Me & My Boys

Joren's B-day Pics!

2012-02-01T19:23:00.000-08:00

Joren turned 6 on Jan. 3rd! I am in no way a professional photographer, but I like to have nice "birthday" pics. It has taken me almost a month!!! I had to go at a certain time and it was never a convenient time. So, today I bribed him with McDonald's.

Joren is our free spirit. He kind of just does what he wants. We often wonder if he can hear, but we've had his hearing tested and he can hear fine. He always tries to roam around the van... he's the last to get in his car seat. He always has to go back in the house to get something any time we leave the house.
Joren still loves perler beads and will spend hours making fun creations. He is in kindergarten and is loving school. He is learning how to read and often surprises me with the words that he knows. He loves riding his bike home from school with his friends. He loves playing ninjas and fighting with his friends.
Joren's favorite past time is torturing Terek. He is more happy if Terek is crying. At other times, they play great and have a lot of fun together.
Joren is our little snuggler. He loves to have someone to sleep with at night. He loves our new little kitty, Mia and loves to have her sleep with him.
Joren loves macaroni and cheese, cottage cheese, pizza, candy, bread and rolls. He actually isn't too picky of an eater.

We love Joren and know that our family wouldn't be complete without him!!!

Winter Snow!!!

2012-01-30T20:38:00.000-08:00

Brenner has missed the snow sooo much!!! I would be more than happy to take him somewhere to play in the snow... but it just hasn't snowed anywhere close enough at any convenient time. A few weekends ago, we had to go to Kanarraville. Sadly, my uncle passed away and we had to go try to find paperwork and clean the house, etc. I texted my cousin Cash and he said there was no snow... but I packed our snow gear, just in case. The kids were bored. They had no computer, no TV, not toys and it was cold and windy outside. Brenner was thinking it was the worst day of his life. So, we left him at Cash's with his girlfriend Kali and she put a movie in for them to watch. We went back to clean the house. All of a sudden, the wind stopped and it started to snow. The boys were soooo excited. They got right to work building a snowman. They had a blast and it turned out to be the best day of Brenner's life!!!

The memorial service was this past saturday. I don't have any pics, but I think my cousin libby does. There is the obituary and a video memorial on our family blog.

My uncle was living in my grandparent's old house which now belongs to my mom and my uncle Heff. So, now we have a house to clean, paint and fix up and hopefully we will have a fun vacation home to run off to in Kanarraville!!!

Happy 37 to me!!!

2012-01-30T20:32:00.000-08:00

All I have to say is... holy crap... I'm almost 40! How did that happen? Anyway....

My birthday was somewhat blasé.... I had to work...Ryan had a class that night so he was gone all night. I didn't feel like cooking so I took the kids to McDonald's. Ryan couldn't handle that I didn't have a cake with candles to blow out (I guess I could have made myself one) so he stopped at the store and bought me one. I blew out the candles and we all went to bed... no one even ate the cake.

Okay, so since that day turned out just about as normal as they get (aside from my mom's brother dying), we decided to celebrate the day after. Ryan bought me an Iphone for my birthday!!! Most exciting gift of all time... I've wanted one forever:) Then Ry's parents baby sat so we could go to the temple and out to dinner. We went to a Brazilian stake house. It was super fun and ended up being a great... day after my birthday!!!

(I've been accused of being behind on my blogging... but there hasn't been anything to blog about... we need to get out and do something fun!!!)

Joren's 6th Birthday

2012-01-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

I thought I was going to get out of having a birthday party for Joren. We needed to go to Las Vegas to take Tanner to the airport to fly home on the morning after Joren's birthday. So, I thought we could just go down a day early and go to Circus Circus for Joren's birthday. Well, Joren was excited about that, but when it really settled in that he wasn't going to be able to have a friend party, he was a little sad. Being the mother that I am and not wanting to feel guilty that I didn't have a party for him, I decided to plan a NINJA party about a week before his birthday!!!

We invited a few close friends and their siblings. We asked everyone to come dressed in all black. I made ninja headbands for them to wear.

We started off by having a ninja star throwing contest. The little ninjas had to throw the stars into 3 different bowls..... the farthest away being the most points.

Then we had a relay where they had to carry marshmellows with chopsticks from one bowl to another.... kind of harder than I thought.
Then we went inside to have cake and ice cream. I made Joren's cake. I just covered it in white fondant and made a black ninja belt out of fondant. Then I just stuck some plastic Ninja toys in the cake... super easy and he loved it!

After the cake we went back outside to break the pinata. My pinata wasn't super durable, so we had them hit it with a ninja sword so that it wouldn't break right off the bat. (When planning a party where you make a pinata, plan plenty of days to do multiple layers... and don't try to bake it to make it dry faster.)
After the pinata, we went back inside to open presents. Joren was a little too nonchalant about his presents, but he had a lot of fun!!!
We had his party the day before his birthday and the day of his birthday, we headed to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Circus Circus hotel and went to the adventuredome. The kids loved going on the rides and playing the games at the midway.
Happy Birthday Joren. Hope it was a blast!!!

(Now I need to get out and take some cute 6 year old pics of him)

Hiking the cinder cone

2012-01-07T19:52:00.001-08:00

It has been such nice weather lately... So today I was thinking I needed to get the kids outside and enjoy the weather... We have been wanting to hike the cinder cone by diamond valley.... I did not realize it was windy until we were driving out of the garage. We hiked it any way. The trail is a bit slippery, but fairly easy and fun. We almost got blown off the top! We will have to go back when it's not windy.

The Christmas Break

2012-01-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

We had such a nice Christmas Break...
It was such nice weather... the kids enjoyed playing outside with their new toys. Joren got a bike ramp and Terek got a new bike.

We had a free 3-day pass to the Washington Rec Center. We got to go swimming...
... and the big boys climbed the rock wall.
Brenner made it all the way to the top!!!

For New Year's Eve, we had a party with the Williams Family. Brenner entertained us with a Magic Show.
The boys ran around like crazies all night.

This is the group that was crazy enough to stay up until Midnight!!! We are excited for what 2012 has in store for us!!!

On the 24th day of Christmas...

2011-12-25T20:50:00.000-08:00

We went hiking at Zion National Park. I think we need to make it a tradition to go hiking on Christmas Eve as long as we live in St. George. The weather is always nice and it's fun to get outside. We went with Ryan's parents, his brother Dane and his wife Sara, and his brother Shane and his girl friend Denise. It was good fun!!!
My mom made the boys jammies again this year. I appliqued the cute frogs on their shirts.
And the big news is that we bought my mom a kitty for Christmas. We gave it to her early because the animal shelter would be closed. Joren loves the kitty and wants to spend any waking (or sleeping) hour with her. Her name is Myah and she's about 3 months old.

On the 23rd Day of Christmas...

2011-12-23T21:33:00.000-08:00

.... our activity was to see a Christmas movie. We delivered our neighbor gifts, then came home and watched "The Grinch"

On the 22nd Day of Christmas...

2011-12-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

... we celebrated Ryan's 38th birthday!!! He got an android tablet from me and my parents (it's his Christmas present too). I think Terek was just as excited about it as he was... and I think the kids have used it more than he has.
I made him a fun golf cake... just in case you couldn't figure out what it was.

Logan and Sydney and my parents baby sat so we could go to dinner and a movie. It was fun to go on a real date with Ryan.

On the 21st Day of Christmas...

2011-12-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

... we went out for frozen yogurt!

We love Krave!!!

On the 20th day of Christmas...

2011-12-20T21:21:00.000-08:00

... we put together the kids' friends' gifts. I like to have the kids give a little gift to all of their classmates.

On the 19th Day of Christmas...

2011-12-19T21:18:00.000-08:00

.... we went to reading time at the library. Terek was the only one of my kids who would even go see Santa, but he was a little shy. Joren and Brenner said they didn't want to see Santa because they had already had seen him a thousand times:)

On the 18th day of Christmas...

2011-12-18T21:22:00.000-08:00

We had too much fun playing with cousins to do our activity....
(sorry about the crazy pic... I had chosen poorly on my retro camera) The big boys had fun building a fort out of blankets with their girl cousins.

Terek loved playing the fighting game.

After playing with cousins at grandma Rose's, we came home to more cousins at our house. And more perler beading!!!

On the 17th day of Christmas...

2011-12-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

The boys made the engine to their train....

They are getting to be such great little builders.

On the 16th day of Christmas...

2011-12-16T19:05:00.000-08:00

... we picked names for our Christmas Pixies... All weekend we do acts of service for the member of the family that we drew out of the bowl!!!

On the 15th Day of Christmas...

2011-12-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

... we drove around to look at Christmas lights... this house is in Bloomington Hills and it's awesome!!! We also found some fun houses that have lights that flash to the music.

On the 14th day of Christmas...

2011-12-14T20:25:00.000-08:00

... we had our "journey dinner." This is something my mom has had us do as long as I can remember. We would sit on a blanket on the floor and eat what Mary and Joseph would have eaten on their "journey" to Bethlehem. Usually we eat dried fruit, nuts, jerky, etc. We also thought we'd have some apple juice. The kids were very excited. Brenner said it was the best bedtime snack ever.

On the 13th Day of Christmas...

2011-12-13T20:36:00.000-08:00

We went to Grandpa and Grandma Scholes' house for dinner and to make our Christmas crafts...

Joren made a penguin.
Terek made a snowman and Brenner made a polar bear.

On the 12th day of Christmas....

2011-12-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

... we went to "Swim with Santa" at Sand Hollow Aquatic Center....

The 16 year old life guard dressed as Santa was not quite my idea of Santa.
However, it's been awhile since the kids have been swimming so it was quite fun for them.

I can't believe our Christmas countdown is half way over... the time is flying!!!

On the 11th Day of Christmas...

2011-12-11T20:41:00.000-08:00

We had our C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S dinner. Because we didn't have a lot of people (my mom and dad, Logan and Sydney, Ryan, the kids and I), we didn't want to go too overboard with a lot of food. Sydney made delicious homemade rolls. Logan made the main dish which was the pasta with his alfredo sauce... most of the menu items were part of the pasta.

It has always been a tradition that we eat our dinner on my mom's green plates. The kids got excited that we were using grandma's fancy dishes and having a fancy meal. Brenner made a menu for us.
The kids helped me make name cards.

The food was delicious even though some people didn't like some of the things that were the letters in Christmas (mushrooms).

After dinner, we played a game of "vintage" clue. I'm not sure if I should be offended by Sydney calling it vintage since my name and address was inside the lid of the box... does that mean I'm vintage????? I'm just excited that I won!!!

On the 10th day of Christmas...

2011-12-10T21:34:00.001-08:00

We made the middle car of our train at Lowes.

On the 9th day if Christmas...

2011-12-09T20:43:00.001-08:00

We went to Christmas in the canyon at Tuacahn. We saw the live nativity and went on the horse ride. It was nice to be outside in the cold by a warm fire.

On the 8th day of Christmas...

2011-12-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

We shopped for our siblings...

(no pics of the shopping experience... it was too traumatic)

Oh Christmas Tree....

2011-12-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted a picture of my Christmas tree because I've been messing around with it trying to get it perfect.... well, it's not perfect, but I still love it!!! I thought it would be fun to put my mom's nutcracker collection on the tree. I had a certain vision in mind, but it didn't work out when I couldn't find the exact ribbon and decorations that I wanted. Well, I found some great substitutes and I think it turned out really fun. The picture doesn't do it justice, so I guess you'll have to come and visit us.

On the 7th Day of Christmas...

2011-12-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

We mailed letters to Santa....

Joren said, "Get me whatever you want."
Brenner had a huge list... He wants spy net stuff, light strike stuff, ear muffs, toe socks, sun glasses, etc.
Terek wants a batman bike and a mean looking hulk suit.

On the 6th day of Christmas...

2011-12-06T19:39:00.001-08:00

... We (I) put together our teacher gifts....

On the 5th day of Christmas...

2011-12-05T20:17:00.000-08:00

We mailed our Christmas cards....
(Well at least 1/2 of them... we ran out of envelopes. Let me know if you don't get one... I always forget someone... usually the people closest to me.)

On the 4th Day of Christmas...

2011-12-04T21:09:00.000-08:00

We re-enacted the nativity. Brenner was a shepherd riding in on his camel...Dane and Sarah was suckered into being Joseph and Mary. Grandpa Tom was the narrator. Terek was the Angel. Grandma Rose, Ryan and Anisa got to be the wise people.
And Joren's doll, Brock, was the baby Jesus.

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

2011-12-03T21:06:00.000-08:00

We had our ward Christmas breakfast....

On the 2nd day of Christmas...

2011-12-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

The boys got to buy their new ornament...

Brenner loves penguins...
Joren loves the grinch... he decided to let the hermit crabs use it as their stocking... what does Santa bring to hermit crabs?
Terek picked a whole pack of super hero ornaments.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-12-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving Weekend we had the best of both worlds. On Wednesday we headed up to northern Utah. We got to see friends....The kids had fun playing...
and I had fun chatting...
We wish we could have stayed longer... and we wish we could have seen more friends.
On Thanksgiving we got together at a church for dinner with the Scholes family. The kids must have been starving because they couldn't wait for the food:)

Lucas and Shellie came down from Wyoming, so on Friday we headed back home to spend the rest of the weekend with them.
Logan took us shooting...
Okay, West is just CUTE!!!

Shellie and I were in the craft room and looked out the window to find this.... It just made me laugh. I guess we should have gotten rid of our Halloween pumpkins sooner.
Good weekend with good friends and family:)

On the first day of Christmas...

2011-12-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

We decorated our Christmas trees...

Jubilee of Trees

2011-11-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

It may not seem like it from my blog... or lack of blogging, but November has been crazy busy. Most of our extra time has been spent helping Ryan's mom get ready for the Jubilee of Trees.

You can check out my craft blog for a few pics of the actual Jubilee.

Last week was SEP (Parent/Teacher conference). The kids got out early every day.... So one of the early out days, I took the boys and their friends to the Jubilee.
Am I crazy or what?
Can I just say, I'm glad it's over.... Ryan finally helped Rose finish with the clean-up around 5 tonight. Wow!!! Now we may have some time to get ready for our own Christmas!

Tagg... may he rest in peace

2011-11-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

Brenner got Tagg for his 5th birthday. He has been the best little pet and Brenner's best friend.

Hamsters are only supposed to live for 2-3 years. Tagg is 2.5 years. Sweet Tagg passed away today.
Brenner took it pretty hard. We had to go outside in the dark to bury him. May he rest in peace.

Halloween

2011-11-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

Halloween was a super busy day!!! In the morning, I took the two youngest boys to my school to go trick or treating. The office had a "spook alley" in the hallway. Then we went around to all of the classrooms to get treats.

In the afternoon, the two oldest had their school parade. It was such a nice warm day.

That evening was the ward trunk or treat.
Ryan and I got a lot of compliments on our costumes:)
Thor
Skull Lord Ninja
Werewolf
We won the "most creative trunk" I think it was because of our cool "puking pumpkin"
After the trunk or treating, we headed over to Santa Clara and did a little traditional trick or treating. It was a lot of fun and we have tons of candy to show for it... if the kids will share.

Pumpkin carving

2011-11-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Brenner couldn't wait to carve pumpkins. We carved them over a week before thanksgiving at Grandma Rose's house.As always, pumpkin carving is fun.

I especially love that Ryan and I end up doing most of the carving.

Kids' Halloween Party

2011-11-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

The Friday before Halloween was early out day. The kids had been begging for a Halloween party, so I decided I'd let them have one. A couple of my friends joined me in planning the party.
We played pin the eye on the monster...
We had coloring pages...
We had a mummy relay. The kids got into teams and had to wrap their partner up like a mummy. We had a few other games... Halloween bingo, an m&m relay, etc. The kids had more fun running around and chasing each other... it was a little crazy and hard to get them to settle down to play the games.

We decorated pumpkins... It was kind of fun to be creative. We gave the kids pipe cleaners, zippers, nuts and bolts, push pins, etc. They went a little crazy but it was fun for them.... fun for everyone but Terek who stepped on a push pin with his bare feet.

All of the kids got to invite 3 friends (Brenner a few more). It was interesting to have the big kids there with the little kids. Treyson was a "killer clown" and one of Terek's friends was scared of him.
I had fun making Halloween treats.... eyeballs...
... vampire fingers... I also made witch's brew with a floating hand...
14 little kids was a little overwhelming, but still tons of fun. Thanks to the moms who helped out... I survived!

Sand Hollow

2011-10-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had family in town for their UEA weekend.... don't get me started on why our "Fall Recess" wasn't the same weekend as the rest of the state of Utah!

Anyway, so we headed out to Sand Hollow reservoir to go 4-wheeling and play in the sand.Brenner and Cierrah found the jackpot of treasure... shells. They spend countless hours looking for shells.
Mason had a fun time being buried in the sand by Matthew.
Terek just loves to get dirty.
Mikelle enjoyed relaxing and getting some sun.
Jadon just wanted to drive the 4-wheeler... and lucky for him, Joren wanted to go for a ride.
Did I mention Terek just liked to get dirty? The kids had a blast!!! And I enjoyed the chance to relax and do nothing:)

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

Friday night we found ourselves with nothing to do. We had been wanting to take the kids to a pumpkin patch that was in Santa Clara. It turned out that it was the Johnson family farm... this is a family that I have known since way back in my early childhood in Santa Clara. My friend had a migraine, so we took her kids and headed over. The pumpkin patch was free... then you bought tickets to go on the rides and do the activities.
The barrel trains are always a blast!
They had real horses to ride...
and fake horses... and bulls.... Everyone kept telling me how cute Zoe was... ahhh to have a girl for a few minutes:)
The boys liked digging for the "needle" in the haystack... they had placed nails in there and if you found one, you could win a prize.
Farmyard toys are the best!
They had dinner to buy as well and we ended up staying until it was dark. It's nice to have fun stuff like this around... and close to home... I've been trying to figure out how we could do this at our farm..... something to ponder:)

Fall Festivals

2011-10-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed up to Cedar City for the Pumpkin festival. The kids got to paint pumpkins...

... Trace (my cousin Summer's son) was the only one brave enough to try to eat a donut off the string...
... Home Depot was there with a craft for the kids to build and paint. They also had a lot of fun booths and activities for the kids to do.
After the Pumpkin Festival in Cedar City we headed down to New Harmony for the Apple Festival. The boys enjoyed their blue snow cones:)
My Grandma's sister lived in New Harmony and had apple orchards. My mom's cousins still live there and own the apple orchards, so we headed over there for a visit and picked some apples.
Brenner was very particular about the apples that he picked and not sharing them with anyone.
We enjoyed eating a few apples fresh from the tree.
Joren thought it was fun to whack the trees to make the apples fall.... he didn't quite get that bruised mushy apples aren't super yummy to eat.
It was such a pretty place and fun to visit with family.
Left to right: Back: Kali (Cash's girlfriend), Ryan, Anisa, Summer, Libby and Peyton. Front: Brenner, Terek, Joren and Trace. I always love spending time with my cousins.
The boys always have fun with their cousins too.
It was good to see you Summer and I hope you have a safe trip back to New Mexico!

Staheli Family Farms

2011-10-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was our Fall Recess. We debated on heading out of town, but decided everything was a little too expensive. So, we thought we'd find some fun stuff to do here in town.

Last year we went to Staheli Family Farm and just loved it. So, that was our first destination. We invited our friends, the Miller's to go with us.... everything is more fun with friends.
They had a fun little maze that the kids could go through.
Our rule has always been that the kids can't get a pumpkin bigger than they can carry themselves. Well, that didn't work for little Terek. When he saw how big his brothers' pumpkins were, he wanted a fairly big one too.
Joren carried a 16 pounder...
Brenner carried a 22 pounder...
Terek is my only kid still willing to pose for pics for me:)

Brenner, Joren, Terek and Xander had tons of fun playing all the games. They loved playing in the sand, on the corn slide and swinging from the rafters on a rope.
We got "lost" in the maze for about an hour and a half... I don't think we were really lost, but mostly just took the long route:)
Cute little Zoe had a blast!
This is totally one of our favorite fall traditions in St. George.

Santa Clara Swiss Days

2011-09-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

My great, great grandpa, Gotlieb Blickenstorfer was one of the original saints called to settle Santa Clara. This year was the 150 year anniversary of the settling of Santa Clara. I was asked to set up a display to represent our family.I had a few pictures that were donated to a museum in Santa Clara by my great Aunt. Then I had a bonnet that my great grandma Rosena Eliza Blickenstorfer Blake wore in the filming of the "Windows of Heaven" movie made by the church. We also had a teacup of hers.

I made this cute family tree to show a few generations of the descendants of Gotlieb.

It turned out okay, but I definitely got some good ideas if I get to do something like this again:)

Fabulous Freddy's

2011-09-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Fabulous Freddy's (car wash and gas station) had a kids' day. Lots of fun activities for kids... for FREE!
They had a rock climbing wall.
Petting Zoo.
Pony Rides

The Little Mermaid float with a fun bubble machine.

They also had bounce houses and carnival games. They had hot dogs and hamburgers for super cheap:) The boys had tons of fun and we stayed for a few hours. Good times.

Rock Hounding

2011-09-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

It's been such nice weather lately. Finally not so hot that you can't bear being outside. We thought it would be a good idea to go in the outdoors and go hiking or something:) So, Logan came up with the idea of going rock hounding.

First we went to someplace by Central. I don't remember what rock we were looking for... it wasn't too exciting.

The second place we went was near Modena. We were looking for Obsidian. Brenner loves rocks, so this was the perfect thing for him. He prides himself on the fact that he found a bigger piece than Logan.Joren found all kinds of cool rocks too... and as always, a stick:)

We stopped at Marv's in Enterprise for a yummy shake. We are always up for an adventure.

Dixie Round-up Rodeo

2011-09-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

Last night we decided to go to the Rodeo. Kids are free (if you don't count drinks and hot dogs) on Thursday nights, so we thought we'd try the rodeo again. This time we got there a little earlier to get decent seats. It was pretty fun! My favorite was the barrel racing... and the awesome cowboy names!!! I wish I would have thought of naming one of my boys Tuf.

Patriot Day

2011-09-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

For Patriot Day, Red Mountain Elementary school has a little fun. They start out the day by having a flag raising ceremony in front of the school.
The kids dress in red, white and blue and march in a little parade a couple of blocks down the street. The fire dept. drives the fire truck in the parade.
It's a fun way for the kids to celebrate... and a good way to remember 9-11.

Gunlock

2011-09-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the boys were driving me a bit crazy... they just kept fighting:) Ryan had gone golfing, so I decided I needed to get them out of the house.So we grabbed a few sand toys and some swimming suits and headed to Gunlock!!!
We took the short walk across the dam and played on the beach.
They had a lot of fun playing in the water and building sand castles.
We definitely need to do that again sometime!!!

1st Day of School... take 3

2011-09-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today was Terek's first day of Pre-school. We were a little nervous he'd cry when we dropped him off, but he did great!!!He goes to a home preschool here in Ivins.
His teacher's name is Robyn Peterson. 5 of the 6 kids in his class are in our ward. And he is the only boy:)
He couldn't resist eating his apple:)
He got to take the snack today because he was the first to celebrate his birthday. He had so much fun and can't wait to go again next week!
My little boy is growing up!

Terek at 3

2011-09-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

We went to Kanarraville last weekend and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take Terek's 3 year old pics.
There never is a dull moment when Terek is around:) He can be the cutest little boy and push our buttons all at the same time.
He loves to be naked and he loves to flash people. He has learned all sorts of potty talk from his older brothers.
He also loves to sing and is constantly singing when we are driving in the car.
He loves his super heroes and was so excited to get a whole bunch of new super hero toys for his birthday.

At his well check, he came in 65th percentile on weight and 85th percentile on height.

We love you Terek!!!

1st Day of School... take 2

2011-08-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today was Joren's first day of Kindergarten:) Kinda crazy. My little guy is growing up!
I'm so glad they humor me and let me take pics of them.
It was hard to wait all morning to go to afternoon kindergarten.
His friend, Dallin is in his class.
His teacher is Mrs. Moore.
He's a big kid and gets to ride his bike home from school with his big brother:)

3 years ago...

2011-08-22T07:05:00.000-07:00

I had my 3rd boy.
My little snuggler.
Sweet Terek is such a big boy... in many ways. The only two kids he plays with are the little sisters of his big brothers' friends. So, we had the girls... and their big brothers come to his party. And Legacy surprised us and came down from Wyoming.

His friend party was on Saturday, but his birthday was on Sunday. So, on Sunday we went to Pine Valley for a BBQ.

Big T is Big 3... where did the time go?

1st Day of School

2011-08-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, the summer flew by! Today was Brenner's 1st day of 2nd grade.

Look how grown up he is.... seriously, he's getting so big. He loved his first day and his new teacher Mrs. Gale. He loved playing on the big kid playground. He loves that he still gets to see all of his friends at recess that aren't in his class any more.
Today was my first day at Dixie Middle School. It's kind of fun being back at my old stomping grounds... oh the memories. I am one of the At-risk teachers at DMS. Because of the nature of my program, I don't have any students yet. So, I got to spend my first day making bulletin boards, cleaning and organizing my room and getting lesson plans and things prepared for my students... when they come.
I teach just 3 periods on "B" days. Which means I work from about 9:10-3:10 every other day... not too shabby. I'm excited for challenge of this new year:)

Washington County Fair

2011-08-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

As a last hoorah before school starts we thought we'd take the kids to the fair.
It costs an arm and a leg, but the kids had fun.

The main reason we went was the demolition derby. We thought the kids would get a kick out of the cars crashing into each other.
We ended up with a nice overcast evening... it helped it to cool things off. We had a really pretty rainbow.
The demolition derby was really fun... totally exciting. (our only complaint was the wait in between the heats.)
After the derby, we headed to our air conditioned car where we watched the fireworks.

The kids are already asking to go again next year.

(PS... I thought the fair was the perfect opportunity for my fun retro camera on my phone)

Kanarra Falls

2011-08-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

I practically grew up in Kanarraville. Granny and Papa lived there and we would spend a lot of our summers there... as well as other times of the year. In all of my life I don't remember ever hiking all the way up to the Kanarra waterfalls.
So, I decided to put it on my calendar and make it happen. The above picture is us at the 2nd waterfall... all the way up the canyon!
This is a fun slide that is up almost at the top as well. (Just don't plan on wearing a skirt to go down the slide)
Our lovely group... we recruited my cousins, Libby, Cash and Kali (Cash's girlfriend). It was nice being able to hike straight from Cash's house.
The kids got a little whiney toward the end... because they got cold from being in the water at the slide...

But isn't this just a pretty place to hike???

Brenner's first talk in Sacrament Meeting

2011-08-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we were asked to talk in Sacrament Meeting. We could have our whole family talk, of course, but only Brenner wanted to. He was so cute. He wrote his whole talk out by hand... with the help of me and my mom. He got up there and read it and wasn't scared at all.Our talks were on heritage... fun topic. I read a lot of family histories and enjoyed learning about my ancestors.

Mesquite

2011-08-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

My sweet cousin Libby won a two night stay at the Virgin River hotel in Mesquite. She gave it to me because it could only be used Mon-Thurs. So, the kids and I headed to Mesquite.
They always love staying at hotels.
We did ALOT of swimming. (poor Brenner is having a really hard time with the chlorine in the pool and he has super sensitive eyes)
We went to a little Mesquite museum. The kids loved the old typewriter.
And they got to play the old record player.
We even found time to do a little geocaching.
We ate a LOT... love the buffets. We also went bowling and played at the arcade. Ryan came down for the last night we were there.

Good times... we might have to do it again next summer!

Pine Valley

2011-08-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

On Monday, the 25th we all had work off, so we headed to Pine Valley.We went on a little tour of the church.
We hiked down to the lake and did a little fishing (consequently, when you let your toddler drink a whole camel back full of water, he has to pee in the bushes about 7 times).

The adults enjoyed watching the kids fish... since we didn't have licenses.

We had a weenie roast and smore's for dinner.

It's always nice to get away and do something fun!!!

Pioneer Day

2011-07-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

(I seriously need to get caught up on my blogging)

For Pioneer Day, the city of Ivins had a parade. Our ward had a float and the kids were supposed to dress up like pioneers. Isn't Terek cute? There was no way he was getting on the float.Brenner was asked to be on the stake float. So, he got to be on there with his friends, Treyson.
He dressed up like Tom Sawyer. He had on overalls rolled up.. he was so cute (why didn't I get a close up pic?)
In the evening we had a going away party for Josh, Melanie, and Tanner. They moved to Oregon. We are excited for them, but we will totally miss them.

Good luck and have the time of your life!!!

"Little" Family Reunion

2011-07-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind on blogging:)

A couple of weekends ago, we headed up north for the Little Family Reunion. My mother in law, Rosalie's family. Her maiden name is Little, so this is all of her siblings and their kids.

The boys always have tons of fun with their cousins.Zack, Alexx and Joren
Cali and Terek
Alexx
Brenner and Cierrah.

The reunion was at a park.

That night we took the kids to 7 peaks. They loved it and had tons of fun. Next time we want to go to 7 peaks for a whole day!!!

Crawdad Huntin'

2011-07-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

In an effort to try to keep these kids busy, we thought we'd go crawdad huntin'. When Shellie was down a couple of weeks ago, we took the kids down to the river. We discovered that there wasn't really a sandy beach or anything to play on, but there were people there catching crawdads. Since we weren't prepared that time, we decided to go back.The crawdads are in some rocks under the bridge.
They aren't too big and I'm too chicken to pick them up with my hands... I liked to use a cup.
We took them home and cooked them for a bedtime snack. Joren wasn't scared of them anymore once they were dead.
I'm not sure if Joren really ate one, but Brenner loves seafood, so he ate a few of them.
Joren has been begging to go back, so I'm sure we will head that way again soon.

HIstoric St. George LIve

2011-07-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

Last summer, the kids and I went on a few tours. We toured the Jacob Hamblin Home and the Tabernacle. The kids (mostly Brenner) really liked it and wanted to go on a few more tours. Well, we had heard about St. George Live historic tour and thought it would be fun. You get to visit a lot of the historic sites in St. George... all in one tour. And you get to ride on a shuttle bus. So, we got Sydney to go with us and headed off.The kids' favorite part was the bus.
(I have to admit, I would not do this again... until they are much older. They did not really take us on tours of the buildings. Mostly we sat in a room and listened to an actor dressed like a particular pioneer talk and tell their story. It was almost as bad as fighting the kids through sacrament meeting).
By the time we got to the Daughters of Utah Pioneer Museum, we gave up. They took us to the basement and got us settled in to listen to another person talk. They weren't even going to let us go into the museum at all.... huh? The kids couldn't handle any more. So, we bailed on the tour and went into the museum. We saw many pictures of our ancestors in the museum.
And the boys got to sit on chairs made by their great, great, great, grandpa Benjamin Frederick Blake. The museum was really cool and they had fun looking at the stuff in there. We had missed our bus, so we had to walk a couple of blocks back to our van... oh well.

So, it looks like I still need to take the boys on a tour of the Brigham Young Home and a few other historic places in St. George.

Visiting Friends

2011-07-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last week, the boys and I headed to Salt Lake. Our main purpose was to visit friends. Our friends, the Headricks, live in Denver. They were in Salt Lake visiting family. So, we first headed to see them. Brenner was excited to see Dylan. Dylan was Brenner's 1st best friend. They started playing together before they could even walk. They lived across the street from us in our house in Oquirrh Park in South Jordan. The Headrick family had 3 boys about the same ages as my boys. This is Joren and Jack.
After moving to Denver, the Headricks had a baby girl... Hollyn. She was cute and smiley and just adorable. It was so good to see Rachel and her kids again. We have definitely missed living across the street from them.
Our next stop was Daybreak. Brenner and Joren really wanted to see Sam and George and Lily. They took their bikes so they could ride around the neighborhood with their friends. George and Lily had a baby brother (Hank) that we got to see as well. We missed Brynlee and Parker, but hopefully we can catch them next time.
Next stop was the Stringhams. The kids had fun playing with Dane, Ella, and Bryce. I had fun scrapbooking with Cami... until Joren's mouth started bleeding and I ended up in the emergency room. (That would be why I have no picture). I totally would love to plan another trip to stay at Cami's and scrapbook way into the night... we'll have to figure out a good time:) Thanks Cami for helping out the the kids and for letting us stay.... you really are the best!!!

4th of July

2011-07-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to have the kids go to Kanarraville for the 4th this year.... that's what I always did for the 4th as a kid:)
Sunday night we decorated their bikes for the parade.
Brenner and Joren both won in the races.

(Terek was too shy to race)
Don't they look handsome in their patriotic t-shirts? Super fun weekend!

Our Wyoming Visitors

2011-07-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

This past week most of our family went river rafting. So, while Lucas was on the river, Shellie, Legacy and West stayed and played with us.
We had a LOT of fun jumping on the trampoline with the sprinklers (this is Ky and Kaylah... they are Shellie's sister's (Shahr) kids).
We went to Cars 2 and did a little shopping at the factory stores.
We always love splash parks.
Bubble baths every night.
Cute and smiley West.
We love feeding the ducks.
And we had our own little firework show.
It was so fun to have Shellie, Legacy and West here!!!

Metal Mouth

2011-07-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

So, about a year ago when we still lived in South Jordan, Joren had 6 cavities filled. Right after we moved to St. George, one of those teeth became abscessed and he had to have a root canal on it. Then, in January or February, we noticed that his fillings were starting to fall out. So, we took him to our friend that is a dentist. Somewhere along the way, Joren has gotten scared of dentists (and doctors), so he wouldn't let the dentist take x-rays or look at his teeth. So, we tried again... and failed. We took him to a pediatric dentist and he suggested that Joren would need to be put to sleep to have his dental work done. So, on July 1st, Joren had dental surgery.This picture was taken after Joren had taken the medicine to make him "relax." During his surgery, he had the tooth that had the original root canal removed (it had gotten infected). They put a spacer in its place. He also had two more root canals as well as about 5 crowns. He's been quite sore and not wanting to eat. His mouth and throat were hurting. Then, in the middle of the night Wednesday morning, Joren woke up crying and his mouth was full of blood. I couldn't really tell where the blood was coming from and I couldn't get it to stop bleeding. So, I took him to the ER. (Just as a side note, we were staying with my sweet friend, Cami, in South Jordan). Terek came with us and the three of us spent all night in the ER. They couldn't get his gums to completely stop bleeding... just slowed down most of the way.

We got back to Cami's at about 6 am and went to sleep for a few hours. Then we got in the car and headed home. We went straight to the dentist. He had pretty much stopped bleeding. The dentist isn't quite sure why he keeps bleeding. He thinks he may have some type of bleeding disorder so we are going to take him in to get tested for that today. My theory (and the dentist agrees) is that Joren has a metal allergy. After he makes sure he doesn't have a bleeding disorder, he's going to check for a metal allergy. If that's what it is, Joren gets to go back to surgery and have all of his crowns removed and replaced with non-metal ones!!!

I will try to do better at keeping everyone posted. In the meantime, please keep Joren in your prayers. He's a scared little boy.

The WHOLE Scholes Circus

2011-06-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

For those interested in viewing all the pics of the Scholes Circus...

Scholes Circus

2011-06-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had a Scholes Family Reunion. We thought it would be fun to do a little Circus theme! Ryan's immediate family is 40 people!!! Crazy. We were missing a few, but what a fun group!
We had a little photo booth where people could dress up and get their pics taken. (When my kids saw my picture, they thought it was Logan... apparently with a goatee, I look like Logan)
We had a LOT of face painting... that was the kids' favorite part.
Our reunion was at a house in Panguitch. So, we got to make the short drive to Bryce Canyon. It was a pretty cool place and we hadn't been there since Brenner was a baby.
We went on a hike that was over 3 miles. Brenner, Joren and I all wore our flip flops!!!
One of the funnest parts was jumping from the bunk beds to the bean bag... our kids are so crazy!
We had tons of fun. It was nice, cool weather and Terek is already asking when we can go to Panguitch again!!!

My knee hurts

2011-06-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

We take our kids hiking a lot and really try to get out and do things. Terek is quite a little trooper (most of the time). The funny part is that any time he gets tired and wants to be held, he says, "My knee hurts." He even tries to stand on it and acts like it is collapsing under him. What a little faker!

Mommy and Daddy

2011-06-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Terek and Macey are so cute! They call each other Mommy and Daddy. At the park the other day, they were walking holding hands. They crack me up!(PS... I posted a WHOLE BUNCH of posts, so keep on scrolling down:)

I'm really loving this kid right now....

2011-06-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

It's been fun having Brenner out of school for the summer. He is a really sweet kid. He is very helpful... when I ask him for help, he is always willing and doesn't complain. He can make a batch of brownies all by himself. A lot of times when we can't find him, he will be in his room reading.

(His only downfall is his temper.... he likes to beat up on his brothers:)

Red Cliffs

2011-06-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went hiking in Red Cliffs with Brett's family (one of Ryan's brothers).
The kids always have fun with their cousins. (Brenner and Cali)
Terek was having fun throwing rocks in the water to splash grandma.
A stop along the way. (Melanie and Cali)
The little kids had fun jumping into the pool from the side (Joren, Cali, Brenner)
The big kids jumped from the cliffs (Melanie, Ashley, Alexx)

It's been fun having a lot of family in town this summer.

Swimming Lessons

2011-06-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

Brenner and Joren took swimming lessons at Sand Hollow Aquatic Center as soon as school was over.They both passed their classes.
The last day they got to go down the slide.
Brenner can go down without a life jacket now...yeah!!

T-ball

2011-06-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

This spring Brenner and Joren have been playing T-ball. They both got to be on the same team.
They had a fun time and it was a fun introduction to the game.
This is what Joren spent the majority of his time doing when he was in the outfield.

Memorial Weekend

2011-06-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

Memorial Weekend always marks the beginning of summer. Normally, we head off to go camping with Lucas and Shellie. And as tradition goes, we get rained on. So, last year, Lucas and Shellie said they would never go camping with us on Memorial Weekend again... they think we are bad luck. It turns out that may be true.

So, we decided to stay home. We had lots of family coming into town so we had plenty to do to keep us busy. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we spent with Ry's family. Mark and Kerri and their kids (Max and Zack) were down. We hiked around on the red hill a bit. Went to a splash park. Played a little baseball. And hung out on the slip-n-slide in Tom and Rose's back yard.
Sam was down this weekend for a golf tournament. So, on Saturday, we headed over to Sam's hotel to got swimming. She's the big sister that the boys never had. They played in the pool with her forever and didn't want to leave. We sure miss Sam.

On Monday we headed up to Kanarraville for a BBQ with the cousins. Before the BBQ we decided to hike up Spring Creek.
It was a nice hike... it was a little chilly so we didn't want to get in the water. Libby seemed to think we'd only have to cross over the water once, but about 20 times later, we figured it was just par for the course.
Back left to right: Cash & Kali. Middle left to right: Summer, Brenner, Trace, Joren, Terek, Jessie and Ryan. Front left to right: Libby, Anisa, Tanner and Ashley.

After the BBQ, we went to the Kanarra cemetery to put flowers on Granny and Papa's grave.
Cute cousins.
I couldn't pass up a chance to do the good old Kanarra tradition of "honking the trucks." Joren and Terek thought it was the coolest thing:)
Ahhh... good times with good family:) Bring on Summer.

This is what happens when Logan comes over....

2011-05-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

People are jumping all over the furniture....

And running around the house like crazy.... it doesn't matter that there is a huge back yard to play and run around in:)

(and Terek is just cute)

School's Out for Summer

2011-05-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Brenner's last day of 1st Grade!We had some friends who threw an awesome "summer" party.
They had lots of fun water games and the kids had a blast!
Summer... bring it on!

Batman & Robin

2011-05-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

Terek is really into Batman and Robin right now. He loves to dress up like Batman... and he plays with all of the little batman figures that we have around our house all the time.
He gets grandma to dress up like Robin and play with him.
Holy cuteness Batman!

Aesop's Fables

2011-05-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Brenner had his school program yesterday. They did a production of Aesop's Fables.
It was cute to have the kids come up to the microphone to say their lines. Brenner was the last in his group so it was his job to turn off the microphone.

They had a lot of cute songs. It was fun.

4 Generations

2011-05-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

We had a family BBQ for my dad's 63rd birthday. We thought we'd take the opportunity to take a 4 generation pic: My grandpa, Cecil Blake. My dad, Ronald Blake. Me. My Boys, Brenner, Joren and Terek.

Joren's Pre-school Graduation

2011-05-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Joren graduated from Pre-School on Wednesday night.
He got to have the part of welcoming everyone to the graduation and asking everyone to stand for the pledge. He decided to be a little shy and wouldn't do it.
They sang some of their favorite songs from preschool. He was so cute to do all of the actions.
He has loved his teacher. He has learned so much and had a great year.
My friend from work made him these cool paper leis to wear. (We had to pay him $2 to get him to wear them).
He is growing up so fast. And he's way excited for kindergarten next year!

Brenner is 7

2011-05-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

This little adorable boy turned 7 last night!
He got up bright and early to open his presents. He was excited for the Sphinx Lego set he had been wanting since Christmas. As always, he got spoiled with too many presents.
He got to eat breakfast on the traditional birthday plate.
He had a friend party. We had a Lego themed party with lots of fun games. For more details on the party, you can visit my craft blog.
He is so big now. It's kind of crazy.
Some things about Brenner: He loves technology stuff. He loves TV, computer and playing on Ryan's Ipod. He loves science and doing experiments. He loves playing with friends. He also loves doing crafts. He loves school and is very smart. He has a bit of a temper when it comes to his little brothers (but who doesn't). Brenner is a really sweet kid. We have enjoyed spending the last 7 years with him:)

Happy Birthday Big B!!!

Circus Bella

2011-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we took the kids to a little circus that was in town. It was called Circus Bella. It was an old style traditional one ring circus.

They had some fun, amazing things that they did.... from juggling, to trapeze, to the slack line...

to riding a unicycle.

It was a lot of fun!

The Mormon Channel

2011-05-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a busy person. Between my normal mommy duties, work, exercise, scrapbooking, and the fact that I think I can do everything, I sometimes don't find time for the really important things that I SHOULD be doing. I don't read my scriptures or Ensign as much as I should.

I had mentioned this to my sweet visiting teaching companion while we were visiting a sister. (Now, you must know that my VT companion is blind.) She told me that what I should do is listen to the scriptures and Ensign. What an idea! So, I asked Ryan if he could put them on my phone for me.... and he introduced me to The Mormon Channel! I have the Mormon Channel on my phone so I can listen to it while I am exercising or scrapbooking. I listen to the scriptures while I drive to work in the morning. I love listening to conference the best. It is always a good reminder of what I should be doing.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

We had a super busy, fun weekend. It was nice to have a 4 day weekend to play.

On Friday, we picked up Tanner and took him to the arts festival. He played in a "garbage can band" with his middle school band.
The boys got their faces painted, made crafts and enjoyed looking at the art.
Saturday morning we went to the Ivins Easter egg hunt. It was super busy, but the boys had fun with their friends.
Saturday evening we got to spend some time with Lucas and Shellie. Baby West is growing up so fast. Joren couldn't get enough of him... me neither.
Sydney got the great idea to dye Easter eggs like our Swiss ancestors. My dad took us out to dig up the weeds and we stunk up the house boiling roots. It was a pretty cool idea and made dying eggs a little more interesting. (For more details, click this link to Larcie Bird.)
Saturday evening the sneaky Easter bunny made an early visit while the kids were playing at the park.
They had more eggs than could possibly fill their baskets.
The Easter bunny made a maze of colorful yarn throughout the back yard. Each kid had a colored yarn that they had to follow to find their present... Brenner had a lot of fun with that!
I bought some cool old suitcases at a yard sale a few weeks ago, so I had to take some fun pics of West.
The boys wore their Easter ties to church... that their mommy made for them. (You can find the post here on Larcie Bird.)
After church, we headed over to Tisha's apartment complex for Presley's 1st birthday party. What an adorable little girl!
Monday, we went to the Santa Clara river by the Tonaquint park with Olivia and Carson who are here visiting from California. The kids played in the water/sand for about 4 hours and had a blast!!!
Next time we will come a little more prepared with a beach umbrella, water and lots of snacks!
Busy weekends and fun weekends are the best.... now, back to work, laundry, cleaning house, yard work, cooking... you know the drill.

St. George Airport

2011-04-22T22:13:00.000-07:00

Joren's preschool class went on a field trip to the new St. George Airport.
They took a tour of the airport and the fire station. The highlight of the trip was watching the fire truck shoot the fire canons.
The airport is a LOOOONG way out of town!

Kite Festival

2011-04-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

We got our first sunburns of the summer at the Kite Festival on Saturday. The elementary school kids read from Jan. 1st to Apr. 15th to get a free kite at the kite festival. They are also entered for drawings. They had all sorts of food booths, vendor booths, kids carnival games and bouncy houses.
Brenner had fun trying to fly a kite in absolutely no wind!
It was a good thing we put sunscreen on or we would have been more sunburned than we were!

Kayenta Street Painting Festival

2011-04-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

The last two weekends have been the Kayenta Street Painting Festival... mostly because it got rained out the first weekend. It's kind of nice to have something fun to do in our neck of the woods. It's pretty amazing to see some of the artwork that people can paint... on the street!
The boys really wanted to do a little art of their own.
So, they each got a box of pastels and their own square.
It was really fun and a great way to get dirty:)

Walk-a-thon

2011-04-15T19:01:00.001-07:00

Brenner's school had a walk-a-thon as a fundraiser for a teacher that has cancer. They got a silly band for every lap they walked. The boy and girl in each grade that walked the most laps won a gumball machine. Brenner stayed there almost 3 hours and walked 18 laps. That's a total of 6 miles! Way to go Brenner!

Let the soccer season begin!

2011-04-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Brenner and Joren started soccer a few weeks ago.
Brenner has been playing since he was 3. He gets out there and really tries. He loved being goalie and did a great job at that.
Joren wouldn't play soccer when he was 3, so we waited a few years to try again. He loves it and he's super aggressive. He has made over 14 goals in just 3 games.
Terek wants to be just like his big brothers. He insists on wearing soccer clothes. So I had to find some of their old shoes and jerseys. He can't wait until he can play next year!
And, of course, I had to make cute soccer cupcakes for their treats!

If you ever want to come, they are at the UNITY Park in Ivins on Wednesday evenings!

Mustaches!

2011-04-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

The other day Logan and Sydney were over for dinner. After dinner we decided to play a game... apparently Logan got bored and decided to make himself a mustache... and everyone else.

I thought it was too cute... so I had to take pics!

Evening of the arts

2011-04-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Brenner entered his Lego art in the 3D section of Evening of the Arts at his school. The topic was "Make a Difference." He built a playground with lots of trees.... so to make a difference, you plant trees at a playground. He came up with the idea and built it all by himself.

He won 4th Place!!!

Not our kid!

2011-04-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

Neither Ryan nor I like seafood! But Brenner loves it! He loves shrimp, fish, clam chowder... and the other day he got the chance to eat a crab leg!He'd probably like more seafood if he ever got the chance to eat it!

Chicken Update...

2011-04-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

Our 3 cute little yellow chicks quickly turned into 8 chicks! Grandpa Blake figured that if we were going to go to all the work to build a chicken coop and take care of chickens we should have a few more!

So, the three original yellow chickens are...
Peep
Scott
& Super Robin

The new chickens are....

Chacha (brown)
Brownie (brown)
Penguin (black)
Skunk (black with stripe)
Ducky (yellow)

They are growing up so fast.... it's weird to watch them grow. They are losing their cute baby fluff and growing feathers. I like to think the older ones are "tweens" now:)
If you run out of eggs, you know where to find some:)

Great Exercise!

2011-04-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

I love having a huge back yard... plenty of space for the kids to run and play... however, it takes forever to mow!
I mow the lawn and Ryan does all the trimming. Terek helps too:) It takes us about 2 hours!!! I figure I don't need to exercise on Mondays... since that's my lawn-mowing day:)

The "Bowl"

2011-04-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

I love conference weekend... I love listening to the Prophet and getting good counsel and reminders on how I should be living my life and teaching my children.

However, the kids get a little stir crazy trying to sit and watch conference all weekend.

So, Sunday after the last session was over, we headed out to go on a hike. Some friends and a student had told me about the "bowl" in Gunlock. So we headed there. The trail was pretty good at first, but then you are on sandstone and there is no real trail. We kind of got lost. Ry's brother Shane was with us, so he hiked up a mountain and finally found the bowl. In the meantime, Terek fell and got hurt so he wanted to go back to the car... and Joren was getting cold. So, we headed back to the car. Brenner said he was not going back... he climbed the red hill and he was going to climb up to the bowl as well. So, Ry, Shane and Brenner climbed up and found the bowl.
The boys really loved climbing on all of these rocks.
They are a little too fearless for me.
The moral of the story... now we know where to go to find the bowl. So, we want to do this hike again... more prepared with jackets, snacks, etc....

Never mind the speeding ticket Ryan got on the way home:(

Happy April Fool's Day

2011-04-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I try to be a creative mom... I'm not good at jokes and pranks, but I like to trick the kids with their food.
For dinner we had "dessert." We had a pie... it was meatloaf with pink mashed potatoes on top.
Then for dessert, we had "candy sushi." I made these for Joren to take to preschool as well.
Grandma Blake took the boys to the party store and they bought all sorts of pranks. I got a golf ball through my windshield. We had worms, spider, eyeballs, etc. in our drinks. We got squirted when we sat on the toilet... good fun!

Happy April Fool's Day!!!

Welcome the newest addition to our family...

2011-03-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Peep, Scott and Super Robin...
Aren't they cute?

We have 8 weeks to get a chicken coop built!!!

Hiking and Geocaching

2011-03-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

We have been really into hiking lately... we've just been enjoying being outside and loving spring. So, we decided to hike to some petroglyphs just outside of Ivins.
The kids have also been into Geocaching with Ryan. Geocaching is kind of a treasure hunt.... it uses GPS coordinates to locate a "treasure" that someone has planted. There were a couple of geocaches along the trail, so we went searching for those along the hike.

This one was in an ammo can hidden down in some rocks.
They find a treasure inside and then they leave something for someone else. (it's kind of a way of trading McDonald's toys;)

The kids always love climbing around in the rocks and this was the perfect hike for that.
This crazy kid just makes me laugh:)
There were a lot of petroglyphs all along the cliffs.
It was really a fun, easy hike! And we had a nice cloudy day too!

Little Leprechauns;

2011-03-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

For St. Patrick's Day, my boys made treasure chests... a few years ago. They hide their treasure chests outside by the light of the moon the night before St Patrick's day. The leprechauns find them during the night and hide them... but they leave a trail of green clovers so the boys can find their treasures. (if you look really close, you will see a green clover on the ground)
They found their treasure boxes in grandma's room filled with candy... and they each got a new book too!
We had green waffles with green syrup for breakfast!

And, of course, I have to have a picture of them in their st. patty's day shirts!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Vegas baby!

2011-03-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

For part of our spring break we decided to take a little trip to Vegas! We haven't been there in years... and the kids have never been.
Our first stop was Circus Circus. We spent all afternoon at the adventuredome! The kids loved the rides, the 4D movies and Brenner even went on his first "real" roller coaster... he went on all the big rides! After the adventuredome we headed over to the MGM to eat dinner at the Rainforest cafe... I love their chimichachas! That night we went to see some of the "shows" on the Strip. We saw the pirate show at Treasure Island (ummm.... a little more risque than I remembered) and we saw some of the other shows from the car. We stayed at Circus Circus that night.

The next day went to see some of the sights of Vegas.
Brenner is really into Egyptian stuff right now, so we took him over to see the Luxor hotel.... and get his picture taken in front of the Sphinx.
Logan and Sydney were stopping through town on their way back from Disneyland for Logan to take a test from work. So, we picked Sydney up and dragged her around with us.

We went to the M&M store and got some funky colored M&M's.
And the kids were loving all the weirdos that dress up like characters to get tips!
A trip to Vegas wouldn't be complete without some Dice suckers!!!
We had a good time and amazingly enough the kids were pretty well-behaved!