Halloween 2009

Well it's been forever since I've blogged but all is well. Life is very busy and we try to pack in as much fun as possible. October was a great month and our favorite one of the year! As you can see we love this holiday & make the most of it. We had lots of fun activities going on at school, home & everywhere in between!
Like my new witch hat?! Purple of course, my fav color. Went out with some girlfriends for a fun night out with thousands of other witches at Gardner Village - lot of dancing, food & fun!
Allison had a ball at school as Sleeping Beauty. Grandma did such a great job on this dress!
Jay & I celebrated our 12th Anniversary by going to see Bob Dylan at the Great Saltair. It was awesome! Love my hunny!! Well life is good & we know it will continues to get better!

Back to School

Jorma & Allison have been so excited to go back to school actually! That makes all of us happy! They love their teachers & are glad to see their friends again. Though we're sad summer is almost at an end, we had lots of fun swimming, camping and being with friends

Jorma & his 4th grade teacher Mrs. Erickson

Allison & her Kindergarten teacher Mrs. McCann. We can't believe she's already going off to real school. The time has passed so quickly. It's an awsome time for her & us!

My sweet Alli Pearl!

Allison lost her first tooth! Not from hanging like a monkey like in this picture. She's just showing me her new talent which totally freaked my out to watch but I had to just bite my tongue & not say anything. She loves the monkey bars & has been able to cross them for a while now. She was determined to learn when she was only 4. She's my monkey! We were at the pool the other day & she went on the highest water slide over & over again when her 9 year old brother would have nothing to do with it. Anyway, she did loose one of her bottom teeth & got $1.50 & some candy. She was thrilled! They sure grow fast!

Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple

We went to an open house in Riverton Utah to the tour new temple last week. The entire family was there minus Andy my little bro as he had to work. It's a very beautiful place and it's on a hill that has a gorgeous view! So good to be together for this. Lots of love was present. Front row left to right - Bryce, Rory, Mary, Isabel, Allison, Jorman, Alex, Ethan, Becca & Haylee. Back row - Sara, Jim, Kyle, Tim, Leslie, Marcie, Jay, Todd, Katie, Jennifer, Avery, and Summer.
It's been a busy summer with lots of fun stuff and not so fun. Mom's cancer is back so that's been rough for her. Her pain is getting better but we just continue to pray for a miracle!

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!! YIPEE!!!

Wow, what a busy month! The kids had their last day of school today. Jorma finished 3rd grade and got an award for testing in the top 10% in the nation on the standardized tests. He was thrilled to receive such an honor as were we. I can't believe he'll be in 4th grade already. Time sure flies!! Allison had her graduation from pre-school. She's so excited to start kindergarten in the fall.

Allison at the end of the preschool road. She had such a fun and great class. Her teacher was awesome and she matured so much.

Here's Jorma after dancing in the festival, a little tired.

Jorma's school has a dance festival every year that his class works really hard on. This year they danced to "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys. He's there in the background kinda goofin around. It's so sweet to see them dance their hearts out. They are very proud! So was I.. :) Now onto fun summer activities!

Memorial Day & Derby 2009

This Memorial Day weekend was all about the kids. Jorma had his Pinewood Derby adventure and did great. Jay and him fixed up his old car and made it a flaming fast one!

The Flaming 42

#42 in action in the 3rd lane...

So Jorma is quite silly and creative. I love that he enjoys make-believe still. He came up with this get-up on his own. It's a combo of an old Halloween costume, bike helmet and galoshes. Look out GI Joe, it's GI Jojo now!!

Jojo and his buddy Gus Gus take Allison prisoner. Poor girl didn't even see it coming.. All in all we had a very fun holiday!

The Mets

Baseball season is upon us! Jojo loves it and is pretty good if I do say so myself. Here he is getting ready to steal. It's his first year of "real" ball so it's kinda nerve racking for all of us but we're adjusting (and screaming in the crowd a lot)

Take me out to the ball game...

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks...

But I will be back...GO METS!!!

Recital Time

Allison had her recital. She loves it & did so well.

Cute girls

Spring Time Fun

Allison loves to hop-scotch, can you tell? We're just so glad to have some good weather. Love these sunny days especially after being snowed in for 6 months!

Jorma with his best buddies, Gus & Chelise at their school's Walk-a-Thon. They are very silly but did so well running in circles for a good cause! You go Jojo!!

My sweet pea Alli loves the sunshine and dressing up so we went to our backyard for some nature shots. She's so funny and full of love. I'm loving it with my 5 year old. Time is flying so I just want to really savor every moment cuz I'm pretty sure she's gonna be a handful as a teenager (aren't they all?). She's a corker, this one..

Pretty spring cactus Allison picked out for Grandma for Mother's Day..

Here's my Lorax girl just springing up from the Giving Tree's stump. There's a story there...The piece of wood she's standing on is from our very first house we moved to when Jorma was a baby. It's part of a big beautiful Blue Spruce tree that was in our front yard and we used to play in it's shade and were amazed at the wildlife that lived in it. I was driving by the other day and saw it had just been cut down :( so I asked if I could have a piece for "sentimental" reasons. Brought it home and we're gonna shine it up and make good use of it! Ok, I'm a little nutty but it's all good clean/dirty fun! :)

A Very Hoppy Easter!!

Welcome sunshine! I'm talking to you and mother nature! We are so happy it's nice and warm now, finally. We are such nature freaks, tree huggers, or simply outdoorsy. Whatever you call it - yippee for the sun! Easter was very nice this year and the weather cooperated for the most part. It may be exhausting getting up so early to hide the eggs but it's all good (can you say 4am so the little darlings don't suspect?)...

Here we are at the crack of dawn! So excited for the hunt...

Tulip girl Allison Pearl

We had a great time hunting for flowers at the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point this year. We didn't have to look far as there were tons of great bulbs of all kinds! It's a tradition the kids love and so do we.

Hi there - I'm having so much fun finding eggs and other treats!

It's been a fun spring so far. The kids had spring break from school last week and we did lots of fun stuff with friends and cousins. Swimming and picnics and movies were the highlights. Now they're back at school and mom can rest a little -NOT...

Finally Spring

We are so glad the weather has gotten nicer so we can go outside more on our bikes. Here are
the kids below at the Bridalveil Falls where we got married 10 years ago. It's still a little dead looking but still beautiful. Can't wait for the gorgeous meadows to bloom soon!

Our cute little lovies all dressed up in their Easter clothes. Getting along and being mellow for a change!

Isabel's birthday celebration. All 13 grand kids together - yae. That's quite the trick since my sister lives far away, boohoo.

Granny goose reading to the kiddies from our favorite Easter book. Love you granny!!

Our lovely eggs! Happy Easter everyone!!

Gift Game

So this is how it works....I saw this on my friend's blog so I thought I'd try it! Sounds fun..I love giveaways..

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. BUT, in order for you to leave a comment on my blog, you have to post this on your blog first. (That means that sometime during this year you will send a gift to 3 people as well.) Get it? So, the first 3 people to comment on this post will be the lucky ones.

Have fun & enjoy...

Aquarium Fun

We all went to a cool aquarium the other day and here's cute Allison peeking out at us. She had a ball and is easy to please.

Cute seahorse garden.

Trippy jellyfish picture. Looks like Allison is trapped in with them which wouldn't be good.

We found Nemo!!

Here we are posing away underwater haha. Can't believe February is almost over. It just flew by. We're all well and good. I got to see Celine Dion in concert with my mom. It was fantastic. She has such an awesome voice and puts on a great show! I really had a good time and I like her so much more now. That was my excitement for the month. Yae

We had a busy past couple weeks with school activities and other fun stuff. Here's Jorma at school practicing his RAD kids obstacles. This is a program our elementary school does started by Ed Smart, the father of kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart. She was lucky enough to get away and he wants all children to be prepared if they are attacked so the school gives them some basic skills including screaming, kicking, fighting etc. Below I posted the video of Jorma practicing his escape from our local police seargent. I'm very grateful to our teacher Kim for doing this because it just reinforces what I teach them - be aware of your surroundings.

The family goes out to a nice mountain trail to relieve our cabin fever. It wasn't snowing when we got there so we were stoked! But prematurely so as it started coming down hard. It was beautiful in that setting but a little hard to bike ride so we had to pack it in and head for the Mexican restaurant which the kids didn't mind at all.

Jorma is getting his scouting awards and moving up a level to "Bears". It was a fun event that I as a scout leader even enjoyed. The theme was All American and we had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, popcorn, salads, chili, and ice cream. Then we played baseball inside the gym - that was a big hit!

My little scout - Jorma Ray flashing the scout sign (and peace sign coincidentally)..

Jorma Kicks Butt!!

CAN YOU SAY BURRRIED..

Here's our freezing house buried under all the snow, burrr. We just got pounded this year! And yes that is a swimming pool wrapped around our swamp cooler. Tacky, I know but it served its purpose in a bind and then we never found the cover and by then it was too icy to climb up and change it. Someday we'll laugh.

Poor Jorma has to earn his keep. Builds character I say.. He actually love diggin in the snow so this seemed like a good idea - dig but move it out of the way. He loves the snow and has been loving going snowboarding and sledding. I get a kick out of it until he keeps smackin his head on the ice. Can you say concussion??

Our beautiful Christmas tree keeps on giving joy in the form of a tree-sickle. We stuck it out back & it's still pretty in a way. As you can see it's snowed a bit since then.

Allison got this Strawberry Shortcake tea set for Christmas. She loves it!

Here she is enjoying a cuppa with mom. She's so funny and very girly. She's loving preschool still and we just adore her teacher. She is so lucky as is Jorma with a great teacher too. Jorma was so excited about the inauguration of a new president and was so impressed with the huge amount of people there. He was really in awe. He learned so much but was really thrilled to find out that there was lots of security with guns and snipers around for protection. My little buddy is very into guns at the moment. We just laugh cuz he's been choosing friends based on the amount of toy guns they have. Joy. It's interesting for us because we are so anti-gun, violence, etc. But I say teach them to use it safely and respectfully for less accidents. Oh the lessons we learn...