A Lazy Day Christmas Entry

You see,

the best part about having other family members have a blog...

...is that you can link to them when they do a great blog entry.

Both my husband Matt and my sister Annie did great write ups about our Christmas adventures. Here are the links to their entries for your viewing (and my easy blog) pleasure.

Both have great pictures!!!

Matt:
http://mattsbigadventure.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-harley-daze.html

Annie:
http://allthingsinthewest.blogspot.com/2008/12/oh-holly-jolly.html

So I'm not as smart as I thought. I wanted the links to be live, but it's not working for me at the moment, so you'll have to copy and paste the url's. :)

17 years ago today....

My first born, turns seventeen today.


I remember the day he was born. It was the best Christmas present ever.

He was a very energetic and happy little boy! Always keeping us on our toes.

He loved all the things that little boys love; sports, video games, dirt, snakes, bugs and food.



He has developed a real talent for music...and it's become a part of who he is.

I have such mix feelings as I watch him grow into a handsome fine young man. It's a love hate relationship. :D

You want to keep them all for yourselves, but realize that's not part of the plan.

There is a little comfort in knowing...that he'll be my firstborn forever, no matter what life has in store for him.


...and that's all a Mother really needs to know.

Happy 17th Birthday Joshua!

Pearly Whites........

Hurray!!!!

Tanner got his braces off today!!!!

Straight pearly whites..... Happy Day!

He wasn't much for smiling for me during the professional photo shoot that we had at the orthodontist office. I just can't understand teenager sometimes. sheesh.

"Mom get out of my friggin' face ok?"

Tanner and Dr. Bair :D

Percussion with a captial "P"

Landon had his first band concert on December 11th. He started playing percussion at school this year and had a few drum lessons during the summer as well.

The day of the 11th was the first time the whole band played together. The teachers practice with all the students seperately in their respective classes (windwoods, brass, percussion, etc) and then bring them all together for a concert.

Look for the boppin' head playing the snare in the first song. You can see his sticks flying in the back! He also played the timpani and the bells in other songs during the evening.

Not bad for only 4 months of school!

Nice work Landon!!

Clip my toenails, Mom

I have a son, named Tanner

Ever since he's been a baby, I've clip his fingers and toes.

He's not one to bite his fingernails, like some of my other boys. =)

The time rolls around just about every 2 to 3 weeks. Tanner comes to me with fingernail clippers in hand and says "Mom, clip me!" Of course I oblige. I've tried to teach him to do them himself, but he's just not interested.

This morning as I was preparing to go to work; Tanner wasn't feeling well and decided to stay home from school. I was about out the door and I heard, "Mom, I need my toenails clipped. They are hurting me." I smiled, got my trusty clipping tool and sat down on the couch to proceed to clip. I took one look at those nails and just started laughing....they were so long he could have shovled dirt with them! Of course Clover had to join in the fun by running all around the room to try to catch the clippings as they sprayed throughout the room (why she does this I don't know!). Hey, it saves on clean up!

Tanner at least had happy toes today, even though he wasn't feeling too well.

Love ya Tanner Toe Man!

Family Pictures....

Family Pictures are always fun...right? It even gets easier to do with "grumpy gill" teens. =)

My sister, Annie, shared her talents with us by taking some family pictures of us yesterday. We found some fun old places around downtown Logan for the background. They turned out really fun.

Can't wait to see the rest. She really has a nice "camera" eye.

Click here for a sneak peek

Thanks Annie!

If I can do it.....

Ok, so I confess I'm not much of a whiz in the kitchen. I have been trying lately to make more things from scratch and have really come to enjoy it (when it works). I'm getting better with practice and age.

Lately I've been on a making "homemade wheat bread" kick. I make about 6 loaves on Saturday and it usually last the whole week. Its been about 5 weeks now since I've bought store bread.

TODAY -- Thanksgiving -- I made a masterpiece!!! Even my own mother was proud to call me daughter.

It's called Challah Braid Bread.

I had to take pictures of the progress.

rising!

A little sesame seeds and ready to cook

The finished product!

I think I'm going to start taking orders.... =)

Typing!

This is kinda fun! Try the typing test.

Thanks Ashley for the link -- I've been having a bit of fun with it this morning!


83 words

Typing Test

<<< Happy Birthday LANDON >>>

Happy Birthday SWEET LANDON!

My baby turned 13 yesterday.

I officially have a house full of teenage boys.

Landon is such a great kid! He is both Matt and my buddy! I am amazed at his work ethic, willingness to help or volunteer to do "whatever". He truly has a servants heart. He also has a knack for whipping up the perfect snack or treat. I've even come home from work to a warm cake and/or brownies......and lately he's been on a "making fruit leather kick" out of apple sauce.

I was really touched yesterday when we were trying to decide when to offically celebrate Landon's birthday, as the day was filling up with committments and other activities. We only had a small window of time together. It mattered to him that ALL his family be there to open presents and eat a little "banana cream pie" (his choice instead of the traditional cake) to celebrate. This meant that we had an early 9am b-day party and we had pie for breakfast! =) I hope Landon's brothers realize how important they are to him and that he wasn't willing to celebrate the day without them there by his side.

don't be a yahoo

OK....

I've decided to go private.

I'm just not content with the idea of any "yahoo" reading my blog, especially when I write so much about my children.

If you don't want to be a "yahoo" leave your email address in the comments! ....all six of ya! =)

Two Eagles

Matt just posted a nice write-up on Josh and Tanner's Eagle Court of Honor. To read click here: http://mattsbigadventure.blogspot.com/2008/10/eagle-scouts.html

Mom, I need a pumpkin!

Didn't we just get done with Homecoming?

Joshua was asked to Sadie Hawkins this afternoon. It's a darling energetic girl from the color guard. I was wondering why she was around Josh so much during the Las Vegas trip! Mom's notice these things.

Here is how she asked him:

just in case you can't read it, it says "Josh, I'm just dying to go to Sadie Hawkins with you" and then she drew the outline of her body on our driveway... very clever!

Here is how he replied:

I got a text just as I was leaving work "Mom I need a pumpkin to answer a girl for a dance!" This was a toned down result of what he really wanted to do!

Boys....gotta love 'em

Can you say Pumpkins?

Last Tuesday, the 21st of October...I did something that I knew at the time would be a lot of work, but still felt like it was worth it to plan.

My Primary presidency and I needed to plan one more quarterly activity. I got it in my head that it would be great fun to have each child carve a pumpkin. Then donate the pumpkins to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk, which is an annual event here. We'd have it at my house and it would bring the neighborhood together and everyone would have warm fuzzies and such.

Later, I had visions of sliced fingers, bad weather and pumpkin patches growing in my front yard. Never-the-less, we moved forward.

So we went to work:

1. 61 pumpkins --- donated!
2. 12 dozen donuts
3. Plenty of apple cider
4. Paints and paint brushes
5. 50 carving saws and scoops (kid friendly)
6. 10 long tables
7. and one beautiful day!

It was probably one of the most successful activities we've had to date! The kids just had a great time. The only tragedy was a small cut on a thumb -- a piece of cake!

TA-DA! Pumpkins Pumpkins Pumpkins

Bands of America Trip

What a whirlwind trip!

My voice is a bit hoarse from the SCREAMING!

A few words to describe this experience:
Amazing kids!
Long blended days
Yeah for Chartered Buses with movie screens
Hard Work & Dedication = Rewards
Sense of Accomplishment
Surprised!
Cold toes
Good Parent support
Great friends
Love
Note to self: Lost and Found box would be helpful!

We (myself, Josh, Tanner and Landon) left Sky View High School on Thursday morning around 9:30am. It's quite a "show" watching everyone pack their belongings underneath the buses and band trailer. There is STUFF everywhere.

We arrived in Fillmore for lunch break around 2pm. Great park where the youth could stretch and enjoy the sunshine. Arrived in St. George at 6:30pm.

It amazes me how all the parents go to work once we arrive. We planned this trip on a shoe string budget...and the kids were fed well and had every need met! There were 122 band students including guard, approx 45 chaperone's and 5 staff. We stayed at a local high school in Washington City, Utah. We practiced on their field, slept in their gym (yes a bit unaccommodating, but we all survived). I think the group preferred to be all together, actually. We put the boys on one side, the girls on the other with a parental barrier down the middle. =) We fed the group outside near the football field. WE were SO grateful for beautiful weather!



The first night the head band mom, Katie and myself slept outside. Hey -- yes it's October, but it's also St. George! I haven't done that in so long. The stars were beautiful. I couldn't help but wonder about some high school kids arriving early for school and wondering who were these transient women! I did have cold toes by 3am.

The band had a long hard workout on Friday and performed Friday night at Red Rocks Competition at Dixie State College. They didn't place that night in the top 3, but they sure did wonderful! The Utah circuit is getting to be tough competition, plus there were a few other outside the state that competed that night.


Look at all the shoes (this was only a 1/3 of what we polished!)

We arose at 5:30am Saturday morning to pack up and head to Las Vegas! We performed at 10am at UNLV at the Sam Boyd Stadium. PRETTY COOL! We were the 3rd to perform out of 23 bands. It was such a perfect time to perform. It was warm, but not as warm as it was later that day as temp's rose to 80 + degrees. All the band parents hurried to the top of the stadium and screamed our hearts out for the band.

At that time of the day there isn't many fans in the seats, so we had to make sure our kids knew they were appreciated. I think the judges noticed --- not only their fabulous show, but the support in the stands.

The top 10 were announced at 5pm. Sky View MADE IT! It was thrilling. This is the 2nd year in a row that they have made top ten. Such an accomplishment for these kids and their staff. Considering the staff has only been together for 3 years. Many tears and hugs - such a close knit group. Ms. Allred (the band director) drew out 5th...so we had about 3 hours to feed and get ready for finals.

There were 4 Utah bands that made it to the top ten...we all cheered for them as well! The rest were from California and one from Oklahoma.

It was a good thing we made top 10 as we all needed the adrenaline boost to keep us going! We knew it was going to be a long night!

There was magic in the air and the kids felt it. It was just so neat to be there with my boys! Something that I will always always cherish.




We (the Mama's) weren't as nervous the 2nd time around as their goal of making it to the top 10 had been achieved, but it was surprisingly still nerve racking as you just want them to do well!!!

Of course we all sat together and whistled, screamed and screamed with what voices we had left. Bands of America will not allow you to video tape the performances -- you have to buy those! So all I can share are a few pictures from the stands. They DID the best we've every seen them perform...it just all fell together and they were amazing! I just loved the fact that a mid-sized band can really come in an hold there own agaisn't some of these big name bands that have such a tradition of winning.

When it was time to announce the top 10 rankings - we really didn't have a feel for where we would place. If we were 10th - we'd been happy! I know that the kids wanted to do better than that though.

As they proceeded to start with the 10th band -- It wasn't us! It was a band that had placed 4th in last years finals and our mouths just dropped open!!! Then they announced the 9th place (a Utah band), 8th place, 7th place....and still NOT US! We just sat there in disbelief and our hands covering our mouths! We all had big eyes just staring at each other speachless. Sky View took 6th!!! Ms. Allred told us later than she had thought they had forgotten Sky View! lol.

American Fork High School from Utah was the Grand Champion -- which was so cool as well!


The screams, hugs and excitement did not wind down until almost 2am. We had a long drive through the night arriving at the High School around Noon Sunday.

I have to tell you what transpired during the competitions behind the scene. The staff decided not to inform any of us until after the compeitions were over.

• On Friday's competition at Red Rock we took 6th place out of 6th.
  
• We placed 10th out of 10th place in the semi-finals at BOA
  
  
• We jumped from 10th place to 6th place in the finals! Just AMAZING!
  

What a way to end a band season!

One of the band dad's told the kids on our bus "You left your hearts out on the field and we left our voices in the stadium"

Can't say it any better than that.

Homecoming Picture

Offical Homecoming Picture of Josh with Kayla

Aren't they just adorable?

**Lavender House** GRAND opening!

My Parents Store.....

The Lavender House is officially OPEN for business!

October 14th is the grand opening date!

Here are few pictures of the progress. As you can see it's quite a transformation!!

The house from the start.....

A Sneak Peak on the inside......

Congratulations Mom and Dad (plus Kim and the fam!), the house is just breathtaking!!! Great work!!

Here is the business address if your ever in the area. Trust me, it's worth a stop.

Lavender House Gift Shoppe

9118 South Redwood Road

West Jordan, UT 84088

Open Tuesday-Saturday 10-6pm

(801) 561-5557