The Lee Clan

I just wanted to say Congratulations to Elena and Mike. They just had their little boy, They named him Brody Michael Harrison. He is such a Cutie. Can't wait till you update your blog so that we can see more pictures of him.

And also Happy Birthday to my brother Miles. We love you, and we are looking forward to your visit this summer. The girls are so excited too, they can't wait to play with Madelyn and Emma.

It's official, he has finally left for Scout Camp! Excuse me I mean "Duty to God Encampment". Jared has put allot of work into camp this year. They had asked him to do the Rifle, Shotgun, Archery and Aviation merit badges for camp this year. And of course he said yes. He has a hard time saying no when it comes to the Boy Scouts. So long story short, Jared did some delegating. He asked his father to take care of Aviation, Shawn Bryant to take care of Archery and Leroy Simmons to take care of either Rifle or Shotgun (I can't remember)[Thanks Guys!]. This last month has been very busy getting Jared ready to go. He had to take a NRA course so he could teach his class. Then he had to take an online Range Safety Officer course, so that they could be legal up at camp. Then he and Shawn went and took an Archery course so that they could check out Archery equipment. I am so glad that this is almost over. I am so glad that Jared has a wonderful job so that he can be involved with the Scouting program. I know that he really enjoys this. We Love Ya, and we will Miss Ya. Have fun and stay safe.

We had a fun weekend! We went camping out in Florence, AZ not far from where they hold Country Thunder! We went with friends of ours from the ward. The Larson's, the Cuthberts, the Lowrys and the Reeds. Jared the girls and I got there in the early afternoon. We went to the place where we camped last year and discovered real fast that we didn't want to camp there. It was full of cow manure. You couldn't take a step without having to shift the direction you were walking just so you could avoid poop. As we were trying to get out of there we sunk our truck clear to the axle in the wash. We have decided that we need two 4wheel drive vehicles not one. Jared finally got the truck out but couldn't pull the trailer out. About 2 hours later everyone else showed up drove to a different place to camp then Mons came back and used his 4wheel drive pick up to pull the trailer out. We got back to camp and set up, and the children were having fun taking turns riding on the golf cart. Put the kids to bed and then started making Dutch oven cobbler. The guys ended up going on a night ride because the Lowry's went back into town to get ice and couldn't find their way back to camp in the dark. On Saturday the guys went on a really long ride, 4 hours I think. On Sunday we didn't ride, sat around camp and talked about Conference talks, shot Jared's pellet gun. And we also had a 'Washers' tournament. Jared and Amber were the winners of that. Monday the guys got up really early went on a ride clear out the to "Coke Ovens" http://www.desertusa.com/mag01/jan/stories/ovens.html .
Then it was the Ladies turn to go on a ride. We rode Clear up into Box Canyon on 2 quads and the golf cart. We had a fun time. On our way back we stopped at an area were you can ride up and down hills, there are jumps that you can do also. We had a lot of fun, But the guys had to come and rescue us because Azure crashed her quad into a ditch. We couldn't believe how much wild life we actually saw this trip it was awesome. The kids really enjoyed watching Hawks swoop down and catch a meal. All of the cows that were all around us. And would occasionally follow us on our bikes. Snakes, and Gila monsters and of course bugs. Breanna and Amber really liked the bug they saw after all of the other children were in bed. We think that it was a Sun spider, it's jaws were the biggest things I have ever seen. We watched it for a good 20 minutes catching moths in the light and rolling them up like a burrito, sucking the insides out and tossing them aside and catching another one. It was the discovery channel in real life.

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Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We are so excited that school is out! And our Daddy is taking us camping this weekend. We had a fun school year. And we are looking forward to next year.

I am glad that school is out for the Summer. We are ready for a change of pace. I am so glad that I have finally found a school that I love. (Thanks to Carolyn Cathcart!) When Breanna started school we had her at the school up the road here. Decided that we didn't like it. Moved her to a charter school, Amber started school here and by the middle of Amber's 1st grade and Breanna's 3rd grade I pulled them out, and put them back at the school up the road knowing that they wouldn't be there very long. (I was not impressed with the way the Director of the school was handling things, and come to find out my girls were behind in almost every subject.) By this time Candace had started preschool, with intense speech therapy. Then I found Copperwood Elementary in the Peoria Unified School District. I love them, the whole school teachers, secretaries, etc. care about our children. I get a wonderful feeling every time I walk into the office. I am very please with this school and I have been hard to please. We are truly blessed to have wonderful friends who listen to our concerns, and help us and guide us to were we need to be. I know through my own testimony that it truly does take a village to raise our family.

Candace got 2nd place out of all of the 1st grade students for her school, for her drawing of her dog Scooter. We are so proud of her, she did a great job. It has really helped her self-esteem. She told us that her drawing was chosen to be in the art contest. And we were very excited for her. She is so pleased with her accomplishments.

Ok, so I told you that I would let you know how it went. I made Bread again today, and instead of using 10-11 cups of flour, I used 4 cups of wheat and 6 cups of flour. It worked perfectly!

I have got to be the happiest woman in the world right now. In my 12 years of marriage I have never been able to get dough to rise to make bread or rolls.(I would make rolls and bread, but they would never rise, I finally just used my bread machine to make dough!) I even read cook books, went online to try and find some tricks on how to make dough rise, I could never figure it out. Until yesterday! YEA ME! I came across this bread recipe in Sister Savings, I thought what the heck I'll try it. Thinking for sure that it wouldn't work. WOW! It worked! I now wish that I had taken pictures of the whole process, proofing, kneading, before the dough rose, etc. But oh well, what am I to do. I am just so happy that it worked. I made this recipe with all purpose flour. The next time I try I am going to try using 1/2 all purpose flour and 1/2 fresh ground wheat. I'll let you know how it turns out.
The dough when I discovered that it was actually rising!
When I started to form rolls!
My loaf of bread!
Rolls and bread done and beautiful!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Last night was Breanna's final Chorus concert of the school year. It was really a cute program. It involved 5th thru 8th grade choirs. The program was a day in the life of young teenagers. (I can't believe that Breanna is almost there.) They did a really great job. It was hard to get good pictures there, so I did the best that I could. And getting video was worse. Oh! I almost forgot, while I was sitting there at the concert I was having a weird moment. I was thinking to myself, 'Did my parents really sit through all of our concerts?' I know that they did. It's my turn now to sit through endless choir conerts, science fair projects, plays and etc. Oh my goodness, I'm growing up!

We LOVE making up dances on the trampoline, and performing them for anyone who will watch us. Mommy helped us by taping the dance so that we could put it on the blog. Hope you enjoy our dance. Amber, Candace & Jodi!

Last night was FHE and our lesson was on "Honoring thy Mother and Father", we had allot of fun. One of the activities we did was 'Imitation is the best form of Flattery', so we got 1 outfit of Jared's and 1 of mine and the girls would race to see how fast it took them to get dressed in our clothes. They had allot of fun, and we were all laughing so hard. After we read scriptures the younger girls played horsey with their daddy while Breanna was playing 'Ratchet and Clank' on PS3.

The girls were so excited to be getting their summer hair cuts done, it is starting to get very warm here (mid 90's). They all love their cuts.
This is Candace's before and after. She cut her hair to just below her shoulders, with a little bit of layers. Her little bit of curls that she does have really show up now.

This is Jodi's before and after. She wanted her hair how we used to cut Breanna's, stacked in the back. She looks really cute.

Breanna's before and after. She wanted something short and sassy. Her hair is cut in layers so that we can flip the bottom all the way around out. She look so cute. We warned her that this hair cut will be alot of up keep.

Well last but not least, Amber's before and after. We cut her hair just below the shoulders, with layers, and it also frames her face.

Ok, so I know everyone is wondering why their hair is colorful. Well it is Spirit week at school(because the school won an A+ award, and only 10 schools out of however many there are in the State of AZ recieve this award), so today is Wacky Day and anything goes.