Girls Basketball

We have been to soooo many games and the season just started!Anna and Jake survive about 2 games, but the third game does us all in and I usually take everyone home. The sophomore team is doing well, varsity won their first game this week, JV is coming along. Em is playing in all three totalling 5 or more hours of basketball twice a week.
This is a great picture of her. The game was against Syracuse who is ranked #1. The article doesn't say anything great about Davis, but the picture doesn't show that!!! She was so excited to play against Brittany Martin because she wanted to see what a great basketball player is. We don't care if Davis wins or loses, as long as she plays her best!

#7 Precious Time

I met Arthur and Shirley, Alan's parents, at Costco this week. They arrived a little before me and were waiting by the front entrance just inside the doors for me and the little ones.

As Anna, Jake and I stepped onto the side walk Anna caught a glimpse of her Grandparents on the other side of the entrance waiting. She dashed off with her cute little blond hair bouncing up and down as she ran. Jake noticed what she was looking at and wriggled quickly from my arms to race towards them as well.

The two bounded into the arms of their Grandparents with such force that I thought they would knock them over. They were caught up with giant squeezing hugs and kisses. I thought my heart would burst from my chest at the beauty of the scene.



Alan's parents are 87 and 83. Even though they seem to be in good health, the clock is ticking and our time with them here on this earth is numbered. I wonder if Anna and Jake, who love them so much,will know them like Emily and Ruth know them. Will they know that Grandma loved doing puzzles with Anna and that Grandpa loved playing catch and tackle football with Jake (kind of scary when the 2 year old unexpectedly tackles Grandpa leaving him on the ground). Will they know that in their 80's their grandparents served as Primary teachers to 9 year olds and loved it! Will they know that everytime Grandpa sees something tender tears quietly trickle from his eyes? Will they know that Grandma made homemade cookies for them and never tasted them because she strictly followed her diabetic diet?

Hug your Grandparents, go visit them, tell your children stories, because time and memories will be the only thing of importance that we have when they are gone!

(this is Grandpa on his "tractor" with Jaden, Jake, Anna, and Jaxon all Bott's Jaden and Jaxon are Great Grandchildren, but cousins to play with the Anna and Jake!)

#7 on my top ten list for Summer has to be mowing Grandpa Bott's lawn! He was patient with us! Alan broke two sprinkler heads. But Em and Ruth did a good job of helping their Grandparents and each time we learned something new about them. We even pulled out Grandpa's old Navy uniform and Grandma's very stylish polyester sewing creations (they really were cute and I was impressed with her sewing capabilities!)

Ahhh the Days of Summer

It seems as if school just ended and here we are already a couple of weeks back into it. My goal this year was to post on my blog once a month. Well, I did pretty well till April, then life seemed to go a little crazy. Who knew that teenagers were going to be soooooo much fun and work!!!! So here is the Bott fam top 10.



#1 Ward marries Darnelle Earl. On May 28th Ward remarried. It has been such a great blessing to our entire family. The girls are so happy and I love hearing them call her mom. They now have 7 children and are selling and building a house. We had the privilege of watching the girls during the honeymoon. Em taught them all about "selfies"
#2 Girls Camp, basketball camp, Summer Fun!Well, that took our first 3 weeks of Summer! Summer fun is the girls entrepreneurial adventure where we had up to 30 kids ages 3-8 at our house for two hours of creative fun. This is a picture of what me and the kids did during girls camp-Overnighter in Rexburg with Daddy. Check out that lipstick job!














#3 Every time we sing Latter Day Prophets when we reach David O. McKay, Anna says "Hay, We went to his house!" That we did as we spent family and cousin time in Eden at a really fun cabin.


#4 Emily passes her AP test!!! After a year of hard sweat tears Em gets the long awaited letter that says she PASSED! Now all of a sudden the class has become her favorite all time class.

#5 Delta puts Jake (now 2) in a seat all by himself on our way to Orlando, Florida. I say why don't we try that, it would be a calmer flight for me. In the end Delta (who wouldn't change it until we were at the desk even though we tried 4 or 5 times)moved all of us together. We had the same problem on the way back except that Alan and I got upgraded to 1st class, my parents had a great flight while Alan and I sat with two little cuties by the back bathroom. Anna fell asleep as we landed in SLC. I will leave it up to you to imagine that plane ride. But I felt like I should give the stewardess a HUGE tip before leaving because it was such a mess. Em and Ruth gladly sat by themselves far towards the front of the plane.

#6 Orlando- we visited Orlando in 2004 for our Make a Wish trip.Even though the temperatures were in the upper 90's with 90-100% humidity and I have never sweat like that before, this trip was so different and wonderful compared to that difficult trip back in April of '04. My parents came with us which made it possible to do so much more. Mickey and Minnie came alive to our whole family and I must say it was "A Dream Come True" and a "Magical Adventure".








Well, too tired to write anymore so the end will have to come later, lets just hope it is before Christmas! Love Ya All Mary

Mary's Lullaby

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This time of year I always find myself reflecting back to when our sweet Sarah was sick. It usually begins a little before the April LDS General Conference and lasts till her special May 1st day. I find myself reliving bits and pieces of the difficult decisions that we made and the memories that we tried desperately to create.
I feel so blessed to have experienced every aspect of her life. Someone once asked me if knowing what I know now about how things would end with Sarah would I make the same decisions regarding her treatment again or would I not do any treatment. My answer is YES!I would choose treatment again. We were able to enjoy 3 1/2 wonderful years with her. As you can see in the video even though we had difficult times, there were many happy times and those memories outweigh the bad times.
When I hear Mary's Lullaby I am automatically drawn back into a time when I held the sweetest angel and rocked her day and night while singing her primary songs and of course "her song". The words speak my heart. Sarah now "feels the warmth on [her] cheeks from the Son," always. Someday I hope to feel that warmth with her. But for now we carry on and feel the JOY of life today!

(The words and music to Mary's Lullaby were written by our dear friend Shauna Snell)

A Day With Anna

I know the picture is a little blurry,but they were moving targets! Anna is our inquisitive, ingenious, always busy, Houdini. By 18 months she could pick any lock, climb any height, and open any childproof bottle. However, she happily smiles as she inquisitively discovers new things. This week she covered Jake in baby powder while playing the "baby powder game." While I was talking on the phone with a friend and building a train for Jake, Anna walked  up behind me and dumped a glass of water over my head. My friend was talking and I couldn't interupt her at that moment so I grabbed a blanket and started to wipe up the dripping mess. Quietly, Anna sneaked behind me again and poured another glass of water over my head, while I was saying "uh huh" to my friend on the phone. Sopping wet I gave her the glare that all mom's know so well. She laughed at me while I was trying to grab her, but she was off and running knowing she had gotten away with it because I was on the phone. When my friend was finished I said good bye. Found Anna. Put her into the bathtub. She was kicking and screaming that she did not want to take a bath! I told her not to worry she wasn't going to. I proceeded to dump a glass of water over her head. She was screaming by this point. I asked if she liked it? She obviously said no! I told her I didn't like it either. I handed her a towel and walked off, keeping my cool, but smuggly snickering inside!

The list with Anna could go on and on. There is not a day that goes by that we don't have a major mess. Spilled hot chocolate all over the kitchen because she disobeyed, lipstick all over her sleeping sisters face, marker allover her friends face because she was putting make up on her, mascara worn to church (she did a good job of putting that on!) water messes in her bedroom, making her own oatmeal, cooking on her own, coloring over Sarah's picture and frame. Best of all though was when Emilyhad friends over friday night andI had put Anna to bed, she opened her window and yelled out at a boy "Cooper, you can't be here Emily doesn't like you anymore!" Well, that was all this week! So where was the mama during all this? Usually changing a batch of laundry, folding laundry, or vacuuming up the mess made right before! 

Oh how WE LOVE OUR ANNA JOY!!! Because even with all of these acts she joyfully loves everyone and every aspect of life.

Jake playing Ref

Jake playing football coach. The thing in his mouth is his microphone

Uggg Science Fair

Emily worked on her science fair for months. It was not a pleasant experience for any of us. Because she decided to take honors Geography it lumped her into honors Science as well, not her favorite subject even though it is mine. Painfully we helped her figure things out. Ruth was a kind sister and posed as one of her model science fair participants.

This is a picture of Emily's waxed eyebrows. I know it looks like a lot of hair coming off, but believe it or not she takes that off weekly! The little hairy monkey! This is the kind of science she loves! You take bad pics with my camera and you will be exposed!

Jake the Great!

We have late church right now which means we can squeeze in the morning newspaper before church. Jake LOVES reading the sports page. He totes it around the house (and even takes it with him to church to read with his nursery leader, Brad). All of us seem to know what the game of the night was because Jake points to the pics and tells us "baa-ball", "bae-ball", "foo-ball" then with his big bright eyes dancing with delight at his new picture discoveries he says "bat". I am still working on teaching him "golf"! At Christmas Ruth got a set of clubs and Jake was all over those. My walls have a few dings from him trying out her clubs!

Jake in his favorite attire, Emily's basket ball shoes! He likes wearing her school uniform as well.

His favorite sport, teasing his sister "Aaa"