Death in numbers

Sadly our second microwave passed on, and while I didn't commemorate his passing a third death has hit our home, quite literally.

Tweety was just having a peaceful day, coasting on the wind, flying with his friends. Poor bird never saw what hit him. The Children were playing in the house, being loud and probably fighting, when all of a sudden.

BAM!

Poor Tweety hit the window and fell to the ground. The funeral was held later that evening and he is now interred next to the dragonsblood plant in the garden. His headstone was designed by Ian.

Go Team!!

It was cheer week for Anna, Emily, Zariah, and Audrina.

The girls spent the week in training and then got to cheer at the varsity game on friday.

Cedar High played Snow Canyon and lost, but only barely in double overtime.

The girls had a blast and looked so cute!

Death in the Family

A beloved member of our family has passed away.

We will dearly miss him.

He warmed our food, defrosted our meat and made yummy quesadillas.

Yes, the wonderful member of our family was fondly known as microwave.

Though we never got around to naming him, we loved him just the same.

He met his inevitable end at the hands of another family member.

Andrew plead innocence but was found guilty of not knowing the difference

between a toaster oven and a microwave oven.

He was let off with stern words because it is hard to punish the mentally challenged.

For future refernece texas toast does not take 5 minutes in a microwave oven unless micro-cide is your intention.

Back to School!!!

So thankful for the school system who gratefully agreed to take my kids again this year. Don't know what I would have done if they had put a giant reject stamp on the registration forms.

Cried, I would have cried.

Luckily I had only tears of joy today as I watched them leave the house to goto the bus stop. Every year we take the picture of their first day of school with the kids holding up the number of fingers for which grade they are starting.

While some pictures will look like cool hand gestures, I still haven't figured out what they will do when they hit 11th and 12th grade.... maybe start adding toes!

First up is Andrew...

Then Brooke....
Followed by Anna....

And Emily......

And last but not least Ian, my baby....

Summer Fun

There is a little part of me that doesn't want summer vacation to end.

Our days have been filled with laziness and water fun and many books.

But most of all it has been filled with family and friends!

Soon school will start and we won't have as much time to hang around doing nothing

while having a ton of fun doing it!

Having lived in Southern Utah for 15 years it is crazy for me to realize

we have not seen all the local sites.

Xavier and Bruno came for vacation and we remedied this a little bit.

Parowan Gap is a literal gap in a mountain that enabled

people to cut through instead of going around.

On the rocks are ancient petroglyphs.

No one knows for sure what they mean,

for us they meant we got to climb rocks and hang out as a family!!

Bruno is getting so big and had fun climbing rocks.
Who can climb the highest??

Ian and Nathan hiding in small and big caves!

I think this one means that if you follow the railroad tracks, past the second exit you will find McDonald's... either that or these people saw a giant centipede and had to document it or no one would believe it was as big as they said. It really was ginormous!!!

And I think this proves that even people in the 1800's liked to carve their name in rocks!

Powder Puff Derby

The Achievement Day girls had a Powder Puff Pinewood Derby.

Anna and Emily were excited to design and build their cars.

Anna made a cellphone car.

And Emily made a candy bar car! (A mr. goodcar)

Good job ladies!!

Picture Perfect

Here it is... proof that my children can be bribed to look like they behave on certain occasions. One might actually believe that they are enjoying themselves

and are happy to be in sunny California

and not being yelled at that if they don't smile nicely

and look at the camera that a pair of scissors will find their way

into their rooms in the middle of the night to remove most of their hair.

Hey...whatever works !!!

Olympics

February is almost over and I have no news to talk about because I have no idea what is going on in my life!! It has been taken over by the olympics!!

I love them, every 2 years I get to zone in front of the tv for 2 weeks straight

and have no guilt over it because its the olympics!!!

My house is filled with shouts of:

Go USA!!!

Hurray, we have more medals than everyone else!!

Ha ha! did you see that team/ person fall on his butt!!!

Now with only 1 day to go I am reminded of the real world...

homework, kids, housework, legal stuff, small crisis plus huge crisis...

and all manner of other things that have been put on hold.

Sadness that I have to live in the real world again... it is a world that is still getting snow!

And while I have loved watching other people play in the snow I am definitely ready for spring!

You used to be my friend Mr. Groundhog!

I am not sure I will survive another 6 weeks of winter.

I need the warmth of spring,

I need to live in a place where flowers are begining to burst from the ground.

Oh wait, I live in Cedar, where it snows into May... Okay I gotta move.