First Day of Kindergarten!

Today was Tiffany's first day of Kindergarten. She could hardly wait, she was so excited!!

It was raining this morning so I drove them and because of the rain they didn't line up outside like they normally would. So I followed her in and got a couple more pics!

She had the same excited smile on her face when she came out after it was all over! She said her favorite part was riding on the bus around the parking lot! She said they colored and made a fruit loop necklace. They also had PE!

She can hardly wait for tomorrow!!

Trip to Canada, Part 4

Sunday we got up and got ready for church and all packed up. The plan was to try to hit a 9am Sacrament meeting, then head home. We didn't quite make it. So we decided to just start driving and do what Merlin and Delores like to do...Use the meetinghouse locator on the church's website to find a place to go to church on the way.

So we headed for the border. Sitting at the border waiting to cross, the guy behind us comes up to Doug's window to tell us we have a fuel leak! What!!?? He gets out to check and sure enough, it's a pretty good drip! Looking back, he said that he smelled gas through out the weekend but when ever he looked he couldn't see anything. It only leaked when the car was running and the gas was pumping through the lines.

We got through the border and went on our way. We finally connected with a sacrament meeting in Great Falls, MT. We walked in with just enough time to go potty and get into the chapel! Nice!! Afterwards, we changed our clothes and headed out again.

In Helena, Doug decided to see what he could do with the leak. He found out that the guys in Butte who replaced the fuel filter on the way up, didn't put it back together right. That's where it was leaking. I decided to get the kids out of the car while he was working on that. We found a grassy area and just played games. At some point Doug had to leave us to go find the parts he needed to fix it. We played missionary tag; red rover; duck, duck goose; & zumi, zumi! We played for about 3 hours before Doug came back to get us! It was a long time, but we had a lot of fun! The big boys sure made it fun for the younger kids!

We only went as far as Dillon that night. We popped some popcorn & put in a movie before putting the kids to bed. Another Long Day!!

Monday, was pretty uneventful! LOL we just got up and drove the rest of the way home! It was a long ways to go in such short time! We were sure glad to be home!

Trip to Canada, Part 3

Saturday was the Heritage Days Celebration as well as the John James & Jennie Heap Reunion.

We were supposed to get up in time for breakfast and the parade, but we were liking relaxing and sleeping in a little too much and missed the parade. Some of the Extended Family went. There were some pics of Ron and Angela's kids riding horses in the parade.

Jon, Melanie & Beth had to head home to pick up Jon's car in Butte before they closed as well as be home for work and other commitments. Jon was headed to Austin, Texas for American Idol try outs. That's a whole 'nother post, I guess!

The Reunion was at the Reunion Center in Cardston. We don't remember ever being there. I guess it's been a while since we've gone to this particular reunion. It used to be at Lion's Park, maybe?? Anyway, it was a nice bldg with a playground for the kids!

We ate, visited and played games with the kids. It was fun to see people I knew and meet people I didn't know. It looks as if Woodrow's family is partially in charge of the next one! But I can't remember if it's in 2 years or 3! I guess we'll have to find out!

The siblings got together again, for one more final tying of loose ends and paper work. We had everyone there, except for Jim. We feel so blessed for everything to have worked out so well. Everyone agreed to everything and signed what ever they needed to, so they could proceed and finalize everything. We are so grateful for Diana, being the executor, taking care of Dad and his everything all these years!

Afterwards, we went back to Diana & Ron's to pick up some more of Dad's stuff to bring home with us. That's another big THANK YOU to Diana & Ron for taking care of all the "stuff"!! Back to the hotel to eat up some of the food from the funeral the night before. We kind of wondered what happened to everyone because we seemed to be practically the only ones back at the hotel. Later we found out that several of them ended up at the Rodeo. Too bad we didn't realize some of them were going, I probably would have sent some of the older kids. Oh well, we just hung out and watched movies until it was time to head back into town for the fireworks!

Another FULL day and we dropped kids into bed exhausted!!

I'm going to try to put more pics on the extended family blog, when I do, I will put a link here when I do.

Pack Meeting - Waves of Fun!

Last Night we had yet another pack meeting. Last month was the district pack meeting, so we didn't have any awards in our pack, Aaron has been saving up!

He has been working all summer on belt loops and patches! He earned his Kennecott Copper patch, Museum of Natural History patch, Family Camping Patch (Crawdad fishing), & Outdoor Activity patch. He also earned his archery, bbgun, bicycling, geology and bowling belt loops! He was so excited, he was checking out the table as we got there to make sure it was all there!!

The activity was a huge squirt gun WAR!! They were supposed to do different activities, but they were much more content running around and squirting every one with the squirt guns!!

First week of school is going good. We already have homework, yuck! And are still trying to find our niche in our new schedule! I like the earlier schedule a lot better!!

Trip to Canada, Part 2

Friday was the funeral. I'm glad it wasn't until the afternoon. It made for a nicer morning to get everyone up and out, especially since we had such a long day/night the day before. We were very fortunate to have nice rooms to stay in. I have to admit I was skeptical when Diana said she got us some rooms at the Barn Store. I didn't even know the Barn Store had "rooms" and I couldn't imagine what kind of rooms they would be sitting behind a Barn Store! LOL (I'm sad I didn't get pics, I don't know what I was thinking.) Anyway, we had connecting rooms, one of which had a full kitchen! I brought pancake mix for breakfast and the barn store was available for milk and anything else we needed. We had rooms and beds for everyone, and 3 bathrooms! It was comfortable and nice, Thanks, Diana!!

We ate breakfast and got ready. We had some practising to do before everything started. Jon and Melanie sang a beautiful duet together and had to go over it with their piano player. Doug and I were also singing with some of his other siblings. Aunt Donna spoke about Grandpa, and Doug spoke about the gospel message. Both did a great job! We headed out to the cemetery, then back in town for dinner.

Everything went real well. It was fun to see and visit with family and friends. Grandpa looked great. I have been so happy for him to finally get to "go home" so I wasn't prepared for the tears that came when I had to say goodbye. I can't really explain my tie to this man. I've never really had the opportunity to spend any extended amount of time with him, but I have felt a bond with him I can't explain. It has been very hard for me to be so far away these last few years. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to see him in April and to be his daughter in law!

Here is a fun pic of the Grandchildren that were there!

Afterwards, the siblings got together to tie up loose ends, and the rest of us went back to Mountain View, where our rooms were. The kids played on the playground at the school, watched movies, played games and we all visited until late!

I have lots more pics, it was hard to pick which to use. I think I will post more on the Extended Family blog soon. I will put a link here when I do.

I Finally Did It!

Well, I finally bit the bullet and did what Tiffany has been begging me to do for several months now...

We cut her hair this afternoon! I took her to Fantastic Sam's and let them do it, anyway.

I wasn't prepared for the tears as the stylist actually cut off the pony tails! But they did come, it was so sad to me to see her curls get cut off and to see how short her hair now is! I know, silly me!

She thought it was fun to get her hair washed.

She just couldn't stop smiling, she was so excited!!




Good bye, Pony Tails!!

Her hair isn't as curly as it was, but it's still pretty wavy and thick!! I thought it was way cute when it was wet, but when it dried out it went real poofy! I'll just have to play with it to see if I can fix that.

The important thing is that she LOVES it!

First Day of School!

I can hardly believe it! It's here!

Most of the kids were excited, but not all! Poor Beth woke up feeling miserably sick. She only went part of the day and came home and slept. She wouldn't even try to fake it for the pic! She's the only one at the High School this year.

I made french toast for the first day breakfast! Ben was pretty happy to not have to go to school! He has been poking fun at the rest of them for a few days now!

Steven & Emily are at the Jr High. Can you tell how excited Steven is?!! I think he was trying to make a point! :)

The girls and I walked the elementary kids to school and participated in the opening day flag ceremony. Then we went into the kindergarten room and signed up for Kindergarten Testing and met her teacher, took some pics and came home. Kindergarten doesn't actually start until next week.

It was actually a nice day.

Everyone came home with lots of papers for me to sign! I was doing my "Homework" for about an hour going through disclosures and first day packets. Thus...the fun begins!!

Crawdad Fishing

Last weekend Doug took the kids to Strawberry Reservoir to go crawdad fishing. They love doing this! I didn't go because I had a "date" with Melanie and Zach and Emily went to Lagoon with her friend. I needed to be home with her. Also, Nattie Bug was throwing up that morning, we didn't figure it was a good idea to take her.

Anyway, He's such a good dad! He really doesn't care for this kind of stuff, the fishing or the camping part. Our ward does this every year, and the kids have come to LOVE it! So he took them, what a dad!!

They fish with drumsticks! You tie a string to a drumstick and lower it into the water off the dock and wait. Then you slowly pull it out of the water and it will be full of crawdads! These ugly, little buggers want that meat so bad they will allow themselves to be pulled right out of the water to certain death! You simply lower the drumstick into a net and put them in a bucket, voila!

Doug didn't get any pics on the dock, but he did get some at the cleaning station. They got a kick out of pulling them apart alive, too! Gross!!

I love the look on Aaron's face! He's trying to pull the tail. Aaron said when they took their claws off, they were still opening and closing!

Even Tiffy tried it! You can tell she wasn't too sure. Those claws pinch pretty good, they can actually draw blood if your not careful!!

Of course, they finished the night at the campfire eating s'mores! We like to use Reese's instead of Hershey bars! Yum!!

Doug said it was pretty cold, I did sent extra sleeping bags, but apparently I can't count quite right I was short one more for him to have a second one. He said the kids didn't complain so he was the only one freezing. Sorry, hun!

Road to Success

I got a phone call the other day from Amy the secretary at our Elementary School, I thought oh no another mishap...


We got our letters from our teachers to let us know what classes we were in when we got home from Canada. It wasn't too bad, but not exactly what I wanted...Kim got Mrs. Lowry, but she is team teaching this year so it's also Mrs. Wiser. Not too bad! Aaron got Mrs. Moyes. Not terrible, Steven did horrible with her, but Emily did wonderful with her. I was hoping for Mrs. Adams. Tiffany got Mrs. Bauer, the one I wanted, but pm Kindergarten. Not good! I would trade teachers for morning.

Over the next week I got another letter for Aaron, stating that there was a mistake in the mailings and that Aaron was actually in Mrs. Adams! Score!! I called the school about Kindergarten. There just wasn't room, so I just asked to put us on the waiting list if there were any openings. Amy called me the first time to let me know there was another mishap with the remailings of the 3rd grade teacher letters and she just wanted me to know that Aaron was indeed in Mrs. Adams class! Then said there was a possibility that we were going to get morning Kindergarten. She'd call me back. A few hours later she called and indeed there were enough late registrants to warrant putting her in morning. Not only that, but I didn't have to switch teachers! Woo hoo!! I pretty much got all that I was hoping for! Sooo...


You can imagine my hesitancy when Amy calls me again. Oh no, what now? I finally got it where I wanted it. But it turned out it was a nice surprise...


Our School does a Road to Success Program. The kids read and record their minutes every day. They turn in their minutes to their teachers and receive a ticket for every 100 minutes they read. There is a big drawing for prizes at the end of the year some big, some not so big. There usually is a couple of brand new bikes! Aaron actually got one of his tickets pulled out! Amy said he had won a Utah Educational Savings Plan college savings certificate worth $50! She said it needed to be redeemed by sept 15th. Apparently, I just open an account for him online and they invest it and by the time he's ready for college, it's there for him. I guess we'll see how it works!


When I asked him about it, the kids talked about him getting called up there, but they didn't really know what he had won. Poor kid thought he had won a bike and was confused and disappointed when he realized he didn't. I didn't know anything about it until I got this phone call.


Kinda Cool! Congrats to Aaron!!

Corporate Summer Games

Corporate Summer Games is kind of a mock Olympic Summer Games with Corporations instead of Countries. It runs for 3 weeks of different summer activities.

Doug signed up to play on the Volleyball team, didn't surprise me in the least! It was co-ed, so they played the "girl" rule ...(which is if there is more than one hit, a girl has to be one of them.) I really don't like that rule. :/this one was difficult for them ...and quick score (which means every mistake counts against you.) But hey, I don't think they did half bad! They came out with a Bronze Medal!!

I guess I should have taken his picture when he came home in his E.S. Volleyball shirt. Oh well!!

Congrats to the Volleyball Team at Energy Solutions!!

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!!

I am pleased to announce the birth of my newest little nephew! My brother, David & Ashley had their sweet little boy yesterday!!

Alexander David

6 lbs, 12 oz and 19 1/2 inches long

I can hardly wait to squeeze him!!




A little grand niece was born this week as well...to our nephew, Rod & Jessica!

Abigail

7lbs, 2oz and 18 inches long!

I just had to put this pic because I had to show off her hair!! Her momma said she wasn't very happy to leave her comfy little home, but calmed down eventually!! To see more pics go here!

Then of course there is another little grand niece that was born to our Niece, Jennie & Ian in July!

Annalise

8lbs, 5 oz and 19 1/2 inches long!

I got to hold this sweetie while visiting in Canada, she already had her first trip out of the country!!

One more...Another little grand niece was born in July to our nephew, Richard & Mandy!

Ashlyn LaShae

7lbs, 5 oz

Congrats to all of you!! Doesn't it make you just a wee bit baby hungry?? It sure does for me!! :)

We love you all!!