Toad Hunting

These toads are our new found friends. We see them in the early mornings when we walk. They are in the gutter next to the side walks lining the Shadow Creek Golf Coarse near our home.

One morning I got home from my walk and got the boys up to go toad hunting. They were soooo excited.
We took big Ziploc bags to hold them in until we got home.

The boys would walk along the edge looking for them and would get excited when they saw one. It was so funny because most of the time they would get up to it and say "oop it's dead". They got pretty good at spotting the dead one and pointed out that they usually had holes.
We rescued two and they named them. King Toad is the big one and Ninja Toad is the smaller one and he was hiding under the leafs most of the time. We released these two at Kolob Reservoir.

A few weeks after we released them I noticed the toads on the street were getting bigger. I decided to take a rubber glove with me on my walk and I would surprise the boys and catch them two more (bigger) toads. My friend Chris and I caught two for them but it was quite the show for the people passing by. Even with a rubber glove I couldn't bring myself to touch them. So we found a cup and had them jump into the cup. With my rubber glove on still I held my hand over the cup so they couldn't get out and every time they would jump I would scream. I had Chris on a hunt for something that I could put over the top of the cup do that I didn't have to feel them jumping. She found something and we made it home but it seemed like it took us forever.

The boys were so excited and loved that they were so much bigger. We released them into the back yard to try to give them a better life and save them from frying on the side of the road. A couple weeks have gone by and we hadn't seen the toads in the yard. Until last night that is! I looked outside last night and saw something on our patio. It was one of the toads and it had tripled in size! Wow they are surviving. Now I hope we don't end up with a lot of baby toads. Two is enough for our family!!! ha ha My husband is soooo good to put up with me and my crazy ways!! This is our kind of big city hunting!!! What fun!

Young Family Reunion

For our Young family reunion this summer we met at Kolob Reservoir by Zions N.P. We had the four wheeler, canoe, and a raft to keep the kids happy but we all had fun with the toys! My parents and sister Lyn and her family came but we all missed my sister Amy and her family. They are in West Virginia while she finishes Nurse Anesthetist school for a few years. Anakin is FREE! To roam that is! He roams around all day and all night! (until we make him go to bed in the trailer anyway) He loves camping.

Grandpa was getting as much snuggle time in as possible. They were both loving it!

Makell and Sarah had so much fun going out on the raft. They spent alot of time trying to row to their destination. It's not the easiest thing to steer. They had fun trying anyway!

We all enjoyed our down time! If we weren't sitting down relaxing we were out in the canoe, swimming, riding the wheeler, and even chopping wood was fun! Whatever it was we had fun!

Gathering wood on the wheeler is a blast! What a man! He is so fun and so HOT!

The canoe was a hit! They one tip it once and Makell was the only one that didn't fall out! Funny

Even Grandma was letting loose and having fun! They had so much fun. We even got them out in the canoe! It was great!!!

The boys had a blast chopping wood!

After camping everyone came to our house for the 24th of July. We went to our Stake Pioneer Day Celebration. The only pictures I got were of Trenton and Andie. The older kids were out doing their own thing too cool for Mom and Dad.

They were fun to watch play all the games. We had a great time and were really glad to have spent time with my family! Thanks for the Great Time!

Body By Victoria aka Lou Lou

So this is why you don't take Dad or Kids to Victoria Secret! I came out of the dressing rooms to find this! ha ha Those drawers were perfect for Andie and of coarse Dad played into it! She looks like she's on crack! She pulled out her hair tie and was in desperate need of a nap!
I am sure we are not the only ones to have ever gave the V.S workers a show! I will be ordering online from now on! ha ha

Wow, I hold back my boys!

So after I watched this I realized just how much I hold back my boys! I am always so worried that they will get hurt that I'm constantly telling them NO don't do this or that. I am sure that this mom didn't say NO and let him experiment a little or I guess alot! Now some how I will try really hard to suck it up and let them be. Marcus I'm sure is laughing and saying "Ya Right!" but it's my new goal so I guess I won't watch at first? Have Fun with your new freedom Chase & Trenton! But BE CAREFUL!!!!

Kitchen Remodel

So this is not the best before shot but I think you can get the jist of it. They were so ugly! We hated them from the start but we didn't want to pay thousands of dollars to upgrade them with the builder because they were still not what we wanted. So the plan for the whole 4 years of living in this house was to customize them ourselves. We just finally did it!

Marcus built a 4 inch rise out of MDF board then added the rope trim piece to cover the seam and then added a nice chunky crown molding at the top. He did this to three of the cabinets to give a variation in height.

We wrapped the side pieces and the island in beadboard and put a nice base trim piece at the bottom to give a finished edge.

We tiled the back splash with light tumbled stone tile that Marcus's brother Monte gave us and we bought the smaller dark tiles to match the flooring and tie it together.

The cabinet over the microwave and the fridge Marcus pulled out to give more of a custom look and I now can access the cabinet over the fridge so much easier! Love him!!! He did amazing!!!!

We painted them in the white to match the trim already in the house and then I antiqued the doors, trim, and beadboard with a tiny 1/4 in. flat paint brush to only get the amount that we wanted. The kitchen looks amazing!! We are so glad to be done with this project and are VERY happy with the way it turned out! The best thing of it all is that we only spent $300 total! How's that for Design on a Dime! We did the whole project in just under two weeks! Totally worth it though!!! We LOVE our new kitchen!

Pinewood Durby Oops!

So I just realized that I hadn't blogged the Stake Pinewood Derby. What was I thinking? What kind of mom am I? This was Chase's 2nd Pinewood Derby and he really did his car pretty much by himself while Marcus supervised and help when he needed. It was so fun to watch him having a great time with dad. This is some serious business! It is so funny how involved they get into this.

The car shape is now ready for a major sanding job.

After priming and sanding several times he now can put the base coat of gloss black.

He painted the front of the car yellow and then Marcus helped him to make the yellow paint fade into the black. It was pretty cool how it turned out and most importantly Chase loved it.

Chase did great this year. He got 3rd place in the Bear race. Then the top three people in the three age groups raced and he got 3rd overall. Way to go Chase!! Ooh Raw

This is the picture of the top three kids in all three age groups! Good Job Boys! Now go plan for next year! ha ha

New Family Pictures

Yeah we got updated family pictures!!! I Love Love Love them!!!! My amazing friend Shadoe took them and did such a good job! She is wanting to get into photography so I made her use us a her guppies! We struck gold on this deal!! Your the best Shad!!!! Thank You

School Graduation 2008-2009

Makell with her 5th grade teacher Mr. Games

Chase with his 3rd grade teacher Mrs. DaBeers

Trenton with his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Wathen

Makell graduated from the 5th grade. Her teacher is Mr. Games. She really liked him. He teased the kids and made school fun but was strict at the same time. He did a great job! Makell got awards in both ready and math. She was above average in every subject! Great Job! She grew so much over this year. I just can't believe my little girl isn't little anymore! Middle school wow! Ready or Not!!! Makell did an amazing job this year in school. Her grades were great and she really took off on ready. She has always got her nose in a Harry Potter book! She has read books 1-6 all this year. I think it was book 6 that she read in 3 days so she could read it before she say the movie! We are so glad she enjoys ready now! Great Job Makell! We are proud of you!
Chase graduated from the 3rd grade. His teacher was Mrs. DaBeers in the green shirt. He really liked her and he had a ton of kids from our ward in his class so he had lots of friends. He had a great year even with his injury and being in a wheel chair for a few weeks. Chase got awards in both ready and math. He is our social butterfly so to get good grades and high scores on all his test is a great thing! He was above average in every category also! Math is his best subject and he is great at spelling! Were waiting for him to catch the reading bug. He is a great reader he just doesn"t want to. All though he loves the Diary of the Wimpy kid books.We bought him the last two books in that collection to read over the summer and he is excited to read them. We are so proud of you buddy! Great Job!!! Keep it up next year at your new school. (Chase & Trenton are changing to Dickens Elem. for their 9 month schedule.)
Trenton graduated from kindergarten! Wow they grow up way to fast! His teacher was Mrs. Wathen. He liked her but more importantly his friend Daniella Thompson was in his class! Life was great and he loved school! She is the little girl in the purple next to him. They are inseparable! Both are smart cookies! Trenton was awarded a special ready award. He was one of only 8 kids in his class that was ready and AR testing on the computer for the books he read this year. Some of these kids tested higher than some 1st graders but they didn't say who. Way to go Trenton! This is a great start for many more years of school! He did an awesome job! We are so proud of you little buddy! Keep up the good work and you"ll go far!

Perpetuum Jazzile - Africa

This fun YouTube video features a 1980s pop classic. The rock band Toto scored their biggest hit with Africa in 1982. The song is instantly recognizable. But it has been reinvented.

Perpetuum Jazzile is an a cappella jazz choir from Slovenia. It’s hard to think of something further from an ‘80s rock band. But their version of Africa may best the original. The group has amazing voices.

But the beginning of this video is really striking. Group members simulate an African thunderstorm with their hands.

It’s really something to see and hear.(Don't turn up your sound - the sound of raindrops begins really soft.)

**This is amazing so I thought I would share it with everyone. I can't believe that it is a cappella! I love this song too. Enjoy

Trenton's Kindergarten Graduation

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Trenton is in the orange stipe shirt behind the gray haired ladies head on the left of the screen.(right side of her head) Top row a few kids in from the left. She moves her head for a moment toward the end and you can see him for a second. Sorry I didn't get to record it so this is a friends. Better that nothing right!

Spring Trip to Utah

I know it's summer but I"m still blogging Spring. My goal is to get caught up before summer is over but that's a lofty goal so we'll see. ha ha We went to Utah to see family in April. My parents were gone for the first part of our trip so we started out at Marcus's parents house.

We went to the movie Race to Witch Mountain. It was a cute movie and the kids really liked it.

After the movie the kids got in some play time with the arcade games. Andie had fun riding with Trenton. She has to be included somehow right!

Grandma Nae has a ton of blocks that the grand kids love to play with when they come to visit. These are pictures of Chase, Trenton, Macee, Jack and their creations. They were so proud!

It's always fun with the cousins but this time we got to go see Mills perform in a play. She was an Umpa Lumpa in Charley and the Chocolate Factory. She did a Great Job and we were so glad that we were there to see her shine!

My parents got home right in time to go to the Sunday Morning Session of Conference with us. We took Makell and Chase for their first live session. It was wonderful. They really like it! Saturday afternoon Chase was in a rubber band war with his Uncle Christian, his teenage friends and some cousins. Chase jumped down 10 stairs to flee from getting hit and hurt his foot. It was a little swollen and bruised but not bad so we figured he must have sprained it. We really wanted him to come with us to Conference the next day so we pampered him and Grandma Nae let him use her crutches. We talked him into coming and we're so glad that he still came with us.

So as we were loaded and having lunch before leaving town we decided to have Chase's foot checked. It was starting to get more swollen and was still really hurting him. As a mom I was worried for him and just felt uneasy. Marcus's mom had a friend that worked for a foot Dr in town so she called him and they had us bring him in for a quick x-ray just to be safe. We thought where we didn't have insurance it may be cheaper in Payson to get it checked anyway and we trusted the Dr's there more than in Vegas too.

Dr. Faux was so good and Chase loved him. He found in the x-rays that Chase had a Lis Fraunc Fracture. For us common folk that translates into he dislocated his 4th & 5th metatarsals. He set us up for surgery 2 hour later at the Provo Surgical Center. Oh boy!!! We were shocked!

Dr. Faux came as soon as he finished with his patients and did the surgery for Chase. He had to pin the 4th bone into place and luckily the 5th stayed in place once the 4th was pinned so he only needed the one pin.

Chase was nervous but excited all at the same time. He was loving all the attention and we were glad to give it to him. This was our first surgery/big injury with any of our kids so we were nervous for him. He did really well and all the people working with him feel in love with his fun personality. Of coarse he asked them a million question and they were so sweet to take the time to answer every one. It took him a while to wake up from the anaesthesia and when he did he was adorable. The first thing he said was to the nurse and he asked her if he got to keep the hospital socks. Ya the tan fuzzy socks with the white traction painted on the bottom! He loved them! He kept falling back asleep and every time he woke up he would ask if he could keep the socks. It was so funny!

He was out of commission for 8 weeks. The sad thing was he was suppose to start his 8 week baseball season in 4 days. The Dr said he had to elevate his foot for three days constant and keep ice packs on it. Then he would be able to be in a wheel chair with his foot straight out for 3 weeks. After that he could start on crutches if he felt up to it but No pressure on the foot what so ever. He had to have the wheel chair at school just to be safe that he didn't get bumped by the other kids. Their were like three other kids in wheel chairs at school shortly after Chase got his so he was not alone. He had two of his friends on crutches so we had to get a picture of coarse. At 5 weeks we made a trip back to Payson to Dr. Faux to have the pin removed.

Chase helped with the whole process of removing the cast and wanted to pull out the pin himself. We didn't agree to that so the Dr. pulled it out for him but he did get to wiggle it before the Dr. pulled it out. We have it on video so if anyone wants to see it I can load it up on the blog! It was actually not to bad at all!

The Dr. washed up his foot and put him in a boot for another 2 weeks. He could start walking on it as much as he felt like it but only with the boot on. After the 2 weeks he could start walking on it but only with his shoes on and after that he was done. He could run and jump and whatever he felt like doing but No more jumping down the stairs!

He was such a good patient! He didn't ever complain. He didn't even take hardly any pain medicine he was so tough! The hardest part of the whole thing was getting him to walk on his foot. That was very painful for him but not where he hurt his foot it was painful to stand on his heel. We found out that there is a growth plate in your heel and when you don't use it for a long time it softens and is very tender to walk on. It took time but he strengthened that growth plate and was doing good.

He didn't skip a beat though through this. He was still active as he normally is and was popping wheelies in the wheel chair and would bat in his baseball games standing on one foot. (With out the Dr knowing of coarse) He did wait a few weeks into things before we let him bat and after he got the cast off and the boot on the Dr gave him permission to bat if someone ran for him. He already had that down so he was good to go!

Everyone was so good to him during the 8 weeks. His 3rd grade teacher Mrs. DaBeers was so patient with him. After he had the boot on he had to do some stretches to help loosen his foot up. His teacher said that Chase would stop whatever he was doing if it started hurting and start stretching. ha ha She asked him what he was doing and he said that his parents told him that if it hurts to stretch so he did just that I guess. We are so glad that he is OK and we think now he may think through his stunts? Good Luck right!

Hoagle Zoo

Our family went to the Hogle Zoo while we were in Utah this Spring. The older two kids barely remembered going to this zoo before and the two younger kids had never been to a big zoo at all.

These four little gorilla pictures are priceless. They loved measuring up to the gorilla but were sad that we didn't get to see a real one. It was hiding from them I guess? Intimidated probably!

So we had a lesson about the birds an the bees in the Giraffe house. Chase asked us how to tell if they were boys or girls. He's a child you have to answer his question to get him to stop asking it. So I'm sure the other people visiting the Giraffe's got a good laugh. We did!

The monkey's were so cute but not as cute as Andie watching them. Makell couldn't get over the monkey stench. It was pretty bad but we got use to it.

It was rainy and cold so we took some indoor breaks every so often to warm up and not get to wet. It was kind of nice to get weather other than sun though. The kids loved it and got to even have a snowball fight with Marcus. What a treat! ha ha

I'm the crazy mom that has to get a picture of each kids getting eaten by the lion drinking fountain. The boys loved it and the girls didn't. Makell was annoyed and Andie was scared to death of it and would not get any closer. Marcus had a blast chasing the Geese around. They were not to friendly and his was pushing his limits with them and loving it!

These Lion statues were so fun. I love how the pictures turned out with them all playing on them too. It's so funny to see Makell so annoyed in this picture again. She is creeping into the teens and some days it's pretty obvious. Poor girl I feel for her. I hope she doesn't get too hormonal!

We all had so much fun watching Trenton and Andie's reactions to everything they saw. They were so fun and loved it all! Chase got a Cheeta to play with him. He would run up & down the fence line and the Cheeta would follow him. It was so fun to see them interact. Andie watched me walk backwards as I took picture/videos and decided to try it out. For about 20 minutes she would only walk backwards no matter what we did. We couldn't get her to turn around. It was so funny! Trenton had a blast scaring Andie when he turned into an Ape all of the sudden. Needless to say we had a Great time at the Hogle Zoo!