Its a Great Day for a Ball Game

Today is the championship game for Weber County Jr. High Schools. It is between Orion and TH Bell. Of course we are cheering for Bell. Even though she probably won't get to play, Nicole is so excited. The weather is great and it should be a wonderful game. I will post some pictures later. It has been a really fun season. The best parts :
1. Nicole has made lots of new friends and has really been able to fit in for a 7th grader.
2. She has learned a lot of new softball skills.
3. She has had a great time at practices and the games.
4. Our family has really enjoyed going to all the games.
It is kind of sad that the season is over.

Wednesdays

I gotta say that I just love Wednesdays. Because........
1. Early out day for the elementary kids. Love spending time with Justin.
2. Its almost the weekend . Hip Hip Hooray !!!!
3. Its YW activity night. I get to see all the girls.

conference weekend

Hello everyone ! Yes I am back. My computer has been in the shop since before school started. yikes ! I only had 15 pages of emails to go through, and a bunch of other stuff to get caught up on and now I am finally getting around to my blog. I am so excited to because it is really relaxing for me.
This weekend was absolutely fabulous. My niece Jessica and her dog Minnie came and spent it with us while the rest of her family was on a camping trip. She had college to go to that she couldn't miss. Welcome to real life Jess. We had great fun with her while she was here. The other great thing is that it was conference weekend. I really enjoyed all 4 sessions. I was surprised to hear of the 5 new temples announced to be built. A temple in Brigham city wow. Eric and I were just talking about how they needed one there and yes it was kind of freaky when they announced that. It was like someone was listening in to our conversation.
I also enjoyed conference quite a bit on Sunday. Eric had to work today so he didn't get to listen. I tried to pay really good attention so I can tell him all about it tonight. There were so many good things I learned and I really am pumped about trying harder to do better.
After the second session on Saturday it is a tradition with Eric's family to have Adults go to dinner while kids play together at home. Then the men go to the priesthood session and women come back home to craft or hang out. This time it was at my house. Thanks to my creative friend Camille we had a cute witches shoe to make . She got the pattern for the shoe at a scrapbook store then she had the great idea to make it in to a witches shoe. So the girls made those while we were able to visit and laugh and eat pie. Yummy !

Summer Fun

Well to say that we have been busy is a understatement. We have been having a lot of fun this summer. Nicole and I went to girls camp which was a blast ! Then we had our annual 4th of July party. It was great to see my cousins and my Uncle and Aunt home from Germany. Then crazy us we went camping again up to bear lake, visited Minnetonka Cave.
We went to the drive-in and saw Harry Potter.
Every other warm day we have been in the backyard pool.
We are getting very excited for Jeremy and Felicia and Taryn to come for a visit.

Justin's Tooth

Justin has had a loose tooth now for a few months. He finally started wiggling it consistently about 2 weeks ago. Since Nicole has lost several teeth he thought she would be a good person to consult with. Nicole was able to instruct Justin in all the steps to remove a tooth. First you wiggle back and forth until it bleeds. Next you twist and turn until it bleeds again. ( Blood is a good sign she says). Then last you take a piece of tissue to get a better grip on the tooth and pull straight out. Justin followed this routine several times . Nicole then gripped the tooth and pulled it out. Nicole then told Justin all about the tooth fairy and helped him put it under his pillow. She also put in a good word for him suggesting how much the tooth fairy should give . Justin woke us early in the morning, running in our room waving a dollar in each hand, exclaiming " I got two dollars ! " Justin then told us the tooth fairy left his tooth and so he thought he might try for more money tonight. I told him it didn't work that way. If you try and fool the fairy you might never get another cent.

School's Out for Summer

Justin has been singing a bunch of songs today- Schools out for summer, Schools out forever- and No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks. He is very excited for summer vacation. As is Nicole. Today Nicole got sprayed by the fire dept. She thought that was great. She is very excited to be starting jr. high in the fall.
I have to admit I am pretty excited for summer vacation to. I asked Justin what he plans on doing this summer, He replied "stay up late, sleep in long and swim". Wow I say that's exactly what I plan on doing. With the addition of taking the kids to school lunch, and making cards and scraping. We have a lot planned this summer. The kids play ball mon- thur, so we will be at the park a lot. Jeremy, Felicia and Taryn are planning to come down in August and we are so excited for that. Between all that I am taking a phlebotomy course and will hopefully have a job come fall.

That China Report

Today was Nicole's big day at school. She did her oral country report on China. She chose China because her Uncle Thayne had traveled there numerous times and had lots of cool things that he brought back with him. I have to say Nicole is a natural speaker. She was not nervous at all. She presented herself very well and knew her subject matter good. The class responded with lots of questions. They were all very interested. Nicole said that no one had asked questions of the other kids. She made a power point as part of her presentation my but she is smart. Eric and I went to watch and take up the food sample. We gave the kids some ham fried rice, eggroll and fortune cookie all to eat with chopsticks. The kids absolutely loved it. Eric and I went to a local oriental market. ( for the first time) We were quite impressed everything was very cheap. I was so happy for Nicole when I heard all the positive comments from her class mates.

The Start of Summer

You know that summer has finally made it when softball and baseball begins. Nicole had her first game last night. It was fabulous ! Nicole is the pitcher and she did great. The whole team did super. They won 11-0.

Justin plays tonight so I will post some picts. tomorrow. I just love going to the games. This is what we look forward to all year.

Dana's Shopping Spree

My sister in law Dana Palmer won a Macey's shopping spree from studio 5 ( a local tv show). We are all so happy for her. We all got to share in the fun as we watched her race the clock and stock up on lots of great stuff from Maceys. Click here to see Dana and a few glimpses of me cheering her on.

In the words of Justin 2

Mothers Day- We are in the car when Justin asks " Where are we going ?" "To the rest home to visit Grandpa and Grandma", I reply. " Why do we have to go to the rest room ? " "No not the rest room the rest home ". He then says " Whats the difference ? They pee in their beds there".
Well I didn't have a response to that one.

San Diego Zoo

After a frustrating trip on California's freeway we finally arrived at our first vacation destination-San Diego Zoo. The weather was gorgeous. We especially loved the pandas. We were lucky enough to see them at lunch time when they were very active. Justin also enjoyed the petting zoo. He still thinks that living on a farm would be lots of fun. Nicole was a good sport and let me take lots of pictures of her and Justin. After a long day we then got back in the car and headed 90 minutes back to Disneyland.

Back to a routine

Ok so you may have noticed that I haven't blogged since January. My cousin Andrea just told me today that she still checks in with mine while she is stalking other blogs. I appreciate that. What can I say???? Life happens. We went to Disneyland, started baseball and softball for the kids, trying to get the yard ready for summer and numerous other things. I am committing today to catch up on all the fun things we have been doing.

Spring Fever

I am sick.
I was just self-diagnosed with spring fever ( aka- cabin fever ).
I had to change the title picture because I am so tired of winter and indoors. The picture was taken on a camping trip to willow flats one of the most beautiful places on earth to me.
Looking at these pictures brings back good memories and excitement for this years camping trip.


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Happy Birthday Eric

Happy 41st Birthday Eric -Tuesday January 13th. We had a wonderful day. After kindergarten let out Justin and I took Eric to lunch at Ye Lion's Den. (Thanks for the gift card Grandma and Grandpa.) Justin has been so excited for Eric's birthday, he has been counting down using the Christmas countdown since after Christmas. I think Justin was more excited than Eric. Tuesday morning when Justin woke up he immediately ran in yelling " Happy Birthday Dad " and gave Eric a big hug. Then even before breakfast he had Eric open up his present, -a digital photo frame to sit on his desk at work. After we came back from lunch I made a cake and Justin put all 41 candles on it and asked Eric if he could help blow them out at the right time.
My Dad and Mom dropped by in the afternoon to see Eric and later that night Amy and her family came for a visit. That night Justin asked Eric, "Did you have a good birthday Dad" ? Eric replied yes and Justin said that he was very happy. Since then we all have been enjoying " Outdoor Adventures " a Wii game Eric received. It is great fun.

In the words of Justin

This kid really cracks me up. He says the funniest things all the time. Like the other day- "Hurry Mom get me a tissue, my nose is leaking" or 2 days ago at breakfast he informed us that " I know why the corn you eat comes out good, -- It gets ressurected". When anything and I mean anything is hard or crusty he refers to it as "frozen". - He often says he has frozen bugers and occassionally a frozen you know what. Last night he said " I ate so much , my tummy is so full of poop", " Dad you must have a lot of poop in your tummy, you need a bigger shirt". When I was helping him with his prayers I coached Him to say " Help me to not tease Nicole" he said that and quickly added " Help mom be nice to me and let me do what I want".

We love you Justin.

Sledding

One of our favorited things to do in the wintertime is sledding. The best place is Romer Park.

The hill is steep and long.

The view is great.

After when I went to pick up the pizza, they stole my camera and took some candid shots.

Spoiled Jack

Okay so I know that Jack is spoiled. We let him sleep on the bed with us.

Eric makes him comfortable with a pillow covered with a blanket and when he lays down he covers him with a blanket.

He also sits up to the dinner table with us. We have a tall chair that he sits on.

Here is a picture of him enjoying his favorite plain double cheeseburger.

Chuck E Cheese

Monday we all went to Chuck E Cheeses. When I say all, I mean Amy, Curt and their 5 youngest, Jon, Karrie and Nathan and Eric, Me, Nicole and Justin. It was quite the event. It seems that everyone in Northern Utah had the same idea as we did. It was packed. We had great fun playing the games and winning tickets. I really scored big on the race car game. I hit the jackpot 5 or 6 times.

When the kids saw my tickets spitting out of the game they tried to take it over. I had to tell them it was occupied.

Those darn kids gave me dirty looks and tried to tell their parents on me.

Justin was so happy when I gave him all my winnings. He was happy when he turned in his tickets and got candy and a basketball.

I don't think Amy was having too much fun.

Nicole hung out with Meghan and had a blast.

I told the kids we would maybe go back when school lets out for spring break. Secretly I want to go sooner. Maybe one day Justin and I will go after kindergarten when no one is there.