Spring Break Business (busy-ness)

What do you have when you take four kids add two grandparents and multiply by a dad and all 4kids on spring break? LOTS of fun, projects, and card games!

Within about one week of time we lost 7 teeth between 3 kids. Sarah was thrilled because she actually lost one and didn't need to have it "wiggled" by the dentist. Kimball lost another couple, and Dallin no longer has any molars to chew his food or his gum!

We went climbing along the river at McConells Mill (where Sarah took a dip in the cold river water - it ain't called Slippery Rock River for nothing!!)

Grammy helped us (okay, did most of it) paint the downstairs of our house. The hallways and the kitchen are now DONE! I like the blue - do you? Everyone thought I was nuts until the color was on the walls. Hopefully, it will look more finished when I actually get the curtains made.

There was a lot of fudge cooking going on and even more Canasta playing. Dallin and Sarah are now card sharps!

And the project the kids are most excited about- stairs going down our hill to their fort (and a more secured repelling rope if the stairs are too tame).

Did I metion, mom and dad also mowed, seeded and frertilized my lawn? Cleaned my garage? Babysat? among a zillion other projects? To say I had a vacation would be right, to say my parents did- maybe not. But we loved having them here and can hardly wait until we go to Canada.

PS. Check out Sarah's blog- one of the blondes - she updates much more regularly than I do (and is a more interesting writer, to boot!)

New Years Goals

So, I haven't posted in a very long time. I could say a lot has happened - we've been busy - but really it's nothing but the same routine. Good thing we enjoy what we're doing.

Here are a few highlights -

• Kimball had his sixth birthday - a superhero party
• We finally painted Sarah's room (pictures coming)
• We painted and rearranged the living room
• CHRISTMAS!! -now this was wonderful and deserving of a post all its own, but suffice it to say - we missed our families and wished we could have seen them, but we are so very grateful for the friends that are our family here and celebrate and enjoy this time with us
• The kids are back at school and Andrew has decided that he should read - and so he is!

I decided this year I wasn't going to have any New Years Resolutions but I have set a few goals. One is to post something here every week (I will consider it a success if I just post once a month). Another is to be better at keeping connected with my friends and to reconnect with others. This year is my twentieth high school reunion (if we have one). I can't really believe I am that old, I don't feel it. Thinking about this, I realize how many friends I have lost contact with and would love to reconnect. At the urging of a few friends I joined Facebook today and spent way to much time surfing looking for people I know. I hope even just a few will respond.

Talk to you all later!

The End of Fall

I know it's time for winter and fall has ended. The leaves have turned and have fallen off the trees and now we have had our first dusting of snow. Time to get out the winter coats! The real reason I know winter is coming is that soccer season is over and Halloween came and went. Here are some snaps to commemorate these great occasions.

Here are the kids- Dallin as the evil jester, Kimball as the incredible Hulk, Andrew as a snow leopard, and Sarah as Colonel Mustard.

This is the whole Clue cast - her primary class all went to the ward party as well as trick-or-treating together - and won most creative costume(s)!

As a side note, I have to tell you that I won the Chili Cook-Off at our Halloween party this year. I am still laughing. I am not a cook. As this picture shows you, I literally went to the library to get a cookbook for some new recipes at home and took a chili one from it that I had never made before. I'm thinking I will have to try more from this book if the first one I made won me a prize.

Visitors from Utah!

We had a lot of fun when Todd's parents came to visit us from Utah. The kids took grandma and grandpa along for the ride to all their many activities and to a few of their favorite places. First, we took them to church. Grandpa was able to set Todd apart as a high priest while he was here, we were so glad that they were here for this special time.












Grandma and grandpa came with us to McConnel's Mill and walked along the river with us.










The kids had a blast playing in the fall leaves and grandma was such a good sport, they even buried her!





And the last exciting event (in between the science center, Ducky tours, and a trip to Kirtland) was attending Kimball and Dallin's soccer games. How my boys love to show off!

Halloween Decorating

So, many people have asked to see pics of our new house. I guess I'm still working on those, but I do have a few glimpses in the background of our Halloween decorations. I'm told (by my kids) that we need to have decorations. I'm not a big Halloween person myself, but how can you NOT have decorations when you have boys who like their creepy crawlies and spend hours redecorating and rearranging your decorations.

This is my compromise - no guts, no gore, but a lot of witchiness (is that a word?), spiders, and cobwebs!

These are my witch potions - so if you want some nightmare larvae, jellysfish stingers, or spitting spiders or need some "factual aquisition" serum, let me know! And the boys are still handing out free spiders to their favorite guests, we have so many creeping around our house. So, come see us - at the least the witch will be in, and if you are lucky - we'll share!

I finally started a blog. It is my fall project. This summer we moved into a new house and a new school district. It amazes me how a 30 minute move can be as much work as our out of state moves. More kids and more stuff, I guess.

One fun project that we did was prepare for Otteson Night at the Movies. Want a preview? Well, here you go anyway!

I may "produce" a few more these, they were so much fun!