Tanner is 16??? When did that happen?

Tanner was the first "baby" of our famlee (until the blenders came along)! He was born with the biggest blue eyes! He was a real "mama's boy" when he was younger! Oh how I miss those days!



Some of his favorite things to do when he is not playing basketball!


Hanging out at the beach with his brothers.

He LOVES to bowl. It is not uncommon for him to bowl a 200 game! His highest has been a 233 and the other day he bowled 4 games in a row over 200!

What happens on "scout outings" stays on "scout outings" until Mom finds the pictures!



Uncle Tanner!

Great memories of our family vacation at Disneyland.


One of the "highlights" of his teen-age years, slaughtering the turkeys and rooster! More pictures of that bloodbath to come!

Tanner at EFY in Flagstaff.

May 6th was his BIG day! Good things are surely to come!

Rachelle's Graduation Announcement

WOW, can you believe it? I made it through all 12 years of school! I am so thankful for all of you; my family, friends, and teachers. I am so very thankful for the support, encouragement and motivation that each of you has given to me. Without you, I definitely would not have succeeded.

I've worked extremely hard these past 12 years and have learned that hard work pays off! Gratefully I will be graduating with a 4.6 GPA (weighted) and graduating with honors. I also have been granted the honor of singing our National Anthem at graduation ceremony.

Following graduation, I will be attending either ASU or NAU. I wish to study psychology and to become a teen therapist. I have placed great expectations upon myself to become the best that I can be. I am truly very excited for my future!

Thank you for all the love, support and friendship I have felt from you!

I love to see the temple . . . I went inside today!

We have been so excited as we visit Grandma and Grandpa Elmer to watch the construction of the Gila Valley Temple. Even though my parents are serving a mission in Salt Lake, they too are excited to come home to a new temple. I think they are most excited that they don't have to drive 3 hours to attend the temple now. OH NO!!! That also means they won't come to visit as often!

Last Saturday, we took a day trip to take a tour. It was so beautiful and such a great experience for the kiddos.


This is a side view and as you can see, it is one of the smaller Temples. It only has one ordinance room that seats 40 people, two sealing rooms and everything else is very limited. What a great blessing for these dedicated saints!

Rachelle was wearing flip flops so we had to make a quick stop at Walmart to buy some better shoes. When we got out of the truck, I almost died when I saw her outfit! She entertained people as we walked through the store. One lady even stopped us and asked if this outfit was a "new trend"!

AND HERE IS TANNER . . . PLUGGED IN!!! I hate IPODS when we travel but I sure love this stud muffin!

"A peanut sat on a railroad track. . ."

There is nothing so entertaining as a Kindergarten music program. I never get tired of hearing "Humpty Dumpty", "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "Down By the Station". The boys sang so proudly and they were most happy about the fact that "Tanner" came to watch them sing! (Tanner also LOVED the giant chocolate chip cookies at the end!) Tanner really is the BEST big brother!

President and Sister Swinton

Today I must tell you about one of the BEST things that happened at Women's Conference. I got to meet Ryan's Mission President and Mom that were released last summer. Ryan LOVED the Swintons and they LOVED Elder Lee. It was so wonderful to finally meet them and I can see why Ryan was in love with them. When I walked up and said that I was Karen Lee and could hardly say the words, "Elder Lee's mom," they grabbed me and hugged me and were so happy to see me. Some of the things that they said about Ryan that made our family proud:
*They could put Elder Lee ANYWHERE and they knew that he would clean up the area and get it rolling again.
*Everyone wanted to be Elder Lee's companion because he has such a great personality! (Lucky him, he gets it from his Dad!)
*He was able to learn the spanish language just by studying the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel in spanish.
*Sister Swinton was so proud of him when she visited his area in Peckham and he was teaching the Sunday School lesson in spanish in such a short amount of time. She specifically remember how proud his mother would be!
*They made a triangle with their fingers and said that most missionaries never rise to far from the bottom, but Elder Lee was at the tip of the top. Thats why he was called as a zone leader so early and continues to train missionaries until the day he will come home.

I shared a story showing the tender mercies from our Heavenly Father for Ryan. They both cried tears of gratitude for following the spirit.

When Ryan was waiting to receive his mission call, he didn't care where he would be assigned, the most important thing was that he wanted to learn Spanish. His Dad and older brothers had this opportunity. The mission call came and it said England London South! He was so excited and so were we as his family. Through the following weeks I couldn't help but wonder if he was a little discouraged because he wouldn't get to learn Spanish! Nothing was said, but lots of excitement took place in his preparations. He left for England and during his first interview with President Swinton, he was assigned to the Peckham Branch. What made this assignment so meaningful was that Peckham is a "Spanish" branch. Pres. Swinton promised Ryan that he would learn the language in the field and as he read the B of M and P my G in spanish, the Spirit would strengthen him. Sure enough He did and Ryan's righteous desire was granted. What a great blessing.

President Swinton said that Peckham was one of the mission "favorites" but was grateful he listened to the Spirit and assigned Ryan there!

Sister Swinton taught the class "Follow the Prophet". My testimony increased that day of prophets, past and present.

Thank you President and Sister Swinton for taking such good care of my son, Elder Lee.

YIPPEEEE!!! Only 5 more days til that Mother's Day phone call!

2010 Women's Conference

Attending BYU Women's Conference in Provo has been a long tradition for the women in my family. What great husbands we have! They allow us to go and spend their hard earned money! Mark always encourages me to attend and says I come back so refreshed and a better woman! I second that! I get spiritually renewed from the wonderful talks given at the conference and the retail therapy always makes the trips more fun! Here we all are and I hope to add some daughters to our trip next year!


This year, it was an extra special treat because my parents are currently serving a Family History Mission in Salt Lake. They live right across the street from the Conference Center so we stayed with them and drove back and forth to Provo. Most years that would have been no problem, BUT this year we had rain and snow to drive through. Thursday morning, it took us almost 2 hours to drive to Provo.

My sister-in-law Lisa who is married to my younger brother, Bob. We are taking some pictures of the beautiful tulips on Temple Square and she is hiding from the rain.

My other sister-in-law Pam who is married to my older brother, Neal. Pam is so fun and keeps us laughing most of the time! Look at those beautiful tulips in the background. One of my favorite things about Women's Conference.

Saturday morning we enjoyed a brunch at The Garden's, a restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith building. It was cold and rainy and I don't think a bowl of soup ever tasted so good! We even included Dad this time!

Well done thou good & faithful servants . . .

Today we had the bitter/sweet opportunity to say "good bye" to a Stake Presidency that has served us faithfully for the past 10 years. It was a very emotional day for me and my family. I had the opportunity to work one on one with President Pugmire 9 years ago when I served in the Stake Relief Society. Recently, I served with President Bradshaw in Stake Primary.

President Daniel and his sweet wife Deanna were our first friends and neighbors in 1986 when we graduated from school and moved home to Arizona. We had many good times checking out the restaurants in town! Many years later, we found ourselves back in the same neighborhood, ward and stake.

We moved into the Higley Ward, the Gilbert Greenfield Stake in October of the year 2000 and was making great friends in our new ward family. BUT within 3 weeks of moving to our new home, November 12, 2000, our ward and stake were divided and our dear friend "Roy" at that time became Bishop Daniel! We became members of the Summerfield Ward and within a couple of weeks, our stake was divided and we were members of the new Gilbert San Tan Stake. I then was called to serve as Relief Society President! It was a difficult time because we were so new to the area and I didn't know anyone! Soon, very soon, I fell in love with the sisters of the Summerfield Ward. We grew so quickly and within a short amount of time, September 9, 2001, we divided off and became the Bella Vista Ward. I remember that Ryan showed the emotions that many, many people were feeling as he buried his head into his hands and cried because as a deacon,he was loosing his first YM leaders. It was a tender moment as President Pugmire came off the stand at the conclusion of Sacrament Meeting and just hugged Ryan and told him that "He himself knew it was right because it was so hard!"

Shortly after that division, I was called to serve as the Stake Relief Society President in the Gilbert San Tan Stake. At that time, our stake encompassed all the wards from Greenfield Road to the east, including the rapid growing town of Queen Creek. This required some travel but many glorious friendships were built and another wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord. We were the Bella Vista ward for approximately 16 months when changes were inevitable once again.

As this newly developing area grew, it became time to divide once again. In January of 2003, we received a call to come to the Stake President's office. Mark and I were sweating bullets because the spirit had warned us of a new calling. I entered that office with great emotion because I knew that as one door opens, another one often closes. Now after Mark supported me for years in various callings, it was my time to sustain and support him. Mark was called to be the Bishop of a new ward that was to be called the Ashley Heights Ward. This was another very busy time for us, but we grew to love the members of that new ward and once again, eternal friendships were formed!

A little more than 1 and 1/2 years later, the Ashley Heights Ward grew to over 900 members (with two Elder's Quorums) and it was once again time to divide. October 17, 2004 Mark became the Bishop of the new Gateway Garden's Ward and once again, we said farewell to beloved friends! His service ended just 2 1/2 years later. We have resided in the Gateway Garden's Ward for the last 5 years.

I enjoyed the opportunity to serve with President Bradshaw and learned to LOVE the children in the Gilbert Higley Stake. I loved planning and organizing Stake Baptisms each month and watching those sweet children, dressed in white with great big smiles on their faces make their first covenants with the Lord. I LOVED watching their fathers who many times teared up with great emotion as they exercised their Priesthood and baptized their children. Many times, these fathers had worked really hard to make changes in their lives to be worthy of this special ordinance. I LOVED visiting wards with President Bradshaw during Ward Conferences and listening to children bear testimony of the Savior. I LOVED watching President Bradshaw and seeing the great joy that he felt in his heart as he watched the many dedicated and loyal Primary leaders serving their Heavenly Father

President Pugmire taught us many things during his years of service. However, the one thing that stands out the most is that he taught us to serve others and be good missionaries! Our family respectfully refers to him as our modern day Ammon! We will miss him presiding and crying those "ugly" tears! We will miss his humor but most of all, we will miss his great LOVE that he showed each member of our stake.

It was with great respect and admiration that we humbly raised our hands in an expression of love and gratitude to release them today. We will miss these three great men but look forward to running into them often as we all continue to serve our Heavenly Father.