08-30-2011

Today was Isaac's first day of kindergarten.  He's been nervous and excited for a long while now.  I wasn't sure how he would do, but he did just fine and was so brave without any tears.  It helped that his buddy Josh was standing right next to him.  When the moment to say goodbye came, they weren't paying attention and had to rush to catch up and then were through the door without even a wave. 

I only teared up for a few seconds as I watched him standing in line next to the building.  I actually sent my youngest to kindergarten once before.  When Jonah headed off to kindergarten, we had given up any hope of every having another child.  Somehow the mourning I did with Jonah mixed with gratitude of even getting to have the same experience with Isaac made me more glad than sad to be there with him.

It's just the first day of such an exciting journey!

08-29-2011

A Garden Mystery:  I thought I planted a standard green pepper plant.  Obviously that isn't what's growing. 

These peppers are thumb-sized and are pale yellow turning purple-brown. The flesh inside is yellow. They taste bitter with a bit of spice on the front which quickly disappears. The flavor reminds me of regular peppers, but not quite the same.
Any ideas on what I've got?  And how to use them?

08-29-2011

A Sunday-evening family picture per Isaac's request.

08-23-2011

Today is the first official day of school.  It's going to be a crazy year because all three boys will be on three different schedules at three different schools.  Noah starts school at 7:45; Jonah at 8:15; and Isaac at 9:15.  Return times also vary widely.  We're also managing bus schedules, walking groups and possibly carpools. 

07-18-2011

Taylor E., Jonah, Gavin?, and Jake 

Jonah and Nicolas slept in the middle tent in this picture.

This post is way out of order.  But Wesley just posted these photos to facebook and thanks to him, we have some captured memories of Jonah at Camp Hunt.  Jonah, his troop, and his cousin Nicolas spent 5 nights at Bear Lake this summer.  Jonah earned 6 merit badges - rowing, canoeing, environmental science, leather work, and Indian lore. 

It was Jonah's first time as a patrol leader.  He did a good job planning and making assignments for firesides.  He told us about how frustrating it was to try and get the boys to do their jobs.  We just laughed hoping that gained perspective would apply in our home. 

08-21-2011

So - As Isaac gets older, the size of messes that he makes seem to increase exponentially.  This was only one of the messes tonight as he made "paths" with the newly-opened paper towel roll.  The second mess was the discovery made that when he says that he is eating his food, he has actually been slipping his food into one of the dining table drawers.  Once he confessed, we discovered a drawer full of an apple, some turkey, a half-eaten cookie and some bread.  The third mess - well let's just say that there is at least one more waiting to be cleaned.

08-19-2011

My Jeep full of food to take to the Food Bank.

My heart has been really sad recently for the starving children in Somalia.  We already give to help children all over the world, so it felt like there wasn't more that I could do.  Then two weeks ago, I read that our local food banks were running out of food.  For this situation, I could do more!  I gathered up several boxes of food from my basement.  By the end of the week, many generous people from American Fork and Santaquin had donated a lot of food and filled the back of my Jeep and my sister's car. 

If you are in a position to do so, donate to your local food bank.  Times are tight for everyone right now and kids are hungry.  We've been blessed with so much and can bless others with our abundance.  The food bank will even take food storage up to one year past its expiration date.  It's a great opportunity to bless lives and rotate your food storage! 

08-15-2011 (part two)

Jonah practicing the piano. 

Both he and Noah have progressed tons this summer!  As part of their summer chores, they had to play one song 10 times or pass a song off each day (while naming notes).  My objective wasn't to have them necessarily get better at the piano, but I knew both would benefit in violin/guitar/choir by knowing note names.

08-15-2011

I taught Isaac how to take pictures of himself.

08-14-2011

A Blank Slate

Today is our 19th wedding anniversary.  In all those years of marriage, we've never had new couches.  We've lived with hand-me-downs for way too long!  Finally, we've saved enough money to replace our 30-year-old, brown-velvet, partially-covered-with-denim couch and the mismatched love seat originally from my parent's den.  Without a truck, we had no way to remove them.  So thanks to Laurel and Nathan, we sent a load to the dump and another one to the D.I. yesterday. 

So, how should we fill this space?  I'm wondering about moving the entertainment center to the left wall and getting some brown leather couches with a great ottoman to put against the far wall and under the window  to the right.  Then maybe a mirror or great piece of art work on that angled wall. 

08-07-2011

Just a quick shot of my new cut.  It seems pretty similar to many other styles I've had recently, but I had someone say that they hardly recognized me.  Hmmm?

08-06-2011

This is a new thing with Isaac.  He is a ninja!  I realize that it has been 100 degrees outside and that he is wearing sweats and a jacket - but it's the costume!  We converted this picture into a black and white line drawing and Isaac has had fun coloring himself.

08-04-2011

Idaho Falls Temple with the falls in the foreground. 

Idaho Falls.

The next morning, after spending the night in Pocatello, we drove to Idaho Falls.  We visited the visitor's center, hiked along the falls, and then drove to see where Trent's grandparents lived for more than 30 years.  We spent the evening with my parents after driving to pick up the boys.  Isaac has been asking, "Can we live with grandma and never come back?" since we came back home.

Next year, it will be our 20th - but it's also my turn to plan.  Where should we go?

08-03-2011

 Craters of the Moon:  In front of a spatter cone.

Hundreds of miles of lava fields. 

[Click to see this bigger.]  In Arco, they have all these (I'm assuming) graduating class years painted all over the mountain.  They continue on either side of this picture.  Talk about ruining the view!

For our anniversary, Trent and I started taking turns planning our brief, usually just one night, trip away to celebrate.  This year was Trent's turn to plan.  We spent our first day out at Craters of the Moon, which is a fairly recent (2000 years) fissure and lava flow west of Pocatello.  It was black and hot.  There was just lava fields as far as we could see.  A huge black hill, the Inferno Cone, literally had nothing growing on it.  The Aa-Aa flows looked like a giant rototiller had turned heavy clay soil and left the mess. 

We hiked several miles and took flashlights down into three lava-tube caves.  The first, the Beauty Cave, was my favorite.  The temperature dropped while down in the caves which was so nice.  There was even ice in the boy scout cave.  After letting our eyes adjust, which took longer than we thought,  we explored the caves until we were tired. 

07-30-2011

Once again, I spent several days rebuilding the train.  I'll be thrilled when Isaac can do it himself.