It's been a couple of months since my last post, life gets a little busy!  Here are a few of the Blackwell family happenings!  First, Talley had a face to face encounter with a coyote a few weeks ago, here's the story:  So Talley took us all out on a family walk one Sunday up to her "favorite spot" out in the desert just a little ways west of our house.  We had an enjoyable walk seeing all of her forts!  The next morning before school Talley asked me if she could take her kitty to the desert and show him her favorite spots.  I said sure just don't be gone too long because you need to get ready for school.  Well about 5 minutes later she comes back in the house,  that was quick I say.  "Mom, there was a weird dog in the desert"  I asked what she meant and to tell me about it.  This is what she said, " I was walking up this little wash to get on top of the hill and I saw what I thought was a dead animal under a bush about 6 feet away from me.  I thought, oh how sad a dead animal.  I started walking up to it to see what it was and it stood up, looked at me for a few seconds and then walked up on top of the hill, turned around and looked at me again and then just walked away into the desert."  I asked Talley what this dog looked like.  She said it looked like Rosa, (a dog we use to have that looked just like a coyote) but it had a bushy tail and was a little bit taller and skinnier!  "Talley, that was a coyote!" I told her.  She was very shocked and a little scared.  She asked me why it just stood there and looked at her and I told her it was probably trying to decide if she was small enough to snatch up and carry off into the desert!!!  Anyway, now about the picture.  When Jon got home from work Talley told him all about her "sighting" and insisted that Jon get his gun and go get that coyote!  So Talley outfitted all of us with weapons; Talley had her bow and arrow, Jon had his pistol, Shiley got the bb gun, and I got to hold Talley's extra arrows!  Rowdey opted out of the hunt because he had too much homework!  Needless to say we were unsuccessful!  We still hear the coyotes about every night, and a few nights they have been right in our yard!

 Elder Blackwell continues to love Westminister, he says they eat at members homes every night!  This is a picture that a sweet sister sent me of Elder Blackwell having dinner at their house.  She said, "we were having dinner with your sweet son tonight and I wanted to send you a photo!  What a nice surprise!  So as a mother can you guess the first few thoughts that entered my mind?  First of course, "oh, he looks so good and handsome!"  Then, "what are all those empty bowls doing sitting on the table? and why are you just sitting there and not getting up and clearing that table and helping with the dishes!!"  I'm sure he did just as soon as the picture was taken!  He does look good though, don't you think?!!

 This has been Elder Blackwell's trainer ever since he arrived in Colorado!  Elder T. is awesome and Brodey is learning so much from him.  Elder T struggles with back problems, but he doesn't let that slow him down.  They taught 28 lessons the other week!  They are loving being missionaries!!  They work with a lot of inactives too, and they give out a Book of Mormon every week in church for one of their ward members to place!  One interesting thing Elder Blackwell said to Shiley was that he wanted to memorize the scripture mastery's from seminary and he would race her to see who could memorize them first!  Well I remember as his mother encouraging, bribing, strongly suggesting, trying to help him memorize his scriptures for seminary!  I think he memorized 4  in all four years that he went to seminary!  Hind sight is 20/20!!!

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 Shiley was able to fulfill a dream she's had for quite a few years, she went to Kentucky and even got to attend a horse race at Churchhill Downs! (that's where the Kentucky Derby is held every year).  Shiley is an avid horse enthusiast and knows a lot about the pedigrees of all the race horses!  So she had an amazing time at the race track!  She even had her teacher place a $3.00 bet for her!  Luckily she didn't win though.  She said she didn't have any of their sires or dames to look at where they came from, she just had to go on looks!

 This was a National FFA Convention, thus the sweet attire in every picture!  Shiley serves as the Moapa Valley High School FFA President this year!

 Someday if you get the chance sit down and talk with Shiley about horses, she's amazing with her knowledge of the pedigrees of great horses!

 This is Killer, if you ask dad, Socks, if Talley tells you his name!  The only one who likes this kitty more than Talley is Jon!! :)

My 3 children I still have at home!  They keep me very entertained!  They are so much fun and I am so blessed to be their mother!  Rowdey is still trying to come to grips with being the only "man child" at home!!  Most day's he fairs ok, others he wants to catch a bus for Colorado!  His dad does a good job taking him places and giving him a break from the girls!! :)

 Happy Birthday Shiley!  This is my beautiful girl at Utah State University in Logan- go aggies!!  We did a tour with Shiley when we were up North.  She loves USU and plans on going there after she graduates in 2 years....... she's such a planner!  We had a lot of fun with her that day, but can't believe how fast time is flying!  She will be in college before we know it.  Love you so much Shi- Shi you have always been a fun girl and my best friend!!  Your future is bright!

 These are pictures Elder Blackwell sent from the MTC.  This is an outing over to the Provo temple.  This is Elder Leavitt and Sister Christensen with Brodey.  Her dad was the mission president in Las Vegas and Brodey went with the priests a couple of years ago to meet with the president and his family.

 Elder Blackwell's initiation as zone leader!! 

 Moapa Valley Elders at the MTC!!  The most handsome elders there!! :)

 After we dropped off Brodey at the MTC we went and stayed with the Butlers for a few days to rest and recoup!  Talley sobbed the whole way there after dropping off Brodey, then Rowdey started too, so by the time we arrived at the Butlers we were pretty red faced and swollen eyed!
 We had a great day at the Hogle Zoo!  We loved the bird show the best, and Wendy and I were pretty sure the birds were headed right for our faces, so we ducked down quite a few times! 

 Shiley had to have a picture with the giraffes since they are her favorite animal!  There was a baby giraffe there too, but we didn't get him in the picture. :(

 Talley and Makenzee really wanted to go over to Heritage Park, so we did, anything to make the girls happy :)  It is beautiful there and very fun.  They really enjoyed panning for gold and I'm pretty sure they struck it rich!

Jon and Rowdey got to fulfill one of Rowdey's bucket list goals and went to help pit for the Coastal Drilling Team on the Vegas to Reno Desert race.  The race team didn't finish first, but they did finish!!  It was a wild ride!!!

 Shiley went on a birthday date with her dad over to Samurai 21 to eat sushi.  She did have to drive to get more hours in so she can take her driving test soon!!  Dad's telling Shiley faster, faster and Shiley thinks she's going plenty fast!  60 mph on the freeway is ok right?  Just kiddin Shi!! :)

 Flaming onion!

 Kima has ninja skills!

 Jon eating with chopsticks, Shiley says she will stick with a fork, thank you very much!

We had a girls night for Shiley's birthday.  We went to Texas Roadhouse and had a great birthday time!  Talley and Madalynn were very infatuated by our waiter's big, buff arms!  That's scary....they're 9!

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY SHILEY! WE LOVE YOU

                             See you in 2 Elder Blackwell!!!

 Wednesday, August 7th 2013 Brodey entered the Missionary Training Center, but we first had to say bye to some fam!  Brodey has had many mentors the past 18 years these are just a few!

 Brodey, Gramps & Grandma           Ian and Kacee

 Josh, Tiff and Brodey

 Brodey with Grammy and Papa at St. George

 Stopped in at Marysvale to say bye to Grandma Great!

 We stayed the night at Uncle Jerry's and Aunt Becky's!  Thanks!!

 Rowdey giving his big brother some last minute advice!  I think it consisted of "please just put me in your suitcase and take me with you,  don't leave me with the sisters!!!!"

 I am so happy and proud of my boy, who isn't a boy anymore!  What an amazing man he is and what a tremendous missionary I know he will be!  "Forget yourself and go to work" son!!

Father and son!  I don't know what words of advice Jon gave Brodey, but I know Brodey's words of advice to his dad were, "leave my guns and tools alone!"  Hmmmm really not that much control over what goes on here while he's out serving the Lord!!!

 This month Jon and I will be celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary!  Just look what can happen after 21 years of marriage!  Wow!  As you can see Talley is having a very difficult time with sending her big brother out into the world for 2 whole years.  She told me today she is not going to be a mormon anymore, she is leaving the church unless they send her brother back home.  I tried to explain to her that it was Brodey's choice to serve a mission the church wasn't holding him hostage!  She's not convinced yet, hopefully she will be able to see the benefits of sacrifice and service over the next 2 years, and hopefully she comes back into the fold!!!!

 Jon and I both commented on how Brodey started really giving hugs the week before he left us.  He has been famous the last, probably 10 years, for giving "air hugs" or us forcing a hug upon him!  He really started hugging us for this week and I have to say it was very, very nice!!  I think I will always remember his strong crushing hugs he gave me!!  He didn't let go either, he let me hug him as long as I wanted!!!

 James was entering the MTC an hour behind Brodey, so he was at the temple too.  These two have been working together over the last few months preparing to leave on their missions.  It has been so fun to watch them grow together and prepare to serve!  Elder Leavitt and Elder Blackwell, the people of Ohio and Colorado are blessed to have such fine missionaries coming their way!!!

 Colton will be joining the missionary force in a few months.  He is always a supportive and good friend!  Thanks Colton.

 Shiley captured this sweet moment between brothers!  I just love this picture.  Rowdey has always looked up to his big brother and what finer example could he have!!!

The Blackwell family!  All of us together!  We are all so proud of our son and brother!  What a magnificent example he is to all of us.  We are so grateful he is part of our family!

There he goes, Elder Brodey Jonathan Blackwell!  He didn't even look back, press forward with faith!

 Brodey and James did an awesome job in sacrament meeting today!  They both gave wonderful talks.  James talked about what we can learn from the 2,000 stripling warriors and Brodey's talk was on what we can learn from our pioneer forefathers.  Brodey talked a lot about his great-great-great-great grandfather Harrison Burgess and the funny thing was that Grandma Dianne told us after that he is also James' ancestor!

 The luncheon was a great success!  We got all those youth in and fed in about 25 minutes so they could head on to the next missionary talk!  What a great day!  This an amazing time with so many missionaries leaving and receiving their calls.  This wondrous work rolls forth to fill the earth!   How grateful I am that my son gets to be part of this spiritual force!

 Papa's sage words of wisdom for the soon to be departing missionary!

 Jaxyn and Brodey having a little brunch!  Hopefully Jaxyn grows more in two years than Brodey does!!!!

 A few of the many that attended the luncheon!  Thanks for all the support!  Looking over the crowd I see many young men that have already received their calls and are preparing to go!!  Way to be!! 

James, Ashley, Leanna, Shealyn. Skyler, Brodey.
                                        
   CATCH THE WAVE!!!!!

Welcome to our blog! We are new to this whole thing, so I thought I would put some photos of us from our recent photo shoot we had. This is Shiley, (my mom's new IT person since Brodey is leaving!), my mom is socially network challenged so she asked me to do the blog updates. So here we go:

Jon and Rhonda will be married 21 years in August. They are kept busy by work and keeping us kids entertained. Just kidding, we are the ones who keep them entertained! (;

Brodey received his mission call to Colorado Denver North in April. He leaves August 7th! He graduated high school in June and is excited to start a new chapter of his life. Brodey was accepted to Southern Virginia University and plans to attend after his mission. We will miss him so much!!

 I have been kept busy this summer working at our high school ag farm. I am our high school's FFA chapter president this year and the NV Southern Zone vice president, so I should have a busy school year ahead of me!

Rowdey is not looking forward to Brodey leaving. The poor kid is gonna have no one to watch out for him when his sisters pick on him! (; Just kidding, we love Rowdey and he has been a big help to Uncle Josh and Gramps this summer.

Talley has a hard time with change, so this summer has been hard for her with her big brother getting ready to leave. She loves her brothers and sister, and thinks she is basically the same size and age as us!