Monday, January 28, 2013

Nestle 5K

We love the Nestle 5K in Springville.  They have good prizes, not that we've ever won anything.  I was pregnant and couldn't run this one.  Hopefully I will be in shape so that I can do it next year.  I'll be pushing a jogging stroller so I'll be lucky if I finish it.

Liam's actually really fast.  I hope he will do cross country!

Grabbing a snack at the end

Waiting for prizes

Someone wants to be on Zoolander ;)

First 5K!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

End of Preschool

Gavin and Mrs. Young at the preschool

Leaving on the last day of school

Graduation at Orem High Seminary

Gavin and his friend Jackson

Cutest Mother's Day Gift!

Gavin made me the sweetest Mother's Day gift at preschool this year.  
I love it!




Irrigation

This summer Liam helped my grandma with her irrigation.  While he worked, Gavin played.  I used to love playing in the irrigation water when I was young.  I'm so glad that my kids get to do it too.





Preschool and Firetrucks

Gavin's preschool teacher has the fire dept come and teach about safety, then they get to check out the trucks!

Checking out the firetruck

Steele, Gavin, and Andie


Liam is 14 and Becomes a Teacher

Happy Birthday!  Strawberry Shortcake, yummy!

Liam and Grandpa Rick

Jim, his dad, and my dad helped to ordain Liam as a teacher.

I'm pregnant here and not feeling great, but had to have a family shot.

Tracy Aviary

We went with my sister Andrea and her little boy to Tracy Aviary.  It is on the Pass of All Passes this year, but only on Mondays.  We found a day and went up.  It was fun.  They had a bird show, but the little boys lost interest quickly.




Easter 2012

Sweet little Gavin

Liam will not pose for me, so I told him I'd use the one of his silly poses.  Here you go Liam.

Liam Runs Track

Liam decided to run track at the end of his 8th grade year.  He did pretty well, but he didn't love it.
I thought he should try cross country, but I didn't have any luck convincing him.  Maybe next year.



Gavin turns 5

Yep, this is super old.  I update my blog mostly for my own record.  I like to look back and see what happened.  So here we go on catching up the year. 

Gavin and cousins, opening gifts.

New robot that makes a lot of noise, thanks Melissa.

Robot cake, I'm so not a cake maker!

Blog Neglect

Last year I was pregnant, sick, tired, had a baby, was super busy, and had little sleep.  So of course I had zero time or energy to blog.  Now I regret it because I have really no record of what happened last year and I get to rely on my memory.  I'm still tired and getting little sleep and super busy so we'll see how this year of blogging goes.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Temple Square X 2

This December there were 2 trips to Temple Square.
First we wanted to go up as a family at the beginning of the month so it wouldn't be so crowded.
We decided to ask if anyone in Jim's family wanted to join us and after a few scheduling snags we made it.
 It was very nice and really no crowds.  
Unless you consider that we ate at The Pie on a Friday night - NOT smart!  
That is a very, very busy night there.  Let's just say that my line/order anxiety was pretty high.
 It was pretty cold and my poor Liam only had his hoodie I really did get him a coat shortly after this was taken.  And then it got really warm for December, of course.
 Liam and I went on the next Temple Square trip with my dad, Andrea, Jackie, and Stephen.
We were able to get seats for the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. 
We had pretty good seats too, just a couple rows behind President Packer.
 Thank goodness for electronic devises because we got there REALLY early so that we could get good seats.  We had at least 1 1/2 hours to kill before it started.  Do you see Liam not looking at the camera in the shot below because he's in the middle of a game?

Liam and Grandma P and Pie

I have been very close to my grandma my entire life.  My son, Liam, has also had the chance to spend a lot of time with her and I'm VERY grateful for that.  He used to walk to her house every single day after school for during all of elementary school.  He would wait there for me until I got there after teaching, and later just until I got there.

This year we had a little trouble with a jr high foods class.  The class before Liam's didn't have time to clean so they all just left.  When Liam's class came in there was a giant mess to clean before they could start.  Somehow, Liam and 2 other boys ended up doing pretty much all of the work and having no time to cook.  There was a misunderstanding - the teacher thought they wanted to clean and make their pies at home and the boys thought they had to clean.  Not sure how that dialogue actually went in class but whatever.




It turned out to be a great opportunity for Liam.  I took him over to my grandma's house and she taught him how to make a pie crust.  I stood there and watched so that I could learn too.  I just love that he was able to spend that time with her and to learn how to do it from his great grandma.  Not many people get to know their great grandparents very well.  We ended up being cheaters and buying an apple pie filling at the store because I didn't know how to make the filling and my grandma doesn't make apple pies from scratch either. Oh well, the assignment was done.  I told him next time to talk to the teacher a little more clearly.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

It's Fall!

First, it's back to school time.  Both boys got to go this year.  Yay!  Liam's in 8th grade and Gavin is in preschool.  So glad Gavin gets to go.  Not because I want the time (although it's nice), it's because that child will not listen to or believe either of his parents!  The sound we say letters make are wrong.  How things work is wrong.  He'll believe his teacher though and is actually learning things!!


 Liam was able to earn his Life rank in Boy Scouts.  Now, we need a good Eagle project. 
The first two attempts were turned down.  Boo.  They really are a ton of work.
We better get moving and get this done!

 There were 3 dead trees in our yard (and one half dead).  So, we finally got them all cut down.  So glad.  And I have to say that the view from the deck is much better now that dead trees in the way.  Plus, look at all that free firewood for this winter.

 My dad was able to sing in a men's choir for the Priesthood session of General Conference this fall.  I'm so glad he had that experience.  He invited us up for the dress rehearsal since we girls wouldn't be watching him.  They sounded great.  

 Liam and Trev watching Grandpa Rick sing.

 Liam is in men's choir this year.  I'm so glad that he likes to sing.
He's planning on doing this choir again next year.  He does a great job and really sings.

 Gavin and I went with Jackie, Andrea, and Trey to the pumpkin patch at Vineyard Garden Center.  Fun fall tradition, but frustrating when they put a sign at the front of the maze telling you to find the treasure box in the "hidden room" in the maze.  Well, I'll tell you we looked for a long, long time and there was NO hidden room in that corn maze.  Seriously.  Poor Gavin didn't want to give up, but we couldn't be there all day.
 Jim's sister Roxanne hosted a fun Halloween cookie decorating party.  Yummy.  
Gavin made some great cookies for us.  Plenty of candy on top.

 We didn't get to go anywhere for Fall Break so I decided to take the boys up the canyon.  Unfortunately we were a couple weeks late for the really bright trees, but there were a few pretty ones left.  We grabbed lunch (at our favorite Taco Amigo) and ate at Vivian Park.  Then we started up the Alpine loop.

 Gavin collected leaves and Liam took some pictures for his photo class.

 And then it was pumpkin carving time, an activity I really don't like. I like having the tradition, I like going to pick pumpkins, I like them on our porch, but I hate the goo. It makes my arms red and itchy.  I guess it's worth it for the yummy roasted seeds though.


 And it's Halloween.  Half the people thought Gavin was the Hulk (which is correct) and a quarter thought he was Green Lantern and the last quarter though he was a Ninja Turtle.  I guess I better do a better job on costumes next year.  Liam wouldn't trick or treat again this year.  I tried to convince him, but I guess his friends weren't going.  He was our door answerer and candy passer outer.

 Gavin thinks he's one of my scouts.  Actually, he thinks he's a scout leader. We took all the boys on a short hike (walk) to Bridal Veil Falls.  Gavin came and froze his hands trying to grab ice in the water.  Crazy.  I was going to put up a picture of the scouts, but one kid had his mouth open and full of trail mix in every shot!!  Boo to that kid.

 Oh my gosh!  Look at this, we are at the track by my house!  
Really, why am I not there every single day.

 And what would fall be without leaf clean up?
Gavin and I have had leaf duty.  Well, we just work on it during the day because it's warm.
We just have too many trees and way too many leaves to clean up.  

Finally, it looks like fall is ending and winter is coming.  
Gavin was up and out there very early this morning, in old short snow pants.  
I love snow and I love Christmas, but I hate cold and I hate icy roads.
Too bad I guess, here comes winter.

P.S. If it seems that I only have one child, it's because I have learned that 13 yr old boys do NOT want their picture taken and they do NOT want to go anywhere with their mom.  Rude.