Devin goes to another dance- a girl's pref- Sadies.

Another year has gone and this is marked by the fact that Devin has attended his 2nd Sadies since starting High school. This year was a lot more fun for him. The kid all went 4 wheeling, had a picnic and then went home, rested, got ready for the dance and then went and partied!

This Sadies he went with Emily Hesson. She is the cousin of the girl that he was dating, Maddie,(for those of you who have listened or watched Devin text this girl at all hours of the day while we were on vacation that is now over- with alot of drama, so call and ask if you want to know! but it is not a blog entry!)

He had a lot of fun, they danced, snacked hung out with friends and took pictures. I will try and get a group picture posted here soon.

Kyler turns 14!

Well another milestone has been turned over! Kyler is 14! Not only does that mean that he is another year older, but it also means that he will be ordained to the office of a Teacher at church!

Let's start off with his party though, he had about 10 of his closest friends go with him to Snow Canyon State Park to play capture the flag in the Sand Dunes after school on November 9th. It was a great day for this since it was warm (yes, it is November folks- but it was 75* outside) but with a little breeze. They left right after school and played until Dark. After they were finished getting sandy and worn out they came to our house to watch Transformers (they all think that the girl in the movie is SMOKING HOT!! not my words) and sing happy birthday to Kyler.

Kyler's friends ended up giving him some money so that he could buy Itunes downloads for what he thought he was getting as a present from us- An Ipod, but little did he know that he would not be receiving that for his birthday but instead received a aquarium and all the fixings plus 5 fish and another frog!

On Kyler's official birth day we gave him his present, decorated his birthday spot at the table for all his meals and went out for dinner at his requested restaurant: Pizza Factory. Usually, if you go to the original Pizza Factory, they will make a pizza for you in the shape of your birthday years. The restaurant that we went to was closer to home and so we just got pizza, bread sticks and yummy pink lemonade with sprite (it's a Pizza Factory tradition!)

Now, for the Church event:

Last Sunday Devin set Kyler apart as a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a very short but special Setting Apart. Devin was very nervous, and memorized the words that he needed to say at the beginning. He did a great job! I mean it was his very first time giving a blessing plus setting Kyler apart and he tried so hard to be a good example to Kyler and Mckenna by fulfilling his Priesthood duties.

I was happy for Devin to be able to experience this step in his life because it was another process in the spiritual progression!

I am happy for Kyler because for him also it is another step on his spiritual progression, plus the fact that he doesn't have to be in the Deacon's Quorum anymore and dread going every week during Mutual since he didn't have any fun since they only worked on Scout stuff and as the President of his Quorum he didn't have very much help from his fellow presidency members and felt like he was carrying the whole load. But, might I add- he did a great job of planning, implementing and carrying off all aspects of his calling. His final activity of the Quorum was The Halloween Activity they did for the primary kids which turned out to be a great success because of Kyler's leadership. The YW leaders thought that a parent was planning for a boy and yet, it was just Kyler and his perfected outlook on planning and having fun!

Florida Vacation

Okay, so we have been home almost a month and I have been very remiss at not posting any comments or pictures about our vacation to beautiful, sunny Florida. Maybe, it is because I don't want to be reminded of the sunset, the dolphins or the fact that i only really got one good day to soak up the sun! I miss Florida so much! I mean "I want to soak up the sun!!!"

Florida really was nice in October. I think that it is my favorite month to visit.

But being that i was sick most of the time, it wasn't as fun as it could have been, but that is no ones fault but my own for getting sinus colds and infections- i know what I am suppose to do and should have started trying to take care of it sooner, but how did I know that the altitude would affect my cold?

Sharon, Rich and our family with Mom, Dad and Mary all went to Sanibel to go kayaking and beaching it. It was nice. A funny thing happened while we were at Lighthouse beach. We had a nice reunion with Gary Davis! Then later after leaving to go back to Maderia we stopped at Joan and Rich's house to visit them so that we could reconnect with the whole family and not just Gary. We ended up having a nice chat finding out how Chelsea has grown-up and it felt like we hadn't been away from each other for 14 years!

* just a side note: I may have seemed really grumpy to some of you while we were kayaking and i am sorry about that- i really like to have my way and was hoping that i could ride with Matt and one of the kids, but bugger that didn't happen. Sorry, if it wasn't as fun as it could have been! The beach was fun though.

I loved watching the kids faces while we were at Busch Gardens they really loved the rollercoasters there! It is really nice to go somewhere that is not a repeat of rides that you have gone on your whole life (or so the kids said.) I like the same rides, it is nostalgic and comforting! But my favorite ride was on the train- we saw so many animals and watchin Kyler was really fun. He loved all of what he saw- too bad we didn't want to do the safari that you pay for- those people met the Giraffe's face to face- kyler would have really loved that. But the meerkat's were very fun for all of us and the hippos in the aquariam view pool with all the fish, turtles and birds!
Kyler and Mckenna ended up getting a character sketch done of each other. Devin and I got Henna tattoes. Mine lasted 3 weeks, Devin's 1 day. He went swimming at the Grandparentals pool and the clorine faded it I guess. Sorry about that Dev!

Speaking of the Grandparentals and the Grand Aunt (well as far as the kids are concerned,)they spoiled my children silly. All the girls went shopping and Mary and Mom helped Mckenna pick out clothes (or was it watching Mckenna pick out clothes?) Then they got her a pair of shoes and a fun pair of earring. Later they handed each kid a birthday card with fun money in it. I really think that that was so very very nice and generous of them especially for Mckenna since they had already gotten her something.

I loved being able to hug my mom and dad, looking at them for hours and just taking to them not so long distance! I really miss that. I also miss the dinners out on the clubhouse patio!!

The days at the beach were really nice- the ocean was clear- the dolphins were out in droves, so were the fish and the diving birds!


Here is what everyone enjoyed:

• Mckenna enjoyed everything especially the shopping!
• Kyler didn't enjoy the ocean, but he did enjoy playing in the sand and playing the video games at Grandma and Grandpa's clubhouse!
• Devin enjoyed watchin the Redsox, talking to everyone and learning about life! But I think that he missed his girlfriend Madi a little since he spent so much time texting her the whole vacation :>.
• Matt enjoyed talking to Dad, going to Busch Gardens and playing in the ocean but really missed his own bed and the mountains!
• I loved everything but hated having to take a nap everyday to feel not so worn out in the afternoons!

Here are a bunch of fun pictures of our days in Florida. Some of you get to see these views and sites everyday so maybe they aren't so special but they really were to me!
There are so many that I put them in a slide show, Enjoy!

Halloween and it's many activities!

It 's Halloween and it's also Wednesday so we have had a really busy day with so much fun rolled into it!
It started out with all of us dressing (except Baa Humbug Matt,) for our various schools that we drove (or walk in Mckenna's case,)to.

Here is what the kids looked like in the morning:

I did not get a picture of me- sorry, but I was really cute looking as a Pirate, complete with jewels, white shirt, boots and baggy pants- bummer that the camera i took my SPT didn't turn out (it was the cell phone.)

Mckenna's school held their annual Halloween Parade and then had a great classroom party.
Luckily for me I was able to help out with the games and such. I had told Mrs. Simkins that I would be her Room mother at the start of the year, but then after getting my job, I had to relinquish the role (which by the way, I was bummed about!) But, the room mom that is doing it isn't that excited about being with the kids and so she planned the party and then turned it over to me, so we were both happy! It was great fun! Check out the pictures!

Mckenna's Teacher Mrs. Simkins.

Her costume was so funny because at her backside is a little doggie stuck in her rearend!

Mckenna and her friend Erin posing after playing the Mummy game.

Mckenna and Jordan eating their party treats!

When the kids were finished with their treats and the other mom's went home, I stayed and read the kids scary stories.

After School, I had to take Kyler and Mckenna to the Orthodontist! What?! What kid goes to the Orthodontist? Well, kids that miss their other appointment at the start of the month because they are flying on an Airplane on the way home from Florida. Luckily for them, their braces weren't tightened too much and so they were still able to eat candy!

After we all got home, Mckenna headed out to Madison's house, Devin went out with his friends and Kyler headed to the valley with his friends so Matt and I handed out candy to the Trick or Treaters and watched a Boris Karloff film- Body Snatchers (not to be mistaken with Invasion of the Body Snatchers!) Okay- old movie afficinado's what is the other famous actor in this movie? It was a great flick!

Santa Clara City Streetscape Ribbon Cutting Ceremony!

An exciting event for Matt is coming to a completion today. The Streetscape is done!

Today Matt looks a little taller, he doesn't look so laden down with worries. AND He looks very Presidential- don't you think?

The event had 3 stages, First stage was the refreshments.


So many people (not just residents,) came to the ribbon cutting besides the many people involved with helping complete the whole experience; the Citizen steering committee, architects, landscapers, planners, city employees and 3 Mayors who have discussed, planned and sweated out the entire process!


An Oomppa, Oomppa band completed the Historical feel to the event.


The 2nd stage was the talks, (you know- thankyou's etc...)
Matt gave a talk, former Mayor Drake (who is now a County Commissioner,) and Mayor Rosenberg talked. The best talk of all though came from a resident who grew up in Santa Clara with the last name of Graff ( i can't remember his first name,) he talked about the very early history of Santa Clara, his childhood in Santa Clara and the future of Santa Clara and how the streetscape fits into that future. It was a really great speech!





The 3rd and final stage was the Ribbon Cutting itself. My camera died (it hasn't been acting right since we came home from Florida- yes, it misses Florida too! HAHA) so I have had to depend on other's pictures for this entry sorry!



I would love to show you pictures of the streetscape, and maybe you thought you were seeing some, but all you have seen is the street and Heritage Square (even though it does look nice, it is not the main idea here!) So I will be doing another entry on what the streetscape looks like, It will have lovely Christmas decor though since I am not getting a new camera until November.

The Dynamic Duo

Kyler and Mckenna have been spending some fun times on the weekends doing some really crazy things, here are a few of them.

First is the jam session that they had, where they took turns singing, playing guitar and the drums. It was a hoot!

The next thing that they have done is create a mask for a super hero- how about we have a contest and YOU GIVE THE HERO A NAME, since they didn't come up with one...

Here is the co-creator holding up part of the mask, the other part sits on your head so that you can't see your hairline- smart huh?

**okay so I found this lurking in my drafts- and decided I needed to post it. let's still do the naming of the monster contest- ready?! go!

Mckenna Marie turns 11!

So, the day that Mckenna and I have been planning for for the last few weeks has finally come- her 11th birthday party! We planned the cake weeks ago, activities in July when Sharon came and Mckenna was so kindly invited to participate in the Finlinson Girl's sleepover at Teba's house and bought her present in June! So we made invitations that resembled Jasmine's homecoming shoe,(yes, hot pink and black~ see last entry !) Than delivered them at night so that Mckenna could make sure that everyone was home to see their reaction to how cute the invite was!

Are you excited to see what we did? Well let's take a look....

Here is the whole gange before the party started- don't they look like a fun group of girls?

So one of the things that we did at this party was paint our toesnails and fingernails. I was going to give them manicures and pedicures, but none of them wanted it so that made it easy for me!

Even the girls that don't like girly stuff like the one in green and Kyleigh (in white next to her,) did their nails!

The cake didn't exactly look like what I expected it to be - it is suppose to be a purse cake, but the icing stuff didn't actually turn out they way that the gals at the cake shop told me it would work, but it sure is pretty colored! If you look really carefully at the candle blowing out picture the cake looks like a million scoops of icecream- so it does look cool that way!

Whether the cake turned out as it should have, the girls thought it was delicious and with that cake we served Baskin Robbins' rainbow sherbert. Mckenna want to have a really bright party. Doesn't the pictures show it being colorful?

One of the pictures that I didn't get was the girls making lip gloss. They all loved figuaring out what flavor and smell they wanted. Their choices were: vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch, cinnamon, and cherry. Some of the girl got really creative and made minty chocolate, cherry vanilla and cinnamon vanilla! I thought it was a good activity! (thanks Teba!)



For the treat bags I made little fabric purses- some of the girls like them, others didn't (the tomboys,) and decided that they were going to give them to their little sisters, at least they didn't try to throw them away...



Funny thing- the night of the party Fred came, we didn't expect him until the night after. I had considered having a party and a sleepover but am glad that we didn't since he came. The girls were a lot louder than I had planned and Fred was kind of outof sorts because of it. But he did take it all in stride, just didn't get the attention from the Mckenna or me that he would have liked, luckily Matt was home to entertain him. Lucky for me Lisa came with Madi and stayed to help me since I had planned on Matt helping me with the whole thing which he wasn't looking forward to since it was so girly!



Mckenna got a bike for her birthday from the family. I few fun sweatshirts from friends, a stuffed dog that you can play with on the internet, make-up, journal stuff with pens, and a really cute tote bag from other friends! It was a great time.



Can you try and figuare out what the last activity was that we did of the night? Watch the video...

Homecoming 2007

Since I still can't believe that I am old enough for Devin to be a Junior (and as I have said before- Neither can anyone else I have come to know.) I thought that maybe I would post about an experience that Matt and I got to share with Devin in a new way;
Chaperoning a Homecoming Dinner and planning the day date.

What was that?! A Day Date?! Yep, not only do the kids go to dinner, get their pictures taken and then go to the dance, they also have a day date (all day long- it seems. Maybe I talked about this when Devin went to the Girl's pref dance- but not sure..) Ridiculous I know, but that is what they do!

So it started a month and a half ago with the "HOW DO I ASK JASMINE TO THE DANCE?" question from Devin to me. Well, I thought about about unique ideas to ask Jasmine (who by the way has been one of Devin's best friends since 3rd grade,) but Devin beat me to it and so while we were at Bear Lake he asked her to the dance. He took a bag of flour, wrote a poem about the dance and flours and left it at that. She dug through the whole bag of flour looking for who the invite was from and didn't find anything so she dug through it again 2 more times. Can you imagine the mess? Then 3 hours later, Devin delivered a Red Rose with a note that Said," Oops- wrong flower!" and then his name. She thought it was great, 3 weeks later she answered him back even though she had already told him that she had 3 dresses to chose from (which to me meant she was going with him.)
She answered him with a jar full of m&m's and Skittles and said that if there were more skittles than m&m's the answer was YES, more m&m's than NO. He loved that way to answer too.

So, now that the pleasantries of the question and answer was over we moved on to the WHO will be going with us- What kind of Group can we start- so he asked his friend Tyler if he wanted to go with him and double date and it turned into 4 couples from there after Tyler asked Zack and Devin asked Corey if they wanted to go too. So the boys started planning the day date and the dinner.
They went through 4 different plans for the day date from ATVing and a Picnic, to Swiss day activities (since it was the same weekend,) to finally arriving at "HEY, let's do a scavenger hunt!"
Zack was suppose to have his mom and dad plan that since Tyler's parents, Matt and I were already doing the dinner stuff, but Zack didn't ask his mom and so it fell apart after that. I ended up kicking it back into gear with a Scavenger hunt by Pictures. I went through downtown Santa Clara, St. George and Washington and took pictures of statues, fun places to visit and interesting information about each town and then wrote up a description of activities to do at each place. For instance these pictures:

3. Drive to a downtown that you do not live in. Here is where we start the walking tour… Take a pic with Brigham here then move on to the next pic!

4. Now that you have taken that pic with Brigham make a wish in this water oasis…

They had to finish their hunt in 2 1/2 hours take pictures (which we provided throw away camera's. Which by the way only cost $7.43 for 4 because they were on sale, albertson's overcharged me and ended up giving me 3 for free! What a deal! Happy Homecoming to me!)

Then Devin started Saving money for his tux, the corsage, the dinner, the tickets to Homecoming, lunch and for the pictures at the dance! So much for one day...

Matt took Devin to get his Tux. Devin went and ordered Jasmine's corsage-( i really wanted to go with him for the one, isn't that a right of passage for a mom to go with her son to pick out a corsage?) It's okay though, because the shop didn't keep his order! we found out from Jasmine's mom that something might be up when she went in to match ribbon to Jazzy's dress and they told her that he didn't have an order. Luckily, I went in, true enough they didn't have an order even though he had ordered and paid! Devin show up with Matt a few minutes earlier and got it all straightened out the day before the dance!!!

Then the big day came, they left for their date at 11:30- it was poring!! Matt and I had planned a fun place for the kids to eat their lunch and then start their scavenger hunt but the weather wasn't working out so the kids eat their lunch and Tyler's house. Then they did the scavenger hunt in the rain- the kids said it made it more fun- I thought that was great! (Swiss day's was a bust that day- but not on Friday.)

The kids came home at 3:30 Jazzy had a hair appointment. Oh, I forgot; Zack ended up bailing on the other's because his mother had been planning activities with other mother's in a different group. That left a little awkwardness since Zack was driving Corey and his date (who was Zack's dates best friend.) But It made the hunt funner because they all went together which took off the pressure to win the other group (and took off the stress for me since Devin was driving my car- I knew there wouldn't be so much speeding then!)

Devin picked up Jasmine at 5:30 and then went and got the other's so that they could get their pictures done. Matt and I left at 6 to help set up dinner stuff.

Here is the rest of the night in Pictures!

Devin and Jasmine

Tyler and Tiffany

(Jasmine and Devin's best friends)

Corey and Bree

Corey, Tyler and Devin

Devin says, "Let's do a Princess Leia."

All the parental's said, "what? that is a Charlie's Angels!"

Dinner! Yum- steak, chicken, salad, baked potato, pie and sparkling apple cider!

Jasmine and Devin's shoes- aren't they quite the pair?

Our Last Hurrah as a Summer Trip

This past weekend we went on a mini reunion/summer trip with Fred

(and any of the family that wanted to go,) to Bear Lake. Every few years or so Fred gets paid in Trade for a few condo trades at Bear Lake. I love this time share area! It has a pool, a hot tub, a playground, Jet ski rentals, Boat rentals, a grocery store, icecream parlor, a few fun little towns with some burger joints that sell (as Matt says,) "really yummy bear lake raspberry shakes!" and of course the Lake!

Here are a few pictures from our trip. Devin was not able to go with us since he didn't ask for work off and couldn't find someone to take his place at the pool. Bummer how work can interfere with fun sometimes!

Two of sceneries that I found beautiful on our way out of BearLake. I am amazed that this area has not been touched by more realestate. But around the Lake is booming with houses, cabins and timeshares. So to me this was so serene that I had to take a picture. Matt ended up stopping a few times just so I could! What a nice guy he is!

Fire, Water, Ice Parade

Friday Terra, Tyler and our family went to Lagoon. Utah Tourism sponsered tickets that we got for a really good price that also included lunch, so Matt decided that this would be a great time to go!

I think that the kids and I have been so spoiled with going to Disney anything that Lagoon is not that exciting anymore. The kids went on all the rides that they wanted to, went swimming at Lagoon a beach for about 2 hours and were ready to go when we decided it was time at 9:30, which is really early for the boys especially!

I don't think that we will be going anytime again in the next few years. But having the kids hang out with their cousins was fun. The boys and the Brower cousins had a lot of fun going on all the fast rides, and Poor Mckenna had to hang out with me and Matt for awhile while the older ones were going on rides that she didn't want to. We tried to bring a friend for her, but Kyleigh ended up backing out at the last minute. Needless to say, her parents are not as fun and Kyleigh would have been, but still we did go on a bunch of rides that made her smile!

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On Saturday Morning we went to a parade that Terra was in with her Kearn High School Chatte's drill team. This parade is the kick off to Kearn's Fire, Water, Ice event. I guess that they have a lot of water and ice fun at the Olympic Oval and then Fireworks that night. Terra's group performed around 2 but we were shopping for school clothes since it cost money to get into the activities ($16 for the whole family) and we didn't think that was worth on dance, when we know we will be seeing her dance next month.

Here is the whole crew waiting for the parade to start.



Here is Terra (she is the one on the far left,) Lynette told them to walk the parade and do their drill hands but the girls said no. So they just rode in the truck and were boring.



What is a parade with out horses and flags Or a firetruck ending it?


Me- Kenna took this picture, she is going to be the next historian in our family!



Matt, Keith and Lynette looking like they are relaxing and enjoying themselves!