Saweet Sixteen

The day Sierra has been living for as finally arrived! Saweet 16 never looked better than it does today!

Look who can drive, date and have all the blessings that 16 brings.

She wanted to celebrate by boating with her friends. But of course, we woke her up with her favorite breakfast of toaster strudels and helped her prepare for a day of boating (jet skiing)

Corby took Sierra to get her official drivers license right when the DMV opened and then they were off for a fun day in the sun. Sierra wanted it to be a day with only friends so I have nothing to show but words for the outing. I told Corby to take photos but it is kind of hard when you are driving all day and enjoying water.

When Sierra and Corby returned, hours later than expected I knew that couldn't be good news. Of course, Sierra backed the Yukon into the trailer carrying the jet ski,(pictures below), the jet ski sucked up the tow rope and Corby forgot to return the paddle board he rented from Springville. So after getting things some what settled, he made another trip down south to return items and find out the cost to the damage due to the tow rope. At first glance I figured this outing would cost over $2k but it turned out better than expected and it was only a couple hundred. Sierra said it was a great day and enjoyed by all who attended.

As a family, we celebrated with a specifically asked for smore pizza designed by the one and only, Sierra Jane. It was easy to make and super yummy. I am not a huge fan of cake so anything other than cake for birthday celebrations is always welcomed.

I found a recipe for the crust then used nutella for the sauce, put mini reeses peanut butter cups and marshmallows on top. We put candles in when we sang to our precious princess, Sierra Jane.

Natasha came to celebrate with us. Sierra did an excellent job blowing out ALL those candles. We also enjoyed her favorite ice cream, which is cookie dough.

Corby took Sierra out on a date with Dad. It was a tradition my father did with me and Corby loved the idea so we adopted it. It is supposed to be the first official date when you turn 16 but Sierra opted to date a few times before 16. Sierra wanted to go get Sushi. They had a quiet dinner and then Sierra hung out with friends so the evening was short but sweet.

 Here is the lovely damage due to the backing up issue we enjoyed. Corby required Sierra to help with the "fix the problem" situation

 I did not get a picture of the biggest situation but when they began banging out the dent, a huge amount of dirt and dust covered the two. It was awesome to see Sierra's face.

 

 

 See the rocks supporting the wheels? This was so precious. Corby had the Yukon on ramps and supported, so it wouldn't fall  while being worked on so Bria and Ada proceeded to follow his example. It was heart melting.

 

We have a tradition in our family when it is your birthday, you get to go through the spanking machine. We usually do this with Jaren and Cindy's family so here is Sierra going through for her 16th spanking machine experience. We love you Sierra and couldn't be more proud of you and your life.

You are beautiful inside and out!

 Here is where Sierra is saying, Really? I have to do this still? Why yes, little one we do the spanking machine until you are too old to crawl. Trust me, you'll be grateful for this tradition at some point in your life. We love you Sierra Magera.

 

Grandma Hansen Drama

This is one of those posts where there will not be many pictures, just a recount of what happened for journal purposes. It might seem negative but sometimes life is negative. The whole purpose I blog is for a record of our life. The good, the bad, and the ugly. This is an ugly.....just warning you!
Grandma Hansen came down for Leticia's graduation from Highland High, on Wednesday the 5th of June. While she was here, I informed her that for Leticia's birthday that Friday it would be OK if she did not want to make the trip seeing how she had made the trip today and would be making it on Saturday for Malia's ballet performance, plus Gavan, another grandchild, was graduating from high school on Friday and we did not want to put her in a situation where she might have to choose between families. She assured me she had it all under control and she could make it work. So we made plans for Teesh's 18th birthday and she went home.
Friday rolled around, no Grandma, finally around 6PM Teesh called to find out where Grandma was as we were getting ready to make the pizza Teesh had requested. Kathleen answered and said she was staying home hoping HyLee, a son who lives in Idaho, might stop in and she had a luncheon she had been invited to Saturday morning. Teesh said, "OK, and they hung up".
Saturday afternoon, Kathleen called Corby to find out if we hated her and if she was welcome in our home. Corby assured her we were fine and asked when we could expect her for the ballet performance. She met us at the middle school but seemed super distant and cool. Teesh became very quiet as time went on and I noticed she kept away from Grandma, which is super odd as they are two peas in a pod.
We invited everyone who supported Malia back to our home for dessert and games. Kathleen came but stayed in the front room. Kathleen had brought Leticia her birthday gift but Teesh came home and went right down to her room. We asked if she was interested in opening her gift but she declined. That made Kathleen upset so when Corby arrived a bit later with Malia, Kathleen left very upset.  Corby went out front to discuss matters privately. 11/2 hours later he came back inside, looking exhausted and frustrated. Long story short, Kathleen told Corby all of his siblings(Kathleen loves to say all her children to give her more support with a decision she doesn't have the guts to just say) told her she should not take the trip to Europe with Leticia. Side note, we gave Leticia a trip to England with her grandma for graduating from High School with High Honors. We were paying for Teesh and grandma was paying for herself. They would be traveling buddies. Kathleen proceeded to tell Corby that we pressure her to do things she doesn't want to, that we give her two months advance notice of upcoming events and that makes her feel like if something better comes along she doesn't have the right to change her mind with us without getting in trouble. Blah Blah, get the drift about the conversation.
Corby came in upset and said that he gave his mother a week to decide what she wanted to do about the England trip. When the week was up, we tried calling her multiple times throughout the week but were unsuccessful in reaching her. We left multiple messages but heard nothing. Together Corby and I decided that we needed to cancel the tour. So the decision was made. We lost out on $147.00 because of Kathleen changing her mind. Special special!

Troy, Corby's oldest brother, called to hear "our side" of the story a few days later. A lot of the Hansen's are side people. They have to convince everyone that they have done nothing wrong and that they are right. We kept that conversation short we Troy as we don't want to spend a lot of energy with hearing others opinions. Bottom line, we asked Troy to encourage his mother to take our phone call, so later that evening Kathleen did finally take our call. Corby and her spoke for over two hours. I could hear her yelling at Corby and I wasn't even close to him. To her defense, she speaks loud but for this convo it was yelling. After two hours, I told Corby to find out what she wanted from us. Her request was this, we put too much pressure on her and she doesn't want to be invited in our family plans ever again. She said she wanted us out of her life and to just leave her alone. She said we are dead to her. She  just can't handle the pressure we put on her so Corby said if that is what you want I will respect it. I want you to be included in my families life but I will respect your wishes. He hung up and that was the last time we have spoken to her. Since then she has sent us multiple items in the mail. For each one, we ignore.
We have discussed it with our girls that she is choosing to not be in our lives anymore but we love her in spite of how she treats us. Teesh has taken it the hardest as Grandma hasn't even had the decency to call Teesh and explain why she doesn't want to go on the trip or why she blew Teesh off for her 18th birthday. Simple communication could have solved so much but Kathleen has chosen to toss us aside. We love Grandma. We forgive Grandma for the mean hurtful things she spreads about our family to others. We know Grandma is hurting inside to be acting this way. We pray for her. So there you have it, why Grandma Hansen is no longer in our families celebrations.
We hope only for the best for Kathleen. We love you and hope you find the peace you deserve Grandma Hansen.
Here is a sampling of the hate mail we have received in the past few weeks!

She sent a nice card addressed to Resident

read the sweet card, sorry it is sideways. It reads Live between the sunshine and the flowers

but left it blank. Thanks Grandma for the card that I can reuse.

This has to be the favorite of all the hate mail thus far. Sierra asked if Grandma was trying to kill all of us girls since there is 5 bullets coming out of the gun. I don't know Sierra but I certainly hope not. We love Grandma in spite of her meanness.

Batter Up

With our Uncle/Brother in Law working for the Energy Solutions Center, he sometimes get free tickets to different venues. It just so happened that tonight was one of  those perks...................Hello Bees Game!

I wasn't able to attend because of a mix up with tickets but the rest of my family had a great time. I was able to lay on my couch, relax and eat bon bons while my family was gone, NOT!  I had to work scheduling mystery shops. I am thankful for the work but it sometimes interferes with my relaxing, sheesh!
Teesh was in charge of the camera so here is the evening through her eyes.

Ada

Malia, Bees mascot, Kaylen, Bria and Ada

Bria

Classic shot of Bria doing a face plant

Isn't Malia gorgeous here, love that girl

Ada

Gelsey and Bria

Both Bria and Ada have developed a love for monkey bars. Impressive they can both them

Malia

Talia and Ada

Got to have one shot of the reason we were there, right.

Cousin It joined our family...ha ha Sierra

Looks like a good time! I love that they are at the baseball game and every picture minus a few are of the girls playing on the playground. Love family/cousin time. We absolutely love Jaren and Cindy and their girls. Ada and Kylar & Bria and Gelsey especially have a bond like no other. I love that my girls have cousins that live close and are considered friends. I did not have that growing up and feel it a great advantage, no one else is better than family that you consider friends.
All the people I dearly love!

Favorite Summer past time

Bria and Ada are BFF's for sure. They have so much fun fighting playing with each other;) Their favorite things are and not in any particular order as follows:

Riding bikes
Jumping on Tramp
swinging at the park
swimming lessons
movies and popcorn
playing in our basement
ballet  classes
and so much more

I am so thrilled that they have each other and I love listening and watching them interact.

Jessica provided us with a ballet class in her backyard. The girls have some real talent. Ada spent more time doing cartwheels than listening to Jessica.

Thanks Jessica for the fun ballet tips.

The next highlight of the summer was swim lessons. We had four girls in our group with a male teacher. He did such a great job with the girls. He was patient and understanding of their outbursts of tears.

Gotta love the goggles. The girls insisted but man they looked like they hurt their poor little heads.

This is Bria putting her "whole" head under water. Good job sweetie, you are close.

Ada getting out of the bucket of fishes by going under the water.

All tuckered out from lessons. Leaving goggles on just in case we go to Seven Peaks today.

Watching these two on their bikes is a blast from the past with Teesh and Sierra. Bria and Teesh are so cautious, Bria will get off her bike and walk if she sees a crack in the sidewalk where as Sierra and Ada plow through at the speed of lightning and about give me a heart attack. It is hard to go on bike rides with these two as they are always so far apart of one another.

Our weather has been absolutely beautiful this summer, exceptionally hot but beautiful. We have taken full advantage of the summer weather and played in our backyard most everyday.