Friday, October 23, 2009

Ben's school picture

The week before school started I gave Josh and Joel haircuts and trimmed up Shayne and Sophie's hair. I did not cut Ben or David's because they both have this gorgeous wave in there hair and it looks so cute a little longer. Well, I guess Ben wasn't too happy that he didn't get a haircut so he took the scissors to his own hair and cut 6 big holes in the front of his hair. They were so close to his head that I had no other choice but to BUZZ his head. So, I did and he has the biggest, roundest head of any kid I know. With his hair so light he looked completely bald. He went to school looking like a kid that has had Chemo! Luckily school pictures were 3 weeks later and his hair actually looked like hair. But the morning of school pictures I guess he decided that he liked to get yelled at for cutting his own hair and did it again. Well, I wasn't about to wait until retakes so this is what he gets.
Here it is. Ben's Kindergarten Picture.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Temple Hopping

Every year for Shayne's birthday, since she was 12, we've gone to do baptisms for the dead for her birthday party. This year she wanted to take a group of kids to the Vegas Temple. I agreed and we called to see what time they had open and they didn't. So, she had a regular party and this weekend I took my kids up north so we could do some baptisms up there. We almost didn't go because Sophie and I had our last show of ANNIE. YAHOO!!! And Shayne had to come home early to get her Drivers License but I called anyway to see if we could get in anywhere and the Jordan River Temple said "come at 11:30".

Then the Oquirrh Mountain Temple said, "Oh yes, please come. We have a lady coming at 2:30pm to do 200 family names that needs help."

And then Timpanogos Temple said, "no problem we can get you in at 5:30."

So thinking that here it takes 1 hour to do baptisms I figured we'd have plenty of time between temples. We didn't. I drove as fast as I could without getting pulled over from Temple to Temple. It was amazing. The Jordan and Oquirrh let me do baptisms with the girls (Shayne, Ashley, Bradie and Katie) and Timp told me to go upstairs and do something else. So, I did. At 7pm we left the Timp Temple with a total of 180 baptisms, 150 confirmation and 5 initiatory done for the day. Not a bad day I'd say. I'm very proud of Shayne and my nieces for being so dedicated. We had a lot of fun. Next time we are going to hit the Provo, Draper and SLC Temples. We'd like to do all of the ones in Utah but the Lord is building them faster than we can get to them. AWESOME!!!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

16! You're how old?

Shayne turned 16 on Sunday the 11th. 16! What the heck? Where have I been because I just remember having her. She wanted to have a big party so I told her to invite whom ever she wanted and they could come here to eat pizza and junk and play games and whatever. Well, she invited the entire High School Swim Team as well as 16 kids from school and 6 ward members. WOW! So I figured there would be around 30 kids. Mostly boys. I was close. 22 kids and 13 of them where indeed boys. She didn't tell a lot of them that it was a birthday party. Just a party. But I was surprised at how many boys brought her presents. She hangs out with a good group of kids of which only 1/2 is LDS.

We gave her a car for her birthday. Yes, I know. It's cliche' but it was a hand me down that we couldn't pass up. Jillyn had bought a new car and sold us her old one. I remember having a car when I was 16. It was a Vette! A chevette. In fact everyone in my high school remembers that old car. It was a classic! We thought about buying Brian's scooter for her but Joel wanted her to have something safer. This from a man who rides a ninja 1100. We had Kellie make a Vinyl window cling that says Pine View Swim Team with a paw print and we put it on her back windsheild to make it unique and all Shayne. She loves it. She has 1 more day with the Drivers Ed teacher because he got sick last week. (Side note - Everyone is sick. Everyone everywhere.) So, she will get her license this week. She is a great driver. Much better than I was at that age but the Vette was a stick shift and they are harder to drive.

Marathon 09

Joel, John, Charles and Kyle


Well, time really doesn't matter when your running a foot race does it? Joel hit an all time high. Over 5 hours. But, he says it was the best one so far. 2 weeks earlier he had a strange flu (H1N1?) It made him weak all over and his thighs felt like they were one big bruise. They hurt to even lightly touch them. He didn't feel 100% when he started the race but he finished it. Here's part of the story:
We have a little girl, 11 years old, in our School and Stake that had cancer last year in her leg and had to get in amputated. This year our Principal Burke Staheli - best person in the world, I wish he'd run for Mayor - ran his 11th marathon but this time is was for her. Darby Riley. She's on the student Council with Josh. Burke had the schools in Washington County try to raise $26.02 per class to raise enough money for her to buy a prosthetic leg. They had purchased it and the money was going to pay it off and when Burke got a block from the finish line Darby was going to run with him to the end. She was so excited. But a couple of days before the marathon Darby fell and broke her femur of the leg that was amputated. It was a spiral fracture which means it broke up through the middle of the bone. The hardest and most painful of all breaks. If you donated money for Darby then you received a purple ribbon to tie on you as you ran to show your support. Well, at mile #1 Joel's thigh started to hurt and as he started to get frustrated he rubbed his thigh and then looked down at it. As he did his eyes glanced at his purple ribbon for Darby and he said to himself, "I'm lucky I have a leg that hurts." And he decided that he would finish it no matter what. Here is a picture of Burke pushing Darby in a wheelchair to the finish line. It was so emotional.

There is a lot more to this story and you'll have to ask Joel about it. But, I am very proud of him and the amazing example that he is to me.

Josh's Ferrari, Lamborghini and Birthday

Josh is obsessed with sports cars ever since his trip to Cali. The other day as we were leaving JoEllen's house we passed this one and turned around so he could slobber all over it.

So, for his birthday we gave him a yellow Lamborghini. This one:

He, Joel and Sophie had a lot of fun putting it together. The Wells' came over that night and we made carmeled apples. It was a lot of fun and a lot of calories.



YUM!!