Flash Back Friday!

I love the whole idea of a "flash back Friday." I have to thank my sister-in-law, Ashley, for the inspiration. My sisters are just going to love this one.

This picture is a flash back of my 4th birthday. I always had a heart shaped birthday cake for as long as I can remember. It is because my birthday is so close to Valentines Day. If you look really closely you can see my silver tooth. There are not many pictures of me smiling and showing my teeth. I was very self conscious of my silver cap on my from tooth. Apparantly back in the ancient times dentists did not cap a child's tooth with anything but silver. Someday I need to find out why.

I love to see my sisters looking so much like their own daughters in this picture. Polly looks so much like Cami. Shelley, well she looks a little like she wasn't ready for the picture to be taken. Tammy is such a mix of Chelsea and Brittany. Chris is the spitting image of his son Jerin. Chuck looks like he just wants to bug Chris.

I had such a great, stable childhood. Everything seemed so simple back then. Here we are all happy, without a care in the world. It's nice to have a "flash back."

McGee and Irvin Reunions

While in Farmington, New Mexico, we went to visit the graves of our deceased family members. Here we are with Great-Grandma Irvin next to Grandpa Woody Irvin's grave.
Here is Great-Grandpa Jewel and Great-Grandma Leona McGee's graves.
This is my...second cousin I think?... Audrey and Ben in the famous climbing tree at Grandma and Grandpa McGee's house.
This is where we stayed for the McGee reunion in the Colorado Mountains. It is so beautiful!
Here are the original nine McGee kids with Grandma and Grandpa. As pictured from left to right: (Back row) Diana, Chris, Curtis, Steve, Chuck (Front row) Julie-my mom, Polly, Grandma, Grandpa, Tammy, Shelley. That's a lot of kids! :)

I love my goofy cousins. That's all I have to say.
So funny!
Me, Chelsea, Tammy
Ben's new found best friend, Jason. (He's Ja'michael and Julie's son. They also have Jamie and Jane. I don't know how they keep all the names straight!)
Me and my little cousin Sage! She is so sweet!

I Forgot About Boondocks and Temple Square!

While we were in Utah we also went to Boondocks with the Stoner side, and had tons of fun! Everyone got soaked from the water bumper cars, and we had fun playing laser tag and doing gocarts. I couldn't find any pictures of this, so I'm guessing my mom forgot to bring out the camera. Before we left, we just had to see Temple Square again.
All four munchkins! (I miss all my long hair!)
A lovely picture if I do say so myself :)
This is our Christmas picture for this year. Just kidding. In one of the buildings on temple square (there are so many I don't remember which one this was) there was a kids section with all kinds of cool hands-on toys. We just had to dress up and pose for this.
Hahaha! In the gift shop they were selling all kinds of Church History stuff. They had like Nephi, Moroni, Helaman action figures, a mock liahona, all kinds of things. Lauren and I felt inclined to try on these cute little bonnets!

Stoner Family Reunion

Fun, fun, fun, and did I mention fun?!!? The Stoner Family Reunion was a blast this year! We started out in Orem at Grandma and Grandpa Stoner's as usual (see below, yeah, I messed it up). Saturday morning was Andrew's baptism (our cousin), then we went to Church with Grandma and Grandpa Stoner and later that evening visited Heritage Care Center to see our relatives in assissted living. Then it was on to a fun night with the talent show and lots fun family videos! My Aunt Ashley put together a slideshow from the "early days" :) of the Stoner clan. It was incredible to see the likeness in the cousins from the original six Stoners! On Monday morning we headed to the Six Lakes near Dushesne (sp?), Utah. We stayed at Loon Cabin (above pic.) next to Loon Lake. It was so fun! We spent hours canoeing, talking with family, and spending time with cousins.

Here is Matthew going solo on the canoe. Way to go!!!

Lauren on the rowboat, honestly, this girl has POW-AH!!! My arms would die! (and if you look closely someone is getting stuck in the reeds behind Lauren. Joseph maybe?)

The girls: Hannah, Me, McCall, and I know that at one point Lauren and Samantha were in it too, but I can't remember how we all fit.

Here we are at Heritage! It was so great (for me at least) to see my great-grandparents and my great aunt. I never get to see them, and each time I know could be the last I spend with them. I have so much respect for this man, my Great-Grandfather Harold Jay Stoner. I am so grateful for his conversion to the gospel. Without his faith in the truth, I would not be a member of the Church today.

This is my Great-Grandmother, Margaret Elizabeth Keller Stoner. She has a great sense of humor for a 97-year-old lady! I can tell that she has a sweet spirit, and that she does not fear death, but looks forward to returning to the Father. My Great Aunt Janice is nearest the camera. She is just so sweet! I'm glad my mom snapped this shot because my Dad was so tender and sweet in talking to them. He has a gift for giving service. I think it's just second nature for him.
This was after Andrew's baptism. What a beautiful baptism it was! I promised myself that I wouldn't cry, but they bring out those slideshows and it's just all over.

This picture is so great, I just had to put it on here. Grandpa is taking responsibilty as usual, by making sure there are pictures being taken. There is the typical teenager texting. (no offense to Hannah :) There's me, always just observing everything and pulling at my hair self-consciously. My Dad is in the background laughing about something as usual. Aunt Ashley is holding Claire. (I think that ever since McCall was born her arms have become permanently stuck in the baby-holding position). Then Matthew is next to the flag looking like he is feeling inspired by whatever is across the street. Great picture to capture Stoner life!

The Trip out West

On our way to Utah, we got to see the St. Louis Arch! It was so huge and so amazing! We stayed the first night in Independence, Missouri, and we had the experience of going to see Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith and a few other men were held for six months. It was a great Church History place, but we didn't take any pictures.

Here we all are in our travel clothes (I love how my mom avoided having her picture taken) beneath the arches in a little museum downstairs. Pretty funny! I personally have to wear comfortable clothes on our long trips or I get grumpy. Matthew and Ben look like they usually do :). Sometimes I'm a little jealous that boys' clothes are soooooo comfortable! I guess women and girls clothes are cuter though.

Anyway, our second day driving was VERY boring. I was getting so sick of seeing the same flat landscape in Iowa and Kansas! The amber waves of grain in America the Beautiful are only spectactular for about the first mile. The scenery finally changed a little bit when we got closer to Denver, where we stayed the night. The third day was our shortest, and we pulled in to Grandma and Grandpa Stoner's house around 6:00 p.m.

Summer Camp 2008

Okay, so I know it's taken like forever for this rarely-updated-blog to get some new pictures. Finally some summer pictures are coming! We had a great summer but unfortunately when we got back from vacation our busy lives began again, and there hasn't been time to update the blog! This is a fun two-week summer camp that Lauren and I did for some kids in our ward. Every day we had camp we started out by reading a story that was related to the day's theme. I don't think they are all in this picture above, but we had about 20 kids!
Here they are coloring!
And making telescopes for pirate day...
And here is everyone on Field Day!!!

Fresh Baked Bread!

I want to share my favorite bread recipe. My family enjoys fresh baked bread more than just about anything. This recipe is so simple, yet so soft and chewy.


This one loaf bread recipe can be made with whole wheat flour, a mix of the two flours, or just make white bread with all white flour. My famliy enjoys all white or the mix of both flours. I use unbleached white flour. I use my bread maker to make this, but you can use your kitchen aid too. I turns out great every time. Try it and let me know what you think.

Whole Wheat/White Bread

3 cups white flour or (2 cups ww flour and 1 cup white)

1 T oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 T yeast

1/4 cup honey

Mix water and yeast in small bowl and set aside. Add flour, salt, oil and honey to bread maker. When yeast mixture has foamed up, add to bread maker. Select dough cycle on the bread maker. Sometimes it is necessary to add a little more flour. Check the dough when you hear the bread maker start to mix. If the dough seems way to sticky, add a little more flour. When the cycle is complete, shape the dough into a loaf and place in a greased bread pan. Let it rise for about 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.