The quilt in its new home.

Karly sent me a picture of the quilt in its new home. :)

It looks happy there.

Awesome weekend

This post is a little late, but we had an awesome weekend. We loaded up the family and headed to SLC. Before that I had spent all day sewing like a mad woman. I completed the quilting on Brenda's quilt and got the binding sewn on. That took a lot longer than I thought it would. Craig came home and said we had some time. I asked if we had enough time for me to take two hours and make an apron. He was surprised, but said yes. :) Two hours later, we were off.

The big event of the weekend, despite being General Conference, was Tim and Brenda's sealing and Karly being sealed to them after.

That was HUGE!

We were so excited!

Craig and I joined a lot of my family for a session in the SLC temple before the sealing. It was beautiful.

But the sealing was just simply wonderful.

Here are a few pictures of our friends and family. :)

We have a few changes of people -- we took turns being the photographers. :) Steve and Kelly Deming came from Oregon to share the day with us. The missionaries that taught Tim (and a mother of one said missionary) Jenn Harper (Brenda's friend from Springville High School) and familly, family, family.

Jaqulynne and Fred came, Uncle Gary and Aunt Renee, Kimberly.

A totally fabulous day. :)

A few more pictures at the temple doors.

The new forever family. :)

Knit together for time and eternity.

Long-time friends. Thanks Jenn for coming.

Somehow we missed getting Holly in this picture. She was off with her three very busy boys. :)

We don't look happy here at all. It is hard to get six women all on the same page apparently. :) Really, this picture cracks me up. Who would ever know this was a happy day?

Trying to get arranged nicely.

Now we are smiling - but we are all a bit fuzzy. Oh well. The day was fabulous, even if the pictures were a bit challenging. :)

The happy couple.

I love them.

Hard to decide on getting a good picture of the people or the temple. I thought I had both here, but missed the spires. Sorry Moroni.

I love this shot.

And this one too.

This is the quilt that I was madly sewing. Thank you to Debbie, who helped me bind the monster and have it ready to give to Brenda while she was in town. :)

The back. This quilt is the biggest I have ever done. It is about as wide as some, but certainly longer.

The label.

Ta daa! And below -- Pete being a good sport, and a ham, and modeling the two hour apron. :) The only picture I took of it.

cross country

Josh is running cross country. Today was his second meet. We hosted -- that made it easy to go. There were lots of guys lined up on the line.

Here is Josh coming up on the first check point.

A great picture of my boy.

Approaching the finish line. He caught the boy in purple ht he chased the whole race.


Sprinting to the finish line. I'm so proud of him. :)

Thea

Thea was here for a few days. We visited with family, watched ball games, chatted and had fun.

I only took one picture of her. Not too good, but glad to have the one.

Josh is rocking the hat and Boaz is a bit of a goof, but they were both happy to pose with Thea.

We miss her.

Craig took some pictures of her on a little date they had with Uncle Mark. She loved that he had the gear. :)

She got on a huge dirt bike and Uncle Mark lead on a 4-wheeler and Craig followed on a 4-wheeler. She was in heaven.

The view from the back.

Getting on the monster bike.

Her feet were off the ground, it was so big and she is so small. She loved it though. A great day.

First day of school

We have been in school for 9 days now. But I still want to post the pictures of my boys.

I can't believe how fast they are growing. I've told Josh that this is the year that he will pass me up height wise.

We just had him measured, and he is only one and a half inches shorter than I am.

Here is my tall 12 year old. He is starting 7th grade. I remember 7th grade and am a bit nervous. He tells me he likes it. Band is awesome. He has good friends and he is a good boy. The process of letting go is difficult. I'm glad it is a process that takes years.

This year he has decided to wear button down shirts. It keeps me busy ironing, but I think he looks great. So much better than the T-shirts every day.

Here is a picture of my eight year old.

He insisted on taking the backpack. I was worried that it would be too heavy for him, with all the school supplies, but it wasn't too bad.

He is starting 3rd grade. I remember 34d grade too. I had Mrs. Birmingham. I thought she was kind of mean. I hope Boaz likes his teacher. She is a first year teacher, but when I met her, I liked her.

We are back in a schedule. The boys eat breakfast, we read scriptures, say morning prayer and I walk with Boaz out to the bus stop. Josh practices piano for 20 - 30 minutes. I have not started pilates in the morning, but I plan on starting that  this week. Craig takes Josh to school and I get ready for my little job.

Craig is happy that he is not the only one getting up and getting ready in the morning. So, it is all a good  thing.

Thea was here the first day and went with me when I took the boys to school. She cried watching them grow up one more year.

At the middle school, she heard a group of kids talking and told Josh that he couldn't hang with them. She didn't like the language. I had to make sure that Josh's schedule is right. I had to change two classes. I was glad they had it all fixed, even though the first schedule didn't have his math class listed. It just didn't have the seventh period.

On a side note, Josh took the pre-test for English. It is basically the end of year test. The teachers give it to get an idea of where the kids are. The kids are expected to fail it, it does not count toward the grade. It gives the kids a chance to see what they will be learning and gives them a bench mark to see the growth at the end of the year.

Well, Josh passed the test with a "C". NO other student has ever passed the test before. He was pretty proud. I about burst my buttons.

All in all, it has been a good thing. A new year and new experiences. :)

A day on the lake

Back before school started, we decided to have a last hurrah. A day on the lake with Uncle Brad and Taiven.

It is nice to have family that has fun toys. :)

We packed up and headed for water.

Here are a few shots of the fun.

This was the chariot that provided most of the fun. Notice that my boys were wearing their goggles -- an absolute must when ever water is played in. They were very stable and didn't get tossed out of the tube. But they bounced over wakes and swung in circles and laughed and giggled for hours.

Having fun in the boat. I didn't get a shot of him on the surf board. He is good at it though.

Josh on the surf board. The prop is way under the boat and out of play, because yes -- he really is that close to the boat. He did really good. When he fell off the board the first time, he didn't let go of the rope fast enough for me. I screamed at him, "Let go! Let go! Let go!" That made Craig and Uncle Brad laugh. It gave me a heart attack.

Swimming on the board to get back on the boat. Fun stuff.

He decided he could do it when he saw everybody else do it. I held my breath. He is my baby after all.

Listening to the instructions from Dad. The board is on the deck of the boat. You put pressure on the back of the board and lift it off the deck and waalaa -- you are surfing.

He did really good. When he was done, I started breathing again.

After my 8 year old surfed, I was shamed into trying it myself. They said I did good. I tried three times. I was okay when the board was on the deck, but I didn't really like just being on the board itself. Honestly, I like riding in the boat and watching. No pictures of me, I was on the board, Craig was talking me through the process, Josh had the flag for when I fell and Uncle Brad was driving. I am counting my blessings. :)

It was a wonderful day, and we are so grateful to Brad for taking us out.

Games

Thea came this week and showed us new games. We are now playing Words With Friends. I have three games going with Thea and Josh.

I am good at word games. I know some Latin words and that is helpful.

Josh just told me I was mean because I was winning.

Then he told me I was a mean mom. I was beating my son like he was a pinata.