December at a Glance

Happy New Year! Drew, Noah, and Alex ring in the new year! Maddie's new year hat.

1. Maddie made her salad for dinner & would not share with anyone.
2. Nana made all the girls headbands.
3. Christmas dinner.
4. Grandpa taking his traditional Christmas morning nap.

Christmas Eve we go see the lights around town & then visit the Temple to see the beautiful nativity & lights & to feel the Spirit. Maddie's favorite gift was a pocket moped & her second favorite was a bag of Caesar salad from Nana & Grandpa!

Decorate the Christmas tree. Make sugar cookies. Christmas Eve dessert night with chocolate covered strawberries & caramel chocolate pretzels. Thanks for the treats Nana! Yummy!

Gage turned 15 this month! I can't believe he will be driving and dating next year!

Maddie participated in her 3rd grade Christmas play. Noah and Maddie are also in the school choir and they sang in an awesome Christmas program.

Gage is a Freshman this year and he has started wrestling varsity on the high school team. Mike and I have been able to go watch him wrestle in tournaments in Panguitch, Hurricane, and St. George. I love wrestling!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we spent at home. My parents and my brother, Wade, and his family also came over for the big feast. We didn't do anything spectacular, but had the traditional dinner, checked out the adds for the Friday shopping fury, took nap, and watched football. Maddie raked some leaves so she could jump in them and all the kids went to the park for a game of football. I am so thankful for the many ways my family and I have been blessed!

Sadies

Last weekend Kenzie went to Sadies. I was the designated photographer and I brought my friend along to help with crowd control. Kenzie's date was her friend Dallin so it was a low stress night. Here is a sampling of the over 100 pictures I took that night. What ever did we do without digital cameras and photoshop!

CHAMPIONS!

Football Season---August through November
Fees---$175
Hours---Countless
Aches & Pains---Too many
Having your dad as a coach---Awesome!
Winning a Championship with a perfect season------PRICELESS

Projects

It's amazing what a can of paint will do! These are a couple of projects I have been working on over the last few months. Instead of buying a new wood door (which I would love, but can't afford) I painted the front door (twice). The first time it turned out Barney purple (that's for those of you who remember Barney). Then, I had an oak hutch in my kitchen. It was my mom's, purely from the 80's. Instead of buying a new piece of furniture I painted it to look antique. I love it. It didn't cost much and looks great. I am now working on the oak kitchen table and chairs. The chairs are painted, but I won't get to the table until later this week. It's so much fun to make something "old look new".

RuN! RuN! RuN!

A few weeks ago Kenzie finished up her final season of high school cross country. For the girl who had never run before, she has had a great 4 years! When she started her 9th grade year she wanted to be involved in something. I suggested cross country. It is a great sport. Anyone can be on the team. You are part of a team, but you compete against yourself too. The first day she went to practice she came home in tears. She had run in 100+ degree weather and it was very hard. I told her to keep going. She did and she loved it! She ran JV her Freshman year and surprised everyone when she won Region. That year she ran for Pine View High School and won the "Best Newcomer Award". Then we got a new high school and our kids were in the boundary for the new school. As hard as it was to change coaches, Kenzie ran cross country again. The next 3 years she ran Varsity. Her Sophomore year she won "Most Inspiring". Her Junior year she won "Most Valuable Runner". Her Senior year she was one of the team captains. It's been awesome to watch Kenzie run! She has been so inspiring to me! I will really miss watching her run and cheering her on. Great job Kenzie!

BoO!

Halloween! It is one time of the year you can be anyone you want to be. I have always loved decorating for it and going to haunted houses when I was a teenager. I haven't been for a long time though. One of my most favorite things was to take my children trick-or-treating. This year was the second year in a row that I have not gone with them. I am so sad that my 2 younger kids can go alone with their friends and don't "need" me to go with them anymore. They still dressed up though. They think it's great because they can wear 3 costumes at this time of year: one for the ward party, one for school, and then one for trick-or-treating. Gage even went this year, but he is done with it now. After an hour he realized he was too old for it. It's so sad you get "too old" to have good, clean fun.

Playing in the Rain

This week we have had a break from the blistering heat of the sun! It has been great! When it rains hard the sides of our street are like little rivers. The kids get so excited they go out in their clothes and play in the water. They can actually float down the street in the gutter. I know that sounds funny, but when it rains they all play in the gutters. I remember when I was little. I lived in a cul de sac. When it rained really hard my brothers and I would try to run around the circle as fast as we could. The goal was to try to stay drier than anyone. Funny how we always ended up soaking wet no matter how fast we ran. Good memories!:)

St. George Marathon

Mike and I ran the St. George Marathon today for the 5th and hopefully final time. This poster is what was waiting for us when we woke up at 4:30am. Thank you Kenzie!

We weren't really excited about this marathon
because we hadn't done a couple of long runs. Mike's longest run was 16 miles and mine was 15 miles. We really should have put in an 18 and 20 miler. The weather at the start line was warm, but that proved to be a bad thing when it really heated up. Our weather here has still been in the 100's and high 90's. We ran well, making good time until mile 22. That was when our race ended. Mike's legs were hurting and he was out of energy. I had energy, but the I T band on my left leg cramped up when we stopped to walk. That was when we started walking the last 4 miles. We ended the race by running the last 200 yards to the finish line together!

We got our worst time ever, but I am happy to say that we survived. On a good note, neither one of us had any blisters either. Noah is supposed to remind Mike not to sign up for the marathon next year, and Jenny is supposed to remind me. I am hoping that when the time comes we will still remember the pain and determination we had to NEVER DO IT AGAIN!

Are you ready for some football !!!!!!!!!

Noah and Mike started football practice several weeks ago. Mike is the head coach of Desert Hills Gold Team. He has been grooming Noah to be a star quarterback. And he is! Their record is 3-0 so far. Last week Noah ran for a touchdown and of course the whole season he has been passing for all the touchdowns. It is so much fun to watch. I don't know who gets more excited....Mike or Noah:)

FOUR!

Monday night for FHE Mike took us to do something that he likes to do, golf. Well, we actually went to hit a bucket of balls. I have some pretty athletic children, but it was hilarious to watch each one of them try to hit the ball and miss the first time. Now, I laugh with them, not so much at them, because I am terrible at golf and do just that.....miss the ball more than hit it. The kids quickly improved with a little instruction from Mike. We had a great time!

All 5 Together

With Keaton living up North it is very rare to get all the kids together for a picture. Last year it didn't happen so I didn't send out Christmas cards. Let me just say it is almost as bad as pulling teeth to get them to consent to getting together and letting me take photos. A few of them are really good about going and a few of them make me want to pull my hair out. Let's just say I was lucky they all said yes even though I know those few (2 in particular) were saying "NO" under their breath. I had to promise to go somewhere close and not take "forever" to get the best shot. Here is one good shot out of about 90. What a great looking bunch!

Homecoming

Isn't this cute?! I may never get a shot like this again. Love it!



Kenzie went to Homecoming last night. Being on the Executive Council she was involved in planning Homecoming week including decorating for the dance. It was a busy week. Just a little background on this, Kenzie wasn't asked to Homecoming. Monday she decided to take matters into her own hands and she asked McKay. He lives next door and had not asked anyone to the dance. She went up to him and told him she had free tickets and free pictures and asked him to take her. After all, it was her senior Homecoming and she really wanted to go. He said he would love to take her. What a brave girl! I am so proud! They went to the lake for the day date, which included the boat breaking down in the middle of the lake. They were stranded about 45 minutes, but it all turned out ok. All in all, she had an awesome date!











left to right--Cameron, Kami, Kenzie, McKay

Back to School

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....it's back to school. Our kids have been
back in school for 2 weeks now. Yes, I know I am a little slow on getting these posted. At least I did it.

Kenzie is a senior this year. She was reluctant to let me take a picture since she wasn't happy with what she was wearing. She had to wear her Exec Council shirt for the first day and she thinks they are ugly,....well, they are. It's all about the clothes right! Anyway she has a big year ahead, and hopefully it's a ton of fun for her!




Gage is in 9th grade. He gets to take seminary now! Too bad his dad doesn't get to teach him. He is still in middle school this year, but if you want to get technical he is a Freshman. It seems he has grown a foot this summer, with high hopes to be the tallest in the family. That won't be tough:)




Noah is in 5th grade, his last year of elementary. Wow! He is BMOC, big man on campus. Football has started, with Mike being his coach, and so far he hits the hardest on the team.




Maddie is in 3rd grade and she couldn't wait for school to start so she could wear her new clothes. She and her friend, with the same name, have 3 matching outfits this year. My baby is getting so big!


So, it's back to a schedule with going to bed early, getting up early, book reports, spelling tests, etc..................and a few moments for me to breathe during the day:)

Northeast Church History Tour

Personalize a photo slideshow

At the end of July Mike and I went on a Northeast Church History tour that started in Boston and went to Kirtland, Ohio. We went with a bunch of seminary teacher geeks and their wives. It was an amazing experience that took us over 1000 miles on a bus. I've just included a few photos from our trip so you can get a small glimpse of the experience we had.

Cabin Fun!

This past week we went to the family cabin up in Ashley National Forrest near
Duschene. Mike has been going to this cabin since he was a little boy. This is
also where we spent our honeymoon (yes, we were poor).

This is the view from the cabin. In the Fall when the leaves change there is
a patch of trees on the mountain that are in the shape of a heart. That
is a sight to see.

We went on a 7 mile hike to the High Uintas to the Granddaddy Lakes.

Maddie got her feet wet in the freezing cold water.

Kenzie got in a little deeper and threatened to dive in. Check
out the snow in the background.

We sat around the campfire and ate, talked, played games,
laughed, and roasted marshmallows.

Maddie loved the swing.

We took naps,

and napped some more.

Fished.

Caught some little ones,

and some bigger ones.

Floated down the canal one by one,

and two by two.

It was priceless spending time together!