Family Photos Finally!

Monday night, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Murray Park with grandma and grandpa for a picnic and family pictures. I try to make it a tradition every three years to update the family photo, and this year we decided to try the cheap way and use our digital camera. The scenery was great, and so was the first half hour of photo time, then we took a break and ate dinner. Yum! After looking at all the pictures, I decided the family photo wasn't what I had in mind, so we had to put the boys white shirts back on (I was smart and didn't have them eat and drink red cream soda in them), and tried for one good picture. After several pictures and several cat fights between the kids and getting Tyler to just give us one good smile (didn't happen) we called it a wrap. We were happy with the last bunch of pictures, and that night Kris was trying to move all pictures to the computer, when the card crashed (probably too many high quality photos), losing the last half of our pictures! Just our luck! Kris was quite upset and spent most of his day on Tuesday at work trying to figure out how to salvedge the pictures. (We even lost all the pictures from all summer long!) Luckily, that night he found a free website that retrieved most of our pictures! Huge sigh of relief! I am so grateful for websites that are not into making a ton of money off of others, and for those that put free tips, programs, etc. out there for all of us! At least I don't have to worry about this for three more years! Yeah! Many thanks to our photographers, Mom and Dad!

Cheerleader For A Day

One of Hayley's dreams came true last Friday. She got to participate as a mini cheerleader for the Viewmont High School game. A girl from our ward who is a cheerleader for Viewmont called us to see if Hayley would be interested in doing a cheer camp for a week, then performing at half-time. Would she?!!! After putting in four hours of practice time, she was officially ready to perform at Friday's game. All kids were excited, even Zach, who has recently gotten into the Viewmont footballs games (this was his 2nd game already). He invited a friend, and they hung around for about 20 minutes, then disappeared where all the tweens hang out at the end of the field. Apparently, this is a popular hangout for lots of 6th graders! I never noticed little elementary kids hanging out at my high school football games (probably too busy noticing other things like cute boys!) Tyler and Justin passed the time by playing with a friend, who's sister is the real cheerleader. Hayley was a real natural and looked great as a cheerleader. Who knows whats in her future? Hopefully all her dreams come true in life...

Bill the Cat

It seems we have adopted a temporary (hopefully) cat. For the last couple of weeks, there has been a cat roaming the neighborhood. We have heard it several times at night outside our bedroom. I am not a cat fan! In fact, Kris doesn't care for them either. On Saturday, this cat kept coming around our house, and the kids took it upon themselves to chase the cat off. Don't turn us in to authorities, but Zach even used his airsoft gun to target practice on the cat. That didn't scare it off, Kris chased it off several times with a newspaper, still not scared! At one point on Saturday, it ran into our house after one of the kids left the door open. After about ten minutes under my bed, we finally were able to chase it out of the house. It is a very mild tempered, nice cat, and Hayley and her friend Jaycee started petting it. This is probably why it would not leave our yard. Today after church, we saw it lapping up some water that was in our driveway. This started to pull at our heart strings! Kris and I decided we would give it some leftovers from dinner, it was so hungry it devoured my beef stew (at least someone ate my beef stew!) We decided to let the kids enjoy it as an outside cat, until we can find its owners if there are any. Tyler announced at dinner that its name is Bill, but my mom and dad came over, and since I am allergic to cats and will not touch it, my mom took a look and thinks it is a girl, so maybe it's Billy?! Hayley gave the poor thing a bath, and it just sat there and let her! We'll see how long this pet lasts...

This is what happens when you ask Zach to take a picture of your new haircuts...

Hayley and I just recently left 5 inches each of our hair on the salon floor. Sometimes I miss mine, but other times, not so much. Since we have family not nearby, I thought I would have Zach take a picture of our haircuts. Not such a good idea...

First picture: Hayley's very expensive mouth (which Zach thinks is funny 'cause it's not him...yet!)

Second picture: Me: "Zach, get our hair in it." Ha ha ha!

Third and last picture: Finally!

And they're off...

Well, school has officially started! Everyone seems to be doing well after the first week of school. Zach seems to enjoy his new teacher, and he has most his friends in his class. They are bribed with Guitar Hero on Fridays if they turn in all their work. That should inspire him! Hayley seems to enjoy her teacher and from what I hear, the cute new boy that sits across from her! Oh, to be young and have a school girl crush! Justin has survived his first full days as a big first grader. It helps that he has a great teacher and a couple of neighbor friends in the class. Tyler starts preschool next week, so stay tuned for updates on that.

Right now, Tyler and I have to figure out a way to share the house together. Tyler has suddenly become afraid of the house and has to be in the same room with me at all times! I can't even take a shower without him coming in to be with me! I even tried locking the door the other day, and had to get out of the shower to unlock it because he had become hysterical on the other side! I hope this is a phase that he will soon outgrow!

End of the Summer!!! Yeahhh!!!!

Well, sadly but mostly happily (that doesn't sound right, oh well!) our summer is coming to a close. We are enjoying or surviving (depends on whose view your looking at) the last week of our official summer. The kids have for the most part been good and we have all got along, the last month being the longest, but I think everyone is looking forward to a new school year. We just found out our classes and teachers, and I think everyone is very happy, with both teachers and friends. Mom and Tyler are going to celebrate the first day back to school by going to the park and having lunch with a bunch of other girls in the ward (visiting teaching) and their younger kids! You can call it "Mom's Back-to-School Celebration!"

Some of the highlights of the past summer were:

Lagoon and Lagoon-a Beach (did this several times)

Family Get togethers

Pineview Reservoir

Bear Lake (sorry, forgot to take camera!)

Farmington Parade Float (our Stake entered this float in the Days of 47 parade, and won top honors and first place! It was awesome! It had crickets jumping in the jello and salads! They had it parked out front of our church building for several days, so we got to see it up close and personal! Way to go Farmington Stake!)

We hope this new school year brings happiness and joy for us all!