Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas again this year. It started out on Christmas eve at the Annual Christmas Eve program at the church, then we came home and ate dinner and opened the pajamas, then Christmas morning was filled with ripping paper, and lots of fun. Later we ventured out and drove to Hyrum to spend the rest of the day with Grandma and Grandpa Petersen and Aunt Shelly even dropped in. we played games and opened more presents. We spent the night there, as a huge snowstorm came in we were a little worried if we would get out the next day. We knew the snow was comming, so we drove our little red toyota, wich does great in the snow, but we are quite crowded in it. Anyways as morning came, we checked the road reports, and with blue skies we decided to head up to Idaho Falls. The roads were on and off good and bad, we did see about 5 vehicles off the road, but I think most of them were from the night before. We made it to Idaho Falls, and enjoyed spending time with family. We again opened presents, and just had a good time visiting, and the kids had a ball playing the Wii, and playing with cousins. We had a hotel, so the kids had fun swimming at the pool, then we came back on Sunday, and today I am spending my time digging out of our suitcases. All in all, it was a great Christmas. I hope you all had a merry one too.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Twilight

So, my husband wasn't too thrilled about me wanting to drag him out thanksgiving weekend to go see Twilight, but he said he would go, (what a trooper), but on monday my friend Amanda called and said that she had seen it, but would like to go again, and they were showing it in Evanston, at 9:45 pm so we could go after the kids were in bed.

We decided to go, and we invited everyone we saw on tuesday, or tried to, it was so last minute, I am sorry if we didn't get to anyone who wanted to go, but we had about 12 ladies who went, it was so much fun just to get a night out with the girls, and watch the movie that we all enjoyed.

I loved it!! Of course, I tend to forget most of the book about a week after I read it, so I wasn't thinking about what was left out. Now I want to read the book again!

We decided that we need to do this about once a month (to keep our sanity) Girl's night out!!

If we missed you this time, but want to come next time, let me know!

Now I decided that I will try to drag my MIL and her sister to the movie on thanksgiving, I told Jason that him and his dad can take the kids to Madagascar! We'll see how it goes, but I definetley want to see it again!

2 a.m. Honking

Most people if they woke up at 2am to honking, and screaming would grab the phone and dial 911, but living in a small community, this happens hopefully a few times a year, and it happened again this weekend. No it was not Halloween parnksters out smashing pumpkins, or anything.
Here is the story...
I was sound asleep, and something woke me up, at first I thought it may have been our puppy needing to go out (she does that sometimes), but as I laid there trying to get my mind to work, I reallized it was honking and screamming!! I turned to Jason who must have been awoken also, and said "We must have took state" then I turned around and went back to sleep.
Yes, whenever one of our High School teams takes state, no matter how late they roll into town, they drive the streets in a caravan honking and screaming, usually starting with the bus and all the athletes, then followed by the fans (aka parents) they are hanging out the windows and screaming, and honking their horns letting everyone know that they took state!!
All in all, I don't think too many people mind, we are just used to it. It didn't even wake any of my kids!!

Congratualtions Coach Stuart and her volleyball team!!!

Good luck Coach Brown, we hope to be awoken again when you take state football!!

October

My sister Robyn has been after me to update my blog, so it may be a little long, we have had several things going on this last month. So grab your popcorn!!

First of all, Jason had a once in a lifetime Buffalo hunt that he drew out on. It was down in the Henry mountains in southern Utah, I wish we all could have gone, but it was about 8 hours away, and I couldn't take the kids all out of school for a whole week. (Jason was gone for 9 days)

Anyways, he had so much fun, it was a very difficult hunt because the area is so huge, and once they get spooked, they will travel up to about 20 miles. But on the second to the last day of the hunt he finally got one. If you have never had Buffalo meat, it is really good, it isn't gamey like deer or elk.

While Jason was gone, I had to hold down the fort, which wasn't easy, we had a huge project come to us the week before he left, and a new employee started the week he was gone, and all my kids came down with strep, then I even had to substitute for Jason one day. Needless to say, I was glad to have him back!!!


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Last week, the school held their annual Halloween carnival, I took Bryce and Austin. The kids get to dress in their Halloween costumes, and they have the gym set up with some blowup activities, and some carnival games. Then they had a Magician and Bryce got called up to be one of his assistants, he was thrilled. he got to make fire from his wand, and then a bunny appeared.

Bryce and Austin dressed up at the Carnival

Bryce doing the "guppy race" they have goldfish that they put in the gutters, and then they blow bubbles through a straw to get them to swim, and they race to see whose "guppy" passes the finish line first.

This is Bryce being the "Magician's assistant"

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Tanner Turned 12!!!

Ok, so I never had a hard time sending my kids off to Kindergarten, but for some reason turning 12, and getting the priesthood and going to mutual have really hit me hard, I can't believe he is that old.

We were going to go do something fun, but we had a death in the family and ended up going to a funeral instead, but Tanner and Jason have a cow elk hunt to go on in the next couple of weeks, since Tanner is now old enough to do so and he is excited about that. Then last Sunday, Jason's parents and Mine and Rebecca came over for a small party.

Also, the day before his birthday, he got to go to Salt Lake with his music class and see the Opera "Madame Butterfly" (I can't believe he is this old).

Tanner also started playing Middle School basketball (I can't believe he is this old) When I took him for his physical, they measured his height and he is 5'7", he is now taller then me (did I mention that I can't believe he is this old)!!! Games start next Friday so I am sure I will get some pictures of that and post them.

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Yesterday I took our puppy misty for a walk to pick up Bryce and Austin at the bus stop, which is right at the town park, so I let the kids play for a while, there was another family there too. Well Bryce was playing on the trapeze bar and fell off and ...yes, he broke his arm!!! That makes 3 broken arms this summer for our family, along with Bryce's stitches in June, and my knee surgery!!

It is a good thing we have had witnesses at all these accidents, or people would start to wonder what was going on.

Well are you done with your popcorn yet?

A new Puppy!!

I finally broke Jason down enough to get another dog. Since our last one got hit by a car, we have been a little Leary about getting a new one, but we are finally ready, and I have been searching the classifieds for the perfect one.

We don't have a name for her yet, Jason has been out of town, and he likes to get in on the naming, so I told the kids we would have to wait, till tonight to name her.

She is a Miniature Schnauzer, she is 2 months old, and she is almost all black. She does have a little bit of white on her back feet, and a tiny patch on her chest.

Yes, I had to get a girl, we needed a little more female influence in this house, it has enough boys!!
I even bought her a cute little pink and brown dogie coat, and a little pink and black shirt, (that you can see in the pictures), it says "It's all about ME, deal with it"

Any suggestions on names before Jason gets home, leave comments!!

Fall Colors

I Love Fall!!

It is my favorite seasons!!


The kids are back in school, the air has a crisp chill to it, and I love the Colors!!


So for those of you who don't get the chance to see the fall colors much, here are some pictures I took in Logan Canyon this last week, I think we might head up Monte' today or tomorrow, I will see what they are like up there, and maybe publish more pics later.

Football Season

Football Season is here, and almost gone!!

Tanner is #86

Tanner loves to play football!! This year, he is in 6th grade, and they go to middle school for 6th grade here, so Tanner had the option of playing middle school football (they didn't have enough boys in the 7th and 8th grades) or Little League again, after discussing the options, he decided to stay in little league for 1 more year, and it has been a very good decision!! He has been able to play the whole game, offence and defence for most of the games!! He is the tallest kid on the team, and is about a head taller than any of the other players, so I keep pretty good track of him on the field.

Since we live in the middle of nowhere, we do have to travel to the away games, the closest one was about 45 min. away, the farthest a little over an hour. But luckily it only lasts 1 month and we have really enjoyed it!! And Tanner has really had fun and learned a ton!!

New Deck/Sleepover

A few weeks ago, Mom and Dad, April, Brandon, August and Addison, and Rebecca came up to help us build our deck. They had a slow start, and mom, April, and I did a great job supervising from the sidelines, but we got it about half done.

They all had stayed the night, the night before the big day, it was fun for the cousins to have a sleepover!!

When they were ready to leave, We found Addie asleep on the stairs, boy was she a bear when Brandon woke her up to get ready to go, I guess she cried for about an hour on the way home!!

All in all it was a fun day, and we can't wait to do it again!!

Moms 4x4 fun (and a couple of 2 wheels)

Ok, so my computer won't read my SD drive for some reason, so I had to steal a couple of pictures from a friend, but here is the story...

Last week, a bunch of moms from around here, went on a back country ride from here to the next town over, most of us were on 4 wheelers, but 2 were on motorcycles, it was so much fun!

We started out at a friends house, where everyone unloaded, or like me I live so close, that I was able to just ride my 4 wheeler over there, but we took the back roads, and through some cows, and went to Randolph. It was pretty cold, so we stopped at the store, and got some hot chocolate, and then went back. total, it took us about 3 hours, but that was stopping here and there, and then while we were in Randolph, we went to the park. But on the way back, we were in a little bit of a hurry and it only took us about 45 minutes. It was a much needed break for the week!! Some of the moms even brought their little kids (under age 3) and most of them really enjoyed it!!

My Lucky Husband!!

Last night was the Rich County Demolision Derby. We went last year and had fun, so this year we decided to try it again, Tanner especially has been looking forward to it ever since he found out they were giving away a 4-wheeler!

Anyways, as we were walking up to the gate to get out tickets, a couple of guys were walking down towards us, they asked us if we wanted tickets, so of course we said yes, they were some of the drivers and I guess they must get some tickets for free so they gave them to us!! that saved us about $30


I thought that was a good start to the night, then when we went in I bought 10 tickets for the 4-wheeler, I put Jason on 3, Bryce on 3, and Tanner on 4, (I didn't think I would do too well with my knee and Austin with his broken arm was a no go...I will explain later)

Anyways the derby gets started, and being a local, we knew some of the drivers, one of them happened to be one of our workers, but he got out in his first round. It was fun to watch him though, Better luck next year Landon!!




Before the final Heat, they drew for the 4-wheeler, but I guess I had better back up a little, when I was putting the names on the tickets, Jason caught me writing his name and chewed me out, he didn't want his name on it, I said it was too late!!

You guessed it, they called his name, but in this drawing, they call out 10 names and they all go down into the arena, and then they have a big trailer full of MUD with keys in it, they said that there were 5 keys, and only 1 went to the 4-wheeler, but the rest were for prizes. well back to the drawing of names, so Jason's was the first name called, so I pushed him into going down, of course all the people around us knew us so they helped me prod him along. so He emptied his pockets, new I-phone (yes Robyn you read that right), wallet, keys, money...then he headed down. just as he crossed the fence, they called his name again!! So he had his name in 3 times, and they drew it out twice. anyways they said he could get someone to go with him so of course Tanner went with. Well, they dug and dug, but nobody could find any keys...till about 5 min. later one guy found a key and it was the 4-wheeler one, but nobody else could find any more. They just ended up giving them all a towel and a t-shirt. Jason and Tanner don't think there really were any more keys anyways!! Needless to say they were muddy from head to toe. People were joking all around us that they could ride home in the back of thier trucks.

Sorry about all the specks, on the picture, there was so much dust in the air from the cars. But here are all the people whose names were called out, they are on the left in the middle of the arena waiting for the go signal so they can run and get into the trailer full of MUD.

Here they are all digging trying to find the keys, sorry I couldn't zoom in, but it was dark out, and I was lucky to get these couple of pictures, none of my others turned out.

As for the title of this post, Jason has won several things in the past few years, a gun, a 4-wheeler, and he has drawn out on several hard to draw hunts, so he is getting known for being lucky!!

Jam, Jam, Jam, and More Jam

Well, the Bear Lake Raspberries were on, and I couldn't let the opportunity pass, so Yes I bought a flat. and what do I do with a flat of fresh fruit? Freezer Jam of course!!

I made 4 batches, each of them a little different, either it was a different pectin, or one batch I made you use jello instead of pectin, I haven't tried that batch yet, but as you can see, my family loves Homemade Jam!!! Thanks GG for teaching me how to make it, I will be sure to save you a jar!!

This is the batch from the Jello...

Today being Sunday, I decided we needed Fresh baked Bread with the Jam, and it was a huge hit as you can tell!!

Anyone getting hungry yet??

All Boy!!

Austin broke his arm again on Wednesday, Jason had taken Tanner to football practice, and Austin went along to play on the playground, well being the boy that he is, he had to climb up ontop of the tunnel instead of going through it, Jason kept telling him to get down and not be ontop of it, but then a big gust of wind decided to do the job for him.  Austin is such a tough kid that when he moans alot, you know something is wrong, I guess he cried a little, then just moaned.  Jason called me at home and asked "Which arm was it that Austin broke?" (this is his second time) I knew it wasn't good.  Anyways, I didn't want to take him to Evanston (only major emergencies go to Evanston)  So I iced it up and gave him motrin, then a couple of hours later he was out riding his bike so I thought he must have just sprained it, but then the next day he was complaining, so we took him with me to Physical Therapy, and had the PT look at it, he told us that he thought it might be a buckle fracture and we should get it X-Rayed so we headed to Garden City and sure enough it was a buckle fracture, not an actual break, but the bone buckles up a little, so he needed a cast.  They didn't have any of his favorite colors, he was bummed until they pulled out the Glow in the Dark cast, then he was thrilled.  Like I said ALL BOY!!!

Lagoon 2008

We had a blast at Lagoon, My mom and Dad, Brother and his two oldest daughters, August and Addison, Rebecca, and my family all went to Lagoon last Saturday, it was HOT, but not as crowded at I thought it would be on a Saturday. Check out the slide show for pictures of the day.

'68 Chevelle SS

When Jason was in High School, He bought this car and fixed it up with his dad, then when we got married his parents bought it from us so that we could have a down payment on our first house, His parents love this car and enjoy showing it at car shows, now they are researching its ownership history and it has been really neat, all the previous owners that they have found so far are thrilled to find out where it is now!! They are still trying to track down some more owner/s to complete the process, then they are going to create a book to have at shows. Pretty neat!! So they needed some pictures for the book with Jason, and with them so I took a few for them. Here it is.

Monte Cristo

Sundays are always hard at our house, because we get bored! We have church early which is great, but since we don't have any family really close, we tend to get a little stir crazy, so a couple of weeks ago, we called Jason's Parents and asked if they wanted to meet us up Monte to have a little cook out, we didn't really plan too much, just grabbed some marshmallows, and a drink, and headed out. Larry and Linda met us at the top at a campground, the kids had fun playing in the fire, and running around, Austin even picked me some flowers. I love summer!!

Fun In the Sun

We have been so busy this year, that last week was our first time to hit the lake. It is really so much fun!! The water is so warm, and the kids have a ball playing in it!! I think we might get to go again today Yipee!!