A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION

This week we have celebrated birthdays and graduations and kidnapping...  It's been a full, busy, happy week!  I'm glad I got to live it!
Kotten Kandy graduated from seminary on Sunday.  I am so proud of her!  She is simply amazing!

Katia was blessed with 3 amazing teachers during her seminary years!

All of them were at the graduation, so I snagged a picture!

She has often told me how much she loves and admires these 3 teachers!

I'm grateful for all of them!

This is the entire stake group of seminary graduates!

These guys have spent the last 8 years together!

Asher, Dallin, Katia and Alana

Dallin and Alana also had all 3 teachers!

These kids are blessed with great role models!

We celebrated all of the June birthdays this evening.  Scott turned 45.  Mark turned 44.  Amy is 41.  And Kotten Kandy (aka. Katia) is now 18!  (She actually turns 18 in 2 weeks... but she's now officially 18 in my book!)

These are some of my bestest friends in the whole wide world!

I'm blessed to celebrate with all of them!

We BBQed ribs and hot dogs.  YUM!

Scott is my rock!

I love him more than I can adequately communicate in words!

Happy Birthday, Scott!

You are truly wonderful!

Mark keeps us laughing!

He's genuine and a great friend!

So glad he brought his family to Shelbyville 8 years ago!

I couldn't navigate life without Amy!

She is my confidant, my cheer leader and my problem solver!

As Anne of Green Gables would say, "We are kindred spirits!"

I LOVE that I am able to call my baby girl one of my best friends!

She has turned into an amazing young lady!

I'm super proud of her!

I made two cakes to celebrate: Mississippi Mud Cake and Better Than S*x Cake

Scott has always wanted a Jurassic Park shirt...

And he loves his gnomes!

I was excited to get another silly t-shirt for Mark's growing collection!

And Katia was super excited to give her "Uncle" Mark lots of gummi candy!

Now Amy can read Peace Like a River!

And Katia wanted to keep her reading too... with Just 2 Seconds!

Katia was super excited to get the DVD: A Knight's Tale!

Her new celebrity crush is Heath Ledger!

Chris Prat is her other celebrity crush!

So she had to get a "talking" action figure!

I got to kidnap Apple Pie last week.  We had so much fun!  We went to Wendy's for lunch.  Then we went shopping.  And we topped our outing off with DQ!  (He loved his new basketball, cute wolf stuffed animal and water-gun!)

This is my cute niece!  I got her the hat for her birthday!  I love this sweet girl!

Here are a few more pictures I actually kinda like from our trip to Thanksgiving Point:

I LOVE that my mom and sister are my BFFs too!

Kiara loves taking pictures of flowers (just like her mother!)  And she sends me pictures!  I love it!

I love teaching Raisin about selfies!  She's "my" girl!

We've had a lot of rain lately.  Check out our flooding river on our walk:

Jelly Bean and Raisin sport blue tongue disease:

Life is good!