????????

Any guesses on what my kids are playing?

BIGGEST LOSER

They did the scale, tears, workouts, yelling like Jillian and the final reveal....where they took out the pillows.
I just don't know sometimes what goes through their minds. It was entertaining though!!

whale watching

We went whale watching this weekend.

A blue whale's heart is the size of an elephant. A human being can crawl through its veins.


Its tongue is the size of a car.

We saw about 10 blue whales. Wouldn't it have been cool if we actually saw the whale doing these things?

Instead...this is what we really saw.

Not as exciting as the other pictures I found.

More Preparedness

Today in the emergency preparedness week...we were asked to make bread. If you were advanced you could make it without electricity. I decided to give my dutch oven a try. I made some awesome banana bread.

I am so proud of myself and the kids went bananas!!!!!!

Fashion Disaster

Our ward is having an emergency preparedness week. Each day we get a new scenario to see how prepared we are. Today we were supposed to live out of our 72 hour kit. These were the clothes in the kit. Everything was too small. I told them they had to go to school in these. Taylor and Carly said no way...Sydney said fine...Brody called himself Farm Boy. After this they went and choose something that fit to put in the kit. Taylor wanted some fashion accessories to go with her outfit.

My favorite moment came when we were explaining how we wanted to try to be out of the house if we had to evacuate in under an hour. We talked about what we would grab and where we would go. I finally looked over at Sydney and she was crying...What is wrong Sydney? "I will never be able to clean my room in an hour, so I can't come." I told her I promise she won't have to clean her room before she can evacuate. Huge relief crossed her face. Honestly, I bet if I made them clean their room before they could evacuate...I bet they would clean their room in world record time. Something for me to think about.

Amazing cake

We had a birthday boy at our house. He started out wanting to go get sushi. I had no desire to go, so I arranged a date with his best man friend. I think this is called a sushi boat. I just call it wrong.

Then I surprised him and had Nazar make this AWESOME cake all about him. I had a tear to my eye when I saw this cake, it was wonderful and I know how many hours it took to make. Everyone loved it especially the birthday boy.
Let me give you a tour of the cake!


This is Scott scuba diving riding a sting ray...notice he is scuba diving with pom poms.



This is a temple in Guatemala...our best vacation ever...oh and he was a missionary there.

Chewbacca...He has the best impression of Chewy. Just ask he would love to do it. I knew I wanted to marry him after I heard him do this.

Everyone knows how much he loves BYU. Just look at his wardrobe. All BYU shirts.

Last his love for the 10 key...accounting.

Happy 38th birthday Scott. We love you and I now have the title of best gift giver. I am sure you will get it back at Christmas.

Finding yourself

I have come to the conclusion that you try to figure out who you are until you get married. Once you get married you have to be an adult and be responsible and kind of put yourself on the back burner as you raise your kids. Then when all your kids are gone you get to try and find yourself again.

This is the case with my Dad. He was a normal dad...went to work everyday to provide for his family...taught us life lessons so we could survive...never went shopping...never missed church. I never remember him having a hobby except for playing basketball.

Oh, how things have changed now that all the kids are gone!!
I don't know if I can categorize his new love on life or hobby in one category so I thought I would show photographic proof.

He bought this 10 foot dolphin to put by the side of the pool and was so proud of the deal he got. I did not know there was a huge competition on 10 foot dolphins except with sea-world.

We call this the bingo turner. He said it husked some sort of nuts.

He planted a cactus garden. Nothing says grandchildren friendly than a cactus garden. We now know the best way to get out cactus pokers is duct tape...FYI

This is his Indian burial ground. The only thing buried here is a dog. He has scared the grandchildren by telling them if they knock any of the rocks over the Indian spirits will come out. My sisters kids won't step foot down there. Every single one of these rocks have been taken from the side of freeways or roads. It has taken years to collect but if we drive with him we try ti distract him if we see a good rock he might want to stop and see. Isn't it sad I know what a good rock is.

This is the before picture...

This is the after...We all said trash the basketball hoop when it broke. He had this vision. He said no one probably has this in their backyard.

We went on a family vacation where we played horse shoes and my mom and him beat us all. Next time we came over he built a horseshoe pit.

I don't know...decoration.

Still don't know about this latest purchase. Maybe when the world comes to an end we will need these old machines to live.

My favorite thing in the whole backyard is his green rock. This is a $1000.00 rock he had to have craned over the pool. He calls it the dive rock and the grand kids love it. I told him when he dies I am going to have it craned out and put as his headstone.

Why does my dad do all this? Because he CAN... I think all these creative outlets have been bottled up for years while he had to be a normal dad. I think he is finding himself. We know each time we go to grandpas we will say "What is that?"

Back on track

Our annual first day of school photo. Everyone shows me what grade they are going into. Syd-2nd, Carly-4th and Taylor 7th

I was allowed one photo at Jr high per Talyor

I was not allowed to go any further than the gates per Taylor. Luckily I had a long lense.

Not a look back, not a wave, not a kiss but when she got home she needed me. She needed someone to show her how to open a combination lock. See you still need me.