TGIF

I love Fridays! After a long week at work, I was looking for an activity to let my hair down and relax. Having a young family at home limits ones Friday night options severely. There was only one thing left to do....Ta, Ta, Ta, TWISTER! The girls were very excited to break out the new game that Santa brought.

Before long we were all twisted up and laughing! Here are some ACTION shots.

Nicole was playing with a Poopy Diaper. That really jazzed things up! Here she is with her butt in Jessy's face.

Even the Cat got into it. Left front paw on Blue!

We quickly disqualified Jasmine for breaking the rules by popping out her claws.....I thought she was having fun.....go figure!

BAMA FALLS

WOW! What a sweet victory for the Utes in the Sugar bowl. It was tough but I actually cheered for the Red as they creamed the Kings from the South. Who knew that Nick Saban would have to EAT HIS WORDS! Love it! I can't wait for the 2009 football season as BYU kicks things off by playing Oklahoma in the new Cowboys stadium. With Collie gone to the NFL we're gonna need McKay Jacobsen (no giggling Ashley) to step it up. Just 8 more months till it all starts again!

Clorox Wipes and Pull-Ups

So there we were sitting in room 105: Nursery Room A, approximately 4 minutes after the close of Sacrament meeting. We should have known it was going to be a rough day when we quickly discovered the other Nursery leaders were out of town and WE were the proud recipients of their class. Combining the two nursery classes gave us a total of 18 kids; 7 boys, 9 girls, and 2 kids we were unsure of their gender. Prying screaming kids off of their parents consisted of the first 5 minutes of class. Nothing new here, happens every Sunday. Distraction with toys quickly remedies the problem.

Things were relatively under control until we discovered two of the kids had exceptionally snotty noses. Over the next 90 minutes, Donna and I were kept very busy wiping these runny noses every few minutes and gagging everytime we felt the warm, gooey, germ-ridden SLIME fill up the crumpled toilet paper.

About 15 minutes into class, the smell of "Poopy Diaper" began to wift ever so gently throughout the room. At 16 minutes into class, the smell was suffocating the room and Donna happily discovered the lone window in the nursery room was fastened shut with bolts. Those DARN black bolts deprived us of precious gulps of fresh air. I quickly hit the ground and began sniffing every one of those 18 bums. The "Poopy Diaper" smell was so thick that it sabotaged my sense of smell and very soon all bums smelled the same. So we were hopelessly stuck in the room without knowing who the poopy culprit was. I totally felt like we were Jon and Kate Plus Eighteen! A few breathtaking minutes later we finally caught the little stinker and off we went to the bathroom (there is a small bathroom conveniently located inside the nursery room). Only problem was, the kid was wearing pull-ups and Poop does not do well in pull ups. Needless to say, I soon had poop on my right hand and was desperately searching the cupboards for Clorox wipes....gagging all the way. At this very moment, a child who shall remain anonymous but looking very much like the punk in the picture below, went postal and began hitting every child within reach.

Donna sprang into action and practically tackled the tike in midair as she lept across numerous kids playing on the floor. Three children immediately began screaming after being hit by this bully. I couldn't do much to help as I had crap dripping from my right hand. The three toddlers wailed in unison as the instigator of this beating quietly went back to playing with his toy train. I'm sure the Bishop wondered what the heck was going on in the Nursery Room!

Coloring time quieted the children down and the activity was a success with the exception that one child thought it would be fun to use a purple crayon on my nice white dress shirt. Things certainly couldn't get any worse....right? Well, this just wasn't our day because shortly after the kids stopped coloring, a lovely two year old girl began.....THROWING UP! Oh, you don't even know the fear I have of puking! It is truly one of the most traumatic trials of this mortal existence. So there I stood, drippy snot on my left hand, poop on my right hand, purple crayon on my white shirt, and vomit on my right shoe. I felt like showering in 409 disinfectant spray just as soon as I made it home from Church. Lucky for me a woman walked in and cleaned up the mess on the carpet. She surely was an Angel from on high because HE knows I don't do well cleaning barf out of carpet. For all you soon-to-be parents out there, you've got a special time awaiting you when your kids get sick! Well, I'll close this dramatic story by saying that We've got six days to recover and recuperate before we walk into room 105: Nursery Room A to do it all over again.

We have a kitten!

Sorry I know it's been a long time coming but here are some pics of our new family pet!

It's a boy! Yes, we finally have a boy in the house. We named him Casper. He is so cute and sweet when he is sleeping! He loves to play with all of the girl's toys............okay, okay so this was our first cat. I guess there is a reason we have no boys in this house. Our little Casper was kind of crazy. After we had him for a few days we figured out that he really didn't like to be petted. We tried to hold him and all he would do is bite us. I know that kittens like to bite and play a lot but my gosh we couldn't sit down without being attacked. I remember seeing Nicole running for her life with Casper nipping at her feet; that was the last straw. I marched over to my neighbors house(that's where we got the kitten from) and picked a different kitten. I decided to be safe and pick a girl, sorry Ry! Here is our new kitten......Jasmine



As you have noticed Ryan loves to tease our little kitten and put her into various objects.....okay so I am guilty of laughing too. Jasmine is a little bit more mild mannered. While she does like to play she seems to know the difference between us and our girls. It's a little hard to get used to having a pet in the house though. Sometimes I wonder if she likes to be stepped on or kicked across the room. And the attacking us at the bottom of the stairs...there's some awesome jumps and leaps going on in our house. I'm sure there will be many more blogs to come with our new family pet!

Jessica's 5th Birthday!

I have picked certain years that my kids get to have big birthday parties ( friends, decorations, etc.). So this is Jessy's first big party....Her 5th birthday! I decided to be a little bit better and actually theme her party. Poor Kaitlyn has the oldest child syndrome, I try everything out on her. Anyways the theme was "Under the Sea".
I had Kate invite a little too many friends last year and I was a little overwhelmed so we kept it to how ever old you are is how many you invite. She was really excited for all her gifts that she got (yeah more teeny tiny toy pieces to clean up).
When she as done opening all her presents I sent them all on a treasure hunt to find the goodie bags. I had typed up these clues and decided to make them look like "real old" clues. So I got my BBQ lighter to help authenticate these clues. Yeah, so computer paper burns really, really fast and when you have a large flame trying to blow it out doesn't work ( sorry I was blonde when I was younger). Thank heavens I was by the kitchen sink for a quick extinguish. I think I singed my eyebrows though; I hope they'll grow back!
In the goodie bags were these earrings so I lined everyone up to show off their earrings. It kind of turned into a goofy pic. I guess some of them thought I was taking a mug shot!
Don't gasp in awe, I did not make this cake. I did that last year with Kaitlyn's and this year I thought better of it. Jessy totally loved this cake, it was really cute and yummy too (Ryan really enjoyed the yummy part)!


FYI: I now have two 5 year olds and they are not twins! What a fun thought!

The Blog Drought Is OVER!

Wow! Two months have flown by since we last posted on this blog. We had an Awesome trip out to Lake Powell in September. Brian and Sharla are very gracious to invite us to their beautiful House Boat to enjoy Padre Bay each year. September really is the perfect month to be on the Lake as water temps are still warm at 75 degrees and air temps are comfortable at 90 degrees. We had a big group of family members join us this year that made the trip lots of fun and we really had a relaxing break from life back home.

I love the sunsets at Powell. We are so fortunate to enjoy this beautiful lake.

Brian and Sharla purchased a new wake boarding boat this summer that we used for a new activity.....SURFING! We had so much fun being goofy on the board!

We explored one of the most amazing canyons I have ever hiked. Antelope Canyon is absolutely breathtaking.

Our camera could not do justice to this spectacular canyon. We just kept "Oooing" and "Ahhing" as we rounded every corner in the canyon and took in the scenery before us.

A week after the Powell trip we traded in our swimsuits for our Camo Gear and headed for the Beaver Mountains for the Deer Hunt. Kyle was the camp chef as he used this new camp stove he won from KUTV's 'Roughin-it-Outdoors' snapshot of the week contest.

These Filet Mignon Steaks were soooo Tasty! We also enjoyed fresh-picked corn on the cob, homemade rolls and delicious home-grown peaches in yummy cobler.

After our delicious dinner, we settled in around the campfire as Grandpa Graf read us the story of ole' Ephraim; a Grizzly Bear that terrorized sheep herders in the Cache Mountains years ago. I don't think any of us slept very well after that lovely bedtime story! Coincidentally we were camped at the very site that we spotted two Bears during last years' hunt. Curt is holding onto his hat, bracing for the next spooky sentence Grandpa will utter. What is that dark object I see in the black abyss behind Curt?!? I think I'll leave the bear story home next year.

We survived the long night and climbed out of our warm sleeping bags early the next morning to start the big hunt. Thanks to Kyle's tracking skills, I was able to find this buck and we had another successful hunt. Great memories all around.

Sad Day for Dad

There comes a day in every father's life when he must say goodbye to his little princess. No, I'm not talking about marriage, I'm talking about something much more tragic....much more heart-renching.....I'm talking about Kindergarten. All kidding aside, I have seriously been dreading this day for the past 5 years. We have created a little haven for Kaitlyn here at our house where we teach her and we are here for her when she needs us. Donna and I have been the only influences in her life until now (poor thing :-). The gates have been opened! I can no longer be by her side when she needs me. I feel like I am loosing control of her. Can you imagine the wreck I will be on her wedding day! So, about a week before the BIG DAY, we started making preparations. We took her back-to-school shopping and purchased a Tincker Bell backpack. She loves it!

Next we took Kaitlyn to get her Kindergarten haircut. She was all-smiles!

This photo was inspired by an April/Ashley picture posted on April's blog. Here is Kaitlyn saying goodbye to her best friend for the past 4 years, her little sister Jessy. To my knowledge the two have Never been seperated until now. Jessica cried as Kaitlyn walked away to the bus stop on her first day. (As if Dad needed anymore reason to hate this day even more!)

As Kate boarded the bus enroute to the evil school I kept thinking of the first time we brought her home from the hospital the day after she was born. I can't believe how fast time flies.

This is Kaitlyn's teacher Mrs. Brandon. She is very sweet and we are happy that Kaitlyn is in her class. Kaitlyn told me she loves Mrs. Brandon. Just as I thought all hope was lost on that very first day... Kaitlyn came back home! Yep, her first day was already over and was a big success and I got to hug my little girl once again. This might not be too bad after all.