My Graduated Kids!

You may or may not know that I had 22 kids before I got married.

They were MY LIFE!!

I loved ALL the kids I taught, but there was something special about the first class I taught.

Maybe it was because I wasn't married and dedicated 18 hours a day to those kids.
But I truly think there was an eternal bond with them.

I LOVE THEM!!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from one of my cute students, Makylee.
She invited me to their HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION!!!

(How in the world has TEN YEARS magically flown by?)

It was the BEST DAY!!  I LOVED getting to see those sweet kids all grown up!
So many of them had such HARD lives.  I am in awe of them.

Several of them graduated with accolades. 

One of my super shy, quite students, Cristina, was Senior Class President and gave a WONDERFUL speech!  She was amazing!

I have been in contact with all of the graduates and I cannot express how proud of them I am. They have ALL been so kind and polite!  ALL of them are planning on college.  Most will start in the fall, one will take a year off to save money first, and two have already started.

Let me just say, I have been a big teary mess for a week!!

Congrats Class of 2016!!!!

I 

 

And this little bonus made my day!
I gave each of my students one of these cards 10 years ago.  At graduation, Kylee gave me hers!
It made my day!! (And I gave her a "little" more than $1.00).

  

Lindsay's Modeling

One of my cute neighbors stated a business making little tutu dresses.

Yesterday, she asked if she could borrow Lindsay as a model for her dresses.
Lindsay LOVED being a model for the day! 

New Angel Moroni

Today my cousin, Brad, posted this picture on Instagram.

Within 2 minutes of seeing his post, we hustled up the hill to the Bountiful Temple!

(For those that don't know,  Bountiful Temple's Angel Moroni got struck by lightening a bit ago, and had quite a bit of damage.  We were scheduled to get a new statue at the end of the summer, but another temple had a statue that was the same size as ours--although it is slightly different in design--and we got their statue early).

We were up to the temple by 2:00, and we stayed there for about 4 hours watching.  The kids were pretty tired by the end, but I hope that they will remember this special day!

They gave Brad some of the gold piece from Moroni that fell off--here he is showing it to Lindsay and Andrew!

Moroni-less temple.

Memorial Day Part 2

We had a wonderful Memorial Day!  Mom and Dad planned a treasure hunt for all the grandkids to find Grandpa Hodgkinson's and Grandma Welling's headstones in the cemetery.  We had a great time and enjoyed a delicious BBQ in the park!

Love this family of mine!!