Halloween

Here are some Halloween pictures. Sorry they are late, and out of chronological order. Since I haven't blogged for so long, I keep remembering things that I want to add. The boys had fun dressing up as always. They were pretty disappointed that they couldn't go trick or treating around our own neighborhood this year, but it is what it is I guess. I felt really bad when all their friends came to our home trick or treating asking for them. I did get to take the pictures of them before they left for school that day. After much debate, Andrew was a bleeding ninja, Daniel was just a ninja, and Jacob was a dead football player, although he wouldn't let me put blood or anything on his face, so he looked more like an injured football player!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pumpkin Carving

We had a great time carving pumpkins this year. I tried to ignore the pumpkin guts that were getting all over the floor and table. I figured we were making memories, so just suck it up!

Daniel chose a pretty difficult design, and Paul and I ended up having to do most of it. He thought it was pretty cool though. He said it looked just like Iron Man.

This was the desing Jacob picked out. He did this all by himself, he was pretty proud.

Andrew did the skull and cross bones...

WHAT! How did this happen? We couldn't very well leave Athena out of the festivities.

All 3 boys with their jack o lanterns. Paul and I ended up doing one, and then Aubrey had hers, so we ended up with 5 Jack o Lanterns on our porch for Halloween. It looked pretty cool for Halloween.

Moving Out

Paul's daughter Aubrey came to live with us in August. She graduated High School in May, and is looking forward to attending UVU in January. We have sure enjoyed havig her here. She has had the unfortunate luck of getting the absolute smallest room in the house, and for a girl to have to endure that is just unspeakable, but that is all we could offer, and she hasn't said a word!

She was planning on living here for awhile, but with Brenden getting married, his fiance needs to unload her BYU apartment that is under contract until end of April. Aubrey went to meet the potential roomies, and apparently had a great time, so she will be moving out shortly after the wedding. I know she is excited to be able to stretch her wings. While she is an adult, living at home there are still certain rules that you have to abide, and now that she will be living on her own, she gets to make her own rules pretty much...what an exciting time. Oh to be 19 again....but this time, without a certain person tagging along....( :-)most of you know who I mean!)

I need to get more pictures of Aubrey, but for now this will have to do. This is her 19th birthday celebration.

Braces

Jacob and Andrew both are going in to get braces started started. Andrew will just be doing a "Phase 1" just to make room for his teeth to grow in. Jacob's teeth aren't so bad, he just needs a little bit of alignment done, but he will need to get a spacer on top to fix his cross bite. Jacob is thrilled to be getting braces. I loved having braces. I know I am crazy, but I did. So my 2 little babies will soon have braces on their teeth. I don't have any pictures right now, but they are going in on Thursday to get molds taken, and that sort of gunk...I will post pictures of this as soon as I get them.

Laundry Day

Since Jeremy and Aubrey have been living with us, we have come up with a laundry schedule. Mondays and Wednesdays are their days, and I get Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Saturdays and Sundays are open for anyone who HAS to get laundry done, but I have tried to only use the 3 days during the week, that way Jeremy and Aubrey could get laundry done on the weekends if they couldn't do it on Monday or Wednesday.

With me doing laundry for 5 people, only using the washer and dryer 3 days a week can be a challenge. So if you will imagine, by Friday I have done all the laundry and try to get it folded on Saturday, so by Sunday, I am feeling pretty good.

Well, if you read my post earlier, about football season for Andrew, Daniel, and Jacob, combine that with Saturdays being monopolized with BYU football (for those of you who don't know, Paul's oldest son plays back up quarter back for BYU) I was not at all successful with that plan. Here a few pictures of what my laundry situation looked like most Tuesdays.

This was my pile of laundry I still need to fold...

This was the dent I had made sorting and folding in between preschool classes that day...

And this is the laundry that I still had to do that day. (I just wash clothes on Tuesdays, and the on Thursdays and Fridays I was clothes, and sheets, and rugs, etc...)

Moving Day

As most, or maybe some of you, may know, Jeremy, Pauls 2nd oldest son has been living with us since January. He came up to Utah from New Mexico to get into some sort of law enforcement. Either the Highway Patrol, or the Police Academy. After some very gruelling physical test, as well as written tests, Jeremy was accepted into the Salt Lake City Police Academy. He started in July of this year. It has been a very demanding 5 months for him. He has had to endure physical abuse, mental abuse, hard core testing etc, and I am proud to say he has done so with flying colors. I can't believe what those men/women have to go through to become a Police Officer.

So, after living with his Dad for this long, as you can imagine, he is pretty anxious to get out on his own. He has been searching for an apartment for a little bit and a couple weeks ago found one that will be perfect for him. It is a basement apartment that has been completely updated. Stainless Steel Appliances, 2 bedrooms. Sounds pretty nice. He has put money down, and Jeremy and Paul are planning on moving Jeremy out this next weekend. The people he will be renting from gave him a dresser, king size bed, and a pretty nice coffee table. He will be using some of our unused furniture as well. He has been staying part time at the apartment for the past couple days. Last night Paul and I were sitting in the office and commenting on how much we missed having him around even after just a short time. He has been so busy with his Police Academy that he hasn't had much spare time to spend time with the family, but it was nice knowing that he was downstairs.

We will miss him, but we are excited that he is beginning the next chapter in his life. (He will graduate from the Academy on the 26th of November, but I will post about that whent he time comes.)

Jeremy was able to sneak away now and again to enjoy family festivities. This is when we went camping over the summer.

Kids,Kids, and now....more kids!

(WARNING...THIS POST WILL MAKE ABSOLUTELY NOT SENSE TO MY NON LDS FRIENDS AND FAMILY...)

About a month ago the Bishop called me into his office and extended a calling to me. I had gotten the call on Tuesday that he wanted to see me Sunday after church, so I had all week pretty much to speculate what "the call" would be. I was pretty sure it would be Primary, since I haven't served in primary since we moved to Saratoga Springs, (7 1/2 years ago). Ok everyone, pick up your jaw...I know that is UNHEARD of, but let me explain, up until recently, I have had allies, friends, in the Primary Presidency that know how much I deal with kids during the week, on a daily basis. Teaching Preschool all day, and then my own kids at home during the afternoon and evening. My allies in the Primary were safeguarding me from more kids. I was able to enjoy Sunday School, and Relief Society. I looked forward to those 2 hours of church uninterrupted by my own children. Anyway, I have to admit that I was fully prepared to turn down a primary calling. I just couldn't teach little itty bitty kids 6 days a week.
So... back to the Bishops office. He called me to be....(drum roll) Jr. Primary CHORISTER!!! Ok, for those of you who are familiar with me at all, I don't sing in front of anyone but children. And now they were asking me to not only sing, but sing songs I didn't know, in front of not only the children, but the teachers too.
However, it wasn't teaching, so I went ahead and accepted the calling. It was only then that the Bishop kindly reminded me that the primary program would be in 3 weeks! Great, so now I had to really step outside of my comfort zone and LEAD music in front of HUNDREDS of people. I know, they are watching the kids and not me, and believe me, that thought is the only thing that got me through. I made it through, not with flying colors, but I did it none the less.
I still don't know all of the songs. I spend alot of my free time playing the songs on the piano, trying to get the tune, and the words. It's really sad. I am still not at all comfortable standing in front of adults leading music,when I know that any one of them would be a heck of a lot more qualified than me to lead the music...but I will endure. HA HA!

Playoffs! GO SPARTANS!

Jacob's football team made it to the playoffs this year. I think only 2 or 3 of the Saratoga Spartan Teams made it that far. I think that is pretty darn good considering this is our first year with our own football team, and we don't have to play with LEHI....(ugh!) Jacob's team was ranked second in their age group, so for the first game, Rank 1 played Rank 4 and Rank 2 played Rank 3. I believe Rank 1 was Lone Peak, Rank 2 Saratoga Springs, Rank 3 Lone Peak, and Rank 4 Pleasant Grove. Anyway, during regular season we beat the team we were set up to play for playoffs. It was a great game, we played with alot of heart, and in the last seconds of the game, Saratog Spartans came up short. It was a heartbreaking loss. The entire team of boys was crying. It was sad...but do I dare say it....PART OF ME WAS GLAD THAT FOOTBALL PRACTICE AND GAMES WERE OVER FOR THE SEASON! It had been a horrendous few months taking Jacob to practice, 4:30 - 6:30, Andrew to practice 5:30 - 7:30 (MWF) and Daniel with flag football practice @ 5:00 p.m. on Wednesdays. Then games on weekends, and school nights. Really not to complain. Even if they had won it would have only been one more game, so that would have been no big deal, but I do wonder how many mom's breathed a sigh of relief...along with a sigh of disappointment. Any whooooo....here are some pictures from the playoff game.



Jacob and Paul. Paul was able to help coach Jacob's football team this year. It meant a really busy few months for Paul as well, since he was still doing fall ball with his baseball team at Hillcrest High School.





Jacob standing on the sidelines watching the game. He didn't have his heart in it this year really. I think alot of it had to do with his feet hurting him. We are taking him to Shriners on the 18th of December to have him looked at.








Looking good for the camera...








Jacob is in there someone, at the far end of the picture. He made a pretty substantial tackle during this game, keeping the team from gaining yards...

Jacob again and a few of his team mates.

Andrew's Football

I was able to grab a second and download some of Andrew's fooball pictures off the camera. (Not the lost one...the new one) His team finished with a record of 5-4 I believe. While their record might not show it, they played with so much heart, it was horrible to see them loose. Andrew was always in the game. The first scrimage or two he only played one or two plays. Andrew was a little discouraged because he didn't know what he could do to get more play time. He practiced his little heart out, and was always giving 110% at practice. I spoke with the coach, and just wondered what Andrew could do. Coach Rojas was genuinely sorry for not playing Andrew much. There were a couple others that didn't play very much in the scrimages, and it was simply because he didn't have any of the other coaches set up to count plays and make sure every one was playing. So while some may tell you that Andrew didn't play much at the beginning of the season due to lack of ability and experience, they are wrong. It was simply an honest oversight. Here are some pictures of him playing.

While Andrew certainly isn't the biggest kid playing, I bet he is the toughest. He would make tackles like you wouldn't believe. Andrew is #2.His coach gave them stickers for good plays. Spartan stickers for offensive plays, and skull and cross bones for defensive plays. Andrew had ten stickers. Five for offense, and five for defense.

I am so proud of Andrew for what he put into football this season. He keeps going back and forth as to whether he wants to play next year or not. I believe that once the football bug hits next season he will be in for sure.

This past July we were able to go to the Zoo with Josh, Jacob, Andrew and Daniel. We bought a year pass, it wasn't much more than a day pass for everyone, but we have yet to go back. The boys really had a great time, and we merely scratched the surface, so hopefully come spring we will get back there.

Zebras are in the background

White Alligator

Enjoying a snow cone and the shade...kind of

Camera Found

As I stated in a previous post, we lost the camera that we took to New Mexico the first part of August. On it were pictures of Josh's ordination, and the fishing trip that all the boys went on. (I stayed at the Hotel and slept in, and then went to lunch with Paul's sister, Carrie and Stepmom, Linda)
We called the hotel, had Paul's dad double and triple check the boat, we could not find the camera. Well a couple of weeks ago, Paul was packing up one of his bags for baseball or something like that, and in an obscure pocket...found the camera! I am most excited because the ordination can't happen again. There will be other fishing trips, but only one ordination. (For all of my friends reading this that are not LDS, just know it's a pretty big thing for young men turning 12)
So here are the pictures that were once lost...and now are found!

This is the fishing trip on the boat. The boys had a blast and even caugt a few fish in the process!

This next set of pictures are of Josh after his ordination on August 3, 2008

Craig, Bishop Waite, Dad, Josh, Randy, Chad, Jacob

Mom, Josh, Dad Josh and Dad

Josh and Mom
Wendy, Josh, Dad
Chad, Josh, Mom
Randy, Grandma Foutz, Josh
Jacob, Josh, Daniel, Andrew
Josh, Aubrey