Max!

This is Max. Lately he likes to chew on his shirt - can you see it? I don't know if he's getting teeth or what, but his shirt gets soaking wet and cold. On Sunday, we were sitting in church (Dale was out of town) and Max was repeatedly saying "I want to go home". If you know Max, you'll know he doesn't have a nice quiet voice. I took him out into the hall and patiently told him that we weren't going to go home and that I was going back into the chapel and he was going to come with me. Silly me - I thought he would follow me because he was all alone and scared. Noooooo! After sitting down for a couple of minutes, I told Taylor to go get him and bring him in. Taylor comes back and says "I couldn't find him" - Uh Oh! I then sent Amy out to look a little harder. She comes back at the same time that Max is escorted to me by a fellow ward member who informs me that Max was OUTSIDE by the road and someone had brought him in. HOW HUMILIATING!!! I guess he thought he could just walk home. Oh this 3 year old of mine - I'm not sure he will make it to 4.
Max started pre-school this week. Hooray! I can run errands without him telling me he wants to go home and trying to climb out of the cart. Here he is practicing his "I".
Despite him being very rambunctious, he's a lot of fun and we love him a lot.

Taylor's Eagle Project

This is Taylor at the Homeless Youth Center down town Salt Lake City delivering his backpacks for his Eagle Project.

He collected essential and fun items and put them into backpacks for the homeless youth for Christmas. It was great to see him getting donations for corporations and ward members. He was able to fill 10 backpacks!

Kendall

This is Kendall making a touchdown. His team has done AWESOME! They've only had one loss and I don't think any other team even scored on them.
Kendall has been in the ALPS program this year (Advanced learning program). He had a people in history program and he wrote and recited his poem on Alexander Flemming - the Discoverer of Penicillin. His quote was "One sometimes finds what one is not looking for" - isn't that the truth?

Halloween

She's such a good sport.

" One of these kids is not like the other" - We didn't plan on Taylor trick or treating, but he scrounged something out of the costume bucket and went as Napoleon Dynamite. Everyone else - Cowboys - even Shelby. It was a bit rainy, but didn't stop those buckets from getting filled up. Taylor had a little friend get together that night too which added to the fun.

The kids always have a good time doing this, but do you see how thick those pumpkins are??? Dale had to get out his saw - Milwaukee ofcourse to do most of the carving.

I did this one by hand. By Halloween it was a little wrinkly.

Our Neighbor's Cabin

Kendall gettin' a little crazy on the rope.

Max had so much fun playing with the dog, riding 4-wheelers and being in the mountains.

The kids had fun playing games and being with friends.

Court of Honor

Someone earned their Eagle scout award and the Tracy Aviary brought a golden eagle to the church and compared an eagle to an eagle scout - pretty cool.

Taylor earned 10 merit badges and needs to do an eagle project. Any good ideas?
Kendall is now a second class and VERY close to first class

Max turns 3

Max loved these trucks and so did the rest of the kids. They loved them so much and played with them so much that I can no longer find either one of them.
Max really wanted a real golf club he found at the sporting goods store, but got this instead.

Peaches are in season so Max got a peach pie instead of a cake. Cheers to turning 3!

Football

Kendall - doing a pretty good job keeping this bigger kid away from the quarterback.
Taylor plays defensive end. This football schedule is rigorous with someone having a 2 hour practice every night and games every Saturday - I'm already worn out and it's not even half over.

First Day of School

An eighth grader

Sixth grader


Fourth Grader

Second Grader

And one punk who stays hom with mom equals three different car pools - Yikes!

Fun with the Hendricks

Our fun friends the Hendricks came up to see us and we had lots of fun going to Silver Lake and This is the Place Heritage Park, and shooting guns. The kids got along perfectly - it was so much fun to see them.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip to Lewiston and Logan. This is the gravesite of my grandparents.
This is the little Logan zoo. The kids had fun swimming at the hotel and watching Shrek 3.

Camping with some of the Mortensen Clan

I think that's an ax that Brooklyn has - yikes! Summer loves having cousins her age
Sittin' around the fire.

Kev and Jackie

Ron and Jill

"I need a drink"

The kids love the fire. . . and smores.

Performances

This is Kendall with one of our neighbors. He was in the school choir and even had a solo part. He really impressed me with his voice.

The girls have been doing dance and just had their recital. Amy did hip hop (but decided she's done) and Summer did a combo class that did a little of everything. Aren't they so beautiful?

I have been a terrible blogger. The only thing I can blame it on is my camera. It takes such high resolution pictures that it takes forever to download them. I'll try better.

Amy is the bubble blowing champ.

Max is showing off his BIG BOY underwear. Yes, he's potty training and he has not been the easiest child to train. In fact he may even be worse than Amy. He will be great one day and I think he's got it, then the next day he'll pee his pants 4 times. He won't poop on the toilet and when he poops in his pants he pulls them down and manages to smear the poop on the floor. Not sure how he does this because he goes in the bathroom and sneaks because he knows I want him to poop in the toilet. I'm at my wits end with this one.

This is the mountain of Nutella banana crepes we made - YUM - O!

Okay, so my kids like a good snack and who doesn't right? This was Max's first time (that he can remember) with fondue and he thought it was the best 'chocolate dip' ever.

We're nearing the end of baseball season. Dale has helped with coaching and the boys have been playing really well.

Moab Half Marathon

Last November my neighbor asked if I wanted to do a half marathon in Moabwith some other people in the neighborhood. I was very reluctant, but thought it would be a good motivator to run more.

After 12 weeks of training the day finally came - the first day of spring.

These two fun women ran the race - this is us afterward.
The kids greeted me at the end. We had to camp because all the hotels were full AND it was pretty cold.

Here I am just passed mile 11, passing our campground. When I saw Dale there it made me want to sprint to the finish - of course it was still 2 miles away. The course followed the Colorado River down the canyon and was beautiful. More up hill than I had thought though. My time was 2 hours 15 minutes and 38 seconds.

This is just before the race. It was pretty cold and we had to be shuttled up the canyon. They let us bundle up then send our warm clothes down in these purple bags to be picked up later. I was surprised how many people just threw their clothes on the side of the road when they got hot. AND how many people peed on the side of the road. All in all it was a good run and
I DID IT!

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Winter Fun

Kendall went skiing for the first time with the scouts - he loved it! His good buddy from Florida came to ski in Park City and we met up with them - we're still missing Florida a bit, but at least the weather is starting to warm up.
These are the Ice cream sundaes we got at Leatherby's - YUM!