Duct Tape Day

Duct Tape Day at school.....need I say more?

Spencer's First Deer!

Dean took the boys out this past weekend for the deer hunt. This was the boys' first hunt where they actually carried a gun and had a license. They were pretty excited. They went up Friday afternoon to scout the deer, and spent the night there. The next morning they were up and at it early. Spencer got a chance to shoot at a little two-point. He thought he had missed it. Logan was not where he could see the deer, and there was another two point that Dean shot at. If Logan had been close by, Dean would have let him be the one to take a shot. He shot it and after it went down, they went over to it and discovered that the deer Spencer had shot at was down too.

Logan was a little disappointed that he didn't get one, but he was excited for Spencer. Caitlin says that next year she wants to get a license and go too. (No surprise there!). She has already taken Hunter's Safety, so she will be good to go.

I let Logan take the day off school Monday to go out again with Dean, but they didn't even see ANY deer at all. I guess that is the way with hunting. Sometimes you get one, sometimes you don't!

Makayla and Bryson getting along with each other

Friday after school, Becky took all the big kids (and even the dog) to her house and I had Bryson and Makayla at my house. Believe it or not that is a pretty even trade. These two youngest cousins can be very high maintenance! For Bryson and Makayla to actually play with each other, they have to be away from all the older kids because they don't know that they aren't as big as their older brothers and sisters and cousins.

These two kids either get along very well...or don't. Friday happened to be one of those days when they got along wonderfully. They even insisted on helping me mow the lawn. They were even good at Smith's when I took them shopping. They were pretending they were twins. I thought it was cute and got a picture of the two of them.






After I took pictures of them and went back to mowing, they decided to sneak the camera and have their own photo shoot, taking pictures of each other. Some of them turned out kind of cute.













Not bad photography for a five year old and a seven year old.

A fun weekend

Another exhausting weekend! But it was alot of fun. Spencer's birthday is this Thursday. This year when the other kids have had a birthday we have taken the family somewhere to do whatever the birthday kid wanted to do. It has been fun. Dean needed to haul a trailer to Payson for the UHS Marching Band. They were in a competition out there. I thought that since Dean was having to go out their anyway, the rest of us might as well go with and do something for Spencer's birthday. (Kind of a 2 for 1 trip....gotta save on gas!!)

I asked Spencer what he wanted to do in Salt Lake. I thought he would choose to go to a haunted house. I was surprised and a bit relieved when he said he wanted to go to the "Body Worlds Exhibit". He had seen it advertised on T.V. I didn't know too much about what it was. We looked up the website and got tickets for Friday night. This exhibit is very interesting. It is learning about anatomy, health, and how the human body works by viewing real human bodies. I was a bit skeptical about going, but Spencer has always been interested in this kind of thing. He used to love looking at my old college anatomy book when he was little. These are real bodies preserved through a process called "plastination". They did not allow you to take cameras or even cell phones in the exhibit so I didn't get any pictures. But if you want to know about it you can click here. At first I thought it was a little freaky, but it really was interesting. It was a good learning experience to be able to show the kids what healthy lungs look like, and what smoker's lungs look like. What a healthy liver looks like and liver from a person who drank alot.


After that we went to dinner at Marie Calendars. Not Spencer's first choice for dinner, but most places were busy, and we were starving and did not want to wait. After that, we went to our motel room and the kids swam in the pool. Dean went with them and I enjoyed the peace and quiet all by myself!!


Saturday morning we had to get up and going and get down to Payson with the trailer and meet up with the bus loads of kids. It was pouring rain. The band played in the rain.




We got completely soaked watching them.




After the competition a stop at Cabela's (Can you believe we went in and out of that store and didn't buy anything? And I had Dean and two boys with me. Amazing). We had passed a mall and I said "Who wants to go shopping at the mall?" Knowing the reaction I would get from the males in the car. But it was Caitlin who said "No way! I am not going into a mall!" When we got to Cabela's, we were walking in and Caitlin turns to me and said "Now this is my kind of mall!" Could she really be MY daughter? You gotta love her!!
On the way home I looked in the back and saw four exhausted, worn out kids. Isn't that how we like them?






We had a fun weekend. Sorry to family who live out in the Wasatch Front. We didn't have a minute to call or stop by to see anyone.
Maybe next time!

What happens at the cabin...stays at the cabin!

Remember your best friends from your high school years? The ones that you always thought that you would always live just down the street from, and your kids would play with each other? But then real life happens and you just never seem to see those friends anymore. Well, last year my high school friends and I decided to start a tradition and have a "get-away" every year. This year was our second year doing it. One of my friends, Leisa (isn't it weird that we both spell our names the same way) has a cabin that she so graciously lets us go stay in.

We met at her cabin (which by the way is a pretty cool cabin) in Wolf Creek on Wednesday. We sat around and visited for quite awhile before having lunch. After that we decided to get the four-wheelers going and go for a ride up the canyon. It was beautiful this time of year. The trees were the most gorgeous colors. The weather wasn't cooperating too well, not to mention hunters that were shooting not to far away, made us think we should make it a short drive.

Toni showed up later that night and we had dinner. Annette's brother and Mom stopped in for a minute. It was fun to see them too. Her brother, Terry brought us a peach/raspberry pie that he had made in the ducth oven. It was so yummy. (He competes in dutch oven cooking and took 5th place in a world competition.) It was so fun visiting and catching up on each others lives. It is funny that not one of us has ended up living in the same town as another one. Teresa had to leave that night to go home, but the rest of us stayed the night. We got in our jammies and watched a movie until we were all falling asleep. (Are we really getting that old?....but we did manage to make it past midnight).

I guess that the fact that all of us are Mom's made it hard for any of us to sleep in. So we made a hugh breakfast and more talking the rest of the morning. We all left to home after that. It was so much fun to see everyone again. It is good to connect with friends who have known you most of your life. I am so glad that we are still able to keep in touch and remain good friends. I can't wait until next year to do it all again.
Here are a few pictures.....(Leisa R. , I borrowed a few of your pictures from your blog.)

Logan's Turn

I am kind of mad, and Logan is very happy, that I forgot to take my camera with me to the orthodontist when Logan got his braces on yesterday. Now I have no "cool" pictures (or should I say embarrassing pictures) of him getting his braces on. But I do have some after shots of him with them on.

(He is kind of being a dork in these first pictures)

He really, really, really, hates them. And that is an understatement! I keep telling him he will thank me someday when he has a beautiful straight smile. That does not impress him now.

Here is my brace face, metal mouth, railroad tracks, tin grin kids!

Makayla's Vegetable Creation

Makayla's school had a "Make A Vegetable Creation Day" at school today. She didn't even show me the note she brought home about it until yesterday. So, after a football game, homework and dinner, Makayla and her Dad got to work. It is kind of sad that her dad could help her better on this project than I could. I am not creative at all!!

It started out to be a snake, but ended up being a dinosaur. Not sure how that course of events took place. This morning she informed me that the dinosaur's name was Bryson Brontosaurs. ( I am assuming it was named after her buddy-cousin Bryson.....and not exactly sure if it looks like a brontosaurus but hey..it is not my creation). Makayla told me this dinosaur is a plant-eater. You can tell because he has parsley coming out of his mouth. Okay then.

They used a zucchini, yellow squash, jalapenos, parsley, white beans (for eyes), and peppercorns (for nostrils), and a whole lot of tooth picks. Last night he was standing up. This morning he was kind of bending down. We decided to leave it that way.

I had to drive her to school today to make sure it got there in one piece. (I had my doubts about her riding the bus with it). She was pretty excited to take it to school. There sure were a lot of cute little vegetable creations there. Talk about creative kids and parents. As long as Makayla liked her vegetable creation that is all that matters to me!