Back to School - Fall Time

We have had quite the busy Fall time.  At last minute in favor of a friend, Roy helped coach the Springville 9th grade - Team B football team.  He had practices every night and games on Saturday.  He would even spend several hours watching the recordings of the past football games to see where they could improve.  I never realized how serious football can be especially for 9th graders.  Roy and Jim Brau, did an incredible job with these boys.  They were able to have them meet past BYU players and played better than they ever thought.  The boys were able to come in 3rd place in the season and were able to play in the semi-finals.  They did a great job! Here are some pictures of one of Roy coaching.  He is the one with the red hat. 

Also during this same time, we decided I would go back to school to get my bachelors degree.  I have an associates and have been working towards a bachelors for quite sometime.  My only hold back was my associates degree was specialized and a lot of my generals didn't transfer to UVSC.  So I felt like I was retaking classes I had already taken.  I did some research and decided to go to Stevens Henager School of Business.  Financially, I was able to get some pell grants and financial aid, which I am grateful for.  I wasn't sure how I was going to fit this all in with me working full-time, dedicating my time to my little family, and church.  We have so many things we are doing.  I liked the idea of doing school online.  I knew I would have to do a lot of sacrifice with my time.  So far I have been able to make it work.  I have been getting up at 3 a.m. in the morning to do my homework.  Most of the time, I am able to finish my school work by Friday morning so I can relax from school stuff for the weekend. I will be going to school straight through for a little over 2 years.  I will finish before Kaitlyn goes to kindergarten.  :)  Hopefully this will help me be a greater asset for the company I am currently working for.

We also enrolled Amanda in a class piano course.  It is at Art City Music Academy.  She is doing a great job in there.  They have a parent sit in with them in their group class.  So I am able to see what she is learning, and be able to help her.  We were able to set a routine for her, especially now that she has started Kindergarten.  She will usually wake up around 6 or 6:30 a.m. and we will practice the piano first thing in the morning.  She gets pretty excited when she passes a song off.  One of her favorite things to do is doing the flash cards.  She will have her first recital on January 21st.  We are excited to see her perform. :)

First day of school!

Amanda & Kaitlyn's first day of school.  Amanda's first day at Kindergarten

and Kaitlyn will be going to Iliana's Daycare/Preschool.

 Showing off their backpacks.  I had to laugh that they are bending over.

Kaitlyn's backpack is a little ballerina frog that says "tippy toes" on it.  My sister, Diana, gave this to us and thought it would be perfect for Kaitlyn's diaper bag when she goes to Iliana's.

I was able to take the morning off to get my girls off to school.  It was fun to see Amanda excited for school and even her excitement when she came home running say, "Mommy!  I have homework!"  She said she had a blast!. :)



Funny Little Things

There are times you see things happen and just bring a smile to your face.  Here are some photos that made me smile with our kids.

 Kaitlyn cuddling up to her lady bug pillow pet and all of her blankets on the floor.

 Amanda hanging out and playing with her stuffed dog.

 Look what I found...oreo cookies with the filling eaten out of them.

Looks like Jessica didn't hide them very good.

 There's the culprit in action.

 She seemed a bit surprised when I walked in.  I wonder why? lol

Looks like Kaitlyn was taking care of daddy while he was sleeping. :)  What a lucky dad!



July Birthdays

Well July was a very busy month along with two birthdays!  Amanda turned five years old and very anxious to start kindergarten.  She will ask us to drive past the school all of the time! :)  Her favorite thing right now is Rupunzel.  She is wanting to grow her hair out like her so we had a bit of a Rupunzel theme. 

Also on this day, my orthodontist & Jessica's have a free Seven Peaks day.  We were able to go as a family for free and enjoy all the fun rides and pools for the evening.  I think everyone had an enjoyable time.  Quite the big day for Amanda!

Jessica had her 13th birthday also this month.  We were not able to get pictures due to her having her birthday the day she went to girls camp, but we made sure we packed presents for her in her backpack and note to let her know we were thinking of her.  Jessica went to her mom's ward girls camp earlier in the month and then she went to our ward campout.  I think she realized how fun and spiritual girls camp can be. :)

Stillwater Dam Hike

One side above the dam

The view other side of the dam 

Looking down from the top



 Us sitting on top

 The bottom of the dam.  There is a little door to go inside. 

We were able to have a tour inside of the dam.

 Amanda inside

 Roy & Kaitlyn inside the dam

 We were able to go down a spiral staircase to lead us even deeper under water. :)

The spillover of Stillwater Dam.  It is beautiful! 

 Front view of the spill.

One of the fun things we get to do with my job is we have wellness hikes at different times of the year.  Our Duchesne office was able to put together our wellness hike at Stillwater Dam this July.  It was the time of the year the dam was spilling.  This usually happens once a year and the dam is made to have a spillover.  It was my first time seeing the spill this year.  We were able to bring our families on the hike and have the tour of the dam and inside of it.  It was pretty cool and I think our family enjoyed it.  Here are some of the pictures from this activity! :)

June - Happy Father's Day!

Well we had quite the Father's Day!  The two days before Sunday, Roy & I helped out with the ward campout food.  After the campout was all over, I started to think more about Father's Day.  I asked what Roy wanted and he said it would be nice to have a grill like what they had at the ward campout.  We noticed they had a good deal at Cal Ranch so we ran over and got one for him.  Spoiled guy!  :) 

I also bought him a shirt I thought was kinda fun but maybe nerdy to some.  I order a "Super Dad" shirt with the Superman design but instead of a "S" it said "Dad".  Well, it didn't come in time for Father's Day but came the following Monday.  I told Roy there was another present to arrive.  So on Monday, I decided to not worry about taking it out of the package and just have him upwrap it.

While he was unwrapping it...I noticed there was white on it.  It was suppose to be all black shirt except for the little superman logo in front.  I told Roy to stop and then I thought, maybe I didn't realize there was writing on the back of the shirt...so then I told him to keep going.  Well he unfolds the shirt, with all the kids around and I just about died!!!  It wasn't a "Super Dad" shirt.  It was some "Gaydar Activate" shirt.  Roy was looking at it and I am saying "I didn't order that!  I didn't order that!  It was suppose to be a "Super Dad" shirt!"  Roy starts laughing and I run to get the receipt and wanted to show him that even the receipt said "Super Dad" on it.  I was a bit disgusted by the shirt and was embarressed Roy even received the shirt. lol  Roy was a good sport about it and was joking around saying he was going to wear the shirt to the gym.

Well the next day, I called the shirt store and told them I received the wrong shirt and would like my money back.  They apologized and said that I could keep the shirt and they would refund me the money within two days.  It was very nice of them...but I didn't really want to keep the shirt.  We may have to white elephant this shirt sometime. lol  This story has been so funny telling to other people.  They all have had a good laugh! 

Roy with his new grill! :)

The famous "Super Dad" Shirt

Here is a close up of the shirt. Gotta love it!

Delayed

Ok I have to posted something on here!! I honestly am not trying to neglect this blog...life has been so busy and we just haven't been able to download our pictures. Roy had to start our computer all over by scratch since it had a virus on it and now the camera software will not register to our computer. Talk about stupid! So hopefully we will be able to get that going again and be able to have some fun pictures up and going again. :)

Hillbilly Hoedown - Ward Campout

The weekend of Father's Day, as a ward tradition, we had a campout up Hobble Creek Canyon. Roy and I happened to be the lucky couple to be in charge of the food for the Friday evening and Saturday breakfast.

I think everything moved quite smoothly. We had 175 people come for the evening and around 75 people come for breakfast. We were able to estimate just the right amount of food for both meals. Our family didn't sleep over but our home (thank goodness) wasn't too far away. It helped to get some food started ahead of time and have it ready at the campout.

For dinner, we had sloppy joes (squirrel burgers), potatoes (taters), fixins (salads/chips/fruit, etc), dranks and dezerts. :) We had quite a few people dress up in hillbilly attire, had a live band play and even had people come up to dance. I think everyone had a wonderful time even the kids! :)

Here are some photos of our hillbilly family. :)

Run w/Elle 5k & Kids Race

Amanda & Kaitlyn waiting to see Jessica, Ammon & Daddy run by. :)

Ammon & Jessica racing to the finish line. Roy is toward the back of the picture...he was the one to keep them plugging along. :)

We ended up seeing Roy's sister (Vicki) and nieces (Aubrey & Whitney) there at the race. We had to get a group picture! They all did a wonderful job!

Kaitlyn snacking on an apple. Everytime I see this picture...I just laugh. Kinda funny. :)

Jessica after the race eating bread.

Roy & Kaitlyn. She is about ready to get ready for her first kids race!

Amanda getting ready for her 2nd kids race.

There's Kaitlyn running! Notice no one is running with her. lol She did a false start. Kaitlyn was pretty excited to get going. The crowd were all chuckling at her. :)

On your mark, get set, go!!!

Amanda running to the finish line! She won her age division! Go Amanda!

The kids were able to get an otterpop and other snacks afterwards.

Amanda showing off her first place medal, ribbon & free ice cream coupon. :)

I think everyone had a wonderful time! This time round it was fun to watch all of them and me not running. They have all been such a huge support for me. I had to turn the favor. It was fun to take pictures of everything. They all did a great job!

Mother's Day!

Me and my girls after church. :)

I had a wonderful Mother's day and I feel a bit spoiled. I was able to get curtains for my front room, a beautiful flower basket, a homemade card from Ammon and a painted picture frame with a picture of Amanda. :)

I have been looking, waiting, and budgeting to find some curtains for our front room for about 7 years. I finally found some and it was definitely not what I thought I would end up buying. Once I brought them home, I was so excited to see it blended so well with the colors in the room (especially our Greg Olson painting up above our fireplace). It is amazing how much curtains make a difference in a room...a lot more cozier. :)

I also was able to hear Amanda and the Primary children sing a song in sacrament meeting at church. It was Amanda's first time to really go up there on the stand and actually sing the song. She did a great job and she was smiling the whole time. :) It definitely brought a smile to my face. What a lucky mom! :)