Jammin' 4th Graders

Press pause on the music player at the bottom to listen to this jammin' video of Devin's class rocking out.

Story Telling Festival

Press pause on the music player to listen to Devin's big story about Dean shooting his bear.

Christmas Card 2008

For those I didn't get it mailed to. I Love You and wish I could see you year round.

Ward Christmas Party 2008 - YEAH!! IT'S OVER!!!

"I want a black Zune that is 8 Gigabytes," Santa said "HUH?"
Devin with a stick and Dylan with a camera. Very entertaining.

Devin is on the right.

Finally, at least a fake smile.

Our ward party was on Wednesday, the 10th. I am so extremely glad that it is over. Thanks to Dean and my boys it all went fairly smoothly. We fed 206 people. The boys, including Dean, filled 233 glasses of water before it started. That is after we got there and found out that the Relief Society keeps the pitchers locked up in their cupboard. That would have been nice to know before we got there. Dean made a mad dash to get a key so that we could do the water. We bought the meat and rolls from Stewart's in Roosevelt. That was a little pricey, but made it soooo easy. Dakoda, Dean and I kept all the food baskets full while Dylan took pictures. BLESS MY FAMILY. Ena Ra worked her little fanny off in the kitchen with Dixie Swasey. Those little angels.

I think the program was really cute. Devin is anyway. I didn't get to see the program but that goes with this wonderful calling I guess. Hopefully next year I'll get to watch my child. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

My friend was nice enough to take pictures of Dakoda and Dylan on Santa's lap. I'll post them later when I get them. They tried to get away without setting on Santa's lap. Too bad Santa knew their names and called them up.

Basketball season has started

Dakoda and Dylan have had their first games. Dakoda's JV team won by about 30 against Wendover. We didn't stay for the Varsity but I heard they won too. Dean and I had an ElPaso Christmas party to go to. Dylan's team played Tabby. Altamont's 7th grade lost by 2. I'm not sure how I feel about that 7th grade game. I know they could have easily won if all of the "good" players were played at the same time. But the coaches feel like everyone should play. That's great if you don't mind losing but personally I'd like to see them win. That's my competative side coming through. Everyone can play and lose or the better players can play and the team wins. I promise you Tabby didn't play all their players equal time. They play to win. It is so hard to watch but then I sure wouldn't want my kid setting bench every game either. Who wins?

On another note... I bought myself a new flash for my camera for Christmas. Last year my basketball pictures were either dark or blurry. Gym lights suck for action pictures. I tried to talk the boys into wrestling so that my pictures would be clear but basketball won out so I really had no choice... did I? These pictures look so much better than last years!!! Merry Christmas to me.

What happened to his pants?

I did not see this happen at the game. Just when I got home and started editing pictures. The kid (green #12) is pulling up his shorts. Dakoda didn't see it during the game either but how funny is that. He lost his shorts.

Book Cliff's Shortcut

If you've ever went for a ride with Dean - he takes shortcuts. Our shortcut to Vernal was 180 miles!!! The road was smooth and the scenery beautiful. The kids took their PSP's so no one even fought for a change. By the end, Dylan had Devin in the usual headlock. I could not believe the bucks out there. No wonder Dean has been putting me in for the Bookcliffs hunt for 8 years. I could maybe get one there.

Big Mighty Bow Hunter

This is Dean's first year bowhunting. Who knew that bow season lasted FOREVER. He has been after this buck for a few weeks now. He has even came home to pick prickley pears out of his knees after crawling after him. He shot him yesterday morning and tracked him all day. He never could find him dead so he went back first thing this morning with Dakoda to look some more. He knew he had hit him good. On the first pass on the hill, Dakoda found the buck buried in the dirt. His legs and head were hanging out. They dug him out and found that his hind quarters had been chewed on by a mountain lion. That's a little freaky. Now Dean has an Elk tag that lasts until December 15th. So I guess that I am a single parent until then.

Christmas Is Here

We are a little excited about Christmas at our house. It is so nice to have a few decorations this year. I had the tree last year but no decorations. Dylan decided we needed the tree up a week before Thanksgiving. Personally, I was trying to watch Utah kick BYU's butt! I was an outnumbered fan on that one but I got to rub the win in a little bit. Dylan brought the tree and all the decorations down the stairs and put up the 12' tree pretty much by himself. It looks so good this year. I remember the days when the kids would decorate the tree and you would have to love it because your kids did it. But honestly, they did a great job this year. I am a little stressed though being over the ward Christmas party this year. We're planning on about 300 people. I'm not big on the huge party thing or delegating. Small gatherings, that's my thing. I guess the Lord knows what he's doing taking me out of my comfort zone. I'm not liking it though.

November 18, 2008 Newspaper Clippings

I just wanted to put these on the computer because after about ten years they fade to blank. At least my high school ones were about blank. Plus I am so proud of these two for making high honor rolls. It has been a lot of work for them. They are in some hard classes and I really admire the time they put into their homework. I'm sure me nagging doesn't hurt.

Veteran's Day

The pilots and crews from the helicopters signed Devin's arm.

Devin on the Apache helicopter All of the flags raised except the POW/MIA.
Can you see that man hanging out the window waving? Devin just informed me that it was a girl waving (Tammy Mitchell).

Devin is the cutest ever.

Today our elementary was putting on their annual celebration. At least that is what I was expecting. A few of the Veterans in our area had put together this memorial on main street. It is at the entrance of the parking lot at the school. It is fabulous. The Veterans and their families have had bricks carved with information about the Vet and where he served and stuff like that. There are flags for each division of the military and one for the POW and MIA. At one point in the program the children sing a song for each division of the military and all of the service men or women in that division stand to be honored. I have to admit I was a little teary eyed as I looked around at all of the men and women that served out beautiful country. You couldn't help but feel their patriotism. They soluted and stood so strong for us to see. When it was time to raise the flag it (a flag that has flown over the Nation's Capital) was brought in on these helicopters. The kids went crazy!!! The helicopters landed in the football field and the troops brought the flag over to the program to be raised. Devin was part of the children that sang the songs for the honored Vets. He did such a good job. It's a good thing that he didn't get my talent (or lack of).

Halloween Night

Dylan was a good sport and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

Devin during the costume parade.

Devin in his skeleton costume. He didn't want to smile, he was being scary. Too bad he's too freakin cute to be scary.

This year we went to the ward trunk-or-treat. We kind of had to go to it since I was in charge of it. Dakoda disappeared to trick-or-treat no less. He didn't care that he was not dressed up. Dylan stuck around to help out. He passed out candy at our car. Dean was a real trooper. He helped me set up and clean up afterwards. We went through 200 doughnuts. That's a lot of people.

My Oh My

Dakoda and Dylan had a church party and these are the costumes they came up with. They are screwballs.

Scary HOBO. Ooh, those eyes.

He started out as a cowboy but ended up as Captain Morgan.

Pumpkin carving gone wrong

Devin worked so hard on this pumpkin. He traced and carved forever it seemed. It finally turned out just like he wanted.
I don't even dare say what this is suppose to be (hands on buttcheeks) but I did say they could make whatever just do it. Next time I'll have to be more specific on whatever means.

Work in Progress.

Dakoda did the freestyle thing. He was in a hurry to get to a party. It actually turned out pretty nice. He tried using a sawsall (powertool) but that didn't work as planned.

Smiles and Rosy

Shadow (my dad calls her Smiles) and Rosy love the deer hunt. Rosy was a little scared of the beasts when they are dead. When she walks with me in the mornings, she chases and barks like she is going to tear them apart. After they were dead, she wouldn't even come into the shop for a long time. Shadow just loves the attention. She was full of smiles this night.

Hunting the muleys

I love the fact that this is my back yard. Dakoda didn't have a lot of time to hunt because of football so this was perfect. We had about 15 head of deer in our back yard this night. Dakoda shot at a bigger two point but settled on Bambi's baby cousin - as Dakoda put it. It was kind of a freaky little deer. It was a tiny spike on one side. It wasn't broke off either. The other side was a little three point. Not a wall hanger but it was meat in the freezer.

Big Bad Deer Hunters

This was Dylan's first year hunting the muleys. He was so excited. I think Dean was just a tad bit proud too. His shot was about 200 yards and Dylan showed us that he hit it where he was suppose to. He stuck his finger in the hole to show me. Yuck. It was a great 2X3. It was bigger than Dakoda's. That's what mattered to Dylan.

Father and Son Scout Cake

I have to say that I'm still laughing over this cake. Okay, not the cake but the decorating of the cake. The baking part went fine. The mess was minimal and no they did not clean it up. But the decorating, oh my gosh. Yes that is a blow dryer that you see in the picture. I warned them that the frosting was stiff - be careful, you'll rip the top of the cake off when you spread it, blah, blah, blah. I could see it happening long before it really happened. But they decided it was because the cake was too moist. Isn't that the point - making a moist cake? But anyway, they thought they needed to dry the cake out so out came the blowdryer. They dried that poor cake out for about 10 minutes. And guess what... it didn't work. Can you believe that? They finally decided to microwave the frosting and that solved the problem. The frosting was runny then and they spread it easy. But the whole blowdryer thing is still making me laugh! Got to love my boys.

Deer Hunt 2008

Dylan (He is a crazy hunter.)
Devin (Not much of a hunter. He just broke down dead trees all day)
Dakoda (He says that the deer are all hibernating. I kind of believe him. At least the bucks)
Me and my man (I'm not a hunter either. I help Devin and drive the truck)
These are gross - and huge. I think they are Mormon Crickets. I could be wrong but they sure are not a grasshopper. They even squeaked a little bit.