What's up with Kim?

Getting Popped and other adventures called Life

2012-01-31T08:23:00.000-08:00

Our new love is...wait for it...Frozen Popcorn! Tanner went to Popped with some friends after school one day and really liked it. He came home and told us all about it and how good it was and that we should go. Then Taz went with a friend and raved about it. So on MLK day after volleyball, we decided to give it a try. It was so fun. You order a gourmet flavor of popcorn and then freeze it with nitrogen oxide. They give it to you and when you take a bite, frozen steam (is that an oxymoron?) comes out of your mouth. It is very hard to catch it on camera, so these first few pictures are our attempt at that. But you can see it really well in person.

We finally gave up and Taz and Cynjyn just blew on it to get the smoke a really going! The frozen stuff only last a couple of minutes, but it sure is intersting to the palet. We've gone a couple of more times. One day I took Talon after he took me out to lunch and it's always fun to try it with people who've never experienced it before.

One night for a combined YW activity, we did "Stump the Bishopric". The girls brought an object in a sack and the bishopric opened it they had two minutes to find the scripture it represented. If we stumped them we each got a piece of candy, if they figured it out, they got the candy. It was about equal and they did a great job. They could confer with each other and they had two life lines of using the topical guide.

January 18-20th brought mid-term week. That means the boys get out at 10;40 and 11:40, so I started the tradition of taking them out to lunch one of those days. We chose the first day and Tanner wanted Claim Jumper. Here we are with a timer set on the camera to take our group picture.

Tanner and I ordered the tri-tip and it was delicious.

Taz got the widow makers burger. It was huge and he was more than pleased.

The idea is they get out early and have plenty of time to study...or in Tanner's case, plenty of time to play Zelda!

Cynjyn and her friend wanted to dress up as nerds on one of the days they had GATE, so here she is. She's getting quite the reputation for her quirky fashion style. Her PE teacher actually called her out one day for matching! She said she never matches and how dare she break her tradition of quirkiness that the PE teacher LOVES.

She had some friends over last Friday for a girls night out and they watched a video and played just dance 3. It was a PJ party and everyone brought a treat to share. It was from 7-10 and they had a ball.

Taz got to go paintballing for Lawson's birthday last Saturday. They went up to Bunkerville. He LOVED it!!

And only came home with one bruise from Lawson's mom no less!

Thanks to Pinterest, I've found a website that shows fun things to do with long hair. Cynjyn lets me experiment once a week. Here is her waterfall braid.

And she got new socks that are...wait for it...MISMATCHED!! Imagine that.

Talon dropped his phone in the toilet, yes you read that right, he didn't hesitate and fished it right out, anyone that knows my germaphobe son knows that is a miracle. Anyway, it didn't work. And he was phone less for about a week. It KILLED him!! He sent his phone off to California to a man who swears he can fix it. In the mean time, Garry used his upgrade to get Talon a new phone. It came and now Talon is a happy camper once again. Here's two funny stories to go along with that: One day we went to Tanner's school for lunch, we found Tanner and Talon asked him if he'd gotten a recipe for him for the steak salad. Tanner said no, he forgot. He told Talon to text him to remind him, Talon yelled "I don't have a PHONE!!". Oh.
Then Talon came home from work a few days later and he asked Tanner and I if we'd seen the sunset. We said no and he said, oh it was beautiful. He took us outside and we caught the tail end of it. He said it was at it's best on his drive home. I said why didn't you pull over and take a picture? He yelled "I don't have a PHONE"! Oh.

Cynjyn dressed up for sports day at school. It just so happened Taz had a Partiots jersey. She looked so cute. We had a great January!

New year, New look!

2012-01-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is about January, but when it hits, I just want Christmas down and a new look! This year was no different. After we got back from our road trip, Garry had a few days off and I made him take down my main wall in our living room. I had been wanting a new look for quite awhile and had been brewing some ideas in my head.

I found a tutorial for these $10.00 ledges on Pinterest, so Garry was kind enough to make them for me in a timely manner and attack them to the wall. Because my ceilings are so high in this room, I wanted to take advantage of all the height.

Here is a close up. My brother's wife (the one we helped move) was getting rid of some stuff, so I inherited it (actually I asked if I could have it!!). I took home from our trip the magnet board in the middle and the Be's plaque on the left.

My sister Krissy painted these portraits of our kids for Garry and I for Christmas. They turned out so good and I was so happy they fit perfectly between our window and window cubby.

I kept this wall about the same except added the Tree of Life picture to it since I'd taken it down from the other side.

We moved our big TV (someday we'll get a thinner updated one) to in front of the fireplace that is useless. It is a little taller than the mantel, so I had to have some decorations with height to balance it out.

My mom got me the vase in the middle for Christmas thinking it would go good on our new dinning room table, but I thought it was perfect for the mantel.

I took apart the sectional and put it in three different places in the room.

It makes the room seem bigger to me, but the biggest couches are on the sides, so it's not as comfortable watching TV with more than a couple of people on the couch. I love the new look!

Almost caught up!

2012-01-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

We love January, especially this year. There was no school on the 16th and there is no school today. It makes our weeks seem shorter and we can do fun, relaxing stuff. Taz has had friends over every holiday. He organizes a big football game and we have kids coming in and out a lot. We bought them pizza once and now, unfortunatly, they kinda expect it. Oh, well, open your doors and your fridge and everyone's happy, a small price to pay:)

With the new year came a new theme in YW: Arise and Shine forth. So I made a new bulletin board for the YW room.

It's a spoof of Pinterest and each week a girl can grab a card and pin it to the board and can tell how that card can help her to arise and shine forth. I got the idea off Sugardoodle and so far it's worked great and the girls seem to enjoy having something to give a spiritual thought on.

Over Christmas break, Taz decided it was time to start shaving that peach fuzz!. So this was his second time shaving and Cynjyn and I enjoyed cheering him on!

Tanner got asked to Sadies. Now, being a bloggers son, he took a picture with his phone of his car, but we have a hard time figuring out how to take our pictures off our phone around here and he's asleep, so I don't want to wait, maybe I'll post it later (maybe I won't). Anyway, he came out of school and his car was covered in Oreo's and there was a sign on it (down below a few pictures) saying: Nothing like an Oreo treat to lead you to something really sweet! Pick up a cookie to have a lookie, to find out who, look for the clue. So he found the Oreo with the message inside that told him to go look in the freezer deep. When he got home this is what he found in the freezer: A block of ice.

These are the Oreo's cleaned off his car

and the note

After he thawed the block of ice by running it under hot water, he found an Oreo inside and opened it and it said Heidi. She's his dance partner from the preChristmas dance posts. More to that story later to come.

Cynjyn decided one day she wanted to try fresh squeezed OJ. So she got a peeled cutie and attempted it. I said stop wasting the cuties and one day bought her some real oranges so she could give it a go.

She loved it but realized it's a lot of work for a little amount of juice!

Talon and I love our Thusday lunch dates at Tanner's school, this week it was steak salad and boy was it good!

Cynjyn went to Toy Story three on ice with the Sawyers, they had an extra ticket and she was so excited that they asked her. She loves Amanda (well, we all do!!)

Here was her Buzz Lightyear souvenier! (It came on her cotton candy, but she's had fun with it.)

Now the rest of the story: Here is how Tanner chose to answer Heidi back for Sadie's:

Dear Heidi,

The Oreos on my car were very dirty and

annoying. I didn’t like them at all and I found that it was not

creative. I wish that I could say that

I could go with you, but I just cannot because of the fact that

I was unhappy with how you asked me.

It was a pain to clean and I stood outside at 8 just so I could drive to school.

I couldn’t believe that you would ask me that way and

I can’t find another way of saying this, but here it goes.

I would like to go to Sadie’s with you, however

I cannot because I didn’t like how you asked me and

the Oreos are still a pain and I do not even like them and

If you would have asked me any other way I would say yes but

I will definitely, no matter what,

not do anything that involves me having to

go to Sadie’s with you.

Your friend that you’ll

love always,

The boy

Tanner

P.S. I change my mind, so begin at the beginning and read every other line as this is what I truly mean.

Garry had remembered seeing this a long time ago at the mall in Orem in the missionary section and it was a "dear John". He found it on the internet and Tanner personalized it and left it on Heidi's car.

The rest of the trip

2012-01-22T09:05:00.000-08:00

While in Boise, after Christmas Day, this was the amount of snow we got.

Cynjyn and Taz had to scrape enough snow off the sidewalk to make their big snowballs.

Those of us that have to drive in it appreciate it, but come one, just a little bigger snowstorm in the middle of our vacation would have been nice!

Cynjyn got to spend a day with Ella. She came down from Roseburg after Christmas and Cynjyn went over to Ontario to spend the night with her. Something about two girls and a new camera just conjures up images of fun. I don't know what they did...

...but clearly they had fun doing it!!

On Thursday, we headed to La Grande via Ontario to help my brother Randy and his wife Traci move into their new home. They had most of the work done by the time we got there, so Garry and Tanner put together their new pool table they got for Christmas.

The girls cheered them on!

Taz sat in the corner texting while his phone charged.

When we got to Grandma's we broke out the new Wii game Just Dance 3 and danced the night away.

Beckham's got the moves like Jagger!!

At the Waite reunion, we played volleyball and ate and worried as it was pouring rain outside and we needed to head back to Boise to shorten our trip back to Vegas on New Year's Eve. So finally at 4:30 we left the church, headed to Grandma's and loaded our stuff up and were on the road by 5:00pm. Of course it was dark and between Ladd Canyon and Baker, the rain turned into a blinding snow storm where the snow was coming at an angle and made seeing virtually impossible, but Garry weathered his way through and we got to Boise by 9:00. We were up and on the road by 6:00 am heading back to Vegas.

We got into Vegas by 4:00 and Taz and Cynjyn both had NYE parties to go to. Tanner went to one until 10, but came home because their dog was making his allergies act up. Garry went to bed at 10 due to exhaustion from driving all day and here is Tanner and I at midnight. Shortly there after, I went and picked up Cynjyn, then Taz. It was a great vacation!

Christmas day

2012-01-21T07:40:00.000-08:00

Santa came!

Stockings were enjoyed

Piles were made

Best presents ever were received

Presents were played with

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Road Trip

2012-01-12T12:42:00.000-08:00

We got o Oregon every other year for Christmas. This was our year to go. We were out of town by 6:15 am Thursday December 22. Taz ammused himself by decapitating the Cinnamon Santa's and rolling all their heads into one giant ball and slowly eating it.

We stayed in Boise for most of the time. We stayed at Krissy's house and Ky and her family came over almost every day to visit. Mom and Dad stayed at the Condo and spent the days at Krissy's as well. Taz was thrilled that their little pond had turned into a sheet of solid ice.

The kids entertained themselves on there for quite awhile. Krissy and Brian are hoping the 20 Koi fish survive.

The men got to help Brian unload a couple of pellats of these small wood thingy's for their new fireplace.

We had a delicious Christmas eve dinner of lots of goodies and GREAT company.

For our Christmas eve activities we took some pictures by the tree.

Clay made a movie on his IPhone starring Taz and Kres and so everyone watched that.

Then we divided up into three groups and did skits in a bag.

Played the chocolate bar game.

Had a cotton ball picking up relay.

And reinacted the Scripture Christmas story...

As grandpa read it.

We did our gift exchange game.

Then Cynjyn and Kres put out goodies for Santa and his reindeer.

The rest of the evening was spent playing with the gifts people got,

and visiting.

Ky and Kres spent the night at Krissy's so as not to miss any of the early morning excitement while Brian kept us informed as to where Santa was on his IPad. Try to sleep everyone, tomorrow will be an exciting day!!

Twas the weeks before Christmas...

2012-01-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

And all through the house... Girls were creating festive headwear for school,

Boys and Girls were performing at Ward parties,

Girls were graduating from DARE

Boys were performing Christmas Band Concerts,

Mom, daughter and friends were lunching at CiCi's and visiting the Bellagio

Gifts were being made for teacher's and,

Young Women.

Matching gifts were being given.

Son's were turning 22

School parties were happening.

New skills were being practiced (I made this in one hour!!)

Bears were being won (Cynjyn won this in Primary:])

Field Trips to Hoover Dam were taking place.

Volleyball games were being attended.

Caramel sauce was being made for Hometeaching gifts.

Are you calling me UGLY??

2011-12-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

Saturday, we were invited to an Ugle Sweater party. Garry's work had one last year and he said the winner had really "uglied" up their sweater by making it pretty garish. So Friday, he hit DI and found some ugly stuff. He wanted to do "Olive the other reindeer" which is a childrens book about a dog named Olive who listened to the song Rudolph and always thought she was the other reindeer. So he found a dog and some antlers. I printed out the words on vinyl with my cricut and he garished it up with some garland.

For our second sweater, Garry thought he'd make some heads to put on the shoulders, that made me thing of the angel and devil concience on one's shoulders which lead to Santa and Mrs. Clause which ended up with Santa and his Naughty and Nice list. We had a "Grumpy Santa" stuffed toy where you pushed his hand and he said not so nice things. I didn't really like it, so I encouraged Garry to cut it apart and use it. I texted Andrea and got the names of all the guests and we made a naughty list with their names on it and a nice list with Garry and Kim on it. We decorated the sleeves with a snowman found at DI and some tinsel wrapped in battery operated lights. I made a hat by gluing a gingerbread house onto a headband.

And this is what the backs looked like.

We are officially ready to go! By the way, Garry had lights around his collar and his hat lit up too.

Here are all the girls that attended the party, I don't know why the men didn't pose?!

Karen, MaryAnne and I were the three that had embelished our sweaters. We all won a prize! I won best overall sweater!

Here I am with Andrea, the lovely host and Toni (We called her Shaniqua all night!) who won Ugliest sweater

It was a fun night! We just ate and visited and posed for pictures all night with good friends.

2011-12-10T09:28:00.001-08:00

I had my piano recital Monday night. I had my students gather afterwards for a photo. I have 24 students. One had to leave early and some just started so they didn't play in this recital. I always forget to take a picture of my food spread, it's quite a job getting ready for the recital. I provide all the food afterwards as my gift back to the families. This time, I started Friday by making the "gifts" I give to my students and then spent all weekend making the food for that night. I had two crockpots of Lil Smokies, homemade salsa and chips, cajun snack mix, cheese and crackers, grapes, baby carrots, grape tomatoes and pickles with dip, mini cream puffs, fudge, homemade caramels, sin cake, rice krispie treats, a big bowl of muddy buddies, crystal light/diet 7UP drink and water. The recital went well and the kids were done playing in an hour. I am always amazed that I make it through such a busy time of year and that all my students and their families show up and do so well. I take December off before I start up with lessons again in January.

These are the treats I gave to my students. I made a big batch of fudge and poured it into cookie cutters and put some mini M&M's on top and wrapped them in cellophane bags. It's always hard for me to come up with a new idea to give out for my students, but I saw these and thought they were cute.

Happy Happy Birthday!

2011-12-05T07:59:00.001-08:00

My baby turned 11!! Eleven in Eleven, how exciting, sad fun etc.

She wanted to have a crazy party since she's such a crazy girl. She originally wanted a crazy outfit contest, a crazy dinner and then off to the park to play some group games she'd been dying to play. But with the weather being crazy windy and rainy, at the last minute Tanner and I came up with some other crazy indoor games and everyone loved them. Here is the crazy outfit contest.

Alexa,

Sydney

Bethany

Maggie

Becca! They all looked, well, CRaZy!! We had a "spin you dinner" for dinner. We brought down the spinner from the LIFE game and they had 4 courses. Depending on which number you spun, you'd either eat: Pizza, a brownie sundae, ceasar salad or a drink. When Cynjyn spun her brownie number, that is when we'd sing to the bday girl. She got candles in hers.

Then they had to pair up and pass the lifesaver between the two of them 3 times.

They had to get an oreo off their forhead and into their mouth without using their hands.

They had to use a big candy cane to loop a smaller candy cane and then work the small candy cane up to and in their mouth without hands.

They paird up and fed each other pudding with a spoon attached to a big dowel. They also had to eat 5 crackers for a game. Have you ever tried to quickly eat 5 crackers before other people? Try it, it's actually pretty hard and funny to watch. (I know I have a picture somewhere?!)

They played chubby bunny where you have to put a big marshmellow in your mouth one at a time and then have to say "chubby bunny" after each one. That was Cynjyn's favorite game.

Then they paired up again and did each other's make up blindfolded! They all really liked that one.

What do you think? Are they ready to go out in public?

We ended the evening by playing "body body". Oh, my, they loved that game. They played it for an hour straight. Cards are passed out and someone is the murderer. The lights go out and it's pitch black. You wander around and the murder tries to murder everyone by pushing on their shoulders. When you're murdered, you drop silently to the ground. As soon as someone "stumbles" upon you they yell body body and it's a mad dash to the lights. The lights go on and an accusation is made. If they are right, the round is over, if they are wrong, the lights go back out and the game continues.

For Cynjyn's birthday, Tanner's friend Jewel was doing a fundraiser for her church and was painting nails. Tanner ordered her to come do Cynjyn's. I decided to get mine done too.

She does nail art and so Cynjyn got little converse shoe tops on hers.

I just got a fancy design.

She charded three dollars/person and it took her an hour each for our nails. We love them and had a great time watching her do it. She's really good. Cynjyn had a great birthday. Her actual birthday, Saturday was our ward Christmas party, so we had her party on Friday and then Garry and I took her to Dairy Queen for a treat Saturday afternoon. She's such a great daughter, we are so happy to have her in our lives.

We are the champions

2011-12-03T16:23:00.001-08:00

Taz's team won the Super Bowl for their league. They went in as the #2 ranked team and won the whole tournament. They were very excited. It was a fun season for him and he enjoyed playing. He was one of the top scorers on the team.

Projects here, projects there, projects everywhere

2011-11-26T18:01:00.001-08:00

I swear, Taz and Cynjyn have had so many projects due this past month. Taz had 4 due within a two week period. We are tired of projects around here! One night after mutual, Taz stayed up frying wontons to take into a class because he had to bring a food from his background.

He had to do a Spanish poster describing three people (him Tanner and Cynjyn).

He had to do a health poster...that's him which you can't see very well because of the glare.

He had to do an research an invention. Plus, he had a suitcase project where he had to fill a suitcase with stuff from China and talk about that country his ancestors originated from.

Cynjyn's class was doing a Native American unit and for xtra credit, they could make a pair of pants by hand. We decided to have her do one.

She used yarn and a huge quilting needle since they'd just read Sign of the Beaver and the main character used a bone and twine to sew his pants.

They turned out pretty good and she did it in one night and was the only one in here class to make a pair.

She could also make Johnny Cake and bring it in. Again, the only one to do that was her.

She signed up to do a primary talent show and was going to sing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause". She wanted to be a little girl (like giggle girl from Thriller) and so she decided to make herself some bloomers and a little girl dress.

We got the tutorial off Youtube for the bloomers.

And we took a size 8 dress and improvised a little to make it fit her for the little girl dress. She chose an Eeyore pattern since she was going to sing with her stuffed Eeyore.

I think it turned out adorable and she did great at the talent show.

Her class was trying to collect 100 cans or boxed food to feed the hungry, so she scrounged up a dozen or so items to donate.

Crazy hat day found her with not one, two or three, but FIVE hats she wore.

And lastly, she had to do an indian shelter project and chose the pueblo. We whipped it up in one night and it turned out great!

Whew, I think that covers it all. If I never see another project sheet it will be too soon:)

It was the best day ever!

2011-11-12T16:19:00.001-08:00

As Sponge Bob would say: "it is the best day ever!"

I am now the mom of three eagle scouts! Well, almost, yesterday Taz had his Eagle Project. We painted a map on Weiner Elementary School. Garry, Taz and I started at 6:30 by loading and arriving at the school. We measured and rolled out the stencil and chalked the states onto the blacktop.

At 8 am the crew started showing up. Cynjyn and Becca were the first to arrive with Talon and Tanner who promptly left to go buy donuts for the crew.

Us women were the supervisors. These are my besties. I love these gals. Linda, Karen, Jen and Toni!! Thanks for coming and helping.

Here is his fearless scout leader Charles reaching a spot that needs touched up with a little help from Don.

Lawson, Levi, Emily, Becca and Cynjyn painting the Great Lakes.

We were done with the project mostly by 10 am. A few of us stayed around till 11. At 1:00, me, Garry and Taz went back and outlined the map in white. It took us two hours to do that.

Cynjyn and Becca cheered us on.

And here is the finished project.

So, now Taz is done. He is still only a Life scout though and must wait until February 8th before he can turn in the Eagle application. He needs two more campouts and then he's DONE!! Yay!

Here comes Halloween!

2011-11-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

The decorations were put up!

Parties were attended!

Costume assembly began!

Paper mache dominated!

Festivities were attended!

Wigs were purchased!

Tuachan was wonderful!

Friends were made!

Enemies were scary!

Actors were met!

Fun was had!

Trunks were treated!

Queens were beheaded!

Costumes were paraded!

Babies were done!

Prizes were won!

Make up was applied!

School was attended!

Stashes were eaten!

Supplies were replenised!

(the day after: everything 2 for $1.00!!!!!)

He's such a rebel! Or is he?

2011-10-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

It has been college week at Taz's middle school. They've had to wear various t-shirts and things this week such as what they want to be when they grow up shirts and a college t-shirt etc. Well, today being Friday it is "Rebel" day and they are supposed to wear UNLV colors and shirts and jersey's. Not my boy! I've raised him right...True Blue all the way:)

In other news, we picked up Tanner's bday present last Sunday. He loves it. The old one is still sitting in my dining room, but we found someone who wants it, so it will be gone soon and the piano tuner is coming Tuesday, can't wait, it so needs a good tune-up.

Cheers, birthdays, surprises and football!

2011-10-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, Cynjyn participated in a mini cheer camp again at Silverado for Breast Cancer awareness. She was so excited to cheer in the football game on Saturday. Unfortunatly, she wasn't feeling well and I had to wake her up at 5:45 to go to the game. She had a fever and stomach ache and cough, but she perservered anyway. She was so gladd when it was over. But she did awesome as usual.

Tanner had a great birthday during the week. His bday was Wednesday, October 5th. He got two balloon boquets at school and a bunch of candy and some cards and a tie pin from his friends. We bought him a new piano (well, new for us, but used non the less). We are picking it up today! So no pictures.

He is in foods and nutrition and every Thursday, they turn their classroom into a restaurant and serve costumers. Talon and I ate there this week. It is $7.00 for lunch. We had a romaine pine nut salad, roasted pork loin and three different winter squashes and an apple tart with lemon glaze for dessert. The kids shop on Monday and make everything on Tuesday and Wednesday and serve on Thursday. It is good and Talon and I enjoyed ourselves.

On Friday, Natalie, Julianna and Amanda took Tanner to the Shark Reef for his bday. In the meantime, I set up the table with snack foods and a cake.

They went to the park and ate pizza before the adventure.

His other friends started showing up about 7:15 and they got here at 7:45. He was surprised!! Everyone stayed and they played Mafia, Couch of Power, Honey I Love you and then they went to the park and played a couple of games. They came back here and everyone left by midnight.

I had made him a red velvet bundt cake.

Just so you don't think I forgot about Taz, he is busy in the middle of football. We have been having wonderful weather for football and his team is doing o.k.

The Goon Way

2011-10-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

Taz had a project due for Health. It was an all about me poster. He had to have 9 pictures on it three from the past, three from the present and three for the future. They were to represent his mental/emotional, physical and social health. He had to have his first and last name on the poster and the title of me. It had to say Past, Present and Future too. He got extra credit if he "wowed" the teacher as she put it. So, he told us about it and then forgot about it for awhile. I didn't. I asked Tanner about the poster because he had the same teacher and class. He said that everyone just slaps 9 pictures on the poster and that's about it. Tanner, when he had the assignment turned his into a chess board with his pictures as the pieces. So we knew we could make it good. Tanner offered a few suggestions and then I came up with a graveyard scene (It is October!!) and the "ghost" of Taz past, present and future. Taz said ya, whatever. He kinda fought us the whole way wondering why he couldn't do his poster in 15 minutes and be done, but we said, no! it's not the Goon way! So, Tanner came up with the idea of a ghost coming out of the tombstone. Garry said why don't we make it a popup and we proceeded from there. Luckily, Garry is a good hand drawer and was able to free hand the wording. Taz chalked it and worked on his pictures. Garry and I helped him assemble it. As we were working on it, it was ironic that his friend Josh called and wanted him to play XBox live and he said in about an hour because he was working on his poster. Josh said "how long does it take to glue 9 pictures on a poster board?" Too funny!!

Here is the finished project. The name is supposed to be the arch or entryway to the graveyard and then when you open the three tombstones, a ghost pops up holding three pictures. After it was all said and done, Taz had the biggest smile on his face come Monday morning as he left for school. Garry and I got big hugs and thank you's the night before too. He came home from school Monday and said everyone's posters were the same, 9 pictures put onto a poster board, no creativity at all. The only other person that showed extra effort was a girl who glued tissue paper all over her poster board to give it a stained glass look to hold the nine pictures that she then slapped on the board. He got 65 out of 50 on the project. I guess he "wowed" the teacher!

Tanner

2011-09-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Homecoming was September 17th year. Tanner wanted to ask Natalie Leavitt. She had asked him to Sadies last year and was his first date. So, he decided to buy a dozen roses and on the first day he gave her a card that said: "When thinking of homecoming, your name 'a rose'. Will you go to homecoming with..." He then took the note and a rose and left it on her car.

The next day, he wrote a note with something to the effect of you'll get a letter a day after 6 days unscramble the letters and give me your answer. He left a letter of his name and a rose somewhere at her house everyday.

Unfortunatly, the roses started dying and Natalie was getting anxious and he was getting tired of remembering everyday, so on Labor day, he got a balloon bouquet and the rest of the roses and letters of his name and said he needed to hurry things up.

The next day, he got a container of real fish in his car with this note. Of course, it took us awhile to figure out that the fishies swim in the sea and si is spanish for YES!

In the meantime, it was spirit week at school and him and Amanda stuck to their tradition of being twins for twin day and made these super twin outfits.

and wore them to school together.

He also dressed clownish one day. The theme for the week was circus and it was kinda lame, so he only dressed up those two times.

He also got together with his History partners and made this poster using my cricut and papers. He had to convince his teacher to move to his colony.

The day before homecoming, he asked Talon to cut his hair. Talon did it a little short, but it turned out o.k.

The day of the big date, here he is. We bought him a tux online for $80.00. It came with a jacket and pants. We bought a tux shirt and a cumberbund and tie set. We figure he's got three more formal dances in his high school career and so we spent about what we'd spend on one rental of a tux.

They met as a group and met for pictures, then they headed to the Stratosphere to ride all three of those psycho looking rides. Then they went to Claim Jumpers for dinner.

Afterwards, they broke off and Tanner and Bryant took Natalie and Heidi to the church. Tanner had made a CD of music because he and Natalie love to waltz. So he had his own little dance instead of paying $80.00 for a ticket to the dance. They had the whole floor and waltzed all over. They loved it. Then they took the girls to the park and had brownie sundaes and star gazed. They had such a fun night. It was fun for me to as Natalie is in YW with me and I got to hear all about it from her point of view and she said it was the most amazing night of her life!!

Family Pictures

2011-09-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

When we were in Oregon this summer, we got family pictures taken as a present for my mom and dad's anniversary. It was quite a challenge dealing with the heat and a two year old. But I think we managed to get a few good ones.

Grandma and grandpa and all their grandkids.

Mom and dad and all their children.

Mom and dad!

Taz turns 13! Eek

2011-09-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

Taz turned 13 while we were in Oregon. He wanted to go fishing for his birthday, so we took a picnic up in the mountains and caught a few fish.

He wanted a party when we got back to Vegas, so I talked him into having a "death" party to celebrate the death of his childhood and the rise into his teen years. I totally copied this idea from my bff Toni as she did it for her son a few years ago and I thought it sounded like such a fun idea. We all know Taz's favorite desserts are: rice krispie treats and no bake cookies. So I made some tombstone krispies and stuck them into the no bakes as the dirt around the tombstones. They turned out cute.

I lined the walkway with tombstones of every guest at the party and their "death dates". The tombstones had little sayings on them like: Josh Edleman, no longer a baby...on second thought!

I had the table decorated with black balloons and black table cloth and black plates and cups.

We had a black sheet draped over the ottoman and Taz was laying on it "dead" as the guest arrived. Then I gave a eulogy and the guests were allowed to share a favorite memory of Taz as a child.

The night before, I had Talon draw me a giant picture of Taz...

We covered it with balloons filled with whip cream and played "pop the pimple".

Then we played some more "teen" games. We had a minute to win it tournament with gold presidential dollars as prizes for first, second and third place.

One of the challenges was a gross food challenge where they had a minute to eat everything on their plate. The worst thing on there was pickled pigs feet.

After the tournament we showed the guest how to play spoons. Only one boy had ever played spoons!! So after we did a couple of rounds of that, we moved out to the pool and played suicide spoons where you put the spoons at the bottom of the pool and when someone gets their match, they have to head to the pool. That was funny!!

Then we had dessert and opened presents.

Taz has solemly sworn to be a perfect teenager and NEVER give his mother (or dad) any grief. Yeah right, we'll see how long that lasts!!

That was it, a fun, fun party! Here are a few extra's that I want included in my blog book, so if you're not interested, you can stop reading now:)

Here was Taz's invite. It was in a column like it would appear in the newspaper and had a picture of him above it:

On August 15, 2011 at 12:40 p.m., Taz Kiefer Goon succumbed to the dreaded teen years. He is survived in childhood by his sister Cynjyn and two brothers, Talon and Tanner have previously passed on. His parents, Garry and Kim, mourn this occurrence. A memorial service will be held to remember his lost childhood on Friday, August 26th @ 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. at the Goon home . Anyone wishing to share memories of Taz’s childhood will have the opportunity. A dinner will be served promptly after the services. Wearing black is optional. In lieu of flowers, please bring a birthday gift. RSVP regrets to Kim.
This was his eulogy:

Taz Kiefer Goon was born on August 15, 1998 at 12:40 pm. He was a feisty stubborn child and he proved that right from the get go as he was supposed to be born August 2, but waited 13 long days to arrive. He was born one day after his parents 13th anniversary and made them miss Garth Brooks farewell concert! He was a fussy baby and wasn’t happy until he could start moving on his own. Once he learned to crawl, he never stopped going…and going…and going. From early in his childhood, he wanted to be a bull rider. He loved going to his grandpa’s farm and watching the big black bull. He loved cowboys, but especially bull riders and rodeo clowns who helped distract the bulls after they bucked the cowboys off. He wanted to be a bull rider or clown when he grew up. Taz was a daredevil and would try anything physical. He excelled in any sport he took on and once when he was about 7 or 8 he did a season of wrestling and he came up against a wrestler his age who had been wrestling about 4 years and Taz beat him quickly. This made the boy cry and then later on in the tournament, the boy drew Taz as his opponent and when he saw Taz he started crying even before the match started. Taz loves any sport and wants to try them all. Taz was pretty accident prone and usually always had a scratch or bruise. He has splashed boiling hot soup on his forehead, cut the top of the inside of his mouth with a recorder and fell on the sharp edge of an abacus and has the scar to prove it. Taz had a wonderful childhood and he will be greatly missed. BUT, we look forward to what his teenage years will bring. Is there anyone now that would like to share a memory of Taz and his childhood?

R.I.P. March 17, 1996-September 13, 2011

2011-09-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

When we got back from our summer in Oregon, we noticed how skinny and frail looking Mowgli had become. Garry said he was super skinny when he got back. He figured his teeth were getting bad and so he switched him from regular cat food to the kind in a can. We were hoping that would help him gain some weight. Well, it didn't and he just went downhill from there. Pretty soon he would only eat the gravy out of the cans and not the actual wet food. Last Friday, he stopped eating all together and would just drink and lay around. As the weekend went along, it was increasingly hard for him to walk. The first available appointment to put him down was this morning. Talon stayed home from work all day yesterday to help with him because I started preschool. Talon would take him and put him in the litter box and then take him out because he didn't have enough energy to get in by himself. The only time he would wake up and meow was when he needed to use it. Last night he crawled under our bed and we thought he might not make it through the night. He did and at 8 am. this morning, Garry took him to the vet. He has been a wonderful cat and we all had a teary weekend as we knew it was our last with our beloved Mowgli.

He was:

funny
adorable
cuddly
always purring
a fraidy cat
gentle
well groomed
well mannered

He brought much joy into our lives, we would often laugh and talk to Mowgli. He was always there to greet us after we returned from a vacation. He slept curled at my feet for many years. He always wanted to be in a room where the majority of us were and he always greeted company and strangers by loving on them to death.

Oh how we will miss you, but we all know that you are in a better place!

A Golden Celebration

2011-09-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

In December this year, my parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. My brother had the idea that we should celebrate it this summer as it is easier for people to travel and get time off and the weather is better in August. So since my whole family was there, we decided to throw them a celebration. We reserved the church in La Grande, sent out invites and decorated with my sister Krissy's leftover reception decorations. Mom's colors were pink, white and red and Krissy's were red, white and black, so we made it work. We had a huge picture display that my two brother's and sister in law set up.

We had a table displaying their various awards and trophy's through out their careers.

We had a card table.

And a big food table. We decided to have a fruit and veggie tray and then made a bunch of different fun dips for them. We also had crackers and a homemade cheese ball and dip and three different homemade salsas and chips and some fun mostly homemade snack foods such as chex type mixes and sweet snacks. That was a lot of work, but fun trying the new recipes.

We had just ordered cakes from Costco. My mom's wedding cake was stacked rectangles with homemade sugar latices and pink flowers and we couldn't find anyone nearby to replicate the cake, so Costco was good enough.

We had a great time visiting with all the extended family that came. Here I am with my cousin Jennilynn from my mom's side and Taz of course.

My dad is the oldest of 8 boys (two died shortly after birth) and all of his brothers were there. So we got pictures. My dad is the one in the red suspenders. Then Dennis, Richard, Alan, Wayne and Reed.

Here they are with their wives. Mom, Peni, Martha Christy, Penny and Debbie.

My mom's the middle child of three girls and here she is with her sister Billie Jo. Her other sister Jackie passed away a few years ago. It was a fun evening and I'm glad they've set such a good example of a happy, complete marriage and the importance of family. Happy 50 years!!

Summer relationships

2011-09-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

To me, summer is all about bonding with loved ones. We cram a lot of bonding into our time together. We can't get enough of each other and try to do activities that bring a lot of us together.

The memories we make are worth all the effort.

The relationships built are worth all the effort.

The traveling and money spent are worth all the effort.

Because we are family. We will be together forever. We love each other and...

It is worth it!

Boating

2011-08-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

We love spending time on the boat at Wallowa Lake. There are so many grandkids old enough to do things now that we have to be patient and take turns. Our plan or attack is to have a liscensed boat driver take a small group for 2-3 hours and switch kids out. Sometimes we drop them off on a dock to swim around, sometimes we just let them play on the shore and sometimes we have designated switch times. This year, Garry and Randy were the designated boat drivers. An added bonus was that grandma bought two different sized water skiis and so the kids were able to try their hand at skiing instead of just tubing. Dock jumping,

Dock waiting,

Boat driving,

Talon was the first up on the skiis as he has skied before. So, he told all the younger boys the proper form and techniques on how to get up. He went in and out of the wake and skied one handed and tried slolam, but didn't have much luck.

They still loved tubing though, and the girls and the younger kids only tubed and didn't ski.

Lawson got up on his first attempt, Talon was a good teacher.

Taz found great success.

I promise Tanner and Trampis skied, but my camera was with my sister and I used my moms and forgot to get the pictures off it, but it did seem a little harder for those taller boys.

The weather was perfect and the boating was super fun this year.

Marley Creek

2011-08-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons we go to Marley Creek each year is to see our herd of elk. This year, they weren't extremely close and we had to use binoculars to get a good look, but we could hear them at times and watched them for a good 15 minutes. Another reason we go is because its just so dang fun. We are up in the mountains, surrounded by beautiful nature and we can do all the fun things we never get to do in the city. Plus, being together without technological interruptions is an added bonus.

We took a picnic of hotdogs to roast over the fire, baked beans, salad and some soda and smores.

We did the usual fun activities like lots of 4-wheeling,

Shooting clay pigeons,

Crawdad catching,

Hotdog roasting,

Crawdad cooking,

And crawdad eating.

Marely Creek is most definatly a high light of our summer.

Ode to summer

2011-08-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

These next several posts will be an attempt to catch up on my blog. We had a great summer and packed a lot into our 3+ weeks away from Vegas. So, here goes: The day after girls camp, Cynjyn and I drove Tanner, Taz and 5 other boys up to BYU for a week at volleyball camp. I had to unpack from camp, do laundry and pack again in less than 24 hours. We got to Provo Sunday night and C and I stayed in a motel after getting the boys checked in. Then on Monday, we made our way to Kaysville where we were planning on staying with Heather and her family for the week. We made a stop at Temple Square and toured the conference center on our way.

We had a great time at Heathers house that week. Cynjyn and Megan reconnected after about 30 minutes and then had a fun week thanks to Heather.

They entertained us at Cherry Hill water park and they made slime which they played with for days.

They even tried their kazooing skills.

It was a great way to spend the week, the boys had fun at vball camp and we got to catch up with good friends! Thanks Heather, Mike, Danika and Megan! (I didn't forget Brook, she was at EFY and we didn't see her).

Girls Camp

2011-07-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

This year we had ward camp and we decided to take the girls to the beach. We rented 4 camp grounds at Sycamore Canyon State Park and it was a hop, skip and jump to the beach called Point Mugu. Garry went as priesthood and he and I went up on Monday with Don and Karen Sawyer and took the 4th years and YCL's for the 4th year hike. Everyone else camp on Tuesday. It was an amazing Girls Camp this year. So much better than last year. I have found out that I prefer the ward camp to the stake camp. Much smaller, your own girls and your own agenda. It was very relaxing and beautiful. We had the best camp site. We had a blanket of trees covering us and didn't have to put up a single easy up for shade. Toni and I are getting ready to head out for the hike with all the girls. We had a girl visiting from Gary Indiana and she had never been out of the "hood" and had never even seen a mountain until she got here. She only made it a little way up the hike (It was straight up hill for about 2 miles), so Garry, Leslee and I ended up taking her back to camp and didn't go on the hike. It was the same hike plus a little more that we had gone on Monday with the 4th years, so we were more than happy to go back to camp and take a little nap by Wednesday.

We spent two days on the beach. It was beautiful, we had sea otters watching us and dolphins swimming really close by on both days.

We made a day trip into Ventura and rented bikes for two hours on the pier. It was so fun letting everyone ride around and see the beautiful ocen and surfers and what not.

This was the view from on top at our hike. We took the scenic trail and once we got on top, we could see so much of the ocean. This is Monday with just the 4th years and YCL's.

Our site had these beautiful, big gnarly trees all around us. The girls loved climbing them, but they were hard to get up, so the priesthood came to the rescue and made them a ladder and a little rope swing to enjoy for the week.

I taught one of the crafts which was macrame bracelets, anklets or necklaces. The girls enjoyed it, and most of them made anklets and wore them the rest of the week.

We ate amazingly well. We came up with a different dessert every night. We had s'mores twice and one night banana boats, then dutchoven cobblers (spice cake with apple filling, cherry and peach), and one night we had pineapple upside down cake and monkey bread. The MB was a big hit even though the top got a little burned.

The priesthood helped out so much. They were in charge of DO dinner night and they helped with other nights too. They were the best!

Our day in Ventura was so fun. Toni, Garry and I rode the surrey around and stopped at a rock garden. There were also two dead seals on the beach that were really stinking up the place. That smell of death was a first for some of the girls.

After the surrey, Garry and I rode this two person bike all around. It was a beautiful day!

Here we are getting ready to go on the surrey.

We ordered pizzas and brought them down on the beach. We played some volleyball and just sat around and enjoyed the afternoon.

Our theme was Seeking treaures in heaven, so we went with a pirate theme and came up with names for each group and then I photoshoped some signs and Karen and MaryAnne made some stakes, so we had everything labled for camp. This was our tent (8 leaders sleeping there) and we were the wenches.

The food tent.

Thursday night was skit night. We did skits in a bag. The leaders and priesthood did skits too. This was the priesthoods.

The game of camp this year was village idiot. Almost everyone played it. If you were lucky enough to be the village idiot, you had to go out into the street and yell as loud as you could "I am the village idiot" and then sing brown squirrel as loud as you could. They also made a sign for you to wear that said "I amd the village idiot" and you had to keep that on till the next time they played. So for our skit, we became "The Village Idiots" instead of the village people and we were each assigned as a different idiot and then we made up a song to YMCA. We thought t was hilarious! I don't think the girls appreciated it as much as we did. I was the "super Immodest swimsuit idiot" and had a shall scantily placed around me.

We even put some dance moves to our song.

Our last night we had a treause hunt for the girls. I made bottles and a letter head for the mother's to write their letters on. Garry and I wrote out a treasure hunt that afternoon and then we burried the bottles in the sand for the girls to find. We did it close to sunset and so they found their bottles and read their letters from home on a quiet spot overlooking the ocean and then we watched the sunset. It was a perfect way to get in the mood for testimony meeting.

It was truly an amazing week.

We put so much time and effort into making it a great week.

I know I was changed for the better because of it, and I hope the girls were too.

They grow up so fast!

2011-07-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

This past week Cynjyn was invited to go to California with her friend Alexa. Alexa's grandparents were taking her and her little brother there for a little vacation. Her older brother couldn't go at the last minuet, so they invited C so A would have someone to hang around with. Cynjyn thought it over for oh about...2 seconds and then promptly said YES!! She told me she thought she'd only get a little homesick at night because she'd be having too much fun the rest of the time. They left Tuesday morning at 8am and that night their big adventure was an Angel's baseball game. Cynjyn got a free goodie bag and said she enjoyed her time there.

The next day, they spent the whole day at the beach. Debbie (A's grandma) had bought them boogie boards and they surfed the day away.

Taz watched Forest Gump on TV a few weeks ago and it is now his favorite movie. It just so happened that that night they ate at Bubba Gumps!! Cynjyn was excited to show this picture to Taz.

They went into Hollywood that night and went to the Chinese theater and the star walk of fame.

This is the prints of the HP #7 movie stars.

Apparently there were fountains there?

They then spent a day at Soak City a big water park affiliated with Knott's Berry Farm.

And then to the beach for a little sunset watching.

and chocolate covered bananas.

They wore their new "hollywood" t-shirts to the lego store one night. C got a HP lego wand that you could make yourself there in the store.

They went to Downtown Disney and she bought a panda build-a-bear with an Eeyore costume. Her favorite souvenier from her trip.

She called us every night to tell us about her day and didn't sound too homesick. She said she was only sad the first night and then true to her prediction, too tired at night to be homesick after that. We were glad she had fun, we missed her, and were grateful she made it home safe.

Let Freedom Ring

2011-07-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our little rain storm yesterday, the weather cooled down just in time for the 4th of July festivities. It was such a nice evening! Four of us headed down to Boulder City which is our favorite place to watch fireworks in town. Tanner and Talon were both at parties, so they didn't join us, but we had all played volleyball eariler in the day with friends. I made some fried chicken and coleslaw, rice krispy treats and white choc. macadamia nut cookies and brought some watermelon and stawberries. We got there at 6:00 and had three hours just to enjoy ourselves before the fireworks started.

We played Oh Heck and some Bocce Ball and a couple of games of Village Idiot. We watched the parasailors too.

When the sun went down it was heavenly! So cool (temp wise).

We had our favorite prime viewing area and Taz and Cynjyn laid on the blanket.

We enjoyed a solid 25 min. of fireworks. I brought the camera and played around with the settings. I'll only bore you with this one of many that I took.

I had seen some suggestions for camera settings to get some cool effects with sparklers, so I tried that when we got home.

Talon got home just as we did and Tanner's party was done at 11, so we waited for him and he brought 4 friends to watch our little show.

$80.00 worth of fireworks come and gone in a matter of minutes...but fun memories that will last a life time.

Happy Fourth everyone!

The old man ain't snoring!

2011-07-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we had our first summer storm of the season and it was a dusey!! We were right in the middle of FHE when we heard the thunder a coming. Then all of a sudden, a huge lightening, followed by thunder and then the sudden downpour started off our evening. So cool, scary and fun. Everytime there is lightening close by it sets off our smoke alarms. We thought the lightening was so close that it actually hit our pool at one point!

Course, my two boys that are ALWAYS in their underwear, were the ones to run out and play in the rain!

It really was soooo cool.

Everything was flooding!

Some of it even coming into the house by our slider.

The temperature went from 105-81 in a matter of minutes.

It actually lasted about a half an hour. It was way fun!

Homemade and Haircuts

2011-07-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

Cynjyn started talking a lot about her hair. How much it was bugging her, how she hated combing it everyday and she couldn't stand the little rat nests it produced. So I finally asked her if she wanted to cut it. She said YES, RIGHT NOW!

So I took her in and she got it cut to the length of her bangs. She was tired of the two lengths and wanted it all the same.

Just a cute little bob with no layers or anything until it grows out a little, then maybe she'll get a style to it. I think she's going to LOVE it for summer. It's already easier to comb after she swims!

I volunteered last week at the produce coop that I do and I got so much extra "stuff". It was fun. I brought Taz with me to get some service hours in for scouts and we came home and had to clean out the refidgerator in order to get all the produce in.

I ended up getting 10 tubs of blackberries and so I made a batch of freezer jam. I painstakingly ran them through cheesecloth to get out a lot of the seeds and came away with 6 jars of jam for my efforts.

Then I promptly made this for me, Talon and Tanner and just like that, 1 jar is almost gone!

So yummy and so worth an hour of my time!

If you can't find what you're looking for, do it yourself!

2011-06-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

I spent a good amount of time looking on the internet for some pirate looking paper and couldn't find what I wanted, so I made my own. This is what we are going to have the mother's write the letter to their daughters on for camp. I thought it turned out pretty cute. I made EVERYTHING including the shape, color and shading on the paper! I was pretty proud of myself and it came out exactly how I wanted it to.

Prayers are answered

2011-06-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

I lost them. I borrowed Garry's church keys to take one of my piano students to the church on Wednesday. She was playing in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and I wanted her to practice on the church piano. She did great by the way. Then we went on with our week.

On Thursday we went to Buffalo Bills out in Primm. They were offering free ride passes to local NV. residents. We took Bethany and Hansen so Taz and Cynjyn would have a riding partner.
We stayed from 12:30-6:00 and even though they only have 5 rides, we had fun!

On Friday, I took the kids (Bethany, Becca and Cynjyn and I ) to Mr. Poppers Penguins and (Taz and Hansen) to Thor. Then we came back here and the girls played Wii and Twister and swam.

At 5, Taz's other friends, Michael, Sierra and Sophia came over. We fed all 8 of them burgers and hot dogs, chips and fruit and then Taz and his friends watched a movie and danced on the Wii till 9 when everyone went home.

Saturday, we spent the day getting Taz ready for scout camp. He had to have his pack ready to go by 6:00pm and loaded. They were going to take off Sunday right after church. So, Garry and Taz went to the church and got all loaded. Afterwards, Garry wanted his keys back to the church, I went to get them and they weren't on my key chain. Somehow, somewhere between Wednesday and Saturday night I had lost them. We spent the next two hours tearing the house apart looking for them. I knew they had to have fallen off my key chain and so I figured looking around the house was futile, but it got a good cleaning while we all looked. I prayed numerous times to Heavenly Father asking him to help me remember where they were or to bring to my memory where they were if it was in me. I went to bed feeling ill about loosing them. Sunday morning I had a dream right before I woke up. This was the dream: I was at church for the day. We had just finished our meetings and I had left my new shoes (I had bought new church shoes earlier in the week) in the YW room, so I went there after the meetings and the keys were inside my new shoes. My eyes popped open at 6:30 am and I thought to myself, the keys have to be at the church! I either didn't put them on my key ring, or they fell off the caribeener I keep them on. Garry was already gone to bishopric meetings, I went early with Maggie so she could practice. I looked where I had put them in the chapel and my heart sank, they were not there! After Sacrament meeting Garry came over and said they had found his keys when they were cleaning the chapel Saturday morning!! My prayer was answered! That is the first time I have had something like that happen to me and I was so grateful I immediatly said another prayer thanking Him for helping me!! After church, we said goodbye to Taz. He will be gone until next Saturday at Fiesta Island in San Diego to scout camp. This is a big step for him, his first one and gone all week from family. I never worried about Talon and Tanner at scout camps because Garry was always Scout leader and with them on ALL their camps. But he won't be going until Wednesday this week and Taz will be alone. I hope my second prayer is answered and he has a wonderful time and isn't too homesick.

Summer fun

2011-06-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Cynjyn took a three day art camp at Linda's house this last week. It was 2 hours a day and this is what she did. She saved her painting and gave it to dad for Father's day. He also got a new game: Lost Cities, (Tanner) some steak knives(Taz) and a $25.00 gift card to Olive Garden (Talon).

Cynjyn had friends over to swim on Monday and they took a break and did a little fashion show for us.

MaryAnn was here with her 4 year old girl swimming and said to her: "You dress up and play Princess when you're little, but when you get bigger, you dress up and play like this!" They had fun strutting around the pool all decked out and posing.

The hearts of the Fathers

2011-06-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

A little over a month ago, our ward Family History Rep met with the youth in the quorum presidencies and their parents in our homes to encourage the youth to get their own personal temple recommends and then go to the temple with their family to do baptisms for the dead. They are good for one year and he met with Taz, Garry and I. Taz was excited and immediately that next Sunday got his recommend. We encouraged Tanner to get his too and he did. Now they have a standard to live up to each year just beyond their conviction to be good, now they are temple recommend holders.

So, last Saturday, the Laurels were doing a class temple trip and asked Garry and Tanner to come a long since they hometeach one of the Laurels. Taz and I also came and we were able to baptize about 30 names my mom had given us plus Garry's mom and dad and sister. Taz was baptized for his grandpa and Tanner was confirmed for him. We had a laurel in our ward (Jessi Thomson) baptize his sister and mom and I was confirmed for them. It was an exhilarating experience. After the session, we ate with the Laurels in the cafeteria.

Taz now wants to go to St. George and do baptisms there and also in Boise sometime this summer. It's very satisfying to see your children so excited about temple work.

Our cultural week

2011-06-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

The last day of school was June 9. We had tickets that night to see Little Mermaid at Tuachan in St. George on June 3 and then we were going to see Grease on June 9. We left late after Talon and Tiffany got off work, so we just made homemade sub sandwiches and ate a picnic up there while waiting for the gates to open. It was a breezy, cool wonderful evening.

After the show, we were going to drive home instead of spending the night so we stopped to get pictures with the cast. Taz's favorite was Ariel.

Garry and I loved Flotsam and Jetsom so they got their pictures with them too. Ursala was so cool, but wasn't out at the end for pictures.

We got home at 1:30 and Cynjyn had to be up and out the door by 8 am for roll call for the play Suesical that she was in. She was a bird girl and was in most of the scenes. She did great as did the whole cast. There were 6 girls from our ward in it so that made it super fun too.

Cynjyn had a couple of costume changes as she was a who and a fish and a jungle girl too.

They perfomed it at 11 and again at 1. It was really cute.
We got to St. George early for Grease, so we went to the Visitors Center at the temple and then ate at the Pizza Factory before the show.

We didn't bother getting pictures with the cast since it was the same cast, but we snapped one of the stage.

On Saturday, Cynjyn had an end of school pool party. I had Lindsey make a cake for it. I told her I wanted our pool and some girls playing around it. She did an ADORABLE job and I thought it turned out perfect. Better than I imagined. It was a yellow cake with bavarian cream filling and chocolate frosting. The girls loved it and were begging for body parts to eat!

Four more girls ended up showing up after this picture was taken. The party was from 11-2.

We had the girls bring snacks and fruit and we BBQed hamburgers and hotdogs and had some soda.

Taz was the lone boy and after ignoring them for a long time, he finally got in on the fun and food.

That night was our ward Luah. Tanner danced a ballroom number with two other couples and Tanner, Taz and Garry danced the Haka with the Young Men. Garry was pulled on stage with the bishopric to do a ball swinging thing impromptu and I danced a hula with the Young Women. I only got pictures of us at the end because I was video taping everything else.

Cynjyn brough Alexa and Rebecca to it. It was from 5-8 and it was really fun.

After the Luah, Talon, Tanner and Taz went to the school to play Capture the Flag with all the Young men. While there, Talon triped and fell and ended up at the ER on Sunday. He has a fractured wrist and has to wear this for 10 days.

I have really loved all the plays and fun things we've been to in the past two weeks.

Memories of May

2011-05-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

So much happened in May and our computer wasn't working through some of it, so I had to back track and play catch up for a whole month and a very long 31 day month at that. So, here I go: Memories of May

Mom, Dad, Ky, Kres and Beckham came up for a week to watch Tanner's last week of volleyball. They were able to go to two games and my end of year piano recital. It was a fun and busy week filled with volleyball, field trips to Ethel M's cactus garden, swimming and way to late nights playing games. We were all exhausted when they left, but the time together was so worth it. They arrived late Sunday night and Garry read them a bedtime story before bed. Piano recital time.

Volleyball games.

Wii just dance fun.

Lot's of little lizards to see at the cactus garden.

Too fast to catch though. (And a little to scared of them to really try hard!)

Game playing...Beckham was great with the Taboo buzzer!

Bonding time aplenty.

Swimming and sunburns to go around.

Movie watching.

Playing at the park.

After they left, we even had time to make a teacher appreciation gift for TA week.

Tanner's volleyball team had an end of year tournament where they took third place.

Cynjyn had an end of year choir performance.

We went to a production of Wizrard of Oz at the Henderson Pavillion for $10.00/person. It was really good.

Friends came over to swim when the weather was hot.

Taz got two awards at the end of school assembly.

He got academic excellence awards for science and math.

Tanner's ballroom dance grouped performed at Silverado's end of year dance recital.

That night, his car got a flat tire and he changed it all by himself, in the dark, in 30 minutes.
It happened to be the same night as our Father's and Son's outing, so only Garry and Taz went this year. Cynjyn and I hung out with Toni and Maggie Thatcher, we went to BJ's for dinner then came back to our house to make washer necklaces and bead bracelets. We also watched two episodes of Season 1 Psych. A fun night, but no pictures:(

Tanner had two big projects to do for AP History. He had to make a model of a labor assembly line, or something like that. He had fun chopping apart little plastic army men to make them look like assembly workers.

And he had to make a model of an old fashioned phone. Well, let's just say Garry made it, but we put Tanner's phone in it and it actually worked. You could talk through and hear from it.

Taz had a court of honor and got 7 merit badges.

The local weather man came to Cynjyn's class and took pictures and showed them on the local news the next morning. Here is a picture of the TV. Can you find her? She's in black.

Taz had an end of year band concert.

Tanner has officially bonded with the volleyball team and they are here at the house most weekends playing video games, football, and eating our food! Here they are leaving to go see Pirates 4.

Cynjyn, Tanner, Garry and I went to Old Navy Saturday for their Memorial Day sale and all got lots of stuff. Everything was on clearance and so Cynjyn and I wore our stuff to church yesterday. I got my two shirts for $2.50 each and Cynjyn's dress was $9.00.

All in all, we spent $130.00 and got about 20-25 items of clothing! Score for us. Taz was home asleep because he had been at the end of school leadership lockin and was up all night. He ended up coming home at 7 am and sleeping till 4:00pm. We looked for clothes for him, but found nothing in his size on sale.
And finally, I tried a co-op for produce where you pay $15.00 and pick up your stuff every Saturday morning. It was the first time I tried it with three other ladies in our ward and I got all this. I paid an extra $10.00 for 5 loaves of 9-grain bread which is absolutly YUMMY! I also paid $5.00 extra to go in a box of oranges with two other ladies. I was happy with what I got. I will probably do it again.

A wonderful Mother's Day

2011-05-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

Once there was a very lucky mother, she had a wonderful husband who surprised her with a wonderful Mother's day gift that she had been wanting for a long time.

He was so wonderful that he promptly hung up her wonderful mother's day gift.

She loved how wonderful it looked on her wall.

This lucky mother has four wonderful children. She loves each of them dearly. Each one iss unique and wonderful in their own way. Her first child she loved dearly. He has had OCD since he was born, so...

she often wonders why his shoes outside his room are scattered, but that's just him!

She also wonders how his laundry can pile up so high it's a miracle he's not running around naked!

She loves him inspite of his crazy allergies. He always looks miserable this time of year and it shows!

Oh she realizes, this is why he's not running around naked...he has soooo much clothes it overflows his room!!!

She loves how he keeps his high school accomplishments as decorations around his room. He is such a good kid and she LOVES him so much. He is fun to talk to, he is competitive and loves to win. He wears his emotions on his sleeve for all to see. He is strong and caring.

Her second child is quite different from her oldest. He is quiet and helpful and mysterious.

He has LOVED racoons since he was little. He has amassed quite a collection of stuffed racoons.

He even collects little toy racoons. Just a few weeks ago, he stole one from his two year old cousin! (He also likes owls and turtles.)

He melts his mother's heart because he is her only child that likes to read for enjoyment. She loves talking books with him and suggesting new ones for him to read. He is proud of his accomplishments like earning his eagle. His room is full of displays of who he is. He doesn't say much, but they laugh a lot together and he sees what needs to be done to help her and does it.

Her third child, what a kid. He really loves her and is very affectionate. She loves his daily hugs and kisses good bye on his way to school and at night before bed. He is not afraid to show his affections in public. He is mischivious and moody. But she loves him so!

He clings to his childhood loves: his blankie, his dog and his scooby doo pillow that is so falling apart, he keeps it in a spiderman pillow case.

He still likes to play with pirates and knights and legos and fun boy stuff. He sets up elaborate scenes and plays all day.

He loves sports and is good at anything he tries. He is a natural and she can't wait to see how far that takes him. Her life would be so boring without him in it. He is a hard worker and very disciplined in his daily routines. What a great son he is.

Then there is her baby. The only girl. And such a girly girl she is. Loves feminine things like make up and clothes. She is so compassionate, kind and loving. She will be a great mom someday. She is inventive and curious.
Her room is a reflection of her girliness: Her make up vanity and a shelf full of makeup holders.

Her collection of snow globes on display.

Her collection of dolls.

And her beloved tea sets. She has loved them since she was a toddler.

Oh, she is a lucky lady and counts her blessings daily. This was truly a wonderful mother's day for her as she reflected on her five glorious blessings she is most proud of and grateful for.

Oh Let's Go...Fly a Kite

2011-05-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

We got back from Boise the evening before Easter. So, we didn't color eggs or anything. But Taz and Cynjyn got kites for Easter. They were so excited. Garry and I took them up to the park to give it a try. Cynjyn's flew really good, Taz had some trouble with his, but at one point we got a picture with them both soaring high.

We had plenty of plastick eggs, so we did our annual egg hunt for FHE. The weather was perfect and the hiding gets harder and trickier every year.

Me Garry and Cynjyn hide and Tanner Taz and Talon find, then we switch off.

This year the pool was a favorite place to "hide" a few eggs.

Happy Easter!

Catch up time: Spring Break 2011

2011-05-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

Tanner, Taz, Cynjyn and I packed up and headed to Boise for Spring Vacation. We hadn't gone anywhere for spring break since our Branding experience several years ago. So it was nice to get away. We went to Shoshone Idaho the first day and spent the night at my brothers house. Taz had a scout camp fundraiser in Caliente NV, so we had to pick him up from that at 2:00 pm on our way. We had a nice visit with them even though it was pretty late when we got there. Jodi fixed us a delicious breakfast the next morning, and then we were off to Boise. (About 2 hours away). We got there Sunday afternoon and my sister Krissy hosted a family BBQ that evening that all of my siblings and their families were at. We were all enjoying Krissy's new house on 4 acres with plenty of room to explore and roam!

Randy was the official mushroom and onion sauteer1

Taz was in heaven because he was able to ride the 4 wheeler until their neighbor got mad at the kids because he was sleeping as he works nights and wanted them to be quiet from 4-10pm! Bummer!

The girls helped Krissy cook.

Tanner was putting his boy scout skills to use and attempting to make and keep a fire going.

One of the days there, we went on a preschool field trip with Kres to a children's discovery museum. The kids loved laying on a bed of nails!

And discovering!

My personal favorite was the giant bubble maker.

After the museum, we went to the zoo. It was a cold, rainy day. We'd brought a lunch to eat in between and during our lunch, we had some visitors...geese, they were pretty aggresive.

We loved the zoo, the animals were awake, alert and doing fun things. I scrapbooked a few pages of our time there.

Taz loved Krissy's house, especially her giant bathtub.

He loved her giant shower too, but it was hard to get a good picture of it's giantness. He tried and tried to get and keep a fire going.

On Friday, Ky threw Beckham his second birthday party. It was a baseball theme. We helped her carry her vision through. Here the kids are packing peanuts for the concession stand.

Here's some random shots of the kids and decorations. The dessert table.

Tanner and Beckham

The cute divider wall decorated.
The great helpers.

Some of the partygoers.
The assistant the party planner and the cook.

The "goodie bag" concession stand where they could buy goodies with the tickets they earned.

The after party cleanup crew.

We had such a fun time. The week went by way to fast and the weather was cold, but the company and memories were worth it all.

Fun times

2011-04-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week or so since I last blogged. Let's play catchup! Here is Cynjyn's cover to her book in a bag. She did Matilda. Here we are as Matilda's family and Matilda could control objects with her mind, so we put some of those objects around us and gave it a 3-d effect by accordianing the sides. You can't tell very well from the picture, but it turned out cute and looked 3-d. Tanner's final dressup day. These are the t-shirts they all wore that they had tye dyed. There are missing Preston and Rachel from the picture.

On Friday, we drained our pool. It has been 7 years now that we've had it. It was starting to get a lot of algae from hard water build up. So we drained it. Taz and Cynjyn had so much fun with it. We came home from errands and Taz had brought all of his toys out and made little scenes in the quickly emptying pool.

Garry dutifully spent the rest of the day cleaning off the hard water build up. Alexa came over and they played and played in the empty pool.

Sunday, it was all clean and we started filling it back up.

Last night, we had a camp kick-off dinner at mutual. It is ward camp this year and we are going to the beach in Malibu. Our theme is seeking for treasure. So Linda wanted to do a pirate crazy mix-up dinner that I have done many times. So I was in charge. We set up 5 tables and were expecting 40 girls and parents. I found some cute cheap decorations at the party store. All Pirates of the Caribean stuff was only $.99 so I got 5 of these ships for the tables. I got some treasure chests, coins, compasses and eye patches.

The menu consisted of 3 courses, 4 items each course. They choose their food from this menu. This was the dinner: Spaghetti, ceasar salad, garlic bread, cookies, Hershey nuggets, a fruit skewer, veggies and dip, fork, knife, spoon, drink, homemade ice cream. If they picked lucky, they might get a fork when they got their spaghetti, but then again, they might not. Let's just say it IS possible to eat spaghetti with your fingers!!

We dressed up as pirates ( or wenches) for the occasion

Toni, Megan, Karen, me, Linda, Barbara, MaryAnne. It was a really fun night and I had so much help from the other women with making the food and serving. We had just about the right amount of food and everyone got full.

The spirit lives on!

2011-04-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

It is Nevada reading week for Cynjyn. She has to do her book in a bag tomorrow. So she decided to do Matilda. Here we are reinacting a scene for her book cover. She's buried in books and reading, her brother is playing a video game and her mom and dad are engrossed in the TV while eating TV dinners.

Here is crazy sock day. Tanner had T-Birds vs. Pink Ladies 50's day. The whole theme is battle of the sexes which is why there is a famous couple for everyday of dress up.

Krissy, what do you think of his Fonzie impression?

Cute huh?! Today is wear a sports jersey day for Cynjyn. She used her dad's Max Hall jersy and turned it into a cute little dress with some leggings.

I'm taking a photograpy class, so I've been using my new learned skills to take some of these pictures, that is why there is so many. I'm enjoying my class and learning a lot about my new camera.

One more final day of spirit week...stay tuned.

Spirit week

2011-04-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

Tanner and Cynjyn are in the swing of Spirit week at their schools. Cynjyn is celebrating Nevada Reading Week. One day they had to wear all red to represent the books they've "red". This time, Tanner planned a little ahead and last Saturday after conference, they got together and tye dyed shirts for this Friday's blue and pink day. The whole week is basically battle of the sexes week.

Monday was Barbie and Ken "career" day. Tanner and Rachel decided to be secret agents. Since the school won't let them bring "weapons" to school, Tanner painted his fingers to look like a gun. Goon, Tanner Goon!

Cynjyn had a wear your favorite hat day to school. We've got a lot of use out of our Mad Hatter hat!

Tuesday was Bonnie and Clyde "black and white" day. We found this hat at Good will and bought him some white shoes.

Last night, Taz and I went to a bon fire for mutual out in Boulder City. It was a huge fire and the kids made smores.

Today is Woody and Jesse "Western Day". We went to two different Goodwills looking for cowboy boots, but no luck. So Tanner improvised.

We have a few more days left, I bet you can't wait!!

Are blogs reality?

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

This article was going around Facebook a month or so ago. I read it then and it piqued my interest. I must admit that I look at some others blogs and think, wow, their life seems ideal and perfect...does anything bad ever happen? I heard on the news the other day that they are beginning to diagnose a new "depression" among teens. It is called Facebook depression. There are kids that obsess over not having as many "friends" as someone else on FB and not having as cool of a status update and reading others comments how their lives seem happy and perfect all the time. I don't know if it's true, but I can see how some kids could become depressed and disillusioned with their own "real" lives. I do think we tend to blog more about the good and happy times on our blogs, and I really admire those who can equally blog about sadness, loneliness, heartache, trials, good times and bad. It makes my life seem more real. I have a hard time putting my own feelings onto my blog. I think I need to do more of that. Anyway, I just thought I'd share this article. I agree totally with the last paragraph of the article where she talks about family life being wonderful and to celebrate the little things! So, here is what she has to say about "mormon mommy blogs". It is quite long, but interesting.

Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs I'm a young, feminist atheist who can't bake a cupcake. Why am I addicted to the shiny, happy lives of these women?

At first glance, Naomi and Stacie and Stephanie and Liz appear to be members of the species known as the "Hipster Mommy Blogger," though perhaps a bit more cheerful and wholesome than most. They have bangs like and closets full of cool vintage dresses. Their houses look like catalogs. Their kids look like Baby Gap models. Their husbands look like young graphic designers, all cute lumberjack shirts and square-framed glasses. They spend their days doing fun craft projects (vintage-y owl throw pillow! Recycled button earrings! Hand-stamped linen napkins!). They spend their weekends throwing big, whimsical dinner parties for their friends, all of whom have equally adorable kids and husbands.

But as you page through their blog archives, you notice certain "tells." They're super-young (like, four-kids-at-29 young). They mention relatives in Utah. They drink a suspicious amount of hot chocolate. Finally, you see it: a subtly placed widget with a picture of a temple, or a hyperlink on the word "faith" or "belief." You click the link and up pops the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Yep, Naomi and Stacie and Stephanie and Liz are Mormons. They're members of a large, close-knit network of Mormon lifestyle -- young stay-at-home-moms who blog about home and hearth, Latter-day Saint-style. From RockstarDiaries (Naomi) to Underaged and Engaged (Stacie) to NieNie Dialogues (Stephanie) to Say Yes to Hoboken (Liz), Mormon lifestyle bloggers occupy their very own corner of the blogosphere.

Their lives are nothing like mine -- I'm your standard-issue late-20-something childless atheist feminist -- yet I'm completely obsessed with their blogs. On an average day, I'll skim through a half-dozen Mormon blogs, looking at Polaroids of dogs in raincoats or kids in bow ties, reading gratitude lists, admiring sewing projects.

I'm not alone, either. Two of my closest friends -- both chronically overworked PhD. candidates -- procrastinate for hours poring over Nat the Fat Rat or C. Jane Enjoy It. A recent discussion of Mormonism on the blog Jezebel unleashed a waterfall of confessions in the comments section from other young non-religious women similarly riveted by the shiny, happy domestic lives of their Latter-day Saint sisters.

"They have lovely homes, picture-perfect kids, loving, super-attentive husbands, and things seem very normal and calm," writes a commenter named BrookeD, who admits to reading five Mormon blogs daily.

"I thought I was the only one!!" responds another commenter. "THANK YOU," adds a third. "I'm another closet non-Mormon reader of Mormon mommy blogs."

So why, exactly, are these blogs so fascinating to women like us -- secular, childless women who may have never so much as baked a cupcake, let alone reupholstered our own ottomans with thrifted fabric and vintage grosgrain ribbon? It's not as though we're sniffing around the dark side of the faith, à la "Big Love." And it's not about religion. As someone married to a former Saint (my husband left the church as a teenager), I certainly have no illusions about what life as a Mormon would be like, and I'm sure it's not for me, which makes my obsession with these blogs all the more startling.

Well, to use a word that makes me cringe, these blogs are weirdly "uplifting." To read Mormon lifestyle blogs is to peer into a strange and fascinating world where the most fraught issues of modern living -- marriage and child rearing -- appear completely unproblematic. This seems practically subversive to someone like me, weaned on an endless media parade of fretful stories about "work-life balance" and soaring divorce rates and the perils of marrying too young/too old/too whatever. And don't even get me started on the Mommy Blogs, which make parenthood seem like a vale of judgment and anxiety, full of words like "guilt" and "chaos" and "BPA-Free" and "episiotomy". Read enough of these, and you'll be ready to remove your own ovaries with a butter knife.

"It seems that a lot of popular culture wants to portray marriage and motherhood as demeaning, restrictive or simple, but in the church, motherhood is a very important job, and it's treated with a lot of respect," says Natalie Holbrook, the New York-based author of the popular blog Nat the Fat Rat. "Most of my readers are nonLDS women in their late 20s and early 30s, college educated, many earning secondary degrees on the postgraduate level, and a comment I often get is, 'You are making me want kids, and I've never wanted kids!'"

Indeed, Mormon bloggers like Holbrook make marriage and motherhood seem, well, fun. Easy. Joyful. These women seem relaxed and untouched by cynicism. They throw elaborate astronaut-themed birthday parties for their kids and go on Sunday family drives to see the fall leaves change and get mani/pedis with their friends. They often have close, large extended families; moms and sisters are always dropping in to watch the kids or help out with cake decorating. Their lives seem adorable and old-fashioned and comforting.

"I've gotten e-mails from readers thanking me for putting a positive spin on marriage and family," Holbrook says. "It's important to acknowledge the hard parts -- and I think we all do -- but why not focus more on the lovely and the beautiful? That positive attitude is a very common theme throughout all aspects of the Mormon faith."

This focus on the positive is especially alluring when your own life seems anything but easy. As my friend G. says, of her fascination with Mormon lifestyle blogs, "I'm just jealous. I want to arrange flowers all day too!" She doesn't, really. She's just tired from long days spent in the lab, from a decade of living in a tiny apartment because she's too poor from student loans to buy a house, from constant negotiations about breadwinning status with her artist husband. It's not that she or I want to quit our jobs to bake brownies or sew kiddie Halloween costumes. It's just that for G., Mormon blogs are an escapist fantasy, a way to imagine a sweeter, simpler life.

There's been a lot of talk in recent years about "the New Domesticity" -- an increasing interest in old-fashioned, traditionally female tasks like sewing, crafts and jam making. Some pundits see this as a sign that young women yearn to return to some kind of 1950s Ozzie and Harriet existence, that feminism has "failed," that women are realizing they can't have it all, after all. That view is utterly nonsense, in my opinion, but I do think women of my generation are looking to the past in an effort to create fulfilling, happy domestic lives, since the modern world doesn't offer much of a road map. Our parents -- divorced, stressed-out baby boomers -- are hardly paragons of domestic bliss. Nor are the Gen X "Mommy War" soldiers, busy winging snowballs of judgment at each other from across the Internet. (Formula is poison! Baby wearing is child abuse!)

If those are the options, I'll take a pass, thanks. Enter the Mormon bloggers, with their picture-perfect catalog lives. It is possible to be happy, they seem to whisper. We love our homes. We love our husbands.

Of course, the larger question is, are these women's lives really as sweet and simple as they appear? Blogs have always been a way to mediate and prettify your own life; you'd be a fool to compare your real self to someone else's carefully arranged surface self. And Mormons are particularly famous for their "put on a happy face" attitude. The church teaches that the Gospel is the only authentic path to true happiness. So if you're a faithful follower, you better be happy, right?

The phenomenon of the happier-than-thou Mormon housewife blogger is so well-recognized it's even spawned a parody blog, Seriously So Blessed, whose fictional author brays things like "We have non-stop fun all the time and are LOVING married life!" and "Speaking of fall, I kind of sometimes want to start a non-profit to help moms who go all of fall without blogging pics of their kids in pumpkin patches, because it seriously breaks my heart!"

So why are Mormon women such prolific bloggers? "It probably has something to do with the fact that Mormons are the world's biggest journal-keepers," says my husband, offering a partial explanation. Church elders have long encouraged members to keep regular journals for the dual purposes of historical record-keeping and promoting spiritual insight, and as a result Mormons are champion journalers and scrapbookers. In the 2000s, church elders began officially promoting new media technologies like blogs as a way of spreading the gospel, and the Mormon blogging community soon became so large it earned itself a nickname: the Bloggernacle.

For many LDS women, blogging about the domestic arts is a natural fit. As ex-Mormon designer Emily Henderson explains on her blog, The Brass Petal, growing up in large families engenders an attitude of make-do thriftiness -- homemade bread, recycled soda can Christmas ornaments, Salvation Army fashion. With the rise of culture across secular America, all of a sudden those skills have become trendy, even bankable.

"Blogging is something they/we can do that feels productive, can potentially make money for our families and can be done from the home at any time," Henderson writes. For young Mormon women, who face immense cultural pressure to stay home with children rather than pursue a career, blogging about their adventures in homemaking becomes a sort of creative outlet, a way of contributing to the larger world beyond the home.

The bloggers I read may be as happy with their lot as they seem. Or not. While some Mormon women prosper under the cultural norms for wife- and motherdom, others chafe. Utah is, after all, the state with the highest rate of prescription antidepressant use, a statistic the president of the Utah Psychiatric Association attributes to the pressure among Mormon women to be ideal wives and mothers. The creator of Seriously So Blessed, an anonymous Mormon woman, addresses this pressure in an online archive of Mormon women interviews called the Mormon Women Project: "In any highly homogeneous culture we all feel pressure to be and look and think and act a certain way," she says. "You start to think you need to be absolutely perfect in every area."

Clearly, life for the Mormon wife is not all crafts and cupcakes. Even if it were, I seriously doubt that crafts and cupcakes are all that much fun when you do them all day, every day.

But the basic messages expressed in these blogs -- family is wonderful, life is meant to be enjoyed, celebrate the small things -- are still lovely. And if they help women like me envision a life in which marriage and motherhood could potentially be something other than a miserable, soul-destroying trap, I say, "Right on." I won't be inviting the missionaries inside for hot cocoa now or ever, but I don't plan on stopping my blog habit any time soon. by: Emily Matchar

So I will continue to blog, but try to put in more reality of life. Mostly though, I truly feel that I have a blessed life and a wonderful family that I want to celebrate and remember in a good uplifting way. Motherhood is a wonderful thing and marriages can be loving and unified. If my blog shows a glimpse of that, I am greatful and blessed. LIFE is good.

Wrapping up TheEvent

2011-04-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

I finished scrapbooking the last of TheEvent pictures, at least the ones of just Rachel and Tanner. So now I won't bother you again with more layouts!

Spring Cleaning

2011-04-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to reorganize my pantry for 2 months now. I finally felt I had the time to devote to it this morning. I was determined to finish it in 2 hours. I started at 9:15 and finished by 10:45!! Before:

After:

I really needed to do it as I had just gone to Smith's the day before and bought 9 cases of food at their semi-annual case sale. Miraculously, Garry found room for all of those cases. Now there's even more room...I'm going to Smith's!!

The Event 2011

2011-03-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

The pictures speak for themselves. I'll let Tanner tell you about it on his blog!

Our month in a "blog"shell...

2011-03-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

I have been slacking this month in blog posting. I have been waiting, then forgetting, for Tanner to download some pictures off his phone for the post. I finally remembered to have him do it. So here is our month in a nutshell:
Our Laurel advisor moved to Virginia this month, so Karen and MaryAnne had a going away luncheon for her. It was a surprise and so that was fun. We will miss Whitney. She grew up as a young girl/youth in the ward, went away to college, got married had two boys and came back. So that is always fun to watch someone grow and change.
From L to R: Andrea Shafer, Jen Hill, Angie Tanner, Holly Mitchell, me, Toni Thatcher, Anna Clark and her sister Molly who was in town visiting Anna.

L to R: Karen Sawyer, MaryAnne Thomas, Linda Borla, Barbara Zach, Tracy Bohl, and Whitney's brother's girlfriend (I don't remember her name).

Jay and Andrea had their annual (even though they took last year off) Mardi Gras party. We went to that.

It is always a fun night and there were lots of friends to visit with.
The food was so good. New Orleans food which I don't really know the names of, but I do remember Po'Boys. Jen made this festive cake for the occasion.

Taz cooked dinner three nights in one week to pass off a Duty to God project. He picked the meals and cooked them himself. The first night he made homemade Broccolli cheese soup (shown in pix below) and breadsticks. One night he made spaghetti and galic bread and one night Chicken Rolls. He did great and I loved having dinner ready on piano nights.

Cynjyn's activity days group had a Daddy Daughter night with a western theme. They had a great time! Garry and I watch Dexter. We love it. We are on season 4 and in the opening credits it always shows a blood orange. So we have wanted to try one for a long time. I went to Trader Joes the other day and they had blood oranges. So I bought a pack and we tried it. It doesn't taste much different than a regular one, but as least we can say we've tried one.

For FHE one Sunday, we rented Megamind Saturday and I bought everyone their favorite movie candy and some IBC root beer and we popped some popcorn and had a movie night! Cute show!

Found Taz on the treadmill the other day holding a huge bucket of cheese balls and eating them as he "worked out". Can you say oxymoron?

Cynjyn's school has had several dress up days and she LOVES them. Here she is on nerd day.

Groovy Day

Mismatch day

and St. Patrick's day.

She made the A/B honor roll and won first place in an onomonpia poem contest her class had. She took a test to see if she qualified for GATE (gifted and talented program) and got 98% and so now she gets pulled out for GATE weekly. She was so excited about that.

Tanner's been doing awesome in volleyball. Here are a few shots of him, one blocking and one hitting.

I don't know how Tiffany picks up stray dogs, but here is Talon with yet another one of her dogs she's agreed to babysit. It is Cujo, her brothers dog which she'll be watching for 6 months while he's deployed in Afghanistan. It's the first dog he hasn't been allergic to.

Garry has been much busier attending firesides and priesthood previews and various other church obligations. He even volunteered to bring refreshments to Priesthood Preview.

Tanner had a pretty lame spirit week this spring. It's never as good as fall, but one day was neon day and him, Preston, Amanda and Rachel made matching t-shirts.

They had their nicknames on the back in order: Strawberry Shortcake, Hot Stuff, Sizzling Bacon, and Muffins.

Tanner and Amanda ended up making them the night before.

And that's our month in a blog post! (I think).

Oh and it's March Madness, and Garry's officially done with watching it due to yesterday's outcome. But Taz really had Jimmer fever. He plays ball every spare minute now in the garage.

He made his shot...

...in his makeshift basketball hoop made from a laundry basket weighted down with weights and uses the swamp cooler as his backdrop. He also goes around the house singing "teach me how to Jimmer". If you haven't seen the video of it, look it up...on YouTube...it's good.

That's it, I promise, till next time!

Pain

2011-03-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

I cried the other night.
It was 11:45 pm and I stood in my closet, my shirt over my head, partially off, and I cried.
I couldn't move.
It hurt too much.
I had been out with friends and hadn't taken my pain pill and therefore, I couldn't move.
Pain, from the tips of my fingers to my shoulders. Daggers of pain shooting through my arms.
And I cried!

I have been dealing with this pain for sometime now. It started right after Taz was born. The bottom of my feet hurt so bad, I could barely walk. When I got pregnant with Cynjyn, the pain went away. I was in heaven. Then, she was born and it returned. I actually wanted to get pregnant again just so the pain would disappear for 9 months. But I dealt with it. I prayed and I became addicted to Ibuprophen and I endured. Finally, about three years ago, I went to a Dr. and was officially diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis. It is a different type of arthritis in that in moves from joint to joint, place to place within the body. For the past few years, it has been mostly in my arms, fingers, wrist, elbows and shoulders. It is painful. My treatment was to be put on methotrexate which in a chemotherapy drug that slows down the progression of cells (mainly the psoriasis). I take 8 pills once a week. I also have a pain pill I can take once every 12 hours. When I was first put on this, it worked well and cleared up my psoriasis pretty well. I only took the pain pill once a day, in the evening and life was o.k. Lately, however, the pain has increased, the psoriasis is getting worse and the joints are very swollen. I now take a pain pill in the morning and in the evening and it only takes some of the pain away. I am still in constant pain and some days are better than others. I went back to the Dr. for my 6 month checkup and he agreed that clearly what I have been doing is no longer effective. So now he wants me to start a new treatment plan. Humira. Yes, you've no doubt seen commercials for it on TV. I will have to give myself a shot every two weeks and I am hoping it is a miracle drug and that it will start to control the arthritis better and I will soon be pain free. Maybe I'm too opptomistic, but I am really hoping!! I am also hoping that I experience non of the side affects and that it will truly help me.
I want the pain gone.
I don't want to cry anymore!

Today...Will I?

2011-03-08T08:43:00.000-08:00

Will I put on these shoes and walk on the treadmill? YES I will because I am conscious of my One Little Word and I WILL IMPROVE! Actually, I've recommitted to exercising. I only watch one show daily, The View and so that is my time to walk on the treadmill and do some weights. It's been about a week and so far, so good! Will I sweep and mop the Dining Room/Living Room? YES I will. IMPROVE! Actually, I've been sticking to a pretty good cleaning schedule too. Monday's are my major cleaning day, I totally cleaned the kitchen (counters, appliances, swept and mopped, stove etc.) and I dusted the LR, but didn't manage to get to sweeping and mopping, so that WILL be done today!

Will I clean off this extra table? YES, I will. IMPROVE! I have been using Carol's cuttle bug and making lots of cards. This weekend, Cynjyn helped me and I just haven't put it all away yet. But, today is the day!

Will I eat too many of these delicious homemade bread sticks? NO! I will NOT! IMPROVE! Actually, Taz is passing off a Duty to God project this week and he's cooking three meals. Last night, he made homemade broccoli soup and these bread sticks. I had 4 for dinner!! I know, bad me! But today, I will be good and only eat one for lunch!

Will I read my scriptures? YES! I Will. IMPROVE! We have a challenge out to the YW to read the book of mormon everyday for the next six months and we should be done by September. I just did a three month challenge and finished it in three months in December, so yes, I will read my scriptures today!!

So, there you have it. My mental list of things to do for the day. I. WILL. IMPROVE! DO.

Why I haven't been blogging.

2011-03-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am LOVING my digital scrapbooking class. These first two layouts complete the freestyle part of our course. I have learned so much!!

These next two are the first two of three in the Shabby and Ornate category of the class.

Some of you have asked for info on where I take the class. It is at :www.jessicasprague.com I started with "Up and Running v.02", then I took "Now we're Rocking v.02", then "Digi: in Deep v.02" and finally "Digi:in Deeper v.02". If you know a lot about photoshop, I'd suggest NWR as the starting class. If y0u relly know a lot go ahead with DID. So fun! I'll post some other layouts I've done practicing my skills later!!

Our busy week

2011-02-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I mentioned that last weekend was the Stake Sweetheart ball? It was Saturday the 12th. Garry had a campout with the scouts the night before. Two of the scouts stayed at our house after the campout to play with Taz. It was Hansen Holland and his nonmember friend. They stayed until about 5:30 and the dance started at 7. Bishop came to pick up Hansen and his friend and asked Garry if the stake had talked to him yet. Garry said no, he hadn't even got a call from them. Bishop said they'd talk after he finished talking to them. We didn't think much about it. then about 6:00, we got a call from the stake executive secretary asking if Garry and I could meet with the stake president on Tuesday at 8:45pm. We said yes. THEN we started speculating. Garry and both thought he might be getting called into the Stake YM presidency. Our President has been in there at least three years and so we thought it was a good guess and Garry was fine with that as long as he was going to be a counselor, not the president. We went to the dance and worked in the kitchen for the first hour and 15 min. We were busy refilling dinner entrees and desserts as they ran out and we were having a good time. Finally, our shift was over and we went into the YW room where they had set up extra tables. Our friends the Thatchers, Sawyers and Shafers were in there and we all sat together and ate and visited. At one point Brian began speculating on who the new counselor in the bishopric was going to be. Our first counselor was moving to a different stake in our valley. It was at that point that I kicked Garry under the table and we just looked at each other. We finally left the dance around 10:3o and all the way home we were assuring ourselves that it was just a coincedence. We were sure that couldn't be what he wanted to talk to US about. Flash forward to Tuesday...It was New Beginnings at YW. We had a bee theme going on and Toni had prepared a very cute and fun slide show as she told us the history of YW. The dessert table turned out so cute.

Toni had Karen and MaryAnne make beehive cupcakes and she'd made little bees that she attached to wire to come out of the cupcakes. It was all just so cute!!
After New Beginnings, we met with President Davie. We walked in and he asked us if we knew why we were here. By that point we'd had enough time to think that maybe we weren't going to be in the stake YM pres. and maybe he WAS going to be called into the bishopric. We said we had our guess, but we'd wait to hear officially from him. Then he extended the call. It was surreal. Not in our wildest dreams had we even thought this before Saturday night. He said that Garry's name was the only one the bishop submitted and them minute Pres. Davie heard it he had no doubts that it was right. That was weird to us, but reassuring. We left completly in shock. Needless to say, we slept very little that night. We probably stayed up till 12:30 talking and were restless thoughtout the night and up by 6:00 amd still talking. President Davie had told us to be prepared to share our testimonies that Sunday, so I wrote mine out. My whole objective was not to cry uncontrollably. By doing that and memorizing my "testimony" I avoided a big crying session. I only shed a few controlled tears!! I was proud of myself. And I might add that was the only crying I did the whole day!! We chose to keep it a secret from the kids so they would be surprised Sunday morning. After he was sustained and took the stand, Cynjyn asked if he knew that was going to happen, I told her yes and she said good, because that would really be a surprise if he didn't know!! Taz leaned over and said there goes out paintball plans for scouts, darn it! It's over now and Garry is eager and excited to start his new calling! Thursday night we went to a YM recognition dinner for all the YM in the stake who had earned their Duty to God or Eagle in 2010. Tanner had done both, his eagle and his Teacher's DtoG. Olive Garden catered and it was yummy. We sat with our ward and two other YM who had accomplished this also (there was 4 total, but one wasn't there).

Then onto Friday. Tanner has asked Rachel Mainor to The Event. Rachel turned 16 in January. Here parents were going to throw her a surprise Masquerade Ball. Tanner was involved from the start. He handed out invitation's to our ward (the parents made and sent 240 invitations!) Everyone got a mask they had to decorate for the night. Tanner was in charge of decorating the lights and ceiling. He enlisted Bryant, Preston and Garry to help. They started Friday at 2:00, the dance was at 7:00.

It went pretty well until a few of the balloon arch balloons escaped. Then Tanner and Preston tried to get them down by climbing the ladder with the vacuum and sucking them down. They were able to get the silver one down.

They had the lights all strung and then Sarah (Rachels mom ) came with viscane that she wanted up by the lights and draping down the side. So Garry and Tanner managed to figure out how to do that without having to re do all their lights. So this is the view of the gym through the arch, you can see the black and white viscane with the light from the stings of light coming through. Tanner also had to get Rachel there without her knowing why and Garry was to be paprazzi and take pictures throughout the night. He ended up takin 129 photos. Tanner told Rachel that his dad wanted to do a pre photo shoot with him and Rachel before the Event to send to our relatives in Oregon who were dying to see them. She went along with it (I'm sure she was suspicious. ) Her mom wanted me in the car with them because she didn't think they should be alone. So I tagged along! We were supposed to have her at the church by 7:30. The mom called and told us to stall, she wasn't ready, so we took Rachel to our house telling her we needed to pick something up for Garry who was meeting us at the church. Then I sat there for about 15 min. waiting for Sarah to call and give us the o.k. I was in the bedroom. Finally she called and I came out and said that my mom had called at the last minute and I was sorry and I was trying to hurry up her call.

Anyway, we got her to the church and it was dark and we told her we had to go in up through the back stage door. Tanner escorted her up there and everyone turned on the lights and yelled SURPRISE!!! I think she was!

Sarah had asked three couples to chaperone from her ward. The three men were all dressed in black suits with black shades and they were the secret service. They were "checking" the kids as they came in. (all in fun, all in fun). At one point during the dance, they had a daddy daughter dance and all three men and Rachel's dad were to dance with their daughters (they all had daughters Rachel's age and were her best friends). So they stared dancing and then all of sudden Tanner came over and grabbed me and made me dance with his since he had a mother there! So sweet!!! We all danced to Josh Grobin's "You Lift Me Up"

But Tanner mostly danced with Rachel. They had so much fun.

And, don't they look cute together!!

Here they are with Rachel' best friends.

Garry made a sign in sheet kinda like a guest book to match the person with their picture.

These are just some of the masks. They had a contest and gave ITunes gift cards for 1-4th place.

Here is Tanner with his mask. Tanner sure worked hard to make that evening good for her. And she was very appreciative. He helped clean up and the dance was over at 10 and he got home by 11:30, we left at 8:30. Good job Tanner!

Saturday, we went to Olive Garden for my bday dinner. Tanner had to babysit at 6:15, so he and Talon left right after they ate while we waited for the boxes and check and all that.

It was a nice, fun dinner.

After dinner, we stopped at Wal-Mart to get some stuff for Garry and while we were there, they announced that all Valentines stuff was now 75% off, so we hit the aisle and got stuff ridiculously cheap. I'm always looking for cheap candy for my piano candy bowl.

Sunday, Garry didn't have to stay and do anything, so we took advantage of our last "free" Sunday for awhile. We watched the movie RED and I had Razzleberry pie and ice cream.

I had wanted new dishes for my bday and Garry had me pick them out and then he ordered them. I got three sets, so enough for 12 and they are square Corelle plates. I love them!

Thanks to all who made my day so special, I got phone calls from my two sisters and my mom and LOTS of Facebook Happy Birthday wishes.

It's nice to know people think of you on your special day. I love you all!!