National Guard

Chris joined the National Guard this last Friday. It took a lot of research, talking and praying before coming to the decision that this would be good for our family. I'm really excited for this but also nervous too. He does SO much around here that I'm really not sure how to do it alone any more. He'll be gone for 6 months. It'll be a long 6 months...

We didn't say anything to the kids about it until we knew for sure that this is what we were doing. We told them a couple of nights before he swore-in. They were all upset, Zach especially. I think he'll take Chris's being gone the hardest. Hopefully I can be a good and patient mom.

He swore-in on Friday, February 20, 2009

Here is after his haircut...atleast he doesn't get it shaved til AFTER he's left for training! (I don't like his head shaved...)

Off to drill the very next day.

I love you, Babe. And I'll miss you more than you can imagine when you're gone!

Fancy Day

Today, for Lauren's Valentines Party, the kindergardeners had "Fancy Day". So Lauren got to dress up super cute for school. (Well, she's super cute EVERYday, anyway, but that's a given.)

My Super-Cute Super-Model!!!

Obama Banana Leaf Portraits

All proceeds go to Hope for Little Angels of Haiti.

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/rosenloflo_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

My Mom

I just want everyone to know what an awesome mom I have. She has always been there for me. I wouldn't trade her for the world. I have always and will always look up to her.

Summer of 1992 Haylee, Me, Lauren, Mom and Zach...June 2003 Me, Mom and Heather...July 2006

Dani, Step-dad Doug, Heather, Me, Mom and Chantelle...May 2007

As you can see we get out beautiful eyes and smile from our mom!
I love you, Mom! Thanks for all you do!

Happy Birthday, Zach!!!

2 weeks old...how sweet

The Indian blood in you....

Sweetly sleeping... 1 1/2 years old
Dressed up w/Haylee...2 1/2 years old
Just one of the girls... 3 1/2 years old Your first skateboard!...4 years old
Your first big birthday party...5 years old
hApPy bIrThDaY zAcH ! ! !
~7 yEaRs oLd~

Starring Elizabeth.....

Broken Water Main

I woke up yesterday morning, came down to my office and opened my blinds. There was a big hill in my front yard where there had not been a hill before. (Stupid me forgot to take pictures...) There was water running down the sidewalk and at 1st I thought, "Is it warm enough out there for the snow to be melting THAT fast?" I then proceeded to the front door and opened it. There was water SPURTING from the small hill in my yard...a water main had busted! So needless to say the rest of the day was spent fixing this problem. It took about an hour to figure out how to keep the water from continuosly flowing into the hole where the main water valve was hiding. Then Jordan, Chris and our awesome neighbor Russ Lee helped pull back our grass (much harder than it sounds) and dig up about a 3x6 area of yard...and about 4 feet deep. They finally found the problem. It was a small problem at a joint....causing a BIG problem in our yard...and our house. We had no flooding in the house but since the water was off we had no running water. (I managed to clean the kitchen and a bunch of dishes with no running water...thank goodness for water storage!) Back to the problem outside...Russ was nice enough to run to Home Depot and Lowes looking for the part that broke. They didn't carry it. Chris called a local plumber and the guy was nice enough to meet Chris at his shop and sell him the part. All-in-all it cost $20 to repair the problem and we have running water again! Oh, and a big hole in our yard to Chris fixes that... =)

Looking for a Rental House in the Lehi area?

My father-in-law's rental house in Saratoga Springs, Utah has become available for rent. Please post a comment if you're interested or if you'd like more info or pictures on it.

4 bedroom/2.5 bathrooms ~ basement ~ fenced yard ~ $1,295/month

Jordan's 12th Birthday

Our kids get a birthday party when they turn 5, 8, 12 and 16. Jordan turned 12 this year and thus got a big birthday party. There were about 20 kids total that were able to make it. He decided he wanted a black light party. So we had a bunch of black lights, white decorations and tons of streamers coming down from the ceiling. We also had a strobe light and a fog machine. The smoke machine was a big hit! Prior to the the day of the party we had all the kids that were coming pick out some music for the party. We also burned each kid a CD to take home with them with music from the party on it. Most of the time the kids danced, goofed-off and ate. We had a few games with cool prizes...some of them were even gift cards. If I could do it over again, I'd make more of the prizes gift cards.

All the kids had a lot of fun. They partied til 10pm. By the time parents were picking them up the house was THRASHED and full of smoke (from the fog machine!). But the kids seemed to have a lot of fun and Jordan couldn't thank me enough. So the huge mess I had to clean was totally worth it.

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

How Boring Am I???

I've decided I don't blog enough.

I read other people's blogs and they're so interesting to me (ok, SOME of them are...not all).

How come I can't be interesting or funny or creative?

And honestly, I really suck at downloading pictures onto my computer

and then loading them AGAIN to my blog.

Talk about boring.

And time-consuming.

'Cause sitting here reading all these other cool blogs isn't boring......

......or time-consuming.