Hillyard Family

Campin' with the Crams

2008-12-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

Over Labor Day weekend, we went camping with our friends the Crams. They invited us to go to their cabin outside of Kanab. It took FOREVER to get to their place. It was about 2 1/2 hours. We are use to a 35 minute drive up the mountain to camp. So it was a much longer trip than anticipated.

I don't think you actually classify this as camping. We went to their cabin. We had full utilities and ammenities. They have a great meadow in front of the cabin along with a swing set and a climbing thing. The kids were totally entertained for the weekend.

Sara, Tyler and I had other plans. We were going to bottle our tomatoes and corn from our garden. So we spent the afternoon on Saturday doing this. Look at those beautiful tomatoes from our garden. We had soooo much success with our garden. We had green beans, carrots, pumpkins, tomatoes, green peppers, corn, cucumbers, and watermelon. The beans were the out of control producers. I gave away at least 4 full grocery bags to my family and Sara the same. That doesn't take into account the gazillion bottles of bean we put up. I really enjoyed the garden. Next year, we are still going to work together but just a little different. This year everything was at Sara's because I didn't have a spot for a garden yet. Next year we will split the items up and share. It's more fun to work on weeding and canning with a partner in crime. Thanks Sara for thinking of the great idea of a community garden.

Smith Family Reunion

2008-11-19T06:19:00.000-08:00

Hello all.....I am back again. I have been so busy over the last 3 1/2 months with starting a new job, PTA President, and total involvement in my kids schooling that blogging was left behind. I will be posting a bunch of make up post from the summer. This is so I can include them in my book. So it may be a while until recent blogs are posted.
I had the most fun I have ever had at a family reunion in my life. I was so thrilled to see how GREAT all the cousins got along. Not only did the little kids get along, so did the big kids. You know my brother and sisters. That is the most amazing part. I don't remember any big or really even little moments of contention. Don't get me wrong, kids will be kids, but they would get over their issues and move on. We as adults can learn a lot from our little ones.
My family was so excited for all the cousins to come we could hardly stand it. And we were crazy with excitement for Grammy and Papa. They came early, with Tim and Cameron. It was so great to have them all to ourselves for a few days. Eventhough my kids only see Grammy and Papa a couple times a year there is an amazing bond.
Tim brought Cameron's little four wheeler. Was that ever the hit. Good thing I didn't have neighbors yet cuz the kids would drive the streets and just honk and honk the horn.

It was funny the time line that everyone arrived in. We had the crazy duo from Mesa, Mindy and Heidi, drive all night to get there by 5:00 in the am. Bruce had a little trouble keeping his eyes open and began to drift into another lane. Heidi yelled his name and that kept his heart pumping hard for the rest of the trip. Poor Kim thought she was going to be the 1st to arrive and she actually ended up being the last.
Since everyone was there a day before we were going up the mountain, the kids just played at our house. We set up the slide and that entertained everyone for hours. The four-wheelers were also a big hit. We had our 2 four wheelers and then we borrowed Dayna's, Kyle's and Korey's 2. So we had 6 total. I don't think those had ever been driven as much as they were during those 4 days.

We were then off to the mountain. We were staying at the old Navajo cabin. We also had my trailer for space. Poor Mom and Dad slept on an air mattress on the deck and then in the family room. Guess that's what happens when you don't have any young kids. I really do feel bad about their sleeping situation. My trailer was the sleepover spot. We would have different kids each night. On our final night we had 8 kids in there. It was amazing how great they all slept. Once it was lights out.....they were out. I guess running around all day will do that to you.
The fun was just non stop each day. We had a day of shooting.

They all took their turns shooting empty soda cans. Tyler and Tim manned target practice.
We played golf frisbee......the pictures will be added later. Thanks Bruce and Tommie for directing the game.
Little Mason didn't get to join either of those activities, he had to hang out with the adults. But I was able to get an adorable picture of that squisshy boy.

Don't you just want to eat him up??

Down at this little pond the kids were catching horny toads. This is one of Kaylee's most favorite things to do. I always feel so bad for the poor toad, because Kaylee thinks it is her child and carts it with her everywhere she goes.

This picture isn't of anything in particular....just made me think of Little House on the Prairie. Thanks Aunt Mimi for the cute french braids.

Grammy was the big hit, of course. She had made up a treasure hunt for the kids. They loved running or riding the 4 wheelers from place to place in such of the loot. Thanks Grammy for the memories.

The end of the reunion ended with a little panic. Justin had hurt Tori's arm on a 4 wheeler ride. When he does something wrong, or hurts someone he tends to get upset and can't express his feelings. By the time I had gotten back from the ride he had run off. So I went in search for him. I started with the trailer because he was seen running that way. After searching the trailer there was no Justin. So we began calling for him. This went on for quite some time, still no answer. The whole family began searching. We were yelling his name and walking the whole north side of the property. Tyler and I became very worried because it was getting dark. We made our way back down to the cabin. I got there just in time to hear the final bit of the family prayer. I remember Mindy saying, "let him know he is not in trouble if he is hiding, and that we love him." That sent me off into tears. I jumped on the four wheeler and decided to drive the north property line with the road. I was crying and calling out for Justin. I was terrified because now it was dark. I knew if I made it back to the cabin with no Justin I was going to call the search and rescue folks. On my way back, Travis or Bruce, I can't remember which one, met up with me and told me they had found Justin. What a relief. When I saw him I just bawled. I had been so scared of losing my little boy. He, Tyler, and I spent the next few minutes hugging and crying. What a happy ending. I was told that Dad found him in the trailer underneath the table that had been made up into a bed. I didn't even think to look there as I didn't think a child could fit under there. What a blessing that he wasn't really lost, but just hiding.
The next morning everyone headed out. We stayed behind to finish up a little cleaning. We were all packed and ready to go and.......the truck wouldn't start. We tried for quite some time. Still no luck. So I hopped on a 4 wheeler and went looking for someone to jump us. I found someone but that still didn't fix the problem. Poor Tyler had to ride the 4 wheeler all the way to Duck Creek to make a phone call. That is a good 20 minute ride away. And to top it off, it was raining. Tyler was finally able to contact Darcy, who called Brent to come and rescue us. Brent somehow knew how to jimmy rig the engine to work. I've never loved the sound of diesel more than at that moment. We made it home by about 5:00 pm.

1st Day of School

2008-09-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

August 14th, 2008. It's the first day of school. Justin is now in 3rd grade, Kaylee is in 1st, and Courtney didn't really start today, but wanted to be in the pictures. The most exciting part of this year of school is how close we now live to it. Justin wanted to ride his bike. Kaylee walked with me. What a blessing it is to be able to do this. And for you city folks, we don't even use a bike lock. We are the only 2 bikes at the school.

We love Three Peaks Elementary.....and be better because the school is a whole family event for us. Whether it is school itself, choir, spanish, or PTA the whole family gets involved.

4th of July

2008-07-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Our holiday celebration started a day early. Brent and Dayna had arranged for the whole adult family to go see Les Miserables. I was so excited. I haven't seen this since I was 16. We first had a yummy dutch oven dinner and then watched the play. It was so inspiring. At intermission, I said to Heidi, "I need a cause to go and fight for." Thanks Brent and Dayna for a fun night!

The next day we headed up the mountain for our annual Hillyard-Hunter 4th celebration. This year was a little different because Dayna had us all lined out to work on the cabin. We had people painting 3 different rooms and laying tile in the bathrooms and kitchen. It was actually quite fun. Much more fun than doing it all by ourselves on our house. The work detail didn't begin until Saturday am. So we had all Friday to play.

Grandma Dayna had planned a treasure hunt for all the grandkids. They sure loved it. Kaylee was always leading the pack. Dayna had also planned a compass course for Justin and Drayton. This was to help pass off a task in scouts. All the kids found great treasures. Thanks Dayna for thinking of fun activities for our kids.

Later that night, we piled onto the four wheelers and headed to the ice hole. I didn't go down, but Tyler and all the kids took a turn. We lowered a tall ladder down the hole and everyone climbed down. From what they told me, there was too much ice to really go anywhere. Isn't it crazy that there was still ice there on the 4th of July. Brent tells us, that was how people had refridgeration way back when.

What a fun weekend!

Bugs, YIKES!!

2008-07-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Tyler and I were arranging the garage (well at least started to) when we came across this enormous bug. Neither of us knew what it was. Nor did I care to know. This was our first encounter with the son of a gun.

Next, Courtney complained of a big bug in her room. Oh Courtney, I'm sure it was an exaggeration. Then 3 days ago, I was hanging curtains in Courtney's room when I noticed in her window well there were 2 more of these creatures. She told me then, that was the bug in her room. So I was a little more scared for her.

Two days ago, Courtney, Kaylee and Rebecca Cram came screaming hysterically up the stairs. You could barely understand Courtney as she was terrified and crying. So being the brave mom, I headed downstairs with my friend Sara. I stopped in the bathroom to get some toilet paper thinking I could pick it up. Then I got to the bed.......and this is what I saw.

Sara began jumping around. I was still calm. I picked up a miniature play dust pan. I used this to get the creature into the bag. Once I got it into the bag, I let out a scream of terror. That scared everyone more than the bug. But I couldn't act brave anymore. Tyler didn't respond to my first cry for help. But he came running after the high pitched scream. But that's all he did. He just laughed. What a strong, brave, protective husband.

It was then upstairs and to the dumpster. Sara wanted to look at it again. So on the front porch, I handed her the bag. She looked inside, and as she did, I screamed and grabbed her. She dropped the bag and out he ran. The best part about the scare on the porch was the reaction of the workers across the street at Abby's house. They all stopped in their tracks to see what was going on. By that point, Sara and I were lucky that we didn't pee our pants. What a fun memory of our new house.

Have no fear, the bug men are on their way and will be here on Tuesday.

House Update

2008-07-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

The day finally arrived......moving day. It was so much work and who knew where the camera was. So I didn't get any pictures. We moved into our new house on Saturday, June 28th. The house was not totally finished, but the minor things that needed to be done didn't impact code. So we loaded up the snowmobile trailer 3 times and all our junk was here. We were lucky we didn't have much furniture to move because it was already delivered and NEW!! It was also a good thing we didn't have the furniture because we had next to no help moving. One other brother, Clay, was all the testosterone that arrived. The next Tuesday, we had 4 brothers from our new ward help with the last load. We really appreciated these strangers helping us. You gotta love the church!!

I am posting just a few pictures of some of the new house. Once we are fully decorated, I'll add some more.

We finally have a driveway and sidewalk. The driveway is big enough to park 6 cars on it out

front.

Here is Tyler and Michelle's new bedroom set. We have a matching armoire and dresser. The bed is sooooo high off the ground. Michelle still hasn't judged the corners of the bedframe well yet. The sides of her legs have the bruises to prove it.

This is the family room with all new furniture. Notice the new kitchen table in the background. We love the dark brown carpet. No more stains for us!!

The girls' rooms sure are bright. Kaylee is the pink polka dot and Courtney is purple butterflies. As you can see, it is still a work in progress.

Justin's room is a sports/baseball room. He has a new bed too. The one picture I left off was of a 3 foot baseball player on the wall. I am really happy with how all the kids rooms turned out. They love them too.

At the last minute, Tyler decided to add a deck off the back of our room. I thought we were just going to run a set of stairs. Well, here is the partially completed deck. It is now done. Someday, it will be the best hot tub spot.

Cotton Candy Summer

2008-07-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

Our summer is always busy thanks to Michelle's cotton candy business, Tasty Treats. Sometimes the fairs are pretty boring. But this one was really fun for the kids and the pocketbook. This is Orem Summerfest. We played at the park, learned about fire safety, watched High School Musical performances, and sold a ton of cotton candy.

Thanks Jill and Durrant for taking them on Saturday afternoon. The kids went to Chuckie Cheese and swam for 5 hours. They all fell in love with Uncle Durrant. He played catch with them for hours on end. Thanks again.

The kids came back just in time to be put to work. Who knew how busy we would get. We had a line for over 5 hours. So each person had a station. Mom made the cotton candy, Dad made the carmel apples, Kaylee got the drinks, and Justin was the money man. We couldn't have done it without the kids help. We ran out of everything, soda, water, sugar, apples. If we didn't we would have made even more $. As it was, we made a profit of $2000.

The kids actually like to help, "work". We pay them some money (or buy them toys at the fair). In a few more years, they will be the full time workers.

Since then, we have done 2 other fairs. Not nearly as successful. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Garage Sale

2008-06-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

It was that time again......time for a garage sale. Korey and Darcy let us use their house even though they weren't going to do the sale. Thanks so much!! Their house is the best location. I spent 2 whole days dragging my stuff to sell out of the basement and into a snowmobile trailer. The thing was packed. We were getting rid of everything except the kitchen sink. We sold our kitchen table, our headboard and armoire, Justin's bunk bed, the girls large doll house, side tables, bounce house, and about 15 bags of other stuff. The most exciting part about selling all this is that it means I have all NEW stuff coming. I made about $500. It was fun, but as always exhausting.

Tomorrow, Monday, is an exciting day. The carpet is going to be installed at our house!! Then on Tuesday I have my first load of furniture to be delivered. It should be the kitchen table and chairs and the master bedroom furniture set. Then after that, I still have Justin's bed, Kaylee's bed, barstools, couch, loveseat, recliner, entertainment center, mattresses, and white storage boxes for the girls rooms. Can you now see why it was so fun to get rid of the garage sale junk???

T-Ball Season

2008-05-27T20:15:00.001-07:00

Courtney and Kaylee just began their t-ball season. They are on the same team. That is wonderful for MOM. These pictures are from their first practice. Tonight was their first game. Kaylee is definitely more serious about the game. Courtney can often be seen tickling the third base coach. She has to be reminded to run to the next base. I enjoy watching them. They also get to play with their cousin Nalea. Ashley, Nalea's mom, is also their coach. It should be a fun season.

WII Can Read

2008-05-27T19:06:00.000-07:00

This is our summer reading incentive program. The kids have wanted a WII for quite sometime. I just didn't want to hand it over--they are costly, you know. So I heard of another parent doing this during the school year. The kids have to read 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week, until late July. This way they will have a few weeks to play with it before going back to school. So far so good. They love putting up their sticker. Justin and I just finished the Magic Tree House, book #1. Kaylee is 30 pages through her first chapter book. Munch just loves to have stories read to her. I hope this helps keep them motivated during the summer and we can avoid the dreaded summer regression.

End of School MADNESS

2008-05-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

The madness began about a week before school was to get out. I headed up to Provo with 6 other great ladies for the PTA convention. We spent 2 1/2 days laughing, talking, and eating. I remembered quickly that I am no spring chicken. Staying up until 1-2 each night wiped me out. It was totally worth the sacrifice......we'll have great memories. Oh yes, we did attend a few PTA classes inbetween the eating and laughing. It was great to be with these fun ladies. We should have a great year next year at the school.

Monday began with a school wide reading party. All kids who turned in 5 out of 6 months of their reading calendars were able to attend. The party was so much fun for them. There were western games (our theme was Reading Round-up), western pictures, cupcakes in the shape of a snake (we are the Rattlers). It was a great reward for all those readers. The great PTA did a wonderful job rewarding these readers.

Sorry about the terrible picture, it's a picture of a picture. Notice the cowgirl in the top row, yep that's Courtney. She tends to sneek into anything we do at the school. Eventhough she still has another year to go before she gets to be a Rattler. Kayleee is in the front row, center. We couldn't find Justin's photo, but he attended the party also.

Then the craziness continued with Kaylee's graduation from Kindergarten. Her class performed a couple of cute pirate songs for us. They all loved singing and showing us what they had learned. Each child had a turn to say their name at the microphone. I wasn't quick enough on the camera, so I told Kaylee to, "Wait, wait." She did, but with hands on hips. We finally got the camera to work and captured her moment in time.

Mrs. Barney was a great teacher. She has so much kindness and love for the kids. You can see all of her hard work pay off in the progress of the kids.

At the end of their ceremony, each child presented their mother with a flower. It was so great to see Kaylee blossom this year. She is an awesome reader. No matter where we go, she brings books with her. She can be seen reading at church and baseball games. I loved helping her class and watching her grow. Next year, it's on to first grade!! Good job Kaylee.
Are you tired yet???? Oh did I mention we went to Justin's baseball game on Monday and had to leave early to make it to Kaylee's graduation.

Tuesday-Field Day/Swim Party

Don't you love the bangs??? Cedar and it's wind ruins photos. Tuesday began back at the school for field day. What a fun, crazy day. The PTA sets up Snake Bait for 4 hours, raking in over $500. We provide water and otter pops for all students. We supervise the afternoon movie. And most importantly, we have fun with our kids. The above picture is me and two of my best PTA buddies, Nikki and Sara. I truly love the friendships that I have formed through the PTA.

Each grade competes in races. Justin came in third in the 100 and 200 yard dash. You can't tell from the picture, but he ran barefoot. He was so proud of himself. And lucky I, got to be there to watch it all!! I love being at the school with my kids. Justin's teacher, Mrs. Fuson had t-shirts made for her whole class. They say "Field Day 2008" and their name. She is the most amazing caring teacher I have met. We will miss her next year.......but Kaylee will have her in 2 years.

WE LOVE MRS. FUSON

Here's Kaylee with her class enjoying an otter pop. Her class also had races. She came in first place!!

In the middle of field day, I had to leave and take Courtney to her last day of preschool. This is a long awaited day. It was swim day. Courtney and Nalea could hardly take a second to stop playing for a photo. But as you can see, after chasing them down, I got a shot.

Now it's Wednesday and Justin and Kaylee's classes both earn ice cream parties from the PTA for bringing in the most Box Tops. The top 3 classes got parties. Justin's was 1st place and Kaylee's was 2nd place. I guess it helps to have a mom who is a Box Top Nazi.

Justin is wearing his two medals he won for the field day races.

It's the last day of school and all we have left is an awards assembly. I wasn't planning on attending until I learned my little ones would be recognized. So it was back to the school. Kaylee received 2 awards, one for excellent work in computers and one for citizenship. Justin also received the citizenship award. Their teachers choose who receives what award. Way to go kids!! I love that you are both kind to other students and teachers. Oh there's Courtney getting in on the action again.

Eventhough the week was completely exhausting, I loved every minute of it. I feel so lucky to have the flexibility to be to every event at the school. I know the kids love me being there too. Not a visit to Justin's class goes by without him running over and giving me a huge hug! Those are precious moments and memories for both of us. I'm excited for a break from school, who doesn't want to sleep in a little. If you call waking up at 7:30 sleeping in. But don't worry, we've got plenty of fun activities planned for the summer.

And the color is.......

2008-05-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

RED

It's hard to tell from this picture, but it is red. I'm relieved that I like the color. Red can be tricky.....too brown, too orange, too purple......but this is just right.

Tyler and I did another marathon weekend of yes, you guessed it, more tile. We spent 11 hours doing tile in our shower. Who knew how much work this was???? Not me. We now just have to grout it and then install the floor. We are now down to one last shower. It is just a free standing shower, so hopefully, we'll be able to finish it tomorrow. Doesn't that sound like a fun way to spend your Memorial Day??

We've hired a painter to finish the inside--thank heavens. We did this mostly because Tyler is out of town most of this next week, Tuesday through Friday. And I certainly didn't want to do it by myself. Once he returns we can work on the back patio. We have to finish this so we can put stairs going out there.

We still are waiting on POWER. If it doesn't begin to go in this week I am really going to SCREAM!

Mother's Day Escape

2008-05-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

I scheduled a family weekend for Mother's Day. We first had a cotton candy event. This event is very small, so the kids could come. They watched the parade and got a bag full of candy. Then they each got to play carnival games, ride inflateables, eat junk and help sell cotton candy. The only purpose of this event is to make enough money to justify a fun weekend.

After the event we headed to Ashley's Home Furniture. I had scoped out a new couch set and entertainment center. I just had to get the bosses approval. It was a go. And we added 4 barstools to the purchase.

Finally, it was off to the hotel. The kids love to swim. And that is where we spent our time. They loved having Dad throw them in the air, well everyone but Courtney. Courtney made big progress at the pool. She got her eyes wet all by herself. We had to clap each time she did this.

We had our traditional dinner, Olive Garden-2 orders of chicken scampi and tons of breadsticks. The whole family eats like pigs. Justin can't get enough. But he wants to hurry and stuff it in his mouth so he can go back to swimming.

It was such a fun relaxing weekend. I have decided to make it my annual present to myself.

Baseball and Ice Cream

2008-05-14T06:21:00.000-07:00

Justin's team had another game yesterday. At first, I thought it was going to be miserable because the wind had been crazy ALL day. We were so lucky that it stopped for the game. I missed the first 2 innings because it was my night to cook for the dinner group. After scurrying around like a mad woman, I finally made it there. Justin's team was up by 3 points. What??? I was stunned. We ususally are down 5 after the 1st inning. And then it's too hard to catch up. So things were looking promising.

Justin was up to bat about 10 minutes after I got there. Swing-strike, Swing-BANG!!!!! The ball took off out to right field. The player couldn't catch it. So Mom is standing cheering!!! Go Justin Go!! He got a double out of it. And hit 2 runs in. I was so thrilled for him.

The game became a nail biter (that is if you are competitive like me). The score is 11 for us and 7 for them. Dang, we needed to be up by at least 5 because there is a 5 run per inning rule. We have our last ups at bat. No one is out and runners are at 3rd and 2nd (Justin is at 2nd). So I was excited to see that most likely we'd score a run. Batter strikes out. Next batter is up and a wild pitch passes the catcher. The runner at 3rd goes and then hesitates and then goes. Yep, you guessed it, out at home. Now it's 2 outs---how in the heck did that happen so fast??? Batter strikes out.

Now the other team gets their last ups. They score 3 runs. Oh this is almost more than I can take. We are only up by one. There is a runner on 2nd and the batter hits the ball, we got him out at 1st!! Yippee!!!! Our second win of the season. The boys were so excited that they ran the bases to celebrate. But wait, it gets even better. The boys think they get an ice cream if they win. So Mom takes the team out for ice cream. We went to Brad's (our sponsor) for the ice cream celebration.

I don't know who likes sports more, me or the kids!!

House Update

2008-05-05T13:39:00.000-07:00

The project for the last week has been tile. Saturday was the big work day. Tyler spent 15 hours cutting tile. He stayed until 12:30 am. The poor guy worked himself to death. While he was cutting I was laying the tile. Dayna came and helped for a couple of hours. She showed me the ropes of how to lay tile. That was a blessing and curse. Blessing because I would help, curse because I could help. I spent 8 hours on Saturday and so far 2 hours today laying tile. On Sunday I could hardly move. Who knew you used every muscle in your body to lay tile.

This picture if of our banister that goes to the basement. It has not been stained yet, but I love it!!

This is looking into the kitchen. Our granite countertops are being finished today!! Notice all the tile, yep, Tyler and I laid it.

Here is the outside. We've had most of the siding installed and the rock work is done. The next big thing is painting the outside. I'm scared to death. Red is the color I want, but what if I choose the wrong red?

Little Star Preschool

2008-05-03T14:40:00.001-07:00

Courtney is soooo lucky that she gets to go to Little Star Preschool. Renae Clark does the best preschool I have ever seen. She really teaches the kids and prepares them for school. The icing on the cake is her wonderful backyard. She has an amazing yard for the kids to play in. She has a swing set, monkey bars, jungle gym, basketball hoop, sandbox, and tons of riding toys. As you can see from the pictures, she also has animals. This spring she got new baby chicks and ducks. They are a hit with all the kids. This has been one of my favorite things since our move to UT. Kaylee attended for 1 1/2 years and Courtney will be there for 2 years. Since Courtney's birthday falls after the cut off, she gets to go to preschool for one more year. Courtney is such a smart little girl, she's been writing her name for a long time. A few weeks ago, she said that she knew our phone #, and she does!! Renae also provides such cute arts and craft projects for them. We are truly blessed to have Renae Clark!!

Field Trip Week

2008-05-02T12:16:00.001-07:00

It was Kaylee's turn first. They were going to the Livestock Auction and a farm. I've been on enough field trips to know that it is best to drive your own car and meet them there. The bus is the most exhausting time of the trip. Kaylee was sad that I didn't go on the bus, but she was soon OK. The livestock auction was fun. The auctioneer kept making it seem like one of the kids bought the cows. I let Kaylee have the camera and you can't believe how many pictures of cows she took.

Then it was off to the farm where we saw chickens, lambs, baby pigs, and that was when I had to leave. The kids all loved just being outside and running around. It's always special to spend one on one time with each child. It is amazing to me that they crave it soooooo much.

Courtney was up next. Her class was learning about different jobs in the community. One of her classmate's mother is a waitress at Sizzler. So we were off to learn what she does. The part the kids remember the most is the ice cream. They each had their own treat.

Three Little Pigs

2008-05-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

I love going to the school. You never know what you are going to see. I just happened to pop into Kaylee's class one Wednesday after Snake Bait. I was so glad I did. They were reinacting The Three Little Pigs. And how lucky were we that Kaylee's name was drawn as one of the pigs. Kindergarten sure does some fun things!!

Take me out to the ball game....

2008-05-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be soooooo smart to sign Justin up for Little League instead of Machine Pitch baseball because then his season would be done before summer starts. That would be great because then it's one less thing to have to schedule vacation around. I forgot one very important thing.....spring in Cedar means wind. We've sat through the last 4 games in near hurricane winds....maybe not hurricane, but totally crazy.

The wind doesn't seem to distract the ball players. Justin loves it. On game 3 his mom had near heart failure. Justin was asked to pitch. He'd never done this in a real game situation. I could see the nervousness and fear in his face. He just had to get us out of the inning....then the real pitcher could start. Thank goodness there is a five run per inning rule. Justin did his best!! Mom and Dad were sure proud that he was willing to try something new.

Justin's team is Brad's--as in Brad's Food Hut. Last Tuesday they finally won their first game. So coach Jones took them to Brad's for an ice cream celebration. Tyler has been helping out coach, at least until the house took over all his time. He is now up to his eyes in tile.

Doesn't he seem to small to be on the mound??

We're Ba-ack

2008-05-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

Holy cow it's been over 2 weeks since a blog entry. I guess that's what happens when your husband leaves for a week to MEXICO--without me, again-- and takes the camera with him. So I'll be posting a few entries over the next couple of days to catch us up.

Let's go fly a kite

2008-04-13T10:41:00.001-07:00

Courtney found a Dora kite at the St. George DI. She kept wanting to fly it. Then finally, I let her. I remember as a kid having to run and run and run to try to get a kite up in the air. Not so in Cedar City. All you have to do is let go of it and up, up and away it goes. The girls took turns flying. For all those non believers, DI has great stuff.

You know you're in trouble when....

2008-04-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

you return from taking Kaylee to school and you find your 4 year old standing hands on hips, waiting for you to come home.

You see, I snuck out of the house to take Kaylee to school. Courtney was still asleep (Tyler was down stairs). As you can see, she woke up while I was gone. I couldn't stop laughing in the van seeing this little one scolding me.

Courtney can make me smile faster than any of my kids. She just has the cutest facial expresssions. I love her.

One SEXY outfit

2008-04-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

My life has revolved around the new house. Last week I spent all day Friday, Saturday, and part of Monday dressed like this.

As you can see, I was painting. I primmed the whole house and garage. Then I had to go back and paint the ceilings white. I also painted the girls room, laundry room, and downstairs bathrooms white. Dayna helped me on Monday by rolling after I sprayed it. This helps keep it all looking even.

What was Tyler doing all this time you ask. I found myself asking that quite often. He was installing the shelving in the closets. This was VERY time consuming. I kept thinking, "Are you kidding me." Let me reassure you that painting is tough work. My arms, back, and especially my neck (from doing all the ceilings twice) hurt like a mother. My eyes were the only part not covered by my outfit so they turned white. Even my boogers were white. How can that be when I wore a mask the whole time? When our builder convinced me to have the trim work done first and then come back and paint the walls their color, he had no trouble convincing me. I was pain ol' tired. I needed a break.

Then I was off to St. George to pick out more tile. This tile was for the downstairs bathrooms and the master bathroom. I don't know why tile overwhelms me, but it does. I found one store with a worker who pretty much helped me put all the pieces together. So I stopped looking and am going to order from him.

Yesterday, a carpet guy stopped by. It was great to not have to load up and go somewhere. I will probably use him just for the pure convenience factor. We have just one problem. We are over budget on our flooring. So the carpet guy might have to come back out and we will choose another one. You see, we picked a pretty expensive one for upstairs. Tyler loved it, I thought it was a little too dark. So hopefully the carpet man can come back out and help us find a compromise.

Next week, it is onto tile. Tyler will do this since I have already done by fair share of manual labor. I will be retaping the ceilings so that I can paint the walls. The most exciting part is that our cabinets and countertops are going in this week!! I better never move again because I HATE making all the decisions. I don't care what shape my baseboard is. I don't care what color my hinges are. I don't care how many baskets are on my stair railing. I don't care how many shelves are in my closet. I JUST DON'T CARE ANYMORE. I just want to move there. The sooner the better.

Pray for me in picking out outside house colors......this is my next big stressful decision. Can't someone else just choose for me????

Kody's Jamboree

2008-04-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

After returning from Arizona I was quickly back to work. I had volunteered to help run a rummage sale for a boy struggling with cancer. I didn't really realize what I had gotten myself into. On Thursday night, Tyler and I emptied 1 1/2 storage units of donated items into our truck and a snow mobile trailer. We were now ready for Friday, so we could start sorting and arranging.

This task was completely overwhelming. The donated items just kept coming and coming. We couldn't sort fast enough. I had made signs indicating where groupings of items would go. There were at least 50 volunteers there. Some were our muscle who just unloaded all the storage units. Others sorted through all the bags. At some points, I just wanted to give up, but a little boy was counting on us.

I will never forget the name of Stella. This lady, who I found out later, was in Kody's ward. She was a clothes sorting fool. She never gave up and continued all night. We sorted from 3:00-10:30.

The community really pulled through for Kody. The whole entire high school gym was full. Both sides of the bleachers were pulled out to use as our display areas. Outside was the furniture section. I have NEVER seen a sale like this and I have been to many rummage/garage sales.

By 3:30 on Saturday, I was exhausted. I felt guilty for leaving but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I went home and straight to bed for 2 hours. After all was said and done, the rummage sale raised $6800. Way to go Cedar City.

My family, Tyler, Justin, Kaylee, and Courtney are the best. Here I volunteer myself to help and it turned into a family affair. The kids were so cute as they carried clothes out of the storage unit and into the trailer. They really helped. The stuck through hours of sorting with us. Then the next day they were all back again. I love my little family!!

I had a great time talking with my children about what we were doing. Letting them know that a little boy was sick and needed our help. Dear little Courtney was so cute. She asked me after the rummage sale, is "that boy" feeling better now. I told her hopefully soon he would be.

It was a blessing to me to be able to serve. I've been watching Oprah's Big Give. I don't have $ to give, but I can give of myself. One of the contestants said, "The best thing you can give is to give of yourself." I truly belive this and hope to have more opportunities in the future.

Soon I hope to have a picture to post. So keep your eye out.

Bruce to the rescue

2008-04-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

Imagine there you are.....sitting on the toilet doing what one does there when you realize, OH CRAP there is no toilet paper. You look under the sink. Nothing there. You look behind you and see 2 packages of kid toilet training wipes. You have a brief moment of relief.....and you find out they are empty. So now what???? Everyone is outside on the patio. You crack open the door and yell, "HEIDI". No response. You have no choice but to sit and wait.

You hear the sound of hope---Bruce is in the kitchen. So I do what any other desperate person would do--yell for help. "Bruce, Bruce!!" To your delight there is a reply. "Ya". I then ask, "Can you get me some toilet paper?" A little chuckle is made by Bruce. But being the good guy he is....he's off to get a roll.

Then it dawns on you...how is he going to hand me the toilet paper. I sit waiting anxiously. He returns and informs me he is standing to the side of the door with his eyes closed. I open the door just a crack and grab the roll. I can now finish my business.

The best part is then telling the rest of the family what transpired. We all got a good laugh. Thanks Bruce for saving me!!

Smith Family Easter Egg Hunt

2008-04-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

Bruce was the offical door monitor, and he did a super job. He had all the kids lined up according to age. Then it was just like opening the flood gates. Kids were spilling out everywhere.

Don't you just love Mason's first hunt. His mommy had to help, just a little. I'm still not sure if he got his 14 allotted eggs.

Finally, we have the traditional Smith Easter Egg Hunt picture. Don't they look cute???? We'll see how much longer they let us take their photo like this.

This was the end to a fun night with my family. They were having their monthly b-day party. It worked out nicely that it coincided with our Hsquared family trip. So I was showered with family love from both sides of our family. Justin, Kaylee, and Courtney sure do miss their cousins in AZ. They sometimes ask when we are moving back. The answer is most likely never. So it is great when we get to visit with everyone.

Arizona Easter Trip-7th Stop Easter Egg Hunt

2008-04-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

On your marks, get set, GO!!!

The annual Hsquared Easter Egg Hunt was under way. The kids could hardly wait to start. We had them line up for a photo and someone kept running off to the field of eggs. There were more eggs and other goodies than any child needed. We still have a tupperware container of candy. But if it was left down, Munch would have it all gone. I really have to watch her with candy.

We had a great time on the family vacation!! It was our best trip yet.

A MILLION thanks to Brent and Dayna for giving us lasting, fun memories!

Arizona Easter Trip-6 and a half stop- REVENGE

2008-04-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

For some strange reason, unknown to me, Tyler's younger family memebers think pranks are fun. I usually enjoy pranks. But this one I didn't. Let me give you some background. I do NOT sleep well at hotels ever. I have to take Tylenol PM everynight, just to fall asleep. I can't share a bed with anyone unless it is a king. So I slept on the roll away. Which amounts to sleeping on springs. This trip was just like all the others. I took my Tylenol and waited to fall asleep, which I finally did. Then about 1:00 ish the phone rings. Yep you guessed it, the younger group was making prank calls. All I have to say is you are LUCKY no kids woke up. But now I was in a dilema.....falling back to sleep. It finally happened.

The next morning I was a tad grumpy about it with Rachel.....because if it was really funny she would have called her room and woken up her husband. Did they......NO. So Kyle was in the hot tub and was throwing any breathing family memeber under the bus. Durrant was his first victim. You see, Durrant is new to the family and no one would suspect him. Durrant almost was thrown fully clothed into the pool. His new bride, Jill, kept him safe. Kyle's next victim was Clay, who just came down for breakfast. So Tyler and Lonn headed into the breakfast room to grab him and throw him into the pool. I followed behind with camera in hand. Clay clung to the door as a room full of strangers watched. Seeing that Tyler and Lonn needed help, I called for Korey. And the rest is history. Look at each picture for a step by step of what happened.

Now Tyler and I were NICE. We were going to call all the youngster at 5:30 am after we returned from our trip to let them know we made it home safe. We didn't. I guess that is called maturity.

Arizona Easter Trip-6th stop FINALLY RELAXING

2008-04-06T17:06:00.001-07:00

Finally after running around for days, everyone gets a chance to relax. The kids loved the swimming pool. They were able to play for a few hours. As you can see, Papa was the play toy. Kaylee has learned to wear goggles. She had tried a few time before, but couldn't ge the fit right. Now she wears them without the water getting into her eyes. She LOVES to swim with goggles.

Arizona Easter Trip-5th stop The Temple Pagent

2008-03-31T19:08:00.000-07:00

Look at my eyes.....do they look Chinese??? When I was young my sister use to say my eyes looked Chinese when I cried or when I was tired. Well, I am absolutely tired. This was a LONG LONG day. After the zoo, we loaded onto the bus and went to Mesa to wait for the temple pagent to begin. We waited 5 long hours. The kids didn't mind because we hung out at Pioneer Park and they just played. Justin, Curtis, Kaylee, Kimberly, Courtney, and Callie walked through the irrigation water and played on the playground. They were perfectly content. Us old folks on the other hand, needed a nap. Tyler helped keep us awake by making a Dairy Queen run. Those blizzards and dilly bars never tasted so good.

The pagent was great!! All of my kids made it through the whole thing without falling alseep. Unfortunately, Justin didn't give it as good of reviews as I did. He said, "That was boring". He got a laugh out of the people behind us. Kaylee was glued to the pagent. She kept wondering if it was really Jesus or someone playing him.

Another fun day has come to an end.

Arizona Easter Trip-4th stop The Zoo

2008-03-31T18:43:00.000-07:00

Who knew the busiest day of the year for the Zoo is Good Friday??? Obviously, not us. We pulled up in the bus and were informed there was no room for the bus to park. Needless to say, Merlin (the driver) was not happy. We got dropped off and headed to the gates only to see enormous lines. Brent found some worker who told us to go to the school entrance-this is one of the perks of a family of 40. There was no waiting and we got in for school prices. It was $4.50 each instead of $14.50 per person. What a deal!!

Our kids hav always loved to zoo. We saw every animal. Courtney and Kaylee loved the monkeys. They each got a stuffed animal. Courtney's was a purple monkey that can wrap around you. Kaylee got just the traditional monkey. Now normally, I wouldn't spend $12 on a stuffed animal. But we had told the kids they could each pick out 1 present from our trip. And I knew without a doubt that Kaylee and Courtney would play and play and play with their monkeys. They love stuffed animals. Kaylee sleeps with at least 10 in her bed. I don't know how she has any room for herself. But don't take one away because she will know it is missing.

Here is a picture of the best $10 we have ever spent. Renting a stroller to use at the zoo. I can only imagine who many times we would've heard, "Carry me" if we didn't rent one.

We finished our day at the zoo by seeing the lions and then playing in some shade by the playground. It is amazing that it was soooooo hot. Now 2 1/2 years ago we wouldn't have said 88 degrees was hot....but now we think so.

Arizona Easter Trip-3rd stop dinner

2008-03-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's fun to watch as the bus pulls up and off we get. I always wonder what the people watching us are saying. So off the bus we got at Hometown Buffet. Where else can you seat a group of 40 people together? Dinner was fine, but then at the very end a balloon man came by. Yep, you guessed it, all the kids wanted balloons. Courtney got a kitty, Kaylee a butterfly, Justin a scorpion, and Curtis Spiderman.

We were so happy that Lonn and Teryl's family came on this trip. Justin and Curtis were inseperable. Kaylee and Kimberly were never far apart. It was great to spend time with them.

Arizona Easter Trip-2nd stop Baseball game

2008-03-31T18:22:00.001-07:00

The enjoyment of the AZ spring weather didn't last long. The minute we got to the baseball game, I knew we were in trouble. It had to be about 86 degrees. Which was at least 25 degrees warmer than our warm in Cedar. We sat in the grass section for about 3 minutes. Tyler was off to get food, and poor Courtney was already turning red from being hot. So I headed straight for the shade. I watched about 2 pitches out of the whole game. Our whole family took over the shade. My kids and a bunch of cousins ran around and played. It was a great blessing to have the shade. We never would've made it through the game.

Don't you love Dayna's homemade hat??? It is a nacho container tied on with string. You have to give this woman pointers for creativity.

This was such a cute sight walking out of the baseball game. All the little girl cousins are holding hands with their aunts Heidi and Alicia. Dane can barely be seen on the far right side. I said from behind it looked like Dane was the poligamist father with his 2 wives and his five little girls.

Arizona Easter Trip-1st Stop Montezuma's Castle

2008-03-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, everyone loaded onto the bus (except me-I drove our car). All was going according to plan until I hit a traffic jam about 1 hour outside of Flagstaff. I sat and sat for over an hour. Then as traffic began to go, my battery died on my car. I guess I had the key turned over too far and drained the battery. So I was franctically getting help to jump my car. Some nice people loaned me their jumper cables, and then as I said traffic moved. So they didn't wait for me and I couldn't return their cables. I kept looking at each car I passed to see if it was them. No such luck!

Thursday morning, we headed to Montezuma's castle. I was pretty interesting to see a village built into the side of a mountain. This was our first glimpse of the nice Arizona spring weather. After a short stop of about an hour, it was back onto the bus.

Easter

2008-03-31T17:59:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, two weeks have flown by and I haven't had a minute to breathe. Just keep reading and you'll see why. It all started about a week before Easter. What a fun Sunday afternoon activity, coloring Easter eggs. I boiled up 2 dozen eggs (which we are still eating) for the kids to color. This year they painted the eggs. It was much cleaner than last year. They each did 6 eggs and of course, kept them in their own containers.

Spring in Cedar

2008-03-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Spring in Cedar is unpredictable. The day started out so beautiful. The sun was shinning and the kids asked to have a picnic at the park. I told them we needed to go to the house first then that sounded like fun. So we called friends and off we went. As you can see, it was warm and the sun was shinning. The kids each got a bucket and dug in the dirt around the house. They said China was on the far side of the dirt mound. They were going to make France, but it was too hard.

The clouds were beginning to roll in. So we hurried to the park. Tyler went to get our pizza for lunch. I forgot a jacket. Luckily, we borrowed one from Keaton's mom. We played, rode bikes, and ate for about an hour. Then the rain began. So headed back home to play inside. Ok, a little rain isn't bad for spring. But then it turned to snow. Are you kidding me??? We went from no jackets and sunscreen on our faces, to snow. We are over winter.

Basket Raffle

2008-03-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

It was another crazy week for the PTA. It was our 2nd annual basket raffle. Each class chooses a theme. Then the parents donate items to fill their basket. The PTA wrapps up all the baskets. This means I was at the school every morning early to bring the baskets out of the office to have on display for a week. At the end of the day, I would put them away again. Our school secretary sold tickets all week for us. It is the week of parent teacher conferences, book fair, and the science fair. So the parent traffic at the school is high. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the week. Thursday night, is the big night. The PTA announces next year's board (that is why there is a picture of me standing up--thanks Kaylee for taking the photo.) The most exciting basket was a camping theme. The teacher even had a quail stuffed. It had a chair, lantern, flashlights, fishing lures, jerky, etc. The kids and dads loved this basket. We then sell more tickets and finally raffle off the baskets. It was a much larger success this year!! We made $1267. Not bad.

The bad part was that we didn't win any baskets. My kids don't quite get how a raffle works (eventhough I explained it over and over). So I had 3 bawling kids. It was so bad, I had to leave right after the raffle and not count the $ that night. They cried all the way home, through reading books, and poor Justin could be heard sobbing in his bed. It broke my heart. So I told him while I was in St. George tomorrow, I would pick up a toy for him. That quieted the sobs, and finally they were all asleep. Oh did I mention, Tyler was in Phoenix, so I got to deal with that by myself. Tyler seems to plan his trips whenever I need him to help me with the kids because of a PTA event.

Near disaster for dinner group

2008-03-01T09:51:00.001-08:00

It was my night to cook dinner. I added another family....a friend having a tough time who just needed some help. So I was cooking for 5 families that day. It all started out great. I had all the dough, for homemade bread, finished by 9:00 am. The first 2 loaves had already been baked. It was onto the next four loaves. So while it was cooking I decided to peak at Heidi and Valynn's blogs. I got all caught up in the garage sale and blue and gold banquet that I didn't even hear the buzzer ring. It hit me like a ton of bricks. HOLY CRAP, I yelled, running down the halls. As you can see, I was lucky this time. The bread survived.

House Progress

2008-03-01T09:33:00.001-08:00

Work continues on the house. Yesterday, the shingles were beginning to be installed. The dirt work guys were hard at work. We had to backfill the garage about 3-4 feet. Where did the dirt come from you might ask. Well take a look at the huge hole in my backyard. It has to be 15 feet deep by 25 feet long. This is Justin's favorite play spot. At first I didn't let him down there because I wasn't sure if he could climb back out. But "accidentally" he dropped his toy in there. So he HAD to go and get it. I then saw it was OK for him to get out of.

The rest of our time was spent building a little retaining wall in back. I told Tyler we needed a level and string to make it straight and level. He said OK to the string (only because I went and got some). But he didn't have a level and didn't want to take the time to get one. So off we went. After 3 layers, I went to see what it looked like from inside the basement. Yep, not level. So off to Home Depot for a level. Tyler spent the rest of the night redoing the wall. This time without my help because it was getting late and cold. So I took the kids home for dinner. Needless to say, we have learned to work smarter NOT harder.

It is amazing to me that dirt can entertain children for hours. Running through the piles. Digging to make who knows what. Courtney wanted to lay down and make snow angels. That goes too far for me. So I put a stop to that. Otherwise, it was a free for all. And they loved every minute of it.

PJ/Dr. Seuss Day at School

2008-03-01T09:25:00.000-08:00

All the kids had PJ day today at school. They could hardly wait. Courtney had to know each day how much longer until PJ day at school. Kaylee was worried (she's my little worrier) if she was suppossed to wear her PJ's to her morning class. They had computers and PE. So she was afraid to wear them. So at first she asked to skip the morning class. They she thought if I called the teacher to find out, it would be ok to go. I pretended to call the princial. He said she should wear her pj's to computers and pe. Then she felt ok to go. For the last 30 minutes of school all the kids filled the halls to read Dr. Seuss books. I walked around to each class. Then I started to notice a smell......I went back to the office and made a comment about it. The next thing I heard was Mr. Taylor (the principal) saying, "The halls are beginning to smell like a locker room." This time it wasn't just my over sensitive nose. The kids all had a fun day.

Justin is a Scout

2008-02-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

Justin loves going to scouts. I thought it was just one more thing for me to do. So I came up with a great idea....Justin and his dad should work on scouts together. Justin was so proud of himself for passing off his bear. We thought he was going to receive it at the Blue and Gold Banquet. But he didn't. He was actually quite disappointed. So now we have something to look forward to at next month's Pack Meeting.

For a treat, my kids get to go to DI. (this is ususally of their own choice) Justin found a Pokemon puzzle. For some reason I HATE Pokemon. But he insisted. I said maybe all the puzzle pieces wouldn't be there. That didn't persuade him at all. So it came home with us. He spent the next hour putting it together. This was his first 200 piece puzzle. Good job Justin!!

Sticker Shock!!

2008-02-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

Two days ago, Tyler and I received some invoices for our house. They were about $60,000!!! Can you say sticker shock? Most of the invoices were for the amount we thought. But the concrete bid was for $4000 more. OUCH!! If we survive building this house, it will be a miracle.

Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

The kids helped make Valentine's Day gifts for their school teachers. It always sounds fun to make them, but then it is actually work. Each teacher received a cute Valentine bowl with Martinelli's, popcorn, and a clear jar filled with candy. The kids are very excited to bring these to school today. Kaylee has two because she has a morning and an afternoon teacher.

Mr. Q and Miss U. are Married!!

2008-02-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

Kaylee's class had a wedding today. The letters Q and U were married. They vowed to never be separated from each other. It was really quite cute. After the wedding we had a little reception. We learned girls can dance with girls, boys can dance with boys, or boys can dance with girls. As you see, Kaylee chose girls can dance with girls. Her dance partner is Ellyn. The above picture is some of Kaylee's best friends, Melody, Britnie, and Ellyn.

It was a MAD house

2008-02-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

We've gone from no one working on the house to mass chaos. On Friday we had 4 framers, 2 electricians, 4 plumbers, and 2 heating/cooling guys all working at once. When I stopped by to visit, you really had to watch where you were going. I asked if they would be working tomorrow. No one ended up working, which was fine with me. It is easier for me to check on their work without them being there. I found just a couple of small changes. Tyler is the one who gets to communicate with the workers. We need a few outlets moved. The biggest problem was from the heating guys. They ran a tube right up through one of my nooks. I was not happy about that at all. I've visualized these nooks for a long time. I had to fight the builder, framer, and now the heating guys on it. I WANT IT!!! And what I want, I get.

I LOVE my calling

2008-02-03T12:50:00.000-08:00

Being the Primary choirester is the world's best calling!! I get to help the kids learn new songs each week. This month is "Tell me the stories of Jesus". So I made a posterboard with my kids looking down (like they are reading the book). And then made a book that as the pages turn you learn more word to the song. This week was just the 1st verse. We will add the next two verses later this month. The hardest part is, my kids want me to call on them to be my helpers each week. Which I don't do. I pull names out of a box. If I am ever released, it will be a sad day.

Today we also learned the song "Don't ever forget to pray". President Hinckley wrote the words. So I thought it would be nice to sing this song as a tribute to him.

It was a BLIZZARD

2008-01-29T12:29:00.000-08:00

Our day began so peaceful. Sun shinning, temperatures up, etc. I even began to dream that the weather would stay good and roads to our new house would be in earlier than normal. Then.....all of the sudden the wind was crazy. (over 60 mph according to the news) Then it began to snow. We are use to that, but it normally comes from the North or South. This time it came from the West. It was about lunch time and Tyler was up from work. And then all the power went out. Right in the middle of me making my dinner group dinners. Tyler thought quickly and decided to get a load of wood in the house and to crank up the fire. Good thinkin' cuz we were out of power for a couple of hours. The school lost power too. My teacher connections called me and told me I could pick up the kids if I wanted to. No way, you keep them I thought. About an hour and 1/2 later my teacher connections called again to cancel the dinner I had arranged for them that night and mentioned, "without the power the school is getting cold." I didn't even think about my cold little kids. So off to school Tyler went to pick them up.

After school the kids all got dressed in their snow clothes and played outside. At least there is something for them to do now. I don't like when it is cold without snow. Cuz then no one wants to go outside. Looks like we have a least a weeks worth of fun until the snow melts.

Michelle's New Life

2008-01-27T11:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's not a new life, just a new hairdo. In early January, I chopped it all off. This is after growing it out for 18 months. These pictures don't do it justice. It is actually really cute (if I do say so myself). The best part is that I am ready from showering to make-up, the whole nine yards in just 30 minutes.

My new life is the piano, my favorite Christmas present. I spend a lot of time practicing. Dayna requires 6 hours a week for my free lessons. I am currently learning the Primary song Autumn Day. The kids favorite song is "The Bear Went Over the Mountain." They all get their "dance partners (even Justin-he uses Gandolf) and dance while I play. This took me back to my childhood when Mom would play a song and we would start walking around the tables in living room. As she played faster we would go faster and faster. I hope I am making memories for my little ones like Mom did for me.

Missing Tooth

2008-01-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

Justin had a tooth hanging around for a week or so. This week while at school on Wednesday, he found me at the Snake Bait store to show me the tooth was bleeding. That was thanks to a chip. I sent him back to lunch and then about 2 minutes later he reappeared with a tooth in his hand. The Principal, Mr. Taylor told him to put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy would give him $100. He said that in front of me for my benefit. Luckily, the toothfairy got a reminder text message from her friend and the $1 made it safely to his pillow.

Isn't it lovely....

2008-01-16T08:03:00.001-08:00

This picture was taken last week on Wednesday. WOW things are really moving fast. The whole upstairs is framed. So you can actually see how things will look. And I am very pleased. I really think I am going to love the floor plan. I found a few changes to make, like the location of the windows in my closet, and making the windows smaller in the master bedroom. Thanks to Dayna, I won the fight about a door on the front of my garage. I REALLY REALLY wanted this door, because the kids would come in the house that way. Go to the locker room, hang up jackets and backpacks, and take off shoes. I was told it wasn't possible. Boy I was mad. But Dayna said, "Oh fooey, don't let them tell you that, you really need that door." So that's just what I said to Tyler. He and the builder have now made my door possible.

Then you turn you back for a minute, and the trusses are going up. The poor framers are having to deal with some cold wind. I'm glad it's not me up there nailing the trusses in.

Merry Christmas

2008-01-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

We had a fun time this year for Christmas. It started about a week early when the kids got to open their traditionally Christmas Eve present of PJ's. They were lucky to open them early, due to the fact that Kaylee needed PJ's to wear to school for a party. Nothing that she was currently wearing would have been presentable. Those PJ's were worn for nearly a week straight. Tyler wanted to know when I was going to wash them. I said, "They can't walk on their own yet."

Next it was onto Christmas Eve. It's always fun to get together with the Hillyard-Hunter clan. Craig and Aubree pulled a fast one at the White Elephant exchange. They had wrapped up one of Grandma's cats. Mac was the lucky winner of the prize. Luckily, it wasn't me....I would have screamed and dropped the cat.

Then came the Christmas Nativity. Courtney had the coveted role of Mary. Kaylee was an angel and Justin was a Wiseman.

Finally we had an appearance from Santa Claus-also known as Clay. He brought Kaylee a large porcelain doll. We named her Gabby. Kaylee carried the 6 lb baby around for 5 days. When we had a minor tragedy. Kaylee dropped Gabby and broke her face. Poor little Kaylee cried and cried. She loved that baby. And unfortunately, she did it as we were loading the car to go to Arizona. I talked her down only by promising to buy a new baby. We have replaced the glass Gabby with a normal plastic one.

Christmas Day!!

Santa found his way to our home. Justin could hardly stand it. He woke up early. I heard him in the family room, and told him it was too early. Go back to bed. 30 minutes later, I could hear wrapping paper being torn. I ran down the hall and told him he couldn't do that. I thought I had stopped him just in time. At least that is what I thought. As we were opening presents, Justin said, "I got TMNT." How do you know I asked. He said he had opened that present in his bed. We all had a good laugh. The girls were excited to see their new bikes. Wow, we must have had good kids this year because there was no coal.

House update

2007-12-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

Things are moving right along with the house. Our basement walls were poured. The rough plumbing is in. The garage stem walls are up. We are now waiting until after Christmas to have the basement floor poured.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2007-12-23T09:20:00.000-08:00

We finally got our first snow of the year.....at least one that lasted more than 2 hours. Justin has been anxiously waiting for snow. On the way to school on Wednesday, he asked, "Mom, when is it going to snow?" I told him I don't know. Then Kaylee spoke up and said, "Justin we can pray for snow." Here is their conversation--

Justin-Kaylee you pray for snow.
Kaylee-No you pray.
Justin-Come on Kaylee just say a quick one.
Kaylee-No you.

Then there was silence for a moment. Kaylee then said, "I just said one to myself." Justin said, "So did I." Then less than 24 hours later, we get 6 inches of snow. I reminded the kids of their prayers and let then know Heavenly Father heard them. It was so nice to see that they really are listening to what we are teaching them.

We then hit the sleding hill for an afternoon of fun. Ok it wasn't a whole afternoon, because after an hour we were all pooped. Justin and Kaylee tried snowboarding for the first time. Both were excellent!! Courtney did what she does best, eat snow.

School Christmas Programs

2007-12-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

Justin looks as thrilled in this pictures, as he did at home. He said, "Mom I look like a dork." He didn't want to wear his church clothes for the program. But he was asked to wear black pants and a white shirt. The whole second grade dressed a like and sang Let there be peace on earth. The first time through the song, they did it in sign language. Then the second time, they sung it. They all looked so sharp and sounded great!!

Kaylee's kindergarten class performed a Christmas program for us. Kaylee was a Sugar Plum Fairy. I really need to get her into a performing group. She loved getting dresssed up, doing her hair, and wearing a little make-up. She really has a lot of confidence and just walks up and does her thing!!

We are FAMOUS!!

2007-12-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

There are a few advantages to living in a small town. One of which is being able to participate in so many activities that before we only got to observe. This past weekend, the whole family dressed in costume and rode the Treasure Island float in the Children's Christmas Calvacade Parade. Justin's school teacher, Mrs. Fuson, asked if we would like to participate. We were so excited and scared at the same time. Because the weather can be so unpredictable. I could see us all coming down sick....but our luck held out and it was warm that day. It was about 44 degrees. Yes, that is warm. The kids enjoyed themselves and loved waving to their friends. Oh yes, under that big head is Tyler. Fitting don't you think....the big head wears the even bigger head.

Ground Breaking Day!!

2007-12-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

After a 2 year wait, the day has finally arrived. November 21, 2007 was ground breaking day. We are so excited we can hardly stand it. Look for future pictures as we commemerate each step of the buidling process.

We are entering new territory....

2007-12-15T09:29:00.000-08:00

Living in a small town the last few years seems to have made us a little less computer savy. Thanks Heidi for hooking me up with this site. It will be fun to keep in touch with you all.