Tiffany's First Report

Tiffany gave her first oral report in front of her class last week. It was pretty low key, I went and sat in the front with her and helped cue her on what she was talking about.

Her report was about the changing seasons and the changing leaves. I found a book that helped explain about it all, so we went through the book. Then she did some leave rubbings she wanted to show the class.

She did a great Job!!

Stake Volleyball Champions!!

The Youth of the Bountiful 20th Ward are the Bountiful South Stake Volleyball Champions!!

I wasn't able to go to all their games, Doug did, though. He kept me posted. I popped in the last few points of the last game! So I didn't get any of Emily actually playing. Doug said she got quite a few points serving in one of the other games!

Congratulations, 20th Ward Youth!!

Make Over

I just had to post about my sweet little girl trying so hard to grow up! Bethanie gave her a make over last week. She LOVED IT!! She felt so pretty! She stayed down in Beth's room for over an hour dancing in front of the mirror to Beth's music!

As if they don't grow up fast enough!!

Bridal Shower #1

Melanie had her first bridal shower last weekend. A couple of sisters in our ward who have been her youth leaders decided to throw a "ward" grocery/kitchen shower Open House for her last weekend. I wish I would have thought to get a pic of the three of them together! They are the two sisters the standing up in this first pic!

We have a very generous ward, we had gifts filter in a few days before and after of people who couldn't come!

It turned out GREAT! Great Food, Great Company & Great Gifts!!!

Thanks, Heather & Lynette!!

Another nice bonus, she already has her apartment picked out, so we were able to take everything straight over there!

Shawn's Birthday

I can hardly believe we are starting this all over again!! It is time for the birthdays to begin at our house!

Shawn isn't really the first because it's September, that's the end of the year, but because we roll it over into the spring of the next year, it just seems like the beginning for me!

Shawn turned 23 last week! I don't "feel" old enough to have a 23 year old!! But alas I do, now!!

He came over on Monday for Family Home Evening and asked to spend the night. When I asked him what he wanted for his Bday dinner, he wanted to fix it himself. That was nice for me!! He made chicken with a cream of chicken soup/cream cheese/italian dressing sauce. Yum!!

He ended up spending most of the week with us before he went home on Thursday night. It was fun to able to celebrate with him! Brownies and Ice Cream! He asked for a music player, so that's what we got him.

Happy Birthday, Shawn!

Shawn is currently living with a room mate here in Bountiful. He's working at the Rec Center and with handicap young single adults. He's looking for work with more hours.

Labor Day

I've been meaning to post about this for a while now, but I've just been so busy!!

For Labor Day we were invited to go boating with Melanie's future family! We brought lunch and went to Williard Bay and just played on the beach while the kids took turns on the boat.


Doug forgot to bring a hat, so he was improvising on what to wear so his head wouldn't get burnt!
Steven decided to roll around in the dirt/sand and gave himself a good coating!?? Boys??!!

I only have pics of the kids on the beach, Mel took some pics of the little kids on the tube but I don't have them yet. Natalie even went out on the tube. She did good until it started to go fast, then she was in Holly's lap, but still did pretty good.

We had only planned to stay a couple of hours but ended up staying pretty much the whole day! The kids just had so much fun! Doug even went out on the boat. I think it was way too cold to get in the water, but the kids didn't seem to mind one bit! Except for Natalie, she only stayed on the edge. They also loved playing in the sand.




Some of us got pretty burnt! I put sunscreen on some of them but we were there longer than planned and Aaron took off his shirt. I always get so mad at myself for not being more careful!

Thanks, Steve and Michelle for a fun day!!

Ben's "Farewell"

I thought I had posted about this already, but as I looked at my September posts, I noticed I haven't posted yet. I put up an event listing on face book, but for my dear family and friends who don't frequent face book here's the info...

Ben will be speaking in church this Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. Our meeting starts at 2:50pm. Sacrament is last, so we will be heading to our house for dinner/open house afterwards.

It's hard to believe we are getting this close. This is actually a little early because of General Conference, but still...he leaves Oct 13th!

We'll have a date for the temple either today or tomorrow!

Sorry for the late notice! Hope those of you in town can make it!

New Car!

Beth has been waiting for this moment for a long time!!! She bought herself a car!!

It's a 2003 Chevy Cavalier. She bought it from Zach, yes, Melanie's Zach.

She drove herself to school this morning, a very happy camper!!

She wouldn't get out of the car to take a picture so here's one with her in it!

New Project

I'm recovering my kitchen chairs, finally!!

I hesitated to actually blog about this, because looking at the pictures it's even more embarrassing than in person! Do I really want to admit that these are my kitchen chairs????

I am happy the way they are turning out! I'm a little leery about all the blue, but the fabric was given to me for free and I like blue!! I got some high density foam at Jo Ann Fabrics for 50% off and a staple gun at Lowes!

Here's a before...

And after!! Same chair!

I have 2 done and 8 more to go! It's taking longer than I thought it would, but I'm hoping I get faster as I go! We'll see!!

Denied!!

I signed up for the free/reduced lunch program for school again this year. It really has been the only subsidized program we have actually been on for a long time. It's been kind of nice not to have to worry about school lunches. Last year because Doug was out of work when school started they qualified us for free everything! Free registrations for the Jr and Sr high levels, free class fees, free lunch, free ACT testing, free sports, the works. I asked them if I had to re qualify when he got a job, they said nope! This is good for the entire school year! Cool!

So far this year we have been riding on that freebie until they could process my application this year. I got my email yesterday, that we didn't even qualify for reduced! That means school lunches are $1.60 to $2 a lunch! That's $10 a week! Far cry from free or even reduced at $2 a week per kid!

There's good and bad to this!! Good... we must be doing pretty good. I don't remember ever not qualifying for at least reduced! Good and Bad...I've decided to send school lunches! The kids are WAY excited!!

Sooo, anyone got some good advice on home lunches for both Jr high and elementary students?

It's Official!

Melanie has a ring on her finger!!

Melanie and Zach Merkley are planning to get married in November!

Am I really getting old enough for this???

Yikes!!!

Trip to the Zoo!

On Friday, I decided to run the kids up to the zoo, just for the fun of it! So after school, we hopped in the van and headed up there. We only spent a couple of hours 3 to 5:30 but that's why I love the membership.... I don't feel obligated to spend the entire day! We walked around, saw what we wanted to see, played on the playground and came home! Oh, they were mighty excited to ride the carousel!

GG and the kids met us there for a little bit, (she has a pass too!) We miss them sooooo much!

I didn't take very many pics, but I just had to take this one ( I thought I took more, guess not). It's pretty sad when the main attraction was the water fans!! Every time we walked past one of these, the kids ran over to it and stayed until we had to pry them away!! LOL