A "Devine" Reunion.

Once Upon A Time there was a lady named Dolores who wanted a better life for herself and her children so she brought them from Ireland to America. In 1994, my mam took her 5 children and emigrated to the United States of America. Although we all loved the home of our birth; Ireland with it's beauty and rich culture, the economy was very bad and there was not many opportunities available for college education. We waited 3 years for a Visa to live legally in the U.S. We landed in Alamo, NV a desert in the middle of nowhere. We made our home there and worked hard to get by. We were helped by many friends along the way. Things were not easy in the beginning and we missed our homeland at times, but we came to America for opportunity and we found it here. It has been 15 years since Dolores brought her 4 daughters and 1 son across the Atlantic ocean in search of a new life in a new land. 6 people came to America in 1994 and today we have grown to 17. This past weekend we had a little "Devine" reunion to celebrate how much we have grown and how our legacy continues in this great land.
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Because of schedules and money being tight, we decided to plan the reunion for just one day . We started the day off with a small hike in Red Rock Canyon. The weather was not too hot yet and the scenery was beautiful. The kids did very well and didn't complain once. We pack a breakfast and ate it at the end of our trail. Next we headed to the Santa Fe Casino to see the movie "UP." It was very funny and everyone really enjoyed it. We got free bowling with our ticket stubs, so we bowled next. It was fun, we had 2 different teams and although some of us got really competitive toward the end, everyone had a great laugh. Then, we went back to my sister Kim's house for a barbeque and swimming. It was so nice to finally relax after our busy day. We ended the night with a kids talent show and we had my mam share stories of our ancestors. It was a wonderful day, I can't wait till the next reunion, hopefully next year we'll spend it at Disneyland :)

Almost all the gang

Baili (holding Niamh), Jacob, Gavin, Ryan, Kami, & Tyrone

Beverley, Kim, Me & Niamh

oUr FaMiLy

Niamh & Lucas

Gavin, enjoying a chocolate muffin for breakfast

Trudi, Niamh & Nana

Malcolm & Tyler

Me, helping Tyrone (he is not very happy)

Gavin, first time bowling

Beverley & Lewis

Gavin & Tyrone singing "The Shimmy Shake."

Deep Sleeper

This past Friday night, Tyrone was sent to bed early for throwing a tantrum. He'd been acting up all day and just whining and acting tired. He screamed all the way upstairs and proceeded to kick the walls beside his bed. He was crying and screaming for a while and then it got really quiet. A little while later I went upstairs to check on Tyrone. I discovered that Tyrone had locked the door on the inside. I started knocking on the door, quietly at first and soon after I began pounding on the door and yelling for Tyrone to open the door, NOW. Well, there was not a sound. I started to panic and continued to bang and kick the door and try to get Tyrone's attention. I thought that he was sleeping at first, but when I was being so loud and practically screaming his name, over and over, I began to really get worried. I took the door knob off the door and tried to unlock it with a screwdriver, no such luck. I called Lucas at work, a little hysterical at first, because I was thinking the worst at this point. Lucas told me to try and kick the door in. It wasn't budging. So, he told me to get the hammer and just try to knock the lock out of the door. It only took me a few tries and the lock fell out and the door opened. I found Tyrone fast asleep in his bed, looking so angelic and cozy. I had to shake him to wake him up. He finally sat up and the first thing he said was "I'll be good." It was hard for me to be mad at him when he had no idea that I just destroyed his bedroom door, just to make sure he was alive. It's a good job he's so cute!

John 14:15

Gavin was asked to do the scripture and prayer in primary on Sunday. He was given a week to prepare for it. Mandy asked me if I had any suggestions so I said John 14:15. "If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments." simple enough for Gavin to memorize. He did a fantastic job and has really taken a liking to reading the scriptures. He took an old set of scriptures of mine and opens it to any random page and then quotes the above scripture. Im proud of the little guy.

Niamh

Isn't it about time.

That I update my blog, that is. We haven't done anything too exciting lately, but I don't want to wait a whole month to update. Lucas is at a training class for three days this week. I love when he works the day shift. It makes our schedule seem more normal and he gets to be here at night time. He has been working graveyard for almost 4 years now. It's taking it's toll and I think he is ready to work a day or swing shift too. The hard part is that graveyard pays 8% more, which when things are tight, really counts. I think by the end of the year, Lucas will be ready to switch his schedule. Gavin finished school on June 4th. He really enjoyed his teacher, even though he was only with her a short while. He will be starting Kindergarten this fall. Where has the time gone, seriously. I'm trying to keep up on practicing writing and speech with Gavin to keep the things he learned fresh in his mind. Tyrone is my little actor. He is constantly acting out scenarious as a pirate or a superhero. He loves playing dress up. He is my little "cheeky" kid. (Cheeky also means "sassy" in the Irish lingo.) He talks back to me all the time. I try to remain patient as I am reminded of how much I talked back to my mam when I was younger and realize that I am getting back what I gave. My boys are growing up too fast and sometimes at night when I tuck them into bed and watch them sleep, a wave of sadness rushes over me as I realize how quickly they do grow. They're not my little babies anymore. Even my little Niamh is growing up sooner than I expected. She has begun to pull herself up to stand beside furniture. She is so focused and even if she falls over, she crawls right back over and pulls herself up. She crawls so fast and I really can't take my eyes off her for a minute or she is getting into something. She has two teeth now, on the bottom and loves The Wiggles. She only has to hear them singing and she will stare at the T.V and listen. It's so funny. I still remember the day I had her like it was yesterday. I try to cherish every moment but time is speeding up. Lucas and I have been working really hard on a goal we started together at the beginning of December. We're almost there, but still have a little way to go. I am so grateful to have a partner in love and life. He is so supportive of everything I do and is always there to encourage me on those bad days. He's my rock! So, hopefully in a month or so I will be blogging that we have completed our goal and have lots of photos to share.