My Sweet Bubba

I came across this picture and just had to show off my very handsome favorite grandson.  He is adorable.  He just turned 2 but this was taken last April at Kyle and Aubrie's wedding when he was 1 1/2.  He loves firetrucks and zizards with long tails and dancing with Money (me) and every kind of sports ball.  He comes home to me in about 2 1/2 weeks and I can't wait to kiss his cheeks till they turn red:)  I love you, Bubs!

How Great Shall Be Your Joy (and sometimes your anguish)

Since I wrote last, over a year ago, we have had 3 of Hunter's friends enter the waters of baptism and join our church.  The first was his best friend, Josh Stephens.  Josh came to church to hear Jensen's homecoming talk and felt the spirit so strongly that he kept coming back and started reading the Book of Mormon and decided to have Hunter baptize him about 6 weeks later.  Fast forward to a year and a month later and Josh is in the MTC on his way to the Philippines on a mission for the church.  Could my heart be any fuller?  I got to take Josh through the temple, help him apply to BYU, help him get ready for his mission, write to him every week while he's in the MTC and love him like he was my own son.  Josh's conversion was an absolute delight to behold.  It wasn't like he was hearing the gospel for the first time but more like he was remembering what he already knew from his life before this one.  He accepted and understood absolutely everything about the church.  He worked in the temple with Pat before he left on his mission.  Pat gave him the priesthood, was his escort in the temple and set him apart for his mission since Pat is in the stake presidency.  Before his mission he spent Sundays with us and because he is so much like Hunter, he helped us not to miss Hunter quite so much.  Josh's mother is Filipino and speaks Tagalog so he will be able to talk to her in her own language when he gets home.  Because of this boy and his decisions, our joy has truly been "great".  The anguish part is watching is mother, who is not a member of our church, try to understand how her son could believe in something so completely that he would leave her for two years.  I know Josh's family will be blessed for his service.

The next person that Hunter baptized was Daniel Murray.  Daniel found Hunter on facebook after playing against him in high school football.  He was so impressed by the things he saw in Hunter that he wanted to become friends with him.  After getting to know Hunter better he came to church and, just like Josh, felt like he was coming home.  He was baptized a week after Josh.  He then left for college in Cincinnati, Ohio where he was going to play football on scholarship.  He missed Hunter like crazy and was concerned about not seeing him for 2 years while he served his mission.  Lo and behold, Hunter got called to the Columbus, Ohio mission!  Murr was able to visit Hunch twice on his mission before he got injured in football and came home for good.  Now he is applying to BYU where he hopes to play football with Hunch in a couple of years.  So much joy!

And last, but certainly not least, is the girl that Hunter hopes to spend the rest of eternity with.  Aleigh Mellinger had Pat baptize her shortly after her 18th birthday this last May after waiting 4 long years.  She came to church with friends to hear Jensen's farewell talk and felt the spirit so strongly that she wanted to come back but her parents are of another faith and didn't feel comfortable with that.  She stayed friends with several members of our church throughout high school and fell in love with our son and adopted our way of life and embraced our doctrines immediately.  She is now a Sunbeam teacher in our ward and faithfully writing to our son on his mission. She is a wonderful, beautiful, sweet and talented girl that has made her way into our families' heart.  This is the "great joy" part.  The anguish is the pain it has caused her parents by her decision to join our church.  That part makes me very sad.  My other sons have married girls that were born and raised in our faith and I always assumed that all the rest of my children would do the same.  It just goes to show that the heart wants what the heart wants.  I pray every night that a measure of peace will come to our families someday and that we will be able to accept our children's choices and be happy for them. 

Raiderettes

Last weekend we went to Oakland to visit Tanner, Alana and the girls.  While there we stocked up on Raider gear and got some for the girls.  We then went to San Francisco to Pier 39 and lo and behold we came upon some real Raiderettes signing posters at a sports store.  They were nice enough to pose for a picture with our junior Raiderettes.  We are obviously not "fair weather fans" because even though our team is STILL struggling, we love them to death and are raising the next generation to do the same.  Just Win, Baby!

My Posterity

The three little darlings on the front of my blog are my sweet grandchildren - Ava Lynn-3, Landon Patrick-2, and Sienna Marie-5 months.  Logan and Michelle are growing another little girl for me as we speak.  These little people bring me so much joy and entertainment.  As I mentioned before, Ava calls me "Grandma Moores" and Landon calls me "Money".  It cracks me up every time they say it.  Ava is hooked on One Direction's song "You Don't Know You're Beautiful" and plays it all the time.  She always wants me and Savannah to dance with her to it.  She copies all of our moves (which, if you've seen us dance, you know those moves are pretty crazy) and has a few of her own.  She is quite good.  She also sings really well.  Lando dances with us too but is not quite as coordinated yet so he is pretty funny to watch.  Lando is my snuggle bug.  He loves to get his bunny and blanky and sit in Money's chair and snuggle.  He falls asleep on my lap and I am in Heaven.  Nothing better.  Sienna just eats and grins.  So cute.  I miss all of these kids.  Lando will be back in about 3 weeks but Ava and Sienna won't be back until Christmas and then only for a week or two.  Here are some pics of my little angels. 

Hello Again!

I let a little bit of time go by since my last post and everything changed on me so that I couldn't figure out how to post anything.  Darn technology.  I hope I am in the right place now even though everything looks different.  I guess we'll see.  The fact that I am writing anything now is a testament to my new and ridiculously boring life.  Here's a little (ha! with the size of my family?) update on the goings on of the Moores. 

Brandon is a history teacher at San Marcos Middle School.  He loves it.  He is also a seminary teacher for the freshmen.  Loves that too.  Lots of teaching.  You can see why he doesn't feel the need to get married and have kids of his own because he has a couple hundred kids already.  They absolutely love him.  They hang out in his classroom at lunchtime because he is so nice and funny.  He really is very funny:)

KYLE GOT MARRIED!!!!!!  HALLELUJAH!!!  After waiting for eternity (and for his missionary) he finally married the love of his life, Aubrie Fillmore, who has fine tuned her name down to just "Moore".  Another local girl (yeah baby) who is beautiful, talented, friendly, spiritual (mission) trustworthy, brave, clean and reverent (mom of scouts?  maybe).  In short, we love her.  They are currently on an internship for physical therapy in North Carolina and will be heading shortly to Louisiana for his final internship.  They have been seeing the whole country since they drove there and are having a blast.  I miss them.

Tanner and Alana had another beautiful baby girl in April named Sienna Marie.  Tanner enrolled in medical school and they moved to Oakland.  While I am quite proud of Tanner for this decision I am nonetheless in deep mourning that they have moved so far away.  I miss my little Ava Lynn like crazy.  She is 3 now and a brilliant little redhead who can sing and dance like no other.  She calls me Grandma Moores because whenever they would come over to my house Alana would say, "We are going over to Grandma Moore's".  See?  Brilliant. 

Logan and Michelle are pregnant with a little girl due in February but who could arrive next month given Michelle's history and they have kidnapped my favorite grandson and taken him to St. Louis, Missouri for Logan's physical therapy internship.  Do you see a pattern developing here?  Everyone has left grandma:(  Thus, the reason I have so much time to blog now.  Landon calls me "Money".  No one knows where it came from or why he does it but that is my name. 

Jensen got married 3 minutes after he stepped off the plane from his mission.  Tracy Franz, a darling girl in our ward who he's known for years just suddenly caught his eye and four months after he got home he married her and they are now at BYU where he is working for NuSkin and she is working at Macy's as a make-up consultant.  She is a wonderful addition to our family and we love her.  If you have been keeping track you will note that I am now 4 for 4 in the marrying local girls department.  Booyah!!!  Of course that isn't helping me right now as all four of these couples and, more importantly, their children, are all gone!! 

And to round out the "Let's Desert Dyanna Club", my youngest son, Hunter, just up and left on a mission.  The nerve! He's been gone for 8 months to the Columbus, Ohio mission.  He's loving it and I'm missing him. 

Thank heavens for Savannah!  She is still with me and I love her to pieces.  She is the light of my life.  She is the most wonderful teenage girl in the world.  She has no flaws or short-comings and brings me such joy that I thank my Heavenly Father every day for her presence in my life.  She is on the varsity tennis team and in student government.  She stays very busy but still makes time for her lonely mom. 

Pat is in the stake presidency of our church and so he stays quite busy.  He has also lost all of his work helpers (to all ends of the earth) so he has to do it all by himself and summer is his busiest time. 

I am trying to find things to keep me busy which, unfortunately, tends to make Pat busier as I start household projects and then lack the know-how or tools to finish them and turn to him:) I need to go to Van's tennis match now so I will try to figure out how to actually get this up on the screen so someone can read it.  TTFN (how cool am I to actually know what that means?)

Milestone

I looked at the date of my last entry and I can't believe it's been that long since I wrote anything.  Today was kind of a big deal though so I thought I'd share the good news that my beautiful baby girl has her driver's permit as of 11:30 this morning.  I can't believe that all of my kids are driving now.  I can't believe it's been 15 1/2 years since my baby was born.  All of my sons have graduated from high school and now all of my kids are drivers.  When you are a young mother you can't really fathom these days ever happening and then when they do you can't believe they are really happening to you!  We just got through doing the inaugural drive around the church parking lot and she was terrific!  Smooth as silk, never got ruffled.  Way gentler and more refined than her brothers were.  I LOVE HAVING A GIRL!!!  Way to go, Van:)

New Stuff

Some fun things have been happening lately.  Hunter got into BYU and his football career there looks pretty promising.  He will be our first child to live in the dorms and he's actually excited about it.  He is trying to room with another football player from Temecula.  I can't believe he will be leaving in just a few months (sniff, sniff). 

We are starting to prepare for his mission also. (really big sniff)  He went to the dentist for the first time in six years (I know, mother of the year award right here) and he didn't have any cavities!!! Yay!!  He will get his wisdom teeth out as soon as he graduates.  Then it's a physical and paperwork and buying clothes and so many other busy things that we need to do before he goes to school because he will leave for his mission right after Christmas since he needs to get back by the beginning of January in two years for football.  It's all happening so fast.  I can't believe he's this old already.

Tanner just graduated from BYU last week.  We went up to the ceremony and I bawled all the way through it.  I love that school so much.  Probably because I love my religion so much and it is the only school that mixes education with my religion.  Kyle and Logan graduated from there also (last year) but didn't go through the ceremony so we got creative and had them each wear Tanner's cap and gown for pictures so they will have something to put in their scrapbooks:)  Smart huh? I'm so proud of Nan for finishing school even though he has a wife and child and had to work crazy hours to support them.  He's off to chiropractic school now and hopefully he gets into one down here so I can see them much more often.  I love my little Avacita and need to snuggle her wayyy more often. 

We took Hunter and Savannah to Hawaii for spring break and had a blast.  We went to Pearl Harbor and the kids were awed by the history there.  It was a very somber visit.  We are an extremely patriotic family so it really meant a lot to us to see where history was made.  We also went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and watched more Mormons in action.  Our blonde haired, blue eyed daughter was very taken with the dark, muscular Polynesian boys who were performing there (yikes!)  Really fun vacation.

Great news!  My sweet niece, Sarah, is getting married!!  She found a wonderful boy in Utah and they are getting married probably in September.  I'm so happy for her.  She brought him down to see us and we love him.  He is a great guy and he loves her to pieces.  They are going to have some tall kids though as he is 6'5" and she is 6'1".  Can't wait to dance our heads off at their wedding.

Last but not least, I get to talk to my Mexican boy a week from Sunday which also happens to be his 21st birthday and I get to hug him in 36 more days.  I am so excited!  I've never had the opportunity to talk to any of my kids on their 20th or 21st birthdays and thankfully Mother's Day falls on his birthday this year so I get to actually wish him "happy birthday" right on his birthday.  I can't wait.  Three weeks after that he will be home!!!  Only one more missionary to go and we are home free!!