Can you believe it's November already? This year has gone by so fast!

Both kids played soccer this summer and did really well. Megan was in a harder league this year but she never gave up. We're very proud of her. This is the team picture.

Happy Halloween! Tyler is the Captain of Lightning McQueen's pit crew. Megan was a fish. (Thanks Mom for the wonderful costume!) Emma was a bride and Rachel was a butterfly.

The kids looked great and I think they had fun but you can tell they didn't feel well.

It was a great Halloween. I have fun kids. They keep life interesting.

School & stuff

The summer is finally over. It's bittersweet. Where I've been working full time, I feel like I've missed stuff with the kids. They've had a lot of fun thanks to the wonderful help of my family. Thanks Mom, Dad, Jenn, Mat, Granny and Jan. I'm very blessed!

Yikes! My kids are getting so big! When did this happen? This is the first day of school. Meg's in the 4th grade this year.

For the most part, these two get along really well. They've started watching for each other on the play ground and are best friends (depending on the day)

My handsome boy! Ty's in the 2nd grade and loves school.

These two pictures were from our last camping trip. Thank goodness for trailers with strong walls. Especially for those fraidy cats that tried to sleep in the tent.

Life is still good. Always an adventure.

Long time, no see

Hooray! I'm finally updating the blog. No, we didn't fall off the face of the earth. I suffer from procrastinitis. :) Since Tyler's birthday the kids have finished school. Next year, Meg will be in the 4th grade and Tyler will be in 2nd. (Yikes!) Both kids are in swimming lessons. Meg's still in gymnastics and Ty has started Karate lessons. They really like their classes.

This is from Meg's spring gymnastics program. She's the one with her arms up. She did really good and wasn't nervous at all.

We had a really good time at Meg's 9th birthday party. All of her presents were perfect. Everyone knows her really well. We celebrated Patti's party too. She's a wicked shot with a nerf gun.

Rodney has been on shutdown for last week due to the 4th of July. He didn't have much of a vacation but I was glad he was able to get away for a little fishing. There's a small lake in Honeyville that is stocked often. When Rod went by himself, he caught 10 fish but only one was big enough to bring home. The next day he took the kids. Tyler almost caught one but it got away.

This was the week for family haircuts. We know it's time when Meg can't see and Ty's ears disappear. They look really good. Unfortunately for the dogs, it was their turn as well. I think they look like cute shaved rats but they seem to be a lot cooler.

Poor old Molly got a haircut too

We had a great opportunity to visit Grandpa and Grandma Dennis this weekend. They took us to the Scottish festival in Payson (Who knew?) It was a lot bigger than we expected. They had booths with everything from food to clothes to swords and chain mail (real ones) to ancestral research. I was thrilled to find the Firth family history and family crest. I even found out what the family tartan looks like. Apparantly the Firths were a little rowdy in early times. I have the history. I'm hoping to get the Jenson crest as well and frame them.

At the festival, there was so much noise. At any one time, there were bagpipe bands, singers and dancers on different stages that were maybe 100 ft apart. At one point, we were surrounded by three different bagpipe bands warming up. My ears are still ringing. My niece, Milan actually slept through some of it. Amazing.

This was one of the bands. They were good, I think. It was hard to hear.

Anyway, we're all fine. Life is good. Love you all.

Tyler's birthday and Megan's play

So, this was from Tyler's birthday party with his friends from school. We were playing "Kitty want a corner" and for some reason the kids had to play while blowing up balloons. (Their idea, not mine)

Instead of cake and ice cream this year, we made dirt cups. It's made with pudding, oreos, gummy worms and cookies. I'm not sure how I did it but the two girls closest to the camera were convinced I was feeding them real dirt and worms. They all seemed to like the treat once they figured it out.

It's hard to do a pinata when it's raining buckets outside. This was our compromise. Only minor casualties, thank goodness. This party also officially marked the end of Tyler's birthday for the year. I'm exhausted.

This was Megan's costume in the school play. She did a fabulous job and we're very proud of her. She's very theatrical. Ty decided he didn't want to be in the play. Oh well, maybe next year.

She was a daffodil.

Sorry for the lack of information for the last couple of weeks. With finals, all my brains fell out my ears. I did OK and passed 3 out of the 4. Oh well, I'm sure I'll enjoy the class the second time around. Or at least, be better prepared.

Have a wonderful week!

Easter blessings

I love spring. There's warmer weather (in theory) and finally some color in the green grass and buds starting on the trees. And today, there's conference. What an amazing time we live in that we can easily witness the power and love of Heavenly Father through our Church leaders. The talks this morning were amazing.

I didn't take too many pictures this week. We're all well and happy and we hope you are too.

We had a fabulous week. My birthday was on Friday and I realized I like my age. I am truly blessed and life is good.
Mom and Dad treated us to a ride on the Frontrunner from Ogden to Salt Lake and movie tickets at the Clark Planetarium. The only train I've ridden on was a slow one in Heber (when Thomas the Tank engine came to town). This one went a little faster. It still took us about an hour or so to get from Ogden to Salt Lake because of the stops, but it was fun. The movie was really neat. It was filmed under the ocean and in 3-D. The kids weren't too sure about the sea snakes swimming towards them but loved the sea lions. We had a great time. The planetarium is always fun.

Everyone was pretty excited about the train ride.

Tyler pointed out eevveerryytthhiinngg.

So, we finally figured out where Meg and Ty came from. This is the Martian landscape at the Clark Planetarium. They fit right in, don't they?

This came from one of the storms we got last week. I don't know if you can tell but ice is covering the entire plant holder. Look at the top of the arch and down the sides.

See, I can fix stuff

This was a fruit pizza the Meg and Ty helped me make. Whatever we have to do to get me to eat my fruit is ok .

Snow (or maybe not)

One of my favorite parts of spring is seeing all the baby animals. The kids wanted to see all the baby calves that Uncle Ken has so we loaded Tyler and Megan along with Chaston and Brinley into the back of Grandpa Great's truck and drove through the herd.


This little gray and white calf was my favorite. All of the other calves were black & white. It was really fun to watch them run and play.



I just thought I'd throw this picture in. We got all this snow in one day. We were down to bare dirt the day before. This storm hit late last week. In the pictures with the cows, you can see the snow's almost gone again. Welcome to Utah weather.


Tyler made this contraption and said it was for cleaning people's brains. He kept asking everyone if they'd like a brain wash. Should I worry?


We all gave it a try but Rod. He said he liked having a dirty mind. I think he was just scared.

Angels are watching

Pretty awesome kids

His 'world domination' smile. Kinda scary, isn't it?

Meg sure loves her books

I know exactly how she feels.

So, I learned a new thing this week. I have a very stubborn son. I know this probably doesn't come as a shock to many, but it was a good reminder for me. I was at home while the kids were supposed to be at play practice. I got a phone call from a family friend letting me know that he picked Tyler up and was bringing him home. Apparently, Tyler decided he didn't want to go to play practice and wanted to walk home. The only problem (among many) was that he couldn't remember the way. All I can say is thank Heaven for angels. Needless to say, he's no longer in the play. Oh, and sorry to Mom and Dad for every curfew I ever broke and every time I wasn't where I was supposed to be.
On a good note, I learned that the arcade in Pizza Plus is a good bribe to get help around the house. The kids loved the basketball game, (they could win tickets to redeem prizes) and I loved the skeeball game (because it's skeeball).
This next week is my spring break (yipeee!).
Hope you have a great week!

Finally on the blogging bandwagon

This week was the usual craziness at our house. Tyler and Megan are in the school play. They are performing Alice in Wonderland. Megan is a daffodil and Tyler is in the card army. It should be entertaining. Megan is practicing hard for the gymnastics spring show. She still loves it and is very good at it. I'm almost to midterm of the Spring semester and who knows, I may survive. Classes are hard but what can you do? Rodney survived the latest round of layoff at Autoliv and things have settled down there which is comforting.

We finally got a camera that works. Here are our strange kids in action.

Ty's loaded for bear

Nobody should be that flexible

Tyler didn't want to get ready for a bath and didn't believe me when I told him he'd go in anyway.


Not sure what this dance move is called.

Have a great week.