Jacob's 11ths Birthday

Nan Schmalz gives Jacob a piggy bank with $11 because he is 11 this year!

He also got really nice Motorola Walkie Talkies so he could play them for his birthday game of Fugitive! He was REALLY excited about them!

Movie Time..."Furry Vengence" starring Brennan Frazier

Jacob opens his presents

Even though his birthday is August 26th, on August 28th Jacob celebrated his birthday with a big neighborhood game of Fugitive. This is a big night game where all the neighborhood kids gather at a house and some adult is in charge of driving with a big spotlight around the neighborhood. The kids then proceed to run to a designated house only staying in the front yards of all neighboring homes and have to hide so they don't get spotted with the light. If they go to the designated house before they get caught, they are safe.

So, I made invitations to drop off at the neighborhood homes and Richard was the driver with Rebecca Groll being the Spotlight holder, trying to catch people hiding! Before that, Jacob had about 8 close friends come over for pizza, a movie, and opening presents. Then, they played Fugitive and came back for some cupcakes. Here are a few pictures. Some of the kids even wore BLACK so they wouldn't get caught!

Nannie's Sweet Relish

After canning the Sweet Relish, Nan came over to see the finished product.

Before canning the pickled vegetables

My good friend, Nan Schmalz gave me a WHOLE BUNCH of cucumbers and peppers from her garden and a really good recipe for Sweet Relish, so I made about 16 pint size jars and bottled 12 for her and I kept 4 for myself...thanks Nan! She wanted to give me more, but I know how much she LOVES this stuff and eats it on everything. I also needed to thank her because she was able to pick our peaches while we were on vacation in California and make Peach Chips (dehydrated peach slices) for me and gave me 3 big ziplock bags of them and only kept one for herself! Isn't that nice?! I was very grateful and had to show her by doing most of the work of canning all the Sweet Relish. She's a great friend and neighbor! My kids call her Aunt Nannie!

2010 School Year Begins!

Kids go to school. Mikaila Groll, got a ride with us.

Rachael (4th grade- Mr. Lopez, Spanish/Ms. Stevens, English)

Qaiden (1st grade- Heather Bushnell)

Jacob (6th grade- Ms. Stavros) and Tate Pace (good friend)

Monday, August 23rd, 2010 was the kids' first day back at school.
All 3 of our eldest kids attend Eagle Bay Elementary for another year!

LUKE WALKS!

August 4th, 2010...Luke takes his first 5 steps all by himself at Aleah's Speech Therapist's office! They had a box of toys and there was a cute dalmation stuffed dog that I was holding and he REALLY wanted it I guess because he was going to walk that distance to get it...AWESOME!!! He is only 16 lbs and 10 months and already about to be walking all over the place! Jacob was 10 months old when he walked. Rachael was 12 months. Qaiden was 9 months (the earliest of them all!) and Aleah was 19 months (the slowest). So, Luke is about on track for the boys... WAY TO GO BUDDY! He is such a cutie pie!!!
Rich is in Texas this week for work and so he missed Luke walking and also Aleah has been talking a lot more just this week! She attempts almost every word you ask her to try now! That's a HUGE milestone for her! WAY TO GO Aleah!!!

Shelley & Paul's Baby Blessing

Paul, Shelley and baby Ethan

The whole group of family/friends who attending the blessing!
Shelley's family and our friend, Alicia Anderson holding Luke

Sunday, August 1st was the blessing of Paul and Shelley's baby, Ethan Paul Schneider. It was nice and simple and afterwards we gathered in the Social Room at their apt. for a little luncheon. We had pasta salad, grapes, canteloupe, edamame, brownies, veggie tray, spinakopita, little bbq sausages, smore treats and water. It was a perfect little array of food snacks before I had to take Chantel & Reed with baby Norah to the airport to go back home. It was nice having them visit for the weekend. They got here on Thursday night and spent Friday with our family...we went to the gym in the morning then to the splash park on Hill AFB. We had a picnic lunch and then went home to shower. Chantel and I went shopping afterwards to see if we could find her a good swim suit. We ended up not finding one. Rich made some fried chicken, I made a salad and Chantel & Reed bought some chips and soda for a picnic we ate at the Farmington Pond with Alicia joining us. After spending a couple of hours there, we drove home and got ready to go to Cherry Hill for the Concert in the Park. Rich stayed home with our two youngest kids while the rest of us (except Reed who was hosting a bachelor party for his friend) enjoyed the music of Corri Conners (a local LDS guitar player, singer, songwriter)...it was really nice and we had licorice and peanut m&m's and water for snacks for the hour concert. So a full but fun weekend for everyone I think...

BBQ with Alaskan friends

We had our good friends, Rob & Jocelyn Dindinger with their kids (Conner & Amarah) over to our home for a BBQ Saturday night (July 31st). Anna Leckie (another friend of ours from AK) came over as well but had to go to a birthday party right after so isn't in the photo. It was sure a nice visit together and afterwards we played a couple games of Monopoly Deal- a quicker game based on the old classic game of Monopoly (which I am not a fan). It was fun visiting with old friends as always!!!

Jacob's Orange-Belt Promotion

Jacob and Tyler Wright (who used to be in our ward before the boundaries changed)

being promoted to orange belt.

4 kids were promoted in this ceremony

Saturday, July 31st at 11:00 a.m was Jacob's promotion ceremony where he moved up from a yellow belt to an orange belt in Taekwondo at Tiger Crane Martial Arts. His next promotion ceremony will be where he gets his purple belt and will be in the fall hopefully. WAY-TO-GO Jacob!!!

July 24th Pioneer Day 2010

At the end of our walk...thank goodness!!! (I'm pooped!)

"Boys will be boys"...

The bees were ALL OVER the flowers!

Red Butte Garden

Richard was volunteering for the Outdoor Adventure Program on Hill AFB and so went on their Jackson Hole, WY trip though he had a boring job of standing in line to get the group some good seats at the Bar J Wranglers show. He also had to be a driver because the guy in charge, Chris just had knee surgery recently. While Rich was away all weekend, we celebrated Pioneer Day by first taking the kids to SLC for a picnic lunch at the place where Brigham Young was burried (right next door to Paul & Shelley's Brigham Apts.). The kids and I read the signs located in this little memorial and sang some hymns and saw all the grave stones. We ate our lunch on our mexican picnic blankets and visited with Paul & Shelley for an hour or so. Afterwards, we drove up to the Red Butte Gardens located up from the University of Utah campus because on Pioneer Day, they have free admission to the gardens. It was nice, but really hot (about 95 degrees!) and hard to take all 5 kids all by myself. We walked around the pretty gardens along the paths and then stopped by the pond where kids could feed the fish. Aleah decided that she would rather feed the fish Rachael's pink water bottle! OOOPPPSSS! I sent Jacob to crawl down on the stones under the water and try to splash the water bottle toward us...no luck! By then, it was late in the afternoon and Aleah was HOT and ready for her nap so we put her in the stroller (which she did NOT like at all!) and pushed the stroller bac to the visitor center. We told the lady at the front desk about our water bottle and she said to try back on Monday and they'll fish it out for us. We went to Costco and then to Payless to get shoes for Rachael. It was almost 6:00 p.m when we got home. We ate dinner and then watched The Happiest Millionaire old musical with actor Fred MacMurray...the kids really liked it! So, it was a full and tiring Pioneer Day!

Our 12th Year Anniversary!

Richard and I went out to eat at the Bombay House in Salt Lake City. It is supposed to be the most authentic Indian restaurant in the area and it sure was yummy! I should have taken a picture of us with the Indian waiters because they had their turbans on their heads and looked really neat! Oh well, such is life...I am not the best photographer and so didn't think about that until now!

Richard had a post-op infection a few months after his tumor removal surgery...not good...

As you can see, he was in a lot of pain. Aleah on the other hand was as happy as could be and thinking she was pretty cool too!

Farmington Parade

There's Jacob and you can see a kid with his nunchucks

behind him wearing the green belt. The order of belts are as follows: white, yellow, orange, purple, green, blue, brown, red, red/black, black.

Jacob's Tiger Crane Martial Arts group with Master Oliver
Mom...look at all the pretty horses...
Aleah liked the minature train!

Qaiden actually caught a ball that was thrown by the bear that you see in the previous picture...GREAT job Mr. Q

As you see, my kids are not HOGS...they wait till things come to them! I have taught them to let the other kids around them get some candy and stuff and to share!

Luke wonders what all the commotion is...

Luke: "What's going on???"

Aleah: "Mom...when are we gonna get some candy?"

Rachael: "Will you hurry cause the sun is hurting my eyes..."

Qaiden: "Let's see how silly I look with my candy bag on TOP of my head!"

July 10th was the Farmington Parade in which Jacob as part of the Tiger Crane Martial Arts group participated. We weren't going to attend but thought it would be good to support him. Rich stayed home to fix our outdoor faucet in the front before leaving for his Uncle Merlin's funeral in Arizona that night. He spent all day fixing it so I took the kids to the parade...I'd like it to be my LAST parade but I can't promise that being that my children will most likely participate again in one of them! I just know that it brings the worst out in people...most people become REALLY selfish and mean! Here's how it went...After dropping Jacob off at the parade participants area, I drove home, picked up the other kids, and drove back to find a parking spot. Our friends, the Grolls were right in front of us and when they parked along the road, we found a spot just behind them. As I was just about to parallel park, I backed up and almost crashed into some lady that zoomed in! I couldn't believe it! I was sure she knew that I had pulled up to the car in front so I could parallel park behind, but she just rudely snuck in! Well, that just made for a BAD start to the parade. I just kept driving about 4 or 5 cars ahead and found another spot. Pulled in and as I was getting the kids out, the lady that stole my spot, came up to me and apologized for taking my spot. At least she was kind enough to do that! After walking 5-7 minutes down State Street in Farmington we were sitting there on the curb watching the parade floats and the kids were waiting for candy and such being tossed toward them. Well, the float for Wild Hair Salons went by and tossed some little goodies out. One of the items they tossed to the kids was a hair rubberband with a pretty brown flower attached to it. My daughter, Rachael went and picked it up and put it in her bag. No one else had seemed to notice it laying on the ground. All of the sudden, the lady behind and next to us started yelling, "that's my daughter's", "that's my daughter's"! I didn't know she was talking to us, until a minute later she walked over to me and said that her friend from the float was meaning to throw it to HER daughter......yeah right.....oh well, I gave it to her without a fuss although she made the rest of the parade not fun for Rachael who was sad that she didn't get the hair band/flower that she picked up off the ground. I was not very happy after that and told myself that was the LAST parade I'll go to! Then when I went to pick Jacob up at the end of the parade route, I was trying to drive out of the parallel parking spot and NO ONE would let me out! It was SLOW moving cars and still NO ONE was courteous! When I did eventually get out, I was nicer than the other cars (which I usually am) and let all the pedestrians walk across the road which NONE of the previous cars did (each one of the pedestrians waved and smiled to me and I could tell they were grateful)....HELLO....have they ever heard of "YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS"???? I am sick of RUDE Utah drivers!!! I get more kindness from drivers EVERYWHERE ELSE...shouldn't that be just the reverse???

Aleah's 2nd Sleep Study

I love this photo...it looks like the nurses were having a bit of fun with Aleah!

Nice hat there...

Oh, Aleah looks thrilled to be there doesn't she?

Aleah (like Rachael) sucks her two first fingers!
Aleah is such a character...she does the funniest things!

July 6th, Aleah had to have another sleep study (at Primary Children's Hospital) done because she had severe mixed Sleep Apnea and so she had her tonsils removed to make room, so when she slept, she would be able to get more oxygen into her lungs. She often stops breathing for a few seconds during the night. She was on oxygen for a couple of months and now the Dr. wants to know if she still needs oxygen at night or if she'll be ok now. I think she may have to be on oxygen her whole life...she has a low lung copacity which won't change, but we'll get the results back in 2-3 weeks and let you know...

4th ofJuly Family Hike

Monday, July 5th. We love to go hiking, and the Farmington Canyon is a nice hike up to a waterfall where we have been a few times as a family. When we get up to the waterfall, we have a picnic lunch. It took an hour and a half to hike up (we were slow with Aleah walking 1/2 the way, then I put her on my shoulders for 1/4 of the way and then she walked the last 1/4. She's heavier than you'd expect!), and then it only took about 45 minutes to come back down because Rich carried Aleah on his shoulders all the way back to the car. Richard was taking the picture and Luke was sleeping in his baby backpack in the shade. Jacob is the only one who couldn't go with us because he had Webelos camp all day on July 5th and July 6th. It was a nice hike but sorry the pictures aren't great quality...I had it on the wrong setting!

Father's Day Activities

Sunday, June 20th FATHER'S DAY was spent making dad a yummy Puffed-oven pancake breakfast with fruit, going to church, coming home and making dinner and for dessert we had homemade whole wheat brownies (I made) and Jacob made some Lemon pudding cake because Dad LOVES anything with lemons! He got the Wii Monopoly game, a Monopoly card game (which is pretty fun and a LOT quicker to play than the original game), as well as a book companion to the Bible which has all the Bible stories in Chronological order and easily understood called, How oft would I have gathered you, by Val Greenwood. I got the book at Costco and even had the Author sign and personalize the copy to Richard. I think that Rich had a nice Father's Day and weekend!

 After we went bowling in Bountiful, Utah, we drove to Salt Lake and were going to try out a new Brazillian restaurant called the Braza Express Grill (on Main Street), but they are closed on Saturdays, so we went next door and ate at an organic cafe which was overpriced and not very good food. So, I went in to pay for the food and after they asked me how the meal was, I told them it was not that great and wasn't a whole lot of food for the price, they wanted to make it up to me by giving us some more food...they brought out organic peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches for the kids (which were NASTY...I make organic PB and J better) and another panini and some soup for Rich and myself. The soup was my favorite of everything...I wish we would have ordered that the first go-around! Oh well. We paid $35 for lunch and I'll never go there again though it was very nice of them to make up for their poor meals!

 Then we headed to Orchard Lanes Bowling Alley to bowl a couple of games with dad.

The kids liked the arcade more so the second game was just with Rich and myself which turned out great because I beat Rich by quite a bit whereas I came in last with a score of 69 I think on the first game...pretty lousy!!! We don't go out bowling very often as you might have guessed!

Saturday, June 19th First, we left about noon and after going to the bank, went to the kids preview of the Savior of the World muscial put on by our Stake Young Men and Young Women of our church that was performed in the Regional Conference Center (white-dome building in Bountiful) in which the kids got to get pictures with the man portraying Jesus Christ, and saw one of the scenes from the play. It was very touching. We ended up going to the real performance the following Friday night with Jacob and Rachael (only age 8 and older could attend), which was very nice.

 We each decorated our own wooden spoons! (The kids decorated Dad's spoon for one of his Father's Day gifts, and Aleah decorated Luke's)

New Hill AFB Splash Park!!!

June 17th we decided to have a picnic lunch at the new Splash Park located right across the street from the Warrior Fitness Center on Hill AFB. Jacob invited his friend, Tate Pace and we had a nice day in the sun! Richard was in Florida on TDY (Tour of Duty) for work and so I wanted to do something fun with just them and mom...and I LOVE FREE activities!!! We'll probably go with some friends of ours from the Hess Family Gym (Jamie Clapier and her two kids, Dyson and Jersey) next week.