Happy Birthday Kaitlin

For Kaitlin’s Birthday Party this year she wanted to go roller skating.  The girls really had a fun time.  They all got a light stick to wear around their necks which was fun for them but also made it easy for me to tell where everyone was.  All of Kaitlin’s friends sang Happy Birthday to her on the sound system. 

The boys and even Kirk had a fun time skating.  I was so worried that Kirk would fall and break something.  I was quite impressed with his skating ability, he even won Tyler in a race around the rink.  I put skates on, stood up after much struggle, sat down, and then took my skates off.  I knew that I would break something if I skated.  I had a class the next day that I had to teach so I didn’t dare risk falling and hurting myself.  Maybe next time.

I made Kaitlin a rice krispie roller skate for her “cake”. 

The last of Wrestling….till next year anyways.

CTR news brings you…

We had a great New beginnings tonight.  It was based off of a news broadcast from CTR news.  Talking about the great things that are happening with the YW of the Leamington Ward.  The breaking news for the evening was that we had new Beehives that would be coming in this year and they were WANTED.  So be on the look out.  So much fun!

Giant Rocking Chair

The kids and I were traveling back home from Cedar City late one night and stopped in Beaver for a little break.  We’ve always seen this giant rocking chair but never took the opportunity to sit in it.  Well we did just that this night.  I was surprised at how comfortable it was.  It reminded me of that old T.V. show with Lily Tomlin in the highchair.

Salem Duals

Tyler did such an awesome job at the Salem Duals. You could see how everything he's been taught is making sense. He won 3 out of his 4 matches and received a silver medal.

Texting with Tyler

This layout is of my texting conversation with Tyler.

Tyler: Hey Mom, are you on your way home yet? Text back to chat
Mom: We are still here I dont think we will come home till morning
Tyler: You should come home now because it is very boring here and Bella needs food and I want to do something with you. Grandma wants to know if u r at lori's or somewhere else?
Mom: we're still at our retreat
Tyler: Well you need to come home . Please
Tyler: ='(='(='(='(
Mom: I dont like driving in the dark.
Tyler: you won't have to drive home in the dark if you come home now. But you don't have to come if your having a good time. Are you having a good time?
Mom: We are having a great time.
Tyler: K but I needed help with my talk for church tomorrow, I don't even know what the topic is. R u gonna come to church tomorrow?
Mom: look in the conference ensign and find your favorite talk. did you have a favorite one from the priesthood session?
Tyler: I didn't have a favorite talk and I still don't know what the topic is.
Mom: If you weren't given a topic then you get to make up your own
Tyler: like what?
Mom: What about setting goals since it's the new year?
Tyler: I just got it all done it is titled how can we make prayer more meaningful?
Mom: Sounds great see you tomorrow. Love you
Tyler: I love you too=x=x=x
Tyler: Are you gonna come and watch me give my talk?
Mom: I wouldn't miss it.

SNP 2011 scrapbooking retreat Orem, UT

Lori and I had our very first Scraps-N-Pieces digital scrapbooking retreat. We had a BLAST! I hope that everyone else did also. We played a bingo game, did a couple Speed Scraps, had a recipe challenge, and had 3 different work shops on photography, printing and journaling. Here are a few layouts that I did during the retreat.

This is what we did for our first speed scrap. A speed scrap is when you get 1 instruction every ten minutes for and hour. The one below is of my cute little kids in 2000. This is from the other speed scrap.

This is the layout from the Smoosh it up challenge. Which was when you get to see two different layouts and you pick things from both of them to make one layout. This is of Derick's very first date. He had such a wonderful time. He asked out Amy Wankier and they doubled with his two friends Dan and Becky.

This is just a layout that I did during our free scrapping time. Tyler was put in a dance class when we moved to Delta this year. He ended up being the only boy in the class with about 24 girls. Thank goodness Kylee Wardle was in the class. Tyler felt a lot more comfortable pairing up with her. Dancing wasn’t Kylee's thing either. At the end of the quarter they did a dance recital for the parents to see what they learned during the year. It was really great! They did a Hawaiian dance, a chair dance, the swing, and a improv dance. Isn’t he the cutest?

This last on is what I did mainly for the journaling. I am not a very good journaler at all. I am more of a Dick and Jane writer. I so much want to be better at it. Anyways, this is a layout of me and my great friend Lisa in highschool. Here is what it says: This morning I was sitting on the bus on my way to school when I looked down, and to my surprise, I had two different pairs of shoes on. I just couldn’t go home and switch so I had to spend the entire day as a JUNIOR in highschool wearing two different shoes. Granted, they weren’t totally different, but I was in highschool! I would put one shoe in my locker and leave one out, hoping no one would notice.

What a fun/embarrassing memory.

In Door Track meet

Derick had his first in-door track meet and threw the shot put. He did a great job for his first meet and has a good guide mark to improve on. He threw just short of 40 ft.

Last of Christmas

Christmas Eve is always such a special event.  The kids shared stories and their talents.  Dallin played the piano, Tyler and Kaitlin read us a Christmas story, Brynlee read us a cute little poem and Tyler ended with his talent of getting and Oreo from his forehead to his mouth only using his face muscles.

Grandpa Marchant then read us the Nativity from the New Testament and the kids opened their traditional PJ’s that Grandma Marchant made for them.  What a wonderful evening.

2010 Christmas Festivities

Kaitlin's Choir class did such a wonderful job at their Christmas program.  The songs they sang were beautiful and they sounded like angels.

We met with my side of the family before Christmas because we all had our turns at our other families this year on Christmas day.  We started off with stories of our most favorite and most memorable Christmas’.  One of my favorite Christmas’ was a few years ago when Kirk was out of work and we had no money for gifts, but I did have paper and a pencil, so I drew pictures for everyone.  One of my most memorable Christmas’ was when I was about 14 or so and my Grandma Evers thought that I was mature enough to get bikini underwear.   I remember opening them up and I was in shock that my Grandma would not only get me bikini underwear but see through bikini underwear.  I said “Grandma, GRANDMA!”  We all had a great laugh.  The kids memories were of when we did “Secret Santa” for some people in our ward that needed some help.  After the memories we had some share Christmas stories, Kaitlin played a piece on the piano, and Uncle Sean played some Christmas songs on his guitar.

My favorite gift that I received all Christmas was that my Dad typed up his conversion story and gave it to all of us kids.  Very special and I will treasure it forever. 

Our Leamington Ward primary put on one of the best Christmas pageants I’ve ever been to.  Quite a production.  Kaitlin was an innkeeper and an angel.  The kids did a great job!

Every year when we are in Cedar City  on Christmas we go to Craig Jones’ house to sing him happy birthday!  One of the great traditions that we look forward to as do the Jones’.    They have to gather everyone at the door so that they all can enjoy this tradition.  So much fun!

This Christmas was a little different for me because we weren’t in our own house for the Holidays.  It was weird not putting up our Christmas Tree this year.  But that’s not what matters.  What matters is that we celebrate the birth or our Savior and that we share it with family.

(More about Christmas later)

Delta Duals

At the Delta Duals tournament Tyler wrestled with a team out of Las Vegas. They didn’t have enough wrestlers, and Delta had too many to be able to wrestle. Their team made him and the other three boys that wrestled from Delta, feel very included. The coaches were awesome also.

The Las Vegas team had great team spirit. Before each wrestler would go out to wrestle, the entire team would put their hand on top of that wrestlers head and do a little cheer. The Delta boys didn’t know what to do at first but they caught on quickly and thought it was pretty neat.

Tyler started out getting pinned. His next match he went all three rounds and lost by points. His last match he pinned his match. So he improve throughout the day.

Jack Frost

We were coming home the other evening and the fog was so thick that you could hardly see in front of you. The next morning is was clear as could be and it looked like a winter wonderland with all these sparkling ice crystals everywhere. Just beautiful. Even the tumbleweeds were pretty.

Halloween 2010

Derick made the perfect Wolverine from the move X-men. His hair was even long enough to style. We all had to dress up for our YW-YM Halloween Carnival so we got creative.

I dressed up as a biker chick with tattoos and everything. I actually couldn’t find the regular arm tattoos so I ended up getting the leg ones and cutting a hole in the crotch to put my head through and then put my arms in the leg parts. Quite the ensemble. We had a fun time.

Rodeo Clown

Mad Hatter

OK, so I'm way behind on some pictures. Don't you just love Tyler's Halloween costume? He got that hat while we were in Disneyland, so it made for an easy costume. Just a trip to the DI and gathering all of Grandma's spools of thread and voila, the Mad Hatter. Hopefully soon I'll have the rest of our Halloween pictures done.

All Aboard…

Kaitlin has been in a little dance group here in Leamington, which has been wonderful!  She had her first performance last night and did a great job!  We all went on a ride with them on the Polar Express.

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer…

Kaitlin came home from school today and said “There’s a deer in the front yard”.  Sure enough, there was a deer in the front yard.  It’s not very often when you get to actually pet a deer.  It just wandered around the yard following everyone.  It even followed my Dad into the garage.  I guess our neighbors across the way, their son, rescued it from being stuck in a fence.  It’s a very friendly deer and has decided to stay in the neighborhood. 

Winning isn't everything!

Tyler has been trying to decide whether or not to go down a weight in wrestling. If he goes down he would have a better chance of winning because he would be wrestling kids that he is stronger than. This morning before heading off to school he says to me. “ I’ve decided not to go down a weight in wrestling, because I’ll never get any better if I win all the time” My kids just amaze me all the time. I’m so grateful for their good decisions.

I DID IT!

When Tyler decided to try wrestling this year I was excited that he was going to be able to do an individual sport. But once it started and seeing his disappointment when he loses, I didn’t like it very well. I decided that Football was easier to watch as a Mom, because everyone works as a team and not as an individual. But once he got his first pin and seeing the excitement that he can actually do it and win, wasn’t so bad. So I will have to endure however many losses to see that smile of I DID IT! He is learning so much and I appreciate the time that the coaches spend to teach these young men.

Derick became a Priest

Derick, became a Priest, in the Aronic Priesthood today, and now will be able to bless the Sacrament. What a huge step for him. We are so very proud of Derick and his worthiness to hold the priesthood.