Still Waiting...................for Baby

Last Sunday after dinner we all made guesses as to
when Cami's baby would be born. I guessed yesterday
and Jim guessed today August 28. Since it was a full moon
he has heard that sometimes that is when more babies
are born. But i guess the Grandma and Grandpa are in a bit of a
hurry since it is 7pm on August 28th and no sign of a baby
yet soo0000 Maybe the full moon theory is just an old
wives tale??????

Cami and Chris

March 25, 2007

Ready for the Temple

Crista and Andy with their Temple Recomends. They were married March 10, 2007

Family Photo

This is our most recent family photo. It was taken at Alisha's reception. (July 19) What a beautiful garden reception it was.

Potty Training

I need some good potty training tips....I have got to get Joey to use the potty!!

Preschool Woes

I've had a real hard time the last few weeks. I've been trying to decide where to send Jenna to preschool this year. Do I send her to the private really commendable preschool that I sent her to last year? Or do I try to save $$$ and send her to the school district preschool? Well I've wanted to send her to the one I had her go to really bad. But I decided to go have her tested to see if she qualified at the school district. I went over two weeks ago and had her tested. She knew her abc's and 123's. She knew her shapes and colors and all the other hard questions they asked. But she did lack a little in speech. So I got told they THOUGHT she would qualify, but we would have to wait to see if she qualified for 2 days or 4. Well I called again today and they still don't know if she qualifies or not. And they don't even know when they will have the first day. It could be the end of September sometime. This was the last straw...I cannot believe they don't even know when they will start. So I guess it is a good thing that I reserved her a spot at the end of last year. She will start at her old school. And maybe if I think the other program is good enough when it starts, I might send her to that one also. I don't know. But I did get told that if she was hispanic she would've qualified no question...isn't that disgusting???

Our little girl is growing up!

Today was the much anticipated day for our little Aliece. She has been looking forward to kindergarten for years now. Each August as we have sent children off on the bus, she has longed to hop on and attend school with them. Today she got her chance.


Although Amber had new school clothes purchased, and set out for Aliece, she already had the day planned weeks in advance. She knew exactly what she was going to wear and there was no changing her mind. The chosen outfit: a ragged old play dress that Aliece loves! Amber relented and Aliece attended kindergarten in the favored dress.


It was weird for me to see three of our four (soon to be five) children getting on the bus this morning. Life sure has a way of speeding up -- leaving you in the dust, wondering where it all has gone.

I went home for lunch and got the low down on all of the Kindergarten activities of the day. Aliece was not disappointed as Kindergarten seems to be everything she ever hoped it would be.

A Sad Day!!

As you can tell….tonight has been very emotional for our family. We are mourning the loss (or should I say celebrating???) of two binkies!!! Doesn’t he look sad??!!

Johnathan's off!

Well, another day, another kid off to school. Today, all of the second graders started up for class. Johnathan posed here ready for the day. He has been really excited to get started back in the classroom. Good luck in second grade!

School Starts up Again

Well, here it is...faster than we anticipated, school started up again. This particular year all three of the school kids are starting on different days. Today is Aylee's first day of fourth grade!

5k Threesome

This morning was our Stake's 5K Family Fun Run. We woke up to an overcast, slightly rainy morning - perfect for a good run.

I took Johnathan and Aylee out to the church for the race. Aylee and Johnathan were the only kids there to run in the 5k. We had a great time running with the few friends that showed up. I stuck with Aylee and Johnathan and tried to pace them. It is the first time that I have ran for that length of time without walking since my back surgery. Running at the pace with the kids was just perfect.

We were able to do the race without stopping or resting. The kids were awesome. They followed their normal pattern....Johnathan started out behind Aylee and I and struggling to keep along while Aylee is pushing us to keep going. Then by the half way mark, Johnathan is just running on his merry way and Aylee is dragging, pleading to stop. I have noticed that in the kids...it is a good thing they do these things together because they are each able to help and motivate each other at the different times when the other needs it the most.

When we got to the finish line there were a bunch of the runners there to cheer us on across the finish line. I love these small stake fun runs, it is a great activity for the family!

Quick Camping

During Ann and Verne's visit down here, Ann had a three day outing with her sisters. During her outing, Verne suggested that he and I take some of the kids on a small overnight camping trip. Aylee and Johnathan have been bugging me about going fishing for some time, so we decided to take them on this little overnighter.

I took Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning off of work and we headed out. We spent Monday hitting a bunch of ghost towns and geocaches along the way - we didn't have a schedule to keep and we had planned on just finding a campsite when and where we needed one.

Our first stop was the town of thistle. In 1883 farming and ranching came into this area. In 1890 the Railroad built there. In April 1983 a mud slide which moved part of the mountain blocked the river and made an earth dam. The water backed up (65,000 Acre feet worth of water, 165 feet deep) which flooded and covered the land that thistle was located on, Puting an end to the town.


Our next stop was a store near a ghost town site named Clinton. We went into the store that was part of the original ghost town and moved up near the highway to attract visitors. The owner of the store was there and we started to talk to him. He had pictures of the old ghost town the way it was in the 1800s. His grandfather was the city marshall. He had pictures of him as well as a picture of his grandfather and Butch Cassidy. They were friends in their younger days and Butch Cassidy spent a lot of time in the store. It was a fun stop.

Royal was our final ghost town stop. It was nestled in a canyon that broke off from the canyon of the main highway. It took us a few times of turning around before we found it. We walked around and talked to a local water reclamation worker that was on his 4-wheeler in the area. Before we left this ghost town, we made a quick little 900 ft hike up the mountain to grab a geocache.

Our next stop was Price, UT where we roughed it and ordered dinner at McDonalds (this is the way that I like to camp!). We then headed off to find us a camping spot. On our way to find camping locations we passed the rescue crew base camp that was out to rescue to the miners trapped in the Huntington mines. We talked to the kids about the somber situation for a while.

We found a great camping spot within an hour. The site was along the river flowing down the canyon where the main highway was located. Verne and I pitched the tent while Aylee and Johnathan searched for dry fallen timber. Our wood situation was scarce but we found enough fire wood for our needs.

The kindling was all damp from an earlier rain, but after a lot of persistence we were able to get some flames going.

We roasted marshmallows and ate smores. The kids wanted to tell funny ghost stories, but we quickly ran out of those, so Bishop Verne suggested that we talk about some of Christ's parables and what they meant. We spent some time doing that and the kids enjoyed themselves.

As soon as we got up the next morning, we put all of the camping gear away and had some of Amber's delicious coffee cake that she cooked for our trip. We made a quick clean up of things and hurried off to Cleveland Reservoir to do some fishing.

The kids had a great time learning to cast better. We fished for a couple of hours or more and didn't catch anything - except for Johnathan who caught his chair, shirt, and pants several times with his hook.

Things Moms Should NOT Have To Buy

I learned today, that being a mom is sometimes ....well......I don't know how to describe it. I just think there are some things moms should have to do and some things dads should do.
Today I thought I would be a multi-tasker and get all the school supplies and clothes done (bought...I'm not sure I'm making sense...kinda tired). Anyways...to make a long story short. I not only bought earrings and jeans, but also football cleats. I also learned what a girdle was....and lets just say that Kyle can return to the store Monday with Brad to buy the mouthguard, specially ordered girdle and cup (I didn't know you could buy so many sizes!!!). Maybe I'll send Kyle bra shopping and see how he feels!! And yes, I guess I am a bit naive.

Underpants - OPTIONAL

Last week while Ann and Verne were down visiting, we were heading to a wedding reception. Verne was going to take Aliece and Alayna with him and Ann. As he was buckling Alayna up in her carseat he quickly realized that she had forgotten to put on any underwear under her dress.

He told her to get out and go get some underpants on. As Alayna dutifully hopped out of the car and headed in, Aliece started laughing and said, "Grandpa, you're silly, we don't have to wear underpants when we wear dresses!"

I don't know what Verne was thinking about our family's standards at that time. He questioned Aliece to see if she were wearing underpants. She replied (again laughing), "No!"

Verne sent Aliece in to get some underpants on also.

He followed behind and entered the kitchen telling us the situation. We were pretty surprised that both girls would go without their underwear. We stopped Aliece and asked her why she wasn't wearing underwear. She replied, that she was wearing underwear, but that grandpa wanted her to put pants on under her dress. We finally figured out that while Alayna was truly without underwear, Aliece understood the term "underpants" to be "pants under your dress".

Alayna got some underwear on, and Aliece learned what underpants meant. All in all, it was a good day!

Ten Wonderful Years!!

Today Amber and I celebrate our Ten Year Anniversary. Ten years ago we were kneeling across from each other listening to a beautiful wedding ceremony.

We have had a great ten years together and I am looking forward to the rest of eternity with her at my side.

For celebration we are keeping it simple due to the anniversary falling in the middle of the week and Amber not feeling too adventurous being 8 months pregnant. I took the day off of work and we did some decorating odds and ends in the house. Jake is coming over tonight to watch the kids while Amber and I go to dinner and watch a chick flick at the theater.

Once we get done having these babies maybe we will be more exotic in our anniversary celebrations, but until then we'll enjoy the local scene!

Why children should not watch TV

The other day we were eating dinner at the table and Aliece told one of her siblings in a joking manner, "Kill Yourself!" Amber and I looked at each other a little concerned and told Aliece that we don't say those kinds of things. Aliece said, "I was just joking, they say it on Mr. Incredible."

I racked my brain, going through the lines of the movie trying to remember any such line. I could not recall them saying anything like that. Before I could challenge her on her statement, however, Johnathan corrected her by saying, "No sir, Aliece, in Mr. Incredible they say 'Shoot Yourself!'"

Now,this wasn't much better than the first statement. So, Amber and I started in on how we really shouldn't say that either - not even in play. I was then about to go in on the shows we watch and the things we quote from them when Aylee hopped into the conversation, "Johnathan, you're wrong....in the movie they say 'Show Yourself!'"

So, I guess that even when your kids are watching clean, kid-centric movies, they can still take undesirable language and habits from them. In this instance, "Show Yourself" (as understood by our oldest) was understood from the next younger child as "Shoot Yourself" which statement then morphed for the next younger child into "Kill Yourself".

People must wonder what we let our children watch!

Playing in the Rain

The other day we had kind of a downpour of rain which cooled the day off considerably. The kids wanted to go and play in the wet wonderland, so they donned swimsuits and umbrellas to experience nature's irrigation system.

I've included the following video clip for those of you interested:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7683220119370107925&hl=en

Girls night out with Dad

About a month ago, our ward had a daddy-daughter campout. It just so happens that it fell on a school night for me so I was unable to take the girls to the camp. To try to make up for my fatherly absence, I invited the girls to go on a camping trip with me to the back yard on Friday night.

We had a good time as we set up the tent and got it all ready for our festivities. We ran to the store and got some stuff to make smores and then we came back home and roasted our delectable treat over the roaring flames of our bbq grill. I hate to do smores because of their sticky mess that they produce, but I was able to handle it that night due to the fact that we had a sink and wash cloth just a few steps away in our kitchen.



After our smores cooking, we popped some popcorn and settled into the tent to watch a movie together. By this time it was about 8PM. However, the sun was still up and we were roasting in the tent. It got to be so hot that we came into the house and read books until the sun was closer to going down beyond the west mountains. As the evening cooled (and I use that term lightly) a bit we went back into the tent and finished our movie.

As I was putting tired little girls into their sleeping bags around 10:30pm, Aylee was the good example and kneeled down on her sleeping bag and said her prayers. We had not choice but to follow suit. I appreciated her remembering to do that at the end of the day even though we were all exhausted from our fun night.

We all slept well and the girls had a great time!

Happy Birthday Aylee

Today, Aylee celebrates her 9th birthday. Amber stayed up until 1AM last night to make her finishing touches on this base-ball themed brown-sugar frosting cake. It looks pretty cool.

Aylee will spend the day going to a movie with Amber and the kids and then having a sleep over party tonight. I hope we are up to that!

Happy birthday Aylee!