My Boys

Today my boys were passing the sacrament and it just worked out that they did our row. Justin passed it to me and it went along our row and then Kamryn gave it to Taylor. I think that is the first time that has worked out. It was great to watch them honoring their priesthood.

Lost all his wisdom

On St Patrick's Day Justin lost his wisdom -

his wisdom teeth that is.

He went to an oral surgeon and was in and out in an hour and had all 4 removed.

He was SO FUNNY when he was coming out of the anesthetic. He kept trying to talk to me and his mouth was all full of gauze so I couldn't understand him. It was the most animated I've seen him. I was laughing so hard. Jared and Kamryn were with us and they thought Justin was super funny.

He's been a good patient and is doing very well now, the next day.

Happy St Paddy's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day

Green is a favorite color of many in our family

so we look forward to the great green day

Justin

Taylor

Jared

Kamryn

Brooke

FrontRunner FieldTrip

A couple of weeks ago Jared and Kamryn said they wanted to go on a train. I thought that sounded fun and told them that we could do it soon. I asked my sister if she wanted to join us and they did.

At the trax station waiting for the first train. Jared and Kamryn had never even been on trax. They thought it stopped A LOT!

Katie looking for the train.

Its pretty slick getting to the front runner train - trax took us right there. Here are the kids in front of the train. They were very excited to go on that train and made sure we were going up on the top.

All excited to leave on the FAST train

Luckily my sister was smart to know we should go prepared with entertainment and snacks for the train ride. We were on the train for about 40 min. The kids had a great time sitting at the table and coloring.

When we got off the train in Ogden we had no idea what we would find there - its the old town part of Ogden. We saw this free Trolley and thought we might as well ride that too.

The driver was very friendly and pointed out places we could go to for lunch. We ended up getting out by Iggy's and he even took our picture.

Holly and her girls met us for lunch.

They only live about 7 min from there.

We had a good lunch at Iggy's-

the kids were a little disappointed that we didn't find a play-place type place to eat at.

After lunch Holly dropped us off back at the train station so we could get on the next train.

And it was just in time too.

We had a great time on our adventure and

my kids are already asking when we can do it again.

Life Scout

This last Sunday Taylor was presented with his Life rank advancement at a court of honor.

He's way ahead of where his older brother was at the same age in scouting :)

Getting my hard earned pin

Justin was playing photographer so I don't really have any good pictures.

I am very proud of Taylor for what he's accomplished in scouting. There are only 2 active scouts in his troop and its been a real struggle to get stuff done in scouts. But he has a great scoutmaster that is trying really hard to help these 2 boys get through the program.

next up - eagle project this summer.

Guess I'm Famous

So last night we got a TON of snow - 14" to be precise. That is my ruler down in the snow in my front yard this morning.

The bushes and the roof in the front. I was mainly taking the pictures to send to Paul who is gone the whole week to Cody, WY for work.

I sent this picture to the Deseret News/KSL in response to their website requesting emails as to how much snow you got and where you lived.

Well, I've heard from my aunt and one of my friends that they showed this picture with my name on the news tonight! So I guess I'm famous now.

PS the video is on ksl now - http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=88

Arches

Taylor and Justin were invited to join the 4th ward (part of our old ward) on a scout outing to Arches. Justin had been before and was excited to go again. Taylor had never been there

checking out the desert ice

Taylor

justin reported that they did 10 miles of hiking

to see the arches

I love this photo!

thanks to the leaders for taking pictures

good group of scouts

Taylor going back to the 80s look

Of course there had to be some shooting

check out those socks

Taylor with his buddies,

Michael and Jon

The Painted Veil

Just got done watching The Painted Veil with Brooke.

It was the 3rd time I've watched that movie and I have to say I really love that movie. If you haven't seen it, you should.

Need an Idea

Tonight we had a very successful combined mutual activity.

This was a VIP dinner organized by the YM and YW. The bishop had asked us if there was something we could do for some of the older and somewhat lonely people in our ward. Our combined presidencies decided we could host a dinner for these VIPs. Luckily the bishop asked someone to head up the dinner committee (she was actually pretty much a 1 person committee) and she cooked the food for the 60 people that attended.

We decided on the theme of "The Grass is Always Greener on the other side"

A couple of weeks ago some of the youth delivered invitations to a list of people put together by the bishopric. Then tonight a leader picked up their assigned youth and then they picked up their VIP and then came to the ward for the dinner and a program. We had a couple of youth perform some musical numbers and then our YM pres had gathered up pictures of all of our VIPs from when they were young and then he showed them on the big screen and we all tried to figure out who they were. Before and during dinner, there were questions on the table to help the youth learn more about their VIPs. It was a great evening and everyone seemed to really have a good time.

Matt Butler with his VIP, which happens to be my uncle Don

(who also happens to be one of the YM leaders).

Justin with his VIP, Maria.

She is from Chile and I'm not sure how much they really talked.

Taylor with his VIP, Janice Casull.

My mom and dad at the VIP dinner.

I was surpised they were at the dinner -

I don't consider them old or lonely.

Follow up to Outraged post

Would the reader of this blog that called the Canyons District office about Justin's little prank please call me.

Primary Picture

This is a picture of our primary kids all wearing their shirts that say "I know the scriptures are true." Can you spot Jared and Kamryn?

Getting a Jump on it

This is a letter Jared wrote to Santa yesterday during church.

This is what he wrote:

"Dear Santa, How is Rudolph doing? I want a pillow pet or more super squad and spiderman. Santa How many reindeer do you have?

From Jared To Santa"

I had to sneak a picture of this before he mailed it.

The Tooth Fairy

Kamryn with her first lost tooth

We were over at our friends' house and Kamryn came up to me, near tears, and had a little blood on her cheek and her fingers. I asked what was wrong and thought she'd gotten hurt. She opened her mouth and showed me the gap in her mouth. She'd had a tooth fall out and she had no idea where it was. I didn't even know it was loose! I looked more closely and saw that the new tooth is through the gums and right there ready to come in. I still have no idea what really happened. Kamryn said she thought she bit on something but I never really got a clear picture from her. I think she swallowed the tooth. She was definitely upset about that and was worried about the tooth fairy coming. I told her its happened before in our family and we'd just leave the tooth fairy a note. She perked up at that.

So before she went to bed we wrote a note and put it under her pillow. In the morning she found the tooth fairy left her a gold dollar. Her comment to that "I wish the tooth fairy left us a toy or a present."

Yesterday's Project

Jared and Kamryn's room has been quite a disaster for awhile and I finally tackled the big clean up project. And for once I remembered to take a before picture (thanks to my cousin Amanda's post on her blog that day).

BEFORE

AFTER

I was hoping to create a little more free space for them by moving the dressers around but I'm not sure I really succeeded. It is at least clean and lot of clutter is gone. I did most of this while they were home but they were playing and not really in the room while I was throwing stuff away and making piles for the DI.

Jared did come in while I was in the middle of it and wanted to help. Luckily it was time to take them to school so I told him he could finish up some of it after school. He specifically wanted to take stuff out of the DI pile and put it somewhere. I didn't tell him that stuff would be gone when he got home. I didn't want to deal with the trauma right then and was hoping he would forget about the stuff.

Right when I picked him up from school he asked about the cars and where did I put them. I just avoided the question and let them go in and see their newly cleaned room. Luckily he saw the new piggy bank I got him and then I never heard about the cars again.

Hopefully it can stay clean at least for a few days.

I was Outraged

Last night I was checking out my kids grades on Skyward (what a great thing for parents, a terrible thing for students and i'm glad it wasn't around when I was a student) and noticed this note in red on Brooke's calendar page:

Physics/Carlson

Brooke shows a bad attitude in Physics and should be punioshed at home for this. She is a disruptive influence, and very disrespectful. I couldn't believe it! Who would ever write that about Brooke? I was so mad and I told Paul he had to go in to the school and talk to that teacher and/or principal because if I went in I was going to lose it. He said I should go in. I couldn't figure it out - who would write that about Brooke? That should have been my first clue. This teacher has had run ins with Justin last year but never Brooke. I could believe it if she wrote it about Justin but not Brooke. So this morning I got up and showed the note on skyward to Brooke. She was totally puzzled and all she said was "I don't even remember that day." I told her I was going in to talk to the teacher and she said "Ok, just not while I'm there." Then I showed it to Justin. He just started laughing. I thought because it was so ironic that Carlson would write that about Brooke. He just kept laughing. I said why do you think this is so funny? He said, "I don't think its funny for the reason you think I think its funny." (what??) Then he proceeds to explain how he wrote it! WHAT?? He hacked into Skyward. Not really hacked but somehow figured out he could write a note like he was a teacher. Ends up to be very funny, a great April Fools day joke early.

I'm married to an old man

So last night Paul mentioned that he probably needs to get some reading glasses. I'd noticed.

When we read scriptures at night, he puts his scriptures pretty far away from him. And I've noticed that he kind of struggles to see the words. I told him to try my mom's reading glasses that she keeps here. He was able to read much better and didn't have to hold his scriptures so far away.

What you've been waiting for ...

I've hesitated to put these pictures up because we're not all done but we've at least reached "substantial completion"

The above picture is on the first day the furniture was delivered. Right when they brought it in I saw 2 problems - they brought the floor models instead of the new set we were supposed to get.

And, the furniture didn't contrast at all with the main paint color. We'd tried so hard to pick just the right paint.

When Paul got home that night we decided we had to paint again and the very next day he painted the 2 corner walls a chestnut brown and it looks so much better. I love the color and sometimes think we should paint the rest of the walls that color too.

This is with the new brown walls, the green accent wall and the new TV installed on the wall.

The brown recliner is from the old living room and we are leaving it there until we get the new chairs we've ordered. We're still not sure how we're going to arrange the furniture for sure - again waiting for the other 2 chairs to be finished.

the chair and ottoman are my favorite, along with everyone else, and its a fight to get to the living room first when we're having prayers and scriptures to get that chair.

I'm still hunting for the right corner table. and accessories.

The chair in the corner by the window is new and was on debate for a couple of weeks but we've decided to keep it. Its very comfortable and reclines. We're just not sure we're going to have room for 3 chairs and if they all will go together. oh well, if it doesn't work maybe i'll put it in my room.

This has been the greatest project and its so nice to be getting to the end. Last night Paul finished painting the entry and put it in a new light which we've never had in there so that will be really great. I did buy some plants to add some greenery to the room and I really like them (sorry no pictures of them yet).

We still need to get the piano moved back into the room and figure out where to put my rocking chair and recliner until we finish the family room downstairs.