Projects, Flowers and Cake

Now that T&M are back on-track and my grandmother is somewhat moved in (see Tim's blog about the big move,) I have some time to do projects.
Here are some "no tie" fleece blankets. Super easy to make and I love how they turned out!

Next up is a message board for Mak. I saw one that a friend of mine did for her daughter and I said to myself, "hey, I can make one of those." I found some left over material from Mak's curtains that I made a while back. There was enough for a good size board. So, Cory cut a board for me, and I was off. I actually had a lot of fun making this. A friend of mine made me a little nervous about putting the ribbon on. She said it took a lot of time and lots of math thinking. I didn't think it was too bad. I actually liked the challenge of figuring it out. So, if anyone is interested in a personalized message board, let me know!

This last week, Mak received her first flowers in the mail. Cory sent her this arrangement just because! Beautiful flowers for a beautiful young lady.

I got TIM!!

Valentine's Fly!

No, the title is not a misprint. Cory and I went flying for Valentine's Day. We did away with the traditional flowers, cards, candy, a lame love movie and what not for something a little more exciting. Actually, Cory came up with our date all by himself. His first choice was skiing lessons the Friday before Valentine's Day, but he didn't get home from CA until noon. So, we drove up to Odgen that night for some skydiving lessons. I was a little nervous, but it was a total rush.

After checking in, (paying) you can sit and watch other divers until an "instructor" calls you into the "flight training room" for a quick briefing. In the briefing, you learn some hand signals that will be used, arm, leg and neck positions, and how to enter and exit the flight chamber. Next comes getting dressed in the lovely flights clothes. Knee pads, suit,(they actually had a one-piece suit that fit me!) ear plugs, goggles, and helmet all must be worn. So attractive, especially on Valentine's Day:) Then it's off to the flight chamber. Each person gets 2 one minute "dives" with an instructor in the chamber with you. After our session, we received a certificate and a DVD of the experience. Pretty cool!! Check out where we went: iflyutah. Just try to "wipe the smile off my face!"

I was having a hard time downloading our dives, so here are some pictures of what we did. This isn't Cory and I, but this what we looked like, sort of, in our flight clothes!

Here is some guy flying with an instructor. Notice the arms out in front, legs bent and chin up! So cool!! Sure wish my DVD could have downloaded!

This is not Cory, but his cheeks flapped in the chamber, much like this guys' cheeks. It was great:)

Blue/Gold Dinner & Pine Wood Derby!

Tuesday night was a big one for our family. The Cub Scouts had their annual Blue/Gold Banquet and Pine Wood Derby, all in one night. I am the Primary counselor over Scouts, so I was at the church at 5 to help set up. Cory was also at the church early to help out since he was the Cubmaster. He was released a couple of Sundays ago, but still helped out since he knew what was going on.

This is the banquet part of the night. Since the Scouting Program is celebrating 100 Years, we had a "Birthday Party" with pizza, salad and of course cake. Gotta love cake from Costco and pizza from Little Ceasar's. We had 2 cakes and 18 pizzas. The best part was that we had only 6 pieces of cake left-over! This picture is of Tim, his friend Mikayla, Mak's friend Abby, Mak, Katie and Kelli.


After dinner, we handed out some awards. Tim earned his Webelos, Webelos Compass with two points and his Arrow of Light. He still has 2 months in Webelos! Way to go Tim!! Cory was allowed to give Tim is awards, even though there is a new Cubmaster. It has been cool to see Cory advance Tim all through Cub Scouts! This is me giving Tim a hug and a kiss (yuck for Tim in front of everyone) for earning his awards. My Mom's camera had some water spilled on it prior to this picture:(


The last part of the night was the Pine Wood Derby. Everyone gets so involved, especially the dads. Sometimes they get involved a little too much. Tim's car didn't do too well. I was proud of him though. He picked out a template by himself, traced it onto his car, got a little bit of help cutting it out, and sanded and painted it by himself. I had to tell him that it isn't about winning, but about making the car and learning from it. He didn't care, he just wanted to suck the helium out of the balloons. That's Tim for ya!!
Tim's car is the 4th from the right on the bottom row. Cory's car is the furthest right one on the top row!

Working Together!

So, last week, I looked outside one afternoon, and saw this:

All four kids were out back, working together, to put up our trampoline. I just about fell over. I had to run, get my camera, and take a picture so everyone out there would believe it. The only loud words I heard where Tim telling his sisters were to hold the trampoline and how hard to pull on a spring.

Now the kids are jumping on the tramp whenever they can, no matter what the weather is like. And now I am hearing fighting, screaming and a little bit of crying. I love my children!!

"Devil Dog"

This is Toby's newest thing to do!


And he helps clean the dishes too.


Toby has been given the nickname of "Devil Dog" because that is what he is! He gets into everything, runs around like a crazy thing, and attacks at will! But then he loves to sit in people's laps, he loves to play fetch and he is very protective of us when the door bell rings. What's a person to do?

Tim's Blog

My son, Tim, bugged me all weekend to go on Facebook and set up an account. I am not a huge Facebook fan, for various reasons, so I let him start a blog. We spent some time Sunday evening getting it started. He is pretty excited about it. It is really cute and so HIM! Check it out! There is a link in my blog list.

Ski Lessons

Tim and Mak just finished up with ski lessons. The lessons were put on by Marv Jensen Rec Center and Snowbird. The kids rode in a chartered bus up to the resort. Instruction was from 9-12, with an hour lunch, then more instruction/skiing til 3pm. Then they were back on the bus for the ride home. They went 2 times a week for 2 weeks. Plenty of time! This was Tim's second year. On the first day, he went down a black diamond, falling only twice! On the second day, we went down a double black diamond. He loved it. Mak didn't complain about her days. She came home happy and even enjoyed getting up early to catch the bus by 8am. She made some friends as well. Now, Cory and I need some lessons to keep up with our kids!
Ready for another day on the slopes! Mak is actually smiling:)

After four days of skiing, Mak and Tim were exhausted and a little beat up. Thank goodness for our hot tub!

Thank you Great Baci for the wonderful Christmas present!

Two Teeth Pulled

Katie went to the dentist this afternoon and had two teeth pulled. The top front tooth was infected and actually dead. If we had left the tooth in for too much longer, the infection would have got worse and caused pockets of swollen puss in her mouth. YUCK! The second tooth was a last minute decision. About a week ago, Tim and Katie were wrestling, a daily occurrence at our house, and knocked a bottom front tooth loose. Katie has been working that tooth ever since, and today at lunch, both Tim and I tried to pull it out. No luck! So we asked the dentist to pull it out. It's a good thing we did because some tissue was starting to grow back inside the tooth. What a fun day at the dentist!!

Out with the Old, In with the New!

This is our old dining set in the kitchen. We have outgrown it! We can barely sit six around it and when we do, we are bumping elbows and knocking knees. Bye, bye little table!

HELLO new dining table and chairs! I love our counter height set. It's so nice to just slide into a chair instead of squatting down. We have lots of elbow room and our knees are bruise-less!

I can say that I am HAPPY with our kitchen/dining area!

1st Hair Cut

Toby had his first hair cut experience this afternoon. Here he is in the truck on the way to the groomer. What a sad looking puppy!

Honestly, I was a little nervous taking him to the same place that saw our other dog, Copper, just before he died. When I walked into the shop, I almost did a 180 and walked out the door. There were dogs of all sizes around, hair everywhere on the floor, and the smell, well, we all know what a wet dog smells like. When a lady walked by my to get things ready for Toby, Toby started growling at her. I guess he is a very protective little dog. I handed him over and four hours later, this is what I got! So, cute and fluffy. He smells good too!

After seeing Toby and smelling him, I decided that this groomer isn't all that bad. I was able to get some cleaning done without Toby running off with a dirty sock or chewing on the duster. Now if I can just keep Toby out of the trash cans!