Happy Birthday RJ

It is hard to believe that 4 years ago RJ came to be a part of this family. It just seems that he has always been here amongst all the chaos. This year has been a big year for him. He started sunbeams and it took us until August to get him to go to class all by himself. He also started school in August, at Head start in LaVerkin. It took him a good month to adjust and think that school was a good thing. But he has great teachers and they have been very patient with him trying to make this big step. In November he started one more pre-school at the Intermediate school right close to our house. He attends there 3 day's a week for a couple hours a day. This school has been great for his cognitive delay as well as his speech. He has grown up so much in the last few months.

His favorite things are still being in the outdoors with his dad. He has yet to get tired of riding around on the 4 wheeler with his dad. It doesn't matter if it is freezing out, if the 4 wheeler is turned on then he is on it.

He is great to play all alone with a few cars and his imagination. (If his brothers would leave him alone for more than a few minutes.) He loves his animals. Sassy and French Fry (the cats) are his favorite little cuddle toy's. We got him a bird for Christmas which he was so excited about. He named it Chewy! Unfortunately, Sassy thought Chewy, looked . . . CHEWY. So the bird is no more. I don't know how soon we will try another bird.

There truly is never a dull moment with RJ around. We are so lucky to have this sweet boy as a member of our family.

Happy Birthday RJ

Santa

Santa has just left the building . . . but he will be back shortly with the (forgotten) bird for RJ. Hope you all have a great Christmas Morning!

Thanksgiving '08

Bradley, Luke, Khloee, Payton, RJ

Christmas is just around the corner but I wanted to make sure I jotted a few fond memories down from Thanksgiving this year. We had such a fun time and I am so glad that we took the chance to travel to Layton this year and spend time with family that we don't get to see as often. The kids were so excited they had a calendar in Tanner's room counting down the day's till we left. The only problem was that Tanner would X out a day and then Luke would go in and X out a day so the countdown was going faster than the actual days were and they were getting perturbed at me that I kept moving the date back!

Here is my gratitude list from the pictures I took this THANKFUL weekend.

I am so Thankful for . . . .

These two cute girls that I hope will grow up loving each other and being the best of friends.

A husband who is still a kid at heart and thinks he can keep up with them. (Which I think he showed them he still had a few moves, but oh my, did he complain later about muscles that he forgot he even had.)

Kandice, Misti & baby Julia all bundled up.

Cute sisters to share the drive and the weekend with! I didn't get one of Trudi but I was glad she was there and I think she is cute too! We missed Cheri but we did get to share a few moments together across the phone lines as we tried to get the hot deals on Friday Morning. And once again, super cute sister!

Kyla, Payton, Porter, RJ

Cousins to share memories of some first experiences with, like our first exciting train ride! (can you feel Porter and RJ's excitement).

The trip to Temple Square to see the beautiful Christmas lights. I don't ever remember seeing the lights at temple square so I was excited to get the chance to go, even if there were a thousand other people there. Being surrounded by the masses is not exactly Kory's idea of a good time so I must thank Dave (Kandice's husband) for cheering his spirits by letting a STINKER in the middle of the visitor center that had people screaming for the exits. So yes, I am thankful Dave has rotten gas! (Typical Kory, to find a "bomb" worth the trip.)
I am thankful for our first family picture this year. Not exactly professional, but it will have to do . . . until next year I am sure.

Welcome to the world baby Julia

This is only like a week late but we think it is still worth writing about. We are so excited to have a new little niece in the family. We think she is pretty cute and Khloee thinks she is head care taker when she is around. We can't wait to get to know her and see what fun things she will learn from her older brothers. (because we know that little girls still unfortunately learn lots of things from their older brothers!)
We were lucky enough to get to keep Payton and Porter a little bit while Misti was in the hospital. While she was sitting around in a hospital bed, we go to build a hut and have a fun movie party outside. Much funner than squeezing out a baby, I must say!

WWF Wright Style

The past month we have been enjoying watching the boys wrestle. They have loved it and it has taught them lots of good things besides wrestling moves. I am surprised at how well they handle their wins and their losses. Luke keeps the same expression on his face, win or lose. And I thought for sure Tanner would cry every time he got pinned but so far they have both handled the losses well. I have unfortunately been busy doing the Women and YW volleyball tournaments on the weekends that the boys wrestle so I have yet to see Tanner wrestle a full match. But here is a little footage that I got of Luke in the short time that I was able to be there.

I think their Dad likes it more than the boys do. Uncle Todd has been great about coaching the boy's on their moves, (Since their dad isn't a whole lot of help in this area.) Thanks Todd!

You voted for who?

I just wanted to post this funny conversation I had with Tanner the other morning. The morning of the election, before Kory left work, he asked me if I was ready for taxes to go up and the U.S. to change a whole lot. Meaning, he thought Obama was going to win the election. Tanner, piped up when he heard the names Barack Obama and John McCain. He said he knew who he wanted to win and they had done their own vote at school. He told me he wanted Obama to win and I told him I was glad but that wasn't who I was going to vote for. He got all huffy at me and asked me "why"? We talked a little about it and told him that was OK for us to want different people for president and that was a great thing about our country, we could choose the candidate that fit our beliefs and ideas the best. (even though none of the choices were that great.) Just then his dad walks by and Tanner asked him who he was going to vote for and he told him McCain. Tanner slammed his fist down on the counter and in his angry voice said, "I knew it, I knew you were going to say that!" I thought wow, I didn't know he was so into politics. He was pretty ticked off!

I asked him, "why are you so upset about this?" He said, "You wanna know why?" Still in his angry voice. "Because you know that big lizard? The really, really big lizard? Uncle Brock used to have one?" And me being brilliant in the lizard department, said "an Iguana?"

"Ya, an iguana. Obama sounds like Iguana, that's why I want him to win!"

People out there are voting for him because of the color of skin, why not throw in lizard lovers as well.

Making the switch

In honor of Halloween I am crossing over to the dark side!

I have decided to make my blog private.

So, if you would still like to view my blog, please leave me your email address so I can send you your exclusive invitation!

Happy Birthday Turdi

Oh, to be as OLD and wise as my fabulous sister, Trudi. She is such a fun sister and I only wish she were closer so that we could hang out more often and she could teach me how to keep my house whipped into shape like hers. (or better yet she could do her house AND my house). As my gift to her (since I didn't get her anything else) here is a small tribute of memories that I have of her.

1. Her tenacious attitude when it comes the after Thanksgiving day sale's. There are so many memories tied into just that one day!

2. Her Brazil photo album which gave me my first introduction on how to french kiss. Thank you for that.

3. being confident enough to show off some sweet volleyball moves as her talent at the Washington city princess pageant.

4. Giving my the chance to tag along and learn from the masters when she went toilet papering the elite citizens of Washington County. Not only letting me tag along, but showing me that it is not enough just to get up from trampoline where we were sleeping. But to put big cinder blocks under our blankets so the trampoline sagged down. Just in case mom and dad checked on us. (She thought of it all folks.)

5. Letting Misti and I crash her house when we ditched our beloved job at Teltrust. We loved to go hang out with her and Ashley. She probably didn't love it as much as we did.

6. The determination she showed on the rock wall will be an inspiration to me for years and years to come.

And lastly, I have a little video of someone else that wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday and share a memory!

I hope you have had a great birthday! I love that I have you to look up to and that you have set such a high standard because it only makes me work harder to be able to reach your level. You are such a good mom and wife and I am lucky to call you my sister. I also love that you have so many nicknames. Choodie, Turdi, Gert . . . the list goes on!

What's different?

Do you notice anything different about Kor?

Which do you like better? Facial hair or no facial hair? I have my opinion but what is yours?

General Conference Sunday

I love General Conference weekend! I love the chance that we get to hear words right from the Prophet and the Apostles. This General Conference was a little different for us at this house though. We don't have Satellite anymore so we knew weren't going to be able to watch it. We would just have to listen to it on the radio and I was a little worried about how that would go with getting the kids to pay attention AT ALL! We started Sunday morning with a little hike up Molly's nipple. ( I am not sure I have ever typed the words nipple before). I don't know how appropriate a hike is for Sunday but it was such a pretty morning that we decided to take the short drive to the trail head. We didn't go all the way to the top because the kids thought that we were high enough and their dad was a bit nervous about some of the climbing skill's and common sense some of the "mountain goats" had that were climbing with us. We did get to see a couple of little planes take off right below us and it couldn't have been a nicer morning. It was a great way to enjoy the beautiful little valley and it set a nice tone for me to start the day with.

I am used to being irritated before church starts because nobody is getting ready fast enough or I can't find one boy's shoe and another ones belt and the other one is missing a sock. To say the least it was a nice change from the ordinary.

After we returned home, while I was making waffles, Kory constructed a great little hut for us to all lay in and listen to conference. The kids loved it and we had such a great day together as a family. The kids got along great and there was such a happy spirit in our home. I wish General Conference came more than twice a year. (I didn't get a picture of Kory's great hut but let me just say he should go into business! He could call it Kory's Hut . . .Hut . . .)(a dumb football comparison.)

Lessons from the Calico boy's

Every Tuesday I get to keep Payton and Porter and it has been so fun for me to get to hang out with them for one full day. I am so glad that I get to spend this time with them and make a few memories with them. They make me laugh every day and it is usually something small and simple but they bring a smile to my face. In the morning hours my three boys are all gone to school so it is just Khloee, Payton and Porter. This morning I was folding laundry in my bedroom, Khloee was asleep and Payton and Porter were out in the sand box playing. I had the french doors wide open letting in the nice cool air we were having today and listening to the boys outside. I couldn't see them but I could here them. After playing for a while, Porter comes to the door and says that Payton is throwing dirt at him. Not wanting to leave the stacks of laundry surrounding me I took the lazy way out and told Porter to tell Payton to not throw any more dirt and if he did he would have to come in the house. (I said all this in my nicest, "I am your favorite aunt" voice.) Porter yells from the door way. "Don't throw dirt Payton"

Payton - "Porter, will you tell Tiff that you were throwing dirt at me too?"

Porter - "No!" (Obviously, no dummy)

Payton - "Tell her!"

Porter - "I am not going to"

Payton - "Tell her, tell her, tell her!"

Porter - "Hey Payt, you wanna go ride bikes?"

Payton - "Ya, sure"

There were a few lessons I learned from this interchange, first of all never send someone with a message that incriminates themselves. Unless they are a ding dong, that message will not get delivered. Secondly, when faced with confrontation, change the subject as quickly as possible and hope the other person takes the bait.
I am grateful that my kids get the chance to spent this time with their cousins and that they love being together. Luke always says that Payton is his best friend! I hope it stays that way.

Miracle Story

Check this amazing story out. This is my cousin, Anna, that now lives in Colorado. Click the link below to hear a little bit about her story. I am sure that they have seen and felt Heavenly Father's hands in their lives, a few times over the past few weeks.
http://www.kwgn.com/pages/video/?clipId=2970948&topVideoCatNo=undefined&c=&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=

POLL

My Super nice friend and neighbor, Tamara, took some pictures of Khloee for me the other day and I am having a hard time choosing the best one. And so in true Tiffani fashion I am taking a poll because I can't make a decision without getting everyone else's opinion first.

Which one do you like the best?

The changing of the seasons

When I talk about the changing seasons, I don't mean spring, summer, fall and winter. Around here it goes from Basketball season, fishing season, hunting season and football season. We are now in the middle of hunting season and at the start of football season. (I know, 2 season's at once, we are blessed). Kory finished the bow hunt deer less as well as elk less. And he was quite satisfied knowing he still gets the chance to hunt the black powder as well as the rifle hunts.

This was the closest he got to an elk during the bow hunt.

Tanner just started his first year of flag football. His dad was nice enough to take some time away from his season, to coach Tanner's team. They had their first game on Friday and me being the "pro" on the game of football, still thought that they did a great job teaching these little beginners, the basics of football. In am not sure who won but for being their first game I thought they did awesome.

Kory got Jeff Stevenson to help him coach. This is Tanner and Kyle standing on the sidelines. Isn't that the way it goes, when your dad's are the coach, you get the least amount of playing time. (It should be the other way around)

On Saturday, Kory and I got to go to the BYU football game, courtesy of Dr. Heideman.

It was a blow out by BYU but we loved that we got the chance to go. It was nice to spend the day together and see Kory in his element. He was busy yelling at the refs and players that couldn't catch the ball, while I was busy watching the cheerleaders and the cougar and the other fans. I missed most of the game but you can bet I learned all the little hand signals (1st down, safety etc. . . ) as well as the actions to the fight song!

We had a great time and am way in debt to Kandice, for taking Khloee (all weekend) as well as My nephew Tason, who came to our house and played with the boy's for the morning hours, and then Kory's parents came and picked them up and kept them till we returned home. It takes a village to . . . leave town. So thanks to all of you who helped this weekend.

A little of this and that

WOW! Pocahontas has definitely overstayed her welcome. I thought that things would slow down once school started and three of the four kids would be in school. Apparently I was wrong. Here is a brief look at a few things that have been going on with us this last few weeks.
Tanner and Luke were excited to start school. Tanner is a big 2nd grader and Luke wasn't the least bit apprehensive to start kindergarten.

They love to be able to ride their bikes to school, and I love that I don't have to take them and pick them up. (well Tanner at least. I still have to go get Luke.)

RJ didn't start school the same time as the other boy's did and his teachers told me to not send him in nice clothes because he was there to paint and play and get dirty! So I completely failed to get a picture of him on his first day of school just for historical purposes. He will probably be glad for that because we seriously roll him out of bed, get him dressed and head out the door, bed head and all. He is attending the Head Start preschool and they feed them breakfast and lunch so there is no need to get him up any earlier than is necessary. He has yet to find the joy in going to preschool. He cries everyday I take him, but he is getting easier to console. (So his teachers say.) I got to help one day last week and it was good for me to see what goes on while he is gone from home for 4 long hours. That is a long time for him to be gone and I wondered what in the world could entertain 17 little kids for that long. I was really happy with the structure and just the basic social skills that he will be learning this year. (If he sticks it out.)

Peach Day's has come and gone and I thought the Volleyball Tournament went oh, so, good! We had 6 teams this year and all the teams were really fun women. It was such a fun 2 day's of volleyball! I am glad to say that is over for this year but I can't wait to do it again next year. A Big thanks to Misti for helping through the year on getting it put together. As well as Kandice for her help the night of the Tournament. We could have never pulled it off without her help. She was a lifesaver!

As soon as I was done with the tournament and all was cleaned up, I came home and the family and I headed to Cedar Mountain for Labor day weekend. It was so fun to just relax and hang out with my family. I loved talking and playing games with my nieces and nephews (as well as my brothers and sisters.) I just don't get to hang out with my nieces and nephews very often, and I absolutely loved it. They are such good examples to my kids and my kids love them.

I hardly took any pictures at the mountain but this one with Khloee and Emmie sharing the water bottle and water melon. I hope they grow up to be the best cousins.

And this one of Tanner. I don't think I could have gotten a picture of Tanner without the 4-wheeler being in the picture as well because that is where he was most of the time. He should be a mail man someday because "come snow, sleet, rain or hail", Tanner rode on!

I just started reffing high school volleyball games and it was been a lot of fun so far. I still can't believe that I am getting paid to watch volleyball! It has been fairly uneventful thus far. No boos from the audience about poor calls. It probably helps that most of games have been right here in town so if there are any yells from the audience it's people I know just joking around. All I have to do is flash them my red card and they shape right up=)

Last on the current happenings is, Kory needs to have a talk with our cat about the birds and the bees and proper protection! We should have named her LUCY, instead of Sassy. She should know that she should be saving herself for that special someone and not just any old cat the wanders into the garage at night. . . or the middle of the afternoon.

Sassy had 4 little kittens in August. Now if you count, there are more than 4 kittens there. Obviously word got out that our cat is "easy" and she became a wet nurse to 2 other abandoned kittens. Let's hope we can get her spade this time before she gets pregnant. (that or teach her some values.)

I'm Pocahantas?

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?
I was Pocahantas once for Halloween but I never considered myself to be like her. I wish I could run barefoot through the forest, with my beautiful hair flowing behind me, and dive gracefully off a 100 foot cliff and enter the water below, with no splash.
And if I'm Pocahantas, does that make Kory, John Smith?
Check it out and see what is "Just around YOUR river bend"

Ode to Summer

In as much as school is starting tomorrow, I must say farewell to summer as I know it. So long to the day's of letting the kids sleep as long as they want, and the nights of going to bed whenever we get around to it. I will miss those chances of taking off in the morning with the kids to go swimming or to the park or some new splash pad that we haven't tried, and not having to be home until were too tired to play anymore. I will miss the slip-n-slide, the "kid wash", camping, fishing, hiking, biking, popsicle's and snow caps. Movie nights on a Tuesday, night games with the cousins, water balloons wars and naps in the late afternoon. It's so fun to have a little break from the routine that school brings. And although the kids (and I) are excited to head back to school, I am sad to see the days of summer vacation disappear. And so . . .

Until the summer of 2009,

I will remember this summer as simply divine!

Khloee shares my pain.

A weekend with THE GIRLS

This past weekend I got the chance to spend the weekend with 4 of my favorite people. (and it was not my kids.) (I like my kids but this weekend was sooo not about them). My sister's and I got to escape the role of mothers and wives and spend a couple of day's together being complete goof balls. I was so excited for this weekend to come for that one reason alone. To just be carefree and not have any responsibilities for a minute. We spent the weekend laughing like teenagers and acting like teenagers and feeling teenagers. Except for the wrinkles and stretch marks, you would have never known the difference between then and now.

We started off the weekend with lunch and then we headed to the rec center for a friendly game of basketball, rock climbing and an UN-intended ab work out. (thanks to all the laughter provided by Cheri's "lay up" and Trudi's "non competitive" attitude on the rock wall.

The rec center turned out to be a highlight for me just because of the memories that I am sure will live on and on in those couple of hours that we spent there. Unfortunately it may haunt others and if I can pull the right strings, we just might have security camera footage to put in the time capsule. (for the sole purpose of our posterity having proof of our "skills".)

We then headed home and had a little target practice in the backyard of the old home stead. We shot at a target that had numbers 1-6 taped to it and whatever # we hit that was the fun little gift basket/bucket that we got to take home. This is Mrs. Sure Shot herself, my oldest sister, Trudi. I call her "sure shot" because she "sure shot" everything but the target. We wanted to let her keep trying but it was getting dark and I was all out of ammunition for the gun so we had to just pretend she hit a # so we didn't hurt her feelings. (she is pretty competitive.)lol

Now this little quick draw, is my sister that is just older than me, Cheri. I call her quick draw because I couldn't think of any other cowboyish phrases. She does have great form though.

And this is my sis-in-law Stefanie. She is throwing a paint ball at the target. We started out with paint balls but after a few attempts between her and "sure shot" we thought the gun would be easier. . . for most of us.

We spent the rest of the weekend playing games eating, laughing, eating, shopping, eating, playing Sing Star, eating, toilet papering and hardly getting any sleep. Oh, and we also ate a few things in between all of that.

I just had to post one more set of pictures of us playing Sing Star. We had a little tournament on Saturday and lets just say the Turek 5 could easily be the next Jackson 5. Misti was the champion and will hold the crown until she is dethroned the next get together.

Misti trying to rack up some points for performance value.

Kandice belting it out like there was a great prize at stake!

Cheri looking like a contestant on American Idol!

Misti, modestly accepting her winning flower bouquet and tournament poster. What a humble winner she was!

It was a great weekend, except for we were missing one important part of our weekend together, that was my mom. She is so much fun and I missed her "laugh till you cry" ways, and her scolding little voice, "now girls", when we would have a tendency to get a little carried away. I know she was sad to miss it as well, but she is on such a higher spiritual level than we were this weekend that she should probably be glad that she missed it. We will just have to get together again as soon as she gets home from Nauvoo.

It was such a fun weekend and it makes me even more grateful that I was so lucky to spend a few day's with my best friends and my sisters.

Until next year. (This should give Trudi some time to practice her "slap it" speed.)

24th Weekend

For the 24th of July we went to East Zion where Grandpa and Grandma Wright have a cabin. We decided to make it a work weekend and try to get some things done on the cabin. Kory and I cleared brush and trimmed trees so they could eventually put in a circular drive way to the cabin. Kory, his dad and his brother, Tyler, got busy and finished the plumbing put in a sink (so now we have running water) sheet rocked the bathroom, layed tile, installed the water heater and hooked up the pump so that eventually there will be running water everywhere else in the cabin once they get to that point. While they were busy doing all that, the kids, Grandma Wright and I were busy doing this.This rock slide is the slide that RJ and I went down together on last year and we smashed heads together when we went in the water. And I got a doozer of a black eye. There were no double sliders this year!

What else do you do in the summer time? We just SWIM. . . and sleep!