Thanksgiving Weekend

I forgot to take any pictures over Thanksgiving weekend and it was a lot of fun so I should have. Fortunately, my brother-in-law, Peter took a lot. I just copied them over and somehow put them all on my blog, but that's oaky. We had our Thanksgiving dinner over at Ryan and Melanie's house. They put boards over long tables so all 25 of us could sit at the same table. It was pretty cool. Plus all the kids were at the other end so we couldn't even see what they were doing. I think the kids liked that too. In this picture I'm wearing the red shirt. I think I'm pouring drinks for people although it looks like I'm making a B line for the food.

 Thomas, Max, and Peter. Thomas thinks Max is pretty funny, makes Max feel good to be around him.

 A game of kick ball in the backyard after dinner.

 Eating Krispy Kremes and wearing the hats to go with them.

 I brought the drinks and the "Turkey Gobbler" It's a turkey made out of fruit kabobs. The kids put together the kabobs, it turned out really cute.

 Lyssa loves Zupa's, so when the Krumholz's come to Utah we have to go there. My kids love it too so we don't mind.

 Here's just more pictures of the cousins enjoying each other. It was nice to all be together.

Piano Recital

Max and Seth had a recital tonight. It was Seth's first recital so he was really nervous. We got there a little early so they could get used to playing on a Grand Piano. They both did a great job. The recital was beautiful! Seth said going to Tanner, Maddie, and Max's recitals were the reason he wanted to take piano lessons. Their teacher, Kathy Birks, is amazing!  

Halloween 2011

 The day started with a good ol' parade. The Elementary school had the kids dancing to Thriller as they weaved in and out of lots of parents. There were some great costumes.

 Tanner played computer games with his friends which is normal but then went and watched scary movies. I suggested The Village. They watched it but said it wasn't scary enough. I loved the twist at the end, guess that's just me.

 Maddie was a "Smarty Pants" She also had some friends come over to the house to eat pizza, trick or treat, play games and watch "Psych"

Max was a Court Jester with a scull mask that was super un- comfort- able so he ended up not wearing it. That's better anyway.


Seth was a rotting skeleton, not just a skeleton. He took his mask off for the picture.

For dinner and the party I got  Jack-o-lantern pizzas. We also made home made root beer with dry ice and a new drink that's yummy, apple juice with dry ice. It made a slushy. Dry ice just makes it a fun party!

Just in case the girls didn't get enough sugar today, we made "mummy" cupcakes with m&ms and gum tape. Interesting combination, but it turned out cute.

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!

Yellowstone 2011

Jon's mom reserved a cabin in Yellowstone this year and EVERYONE came this time. She actually had to add a smaller cabin next door so we would all fit. The very first day we drove straight to Old Faithful. It was weird because there were quite a bit of people but they were very quiet, then there was our group...  Maybe it's an age thing. The kids really enjoyed watching the power of the water shooting out of the ground and then falling back down to the earth. It's a pretty amazing site!

 We went on a 2 mile hike that was very beautiful. We could see a prismatic stream in the way distance.

I'm glad we got to go again on this trip and be together as a family. We had a great time!

Max's Brown/Black Belt (Getting Closer)

Last week Max tested for his Brown/Black belt. He's getting so good! In a few months he will test for his Oreo (Black/White/Black) Belt and then he has to travel to Texas for his Black Belt.

His great friend David who has been in karate with him since the beginning.

I tried to do a video but for some reason my blog hates videos.

An Evening of Flag Football

 Max and Seth love flag football. The only bad thing about it is it's the same season as soccer. I thought when they signed up it overlapped by a couple of weeks. Nope. Both sports end the same week and then we have absolutely nothing, besides karate. The good thing is soccer games are all on Saturday and Flag Football games are twice a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. The other good thing is they have the same coach, so their games are right after each other at the same field. Flag football only lasts 4 weeks. It's just a really busy 4 weeks. Jon said next year they need to choose one or the other. They first decided soccer but now that they're doing football they might choose that. I really want them to be able to do both, but that is pretty
 crazy.

They both usually score a touchdown. Seth is really quite fast even though he's little. I think he's learned that from being the youngest of four. It's a lot of fun to watch and the weather has been beautiful so far.
We did stop karate for the month since karate has no seasons, it's never ending. It's been kind of nice to have a break from karate carpool. I even said to Seth if he wanted to quit karate now would be a good time. He thought about it for a few hours and then said he's going for his black belt. Okay.

A Day of Soccer

It is soccer season once again and I am so happy. I love watching the kids play soccer. Sadly, Tanner doesn't play anymore but he may start Rugby in the Spring which I know nothing about. This day Max had a game at 8:30, Maddie at 10:00, and Seth at 11:30 so Jon and I could both go to all of them. Grandma Sherry, Grandpa Buddy, and Gram also came to the games. It was great weather!

 I took a few more pictures of Max but they came out blurry. I need to work on my action shots, maybe this isn't the greatest camera for that or maybe I need to learn how to use it.

 Maddie said this picture looks like she's playing all by herself at an "imaginary" game. But she's not, she's throwing it to someone.

 Seth got stepped on. He came out for a while and was ready to go back in. He's pretty aggressive out there. Probably because he's the youngest and his siblings take no mercy on him.

That's why Driver's License Pictures Never Look Good

Yesterday I had a special birthday. By "special" I mean it was time to renew my driver's license. I actually get butterflies when going to the DMV. I think it's because you never know what they (the masters of my driving destiny) are going to say you need. It changes every single time I go in there. I even tried to look for it on the web before I went and they make that really hard also. So, this is how it went.

11:30am Arrived at the DMV.

11:45 was told I needed a birth certificate and S.S. card. No problem I brought both, along with bills with my current address on it and 2 forms of I.D.  I was told I brought my Hospital Certificate instead of my birth Certificate. The lady was very nice and told me to drive to Sandy to the Vital Statistics office and print off an official Birth Certificate.

12:20 On my way to Sandy. I decided to call Jon to tell him what I was doing. He informed me that I couldn't get a birth certificate there since I was born in TX. Oh. I called them to make sure and they said the same thing.

12:30 Stopped for lunch and went home.

3:30 Went to my parents house to look through their files for a copy of my birth certificate. Found Ryan's Lincoln's, Donovan's Devon's and even mom and dad's. Not Lisa's or mine.

4:00 found a copy of my birth certificate after looking forever in our files. Rushed back to the DMV.

5:00 Waited for about 45 minutes and was informed my Birth Certificate was abbreviated. They don't take abbreviated ones anymore, it's a new rule. He said he'd give me a temporary license that would last for 6 months but in the mean time I need to contact TX and pay for a new non abbreviated certificate and have it mailed to me. Then I get to go back. He did take my picture which at that point I felt a little frazzled. Cheese.

5:30 Called Jon on the way home to tell him I still didn't get it and would he make dinner for the kids before soccer practice, games, etc.

This was actually the day before my birthday. My actual birthday was a great day!

REAL soccer game

We've been wanting to go to a Real Soccer game for a long time but just never did it. When we signed Maddie up for soccer we could buy discount tickets for certain evenings. We didn't go anywhere for Labor Day weekend so thought that would be a good time to go. It was really fun, plus we won, plus they only last about 2 hours.

 Uncle Devon and Aunt Mary showed us a great place to park that was free and not too long of a walk. They go to games A LOT! Seth hates that he's little for his age but he does like the fact he still gets carried if he's too tired to walk. Tanner carried him on his shoulders on the way back to the car but wasn't as careful with branches as Devon was.

 The stadium wasn't huge so pretty much anywhere you sat was close to the action.

Maddie kept shushing us while watching the game. She's a serious fan. They all loved it, but especially Maddie.

No Dogs Allowed

Max came running in the house the other day yelling, "Mom, Mimzy's really hurt!" I walked outside, took one look, and knew we had to take her to the vet for stitches. It was 8:00 PM. I called the vet which gave me a recording of a pet hospital which referred me to a closer pet hospital. We took all the kids with us since they were all pretty upset. When we got there the Dr. said it would take about two hours to stitch her up and because it was a school night we took all the kids back home and came back to get Mimzy at 10:30. The bill was so much that I'm embarrassed to even write it. Plus there's pain killers 2x a day and antibiotics 3x a day. But she's much better now and we all love Mimzy. I just have to say if you don't have a dog I would recommend not getting one. :) Apparently, she got caught on the corner of a car trailer we have parked in our back yard. Tanner and his friend got a sock and duct tape and fixed it right up, because knowing Mimzy she will do it again.

 It sure hasn't slowed Mimzy down! We put a little t-shirt on her so she and Libby will leave it alone. She looks pretty cute in it.

School Schmool

This really seemed like the shortest summer ever! The kids actually started getting excited for school a couple of days before it started. And I have to admit that first day I walked in the house to total quietness, no friends, no snacking and laughing/crying and it made me smile. I guess it's time for a routine again. And I'm sure the school year will go by so fast also. Speaking of time going by fast, Tanner started 10th grade which is his first year in the High School. Maddie is in the middle school by herself which she likes. Max is a big sixth grader and Seth is in 3rd which sounds pretty big too. Time is going by too fast!

Tanner leaves first at 7 and then the rest of the kids leave

around 7:45 then I go walking/talking with my neighbors. That's why I took this picture quickly of Tanner then took the other three together.

Boy Scout

This was Max's last pack meeting, it feels good. Too bad Seth just started cub scouts.:) We didn't have any Scouts all summer long and Max turned 11 in July so we had to scramble to get everything done in time for him to get his Arrow of Light. Max's friend David also got his Arrow of Light at the same time. Max loves Scouts, loves everything about it. He just went on a hike that was pretty hard and he loved it! He says he's going to be the first in our family for many generations to get his Eagle. I believe him.

5K Maddie

Maddie and Marissa have been getting up at 6:30 most mornings this summer to run with the Cross Country team in order to stay in shape for soccer. Maddie doesn't love running but she does love soccer and knows she needs to stay in shape for that. Marissa's older brother is the star cross country runner of the High School, so he drives them to wherever they're going to run for the day and they run like 4 miles then sit and talk while he runs like 10 miles. It's a good system. Marissa asked Maddie if she wanted to run a 5k for Alpine Days and she said,"Sure!" She actually said she's glad she did it but she'll probably never do it again, it was tough. I think her time was around 27 minutes. I actually was waiting for a long time to get a picture of her crossing the finish line but then started talking to Marissa's mom and missed the opportunity. Oops. Good job, Maddie and Marissa!

Jon and Tanner- High Uintas

The week before we went to Hawaii, Jon and Tanner went on a High Adventure Scout Camp. It was from Monday to Saturday and we went to Hawaii 18 hours after they got home. Not a lot of time to recover between trips, but they could rest in Hawaii. Jon wrote all about it on his blog, A Reluctant Blogger, but I wanted to post some of their pictures on my blog. So, if you want to read all about the hike, go to Jon's blog.

Getting ready to hit the trail.

They planned on climbing King's Peak, which is the highest point in Utah, but because of the weather, they were not able to.

Tanner being eaten alive!

Some members from the stake surprised the boys on the second to last day with a steak dinner they brought up on horseback.

When they got home Tanner asked me to make Evil Chicken and Jon asked me to make lots of vegetables and orange rolls. I think it was a long week but they survived and had a good experience.