Happy Halloween!

Garett: Army Guy
Carson: Fred Flinstone
Jaxon: Ninja
Kelsi: Tinkerbell










This was the first year the kids went trick or treating by themselves! Carson and Garett were terrific and brought Kelsi and Jaxon home alive and with buckets of Candy to boot! I actually MADE Carson's costume with an actual sewing machine! I made 4 whole seams...and the rest is glued.
I stayed home and handed out candy. I actually really like to do that. I think it's fun. Andy watched a football game while he carved pumkins. It was even pretty good weather. The rain held off till later in the night. It was indeed a Happy Halloween.

The Pumpkin Master

Andy kind of had a late start on the pumpkin carving this year. He only got three done. The spider is actually Carson's. He gutted it and transferred the pattern on. Carson took the kids trick or treating this year and they could not wait one more second so Andy finished it up for him. Some of you may not realize this but Andy is a master Pumpkin carver! Every year we get many compliments on his pumpkins!

Andy Is A Genius!

Yes, this is exactly what it looks like it is! Andy is sawing this box spring in half. Here's the deal: We finally cleaned out the play room and painted the room downstairs for Sir Carson. We started to move his bed down but when it came to the box spring we couldn't get it around the bend on the basement stairs--too tight. After wedging the box spring, smashing our toes and various fingers, getting frustrated because of lack of communicating moving instructions clearly and digging marks in the wall, we decided it wasn't going to work. So then we took the box spring and mattress back upstairs. (Here's a tip: If you ever have to move a bed, move the box spring first! Saves you from having to move the heavy mattress twice. I know this from experience.) So then we thought well maybe we'll have to get Carson a full sized bed and let Kelsi have our old bed. But that would have been a bummer because Andy just refinished some furniture for Kelsi's room that we inherited from Andy's grandparents (a bed and a cute little vanity with a GIANT mirror). We didn't think Carson would really appreciate the vanity or the giant mirror so we didn't want to give him the bed either. So we went to the local Furniture Store--where they are always having an inventory clearance sale--like every day. We explained our problem and the guy said, "Oh, I could get it down." "Oh really!" I thought. Then he said that all we had to do was buy a split queen box spring for a mere $180. Well, we didn't really feel like doing that. Andy did some research and watched a couple on YouTube cut their box spring in half (which was actually quite entertaining). Then Andy said, "If these Yahoo's can do it, we can for sure do it." So he did and it worked Swell! We got the box spring and the mattress downstairs. Carson is still working on the "crib" but I'll post a picture when he gets it finished.

Aaaaaarrrrggg Matey!

This year Andy's office dressed up as Peter Pan Characters to deliver donuts to all the dentists. He had several ideas: Ken and Barbies, Mr. Potato Head and the "you have saved our lives, we are eternally grateful" aliens, Sesame Street characters...but Captain Hook and crew seemed to be the most do-able. He enlisted the help of one cutie-pie fairy! After all who can resist a cute 4 year old Tinkerbell? They are actually out delivering now, even as I type, so I'm not sure how it's going, but you can't go wrong with Andy in a curly black wig, can you? He was pretty creeped out by the black moustache as it was made with REAL HUMAN HAIR! A selling point printed very clearly on the packaging that was not appreciated by Captain Hook himself.

The Table Saga

Andy purchased this table at our ward yard sale a year ago for 5 bucks. He thought he could strip it and refinish it--easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. After $100 worth of stripping stuff, several weeks of trying to get the industrial strength finish off, and many swear words in his head he broke down and rented a belt sander and sanded the crud out of it. He finally got all of the finish off and enlisted the help of a wood worker in our ward to get all of the edges squared up. A couple of coats of stain and he was ready to seal it up. The problem was it was November by this time and way too cold to apply the finish. So he wrapped it up and stored it in the basement. After the craziness of summer wound up he decided to break it out and finish it up. After 20 or so coats of polyurethane he felt it was ready. He brought it into the house to "cure" for a month...make sure it was nice and hard. Finally the day came when he set it up and we all admired his handy work! We ate dinner on it that night marveling at what a good job he did. The finish help up to dinner---SUCCESS! Unfortunately that's about all it held up to. After dinner Jaxon decided to draw some pictures and the pressure from the pen on the paper went right through all 20 layers of polyurethane and made a lovely scratch-picture on the table. It's hard to see on the photo above because of the flash but if you look real hard you can see a person drawn by Jaxon. Now we know why it was almost impossible to get the original finish off. My theory is it is because the wood is sooooo soft (pine). Andy is so disgusted I'm not sure what the plan is now. Strip it and try again or throw it away? So far it is still up and we are still using it but nobody can do their homework on it or do any sort of writing. We kept the old table so maybe when Andy gets done grieving he'll decide to swap it back out again. I'll keep you posted.
This has nothing to do with the table saga but it was quite a funny conversation held at said table. The subject of childbirth came up and Andy and I were explaining a very small inkling of what childbirth involves.
Jaxon says, "MAN, I'm glad I'm not a girl!"
To which Kelsi replies, "Well, I'm a girl."
J; "WELL, get ready for the PAIN!!!!!!"
K: "Well I won't have pain anymore."
J somewhat incredulously: "BABIES!!!!!!!!!"

Life on "The Hill"

This September I turned 40!!!!!! A fact the Kelsi tells EVERYONE! "My mom is 40!" It was a Super Groovy birthday-literally! Andy took me to Abbamania. It's this group that tours around and pretends they are ABBA. They were actually REALLY good. Andy even got up and danced in the aisle with me. We were sitting on an aisle seat so he only had to get up and scootch over an inch or two. The fact remains that he still got up and danced . Which I know he would have NEVER done on his own but he was trying really hard to be fun for me. What a sweetie-pie!
Then he came home for lunch on my birthday and very stealthily ran into the back yard, ripped up the stakes that were in our garden, clattered them on the front lawn, and started pounding the snot out of them into our front lawn. After that display he had my attention. Then he started struggling with this 20 foot long piece of butcher paper. After it became apparent to me that he was in need of some assistance I went out and helped him tape up this banner that read "40 and HOT ooh la la!" ...complete with black balloons. I think he was secretly trying to get released from his bishopric duties by being a rebel rouser with THAT kind of sign. It didn't work. I loved it anyway. I thought it was hilarious and hopefully kept the neighbors talking for weeks! My mom came over later that night and brought me one of my new favorite treats--an Italian gelati! Thanks to all of you who sent gifts and cards and warm thoughts and wishes!
All in all it was a great birthday!

Back in Business!

Ahhhhhh! We finally got a computer that works! Hooray! Actually when the other one worked it was swell...but the hard drive kept freezing up...so-not so swell!
I think when we last left off we had just gotten back from a rather stellar mini-vacation. I thought it was a disaster but the kids have mentioned things about it for two months now. So I guess it's the disasters we remember the most. I should remember that during our next disaster.
School finally started and we were sort of able to get back into a routine; something we were all ready for. I thought things might slow down for me once school started. I was wrong. Oh well, I might as well be busy--I like it better that way anyway. The new photos on the right are first day of school photos. (Kelsi didn't actually start school until Sept. 21 but we took her photo anyway!) Carson started 8th grade in the big Jr. High (weird for me). He likes it. He has some really good teachers that he likes, so that is good. He is still in orchestra playing the violin and he is still taking piano lessons (much to his chagrin). He is also still in ballroom dance. He is on the Junior team this year which is a much bigger time commitment than it has been in the past. He is really having to learn the art of wise time management.
Garett is in the sixth grade at the middle school. He also likes his teachers and is doing well. Here's the biggest news,...so far he has an A in spelling.....hooray....we'll try to keep that up. He is playing the trumpet and also taking piano. He REFUSED to take ballroom. He wouldn't even try it he was that sure he would hate it! Which is O.K. because he has an UBER 11 year old scout leader who believes in three hour meetings and campouts which last from Friday at 4:00pm to Sat. at 9:00 pm. Jaxon is in the first grade and this is his first year at school ALL DAY! He, too, likes his teacher and is doing well. He's a super reader. His level is 3.2 (third grade). I teach art in his class once a month and his teacher told me, "Jaxon's a bright boy. I can tell I'm going to need something for him to do all the time." I told her that would be great idea.
Kelsi started preschool at BYU-I which she absolutely adores!!!! She goes on Tues and Thurs morning for 2 hours. She's only in for one semester so she will be done in December. I'm usually not a big preschool person but she may change my mind in Jan. We'll see.

The Last Hurrah!

This last weekend we took the kids to Utah for one last Hurrah before school starts in a week and a half. We spent Thurs. night and Friday with Mary and Clyde. On Friday we went to Maddox which was most delicious!!!! After dinner on Friday we headed to Salt Lake where the kids were jumping around all over the place in the hotel. We took them down to the pool, which was quite possibly one of the coldest pools in North America. (Second only to the pool in Laramie, Wyoming where Andy and Clyde suffered from possible hypothermia after taking Carson and Garett down the waterslide once in the hotel we stayed at during our horrific move from West Virginia.) One family came in and said, "Hey, let's go across the street and use the Little America pool. It's warmer than this one." We are not sure they were even checked into the hotel as we didn't see them again during our stay. We suspect they are just local residents who enjoy hotel pool hopping. The kids didn't seem to think it was cold at all (despite the intense shivering from Jaxon). They said, "you just have to keep moving around and then you are fine." The next morning we tanked up at the free breakfast and headed to Temple Square. We thought the kids would like it seeing as we really haven't taken them there recently. You would have thought we were dragging them through boiling oil by their toenails with the amount of complaining and whining and crying that ensued. "I'm hot! When are we going to the car? I'm tired of walking! My feet hurt! I'm tired! I'm hungry! This is boring! When are we going to be done?" Looking back it probably didn't help that all of the kids had way too little sleep and way too many treats the night before. I should clarify that Carson was great and Garett was mostly good. It was Kelsi and Jaxon that did not seem to be enjoying our attempt at creating some great family memories. I guess we did create some memories...just not the ones that I envisioned. After a tour of the conference center (which Jaxon did a boogie dance throughout because he really had to go to the bathroom and for some reason our tour guide seemed to believe that the ONLY bathroom was down on the first level), a trip to the Chistus statue (which we heard in Spanish), a quick trip through the South visitors center, a tour of the Beehive house, and a family "touch the temple" photo (above) everyone had had enough. We then went to the Mayan to eat. That's the restaraunt where the divers come out and do a little show and dive off of cliffs in the restaraunt. We thought the kids would be thrilled with this. We get there and Jaxon says, "Why is this so dark? Why are there trees all over in here?" So I say, "It's supposed to make you feel like you are in a jungle. Do you feel like you are in the jungle?" To which he replied, "Not really because there are tables and seats in here." They actually really did like the diving show. The divers even came over to our table to talk some jibberish (made up Mayan language, perhaps?) So Carson gave them each a french fry and then they went away. The food was sub-par I thought. I'm not sure why a Mexican place sprinkles parmesean cheese all over ALL of the food. It's a little perplexing. After "Dunch" (Carson's name for Lunch and Dinner) we drove home and I was ready for a vacation from our vacation.
Change of subject: Carson spoke in Sacrament Meeting today and did a stellar job! He wrote most of the talk himself. I just help it flow a little bit. He told us today, "You know it's a lot better if you can get them to laugh in a talk. Then they have a happy smiley face and not a scary serious face." He made them laugh twice...so good for him. And that is our exciting weekend.

Watching cartoons in the hotel room.

Lava Hot Springs!

On Saturday we took the kids to Lava Hot Springs! We met Andy's fam there. The picture of Jaxon (top) is of him right after he went down the twisty tubes! He's saying, "That was SO Awesome!!!!!" The photo of Kelsi (top) is at the end of the day when the pool was closing and we told her it was time to go home! She was not super thrilled about that announcement, I think.

We got to Lava just in time to get changed, slather ourselves in SPF 100, set up the "sportbrella", arrange all of our many varied bags of snacks and coolers of drinks, and then promptly get kicked out of the waterpark due to lightning in the area! So we sat on the side of the road for 45 minutes or so while Andy's mom fed us chips, crackers, and squirt cheese from the can. Luckily the storm moved through fairly quickly and they let us back in. We enjoyed the rest of the day with spectacular weather. The boys especially loved the "death drop" slides...you know the ones where you shoot straight down and then you get a super wedgie at the bottom. Kelsi and Jaxon spent most of the day "swimming" in the shallow pool. Mostly Kelsi dragged me around screaming, "let go of my life jacket...I can swim by myself!" (Which she really couldn't.) All in all it was a SWELL day at the pool except for the fact that I GOT A SUNBURN!!!! AUGH!!!! After all of my precautions, I forgot to reapply! And I only got burned in splotchy spots. One spot on my neck, one on my shoulder, one on my upper arm, etc., etc. So it's not even an EVEN sunburn...I look like Splotch woman!

Other events of the week: The boys have officially taken over the job of cleaning the office all by themselves. Which translates into three hours every night of me saying, "Come on boys, I'm not paying you to mess around!" They have gotten slightly faster as the week has progressed so there is a glimmer of hope that I won't be spending all evening, every evening at the office training the boys in the art of janitorial services. One more story: One night during scripture study Garett was reading about David and Goliath. He read about a place called Ephes-dammim. Jaxon looked at him and said, "Ephes-dammim? Ephes-dammim?????? I KNOW HIM!!!!!"

THE END!

Our summer in a nutshell!

Hello! Hey, my second post...and not in seven months...still no photos! So for those of you that I've left completely in the dark, here is our summer in a nutshell. June was spent at the cabin with Andy's family. It was a great time and the kids loved being with all of their cousins. We went to Yellowstone where we ate lunch with a giant herd of Mama buffalo with their new babies. We also got thrown up on by Old Faithful. It was fairly windy and when Old Faithful erupted all we could see was a big cloud of steam coming our way. We must have been mesmerized and hypnotized because we all just stood there watching the steam ball getting closer and closer. The steam finally got to us along with a shower of sulfur water...YUCK! The rest of June was spent getting ready for girls camp. That was stress!!!!! Camp went well. There were no tears, no fights, and really not any drama (that I know of). So I consider that a HUGE success. I did only get 6 hours of sleep the entire time we were there and the belt on my tire burst on the way to Playmill. Thankfully we were near a gas station with a garage with a priesthood leader who works at a tire store who knew exactly what to do (like which air hose was the right one to use--I was trying to use the one you blow up inner tubes with). Ten minutes and ten bucks later and we were on the road....blessings!
After girls camp, Andy headed off to Scout camp with Carson and Garett. That was Stress for him!!!!!! Half way through camp Garett barfed in the tent! Andy and Clyde had the sheer pleasure of cleaning up puke while camping (one of my nightmares). Garett ended up coming home early...poor kid. Oh, I almost forgot....right before girls camp Andy was called to be the first counselor in our bishopric...more stress for him. So far he does NOT enjoy conducting! After camps were over we had a week to recover then Brett, Kim and Tyler came to our neck of the woods for his 20 year high school reunion! We went to Yellowstone with them and after SIX years of going to Yellowstone every summer we finally saw a BEAR!!!!! Yes a real live bear in the wild...not even at Bear world. Unfortunately my camera was "processing" and then I was yelling at the kids to calm down because they were screaming at the top of their lungs so I didn't even get proof of the event. I think Brett got a photo but then he said it got erased somehow. You'll just have to take our word for it. We got to spend a week hanging out with Brett's family...it was terrific!!!!! Tony, Jenna and cutie pie Ari came to Idaho next and we had like a mini reunion, complete with a smokin' game of soccer in the backyard (none of my flowers or lights are the same) and a fast paced Uno competition (the only kind Tony will play--the other kind is too boring). We also played a couple of games of laser tag, went to Twizzleberry twice, and saw The Sorcerers Apprentice (a pleasant surprise) and The Last Airbender (totally lame...in my opinion).
This last week was spent trying to catch up on all of the cleaning I've been neglecting all summer long and laundry....EXCITING!!!!!
Oh Yeah, all three boys are playing soccer this summer too. They each have two games a week, same day...sometimes same time...different places.
We only have like three more weeks until school starts! Wow! Where did the lazy days of summer go?
Today I poured boiling water on my hand so that was really dumb and now I have a big burn on my hand....Youch!
O.K. so there you go...If you can read through that crazy, disjointed post...Kudos to you!

First Blog Post!

Hello Family!!!! I'm finally doing my new years resolution!!!!! A BLOG!!! Thanks to Jenna who is my tutor throughout this process! Hey, it only took me SEVEN months! Pretty good, huh! So the new goal is to update this every Sunday so you know what is going on in our world (if you have the desire to know what is going on in our world). These pictures are old and you have all seen them, but I have all of my new photos on my camera still (that is my other new years resolution--give me seven more months). These photos are being used for tutorial purposes. I'll update them as soon as I figure out exactly what I'm doing!