Journaling

Recently in Church we have heard a few more then normal talks and lessons on the importance of journaling.  It has always been talked about and was always important, but it is surfacing again. I have a renewed drive once again to stay on top of it a lot better. I wish I hadn't let myself have a two year break, because it is so hard to get back on track. I was not a faithful weekly blogger, but I did well enough before my break, that I feel like I had covered the basics of what had transpired in my life over several years. I felt good that my kids had something to look back on, then I took my break, and the hardest part about starting up again, is that I really want to try and fill in that hole and it is an overwhelming task. I got about a year caught up and then stopped again. I think what I am going to do this time. Is start with the current happenings and then add some items from the past year. They will not be in the correct order, because I will put things as I find them in my files. I am going to date them the best I can, and that way they will be at least documented and my kids will just have to forgive me for my 2 year lack of judgement! :) 

The last couple of months have been crazy full. School started last week. Tay went to AFY the week before. We played, went swimming, had a vacation to California, TJ won a pageant back in March, so she has been in 4 parades this summer and performed in the big girl pageant, Kelten was Mona royalty so he was in the Mona days parade, Taylar had a job for a couple of weeks then the owners had to shut down, Ki did his eagle project and is working on finishing up his paper work for that, Tay played a little golf to get ready for the school season and is taking her learner permit test this week, She won vice-president again for her sophomore year so has been having mtgs and such getting ready for the school year, the boys have been on some scout camp outs. Kelten finished up his 1st class so is now working on his star rank, Todd got a new calling as a elders quorum teacher and the 11 yr old scout assistant, my parents left on an LDS mission, we have been building stone steps and pavers, building arbors and hammock, planting trees, putting in drip lines, reorganizing inside to be ready for school, had my niece and nephew come stay for a few days, we have had a ward party at our house playing games, good food and great friends, and made a super cardboard slide down our stairs, causing a couple of injuries but way more fun, became a great aunt and an aunt again all in 48 hours, been working and just barely celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary!! Whewwww what a summer!!

Now we are ready for some pictures!!

Man, I have cute kids!

 Ki 8th grade

 Kelten 6th grade

 TJ 1st grade

 Taylar 10th grade and quite the beauty!

Knightin 3rd grade. He said he likes school this year!! YEAH!!

So one of the things we did in CA was go to discovery kingdom, my family had a blast, we went two days. I didn't take any pictures, but thank goodness my brother-in-law did! :)

 Taylar often gets annoyed with her brother, but Ki is actually really sweet and would do anything for her. Here he is holding all her stuff while she is on a ride! Luv him!

 Kelten after the water ride!

I think just about every time we go to CA we try to go to Old Sac. My little boy loves the trains. My big kids didn't love it as much this time, oh well it wasn't for them anyway! ;)

 Tay posing as a wax statue.

 While in Sacramento, my 2 oldest got to go do baptisms for the dead with their cousins and grandpa and dad! They loved it!

 The rest of us got to hang out, outside of this pretty temple!

 The last time we went to "old Sac" we got the old time photo and Todd decided to make it a tradition so here is our 2nd one!

It is always fun to hang out on Grandpa and Grandma's property. When you have acres and part of a forrest on your property it can give you hours of fun. my kids love the huge cedar tree and spent tons of time in it, from the pictures below you can get an idea of how big it is, you could host a party under the shelter of its branches. Ki got to climb one of the huge pine trees with his cousin. I was a little bit of a nervous mom, even though he is an amazing climber and has been climbing trees since he could walk. They also had tractor rides through the forrest, play games, used sling shots, had breakfast outside almost every morning, had campfires, and got very dirty. It was great fun!!

 Tay trying to hug the huge tree!

 Can you see Ki, he is just above my nephew!

 How about here, do you see him?

 This is what we walked through and a walk down at the bottom of my in-laws property, isn't amazing. It looks like it came right out of a fairytale movie. I want my Forrest to look like this!

 So that big Cedar that the kids play in, well Kelten decided that it would be fun to fall out of it. luckily he wasn't to far up and this is all that happened. He does have some pretty cool scars now!

 Random picture of me. A very rare thing, since I am usually behind the camera, and as you can see I am a little frustrated at Todd for taking it! :)

 So grandma Jim got Tay and Todd some pioneer clothes. She was hoping that Tay would get to use them on a youth trek. It looks like she might get to go on 2 different ones. Thanks Grandma Jim!

 We also spent a day at the lake, don't you just love all the trees around? You certainly don't get that at the UT lakes. Knightin and TJ had fun with the geese. Knightin wanted to catch one so bad!

 One of my favorite ways of enjoying the lake, lounging watching my kids have fun!

Kelten wanted to make sure he got this picture. He has one foot in UT, one foot in Nevada. :)

My poor nephew when we were there got Poison oak while we were there. he looked so miserable but he handled it like a man!!

  We had pass of all passes for the different 7 peaks parks. We enjoyed going to them several times this year. Not as often as my kids would have liked, but hey we don't get everything we want in life!!

Tay go the oppurtunity to go to AFY ( the outdoor version of EFY). She had a blast and came home spiritually uplifted. Such an amazing experience for the youth!! I think every kids should have the chance to experience this. :)

 All tuckered out after staying up all night the last night, plus just a crazy fun filled week!

Tay got the chance to hang out in Logan with our friends. The boys went up earlier in the week and Tay joined them for the last couple of days. While she was there she got to go to a concert of a newer band. She loved it!

My beautiful daughter all dressed up in her first pair of heels!

Tay did "Fair Factor" at our local fair. This is her second year of doing it. I don't know how she handles doing the gross stuff. This year she had to eat a whole banana, the skin, stem and stickers included. Hope on one foot while have a q-tip with their neighbors earwax on it in their mouth, and she had to eat a belly button lint sandwich top with mayo, which she hates. That was the one she didn't pass. She actually ate it all, but they only took so many people and a boy beat her.

This is one of my daughters art pieces she did in school this year!

She is pretty darn good if I do say so myself!

Mona Days!

Mona, Days is our 24th of July celebration. There is a 5k run, flag ceremony, a parade, and other festivities throughout the day finishing up with an amazing firework show!

All my kids were in the parade this year except Ki, he had to hang out with us and watch it. TJ was on the Salt creek outstanding  teen float. Kelten was on the Mona Day royalty float, Knightin was riding his bike with the Primary, and Taylar was dancing with her dance studio. The kids favorite things besides the fireworks, is the face painting, and the photo booth!

  The next several pictures are of the different outfits TJ had to wear for the different floats/parades she was in, it was a busy summer for this little queen!

 TJ all tuckered out after her third parade in a row!

Mona Days. Her brother got to join her in the royalty circle for Mona Days!

 My handsome King.

He made front page of our local paper!

Random Photos from the summer!

 Tay got to babysit off and on this summer, this is facial fun this summer, even Knightin got in on the fun I guess!

 Ki has stubs, what happen to your arms Ki?

 Selfie with my daughter!

 Backyard fun!

 Ki at the ER, we thought he might have broken his foot. It would have been right over his cylinder that he had put in, which could have knocked it out of place, we are very glad he just bruised it up good!

 Photo shoot with my sisters kids, I really liked this one of my niece!

 An accident that I saw, head on with a truck, the truck was worse off! :(

 Can't have a summer without lots of Popsicle!

 Knightin started therapy this summer, He has some sensory disorder issues. This is his sensory board, we also have him work with scooter boards, plasma cars, duck walkers and we are trying him on brain gym. I am hoping it all helps him focus.

 Knightin with his cool glasses after his first eye appointment. He did not love the dialation. :(

 While we were waiting to go to Knightins therapy appointment, we went over to the pet store, we had to take a picture of this bright orange lizard for Todd!

 Todd's new calling as 11 yr old scout assistant leader, got him going on some fun projects for the boys. They decided they were the cougars, and went with making bleach shirts. They turned out pretty cool and the boys had fun making them!

 Cool Mona sunsets!

 Hanging out in the train ride that daddy was pulling around at the 4th of July celebration.

 Knightin received his bobcat!

 We had a few fires and outside movies this summer, but not as much as we would like. The wind gets in our way, way to often! :(

 Toothless TJ

 Knightin's new glasses, such a stud!!

So one of my good friends lives out by Mona Res. We had fun spending time out on her property. We rode her horse Lilly, collected rocks of all kinds, arrowhead chips and one full tiny one, we swam, built mud cities, watch movies and played ping pong and fuse ball. Thanks for a fun summer Helen!!

 Playing with the black lights with our geodes.

 So we got to see this big toad at helens house one of the nights. The kids had fun and even got to see it burrow itself!

 Helen and Steve have a cool tractor and the kids all needed to have a picture on it!

Mud city!

Our Landscaping project!!

We over the next few years plan on turning our backyard into a Forrest. We are excited, we both grew up with a ton of trees and plan on creating a little piece of paradise in our own yard. This year was the start of it. We happen to have more time then we have money, so we are learning to do things like make rocks and stones to save money but still have the stuff and look that we want. It has been fun learning and creating our start of tour Forrest.

One of the things we did is cut off a bunch of dormant hybrid willow branches, stuck them in water and rooted them.

 Here you can see them planted in the ground, tiny baby trees! :)

 Our first pavers that we made!

 We bought a cement mixer, a very wise investment for us. We have a lot of cement work in our future!

 Kelten loves building with his dad!

 Pavers with the dirt in between it will eventually have moss!

 lots of pavers under the hammock

 Our stone steps we made up to our back porch!

 Close up of some of the steps going up our hill!

 Full shot, I am loving it and can't wait until we get the rest of the greenery in!

 Knightin and TJ enjoying the hammock!

 Bigger view of the area!

 We bought two arbors to put at each end of our walk path to the backyard, we still need to anchor them in!

 Remember our little twig trees that we planted a couple of months ago, well here they are now. We have to keep trimming them. Some are well over 7ft tall. Loving all the green!

 We had a crazy rain storm a couple of weeks ago, it flooded everything. A few people in the neighbor had there basements flood. It was crazy!

Here is another crazy random weather we just had. Hail that stuck in mid-august. Love It!

Todd has had some time to draw this summer, and has been loving it! Here is Captain Montana for my nephew who is serving his mission in Montana!

Some of my art work!
I am tryig to teach myself to draw colored pencil portraits and get better at other colored pencil artwork!

Ki's Eagle Project!!

For Ki's project he repainted all the red curbing, the red Ballards, and added yellow parking stripes to the nephi and Mona ambulance shed. The day was a lot of fun and we had an amazing turn out of people to support him and help with the project. Thanks to all those that helped make this happen for Ki.

Ki working on making thank you notes for the many people that helped out.

He still is working on paper work, he got a little distracted with summer, but hopefully everything will be finished up here soon so he can have his board of review!!

This sweet little baby is one of the most recent things that happened in our family. My sweet  niece Stephny had her first baby. My sister is a grandma, and my parents were made great grandparents!. His name is Turner Michael and he is a cutie and will be spoiled rotten by all his aunts and uncles!

We are also excited to get a second great nephew in about 6 months. My nephew Jordan and his cute sweet wife are adding another boy to this group. The next generation has officially begun!!!

 Well, I think that has brought us up to the present, and a little bit  catch up from the summer. I hope to add a little past in the next few days so that I can slowly but surely get the last year caught up so I can print off my journals, that will be a fun day!!