We Survived.....

The last 2 weeks have been so full of busy-ness that I wasnt sure we could survive it, but we did! Ian had his final football game of the season on Saturday.....I think he learned a lot from it and it was generally a good experience even if every single day he whined and cried over having to go to practice. I have discovered that childbirth "selective memory" doesnt just apply to the act of having a child. Apparently, the trauma of having football practice 3 days a week has been long since forgotten in a matter of 2 days as Ian announced to me this morning that he would definitely be playing football again next year! What?! Wow. Didnt see that coming. Here is his team right after the game. Ian is on the back row, smack in the middle. Number 73.....

I wont go into the trauma of that day and how we ended up clear out in Riverton for the game only to find out it was back in Salt Lake City.....thankfully we made it just as they were getting ready to start.

Halloween was a total success....as it is every year. Kinda hard to fail getting free candy. Although we did run out of black hair spray and Addisons Snow White hair looked a bit like bride of Frankenstein with her blond streaks showing through.

Oh well, it was dark.....no one noticed. These are our pumpkins that the kids (read, Denver) carved this year. I thought they turned out great!


November is already starting out busy..... Evan's last soccer game is Saturday.

We leave for Monterey next week. My choir performance is the week after that and then the week after that is Thanksgiving. Nevermind that we have school in the middle of all this mess. Onward and upward right? Happy November everybody.

4th of July Weekend Fun.....

Well, I certainly hope all of you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend as much as we did. This is fast becoming a favorite holiday for me....there is something about BBQ's with friends and family, fireworks, summer heat, and remembering why we celebrate this holiday that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. In the famous words of Lee Greenwood "I'm Proud to be an American"..... I love this picture of my little Evan. It was taken 7-4-05 in Las Vegas and has become my yearly '4th' picture.

We started our weekend on Friday because Denver had the day off. He woke up early and cleaned out the garage which was a wonderful way to start the day! It looks great.... I left him to do the hard work by himself and headed off for my personal training session with Surba. It was a good one for sure. My legs are still hurting from it (in a good way). After this we decided it was time to teach our boys how to ride their bikes....

Yes, they are 8 years old and havent learned but you know now days kids prefer scooters and skateboards. I didnt see any reason to pressure them.... it only took an hour and they were riding like pro's. Now they are finding any excuse at all to ride the bike. It was a lot of fun and very hot. I think Evan had a little heatstroke afterward as he laid down and took a long nap, complaining of a stomache ache.

Even mom and dad participated and hopped on a mountain bike for a turn around the parking lot. I got brave and took the bike down a set of stairs...it brought back lots of memories from a time where I was a little crazy on a mountain bike...stairs, mountains, slick rock...and all without a helmet. Ah, youth.

Addison decided to dress herself on this morning....she came out in a hoodie and snow boots. Very en vogue! Her new thing is to "pose" for pictures...she likes to lay down and put her chin in her hand. Its really hilarious. She is going to start dance lessons next month and I cant wait to see how this goes!

Saturday, we got up reeeaaaallly early to head over to our church for the annual pancake breakfast. Nothing like free food cooked by someone else! Its always a good time and nice to visit with people outside of the stuffy confines of church meetings. The kids always love an excuse to run around the church grounds without the parents getting after them. I had to stay and help wash dishes so we didnt get home until almost noon. Also, Ian was recruited to play football during the breakfast. I have actually contemplated registering him for this for a year or so (I know...crazy).... Last year he expressed interest so I looked into it but decided against for 2 reasons; Cost and the fact that Ian would be "X'd" because of his size. I have seen the signs around the neighborhood for this new season and again, thought about it but just shrugged it off. Turns out the Gremiln coach is in our ward (church) and his son, who happens to be friends with Ian is on the team also. He took one look at Ian and came right on over to our table to "recruit" him for the team. I think we may go ahead and let him try it out. Considering Ian knows nothing about football and the fact that they will practice 4 days a week, Im not sure exactly how much he will like it....but it could be fun. I think it will be good for him to be a bit more active. Video games have become a little too important lately....

Later that evening we headed over to the Fowles for a BBQ. We had hamburgers, corn on the cob, chips/salsa, watermelon and fruit pizza for dessert. It was so good...especially after a week of only protein and veggies for me and Denver. Although I lost 3 pounds this week, I may have put it all back on yesterday! We really enjoyed hanging out with them and are very sad that they will be moving back East in August. They have 3 boys all the same ages as each of our children.....what a fun family that we will miss a lot! We set off a few little fireworks for the kids and then headed down to Sugarhouse Park for the "big show"..... this is always a great firework show and compeltely free. Unfortunately, due to the countries lovely economic situation, the budget was cut and this was the last year that the park will put on the fireworks. We are so dissapointed...... In our hurry to get to the show, I forgot the camera. I hate it when I do that.

Today we have relaxed and enjoyed just laying around. I cant believe we are already halfway through the Summer....time flies! Here is a slideshow of our busy weekend! Hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekend

Welcome July....I think.....

I cannot believe it is July already! The time is flying by. This is good for some things and not so good for others. We have a busy July but not with anything really fun. Lots of Doctor appointments....appointments for school stuff...and thats about it. The weather is hot but we are about to get more rain which will be nice. I enjoy rain in the summer when it is HOT outside. The one good thing about Utah is that it can be 95 degrees during the day but as soon as the sun starts setting, it cools off nicely. On Monday my good friend Linda made the trek up to SLC from Provo to spend a day at the park with us. It was a good time and although it was a little hot, the kids really had fun together. Here are some pics from the day...Linda has 4 boys and her oldest is about to enter the 5th grade! I can remember the day he was born....time has truely flown by.

Weekend Adventures.....

We have had another busy weekend in spite of the continuing rain. I cant remember a time when we've had this much rain. The storms have been spectacular too....lightening, thunder, and massive downpours. Cool, but starting to get old.
Thurday night was a movie night....at home. We went to Blockbuster and rented some DVD's and stocked up on treats. We popped popcorn in the air popper and watched the movie Bedtime Stories. It was a cute family flick and everyone enjoyed it. We also rented Marley and Me which we are going to watch tomorrow.

Friday night we attended a BBQ put on by our churches Elders Quorum. It was fun to hang out and let the kids play....and it didnt even rain during the event which was a shock! Saturday morning I got up to weigh and go to my daily workout with my trainer. Our scale has been on the fritz lately and we havent been able to get a consistent reading so I had purchased a new one on Thursday. I waited until Saturday to weigh though....happy day, I lost another 5 pounds! This made going to my workout much easier that is for sure. I hope this success continues so that I can make it to my goal weight by April of next year! So far I have lost 9 pounds in 3 weeks..

After I got home we went swimming with the kids....nothing like deflating the recent weight loss excitement by putting on a swimsuit. LOL! The place we went was an indoor pool with a waterslide. The walls are all pexiglass so you can see outside and what a storm we were having while swimming! It was crazy. Both me and Denver got brave and went down the waterslide which in spite of its timid appearance was actually very FAST! It was so much fun.... We were hoping to go to a brand new water park that just opened however, because of all the storms I didnt feel like wasting the $50 it would end up costing and then get rained out. This would have to do for now.....

Once home from the swimming we got all dressed up to attend a tour of the newest LDS Temple which is in West Jordan. Its called the Oquirrh Hills Temple and it was beautiful. It was especially exciting for the kids to go inside an actual temple. Ian thought that we were going to be getting sealed that very night....he was a little disappointed to say the least but understood that we will be doing that in the 'not too far' future.

Evan blurted out at the baptismal font that when he turns 8 he wants to get baptized right there in that temple! And then Addison piped in during the video presentation that she thought the temple looked like Grandpa's house....! All in all it was a fairly entertaining couple of hours.

Afterward we drove up to the Draper Temple which was only dedicated a few months ago. It was dark by this time and another storm was coming in so the sky was looking quite surreal. This is the picture I took and I promise I did not photo shop the sky!! So pretty!

We have made reservations at a hotel in Twin Falls, Idaho for this coming weekend. We are going to go fishing....and then stay the night and explore the Snake River area. Everyone is pretty excited as we rarely ever take any kind of vacation involving hotels. I love using Priceline.com! You can use their "name your own price" feature and basically tell them what you are willing to pay and then they will possibly approve it. If they cant accept your price, they will tell you the cheapest they can offer it and give you the chance to take it. We got our room at a 3 star hotel (The Red Lion) for $55.....not too shabby! We have saved a lot of money on airfare too! Its always worth trying. Here are a couple of extra pictures I took on my phone...not great quality but still fun.

I Am Loving Spring.....

The smell of Lilacs on the breeze is enough to make me want to stay outside all day long. I wish that the flowers would continue to bloom and smell through the Summer too. Today, Denver called in sick so he could sleep in. Yesterday we ended up at the Instacare Clinic because my elbow and arm was hurting so intensely yesterday afternoon that I was nearly in tears. Turns out that I have an infection under the elbow from a recurrent patch of eczema. I guess bacteria gets into the skin easily there and when Eczema is present it is almost always the cause of these infections. Now I know how my poor little brother felt when he would get staph infections in his knees and elbows all his life....he suffers from severe Eczema. Anyway, the doctor wanted to poke the elbow to see what he could drain out for a culture. I thought a POKE couldn't be all that bad so I turned down the numbing gel and just let him go for it. HA! Bad idea....he actually stuck a syringe needle in my elbow and pulled back on it to suck the fluid out. I seriously thought I would pass out. After that he wrapped it really tight with an ACE bandage and prescribed antibiotics....I'm happy to say that today, although it still hurts excruciatingly if it is bumped, it is much better than yesterday. At least I can breathe....sleeping was another story.

So, it was a beautiful day today and we decided to take Addie to the park. She really enjoyed it but I think she was missing her brothers....its not the same when you have to play by yourself I guess. She loves the swings though...and the slides. Afterward we came home and worked on the sprinklers....this is when I smelled my lovely Lilac bush.... Strangely, we have white Lilacs. I never knew they came in white. Someone told me recently that they are native to Utah. Not sure if that is true or not but I sure do love them..... Now all I need is some Honeysuckle! Happy Spring! Here are a couple of pictures of Addison....you can click on it to make it larger :)

Winter Fun....

Well, Denver has been gone for a few days now and wont be back until the 5th of January. What does this mean? It means sleeping in without feeling guilty....or taking naps with the same result. It means cleaning.....or not......watching what I want on TV....not worrying so much about whats for dinner...... but it also means, shoveling the driveway after a foot of snow gets dumped on us overnight! It made all the other fun seem, well, not that much fun after all. Seriously, I felt like I moved enough snow to cover the wasatch mountains twice. OK, maybe not that much but still, I was hurting the next day. Big thanks to Denver for shoveling everytime it snows.....it made me really miss him. So, after all that snow we had to go sledding today! It was a good time, at least for 3 of us. Addison wasnt too keen on it after I took her down the hill with me on the tube. We were flying down the hill, and I mean FLYING....I had a hold of Addisons torso but her legs were flying outside of the tube and I was afraid I might lose her to the wind at one point. The tube was spinning in circles which didnt help and I was screaming at other sledders to move outta the way.....lest they be creamed by an old lady on a tube. It was hilarious and I wish that I had video of it even though the laughs would be at my expense. After we huffed it back up the hill, a guy was smiling at me in a way that said....."lady, you should have seen how funny that looked" ....but instead, he asked where we bought such a fast tube. Ha! I made grown men jealous with that run..... Addie wouldnt slide again after that so we just chilled at the top of the hill and watched the boys. It was good fun. Can I just add one side note, actually 2 side notes.... #1 Utah drivers are clueless and cant drive in the snow. Nevermind the explanation because I have too many examples to share ....... and #2 Utah retailers are clueless because they stop stocking winter wear in December. So that means that if a big snow storm hits in December (like this past week) and all the crazy people who hadnt previously bought winter wear run out and buy it all up, thats it.....no more to be found. I should probably mention that I am one of those above mentioned crazy people along with half the city, therefore I should learn my lesson and buy my children boots, gloves and snow pants in July (because that makes total sense) in order to avoid the irritating 3 hour search that occurred today for those items, which was almost a bust by the way. In fact to further illustrate my newfound "lesson learning" from this experience, I will be purchasing swimsuits for our family next month since retailers in Utah think January is a good time to start selling summer clothing. DUH.

Let it snow.....

This is the view out of my front window. It is so quiet when it snows.....I love it. Got home from work late so I decided to sleep in and take the kids to school late. Perfect day to do it too....

Misc Stuff......

This weekend was General Conference for our church. What a perfect weekend for it too with all the rain! I guess it wasnt much fun for the people who actually traveled downtown to watch it in person....but for the rest, it was an even better excuse to stay in. Unfortunately it is difficult to watch conference in a home with little kids. I am not one to make them watch it either and so thank heavens for DVR machines! Ian asked me today though why we werent watching it....oops.... I told him I recorded it to watch later and he asked if he could watch it with me. Wow. Didnt see that coming! I did watch a talk or two today and was excited to see my aunt and uncle standing right next to each other in the choir! That made it easy to find them while they were singing.....
We decorated the house for Halloween this weekend. Thats always fun. I added a couple of new things this year much to kids excitement. I figure by the time they are teenagers I will have enough stuff to make the house look really cool......and then they probably wont give a hoot about it. Oh well.... I love the smell of Fall. Especially after a good rain storm..... it is such a nostalgic time of year for me. Of course we were left with snow in the mountains.....Winter is not far away.

This is our neighbors cat Conan.....this cat is so cool. I love kittys but Ian is so allergic the we cant have one so I decided I am adopting this one. He spends most of his time in our yard anyway....much to Denvers dismay. He is such a cuddly cat and loves attention which is odd for a cat. Addison loves her "neow"...... The cat is nearly as big as she is but he lets her maul him and that is what I love to watch.....

After my choir rehearsal last night, I came home to find that one of Evan's front teeth had been pulled. Im not sure how Denver managed it other than Evan did promise me he would let dad pull it.....the other one is coming out tonight so Evan will have both front teeth missing. That should be fun! Ian's came out one at a time and one had grown back before the other came out so this will be a first with one of our kids missing both of them....I wonder if he will talk funny? I took a picture of him this morning with the one missing....I'll put another up when we pull the 2nd one.

The Leaves are Changing......

Another Sunday worth taking a drive. Today we decided to head up the Alpine Loop to see the fall colors. If you are from Utah then you are familiar with the Alpine Loop and its fall splendor. It is a beautiful drive to take and enjoy the mountains especially during this time of year. We even got lucky and didnt have to pay to get into the canyon.....they had a sign on the window that said "Free Day".....

We did find that the leaves arent all changing just yet. Another 2 weeks and it will be spectacular! We stopped for a few photo ops and then made a quick stop at Sundance. I wish I could live there.... it is such a cool place! Funny thing too.....we ran into some familiar faces (see Soren in the pictures) I guess great minds think alike huh? It was fun to see Nate and Alisa up there. We did attempt a picture of all the kids....as you can see, it was difficult! Along the drive we pulled over and made a little hike. The boys decided to bring ziplock bags and collect some fall leaves. They made quite the collection....not sure what they will do with them now?

It was a nice drive though and I am looking forward to doing it again in a couple of weeks for even prettier pictures.

Gateway Fun....

While working at the Post Office, I became friends with Jennilyn. She is a fellow Twilight fan and mom to 2 cute little kids. I was a bit saddened when I lost my job realizing that I wouldnt get to chat with her on my breaks anymore. But, we have kept in touch and today I met her and her kids downtown at the Gateway where we let them all run wild in the fountains. Addison wasnt too thrilled at the prospect of getting shot in the face with water so despite her love for anything involving a swimsuit, she kept a safe distance from the water. Ian and Evan both fell victim to the random water spouts and as Evan put it ....."actually got my eyeball shot out of my head, but it's ok mom cause I just put it back in...." Yikes.

Beautiful Day....

I LOVE days like this. Its definitely hot outside but there is a cool breeze blowing and the wildflowers are blooming....we went outside to sit in the grass and I thought I should take a picture of all the kids for Gma and Gpa. Here are a few of my faves

Sunday at the Park.....

So we went to the park again today....it's becoming a Sunday tradition. It beats wasting gas going on a Sunday drive which we used to enjoy. The city built this new neighborhood park near our house so we thought we would check it out. The playground is sortof Ikea meets Jungle Jim with its odd shapes and interesting construction. Anyway, the kids had a great time....although the little sit and spin chair ended up being too much as you can see from Ian's traumatic face in the slide show. He was not happy. I may have given Evan whiplash after I spun him too fast on the same chair.....oops!

Summer Nights....

We enjoyed our Sunday today. Mainly because we received the good news that we dont have to change wards. They have reorganized our Stake and because we sortof live right on the outskirts of our particular ward, we were pretty sure they were going to cast us off into another ward. Thankfully, they have combined us completely with another and so the 2 years we have spent getting to know people will not have been wasted! I had become resolved to the idea though and was beginning to think that it wouldnt be so bad to meet new people, but now we have the opportunity to get to know the new people while staying with the old. Best scenario possible! Of course, this means all new leadership which equals all new callings......I have a feeling I will be utilized for something very soon.

It was near 95 degrees today but so nice and cool this evening in the backyard.... I had some fun taking pictures of the kids, minus Ian who was down at his friends house playing their Wii.

These are our grapes that are just beginning to bloom.... The vine has grown clear up a willow tree in the yard behind us... so high we wont be able to get the grapes! Evan and Addison enjoying the cool night in our backyard......we LOVE summer! Addison hasnt figured out how to smile just yet but we love her anyway.

Summer.....Finally.

Well, the summer here has had a slow start. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing if you dont like the heat. For me, personally, I prefer the heat to the cold so I am happy that warm weather appears to be here to stay.....at least until September! We enjoyed some time at the park yesterday but had to wait until 6 p.m. to go in order to avoid 94 degree heat. That is one thing that I love about Utah.....it may be hot during the day but it always cools off at night.