January 2010

I just returned home from a field trip with Austin's class to the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake. It wasn't too bad for an aquarium 1200 miles inland from the ocean. I really should be working on some PTA stuff but because I am determined to catch up to the present on my blog, I am going to take 30 minutes (and 30 minutes only) to share some of the highlights from January.

From October to just last week our Saturdays and a few week nights were full of basketball games. Alex played on a comp(etition) team as well as Jr. Jazz while Ben played in two comp leagues, one being in Ogden 30 minutes away. They had a great time. Ben's Layton comp team took first place and received trophies. It was a great season for both of them.

I was not responsible for taking these pictures (maybe Ben?) but they showed up on my camera. This is Austin in a wrestling mask diving into the Love Sack. I am only posting them because they crack me up. Please disregard the messy toy room.

Here Austin is passing off his final requirement to earn his Cub Scout Wolf badge. He needed to cook an outdoor meal. It's not dutch oven cookin' but I think it was good enough.

The Pinewood Derby was the Pack Meeting for January. Austin wanted to make his a big pink eraser. Of course Bill didn't mind as very little woodworking was required for this "car".

Much to Austin's chagrin, he made it to the school-wide spelling Bee. We didn't really study a lot but he did make it through to the second round. You might be thinking why I posted a picture of some dark haired kid. Well, it also happened to be crazy hair day and Austin wanted his hair black. Here he is spelling the word "diamond" - correctly, I might add.

We had to be extremely quiet for the spellers but Erin managed to hold up this sign to "cheer" Austin on.

Erin and her best friend Lyndi participated in the Layton High Cheerleading Clinic for future Lancer Cheerleaders. They had a great time learning a dance to music and then performed at halftime in a varsity basketball game. (Don't tell them their LL's are backwards!)

Stay tuned for February...

December 2009

Well, here it is March and I am just now getting to our December photos. I really need to be like those bloggers that post once a week so I don't have to spend a whole afternoon uploading a gazillion photos. Maybe someday...

Here we went to see the lights in Layton Commons Park. They do an amazing job. Apparently only Ben and Erin were impressed.
Every year we have a special time-honored tradition where I go to Sam's Club and buy the gingerbread kit. It takes a lot of thought and preparation to do this. Then all the kids decorate it. Well, this year only Erin and Austin had any interest in participating in this special tradition.

Ben received his Arrow of Light Award in Cub Scouts the week before Pack meeting. A scout is always prepared, right? Yeah, well, we are but just at the last possible minute.
Ben turned 11 on Christmas Eve. We had a great time bowling and playing laser tag at Boondocks.

Here are their game faces:

(I didn't hear the game faces part.)

Erin mad that she lost. This girl is competitive times 10.


The kids won a ton of tickets to cash in for prizes. Just what we need, more sticky hands and bouncy balls.

Erin and her American Girl Doll, Hailey, got matching dresses for Christmas. Hailey also apparently broke her arm and leg. Poor Hailey.


We rang in the New Year banging pots and pans at midnight.
OK, so there's our December in a nutshell. Stay tuned for some Jan/Feb pictures...

Fall 2009

I know it has been too long since I last posted (could it be three months???). Instead of jumping right to the present, here are some pictures from fall of 2009!

Austin and Erin both played soccer......

.....while Alex and Ben both played football. Four games every Saturday was not easy but we managed to make it to some if not all of the games. It was quite the juggling act!


I was lucky enough to catch this video of Ben scoring a touchdown. I definately preferred to watch the games rather than film them. (On a side note, my kids continually make fun of my comment at the end of the run.)

Bill took Alex and Ben to a BYU football game,
we picked the apples off our trees,
picked some pumpkins from the patch at J&J,

....and celebrated both Erin's 6th and Bill's 40th (!!!) birthday (The kids picked out a BYU Snuggie for him.)

Ben started playing on a comp basketball team...
...and Austin played Jr. Jazz.
The kids went trick or treating...
...and we made shakes with the loot.
We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner at Bill's parents...

...enjoyed time with my family in Payson...

...and finished off the weekend with the rivalry game between the Utes and Cougars. (Thanks for the *ahem* yummy cupcakes, Isoms!) Oh, and in case you didn't hear, BYU won this year. :)


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Ok, I gotta wrap this post up. Stay tuned for some December pictures coming soon...

What a Night!

Bill and I were fortunate enough to go to the BYU vs. Oklahoma game over Labor Day weekend and can I just say, it was AWESOME! We went from hoping to not get embarrassed to thinking we could win it at half time to ecstasy at the final minutes. What a great road game to go to!

Cowboys new billion dollar stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Going in to our seats on the 13th row from the field.

Sitting in the BYU section. There were 75,000 people there and only 15,000 BYU fans. I must say, though, that the Oklahoma fans were some of the nicest fans I have ever come across. (Definately not your typical Utah fan ;)

Oklahoma's unsuccessful field goal in the final minutes of the game.

The stadium had LCD screens in the center of the field. The longest of which were 60 yards long. Crystal clear. Amazing.

After the game my sister, Amy, texted me that she had seen us on ESPN. She took a picture of it and posted it on facebook:

It really was a good, good night :)