Senior prom

Our darling boy and his last school dance this past Saturday. I absolutely loved taking the photos for
his group and yes, I most definitely got emotional multiple times earlier in the day when I thought
 about his impending high school graduation, moving away to college and then leaving on a  mission—
likely all within this calendar year. His unreal goodness does something to my heart and I just continue
 to watch him do amazing things, with hard work and his incredible heart, all while bringing laughter
and fun to every single situation he is in. Oh I'm thankful for our Ben. 

And his beautiful date, Leah. I'm a huge fan of this fabulous girl.

This picture most definitely made me cry when I uploaded it to my computer.
These boys have been such a huge blessing to Ben. I'm thankful for every single one of them.

And one final disc golf photo for those obsessed with the sport
(Ben at the top of the list), just for fun and because they are hilarious. 

It was a really sweet night for sure. I'm so thankful to have been a small part of it.

A dance festival for our beautiful girl

Grace performed with her dance company at the Utah Dance Festival on Saturday. They were absolutely
amazing! We love her dance studio something fierce and feel forever the luckiest that we found them
for our girl. The owners, the instructors, the dancers-everything about them is beyond fabulous.

This tremendous boy

This darling guy played hours of soccer each day throughout this last week.
He's working his head off and it's so incredible to watch.

Flag football fun

Ben's basketball season might be over, but the flag football season has just begun.

And this team of friends is just the best and way too much fun to watch.

A final year of the district book battle

This cutest girl participated in her final district book battle this week, for the fourth year in a row.
She's so amazing. And the fact that she loves to read so much brings me all sorts of joy.

♪♪It's the most wonderful time of the year♪♪

 

Our darling, talented girl

This sweetest girl received that cutest bouquet today, along with all of the adults
that helped with the school play, during one of the last practices before the official
 performances. So proud of our Grace and her amazing choreography skills, especially
at only twelve years old. She is something else and I'm just so proud of her.

Twenty-two years of our amazing Matt

 

This tremendous birthday guy

Happy Birthday to this tremendous human! Oh Matt is something else and I have felt
such a deep gratitude for him today—for who he chooses to be and for the privilege of
being his mom and his friend. He has one of the best hearts of any person I have ever
known and watching it in action the last twenty-two years has been such a gift and privilege.

And it’s definitely not just me. Matt’s strengths and talents make others gravitate to him and want to
be around him, especially his siblings. We all find him beyond hilarious. If you haven’t been around our
 dinner table with Matt, or listened as he told a story of some absolutely crazy thing he likely shouldn’t
have done but did, I’m not sure you’ve known true joy. And his immense amount of kindness, goodness,
wisdom, brilliance, athleticism and adventurous spirit just make him that much more incredible.

I’m just so proud of Matt and how he lives his life. The relationship he has with each member of our
family, and especially with Jacob and myself, means so much to us. I’m so honored to know and love
him and to be loved by him in return. Each of us are better, happier, kinder, and have far more fun,
because Matt is is our lives. I’ll never stop being grateful to God for sending him to us.

Happiest Birthday Matthew Davis, love you so much son!

Our favorite guy's birthday

Well, well, well, what do we have here except one of our favorite days of the year
and our favorite dad and husband in all of forever?! 

Here’s to the one that that never stops loving, serving, providing, caring, laughing,
crying, adventuring and just being there for each of us. We are SO grateful for who
you choose to be and how it blesses us every single day. 

Happy Birthday Jacob Ethan! Love you forever.

Family ski day

These four darlings, plus Jacob (the lovely photographer), spent the day skiing today.
It's a sad ski season in Utah this year for sure. But I'm so glad they could spend the time together.
Oh man, we could use some significant moisture in our little state.

(Nate was on his own ski trip with a friend and his parents, so while he was missed, we were glad he was having fun.)

Ben's senior year basketball season

An undefeated season for this boy and his darling friends.
I just really love watching this son of mine play basketball.

Just love these two so crazy much

Another tournament win for Nate

 And then in more stud news of the weekend...this boy won the championship of his
St. George soccer tournament Saturday! And scored the most amazing goal to ignite the team
and get them fired up. Oh I love him and his incredible heart and his choice to work his head
off to become the MOST amazing soccer player. Love this Nate boy so much.

Another tournament win for Ben

Look at this guy who took FIRST PLACE in his tournament today! Out of 35 players and
playing 40 holes. I'm especially impressed with this win, with him coming off of a significant
injury the last few months of 2025. It was a pretty big tournament for sure and I'm so proud of
this boy who works his head off to compete in this sport he loves. Oh this Ben Allen, I'm a fan.

College bound

This stud got the news a few days ago that not only was he admitted to BYU, but he also received a
scholarship to help pay for expenses. We’re so proud of him and who he chooses to be and his insane
amount of hard work the last several years. All three schools he got into are tremendous and it will be
exciting to see where life takes him the next many months. He’s so amazing. I’m so honored to be his mom.

An evening of ballet

This sweetest girl, went to Ballet West's performance of Peter Pan last night, because of the generosity
of one of the school play directors who gave us tickets to the performance, as a thank to Grace for helping
choregraph one of the main dances of the school play this year. It was just such a kind thing to do.

The athleticism and talent of these dancers was unreal. I couldn't get over it. And now,
many months into dancing pointe, Grace had a small idea how incredible it was what
these dancers were doing. I loved watching her filled with so much happiness
and awe. It was a good night. I'm so thankful I could experience it with our girl.

7th grade

This beautiful girl registered for 7th grade last night. Our sixth and final time.
I'm so blown away that we are here with our youngest already. But she is definitely ready.
Love her and her amazing, fun, hilarious, darling self more than I can say.

A Saturday afternoon hike

The best dad, the sweetest girl

A fun night

The most fun night with Grace's darling friend. I'm so thankful for how good
Ella's family is to our girl. They are just the best and we are so thankful for them.

Soccer tournaments and incredible dads

Right after returning from Sierra Leone, Jacob insisted he be the one (going so far as to uninvite
me and insist I stay home and rest and recover from the last few weeks) to take the three youngest
 to St. George for a long weekend for Nate's soccer tournament. Not only did he make it possible
for me to have some quiet time to heal, but he made those days incredibly fun for the kids.
He's honestly just the most tremendous. Always giving, always serving, always wanting what
is best for us. I'm so grateful for him. And so are the kids. We are forever the luckiest.


I was honestly so confused by this picture at first, until I realized which shirt Ben
had taken down to SG and had worn on this particular day. Hilarious.

My favorite books of 2025

Well, I realized as I started this post that this will be my fifteenth year straight of sharing my favorite books. Madness. And because I read a lot of books in 2025, eighty in total, I ended up having quite a few that I liked a lot. Especially considering one of the books below represents one of six in a series that I absolutely loved. So goodness, this is a long list. 

Let's get going.

The Book of Mormon
This will always be my favorite book, which is why I read it multiple times in the year. I always make sure I spend time in this book, each day, before I read anything else and it makes a difference in my life. Big time. I'm so thankful for this book. 

The Let Them Theory
Tremendous, tremendous book. One that I think every human would benefit from reading. It's just what it sounds like. Only it's not just what it sounds like. Highly recommend.

The Women
Goodness, a very well-written, but hard-to-read historical fiction about the Vietnam War. Kristin Hannah certainly has a gift for writing and I thought about this book for days and days after I finished it. Some strong language here and there, just a warning.

The Seven Sisters
This book was so fun and easy to read, I absolutely loved it. And was so excited to hear it was a series. But never made it through the second book, it just wasn't the same, even though I gave it hundreds of pages to be sure. But this first book, so great.

The House of My Mother
Good. Ness. I knew about this story from the news, but it was something else to listen to it, from the daughter's perspective. I thought she handled it carefully and well, but just absolutely heartbreaking. 

The Mother Next Door
I knew what Munchhausen by Proxy was, but this story just made it that much more real. I cannot even fathom. Excellently written though, even if difficult to imagine in the slightest.

A Game of Hearts
I read at least three books by Joanna Barker, starting with this one, and they are just so fun and fabulous and witty and made me laugh over and over. Such a gift for writing and such clean, sweet books.

Leap of Faith
I thought this was such an interesting and good book. Nothing too huge, just fun to read. I liked it enough that I was excited about the series, but like the book above, couldn't get into the second one, which was disappointing.

All My Knotted-Up Life
This memoir by Beth Moore was toward the top of the favorites this past year. She is absolutely hilarious. And so faithful and good. And she wins extra points for me as someone who stood against our current administration, when they were in power the first time. And it was popular to back the president when you called yourself a Christian—especially a well-known Christian. She took a tremendous hit for it and still did what she knew was right. Bravo to Beth Moore. I'm a fan of her for a lot of reasons.

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World
This book is written by a retired US Navy Admiral and is just really good. Really short, to the point, has some amazing ideas and I enjoyed it very much.

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
This book changed my life. And I don't say that lightly. I plan to listen to it every year to truly understand the life changing work and ideas of Dr. Lindsay Gibson. I'm so thankful that someone could put into words, and help me to understand, many things about my life that I have never been able to. And I love that she talked so much about how these parents are often not horrible people, that isn't the problem. That felt extremely true and important to me also.

Michael Without Apology
Not sure there will be a year that I don't include a book by Catherine Ryan Hyde, but this isn't the year. This book was amazing. My word, some of her one-liners actually stop me in my tracks (I often listen while I am out walking) and I have to process them for quite a bit before I can move on. Loved this book, love this author even more.

Soundtracks
Read this book. Read it now. It's so, so good. I mean, if you know me, I'm clearly not an overthinker, but I hear things. Ha. No, this book was one of my very favorites of the whole year. Helpful, informative, hilarious, all the things. You should read it. For real.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (Volumes 1-6)
I love these books. I really love these books. I could read these books all day and never tire of them. In fact, after reading six of the eight that are out (there are supposed to be twenty-four released eventually), I stopped. Because I didn't want to be finished with them and not have more to read. But I'm now realizing I should finish the eight and just start over. How did this not occur to me until now? Aside from The Book of Mormon, if there is one book/series on this list I would say read for sure, it is this series. The happiness I feel when I read them, the amount of times I actually do laugh out loud, is off the charts. The writing and the story just bring me immense amounts of joy. Emma Lion is the best. And a dear friend. And no one will convince me otherwise. Don't use your  "she's not even real" logic on me, I care not.

Okay friends, that was a long list. Which means it was a good year of reading. I'm so grateful

Darling, growing up Grace

The cutest girl, on her way to her HOPE squad conference this morning.