Gingerbread and Jacuzzi's

The kids and I got to have the Queen gingerbread house maker come to the house and help us do our houses just right. She came with "tackle box" in hand. Loaded with all the cute icing tips and colored icing you could ever want. Who is this "Queen of the Gingerbread house?" We know her as Nanny, but she is Stefanie Davis' Grandma and we were delighted to have her expertise as we spent a couple of hours decorating. Tanner was hilarious because he wanted to squeeze the icing by himself and he just didn't have enough house to put all of his frosting on. He did an awesome job and came up with a cute little cobblestone path made out of frosting (imagine that) and Nerds. The boys loved it and we were glad that Stef let us invade on her yearly tradition with her girls and their Nanny.

We enjoyed a rainy December night by going to Postma's and warming up in their Jacuzzi. We thought it was great to be so toasty warm in the water, while it was freezing out of the water. Whenever we got too warm we would hop out and take turns doing tricks on the trampoline and then running back to the warm water. The kids wont let me forget how much fun we had and can't wait to do it again.

Thankfulness

Warning: no pictures below (blogger is being retarded) just a long story!

I am ready for a holiday! Especially an eating Holiday! Yea. It is just nice to have the kids out of school with no schedules and just be together. (remind me I said that at the end of the weekend.)

To get us in the "Thankfulness" mood, this week we have asked the kids at dinner every night to tell us something that happened to them that day that they were thankful for. We started on Sunday, and it went fine. Monday I worked and when I came home the spirit in the home was not the peaceful, ready for family home evening, atmosphere that I was hoping for. Tanner had gotten in trouble for lying to his dad and then the night had gone in a downward spiral from there. So when we sat down to dinner and it was my turn to share my gratitude experience I told about a lady that had come to the dentist office and was so grateful for everything and how she had set such a good example for me. When it came to Tanner's turn he said, "nothing, I am grateful for nothing." I just let it go because I knew he was just bitter at his dad.

The next night, Tuesday, I had made some great personal efforts in keeping my cool with the "ungrateful" kid. I had to ask him 5 or 6 times to empty the dishwasher, clean up his room, vacuum the front room etc. . . And by that many times I am ready to lose it. . . . but I don't. We sit down to dinner and Luke goes first and then me. I am about to say what I am grateful for when RJ pipes up and in this exasperated tone says "mom, don't tell us about the lady at the dentist office again." (apparently I dragged on a little too much for his taste). (So I kept it short).

When it comes to Tanner, he says

"Nothing again, I am not grateful for anything." I just looked at him for a minute thinking, I am going to ship you off to some third world country where they have nothing and then maybe you can find something to be grateful for. But I am unfortunately the only grown up at the table (Kory was at Youngmen's) so I have to be mature and I decide to just ignore it and move on to the next person, when Tanner speaks up again.

"Wait I have something to be grateful for. I am grateful for the HOPE that someday my parents will be nice to me!"

Yep, pack your bags buddy! And who thought of this stupid idea to let your kids voice their "gratitude" at the dinner table? Just eating, no talking, from here on out.

Apple Day

We took a trip to Springdale on Saturday to pick some Apples and have some fun together.Kandice, Dave and Emmie joined us for a "pickin' good time."

Khloee was her dad's best little helper

We had to keep a close eye on this little apple picker who prefered to find a big pile of apples on the ground and then pick from those. They were easier to reach that way.

Tanner was a great picker from the ladder.

Luke was not to be outshined by his older brother on the ladder.

We came home with a bunch of good apples to use to build up our food storage with applesauce and apple pie filling and anything else apple that we can come up with.

I'm open for suggestions if you have any!! Or just drop by for a yummy Fuji apple fresh from Springdale.

Turek Reunion

Labor Day weekend was spent with my side of the family on Cedar Mountain. The weather was perfect (at least while we were there) and we all had a great time.

My little family didn't get to the mountain until Saturday afternoon because of the Peach Day's Volleyball tournament. (The real fun didn't start until we got their anyway). Saturday afternoon was spent visiting with my brothers and sisters I haven't seen in a while. Rick brought his satellite dish and the men sat out in the meadow watching the BYU football game. They loved the game and were grateful to Rick for his foresight.

Sunday we had our own Sacrament meeting, Sunday school, & Primary.

(Singing time)

I was one of the nursery leaders so Kandice and I got to hang out with the little ones for an hour.

After church and lunch we all drove to Hatch and visited some places that were special to my dad while he was growing up.

Sunday night we watched Madagascar 2 and the Turek Reunion movie that Morgan (my talented niece) put together.

Monday was spent playing games and cleaning up all our stuff so we could head home. Right before we left we had a pull up contest (which none of the girls could do one) ( Some of us further away than others) So I am determined to be able to do 1 pull up by the next Turek Reunion. Bring it on girls!!

We all loved our weekend and the memories made together

Weekday getaway

We got to escape to the cabin one afternoon for a few hours of family time. We rode 4-wheelers out to observation point (East Zion) trail head and then we hiked the trail for a while until the kids were tired.

We spent lots of time hunting . . .
For These little guy's.

We got the kids to stop lizard hunting long enough to take a quick photo.
I thought it was a great day for Kory to skip work and hang out with us. We loved spending the weekday with our dad. I wish we could make it a weekly tradition!

Dreaming of our own pool

Summer wouldn't be summer without lots and lots of swimming. So while we are dreaming of a pool of our own, right out our back door, we will just use everyone else pools.

Thanks Cheri, Martha, Payton's Grandma Julie, Hurricane City & Washington Rec Center, for giving us a place to cool off and spend all of our hot summer day's.

T-ball

I got to coach Luke and RJ again in T-ball this year. Luke improved a lot from last year and loved to play. RJ on the other hand wanted badly to play last year so I signed him up so I didn't have to deal with him crying about not getting a turn. I should have stuck with the reverse psychology method and told him he couldn't play because telling him it was his turn just turned him off and he had no desire to play. So he didn't. He still looked cute in his hat though
Luke was my little homerun king

Happy Birthday Misti

I have been a big fat slacker in the blogging department and I feel guilty that it is my sisters birthday and I am just now remembering that I have not stuck with my tradition to do a Birthday post for her. (and she is so easy to write about). So here goes. . .

A few of my favorite memories/things about MISTI

1. The summer we lived together in Aunt Ada's trailer. (So many stories, so little time).

2. All the laughs we had at Dr. Heideman's, such as, Tai bo - ER, our "Holiday raps", and lots of mishaps with the hemostats.

3. Road trips to Tooele, trying to snag a handful of sunflowers while traveling at ridiculous speeds. And then our trip to Henderson where she almost killed as she skidded half way through the intersection. It is so hard to decide weather to stop at a red light or not.

4. And finally, Kory's favorite story of her standing in front of her college Relief society, as the Relief society president, and trying to deliver a motivational speech on getting visiting teaching done by saying, "We gotta quite jackin' off and get it done". It is her sweet naive personality that thought there was nothing wrong with that statement. Too bad the rest of the group was not that naive.

I am so glad that Misti decided to move closer to us, we love having her just a few minutes away. She is always so good to help with my kids all the time, even though I know it is not the easiest task I could ask from her. She is so good to them and they love to be with her. She is good at so many things that it is sometimes hard to have her as the "little sister" that outshines you all the time. She just makes me try harder to do a little better.

She is also willing to join me in my adventures that I rope her into, T-ball, Volleyball tournaments etc. . .

I am thankful to have her as my sister and one of my best friends!

Happy Birthday MISTI!!!

Tanner's Bobcat

Tanner received his first award in scouting, his bobcat. Me, being completely new to scouting, I am not sure if this is done in every scout troop but when he received his bobcat award they
turned him upside down and then I got to pin his patch on him and he isn't allowed to turn his patch around until he does a good turn. So next time you see Tanner, ask him if his bobcat patch is upside down or right side up! (And tell Bro. Allan good work in lifting that tank off the ground and holding him there for as long as he did.)

Check....1 goal accomplished

At the first of the year my sisters and I set a goal to run a 5k together. We picked a race and started working towards our goal. I think I have heard all of my sisters, at one time or another, say "I am not a runner". I wanted to prove them wrong because I knew if I could do it then they could too. So, we chose "The run for Kids" as our race. We set up a blog so we could keep in touch with each other and push each other from our own neck of the woods. I was hoping that the actual race would be a great memory but I loved the journey just as much. I loved each blog and the set of comments that followed.

We decided to make matching shirts to wear during the race and although they looked homemade, I loved them and thought they were way cute. On the front it had the number of sister we were so my # was 3 and then the back said.

New running shoes. . . . $70.00

Custom T-Shirt. . . .$10.00
Running with your sisters. . . . Priceless

The before the race picture

Our goal was to just run a race together, not WIN a race together. We did have a goal time in mind when we started the race and that was to finish in 30 min. Not all of us wanted to agree on that goal time but it turned out to be a happy medium.

Imagine our surprise when some of us actually placed in our individual divisions.

Misti and Kandice were in the same division, Trudi and Cheri were in the same division and I was in my own division.

Cheri (3rd place) Trudi (2nd place), Kandice (3rd place)

Kandice was a little excited about her medal

Here are the winner sisters

And Misti and I were the loser sisters.

At least we had each other!

Post race photo.

We finished in 30 min 5 seconds.

The best part was that we all thought it was fun and I think a few of them may want to do another one. I may have gained a few of my favorite running partners.

PRICELESS!!

Shed Hunt

Last Weekend Misti & Todd's family & our family headed to the hills to find sheds. Now when I say sheds don't be confused with the useful storage buildings used to hide all your crap so your neighbors don't have to look at it. Oh no, I am talking about antler sheds that fall off the deer at this glorious time of year. More stuff to clutter up your garage so you have to move all the yard tools outside in the weather and make you wish you had a useful place to store them. . . like a SHED! Although I don't understand the concept behind "shed hunting", it was a beautiful weekend to get out and hike. The kids had a great time and the hike we took was nice and flat for the most part so there wasn't a whole lot of complaining about being tired. And we actually found quite a few sheds so the kids stayed fairly interested. It was a great warm day and RJ kept looking for SHADE not sheds. Every time he would say, "Hey, shade!" Payton would come running over, "you found a shed!"

Check out the View we found at the end of the trail!

Our first family photo for 2009!

Kory, who doesn't give a rats about my blog, wanted to make sure that I got a picture of all the sheds we found so I could post it on my blog for all you antler lovers out there!
(Good thing Khlo didn't want to ride in the back pack).

It's just not worth it

I broke my sewing machine out to sew a few patches on Tanner's cub scout shirt

While Khloee busied herself with all my supplies.

And while I was cleaning up 1,000 safety pins and untangling thread and bobbins, I remembered why it has been so long since I have sewed anything.

Happy Birthday Cheri

I would just like to tell this little "SHARP SHOOTER", Happy Birthday!

I remember when I was younger that I thought Cheri must be the best cheerleader Pine View High school had ever seen. She had the best form and the most spirit. I also loved her hair, it was long and soft. Although she didn't like me to touch it with my gruby hands, I don't know why.

I was unaware of her other athletic ability until I was older and have had the great opportunity to play with her. I am surprised that the WNBA has not found her and recruited her yet. She is a well kept secret!

And her trampoline skills are unmatched as you can see in this photo taken at the Dennett family talent show. Hard to believe it from this photo, but she nailed this front flip.

Just call her Mary Lou!

All Joking aside, she really is a good sport about all the teasing we (her sisters) giver her. I was so grateful to get to take a trip back to Nauvoo last year with her and Misti. We had such a fun time and made some great memories that I will cherish forever! I should be more grateful to have such a great example to follow, her being the sister just older than me. But sometimes she is a hard act to follow and I don't like the pressure she adds by being so good at everything! I am lucky I know, because she makes me a better person than I ever would have been without her.

Happy Birthday Cheri

Sing your heart out Sista

Create

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLlnq5yY7k

A day at the "cannery"

O.K. not really the cannery but close enough. My sister's and I got together and canned some of our goods we picked up from the cannery a few weeks ago. We had so much fun together for a few hours, canning and doing something productive for our families and our food storage! It was much easier than going to the cannery. (for me at least). I didn't have to find a babysitter for 4 hours and I didn't have to wear a hair net either! I borrowed our stake's canning machine and got some tips from my "neighbor canning guru", Tamara, and we had a great morning together.
Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the cannery and how easy it makes it for us to get our houses in order, I just loved being able to do it in my own home.

Kandice, AKA- "Queen canner" Misti, was runner up "Queen canner"

Sorry about the side way's picture.

I was the "Little Red Hen" and spent some time
grinding wheat to be made into bread.

The kids played video games, jumped on the tramp, played in the sandbox and ate the dropped apple slices that didn't make it in the cans.
You can't do that at the cannery either!

We were able to can 50 cans of goods that I am grateful to have in my food storage!! YEAH

A Baptism & a Birthday

What a fun and exciting day Saturday was for Tanner. He has been waiting for his baptism with much anticipation. He was the only person in our ward to be baptized this month so he got to have the day as well as the program all to himself. I never knew the kid was so opinionated. He knew who he wanted to give the talks, the prayers, be witnesses etc. . . He even had the menu for the luncheon all figured out. We did have to do a little tweaking of the menu just so we didn't have German Pancakes and chili (as well as a few other random things) in the same spread.

Tanner with his dad

Thanks to all those that were able to be there and share this special day with our family! We loved having you come. For those family members that couldn't make it, we know you can't make it to everything but we missed you and wished you lived close enough to be with us for all these great occasions. Just know we missed you!!

We also got to celebrate Khloee's 2nd birthday the same day. Unfortunately, we kind of tried to make it a special day for Tanner and Klo got overshadowed a bit. We only got a couple of pictures of her and her mom even opened her presents thinking that they were Tanner's and he had just put them back in the gift bags. Lucky for me she didn't know or care that it was her birthday and she just went on with the day surrounded by cousins and cupcakes!She is learning the art of "Shoving it all in"

from her cousin Payton!