all i want for christmas...

is a new camera. how can i blog without a camera? i ask you! literally impossible! ok maybe not but i was trying to get some sympathy for dropping off the blogging bandwagon for the past month. on to sympathy for awful camera syndrome. our old olympus 350c (or whatever it is) is as old as megs and has worked just great for us but isaac dropped it a few months ago (after being reminded and reminded that cameras are expensive and only mom and dad can use it--you see how far that went) and now all pictures are blurry around the edges (i'm sure this hasn't gone unnoticed!) so if santa is out there checking blogs...DON"T FORGET ME THIS YEAR! the whole past two months of our lives have gone undocumented for the lack of photo ability (well, and a little, i mean little, laziness on my account)

some things you've missed:

megan has been singing in the local children's choir for the past few months and at the begining of december they had their christmas concert at temple square. matt's parents along with mine plus aunts, uncles and cousins came out to wish her well and see her first big performance. unfortunately, there was no taping during the performance so we couldn't get her on film and of course, chalk another one up to the camera crisis, all of our stills are blurry. nonetheless, it was so fun to see her don her choir robes and sing her guts out for a real audience. we asked isaac if he was going to join her choir next year and, without hesitation, rapidly shook his head and looked at us like we were going to cut off his right arm. ok. message recieved. you won't hear about isaac's choir debut


but you will hear about the school christmas play a few weeks ago. we thought we left colorado behind us--but this play was something you'd see in a boulder school with al gore as the visiting santa. "santa's going green" was the title and each grade sung a song about enery conservation or recycling or how santa is now using fossil fuel to power his sleigh. quite a different twist on christmas plays of old. not one traditional chirstmas song. i'm not talking bring in the christmas spirit with "away in a manger" or "oh come all ye faithful". but a good rousing "jolly old st. nicholas" or "i want a hippopotamus for christmas" were noticeably absent. what's up with that?

in salt lake? bah! just wait until i join the school/community council.

mallory had her little preschool program last week too and loved performing like her older siblings. fortunately her class let christmas ring with "rudolf" and "jingle bells" and other christmasy tunes and poems. she really has grown up a ton and kindergarten can't come fast enough--for both of us;)

other fun events--seeing the lights at temple square, isaac starting his first season of basketball, megan singing the star spangled banner at a "feeder team for the jazz" (i can't remember their name) game, sledding with the whole neighborhood this weekend, sunday advent celebrations, gearing up for dad's b-day, pretzel dipping with dana, trying to figure out christmas lights on a new house, and getting 12 days of christmased by one of our neighbors.

here's hoping unblurry pictures will be gracing our blog soon!

the end of another season

...soccer, that is. both megs and isaac played awesome this season. they still love this sport and when we're not out on the pitch watching them, we're playing a girls v boys game in the back yard. when it gets too dark for that, isaac is you tubing any Man U clips he can find. it's so fun to see them so intense about this game. to love everything about it. i hope they continue.

isaac and his new soccer buddy, simon. this kid can BOOT the ball. he scored while playing goalie on a drop kick. kicked it over everyone and bounced over their goalie. hilarious!

isaac got a better feel for defense this year, too. which was a change for him. he still loves to score but slide tackling has become his new joy. if he can do both in one motion, all the better:)

megan, on the other hand, never saw the backfield this season. she always was out front, just how she likes it:) practicing against isaac definitely shone through this year. she was way more confident in her dribbling skills and took the ball around many a full back to find the back of the net. it's fun to watch her develop into a good little ball player.

scoring her last goal of the season. she had been held scoreless this game and with one minute left, tapped this one past the goalie to put the score at 2-1. i'll let you just imagine her excitement.

fall festivities

the pumpkin getting, above, and the pumpkin carving, below.The beauty of moving to a new city is you can get away with the same halloween costumes from last year and no one is the wiser. this year, both mal and isaac were gems and allowed their mother to take a creative break this season by going with their "old trusties" from last year. Cheer bear for mal and isaac as a skeleton. megan was harder to convince and in the end, was "cindy lou who", easily made from a DI dress and stuff around the house. eli took the cake, though, as our resident chicken. he was destined to be last year's frog until aunt dana offered up the chicken for him to borrow. am i ever glad as he was so funny, wadling around.

mal at her preschool party, and with eli and her bestest friend

off track campout

the kids have been home for the past three weeks and we've been able get out a bit and to do some fun things. this early fall off track time is slowly becoming my favorite. the weather is great--not too hot and not too frigid. it gets darker sooner than in the height of summer and they can play outside with friends in the dark without it being too late. they've rallied the neighbor kids for all sorts of night games on our street the past few weeks and have loved every minute.

last weekend, though, we took advantage of probably the last good weekend of the year and headed south for a little family camping trip. matt had been a few weeks earlier with the young men and he wanted to show the kids all the cool stuff he got to see.

as i've mentioned before on this blog, we're "white trash campers". no cool, high tech gear. no camper or rv. no atvs or motocross bikes. everything either bought on clearance or borrowed. not even a truck to load everything into--just a honda odyssey, packed to the gills. and four overjoyed children.

we camped in the san rafael swell next to this prime climbing wall...

then drove in a bit and hiked the narrows for a few miles until we hit an impassable (well, impassable with 4 small children) trench of water and turned around...

then at sunset drove into goblin valley to explore and play hide and seek. and for megan to take some pictures to enter in the reflections contest.

we got filthy dirty but loved every minute. this could easily become an early fall tradition.

reflections of christ

just to brighten your day
http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html

new family pics

ok they're finally here!!! and there are too many to choose from--so i'll put it to a vote. which family picture should we blow up mongo huge to hang on our otherwise empty front room wall?
a big shout out to my cousin rachael who did the honors. check her out. she's all the rage.

i'm waiting.............

crazy hair day

last friday was crazy hair day at school and this is what the kids came up with

megan couldn't wait to take this out after she got home!

bring on the harvest and other tidbits

we're up to our armpits in tomatoes, zuchinni and cucumbers as of late. we've finally been successful at getting to taste something that we've grown. we weren't so lucky in colorado. we've also devoured all the corn, raspberries, apricots, and lettuce and looking forward with mucho anticipation for the grapes and peaches--they look awesome!!!!!! if only we could keep the birds from thinking they look awesome, too. we also have 3 huge watermelons that we are going to sample this weekend. i'm crossing my fingers that they'll taste ok as they've taken over the whole of the garden. it has been fun for the kids to see the long term benefits of hard work and patience with gardening this year. they've all been really good to help with every step of the process, from planting, to weeding, to watering, to harvesting, and especially eating! eli just walks out there, picks whatever and chomps away. corn especially!!

speaking of eli--i thought i'd just add this pic as it is my future blackmail material--he has had quite an august. in the past month he as moved out of his crib, forgone the bink, and is in undies 24/7!!! talk about a month of transition. he's done really well with all that comes with growing up as of late (except he longs for the bink now and then) and i can't believe that after 9 1/2 years i have no diapers to buy or change. this frees up $ in the budget for mallory to take tumbling which has been her obsession for the past few months. she starts this week and is bursting with excitement! it will be so fun for her.

she's also started preschool again. something she's missed out on since we left colorado 8 months ago. she goes with all the other kids in the ward to mrs. jean (ms. jeans as mallory calls her) and she loves that it is something all by herself. she is so social and independent (from me, at least) that she really thrives when i'm not around. reminds me of my other daughter;). speaking of...megan just found out today that she made the riverton children's choir. we went down to the high school to audition on monday. she sang "away in a manger"--her first ever solo-- for the directors. she'd been a nervous wreck the whole day but did great. i'm hoping it will be a fun and rewarding experience (and that she'll learn a thing or two about singing because she's not going to get it from me).

with school started it also means the onslaught of soccer. we moved the kids to new teams this year and already love their new coaches and that their games are 2 minutes away!!! they are ready to get back into some regular exercise after not having much to do after school for the past few weeks and i'm ready for them to drop into bed at night instead of running me ragged and then still not being tired.

crazy july

i finally have a minute to play catch up on the busiest month i think i've ever experienced. we have had both matt's sister and her family and my brother and his family in town for the past 3 weeks and we've been trying to juggle activities with them along with our own schedule and so i hope you'll forgive the pending travel log.

4th of July--

no pic but spent with old, old friends the evans' who just happened to be moving back to here after a looooooooooong time spent in school. rick was one of the best men at our wedding and we were the last people he talked to as he headed out to propose to marty. so fun to catch up. so fun to see their kids we've barely met (who are miniatures of their parents). we've so missed friends that we had when we got married. plus # 1 on this post about living back home this summer.

6th of july--

baby hank's blessing (all pictures taken on my mom's camera-which means they'll never get off as i'm not sure if she knows how;) my little bro taylor and his wife laney had their first baby (on my birthday!!!) and blessed him this day down in orem. it's the first family ordinance we've been to in quite a while that didn't involve one of our children. plus # 2

6th-9th of july--

a quick trip to idaho, sans matt, with two sisters-in-law and their kids. how we love this place!!!! a big thanks to malee for staying back at the house with sleeping eli so i could swim with the older kids, corn meal with bacon, and an innumerable amount of double solitaire. plus # 3--close enough to drop whatever might be going on and take a few days of r&r in good ol' st. anthony. swim, float, swim some more, eat, watch girlie movies that matt would never pick and i've been dying to have someone to watch them with. a necessity of every summer as long as i can remember.

10th-12th of july--

bennion (matt's mom's side) family reunion in brighton. i don't have pictures of the whole group yet but here are the kids in their reunion shirts. we stayed 2 nights in cabins up there and had a great time with cousins of matt's that we rarely see. so fun to let our kids get to know relatives from around the country. plus # 4- getting to observe the bennion sisters at work. my mother-in-law and her sisters excel at family get togethers. they have been conference calling each other for months getting every last detail figured out and making sure their were fun and games for every age and liking. they thrive under pressure and are ever gracious and generous! thank you fab 5--you know who you are!!!

11th-25th of july

matt's sister in town for above said reunion and to vacate for a few weeks.

we had fun trips to liberty park, the bountiful bubble, uncle craig's cabin for horse riding and 4-wheeling, a family birthday party (with 5 of the 6 grand kids birthdays in the summer we thought combining them all would be best. mallory just got to celebrate twice this year), sleepovers and wii tournaments. mallory has found her twin in her cousin emileigh. just months apart, they are both into the same things right now and and get along swimmingly. on my side, she is the one cousin that doesn't have a twin. she's too young for kate, camila, and miranda and too old for ali and lauren (at least in her eyes) so emileigh is a treasure. if we could just get eli to stop pinching her, their visit might have been perfect;) plus #5 seeing matt's only sibling and her family more often than once every 2 years or so

17th- 19th of july-

neighborhood camping trip. in an attempt to get in good with some of our new neighbors we went camping to the spruces with a few families. as we've not been camping for some time, the kids were beside themselves with excitement. we're not the worlds most amped up campers. in fact, we're camping white trash. we pack all 6 of us with all our gear smashed into every inch of extra space into the ol' minivan--kids buried in sleeping bags and pillows so they'll fit (both the kids and the bags) in the back and coolers piled high in front of those with short legs. no high tech gear, just a clearanced out eddie bauer tent from target and a hand me down dutch oven, but they get us through. eli spent the entire 2 1/2 days covered in dirt. oh! he was gross! kids and camping, the essence of filth.

11th of july-3rd of august

my other little brother and his family are visiting as well and so we have been trying to even out the time between families. we spent a day with all the moms and kids up at this is the place heritage park last week (camera left in the car!) and all the cousins on my side (excluding babies) were enjoying a surprise afternoon downpour on the train after riding the ponies and doing all things pioneer. lunch at lucy's and before we knew it it was 4:30 and dinner for matt called. we packed up and headed back to reality with much whining and attempts to persuade me to let them stay. plus # 6--my kids get to grow up with their cousins. they're not the odd family out anymore (and i don't feel bad about saying no to sleepovers because there's always the next weekend)

24th of july--

new family picture taken!! yipee! can't wait to see them rachie. thank you! thank you! i love that you are adopted;) plus # 7- living in a hub where extended family with mucho talent stop in to visit other family and you get to sneak your family into their busy schedules and they still love you!!!!

25th-26th of july--

hawes family hike to timpanogos cave and camping trip. yes! camping trip #2. our first time getting in on the hawes campout (obviously-plus # 8). mallory hiked the whole way up. she complained every step, but every step was her own. we were trying to avoid a repeat of last weekend's hike to donut falls from the spruces where she took maybe 10 steps on the whole journey. she was a trooper until we had to make a mad dash from the cave 1/2 way through for an emergency potty run. it seems letting her carry her own camel back does come with a down side!

we camped overnight a few miles up from sundance, survived a thunderstorm and headed down the next morning in time for church which brings us to

28th of july

isaac's 7th birthday, celebrated with a skateboard, a donut cake and a promise to go miniature golfing (with a real cake) when we get a free weekend.

and the first day of school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! already!!! there's nothing like the first day of school to bring summer (and birthday) fun to a halt. isaac in grade 2 and megan in grade 4. the kids are excited to get back though, and so am i. it came up a little fast as we're used to a 3 month break but we're in desperate need of a routine. the only reason i'm blogging right now is 2 kids @ school, 1 across the street and 1 napping. i totally get that old office max commercial that has the mom dancing with glee throughout the isles of the store as she gathers back to school supplies, her morose children following and "it's the most wonderful time of the year" playing in the background. it's time. and i'm ready to send them back. back to going to bed on time, back to getting up for scripture study, back to reading every day, back to peace and quiet. ahhhh! can't you just hear it? (as long as i'm not homeschooling, a plus no matter where we live)

yes, this post is FINALLY over.