talk from the coach. 

Gooooo Team Black!  (That is Luke with his hands lifted up in the back.)

I wasn't able to go to Michael's last game so I sent the camera with Dad...he did a pretty good job, but is not as used to using it as I am.  That's Michael with the black and blue uniform on there. 

He is a pretty cute kid! 

Michael also improved bunches and played great defense.  He almost never allows the other team to score!

Michael is front and center.  He also had a great coach and Ryan even was able to help with the coaching so that was fun. 

We are all signed up for Fall Soccer and hopefully it will be a little WARMER!

And last, but not least, I had to include one of our end of the year assemblies for all the top readers in the read-a-thon.  Here is one of our FAVORITE teachers, Ms. Wood. (Not to mention great friend!)  She taught Luke in Kindergarten, Michael in 2nd grade, and Luke again this year in 2nd grade.  She is all dressed up for the occasion ...doesn't she look cute!?

Michael is really getting into the cheering...

And here he is...he was one of the top SIX readers in the school for the annual Read-a-thon and he won a prize.  This kid is motivated by competition for sure!  I already can't wait to see how he does next year!  GREAT JOB, MICHAEL!

And there is Luke...he sure is cute. 

And that is a wrap, for tonight at least!  

Milligan Marathon and a Funeral

I got my computer back!  Yahoo!  I am going to be a blogging maniac for the next few weeks and catch up on all of the end of the year festivities that I haven't documented.  (Well, that is my plan at least.  I can't make any promises!)

One REALLY fun thing that happened in May was a Milligan Cousin Reunion.  Well, it was really a "girls-only" cousin reunion.  It all happened thanks to my cousin Emily aka "Miss Ogden".  Emily and her awesome husband Steve own/operate the yummy Sonora Grill in downtown Ogden.  Since Sonora Grill was a sponsor for the Ogden Marathon Emily helped us all enroll in various legs of the Marathon. No one was in the mood or feeling like doing a full Marathon.  Robin and I decided to do the Half, and the rest of the ladies were on various Relay Teams where they each had a leg of the full marathon.

The night before the Marathon we all met up at Sonora Grill.  The Walker cousins all drove here together from Colorado.  Heidi flew to Idaho from Arizona and then drove down from Idaho with Melissa and I.  I think everyone else hailed from Utah or Idaho.  It was so great to just relax and catch up.  Usually family reunions seem a little rushed and we have 20 million kids running around that we are trying to keep from being crazy maniacs.  A great time was had by all!

Cousin Rebecca and sister-in-law, Melissa. 

Cousin Julie...she was trying to hide from me.  

Julie and Jill laughing about Julie's failed attempts to hide from the camera. 

Here are some of Julie's sister's.  Notice a family resemblance!?  Ha ha.  These guys HAD been traveling all day from Colorado, but they still looked fabulous as usual. 

Gotcha, Leslie!  Leslie and Emily are making plans for the morning festivities I think!? 

Robin, Jennifer, and Abigail.  

Andrea, Lauren, and Cassie

 The Marathon was actually on Robin's Birthday and after dinner we just had to run over to the cupcake store and get some yummy treats to celebrate.  These two both insisted that I crop this picture, but I think they both look fabulous.  Sorry guys!  

Tonight I don't have time to edit and go through the MANY pictures from the actual Marathon day.  However, I thought I would include these ones.  Even though they are from the next morning-it still SEEMED like the middle of the night.  Here's Sadie and Lucy...

Good bye, Emily!  Have fun guys!

You see we were SUPPOSED to be at a hotel.  Instead we ended up staying at Hotel de Emily.  She already had ten extra people...what was three more!?  Long story...but let's just say Marriott really dropped the ball that weekend.  I wasn't too sad because we had so much fun staying up late and visiting.  Unfortunately, we can't stop yakking and I went to sleep around 2am.  That would not be so bad, except that the first crew had to be up at 4:30 that morning for the start of the marathon.  I was sleeping on the living room floor so I could hear them, but got to stay in my PJs and be happy I was not going out into the rain yet.  

My excuse for not running:

Since being sick off and on for a month and a half I had not been able to run at all.  As soon as I felt better I went out and ran seven miles.  I had to be ready for the half marathon!  Big mistake...the Pleurisy came back really bad and I could not even breath.  Seriously, it was ridiculous and a couple of times I almost went to the ER.  My breathing was shallow and every breath hurt.  Even talking made me get out of breath.  It felt like I had a brick on my lungs.  I could barely walk around the house, so I knew that the half marathon was just not an option.  :(  I am so glad I didn't push it.  It was raining and freezing and I think I just might have died.  And all the resting was just the ticket because I got so much better that weekend, and by the next week the Pleurisy was pretty much gone. 

SO, I didn't get to run....but I sure had fun cheering on the rest of the ladies!  Pictures to come...

In the meantime...do you know why we had to schedule a SEPARATE reunion without all the little kidlets?  Let me remind you of a previous reunion a few years back at our beloved Grandmother Edna's funeral....

You know that picture of Sadie up there...this was her back then. So little!

Robin's oldest daugher, Ashlyn.  

Abigail

Holden

What were these cherubic angels doing during the viewing while we were trying to catch up with our adult cousins?  Well...let's just say they went missing for a while and then all came running and screaming, "Dead bodies!!!!  Ahhhh!!!!"  

 They had been playing hide-and-seek in the FUNERAL home.  Let's just say that they found the ultimate creepy hiding place-one of the embalming rooms.  

We were pretty busted for not keeping tabs on these monkeys.  

Speaking of monkeys...look how little and cute Luke is here. 

Emmaline and Michael

Alexis...pointing to Grandma. 

Nicholas...bringing some peace to all of us during the viewing. 

Chloe, James, Nic, and Joshua....I can't believe how small they look!

Second Generation of Milligan Cousins...

AKA DOUBLE TROUBLE

Now do you see why we can't really catch up at our regular reunions.  This was their behavior at a FUNERAL.  After that disaster we have tried to be better about keeping tabs on these guys.

Reading...

I have been a little MIA this month.  I have SOOO much to catch up on. I took a week or so off because of the "black lung" (that is what I refer to my pleurisy as) returned and I could not do much of anything.  Then my computer started acting crazy and after lots of help from Apple Care they determined I needed to send my computer to the shop to be fixed.  :(  I can't stand being without it!  So in the meantime, not much blogging taking place.  I am on Ryan's computer right now. 

I did get these pictures sent to me from the Librarian at the school.  Michael was one of the top READERS in his grade and so he was able to go on this fun trip with all the other top readers.  First, they were picked up at the school in this cool limo...

Here he is (in the plaid shirt) partying it up inside the limo...(sitting next to cousin, Emmaline).  

Michael and his friend Mason...I think. 

 

They were driven to Chick Fil-A for lunch...yummy!

 

Our school really has a great bunch of kids.  Here is Michael and Mason with two other boys from Church...Bryce and Davis. 

Way to go Michael...and Emmaline too!  (And there is Aspen and Jordyn from church as well...we really represented! Yahoo!) 

 

Now I need to set up a reading plan for the kids over the summer.  I am determined to get LOTS of books read by all.  It is too easy to let the kids brains go to mush on things like Mind Crap, did I say that?  I meant Mind Craft.  Are my boys the only ones wanting to play these games any chance they get? 

 

And while I am on the subject of reading... there is a really great reader that has a birthday today....

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM/GRANDMA!!!!

 

 

Flashback Friday

Ryan with his parents and sister circa 1978?  

I love this picture.  

Sad story

Two nights ago I heard via social media about the passing of a beautiful mother of six.  Her family was close friends with my best friend's family.  I was heart broken.

"Reminded again how fragile life is with the passing of my friend Katrina today (Monday) from complications related to pregnancy. She was a wonderful person and is leaving behind her husband and their six children, the last of whom she gave birth to today. Till we meet again, sweet brown girl."

(Written by my best friend, Danielle.) 

 Here is Katrina with five of her six children.  The sixth (a baby boy) was delivered healthy, and due to her Placenta Accreta, she died during surgery. 

It is so, so sad.  From everything I have heard she was the most positive and happy person.  I believe, like her family does, that she still lives on and will be reunited with her family some day.  It does not lesson the pain and sadness of six sweet children and a morning husband left behind.  Not to mention parents, family and friends.  

It reminds me of the miracle we had two years ago at this time of year with my sister in law, Melissa. 

She too, would have left six children and a grieving husband behind.  

She died and came back. She almost died again a few times. 

She is healthy and back to normal.   

My heart breaks for this family that did not get the miracle they were praying for.  I do not know why.  I do know that they will have their own miracles happen.  

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."  

Isaiah 55:9

I think every mother who hears this story will hug her children a little more, try to be a little better, and be grateful for each day they get to be with their family.  

If anyone is interested in helping the family..here is their information.  Katrina as in the hospital for three weeks and they have lots of medical bills and burial costs.  

Or you can go to this pay pal account.  

I am lioness...hear me roar.

I haven't posted for a bit....

A.  I have been sick for like a month.

B.  I don't have the right cord to download new pictures next to my computer and every time I think I MIGHT blog, I am too lazy to actually go get the cord.  I decide going to bed is a better option.

I am feeling MUCH better.  My case of what I found out was Pleurisy is getting better every day.  My respiratory junk is almost all gone too.  Just a bit of coughing...but nothing bad.  It amazing how it just takes being sick or in pain for a bit to make you really appreciate your health.  I can't believe as humans we just take that for granted so easily!  How quickly I forget once I am feeling well.  My heart really goes out to those who are chronically ill or have chronic pain.  What a nightmare.

When I didn't have any energy to do anything I tried to read uplifting things.  I love this speech given my Julie B Beck given to women from our Church. Here is an awesome quote from it....

"I have said lately that women are like lionesses at the gate of the home. Whatever happens in that home and family happens because she cares about it and it matters to her."

"She guards that gate, and things matter to that family if they matter to her. For example, if the lioness at the gate believes in the law of tithing, tithing will be paid in that family. If that family has a humble little portion of ten pesos coming in, that lioness will safeguard the one peso if tithing is important to her. If that lioness at the gate knows about renewing her baptismal covenants with God, she will be in sacrament meeting on Sunday, and she will prepare her children to be there. They will be washed, cleaned, combed, and taught about that meeting and what happens there. It isn’t a casual event, but it is serious to her, and it will be serious to them. The lioness at the gate ensures that temple worship is taken care of in the family. She encourages that participation. She cares about seeking after her ancestors. If the lioness at the gate knows about and understands missions, missionaries, and the mission of the house of Israel, she will prepare future missionaries to go out from that home. It is very difficult to get a lion cub away from a lioness who doesn’t believe in missions, but if the lioness believes in a mission, she will devote her life to preparing the cub to go out and serve the Lord. That’s how important she is. Service happens if she cares about it. "

The things mentioned above may not be what is important to every lioness.  But I believe it is true...what is important to the mother...the lioness, is often how goes the family.  We have so much power as women and mothers.  I don't see how so many in the world have convinced women that they are "less" then and don't have power.  I think we have the ultimate power!  Makes me think of another favorite quote...

"When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time. The women of God know this. No wonder the men of God support and sustain you sisters in your unique roles, for the act of deserting home in order to shape society is like thoughtlessly removing crucial fingers from an imperiled dike in order to teach people to swim.

--Elder Neal A. Maxwell"

These thoughts come to you just in time for Mother's Day.  

I am thankful to be a mother! 

I think this is me being the lioness of my home at about 5pm each day...

ROAR!!!!