The Brothers Family

Lake Powell Trip

2009-06-29T09:50:00.003-06:00

Our family (minus Brandon) went to Lake Powell with another family in our ward this past week. It was SO much fun and everyone would definately go again!! Here is all of the girls, plus baby Brynn that we all loved so much.
Marshall and dad, "hangin' loose".

Mom, Leah, and Lindsey relaxing on the couch.

Prom

2009-04-19T17:08:00.002-06:00

Here's Lexi finishing my make up.

Josh Fox and Jessica!!!

Brandon and Jessica

Brandon and Sarah Loock

Brandon's group eating at our house

Jess Birthday

2009-04-19T16:50:00.002-06:00

Jess turned 16 yesterday, but we celebrated it on Friday since Prom was on her birthday. Here's her before she opened presents.
Dad, Jess, and Mom

She had girls over on Friday, here's them before making their fruit pizza!!

Marshall's Birthday

2009-04-19T16:34:00.002-06:00

Marshall turned 5 in March!! Mom made him a Pirate Ship cake.

New Hair Cuts for the Girls!

2009-02-15T21:18:00.002-07:00

Meg and I got new hair cuts this week! New changes are always fun! Here's my hair before I got it cut. (My hair was braided that day, so it looks kinda wavy.)

Here's Meg and I after our hair cuts! Meg cut new bangs, and I cut 15 inches off! It was a crazy decision, and I don't know why I decided to! Well actually, this girl at school cut her hair, and it looks SO cute, and I wanted mine like hers. It kinda looks like hers, hers is a tiny bit longer. I donated my hair to Locks of Love. I don't know if they'll be able to use it because it dyed, but it's worth the try.

Jessica's Knee Surgery

2009-02-15T20:51:00.003-07:00

I'm sorry, the pictures are out of order! I had surgery about a week and a half ago on my knee. I tore my miniscus playing in my first volleyball tournament of the season. (about month and a half ago)

Here is the picture of my knee, the day after surgery. Very swollen, with no bruises.. yet. My leg is orange, because of some stuff they rubbed on my leg. They made 2 incisions and repaired my miniscus and shaved something else inside there. My doctor's initials (B.T.) were on the middle of my knee cap before the surgery.
Here is the brace I will be wearing for the next several weeks. I have to wear it for 6-8 weeks, letting me bend my knee up to 90 degrees. Letting it bend past 90 degrees would tear the repair, or stitching, in my miniscus. I had to wear that stocking for the first week on both legs to prevent blood clots.

Here is my nasty picture of the IV. Just kidding! I looked away while she put it in, but became very curious of what the nurse was doing. I liked watching it.

Here's a picture of me with my stuffed animal horse. Since I'm a "child", I got a stuffed animal. I knew right away that it was a horse, but my mom called it a giraffe, and the doctor, a moose. The last thing I remember about being awake was the doctor making a racist comment about my stuffed animal. I laughed, and then was out. Waking up, the first thing I asked for was my horse, then my mom. She was offended.

I'm now doing much better, walking with only a limp. The brace annoys me, and gets in the way, but I'm learning to ignore it. The swelling has gone down drastically the past 2 days. I've started bending it, and got to 80 degrees today! I'll keep it updated, though I don't know if there'll be more to update! For now, volleyball season is over for me!

New Year's Eve

2009-01-12T21:58:00.002-07:00

We loved having Abby (holding Matt & Candice's baby Zach) & Paxton visit us from Texas. We had fun playing games... and let me just say.... Tiebreaker. My ego suffers from losing at Scrabble, so I guess I'll have to study my Scrabble dictionary now and pray I'll get a J, Q, X, or Z.

We had a (not so) surprise late birthday party for my mom. The big 60.

2009-01-11T20:56:00.003-07:00

Scott came to visit over the winter break and the kids enjoyed playing games with him. They even made 2 quilts (without complaining)--one for him and the other for their sister Hope.

Our Christmas Trees

2009-01-05T20:52:00.003-07:00

This is the tree in our front room that mom gets to decorate.

The famous Tree-Pee! Each child got to decorate one pole with the ornaments that they've gathered over the years. I saw the idea at Festival of Trees last year and came home and made my own with PVC pipe, lights & garland. The guys at Home Depot thought I was a little nuts.

Christmas Eve

2009-01-05T20:38:00.005-07:00

For the past few years our Christmas Eve tradition has been: drive to Salt Lake and park at Temple Square, ride the Trax to a restaurant for dinner, and return on the Trax to Temple Square to see the lights, the nativities (my favorite), and the candlelit bags with words and pictures illuminated in different languages. (I thought Arabic was the prettiest.)Marshall hitched a ride on Jim's shoulders keeping his hands on Jim's face for warmth.

Here we are on the Trax: the most memorable part each year. We sang Christmas carols (loudly) and many of the other passengers join in. This year there was a young couple who didn't make much eye contact, but the man "conducted" us with his finger on his lap while the woman smiled at us as tears streamed down her face. Everyone was touched and we loved the feeling. We were all very happy and at one point Mark (Mel's brother) broke out into a dance where he grabbed the side poles with each hand and his legs went crazy in the aisle. Very funny!! :-)
Here's Jess and Meg waiting for the Trax.

They realized that they matched: they were both wearing black coats and black boots.

Random Pics

2008-12-03T17:16:00.003-07:00

Jess was awarded "Student of the Term" at Layton High School after being selected

by her English teacher. Each teacher chose one student who was either outstanding,

much improved, or motivated others. All the kids skipped school to attend

the assembly where she was recognized and given a certificate.

Brandon is often found holding the babies! Here he is
at Thanksgiving holding Zach (Matt & Candice's baby).

Lindsey, Leah, and Marshall LOVE to play "dress-up."

Since it is now the Christmas Season, they enjoy the biblical costumes.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T17:13:00.001-07:00

This year Matt, Candice, and their family came over for Thanksgiving. It was loud but very fun!

Here's the little kid's table.

Thanksgiving Pies

2008-12-03T17:02:00.002-07:00

So I decided that I needed to make money for club volleyball, and my mom came up with the idea to make pies the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and sell them. She said people would like homemade pies and they wouldn't even have to make them!! It was a great idea, because all 16 pies sold in exactly an hour! I went around my neighborhood and neighbors were more than happy to buy them! It worked out great!
Here is an apple pie. We had to do something to them to separate them from the jumbleberry pies, so there's little cut-out apples. Cute.

Jumbleberry pie.

Here's a picture of us. Sara put flour all over me, it was a mess. Left to right: Mom, Sara, Jessica.

Leah's Baptism

2008-11-23T14:18:00.002-07:00

Leah turned 8 yrs. old this month, so she was able to be baptized the day after her birthday. It was a great experience and we had lots of people there for her. She was really excited.

The fam.

And here's Leah in her baptism dress.

Hiking

2008-11-23T14:11:00.001-07:00

One Saturday morning Mom, Dad, the little kids, and neighbors went on a hike to a waterfall by our house. It's about an hour hike up, but it's well worth it.

Grandma & Grandpa's

2008-10-20T20:49:00.003-06:00

Kids had visitation with their dad, so the rest of the family spent 2 days with Grandma & Grandpa at their house. Here's sheep on the side of the road. Some were also in the road. Is that crazy or what? There's TONS!!
I thought it was a really cute picture. This was on the walk down to the park.
Leah on the playground.

Marshall smashing squash with an ax.

Carving and Painting Pumpkins

2008-10-20T20:45:00.003-06:00

For family night we painted and carved pumpkins for our activity. Here's mom's witch.
Dad's
Meg's
Jess & Lindsey's
And Mush Man! It was a kind of messy activity but it was fun!!

Marshall & Bridger and Conference

2008-10-05T15:01:00.002-06:00

Here's Mush and one of his best friends. It's a funny picture because he's sitting in the garage on the freezer... reading a book. I wonder what the story behind this is.
When you first look at it, it looks like they're looking at themselves. Later you realize, there's a portable DVD player. Haha. Cute.
This is what the parents do during conference! It took them all Saturday to finish this!! 1000 piece puzzle. I love how many different animals there are. It's just an awesome puzzle.
This is what Leah does during conference. :] It's just a cute picture. She's drawing pictures! Hope Conference is going well for all the rest of you!!

Jess Volleyball

2008-10-05T14:57:00.002-06:00

Me about to serve.
I set that!!! and I'm going down to cover. I'm #6!! That's a sweet pic!!
About to serve.
Time out.
At the net. I look fat. Ha

Lindsey's 10th Birthday!!

2008-10-05T14:40:00.002-06:00

For Lindsey's 10th birthday we had some family over. Leslie's family, Kelsie, and Fred & Audrey. This hat that she's wearing is what Audrey made Lindsey just before she came. Way cute!

Lindsey loves frogs! And this is a Webkinz frog. You can go online, feed it, play games with it, and do other stuff. She was really excited. Leslie also gave her a Webkinz cat.
She got these pants and green jacket from Kelsie.
Dress from mom and dad.

Leah's tooth

2008-10-05T14:37:00.002-06:00

Ok, so Leah has been complaining of her tooth, for us to find that her tooth is growing in behind her regular tooth. She says it's not wiggly yet, and it hurts to try. We've tried to pay her, and nothing works. For now we just say she has shark teeth. Shark Tooth Ooh! Ha! Ha! (Finding Nemo :] )

FHE - Croquet

2008-10-05T14:31:00.002-06:00

For FHE, we went to the park to eat pizza and play croquet. The little ones weren't as entertained, so they climbed the tree next to us.

I like this picture, only because he stands funny.

First day of School

2008-09-07T13:31:00.002-06:00

Ok, so school has been in for like 2 weeks now, but thats ok. I just found these pictures. Marshall's first day of school was a week into our school year. He started preschool and he loves it. He plays with the toys and he loves it.
Lindsey with her pose. Haha. Lindsey went into 5th grade. Whoa.
Here's little Leah. She went into 2nd grade.
Ok, so this is not the first day of school, but I had a volleyball luau yesterday, and I liked this picture.. not of me necessarily, but of my friends. We had to serve everyone good.. and then do a dance and there was this show and lots of cool stuff. It was really fun, and the food looked kinda gross but was surprisingly WAY yummy. Don't I have cute friends? Too bad we're too young to go to Homecoming in 2 weeks. :( Haha.. next year!

Family Day!

2008-09-07T13:23:00.002-06:00

About a week after the family went to Cherry Hill, we all went again to go Mini-Golfing. There I learned that I have the worst luck possible. Oh well.
Here's Leah, with Lindsey in the background. Ha.
Marshall didn't have very good luck either. He didn't like waiting for his ball to stop rolling. He'd stop it with his foot and go whenever he wanted. Haha. Lil' cheater.
It was a really hot day, so afterwards we went to Dairy Queen where we all ate ice cream. Yummmm. There's Mush and Leah. We were all so hot, that it felt good to eat something cold.
Meg didn't want a picture of her taken, but I didn't really care, so here I am! Haha. I was eating the famous- frozen hot chocolate. Not on the menu, but they always have it. It's so yummy. Try it sometime!! =]

Cherry Hill

2008-08-23T11:16:00.002-06:00

Alright, so I had a mandatory (however you spell it) volleyball tournament that I had to attend. I just took stats and stuff, but I didn't get to go to Cherry Hill either. Just my parents and the little kids went. I don't really know what they did, so here's the pictures. =]

Friend's Cabin

2008-08-23T10:57:00.002-06:00

Ok, these are HORRIBLE pictures of me, and I'm still putting them on. I'm crazy. We went up to our friend's cabin for the night. Just Mom, Jessica, Lindsey, Leah, and Marshall. We got up in the morning, ate, and jumped on the four wheelers. So I didn't do my hair after I got up, I just went out. We loved it. None of us kids had ever been on four wheelers before, and we loved them! =]
Here's Trevor and Leah. They went with Lindsey and me. It was fun. We were kinda racing, but there was so much dust, that we mostly just stayed behind them. That time we went out, we saw 5 deer. There was a Mama and a Daddy then it's little baby. And then I went ahead of them and turned this corner pretty fast, and almost hit a deer and her baby. I screamed and let go of the handle bars. (Not safe, I know! But I was scared!)
With Marshall, we didn't go on the hills, we were pretty much on flat ground, so with him we went pretty fast. Right when we started going he was like, "This is awesome!!!" So I'm pretty sure he loved it.
Here's me and Trevor the night before. We went out once, and I'd never ridden on one before, and he'd never driven that kind, so I was a little freaked out.. We both didn't want our pictures taken, so I was ducking and he was trying to back out as fast as possible.
Here's me. No idea what I'm doing. Haha, What a LOSER!

Davis County Fair

2008-08-17T19:10:00.002-06:00

Mom and the little kids went to the Davis County Fair this week.

Here's Marshall on the ponies. He had a blast.
The little kids were so excited to get balloons, that were made into animals. I can't think of the word. But yeah. Marshall got a dinosaur and was really excited to show me when he got home. They also loved getting their faces and arms painted.
The kids got to milk fake cows! They loved it. They thought it was way cool.
The goats loved Leah. They were always eating her shirt. She thought it was funny.. really giggly about it.
The kids and Hannah, Lindsey's friend.

Meg's birthday

2008-08-13T17:28:00.002-06:00

Meg has been taking my straightener for... EVER and she's ALWAYS asking me for it! So FINALLY she got one of her own! And it's even PINK! I'm excited!.. haha, no more using mine! And she liked it!
Here's Lindsey and Leah with her friends. Left to right: Hannah, Lindsey, Carly, and Leah.
OKAY!! SO THIS IS MY FOOT! My friend wrote in like Chinese or something! But it means Love. It was SO awesome! Yeah.. so thats freakin awesome! =]

Youth Conference!!

2008-08-13T17:04:00.003-06:00

Ok, so my mom was a part of the Youth Conference committee or something, I don't know. But she was there the entire time, and she was in charge of being the taxi driver. =] On the way home, it was the 3rd day and everyone was tired. So I was sitting in the passenger seat of our 12 seat van, and here's some of the girls. This first row: Meagan Bills, Meg (our Meg), and Kaleigh Sorensen. I just thought it was funny that it was like domioes. Haha.
My mom took a picture of me sleeping!! How weird! But yeah. So there were 5 girls in one king size bed. So I took the floor. It was way way way itchy! And I was right by the sliding glass door, and it was open, so I was freezing. It was an interesting night. =]
K, my mom was the Phone Nazi! Here's the phones she got, and an iPod. Haha, mine and Meg's are in there too. Oops.
Mmmm. Yummy lasangna. However you spell it. Here's me and Alicia Paxman! Here was the first night. We ate pizza and had a devotional and then held a Special Olympics. It was WAY fun. I like that picture of me. Looking away.. how cute. Meg is looking away too. She's in the yellow shirt on the left. Then I have the green bandana in my hair. =] Yeah. Woohoo. Go pizza!

It's Mommy's Birthday!

2008-08-03T17:37:00.002-06:00

Today Mama turns 36! Woohoo. Dad made a carrot cake. 3 layers. Yeah, it was a .. not so pretty cake, but I heard it was yummy. :]
We put 3 candles on one side, and 6 on the other to make 36. :]
Blowin' out the candles!

Lagoon

2008-08-03T13:44:00.002-06:00

The family (except Jess, who was at Lake Powell all week) went to Lagoon. Partayy!! Here's Leah and Lindsey. Best friends AND sisters.

Here's Mush Man on the airplanes. Woohoo!!
Mom, Marshall, and Leah on the Merry-Go-Round.
Here's a shooting game. Have no idea what it actually is. Left to right: Jolene helping Leah, Lindsey, Angel, Chey, Meg, and Brandon.
Leah, Lindsey, and Angel on the ride that plays loud music and goes AROUND AND AROUND. Gives me a headache!!

Best friends!

2008-07-23T12:01:00.001-06:00

Here's me with my best friend. Woot woot. We kinda match don't we? What we're wearing kinda went together. We didn't plan it, I proimse. Haha. I look WEIRD.

Snakes

2008-07-23T11:54:00.002-06:00

I don't really know the story, but somehow.. someone in our neighborhood caught a snake, and here's Brandon holding it. Sick.
Close up.
We were doing a service project for this older lady in our ward, and there were tons of branches and bushes and out of them came this rattle snake. So a guy pinned it, and dad caught it, and cut off it's head. Then he brought it home to show all the kids. It was pretty sick. And did you know that snakes are like chickens? Still move around with their heads off? Sick huh? Yeah, so it was gross, it kept moving, even though dad had cut it open. It was interesting to see it's heart still pumping though. Awesome. :) Mom thought it was gross. Haha.
Here's some neighborhood kids watching him cut it open. They were all so interested.

Jess and Brandon at EFY

2008-07-20T14:31:00.006-06:00

If you've ever been to EFY, you know that you do a service project on Friday morning. This year, we had to knit hats. So here's a picture of Brandon with his partner. (My friend, Lindsay, and I were PRO at it!)

Here's us after we got done knitting hats. Left to Right: Radison, Me, Lindsay, Kohl. Radison was wearing my counselor's glasses. Haha.
Here's me with my counselor, Elise. She was AWESOME! EFY started on Monday, and she got back from her mission the Tuesday before. She went to Canada. She's awesome. She reminds me a lot of Katie. :)
BEST BUDDIES! These two kids were from Arizona. They were in my company. They were awesome. Left to Right: Me, Radison, Kohl, and Lindsay
Here's the counselors. They were all in my company. We were called "One of the Least." Woot woot. Left to right: Kolby, Elizabeth, Shadie, Elise, and Tim.

Leslie's House.

2008-07-20T13:45:00.002-06:00

We went to Leslie's house and the kids had watermelon.
And Leah. Look how yummy that watermelon looks!
This picture of Luke is adorable.

Ward Campout

2008-07-13T14:37:00.002-06:00

Here's Lindsey's friend, Hannah Petersen going down the slide.
And Leah going down the slide. I can't tell if she was scared, or just cold.

Random.

2008-07-13T14:30:00.003-06:00

While we were in Boise, we stayed at Deanna's house. We had a live band in the house!
Lindsey and Deanna with their dog Chewy.
Marshall at his first dentist appointment. He did so well!
We had a ward campout, and there was a swimming pool at the campsite. There's Leah.

Road Trip!

2008-07-13T14:14:00.002-06:00

Brandon, Jessica, and Meg went to Boise to visit their dad, so the rest of the family came for the last week. Mom took this picture in the car. You can barely see Lindsey in an orange shirt sleeping, and then Mush and Leah in the back of the car.
Here Leah and Marshall are. We went to visit Luke and Seth was there also! :)
We went out to dinner with the whole fam!
We also went to visit Anj while Jim was at work. Here's Ashley and Jordan. Cute!

Jess in Florida

2008-06-15T14:28:00.003-06:00

Sorry! I (Jessica) went to Florida for 8 days.. And I guess my mom didn't load any pictures on here! So here are some from my trip! First, this is at the airport. We were all sitting waiting for my plane to come.
I got there on a Friday. We went to the beach on Saturday night to watch the sun set. It was beautiful.

While we were waiting for the sun to set, we waded in the water. I was sad that I didn't bring my swim suit! I didn't know the water on the East Coast (southern part) was warm!!! It was like a bath!! I have NO IDEA what face I'm making. The sun must've been in my eyes.

This is us waiting again at the airport. I look deep in though. I have no idea what I'm doing. Meg, with her dark hair. :) and Lindsey, doing who knows what. Grandma probably should've told us she was taking the picture, because NO ONE knew. Ha.

Jess...

2008-06-01T22:39:00.002-06:00

We had a ninth grade dance two days before school got out. We got our year books that night also, so it was anything but a dance because everyone was signing yearbooks, lame, but still it was fun. Here's my best friends (Sara and Alicia) and me standing next to Zac Efron. :)
Brenden Smith is an 8th grader, but since he's an officer he got to come. We had a lifesize.. thing.. of Hannah Montana, just like Zac Efron, and he picked it up and just started carrying it around. It took me a while to realize that she wasn't really a person. Ha.
Here's me and Sara, last day of school. I look all sweaty and gross because I just got done playing basketball with a bunch of guys. It was so scary. I practically got trampled over!! Ahh.

Mom and Meg got their braces off!!

2008-06-01T22:35:00.003-06:00

Mom has been SO EXCITED to get her braces off. She got up at 4:30 a.m. because she was so excited. I don't think I've ever seen her smile so much. It's great. We didn't get any pictures of Meg, I don't know why, but she looks great too.
Look at that cute boy.
Lindsey likes to take pictures of herself. I'm not quite sure what she's doing there.

Brandon's Birthday

2008-05-18T17:37:00.002-06:00

Even though tomorrow is Brandon's birthday, we still had a party for him today. We had to take this picture of little Calvin because it was so funny to watch him eat. He fell asleep eating and his head would fall either forward or back. We all thought it was hilarious and had to get a picture, even though it just looks like he's eating in this picture. :) By the way, Brandon is SIXTEEN well tomorrow officially. :)

Kids in the Yard

2008-05-18T17:33:00.002-06:00

Here's a picture of kids sitting in the wagon. Left to Right- Josh, Andrew, Leah, Kendra, and of course.. Koda. Andrew and Calvin have been staying at our house for a few days. Its been quite fun.

Jess playing volleyball

2008-05-12T21:44:00.002-06:00

Jess just finished up the last of her club volleyball season. They had a tournament this past weekend. She played very well and their team won all their seeding games, then lost the 2nd game in tournament play.

5K Run/Walk

2008-05-12T21:27:00.003-06:00

The elementary school had a 5K run last Saturday. We all (minus Brandon--he was babysitting for the neighbors) participated. Even Koda walked the whole thing. Jess & Mom ran, Meg walked Koda, Dad carried Marshall on his shoulders the whole time, and Lindsey & Leah stopped for every sight along the way.

Meet FOX

2008-05-12T21:16:00.004-06:00

Josh Fox came over on Jess' birthday and played the piano for us. He's amazing!! He sings too!! He starred in his school play, Beauty and the Beast, as "Crazy old Maurice" (Belle's father). Isn't he CUTE? Or "Foxy," rather?

BOWLING for FHE

2008-05-12T21:01:00.005-06:00

Jim & Marshall are studly bowlers.
Meg encourages Lindsey...
YEAH! Jess got a STRIKE!! (Never mind the fact that she was playing w/ bumpers.) Has everyone seen Jess' new glasses?
Meg, Mom & Jess CHILL on the bench. HA - Meg closed her eyes.

Lindsey giving very pointed instructions to Leah, the ever attentive listener.
Brandon takes this very seriously. No bumpers for Brandon.
Marshall... Look at those little shoes!! :-)
Had to catch a surprise pic of Meg. Did you notice she dyed her hair?
We celebrated Marshall's STRIKE as well!

Luke's Birthday Party

2008-04-28T18:22:00.007-06:00

For Luke's ninja birthday party, Leslie had boys come teach the kids karate moves. They had a blast. In the end, they all got to fight and everyone loved it. As you can see, Leah had fun watching, rather than participating. It was still fun.

Kids.

2008-04-28T18:16:00.002-06:00

We went to visit Leslie for Luke's birthday party and earlier in the morning, we went to Travis' soccer game. They kids played on the playground and just ran around. You can see in the picture of Leah, we have a monkey in our family! Ü

Waving at the T-Mobile guy.

2008-04-20T19:41:00.003-06:00

After we went out for Jessica's birthday dinner, we were driving home and this guy was doing a crazy dance advertising T-Mobile. Everyone got a kick out of his "moves." Jessica immediately rolled down the window and frantically started waving. It took him a while to notice her, but when he did, he had a big smile. Everyone was laughed about this.

Lindsey and Leah

2008-04-20T19:38:00.002-06:00

For school Lindsey had to dress up as her hero and she chose Dad. She wore Brandon's shirt and tie. She also used dad's briefcase. At school everybody thought it was unusual but cool. Leah was in the picture to act as "Mom."

Jessica's Birthday.

2008-04-20T19:15:00.000-06:00

Jessica has finally turned 15. She is very excited about that.. (you can't really tell in this picture though.. just woke up from a nap) Everyone enjoyed eating the yummy pie she chose.

Meg's phone.

2008-04-20T19:12:00.000-06:00

Meg got in trouble and how did Mom react.. well you can see, not too happy. Oops.

Lindsey going to state

2008-04-20T19:05:00.000-06:00

Lindsey went to a state competition for tumbling and took 6th and 7th place in tumbling and a double-mini. She was very excited and had lots of fun.

Beauty and the Beast at the Jr. High

2008-04-20T13:58:00.000-06:00

We went to support Jess' "good friend," Josh, in Beauty and the Beast and the girls got a picture with Belle afterwards.

Jess seriously wonders.....

2008-01-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

Jess will rarely pose for a picture unless she's making some silly face. Here she's with her friend, Britney, at a school volleyball team party. Check out those baby blues...

Marshall rocks on the guitar

2008-01-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Marshall and his friend, Bridger jammed on their guitars on the coffee table. Yeah, the kid's got talent. He stands next to me with that guitar while I jam on Guitar Hero. He pretty much ROCKS! :-)

Jazz vs Suns

2008-01-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

Jess, Meg & I got to go to the Jazz game last week. Ok, so I didn't realize that the Jazz had changed their colors until we got to Applebees. I saw people everywhere wearing Lt. blue & Navy Jazz shirts. I was so embarassed that I went into the bathroom, took my purple shirt off & threw it in the trash. Hmph. Thankfully, I had a long sleeve white shirt underneath. Scott had bought the girls each a Suns jersey, which they politely took pictures in, then left at home. Good thing cause they got their booties kicked! I LOVED the game -- yelling, cheering, dancing. We even ventured to the floor so we could see the players run out. Great fun!

Tree-pee

2008-01-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

This year instead of having a standard Christmas tree, we made a "Tree-pee." I made it out of PVC pipe that I spray painted brown, then made a tripod with fittings. I then set it up & taped it together with electrical tape. I wrapped garland & lights around each pole, and let each child decorate a pole. We could place gifts inside the treepee instead of around it. It was cool!

Service project: Frodsham Farm

2008-01-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

I went with our ward youth to Frodsham Farm, a farm who collects donations all year to give to the homeless. Buses of homeless people from the area arrive and are able to choose gifts, toys, clothing, blankets, and enjoy soup & hot cocoa. We each served as "hosts" to guide the families through. It was such a neat experience -- one I think our whole family will take part in next year.

Leah lost a tooth!

2007-11-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Leah lost her first tooth! She yanked that tooth right out and has been desperately wiggling all those remaining. Last year in kindergarten she had to walk past the Lost-Tooth Club poster on the door everyday. Ah, poor girl. She wanted to join the club so badly, but that was a kindergarten dream never realized. But, alas, in First grade she accomplished the long-awaited feat. Congrats Leah!

Halloween

2007-11-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Halloween was a blast!! I dressed up as a freaky WITCH -- I know that's a stretch.... Leah was a darling li'l cowgirl, and Marshall was a villainous Power Ranger. We did wait for it to get a little bit dark before heading out. Surprisingly, Marshall outlasted Leah on the treat trek.

Lindsey dressed up as a Baby. Oh, she was sooooo cute. She went trick-or-treating with a group of her friends.

Meg also went out with her friends dressed as a Gangster. Here's a glimpse into our pre-Gangster conversation:

Meg: What should I wear?

Mom: Wear this NHL jersey with baggy jeans.

Meg: That's not what a gangster wears!

Mom: What are you talking about? NHL jersey? Hello! You're sporting your "colors," tough, baggy, and wear this bandanna ...... like this....

Meg: That's dumb. That's not what gangsters look like!

Mom: Uh huh. What do you want to wear?

Meg: Something "gangster"-like.

Mom: ????

Meg: Like, a shirt buttoned up all the way.

Mom: (buttoned up????)

Meg: Like, COOL baggy jeans.

In the end, we got her pretty gangster-looking, HOWEVER, we learned later that she went to her friend's house & PAINTED HER FACE BLACK, and THEN went trick-or-treating. HELLO!?! Did she even think for one moment how politically incorrect that was? Ugh. I wonder where she learned that, anyway.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

It was fun seeing everyone in Boise. How ironic is it that the ones I hadn't seen in the longest amount of time was Matt & Candice? That's messed up! We really need to make a better effort to get together. We're going to have a family Christmas party for all those close by. We'll do dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. We'll sip punch and eggnog and have a jolly time. :-)