emBraced!

Today was the big day for Bean, she has been waiting for who knows how long to get braces so she can suffer like all her friends. She was a little nervous. . . .but very brave.
Not much to say here. This is our fourth in braces (Bryan got them three years ago) and so we are all old pros at what to eat, what to avoid and how long to brush. If it all goes smoothly we will have a six month break between Bethany's coming off and Aubry's going on. Jonathan's come off some time after the first of the year. One more milestone down.

Pancakes anyone??

What a cute face. Isn't she adorable?
Broke down to Daphne "begging" - "I am begging you mom- let me make cookies."
(It is almost time to get the kids, we will hurry and make the dough and roll out it after we get the kids.)

I pour two bags of cookie mix into the bowl, 2 eggs and a stick and a half of butter. I am mixing it. Why did I not use the kitchen aid?
Oh the bowl is dirty. . . in the sink . . . covered under a bunch of other also dirty dishes. (dishwasher broke, another story)
Stir more, stir even more, s t i r r i n g, S t i r r i n g. S T I r r i n g.
Finally i break down (Again)- I will hurry and do up the dishes.
I can get them done.. and mix the cookies . . . . and get Daphne changed to leave the house (she is still in her Christmas dress- she has only taken it off three times since Sunday)
Iwill hurry and wash all these dishes, see I am almost done.
Daphne says over my shoulder from the stool at the counter " You needed water in it right?"
"No honey." I say, I should get that bowl and put the dough in the kitchen aid.
I am almost done with all the dishes, I can put the dough in the bowl and turn on the mixer and then change Daphne's clothes. We will can still make it... we won't be late.

There I am done. Here is the bowl.....
......and here my 4 year old has poured a cup of water into the cookie dough. It's ruined. I add a few tablespoons of flour // maybe that will help. I put it in the ktichen aid.
It is not helping. It is like pancake batter. It's completely ruined.

I tell Daphne to go get herself dressed with warm clothes. I go to grab my shoes.

What is that hissing noise I hear? ? ? ? ? ? ?

That sounds like, . . . . .
Daphne in the corner of the kitchen with a can of whipped cream in her mouth!

Is this going to be the terrible 4s??????
I really thought I was in the home stretch!

Ode to AUNT September

It is so sad when September goes away.
Everybody cries and wishes she could stay.
Daphne is addicted to playing booty tag.
Compared to September I am just an old gray hag.
Now September is in Alaska
and all Daphne can say
Is Will you take ME to Alaska to see her
RIGHT AWAY!!!


I wrote this post the last time September came to see us. She left 3 or 4 months ago and it is still all Daphne talks about. Daphne calls her everyday. Anytime anyone says "Let's go...... anywhere" Daphne counters it with Let's go to Alaska and see September. I don't know if it is because September was there when Daphne was born, or if it is because she lived with us for so much of Daphne's toddler life, but the two are soul sisters in a crazy way.

Bean

So Nee-Nee the amazing tried to help me write some descriptions of these picutres. She is a pretty neat kid. But I think she said it best when she tried to label this post Plain Awesome!

She loves Sixth grade, singing, dancing, and gymnastics. She enjoys reading and avoiding chores. I can't say that I have been successful on the teaching of work ethic, but there is still time. She is brave girl for all her quirky fears, and I am so excited to see her grown up.

Number 49

So who knew after 13 years of sweating over this kid playing football that it would be such a fun season! I am so blessed that #49 started as a 5'8" 130 lbs. It could have been a little more stressful if he hadn't started out so big. The Grizzlies had a great season and we enjoyed every game. Only 2 losses. We all had fun cheering them on and pigging out on the sidelines. Nothing brings a family together like watching one of them getting beat up while a crowd goes wild. We cant wait for next year. And now we are on to Wrestling, so he can learn how to tackle better? Oye vey! Those pictures are going to be money!

Halloween madness

This is Grace. Beth's friend. Her sister is below with Aubs.

This is Cinderella, aka poser queen.
I forgot Aubry was Hermoine for trick or treating. This is her friend Audrey. Yes it is wacky.
I did edit this photo so Jonathan would look creepier.

I don't claim to be any kind of great photographer. In fact photography falls into that category of "if I can't do it perfect lets just do something so i can say I'm not a loser". (I realize this makes me only one step up from loser.) But because I posted these wacky pictures, I am also one step up from loser daughter. So happy Halloween mom. If I could send you all our Babyruths, I would!

Thomas

I distinctly remember Thomas' 8th grade graduation was one of the last things that should have gotten on the blog and didn't. So here is his picture in his $10 suit from Last Chance. And here a few others for your enjoyment (When I say your I really just mean my mom- but you guys can look too.) As you can see ....Thomas is a lot taller than me. He calls me "Shorty", and likes to stand in front of me and just look down at least once a day. I let him. What ever makes you feel good Thomas, Jonathan is gaining on you.



This photo is us dancing in the 3rd floor of the Cultural Hall in Nauvoo. That is the original wood floor that Joseph Smith drew on with chalk after he had a vision of taking the saints west. That was a fun day.

Lessons from the beach?

Did you catch that? Let's try one more time. I have seventeen pictures of this booty call. Daffodil ran around for nearly an hour like this. She didn't even notice. Eventually Bryan noticed and fixed her swimsuit. All I did was snap photos and pout after he rescued her bum.
So my new attitude to blogging is.....have fun even if your bum is hanging out? Or Just go for it! There is some wisdom in there somewhere.

I am taking over!

It is time for me to pony up and take control of my own family blog. I feel that for a year at least I have been standing on a cliff waiting to jump.

Can I really have my inner thoughts and feelings out there for all to read???
Should I really share our most funny (yet often most embarrassing) moments with EVERYONE?
Will anyone read it? (This presents the rejection like no other..well not NO other)

Having a blog is almost as bad as having a yard sale. Why would I care if people drive by and not stop? Can I honestly expect that anyone would want my cast offs?? Or want them so bad they would pay for them?

Some pretty weird things haunt me. And and here are two...an image of me standing on the corner yelling at people to come pay me to haul away my junk, and the cliff that having a blog represents. I am not afraid to jump off a cliff and splash into the ocean, but the cliff I see in my mind says blog at the top under my feet... and when I look down all I see is a small puddle in the desert.

Dad takes Test

Ok, so I think that we all know that Dad has already taken his test, but for memories sake, I am posting the event so that I can feel like I got everything major during the summer. So..

WE HOPE YOU PASS!!!!!

The End of School (and the beginning of summer)

Well, not much to say after that exciting title. Its a pity I don't have any pictures (although I am kind of relieved, there's so many other things to do, I have 3 posts uploading pictures as I type, and the Mac is running kind of slow) because they were alot of happy expressions and just a general feeling of invincibility about the house, but it is kind of hard to capture that on camera. So, as a sum-up, the end of school was very enjoyable, and everyone celebrated (except Mom-there was no ice in the freezer for a few weeks hence:-)

I feel bad?

Yes, yes, it HAS been over 2 months since this blog has been updated. Yes, I feel bad, and am totally responsible for the slackage that occurred. And Yes, that should all go away with the posting of this post.

Ok, now that that is past, we can get on to the big task that is swelling before me like an over-inflated balloon. I need to now sort through all of the new pictures, (of EVERYTHING over the summer, e.g. Fourth of July, the Family Camp out, our vacation to Nauvoo, and SO much more) and discern (is that spelled correctly?) what needs to be posted. With such a daunting task ahead, I feel somewhat compelled to say to any young readers that procrastination is not something you should plan on doing in life, as it tends to present you with the same problem, only bigger later on down the road.

And, since I missed it, I would like to congratulate myself and others on the terrific-ness of this blog because we have already reached the one year mark since this blog was created. Hurray us!
Now, on to the show....more and more and more posts will soon follow this one updating the entire blog on how our summer (and the beginning/end of it) was spent. Enjoy!

Look down below this post

Maybe its because the post is down in the middle of the blog,but a few weeks back, we finally got to upload this hilarious video of Daphne throwing snowballs, and were totally expecting a major comment turnout from the Peanut Gallery. I just wanted to point that out, because this vid. is one of the funniest I have seen in a long time. Its only 8-9 posts down, and is only about 1:30 long, so it shouldn't take up TOO much time.

What Mom does in her spare time...

Ok, this is insane, and I'm soooo glad that we got pictures, because this is the craziest thing Mom has done since forever, and is now officially the reigning Queen of 'Codebreaker' until further notice.

The quality is horrible, I know, its just kind of hard to take a picture of a screen, and since we have a Mac, we couldn't just use that nifty, "Print Screen" button on the keyboard, which isn't put on the Mac keyboards.

New Updates

Well everyone, a lot has happened in the past week, including, but not limited to:
Me forgetting to post pictures of last weeks Astronomy Pictures,
Mom's best friend's father passing away,
Dad leaving to spend a full week in Canada to study for the CFA Level III exam,
Aubry trying out for the Talent Show (and getting in, hurray!),
and Mom finally figuring out her all time hobby, Codebreaker, in one try (Yes, we have proof)

First things first, pictures of Astronomy from last weekend (sorry there isn't anything from tonight, I just don't have the stamina to get out the telescope and adjust it, etc. without someone else to help, and since neither Mom nor Jonathan are interested in the extraterrestrial, I'm not going outside) These aren't anything special, just pictures of the moon. In brief, we couldn't take pics of anything else because we (Dad and I) had just gotten back from showing one of our home teaching family s the sky through a basic telescope (which was very exciting).



You can see some craters, faintly, but not all that clearly because we are stil trying to figure out a way to hold the camera steadily throughout the exposure.

--
Thomas

Moon occultation of Venus April 22, 2009

Ok, I know Thomas said we wouldn't post anything until Sunday....but earlier this morning was a rare occurrence called an occultation.  The planet Venus was occulted (covered) by the Moon.  It was only visible from North America and we had a perfect shot of it from here in Prescott.  The sky was clear and the temperature was about 60 degrees - an ideal setting to wake up to.   From our house we had to drive over the hill so we could see the sight since it was so low in the sky.  When I crested the hill it was an incredible sight to see Venus so close to the crescent moon.  I got out my camera and started taking pictures.  I am still getting used to the camera and didn't realize until Venus had almost disappeared that I could digitally zoom even more.  It still turned out great.  Simple things like this give me great delight.

Sunday Night Astronomy

Thanks to a wonderful telescope we were gifted for Christmas of last year, we can now see the heavens in a new way. The post of Venus was only the beginning of what I hope will be called "Sunday Night Astronomy". When the opportunity presents itself, every Sunday night, we will attempt to observe and take pictures of other celestial bodies. We took some pictures of Mercury tonight, and I wanted to share some of them with you all (its harder to get a clean picture of Mercury than of Venus, because Mercury is so much smaller, even though it is closer to the sun).  The picture in the middle is DIGITALLY ENHANCED to show detail, while the picture above it is similar, but not changed.  The picture on the bottom is my personal favorite, as it displays the visible spectrum reflected by Mercury of the sun's light.

--

Thomas

Weekend fun for the boys

Over the weekend we worked on our house. First we let the boys have a party. They had about 14 teenagers downstairs. I feel crazy old. Bryan and I took turns "checking" on them in the basement. (And i pigged out on the coffee cake a kid named Smiley brought to share.) I need to get Smiley's recipe.

Saturday the boy fun continued as Bryan and Uncle Jared started working on a loft in our game room. Power tools, drill bits, and tape measures, levels, powersaws.

I WISH I HAD CLAWS!!!

After a long trip to San Diego to visit our friends in 2002 I had an incredible experience that can be summarized by this edited photo. We arrived at our friends very late and quickly got our children settled in sleeping bags on the floor. Wendie and I visited briefly with our gracious hosts and then we got settled on couches. I hadn't gotten to sleep when Thomas came up to me and insisted that I get something out of the car for him. It was cold and I thought it was an unnecessary request at such a late hour. After several unsuccessful attempts to persuade me to get the item Thomas became somewhat enraged. All but a few night lights were off in the house when Thomas, eerily illuminated, obviously disturbed and potentially possessed, stood there stiffly with his arms folded and teeth clamped together and growled, "I WISH I HAD CLAWS!!!" For a moment I was truly concerned for my personal well being and wondered how I could be the father of such a demon spawn. Fortunately the night passed without incident and after sending him to a "special school" Xavier has done wonders with my son (this is from the movie X-men).

Amateur Astrology

My horoscope has been telling me to get into Astronomy.(JK) We have a telescope that I recently used to see the last phase of Venus before it dips into the sun's glare. I tried to get a picture using the camera pointed into the lens of the telescope. I was quite pleased at my first attempt to capture an image. I'll have to figure out a way to get it to be more steady. In spite of my lack of experience you can still clearly see the multi-colored crescent shape of Venus. Bryan

Best Snow in Prescott in 8-9 years

Daphne's first snowball.

Here we are in our igloo that we built on our front porch. It was a lot warmer inside than outside. We could even stand up in it.

Throwing Snowballs back in Feb.

Another perfect moment caught on video.

We took this of Daphne playing in the snow for the first time. It was during the big snow storm we had in Feb. Bryan was shoveling the driveway and it was coming down so fast he would just have to start over again and again. Daphne was out playing and I thought she would come in when Bryan was done, but it looked like he would be awhile so I she had to come in by herself. (Mostly becuase I was cold!) She was having so much fun! Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Snow

We woke up this morning in a Winter Wonderland.  It is so beautiful that I almost cried.  Then my kids started fighting and I ignored them to stare out my window  and admire everything covered  in this beautiful blanket of white.  I hate to pull a Stuart Davis but here it is.  High today 44.  Snow today and tomorrow on the forecast.  Stay tuned for the video of us driving to church at 90 miles an hour.

Thumb Butte hike

Here we are on a family hike up Thumb Butte near our home in Prescott.  Aubry, Jonathan and Bryan climbed to the very top through some very steep and slippery areas.   Humprey's Peak is in the background.

On the way down the "mountain" Daphne was in her stroller when it got away for just a brief moment.  Just as the stroller was tipping over and Daphne was about to fall on her face, Wendie caught her and the stroller and said, "Don't worry!  You're okay.  Mommy saved you!"  Daphne then said, "Wow!  Do you have super powers?"   We have known for a long time that Wendie is Wonder Woman.

There was still snow on the north side of the mountain which made for a slippery ascent and descent at times.  Thomas fell on some of the ice and hurt his thumb pretty good.  Ironic that it was on "Thumb Butte".

Stopped by the store to pick up some ice cream on the way home.  We ate homemade blizzards as a way to finish off the afternoon.

What a fun day with the family.

15th Anniversary spent in Hawaii

We had an opportunity to go to Hawaii for our 15th wedding anniversary.  I convinced Wendie to go on a 22-mile backpacking trip along the Na Pali Coast on Kauai.  It was a very challenging hike to say the least but we all made it.  We went with some dear friends of ours - Stuart and Carmelle Davis.

Bryan and Wendie on a cliff at sunset with a spot cut out in the foliage that overlooks Kalalau.  This was an absolutely gorgeous place.  The shore behind us looks deceptively close.

The picture of the plant with the surf behind it was taken from our campsite.  Being that we were there in November the surf was really rough.  In fact, there was only one guy that was brave/stupid enough to go into the waves at all.  If it is any indication of his state of mind - he was very "au natural".

Wendie and Bryan at the Marriott hotel enjoying some rest and relaxation at last.

Wendie was such a trooper.  It was rough but we will always look back on the trip with fond memories.

Bryan