Four Men and A Lady

Catch up post to end all Catch up posts!

2011-12-15T10:49:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe just how fast time has slipped away from me I wish that I had kept up on all the fun times we have had this past year. It would take way to much to go back and break things down the way I would like to so I will just do the highlights (at least the ones that I can remember.)
In April I decided to take a huge leap of faith and decided to open my own Insurance Office in Salem. I have worked in the industry for years and have always loved the people. So I decided to open a Farmers Insurance office. It has been very stressful and fun. I enjoy going to work every day and love being my own boss. We tease Colby and tell him he is the paying CFO, one day he might be the real CFO and get paid for all he does.
We had the chance to test out just how well Farmers does on claims this summer, Unfortunately we had a few claims...actually 3 in 2 months and this past month Colby got in another one (none of the accidents he had where his fault.) Luckily everyone walked away from all of them without any injuries. 2 cars totalled but no one was hurt. And I haven't been cancelled, another blessing.
Brock was asked to play on an accelerated fall baseball team, he loved it and did very well. He went right from baseball into wrestling and is loving wrestling again this year. He has won all of his matches but 1. He is in 4th grade and doing well. We moved him over to Salem Elementary this year so that he could come to the office after school he is really liking it and making new friends.
Brett is in High School this year and last month got his official drivers license! YES!!!! It is sure nice to have him be able to drive where I need him to go. He is usually pretty good about running my errands. He is also wrestling again this year. He is at the 132 weight class, he wanted to go down to the 126 lbs. weight class but his body fat was only 2% so they said that he can't lose ANY weight. He started the season with a 7-2 record and all of the 7 wins where pins. He is such a smart kid we love having him in the family.
It has been a great year and we have enjoyed so many memories. I will be better at keeping up with them and recording them so I can go back and remember the fun times.

Wrestling Letter

2011-03-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

The wrestling team had a dinner for everyone and gave out a few awards and a slide show of the season. It was a lot of fun and the highlight of our night was Brett getting his Varsity Letter. He worked really hard all season and was able to earn the letter. I told him that we needed to go over and get him a Letterman's jacket and he told me that he could wait until he was older because he didn't want to grow out of it. :) I told him that he can wait but he will want it once he is in high school. Brett we are so proud of you and your determination.

Wrestling 2010

2011-03-15T11:06:00.001-07:00

Ok, I have been wanting to get this on the blog so that I have it. This year in November Brett decided that he wanted to try wrestling. I said ok what do we need to do? He said he didn't know but that they would be starting up soon and he wanted to wrestle with the High School rather than the Jr. High team. So we committed to driving him over every day after school (I can't wait until he can drive) He started out the year wrestling 135, he did great for never wrestling a day in his life. The coach told us that if he didn't win a match the entire season not to worry, that his 9th grade year was just about learning. So I was not too worried about him really wrestling. Little did I know that I was going to love it and he would do so well.

By the end of the year or season he had dropped down to wrestle in the 125lb. bracket, he excelled at this weight and took off. It was so fun to watch him each match and to see his determination. He would set goals each match and he would reach each goal. We went down to the tournament in St. George and he ended up taking 6th place there. I love watching him and cheering him on. He ended the season with a record of 13-13.

I am not really a fan of the singlets that they wear but I have to be impressed with his muscles. I wish I had some definition like that. I cant wait until next season.

Winter Fun

2011-02-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

OK so I have been a little busy....I feel like I have totally fallen of the face of the earth. I have had tons of things that I wanted to put on the blog so that I would be able to have it when I print it out. I am surrendering to the fact that I SUCK at staying on top everything! It's OK, I am learning that I am not perfect at everything (for that matter even CLOSE) and that I can ask for help! :)
The Monday before Christmas Colby had to have surgery on his ankle to remove all of his hardware. He assured me that he would be fine and that it was in and out. Wouldn't you know I am smarter than I look and I was right, it was more than he thought and he was down for the count for several days! Also mother nature decided to bless us with a gift and dump 18-20 inches of snow that night! So Colby was NO help in keeping up with the walks and driveway! Once we dug ourselves and some of the neighbors out we decided that me and the boys would take advantage of the snow and go for a ride. We hooked on to the snowmobiles and off we went, it was so pretty up the canyon! I love to go out and play. I had never been out on my own with out Colby so I told the kids that they could not be all day and that they had to be safe. I didn't want to have to try to get them unstuck.

This is Brett, Kaid, Brock and me. I told them that I wanted a picture and they all laughed at me saying they didn't want to stop for pictures. So I had to beg and when it wasn't perfect they told me that it was tough and that it was it.

Brett has gotten to be quite the dare devil and he goes FAST! He loves to side hill, he told me that he will teach me how but I am not so sure that I am that daring!

Brock was the one who would pose for a picture for me. He is such a good kid. He wanted me to take him off of some jumps and I told him that there was no way - we didn't need to end the year like we started it.

Brett's First Goose

2010-12-29T13:29:00.000-08:00

This Christmas break the kids have been either out shoveling snow or snowmobiling or hunting. Brett has been dying to hunt ducks because with wrestling he doesn't get the chance to hunt while they are in school. (He goes right from the Jr. High to the High School for wrestling practice or matches) so he asked if he could go out yesterday morning we told him that was fine but he needed to be careful. I got a phone call while I was a work letting me know that he had gotten a goose! He was so excited, I told him to send me a picture and the above picture is what I got :) I told him first of all it is really neat that you got a goose, BUT your outfit cracks me up! He told me I don't have any style and that he looks just fine. When I got home he had plucked the goose and had all of the feathers in a bag so that he can make a pillow out of them. I am sure glad to help him with that. Now I am hoping that I will be able to get him to clean his room. :)

Recap!

2010-12-29T13:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe how fast time flies. I am so far behind in things that I wanted to be able to remember, so I am going to have to do a little recap of things. We have been going and going everyday it seems like I run from one thing to the next these days. In November Brock and Brett both started wrestling and that has taken out a huge chunk of time and with school and work we are all hopping.

The day after Thanksgiving Colby and I snuck away to Park City for the weekend. It was so nice to be able to have some time to relax and be together. We had the best hotel, we had our own private hot tub right out on the balcony. It was so fun to sit out there and watch the snow fall and be warm. I am thinking that we will have to make it a tradition! While we where gone we got a text from McKaid (he was tending the boys) and the caption said BROCK'S first DUCKS!

They had all gone up to Scofield to hunt, Brock shot these two ducks as they where flying. I am not sure who was more excited McKaid or Brock. Brock has been going out with Colby, and Brett to do clay pigeon shooting. Colby had told me that Brock was doing really well and that just a few days before this, he told Brett he could say "pull" and that Brock would back Brett up. Brett said "pull" and before he could even get his shots off Brock had taken the shot and got the clay. It is so fun for me to see how much bonding the boys all do over hunting. It keeps them out of trouble and it keeps them all active.

Thankful

2010-11-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do an entire month of things that I am grateful or thankful for, but it's not going to happen. But I think that I can do it all this week. (Hopefully) So today I am so thankful for Kaid and Brock's relationship. This past week Colby was working late and Brock had a wrestling match, his first guy he won and did really well, his next match was a kid who had been wrestling 7 year and this match was brutal. Brock was crying and the kid was choking him, and the other mother was screaming at her son to take him down and pound him. I know its not all about winning but I was really upset that a mother would be shouting that kind of stuff when the other person was crying. Any ways Brock lost that match and he was crying saying that he was never going to wrestle again how bad he sucked, basically just having a pity party. Kaid took him outside and next thing I know Brock walks back in and goes to the 100 lb. class and asks this kid if he wanted to wrestle....I said Kaid he is only in the 60 lb. class he cant wrestle him Kaid says it will be OK don't worry. So they get in line to get to the mats and the ref looks at them and asks Brock if he is really sure that he wants to take on the other kid, Brock says YES! So they go out and have 3 rounds and each round Brock PINNED the kid. I was totally shocked, his self confidence was restored and he decided that he did like wrestling and that he would continue with it.

I was so glad to have Kaid there, and for him to take the lead and help Brock out. I know nothing about wrestling and am not a ton of help. I am glad that I can rely on him to help me out when I am out of my element.

Family Pictures 2010

2010-11-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

So it's about time that we get new pictures, I have been trying to get McKaid to tell me when he would be able to do them and he told me that he was booked until like January with hunting.... I told him that was not going to fly and that I wanted pictures now! And that I wanted him to shave. So I guess I only got one of the things I asked for, oh well! But I love them and happy that we are good for a little while longer. I love this one ~Brock really wanted one of he and Kaid and Brett ran in to give them a hug I was happy that she got the shot.

We went up the canyon and had them done, we had about 30 minutes before the rain started coming down. I am glad we got most of the shots that we wanted before the rain. Maybe next family photos McKaid will be clean shaved. I can HOPE right?!?!?

Happy Late Birthday!

2010-11-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

I meant to have a shout out to Brett set to post on his Birthday and unfortunately things with school and work got really crazy! But I have to say Happy Birthday to Brett! Brett turned 15 this year! Time files, it seems like just last week I was pregnant with him and now he is taller than me and could take me down. :)
Here is my list of things about Brett:

1. He is the BEST student
2. He is such a great brother, to both of them
3. He is a worrier
4. He hates his curly hair
5. He is strong
6. He loves to tease everyone
7. He is very "book smart" (which we love)
8. He honors his priesthood
9. He is extremely tender hearted
10. He is a great friend
11. He is wise beyond his years
12. He has a great spirit and testimony
13. He is great at sports
14. He loves the Utes football team
15. He is a social butterfly

Brett ~ I hope you had a great birthday, know that you mean the world to us. Your a great kid and you always give 110% in all you do. We are lucky to call you ours!
Love,
Dad, Mom, McKaid, and Brock

Oh and to all of you who live in town--- he will have his learners SOON! So you might want to watch out! :)

Nickelback

2010-11-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

The concert Brett has been waiting for has come and gone! Brett found out it seems like almost a year ago that Nickelback was coming in concert and he was counting down the days. So I promised him we would go when they came, so tickets went on sale and I was set to have some great seats and Colby said when is it again I said Oct 20th - he says don't buy Brett a ticket he will be hunting in Idaho. So I released the tickets and went on with life, Brett was really sad but alright because they would be hunting.....that ended up falling through so at the last minute we got tickets.
We actually ended up with some really good seats, here is Brett and Riley- it was tons of fun and glad we got to go. It will bring an end to the concert season for 2010. Unless Alan Jackson does a Christmas concert some where. Glad to have had some fun times with Brett and his friends. I hope we made memories that will last. We have a tradition of going to dinner before the concert both these two boys got talking some pretty deep stuff. Hope they know how much I love them and admire them for holding to what they believe.

Vikings Football

2010-10-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

This year Brock was on the Viking's team, they were AWESOME! Brock loves football and everything about it so he was in heaven each game. His hair is wild because it was crazy hair day at school yesterday so we divided his hair into two sections one spiky and the other straight, and then we took purple hair color in it and made stripes. It was fun he was excited to have it that way for the game because it was Viking's colors. We had to laugh he plays so hard and at half time he can down his drink and then go right back out and play. If it was me I would be puking my guts out from drinking and exercising. :)

Brock has a great year they ended the season taking 3rd! He scored points in every game! And last night he scored 8 points he ran for a touchdown and then caught the pass for the extra points. He played quarterback a lot of the time so he also threw for a lot of the touchdowns. It was fun to watch him and see his excitement and enthusiasm. Keep it up Brock!

BYU Game

2010-10-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to the BYU football game, Brett was working the booth so Brock got to invite a friend. He chose Jared, and Jared has never been to a college football game. These two where so excited!!! They talked the entire way there about how cool it was going to be and that BYU was going to win. This was right before the game, they think they are gangsters :) I wasn't sure if they where going to sit down or not. This is them during the game just entertaining themselves during a TV timeout. I love this picture of them--- they are too cute.

This next one was just as the game ended and BYU pulled out a victory- I don't know who was more excited Brock, Jared or BYU! These two started screaming and jumping up and down. It was so fun to watch them in their excitement. It was a fun game and nice to take Jared.

You can just see the excitement in their faces. I love these kids.

He has a brain!

2010-10-12T09:55:00.001-07:00

So the past few weeks have been a little crazy at our house, Brock has been having"issues" for the past 7 or 8 weeks. He would kind of pass out. To say the least it was really scary, when we took him to his pediatrician he was extremely worried about what we where dealing with and sent us right to Primary Children's hospital to meet with a pediatric neurologist. They told us that they would be doing several tests to see if they could figure out what was going on. Brock was pretty nervous about if they would hurt or what they would do- the doctor told him that they were going to be looking at his brain and heart. Brock instantly perked up and said so you will see my brain, the doctor said yes we will be able to see all of your brain. Brock then said can we take pictures of it so I can show everyone how cool my brain looks. This is one of the first tests they did it is an EGG, they hook up all of these wires to your head to measure your brain waves. They glued them into his hair, he was not to happy when they went to pull them out. They then wrap your head with gauze so that you can move around and not loose any of the leads. Once he was ready to go they monitored him "normally" then had him exercise, and then go to sleep. Which they said OK Brock you need to go to sleep now- Colby and I looked at him a few minutes later and he was OUT! The last thing they do is to put a strobe light in front of his eyes and have it go off.

We got back his results and his "issues" are seizures, which they think are caused by stress....We are thrilled that this was the outcome for him. It was a true answer to many prayers. We are tyring to keep him from stress to prevent more of the seizures. :)

There goes 1....

2010-10-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days of Colby and I telling McKaid what to do.........All of the pictures loaded backwards and I am way to lazy to fix it. McKaid has always, ALWAYS (did I say that twice) been a very independent person. Which don't get me wrong is great.....EXCEPT when he turned 18! McKaid turned 18 on the 18th of August, and shortly after his birthday he MOVED OUT!!! I had a hard enough time with him being old enough to graduate, now he is responsible for everything, on his own......I had a complete break down, I really just wanted to check out and not deal with any of it and Colby has been so OK with it all. I told Colby a few days later I figured out why I had such a hard time with it all......I had been McKaid's mom longer than I had been anything else in my life...I know I am still his mom but he just didn't need me any longer. That was a tough pill to swallow. McKaid told us on a Friday night that he would be moving out to a house he rented in Spanish Fork, he said it would be that next weekend. So he was giving me a week to prepare, I came home from a meeting on Tuesday and he had the truck on the front lawn with some of his friends loading everything up. I sat in the car for about 45 minutes just crying.....where did the little baby go, McKaid's entire life past through all of the tears. Yesterday I had him, how could he be moving out. Did I teach him enough, does he know what we expect from him, does he know how to cook, do laundry, clean a house, pay bills, the list was endless. We have made it about 7 weeks and I have to say he seems to be doing just fine, he is eating, cleaning, and even wearing clean clothes. Our family dynamic has changed and I can see he and Colby's relationship only getting stronger. It still kills me every time he leaves our house, and I haven't stopped worrying about him, I just have new worries. :)

This is when McKaid was probably about 14 out duck hunting with Sophie. I could tell him how to cut his hair at that age.

This is him with his "albino trout" he caught at Salem Pond. I think he was 7 in this picture, he let me do everything for him at that age.

McKaid and his "horse" he was two in this picture, he loved that horse he would spend hours riding it. Shortly after this picture was taken that he ended up getting his first set of stitches. The horse bucked him off. He was 18 months in this picture we where in California at my grandparents house having one of his many surgeries. This is right after his 1st birthday, with Grandpa Larsen they brought him up to us in Montana when we found a house. He LOVED Colby's hat, the second he would walk in the door McKaid had that and would not take it off. He was about 5 months old in this picture this was right after his 2nd surgery. My mom called and said it was school picture day at school and to bring McKaid over to get his pictures done. I remember sitting in her classroom with the gel and trying to tame his curls......he looked so cute. I remember sending Colby one of the pictures while he was in basic and his comment was why did you dress him like that-- Gone are those days. Time goes was to quick make sure that you take every day and every moment you can with your kids because it just goes way to fast. I know I would give anything to have my little kid back. I am so proud of the young man that he has grown up to be, I am proud of the choices he is making, and way he lives his life. I am so glad that he has such a strong work ethic, and a heart of gold. I love him with all of my heart and miss having him around each day. We all love you Kaid~

Summer Concerts ~ Brad Paisley

2010-09-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

We went to Brad Paisley's H2O tour this past weekend, it was a lot of fun! We ended up deciding to go kinda last minute so we just did lawn~ but we had a total BLAST!
He had quite the show lined up, he had a small stage and then the big stage. The gates opened at 4:00 and there were performances with different people about every 45 minutes. We watched a few of them but some of them sounded TERRIBLE so we went and found a spot on the lawn, this is a picture of Brett once he woke up from his nap, not sure if you can see the lines on his face. It was pretty funny to just people watch and see what some people think looks good on themselves!

This is Brett and his friend Russell, it was Russell's first concert ~ I think he had a lot of fun. Once the show started we moved down and had great seats. It was one of his best concerts!
And just an FYI ~ that is Brett's happy face! He did have fun! He just doesn't always show it!

Russell, Brett and me.

Summer Concerts ~ Tim McGraw

2010-09-28T11:05:00.001-07:00

I have been really bad at updating things but wanted to make sure that I had memories on here. So here goes.... This summer we had tickets to Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum, it was at the Usanna ~ and we had tons of fun! I have seen Tim several times, I think he puts on a great show!

We had pretty good seats, at least Cindy and I did. When I first bought tickets Colby was going to go with me so I bought seats then Brett said he wanted to go and take a friend so I got them tickets but we got theirs on the lawn.

Here Cindy and I are waiting for the concert to start. It was extremely hot that day!

I turned around and zoomed the camera in on Brett and his friend Riley. They actually got right up on the front row of the lawn seating, so they had a pretty good view. It was a lot of fun and I hope everyone enjoyed it, I know I did.

BYU Football

2010-09-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

I had to post this, we have tickets to the games and if you know Colby BYU football is serious business. So at the season home opener we went to the game and it started at 5:00 and actually ran long so we did not get to dinner until rather late, and well if you know my kids then this photo should not surprise any one.

Here is Brock sound asleep at dinner, we tried and tried to wake him up to get him to eat but he was just not having it. I had to laugh because the next day he asked why we didn't let him have dinner. I told him that it was in the fridge and he could eat it when ever he wanted.

Another School Year 2010 Edition

2010-08-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Wow, summer has come and gone. What a sad day, this year was really different with McKaid not being in school it just made things weird. We went school shopping and got the kids what they needed, I thought with not having to buy clothes for McKaid it would be cheaper--- I thought WRONG! But oh well, I could not get pictures of the boys together because Brett has to catch the bus before Brock even gets up. I really don't understand why Brett's bus takes all of the Jr. High kids all the way over to Salem and then brings them back to Payson to the Jr. High-- doesn't make sense too me but I am not the district. Brock was so excited to start school he woke up around 2:30am and came in my room and said that he could not sleep any longer and could he get ready. I told him that he could go in the front room and watch TV while I slept but that he needed to go back to sleep because it would make for a LONG day if he didn't. With all reports in Brock enjoyed his first day of school and is ready to go back tomorrow-- thank heavens! I was not wanting another year like last year.

Here is Brett right before he left for the bus--- he has to be at his bus stop by 7:00am. I have offered to drive him to school so that he can sleep longer or not sit on the bus all morning- BUT he said he would rather ride the bus! Go figure, I guess I am not "cool" enough. I guess this way he gets lots more time to socialize.

Hope both of them have a great year and enjoy their school experience.

Family Renuion

2010-08-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

This year we had a family reunion in Delores Colorado. We have not been able to make them for the past few years, this year Colby's mom was in charge of meals. She needed help so we where able to get away for a few days and take Brett and Brock. We decided to make a mini vacation out of it. On the first day we drove to Moab and stayed the night there. We decided to go to Arches since none of us had been there. It was a lot of fun. We hiked around on a few of them, I have decided that the boys are way too adventurous for me! I was panicked at they places they were jumping from and things they would climb on. The next day we got up and they played in the pool before heading out to the reunion. It was a couple hour drive to Delores, but it reminded me of Montana, it was bitter sweet. Once in Colorado we checked into our hotel (if you could call it that! It was more like the BATES MOTEL) got Colby and I settled and then drove out to the property where the reunion was being held. The property was so beautiful! I loved it and could just pack up my house and move there. They had a river running right threw the property and a beautiful house and barn. Brock and Brett (and everyone else) decided to stay there in their tent. We helped them set it up and they chose a spot right up from the river, so they could hear it all night.
They have tons of things to do most of the time the kids where in the water, weather it was floating the river, swimming, or wake boarding. This is Brock on the wake board they had tied to a tree, he could get all the way across the river to the other side. He did take a couple of spills and Brett had to save him once, but he had a blast! Brett even did it and he had to have Brock save him once. It was really sweet, Brett fell in and Brock was the first one running down the river to "save" him.

On Saturday most of us decided to float the river in tubes.........WOW it was an experience! Chelsey and myself ended up being in charge of Ethan. We only scared him once, he flipped over in a part where it was very deep and swift. He couldn't get his footing so I had to dive in and get him when we got him back in his tube he told me "your trying to kill me" I had to laugh, I told him that I was not and I would make sure that he didn't fall in again. We ended up going down again and the second time we had Brett and Brock in tubes with us rather than the canoe they went down in the first trip. We had tons of fun and got some great sunburns! But it was defiantly worth the drive and all of the bruises.

Here Kitty, Kitty!

2010-08-04T11:34:00.001-07:00

I love living where we live, don't get me wrong! But lately we have had way too many cats, kittens, and more cats in the neighborhood. And for some unknown reason they all love to come into our yard. Normal that would be fine as long as they where just passing through. But these cats have decided not to pass through but to take up residency in our yard. Not only that, but a couple of them have had babies in our wood shed. Not only am I allergic to them, but they drive my dogs crazy! It seems that they (the cats) would only come out just as I was falling asleep and my dogs would then go CRAZY!!!!!! Not only causing me to get up and out of bed to go quite them, but I am sure it woke up the entire neighborhood! So after talking to some of the neighbors who were also frustrated with the ever exploding population of cats, Colby decided it was time to trap them and give them a new home. So he and Brock set a few traps and wouldn't you guess every morning we would find this Brock was so excited thinking that we where going to keep the kitten and have a new pet! I was so sad to have to tell him that there was NO way that we would be keeping the kitten. He named them all and found good homes for each one of them, this was one of the last kittens that he caught. I have never been more happy to have them gone. But we are hoping that soon Brock will forgive us and start talking to us again. :)
P.S. If you need traps let us know, I would be more than happy to help someone else out!

Baseball Season

2010-07-12T14:44:00.001-07:00

This year Brock decided that he wanted to play in Salem, so we signed him up. He was on the Yankee's this year. He had a ton of fun. He was always the last batter in the line up which was a bit frustrating for him but he always did his best and would try to motivate his team. I would always forget my camera so I snapped a few pictures with my phone as he was in line to bat, we have the warm up and the swing. This year Brett decided that he did not want to play so we thought we would only have Brock playing because Kaid was going to be working at the scout camp at Scofield for the summer. Little did we know that he would not take that job and be playing baseball. McKaid played in Payson for the Red's again. He had a great year and got to pitch quite a few games, he did really well. It was bitter sweet to watch him play knowing that this would be his last year to play city league. His team starts tournaments this week and it will be fun to see what they can do.
Even with just having the two of them playing ball we still seemed to be at the ball park every night of the week and would typically close it down. (Which is fine by me :))

McKaid's Graduation

2010-07-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

I think this was one of the best and saddest days I have had. I was so excited and proud of McKaid for graduating, yet I was not ready for him to be so grown up. I know that this is just all part of the circle of life, but can't it slow down a little! It was not that long ago that I was the one graduating High School. This is McKaid and one of his friends Taylor.

Right after they called his name, he was accepting his diploma holder :)

This was when it had just started (all of my pictures loaded backwards) they where all walking in the processional. The ceremony was held right at the High School out on the football field. It was really neat. Once they started walking out of the High School towards the field I started crying-- Colby looked at me and asked "Are you SERIOUS?" I know I should not cry at graduation BUT I am the mom so I am allowed.

This photo was taken while they where in the school waiting in line for the thing to start.

This is one of the announcements that we sent out for him. He did not want the traditional ones that you can order from the school, which was fine with me. I think they turned out really good.

McKaid we are all so proud of you and know that you will do great things in this life! Be true to who you are and remember your last name!!!

Love,
Dad, Mom, Brett, & Brock

Special Day.

2010-07-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

Like I said I am going to be doing a little bit of catch up in the next few posts! Back in April sometime I was talking to my dad, he said that his sister Marilyn was taking the Temple Prep classes and she would be going to the Temple soon. I could not believe that she would be doing that, I did not think in my life time that she would go to the Temple. Not that she did not want too, rather with her health issues I just did not think that I would see her there.
Well on May 18, 2010 Marilyn Mae Larsen went to the Provo Temple, she asked myself and my cousin to be her escorts. What a neat experience to be able to share such a special day. Marilyn was so worried about things and it seemed that everything just "fell" into place for her to be able to enjoy the time. It was a very neat experience, it was neat to see all of my dad's family come to share in such a special occasion. We don't get to see them much, we all went out to lunch after and got to spend sometime together.
This is a photo taken just after Marilyn got out of the Temple with all of her siblings. L to R: David (dad) Birch, Vic, Marilyn, and Kay. It was so neat to be there and feel the spirit that was in the room. I know that the rest of Marilyn's family was there to share her special day.

Senior Pictures

2010-06-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to get caught up with everything and time just keeps passing me by! But I wanted to record things on here for when I print out the book at the end of the year. So the next few posts will be catch up!

I love these pictures. He went up the canyon and over to a barn in Mapleton to get them taken. I can't believe just how quick they grow up. I really wish that they would stay little for longer. Kaid has always been a "cowboy" and he has always had the work ethic of one. I hope that he will always keep that and remember just how hard you have to work for things in life.

Seminary Graduation

2010-05-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Wow just writing the title to the post makes me want to cry! Last night McKaid graduated from Seminary. It was very special. It honestly seems like yesterday that I had him, I am not ready for this next part of life. I am not ready for tomorrow.........
In the photo: Brett 14, Grandpa Larsen, Buckaroo (DeLoy), McKaid 17, Me, Colby. Front: Granny Park, Nana (Suzanne), Brock 8. I am so proud of McKaid he had to work really hard to graduate, he had to take early morning seminary for 3 years due to his schedule, so he would get up and be to school at 6:55am everyday of the week. He was lucky to have one of the best teachers - for 2 years! He was sooooo lucky! McKaid I am proud of you! I know that your going to do great things....
Love,
Mom

Our newest edition to the family!

2010-05-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

Ok the day finally came that we got the call that our new family member was ready to pick up. We had been waiting on pins and needles for weeks just waiting for the call....It finally came May 8th around 2:30 pm. We all loaded into the truck and drove the 10 minute drive to get him.

So here is the newest member of the family, Colby's bear! He had to wait just under a year to get it back. But it was worth the wait. The taxidermist did a great job! He looks amazing, and I was not thrilled to have a dead bear in my house, but I have to say that I like it and it is not as over powering as I thought it would be. We are still waiting on the bottom base to set the bear in, but that should be done shortly. We did some remodeling in the house (added a wall) so that we would have more room for the bear, I am sure glad that we did that. We would have not had enough room without the wall. I will post pictures of the kitchen before and after soon. Now that we have the bear I can start to decorate my living room and get things put back together.

I had to laugh the day we got the bear it was raining and Colby had borrowed a friends horse trailer to bring it home in. So when we got the bear all loaded the rain stopped and Colby had all of the boys ride in the back of the trailer with the bear to make sure that it did not tip over. Brock was in heaven, however the older two were not THRILLED in the least! They said it was cold and they now felt for the horses and cows. They said that they would never haul animals again because it was just too mean.
I have some what gotten use to having the bear in the front room, the first few nights I had nightmares about being eaten by a bear. McKaid came home one night and the lights hit the eyes just right and it scared him--- until he remembered that it was not a person.

Catch up!

2010-05-17T12:04:00.001-07:00

Wow, life has really flown by lately! I thought I had better play catch up and get up all of the things that I want to remember. April started off with Colby's birthday, he had a great time and got to actually enjoy it because it fell on Easter so that meant that he had ZERO church meetings! I had an amazing gal make the cake for him--- I loved it! It was so cute that we did not even want to eat it!

She is amazing and I could not have asked for a cuter cake! Thanks Jana! Once Easter and Colby's birthday where over it has seemed that life has not slowed down for a minute. We have been getting all of Kaid's things done for his Senior year so that he can graduate. Brett has been busy with school and Brock is as well.

Miracles

2010-03-31T10:33:00.001-07:00

The past few months have been quite the blur to me, it seems like one thing after another has happened and at times it felt that I would not be able to catch my breath. We got the phone call that one of our nephews had attempted suicide and that he was not going to make it. The family had decided that they were going to donate his organs, so we told the boys about it and started to prepare them for what would happen and told them that we needed to pray for the family. Brock took it right to heart and quickly said a prayer, he went to school and asked me to call him if his cousin passed away while he was at school I told him that I would. He called me as soon as he got home from school and asked if he had passed away, I told him that he was still hanging in there and Brock's reply was "I knew he would not die, I prayed that he would live" when I got home I was talking to Brock about what he "needed" to be praying for, and that he should be praying for the family and that he would be able to pass peacefully. Brock's reply was I prayed that he would live and I know that he will live, and that is what I am going to pray for. I talked to Colby about how we could help Brock to understand the process of what was happening, because I did not want him to be mad when his cousin passed away. I did not want Brock to question weather or not Heavenly Father answers prayers. Colby just said he needs to keep doing what he is doing and praying the prayer that he wants and we will help him understand when that time comes. Brock continued to say his prayers, we went to the hospital to say our goodbye's and knew that the next day they would be doing the organ donation. That was about 7 weeks ago, right before they were going to get him ready for the organ donation he opened his eyes.....He is alive and does have a long recovery ahead of him, but he is alive and able to talk and we hope will be able to have a full recovery.
Here I was so worried that Brock was praying the wrong prayer, he showed me the faith of a child is so strong and real. Brock had the right prayer all along and I needed to just have the faith and know that Heavenly Father would allow my son to see such a MIRACLE.
Our next miracle involves my mom, she had found a lump in her breast and went to the doctor. She had the biopsy and was told that she had stage 2 breast cancer. This would be her 3rd cancer. She was devastated and was told to come into the doctors office that following Monday to schedule surgery and talk all of the options and chemo schedule. We had a fast for her that weekend, she was going into the doctors on Monday. Right before she went in she said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to please allow all of the people that she and my dad had helped with indexing (on the other side) to add her to their prayers. She went to the doctors and they scheduled her for surgery that Friday, she asked the doctor a question about the stage and he said just a second I don't have that right here he left and after about 25 minutes he came back. He said I don't know who you have been talking too (he pointed towards heaven) BUT you don't have cancer.
We took her for a second opinion and they all conquer, she DOES NOT have cancer. What a blessing, and a true testament to those who live worthily and do what the Lord asks them to do. And that there are miracles that happen each and every day. We just have to have FAITH, and in my case I need to be more like my kids, and be able to not question what HIS will is.

Erika

Get comfy...

2010-03-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

The other night I was folding laundry and had done what seemed like 15 loads. I had piles all over in my room and I called all of the boys to come in and get their clothes to put them away. I then got side tracked and when I came back in my room this is what i found.....Brock was sound asleep with all of his clothes still in the piles that needed to be put away. I had to laugh because when I was a little girl my parents said that I would sleep in funny positions that did not look comfortable and they had a Garfield cartoon on the fridge. Here is my own little Garfield, he didn't even have a pillow under his head, they were all under his feet.

Grandpa Park

2010-03-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

This past week Colby's Grandpa Park passed away. He was such a great man, he taught us all so much. I have many memories of Grandpa, he reminded me so much of my Grandpa Larsen. Grandpa Park was a very smart and hardworking man. He was always on the go, or working on something in his shop. He was a great example and will be truly missed.This was his casket, perfect black, strong, simple just like Grandpa Park. Adrienne and Alesha did all of the flowers, they did an amazing job. The pallbearers where the grandsons, Colby, Tyler (Colby's youngest brother) Nic, Eric (Colby's brother)

Here is a better picture of all of them: Andrew, James, Jeff, Aaron, Colby, Chris, Eric, Nic, and Tyler

This is Suzanne (Colby's mom) Granny, and Terri Ann.

Grandpa Park had a thing about socks and his feet :) he totally took care of them and ALWAYS wore white socks, it did not matter if it was a black tie event or going to the store. Grandpa had on white socks! So in tribute to him they had all of the grandsons, and great grandsons wear white socks rather than "church" socks. So once they set down his casket granny had them all lift up their pants to show their socks.

It was a very special day and tribute to a great man. I hope he knows how much we all loved him and how great it was to have him in our lives. We miss you.

Grandpa Park

2010-03-01T11:46:00.000-08:00

Lyle H. Park
1927 ~ 2010
Lyle Harper Park, age 82, passed away February 25, 2010 at his home in Spanish Fork, Utah.
He was born June 30, 1927 in Nephi, Utah to Edgar Dowain and Emily Ireta Harper Park. He married Betty Lou Backus December 18, 1947 in Spanish Fork, Utah. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Manti Temple.
Survived by his wife Betty; daughters, Terrie Ann (Greg) Kretchmer; Suzanne (DeLoy) Davis; son-in-law, Clyde Roach; 15 grandchildren, and 30 great grand children. Preceded in death by his daughter, Denise Roach; brother, Marvin Park; sisters, Maxine Anderson and Florence Kendall.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, March 1, 2010 in the Spanish Fort 4th Ward, 381 East 400 North. Family and friends may call Sunday evening from 6-8 p.m. at the church and from 9:30-10:30 p.m. prior to the services at the church. Interment will be in the Spanish Fork City Cemetery. Funeral Directors, Anderson Funeral Home, 801-580-3366.

Blind Side

2010-02-26T11:16:00.001-08:00

The first of this month UVU had the real life people of the "Blind Side" come and talk, there was the mother and daughter Leigh Anne and Collins Tuohy. Brett went with me and it was an amazing experience to listen to what they had to say. Yes they did talk about the Hollywood aspect of things and about the movie it's self, but they where really there to share a message and to give a challenge to everyone. The mom talked a lot about how society deals out judgement on a person based on their first impressions. This judgment can be right or it can be wrong. Most often it is wrong. She went on to talk about everyone has value and how if everyone would not judge and be a little kinder to people that there would not be so much negative in the world.
I have thought long and hard about what was said and how even in my life I am a person who will judge a person based on the superficial things that I think are important. I don't want to be a person who does that - so from here on out I am going to make an effort to get to know someone before I decide what their "value" is.
This year has brought a lot of changes into our lives in a short amount of time, we have had good times, and some rough times. We have had everything from happiness to loss. I have watched my kids grow and learn compassion in ways that I never thought that I would see.
We are truly blessed and there is no reason for us not to share with everyone.
So I guess what I am saying is remember that each of us have "value" lets make sure that we treat others kindly and always remember their value.
Erika

2010

2010-01-18T14:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been awhile since I updated this. I will try to be better, we had a great Christmas and New Years and have been busy just trying to get everything done that needs to be done. We started our New Year's out with a BANG! Colby, Brock and I decided that late New Year's day we would head up the canyon and go snowmobiling. We headed out around 5:30 and had not gotten too far up the canyon and I had decided that I dressed way to warm so I stopped and Brock and Colby decided while I took off a few layers that they would go off of some jumps......the first jump I watched them and thought wow Colby is getting ALOT of air. Once they landed I knew that Brock was hurt I ran over to him and took off his face mask and there was blood everywhere, I told Colby that we needed to head back down and get stitches, he said Oh it is fine. I had to put my foot down in order for both of them to decide that I was right :) so we headed back down the canyon and got the snowmobiles loaded up and headed home. Once we got there and got Brock cleaned up Colby told me that we could just use super glue- SO with a little bit of convincing between myself and a neighbor Colby told me that he needed to go to the hospital...... This is Brock while they were putting a topical solution that would help to numb the skin before they did the "shots" to numb the skin. I had to laugh, when Brock knew that we were going to the hospital he said "you need to call the family" I asked him for what his reply "that is what you do when you take someone to the hospital, you need to have the family for support" It was so cute that he wanted the grandparents there, I told him that he would be fine and that we could call them when we where done and he could tell them how many stitches he got. So about an hour in the ER and 16 stitches later he was all right and decided that stitches were not bad at all BUT he NEVER wants the shot to numb it again.
Hopefully medical bills are not the forecast for this year, we have had our share. Hope everyone had great holidays and is enjoying a New Year!
Erika

It's Birthday Time...

2009-12-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday! Today is my dad's birthday, he is such a great father and example to have in my life. I am very lucky to call him dad. I have some of the best memories growing up and doing things with him. My dad has always tired to teach me to do the right, sometimes it worked and sometimes I feel short.. :) But my dad was always right there to pick me up and dust me off and help me along the path. For that I will be forever grateful. My dad loves with all his heart and once your in his circle you will always be in it. He is such a loving husband, father, brother, uncle, and grandfather. We are all lucky to have you in our lives! Hope you have a great day and know that we all love you!
Love,
Colby, Erika, Kaid, Brett, & Brock

Flag Football ~ Redskins!

2009-11-20T14:37:00.000-08:00

I know this is late but this is something that I want in my book so it is on here. Football was played during the end of September and October..

Brock got to play flag football this year ~ I think he would have rather it been tackle but hey it's okay with me. He was on the Redskins and played in Salem, Colby was his coach and they had a lot of fun and learned a lot! Brock was thrilled to get to play he LOVES football ( actually he loves sports) it was so fun to go and watch these kids come together as a team and win the games. Because of Colby's work schedule all of the games were either at 6:30 or 7:30 so the last few games have been FREEZING but that has not stopped the kids from doing great.

It was fun to watch the kids, some of them did not get the "flag" part of it and really tackled some of the other players hard- but still it was exciting.

Last night was the championships and they ended up taking 3rd place. Way to go Brock, he had 9 catches and scored 1 of the 2 point conversions for the win.

Brad Paisley Concert

2009-10-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

Like I said I am going to go back a little to have a record of things that we have been doing. This concert is one that I want to remember. We had so much fun! Judi and Taysia went with Brett, Coltin, and I. We also meet up with Chelsey & Matt, and Lacee & Miles. We went to Texas Roadhouse to eat before we headed out to the concert. We decided to all pile into my truck to get out to the Usana, because Chelsey had never been there and just because it was going to be easier to get everyone out there and back. So we loaded 9 people into the truck- I know not safe~ but we all made it home in one piece.

This is Brett and Coltin, I had to laugh because they did not seem like they were having a lot of fun, but both of them said that it was one of the best concerts that they had been too. So who knows! :)

Brett and Kaid both love Taylor Swift so Brett was telling me to get pictures of her. So that is why it's here.

Here is Brett and I right before Brad Paisley came out, and right before the rain started.

These girls.....what can I say? We had extremely good seats and we were right at the isle, so poor Coltin and Brett would get all of the stray, drunk, friendly girls that would come and dance with them, no scratch that they would TRY to get them to dance with them. Well this girl had just had one too many to drink and while she was dancing she spilled her drink all down the front of Coltin and Brett. I felt so bad I offered to trade him spots but he said he was fine. I had to laugh because every time I looked over it appeared that she was offering Coltin a beer. I told Brett to not be surprised if he was grounded from our family next time he wanted to bring him along.

Just before Dierks came on we ventured back to the lawn seating to see some of the homies~ Chomp and Fly. We all had a great time and can't wait to do it again!

Erika

The Dove Hunt

2009-10-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

Brock has always wanted to hunt, from the time he could walk and talk he would ask Colby when he could go hunting....Colby has always said once you can read and understand the hunters safety book you can take hunters safety and then you will be able to hunt. So this year Colby felt that Brock was ready, so Colby signed him up for his Hunter's Ed class and Brock did awesome! He passed both the written test and the shooting test. So the other day the older boys took him out dove hunting. They had not been out for too long and we got this picture text on our phones! Yep! Brock's first time and he gets a dove. He was so excited and so proud! I guess there is no turning back now, he has the hunting bug!

Good job Brock!

Erika

Corn Maze

2009-10-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

Wow time sure flies by, I can't believe that it is October already. There has been so much that I have wanted to put on the blog but have not had the time. So I will have to back track in the next few posts. But I wanted to get up our fun night that we had. We go to the Corn Maze each year and this year Brock & Brett both brought friends. We had a lot of fun! This was the first thing we saw when we got to Hee Haw Farms..... One of the "friends" said that it looked a lot like his sister! (which was really mean.) This is Brett, Riley, and Brock on the hayride. I had to laugh because I told Brett and Riley that I was going to take a picture of them and Brock decided that he needed to get into the action.

After the hayride we walked around seeing all of the different things that they had to do, this was a duck race that you had to pump the water to see which duck would win. Riley was the only one that could actually make the water pump out so he obviously won!

After the duck races we walked over to the corn cannon and the kids loved this, all of them spent a lot of time at this, they could hit an old barn or other things that they had for the kids to hit. Brett seemed to get all of his over the barn. So who knows what he was hitting on the other side. On the way to the corn maze the kids found these big bikes that they could race, so needless to say they all took turns racing each other. Here Brett is "helping" Brock to the win.

I loved this next picture because you could see the determination on both the boys faces to WIN! I don't think Riley was wanting to be beat by a "little kid"!

This last picture was in the actual corn maze, it was a tricky one this year. Kaid "somehow" got separated from us and was done with the maze in record time. We found him out talking to a girl. Before we went in they gave us a list of rules and one of which was no picking corn, or cutting thru to find your way out. If we broke any of the rules the "corn cops" would ask us to leave. I told all of the boys that they needed to listen and make sure that we did not have the "cops" become an issue, sure enough we had been in the maze for about 5 minutes and here comes a "corn cop" just as Brock says we can cut thru right here.....The cop said no you can't and Brock just looked at me and turned and ran the other way. So we were following Brock and for a few minutes the "corn cop" was following us! All in all it was a fun time and I think that everyone enjoyed it!

Until Next Year!

Erika

Labor Day 2009

2009-09-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Labor day was quite eventful this year. We decided late Saturday night to head out camping- so we loaded up the trailer and headed out first thing Sunday morning. Once we got to where we were going to camp for the night we unhooked the trailer and the kids starting exploring and all of the sudden I hear Brock say " I want to go see the bear!" I came out of the trailer and said what are you talking about? Colby tells me that Kaid had found a bear that someone had killed and then tried to cover it up. Colby told the older two boys to drive down to where they could get cell service and call the fish and game. So they did and a few hours later her came the DWR to investigate the bear's death. It was really sad that someone would kill it and then try to cover it up. It was a yearly bear- (I guess that is what they call it) the fish cop said that it had been booted out by it's mom this year. So it really was not that big- I am sure that it was not hurting anyone- they should have left it alone. Oh and by the way it was just right up Payson canyon, less than a mile from girls camp.

The next day we knew that we would get up and eat breakfast and then go cut wood! Well as we were eating our breakfast in walked a bunch of cows....these two just kept staring us down. It was really funny because they did not want to move.

So once we were done eating we headed out to cut wood, this is something we have done for years. Colby use to sell so we were constantly cutting some where but now we just get for ourselves. But he had a goal of cutting 3 truck loads. I told him that he needed to remember that I am a "PRINCESS" and I don't do manual labor. (That is a total joke, I work right next to him when we cut wood, it's just not something that we did when I was growing up) He just laughed and said he would see me there, so Kaid and I drove the first load down to the house and unloaded it and grabbed drinks and went back to get the next load, once we got there Brett, Brock and Colby had more than the one truck load already cut. So the boys loaded the truck up and then Kaid took it down and me and the the two youngest stayed to help Colby get the rest of the wood. We worked hard...Brett and Colby touched each and every piece of wood that we got. Brett is really strong he could lift some of the pieces that where HUGE I told Colby that there was no way that I could have even moved them. Once we were done we had to wait a few minutes for Kaid to get back with the truck we looked over and we saw this: Brock was dead asleep on the ground. He had worked right along side both Colby and Brett all day long. He was wiped out. Once we loaded up the truck we decided it was time to head back home, along the ride Kaid stopped the truck in front of us and came running back to our truck and said did you see that badger? Colby hit reverse and sure enough there was a badger, they asked if they could kill it and Colby told them yes, so of course they got it and brought it home.You can see just how dirty you get from cutting wood, Brett had pine sap on his arm and I think a week later he still has it. All in all it was a nice relaxing time away. Now if I could just talk Colby out of going and getting more wood!?!?!

Erika

School Time Fun!

2009-09-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

So with having all boys I did not think I would have the problem of them sneaking out clothes in their backpacks or having another outfit on under what they are wearing to school....But apparently I thought wrong! These ugly shorts are what I have found in Brock's backpack on two different occasions....And then yesterday as we were leaving for school I noticed that Brock's

pants were falling down I told him that he needed to get his belt or have me adjust the waist on them. He started to say I can't find my belt and he stopped mid sentence, I told him to just come over and I would adjust his waistband......Guess what I found when I grabbed his pants! Yep these ugly shorts were on UNDER his clothes and he has this ugly old "football" shirt that he had on under his other shirt. I told him to march himself back in the house and to change his clothes and that he was NOT allowed to wear that outfit to school EVER! He proceeds to tell me that football was starting and that he needed to practice while he was a recess and that he needed to dress the part...Are you serious you can't run around in your shorts or jeans you have to wear the ugliest shorts and an old shirt because that it what you think a football player would wear?!?! He cracks me up, but seriously I would have NEVER thought that I would have to deal with this. I guess that is what paybacks are all about :)!

Erika

Another School Year.

2009-08-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

It is really hard for me to write this.... I had a first and a last all in one moment! This is the first day of school for all of my kids and also the LAST first day of school for Kaid! He is a senior! It breaks my heart to think that in a few short months he will be graduating high school! Wow, time flies. As you can tell Brett and Brock were really the only ones that were OK with having their picture taken. I had to do both of these pictures- because we have always done two photos with the kids- up close and a little farther off. As you can see Kaid did get his cast off his nose, he only has to wear it at night for the next 3 weeks.

Brett is now in 8th grade and he could not wait to get back to school and see some of his friends. He has played hard all summer, but Brett really loves school.

Brock is in 3rd grade and has Mrs. Snow. We had to go in and find his class this morning and he was pretty excited. They are getting pretty smart they have split him up from all of his friends :) so he will have to make new ones again this year.

Hopefully they all have a good year, have fun, make new friends, and learn.

Erika

Baseball

2009-08-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Last night we had the baseball team party! It was a lot of fun. And I have been wanting to do a post of how the end of the season went but I did not have photos- so last night I asked on of the moms and she said that she had them on Facebook- so I stole them from her FB page :) Thanks JANA! This is Ben, J'son, Phil, and Brock (he was the stand in for Kaid)
The team ended up doing really well in the tournament and won the entire thing! It was such a great season and tournament. We had fun watching them play and come together as a team.

It was a late night, the game was an 8:00pm start and they last typically 2 hours, and then they handed out shirts for the team. Colby was really happy and enjoyed being able to coach them. Hopefully they will come back next year and be an even stronger team!

It was bittersweet Kaid has played with alot of these guys for years and there were a couple that are graduated now and won't be back next year, and do to a schedule change the tournament was played a week later than it was scheduled so Kaid did not get to play in the tournament (he was working graveyards for cherry's) Oh well maybe next year.

Erika

Kaid's Surgery

2009-08-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the before surgery photo and the after surgery photo. Kaid had surgery on Monday to repair his nose. Once the doctor got in there was more damage than he expected so the surgery was longer and they had to do a lot more than they originally planned on doing. They said that he will be in a cast for awhile- we really won't know much more until he goes back to the doctor on Tuesday. So for now he keeps taking his pain meds and is getting very good at the PS2! Good thing it's summer and friends can come over and visit him.

This was while he was in the holding area waiting to head into the operating room. This was 10 days after the break- you can still see just how swollen his nose is.

A Sad Goodbye

2009-07-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been pretty emotional around our house. We have had to say goodbye to two of our horses. We have been keeping our horses on some property in Elk Ridge for years now, and there were some issues that came up with the land and so we needed to move the horses. We have been looking to buy a house with land but have not really found the right place. So we decided that the best thing to do was to sell the horses until we get a place of our own. So about 1 ago we sold Sierra- I will get a photo of her on here. We have had Sierra since she was old enough to leave her mom. It was heartbreaking- But Colby did it while we were at ball games and so she was just gone one day. But on Saturday it was Smokey's turn to go- we loaded her in the trailer and meet the guy at Cabela's it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. We got Smokey right after Brett got burned, she was his therapy. He LOVED riding her and would spend hour upon hour with her. It was good for both of them. Brett did 4H with her and did very well. She helped build his confidence back up and he was more of the old Brett.

I was doing alright on the ride up, but when we got her out of the trailer it hit me like a ton of bricks. I started to cry, Brock said that he did not want to sell her and he was crying. The new owner came and they had two boys about the same ages as Brett and Brock, they were so excited to have a new horse, hopefully they will love her and take good care of her.

We are now down to one horse "Joe" that we need to sell and then we will sell the horse trailer.... It is hard to loose a pet - especially when your not ready to say goodbye.

Erika

Summertime Chores.

2009-07-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

OK, so I am sure that none of you have this issue....Summertime chores. It seems like I can leave a list of chores for the kids to do and by 9:15 am I am getting calls asking if they can go and do this or this! So I will ask are your chores done and of course the answer is "YES" so I will let them go. Well once I get home I usually tend to get upset because not only is the work not done but the house is usually a disaster. So after one day where things just seemed like I might have to run away and not come back, Colby told the kids that the next day he wanted a DETAILED report of what each kid did throughout the day.......Minute by minute! I was cleaning out my purse and found this and just wanted to remember just how cute it was.

If you notice Brock wrote his name next to each thing because he was wanting to make sure that he got the credit for each thing he did. He wrote the start and finish time and the chore and then the total time of each task. I think one of my favorites is the one near the bottom of this list * Clean kitchen it took him 1 minute. He actually had 2 1/2 pages of things that he had done throughout the day. All the boys actually did a list like this and I do have to say that since Colby had them do this, they seem to make sure that they do better. The joys of summer.
Erika

Cousins

2009-07-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, life has been BUSY! We have been finishing up baseball seasons and trying to finish up the remodel on the kitchen....

This past weekend we got to tend Payton and Cameron Bryce while Bryce and Michelle ran to St. George for the night. It was a lot of fun having the cousins over and letting them get to know each other.

On Saturday Brett got home from a week of scout camp, he was greeted by Cam, Brock and Payton. We decided that we would go down to the farm so that Payton and Cam could ride the horses. Brett decided that he was going to ride Smokey bareback, he was riding around the arena and having a fun time and all of the sudden there be came a problem, I was laughing so hard I asked him if he needed help I thought that he said no so I decided that I would grab a picture of him.

Once I grabbed the photo I again asked him he if needed help- this time he yelled "YES, I told you that the first time you asked" Oops! Sorry, he did a really good job of hopping with the horse as she was walking around the arena.

Once he got off the horse he put the saddle back on her and let Payton and Cameron Bryce have a turn. Payton got on the horse and sat there- then said that she was done. Cameron Bryce on the other hand loved it. He wanted to ride all by himself and not have anyone lead Smokey. I told him next time he could do that.

Once we were done riding the horses Brett brought over a new puppy and asked if he could keep it, being the good mother that I am, I told him of course we could keep it as long as it stayed at Merrill's place - he did not think I was funny! We had a great weekend, and hope Bryce and Michelle had a good anniversary.

Erika

Baseball- It's NOT just a game?!?!

2009-06-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know that Colby will be mad about this one, but it's my blog and I can say what I want on this. So everyone knows how much I love baseball, I love going to all the games and cheering on the boys. We are at the ballpark typically five nights a week. Well last week in the many rain storms that we had, Kaid's team was playing in another town- and the ump SUCKED he did not know the rules and this was getting beyond frustrating, not only for the coach and players but for us fans! We had this same ump do a game the week before and he sucked then as well. Colby questioned him on a call and he said that it was the rule and deal with it. Colby told him that in fact he was wrong and that he needed to check the rule, well the ump did not and continued on with the game.(Which after the game he called Colby and told him that Colby was indeed RIGHT- and he was WRONG) We were up to bat and all of the sudden the ump got on the phone and called up to the score tower and said we missed a point the game is over!?!?! (the rain had started to REALLY come down at this point) Colby once again questioned the ump and all of the sudden the ump LOST it, I mean LOST it. He started swearing and hollering at Colby (yes, in front of both teams, and the parents) So I got up from the bleachers and went over to ask him nicely to not swear. I was waiting patiently by the dug out for his temper tantrum to be over, he turned around and took two steps and I said "Sir" and he shoved me into the fence and said a few choice words and walked off, I was in total shock that a GROWN man would put his hands on me so I just kind of stood there trying to take in what had just happened. Well Colby then lost it and told the guy that it is good that he was leaving because he would beat him up. After the police and days of trying to get a certain city (it is not too far from here and the rec director's name is Corey Meridith) to do the right thing, like NOT allow this guy to ump again. I am here to say that they sided with their ump and he is still getting paid to treat people like crap and to push women!

Another side note the rec directors boss of this other town is a WOMAN, I seriously don't get it... But that is besides the point.

So I have been pretty heated about the entire situation and so last night Kaid's team has another game in the other town, (oh by the way Payson's rec office told me that I should probably stay away from the ballpark, because there is obviously a conflict with me and the ump! Seriously-) so we are playing the game and we are only in the top of the 2nd inning and the other team had to take an out because they did not have enough players and when Colby said something about it, the PLAYERS and the COACH went crazy, they were swearing and throwing fits again. I was a little nervous about saying anything, but I thought I should not have to listen to all of this, so I said something to them and it calmed them down for a minute. But I guess my question is.....When did city league baseball become SO serious? Are there major league scouts that are here watching for players and coaches and umps? I mean seriously I love the game, but I don't understand people acting like they are two years old...

Does this other city not care that they are teaching their boys that A- it is OK to push women and B- that throwing a fit and swearing will get you what you want out of life?!?

Sorry that was my rant- and I will try to get off of my soap box now. But seriously people it is just a GAME!

Erika

Kelly Clarkson Concert

2009-06-15T09:28:00.001-07:00

On Thursday Judi, Brett, Riley and I went out to the Kelly Clarkson concert at UVU. It was an outdoor concert and the weather here has been horrible so we were ready with our rain gear and blankets. We went to dinner first and then headed over to the concert, there were a lot of people already there so we were not sure just how close to the front we would be able to get the boys. But we assured them that we would try to get them as close as possible. So we started making our way to the front, we found a spot and set down our blankets

This is Brett and Riley waiting for everything to start, don't they just look excited to be there?! Once we got settled they decided that they were going to walk around for a little while, once they came back Brett said I saw Kelly Clarkson, I did not really believe him so I asked what she was wearing....He said a greenish tank top and a little vest thingy... He is such a boy.

So Kelly comes out and guess what she is wearing... Yep you guessed it.

So I guess I should believe him more when he says things like this. We were about 8 rows back (it was GA , so if you can call it rows) But I told the boys that we would still try to get them closer. The concert started and she was really good, Brett and I had seen her when she came with Reba in November we both thought she was a good performer so we were excited to see her again. We were surrounded by a very "unique" group of people.....I learned a lot! And by the middle of the concert we had both of the boys on the front row, they were both excited and seemed to have a good time. It only rained for about 30 minutes and it was not the downpour like it had been earlier in the day so we were all OK. We all had a blast and can't wait to go to the next concert! And Happy Birthday JUDI!

Ms. Santaquin Pageant!

2009-06-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

You see the title of the post?!? What is wrong with the picture of me having a child in the Ms. Santaquin Pageant?!? Your right I only have boys! Well this year Kaid was in the Ms. Santaquin pageant! So Colby and I being the good parents we are went to watch him compete for the title! We went with Vern and Sue as well they were there for moral support! Kaid did quite well in the talent part, he did not even mess up once! We were so PROUD! Next was the evening gown, he went with a knee length gown, he felt that his calf's should be shown off, rather than anything else. He sailed threw the evening gown competition rather well. Next was the question and answer- he did outstanding! Colby and I were just so proud of him. He looked so good on stage and was such a gentleman to all of the girls. They did the crowning and NO Kaid did not win! But that is alright with us because he was only there as the girls ESCORT!!!!!

Here he is after a very long night, he did a great job and we LOVE giving him a hard time about being in the pageant! It's not everyday that a mother and father of all boys can see their sons name in a pageant program and feel good about it! Can't wait until next year to see what he does!

Baptism

2009-06-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Brock turned eight this year and so he got to be baptised the day after his birthday. He was so excited. It was kind of a sad realization for me to see that my baby is that old. He was baptized and confirmed by Colby. It was a special experience. He was the only one from our ward that was baptized so we were in charge of the entire program. Kaid gave the talk about Baptism, it was very good. You could feel the spirit there, he did a great job! He closed it with his testimony and told Brock just how proud he was of him and that he knew that he was doing what was right. We had Beaver Bill (aka Brandon) do the talk on the Holy Ghost, he also did awesome! He used a couple of cans of Root Beer to demonstrate a person with and without the Holy Ghost.
We had a lot of family and friends show up to support us it was really nice. It really made the day special for Brock to see everyone there that would travel to spend time with him.
I will get pictures up as soon as I get them scanned in. Sorry!

Happy Birthday Brock

2009-06-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

WOW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It does not seem like 8 years ago that you were born...Time flies. You are such a great kid, we love you so much and your such a joy to have in the family. I remember walking into the OR and Dr. Baxter asking if we were ready to meet you. You have kept us all on our toes, but we would not have it any other way! Happy Birthday Brock!

Love
Mom, Dad, Kaid and Brett

It's that time of year!

2009-06-04T10:43:00.001-07:00

If you need to talk to me you can just catch me at my home away from home, THE BALL PARK! I am here Monday - Friday I am typically running from game to game and sometimes I even get to watch all of one kids before the next game starts.

I love baseball and I love to watch the kids play, but it gets a little overwhelming with 3 kids playing, one husband coaching, and two of the three kids also umpiring. I really earn my taxi status this time of the year!

Brett and Brock both started the same time this year and have played quite a few games already. Brett's team is 4-2 they are a really good team Brett is back to playing (after his appendix) the first game back he was not to sure if he wanted to swing the bat, but he acts like nothing ever happened now. Last night he was the catcher and he did an outstanding job. I love to watch when he is catching to me it seems like one of the funniest positions to play. He has also started this year umpiring the coach pitch games, he seems to really like it and he takes his job seriously. I don't have pictures of him playing but Shayli got this picture of him after his night of umpiring coming over to support Kaid at his game.

Brock is in Coach Pitch--- Let me just say that this is KILLING him.... He has two other brothers and a dad that have taught him HOW to play! He eat sleeps and drinks baseball. He loves everything about it and is really good. But that is the problem, he is too good. He runs from play to play to get the outs, or whatever is needed. He is the "backup" to every player. It cracks me up. I told the coach at the last game that I have talked to Brock about staying and playing the ONE position that the coach tells him to play, but it just doesn't work, the coach just said he is a good player it's ok. So I guess that as long as the coach is ok with it Brock will still run from play to play. Last night he was talking to me and he asked if he had to play another year of coach pitch next year, I told him that I was not sure...his response was if I have to I will take the year off and come back when it is real baseball! (you gotta love this kid)

Oh I almost forgot, if he does NOT get dirty, then he DID NOT have a good game! He slides even if they are not going to get him out!

Kaid has just started this week, he has only played 2 games he started out the year pitching, Colby is the coach of this team and I am not sure who is more happy about him coaching, Colby, Kaid, or Brock. It has been fun to see Colby and Kaid interact in this way. Colby has done an outstanding job coaching, last year this team was a sad team, they never won and they would usually forfeit most games, and when they did play they were typically 10 runned so they would use the "Mercy Rule" Not this year. They played two of the toughest teams this week and did quite well, they did lose both games but they only lost by 1 or 2 in either game. So this is a great accomplishment. I get nervous when Kaid is pitching because for some reason I think the game is all on his shoulders.. But he did very well both nights.

Tonight I think I only have two games so it should be an early night! Nah, who am I kidding I will be closing down the ball park. Like I said if you need me and can't find me at home, I am at the Ball Park.

Bear Hunt Part IV - IT'S OVER!!

2009-05-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

First off, if you don't want to see photos of dead animals- JUST STOP READING and come back when there is a new post! For those of you who stayed you will enjoy! There is going to be quite a few photo's BUT I can do it, this is my journal!

So I have to start at the beginning on Friday while we were waiting for Brett to get out of surgery Colby sent Kaid and Trevor up to the bait site to change out the SD cards and to set out more bait. Kaid called and said that there were 116 photos- Colby said that he would wait until later to come home and see them, he wanted to wait until Brett was a little coherent. So about 10:00 Colby headed out and said that he would be RIGHT back, they saw this bear! He called Shad and Jared both of them came over and were shocked. They both told him that it was HUGE and that he needed to try and take this one. So Saturday he went up in the morning- NOTHING while he was in the tree stand, but the bear had come back in and was on the camera. He was bummed but Brett was now out of the hospital so he hung out with him.

On Sunday morning Colby had church meetings and so he sent Kaid out again to get the SD cards and set bait. I was a nervous wreck, Kaid was by himself so I kept trying his cell phone and once he got service he called. He proceeds to tell me that he saw the bear and that it was HUGE (he could have NOT told me 1- that he saw the bear and 2- that it was HUGE.) The bear watched him put the food at the site and watched him walk out.

So on Monday Colby and Kaid went up first thing in the morning (2am) they sat in the stands for hours- NOTHING! So they came home and Kaid went to school and Colby got the trailer and headed back up. I was at home and just had gotten Brett settled and Colby called the cell phone, it was all static and I could not get everything he was saying....I kept hearing Kaid....At....Time....Kaid...then I lost the call. He called back more of the same, he called again and was farther down the canyon and had better reception I hear......I got a bear, where is Kaid I need help getting it out.....I said you got a bear? My house erupted in screaming! (you would have thought that Brock won the world series on HIS OWN!) he was screaming and jumping up and down! Brett called Kaid and said you need to get home NOW!

Once Colby was home there were several people waiting to head back up the canyon to help him bring it out. Brett decided that he wanted to go up so I went up with them so that I could stay behind with him. The entire way up Colby kept saying I got the little one. Shad was saying either way you got a bear- don't worry. We finally made it up the canyon to the river where they had to cross at about 10:00pm- they all headed out and said they would holler once they were back so that I could turn on the truck lights for them to cross the river. Brett, Riley (his friend) and myself went to the trailer we played games for awhile and slept. We decided around 11:30 that the guys should be getting back soon so we went back to the river. We waited....waited....and I think finally fell asleep. At 1:05am I heard them, I fumbled for the lights and once I turned them on I saw the bear on the edge of the river Jared was one of the first ones to cross the river, once he got to me he said "That's going in the record book" each person that came across told me the same thing.

With the river being as fast and as deep as it was they decided that they would hook a rope up to the truck and have the truck pull the bear across the river, Colby was holding on too a set of ropes and about mid way across the river the bear flipped and Colby went in head first, I was worried that he and the bear were going to go down the river! But everything was ok.

They decided to bring it out whole so that we could get photo's of Brett with the bear, he had gone up there so many times with Colby during the hunt. It was really nice that the guys would do that for Brett, I know it meant a lot to him and myself.

Colby took the bear to the taxidermist and in about a year I will be adding a new addition to the family! He also called the University of Utah to come get the carcass, they came out last night and the weighed the fur and the carcass and it was 412 lbs. that was with out the guts. So they say that if the bear would have made it until the fall it would have easily gone to 525-550 lbs. It was a HUGE bear. They measured around the bears front forearm and it measures 22 inches. Colby is so excited and I am really glad that he could kill it with out any one getting hurt!

Sat's on this : 15 yard shot with a bow

1 dead bear

4 happy guys at our house

This is the group up at the site back row: Shad, Kaid, Scott, Brady, Ryan Front Jared, Brock (yes Colby was true to his word that he would carry him across the river once the bear was dead) Vern and Colby. We finally made it home around 3:30am. THANKS to all of you that helped! It was so appreciated. We know that you all sacrificed your time and muscles! Thanks again!

Erika

2 for 1?! NOT!

2009-05-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well for Mother's Day we were home just enjoying a nice peaceful day. We were sitting down eating my favorite meal STEAK and Kaid got up an went into the bathroom, I thought that he had gotten a piece of fat and was spitting it out. I heard him coughing and went into the bathroom and he was purple, I asked if he was ok, he nodded "NO" so I started hitting him on the back and yelled at Colby, he came running in and took one look at him and said call 911! Colby did the Heimlich on Kaid several times and nothing was working on getting this meat unstuck! So I was giving all of the information to the 911 operator, and Kaid said that he was fine and that no one needed to come out, so we told that to the 911 operator. About 30 minutes later Kaid was still chocking so Colby told him that we needed to take him to the hospital, so he and I went off to the ER, once we got there they hooked him up to all sorts of machines and started to monitor him. They told us that they were going to give him some medicine to make him throw up and it should fix the problem. So we waited and waited. Enough time had passed that they said they where going to send him into surgery to remove the piece of meat.....I was totally shocked and looking around like he is 16 not 2 how does he choke??? So they where prepping him for surgery, he sat straight up in bed and starting throwing up again, and the stupid piece of meat finally came out! YEA! Surgery avoided! So they told us all of the generals we all know about cutting and chewing our food better and they told Kaid that he needed to eat liquids only for the next few days because his throat would be very tender.

So for mothers day I got a trip to the ER! I bet you can't beat that?!?!

So Wednesday at Brett's baseball game Janet was laughing at Kaid's little trip to the ER and told us that we had better get EXTRA insurance on that kid, because he is always getting hurt. We all laughed and did not think much more about it.

Thursday night Brett was at a school play and sent me a text saying that he was sick to his stomach and that his ribs hurt. I asked if I needed to come and get him he said NO he needed to stay to get credit. Once it was over I got him and he said that he thought that he just drank too much water. So he went to bed and Friday morning he was not feeling better so Colby said that we should get him a doctors apt (Colby HATES doctors apts. he would rather them be really sick to see the dr) But Colby was worried about the Swine flu so we made the apt. I called Brett and told him it was at 12:30, he called be about an hour later and said that it hurts to breathe, I said ok , I will see if I can get you in earlier. he calls back about an hour later and says that he can't move! Great- I am thinking he Must have the swine flu! So I called the doctor and said that I was bringing him in right then. So I ran home and got Brett, he could not even walk! It took me about 15 minutes to get him in the car. We got to the doctors office and the waiting room was FULL I told the front desk that he could not wait in the waiting room and that he needed to been seen right then! I was getting all sorts of nasty looks by the mothers in the waiting room. We went into the room and the doctor came in immediately and was talking to us and did a little bit of poking on Brett and said "Well, call your husband Brett is going to have surgery" WHAT!?!? Yep, you guessed it Brett had an appendicitis.....He needed immediate surgery. They sent us right over to the hospital to be admitted and with in a few hours Brett was in surgery to have his appendix removed. He appendix had started to leak, and was right on the verge of rupture. So he had to spend the night in the hospital and got to come home on Saturday. I asked when I was admitting Brett if they offered any type of 2 for 1's they told me that they didn't.

So for my birthday I got a hospital stay!

I told Colby that for our anniversary we were not going to do gifts!

Erika

Art Show

2009-05-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

Remember this little picture?!?

Well Kaid's art teacher entered it into the schools art show.....And it won 1st Prize we are so excited and happy for Kaid. I am still amazed that he can do what he does. I have no artistic ability! We are still waiting for the picture to make it's way home to our house! But Kaid said that it should be this next week!

Way to go Kaid!

Erika

Baseball

2009-05-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, you know summer is close once baseball starts up. Just like the last 3 years I have all three boys playing ball. Brett's team is the only one that I have playing actual games right now. He has played the first two of the season and his team has won both of them! I LOVE baseball, but I really like the warm weather that usually comes with baseball. Both of the games have been FREEZING! Last night around 9:30 I finally sent Kaid to get me some hot chocolate. Brock had taken Jared to watch the game and he had to go, so Brock told me that he wanted to take some pictures with my phone. So here is what I have. Brock really zoomed in.

It to me is always hard when Brett plays his friends. And both games they played the same team and he had friends on them, last night Corbin was pitching and was doing quite well and Brett got up to bat, and Corbin hit him right in the leg, (Brock caught Brett trying to jump out of the way) but this morning there was a huge bruise! I am going to have to tease Corbin about beating up his friends!

It was nice last night to have my dad come and watch Brett, I know that he enjoyed having him cheer him on. We also got to spend some time talking with Lexi, she is growing up into such a cute girl! Bryce is really going to have his hand full!

Erika

Bear Hunt Part III

2009-05-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

Colby is so excited. On Friday he went up to check the bait site and he knew that he had been hit, there where tracks on the ground and there was lots of food gone. So he did his thing up there and changed out the SD cards in the cameras and came home to see what was on there........

There were something like 100 photos of this bear! It makes me crazy, it scares me too death. But Colby is on a high like you have never seen. So are the kids, Brock keeps asking if he can go with Colby and he is told that the river that you have to cross it to high and fast right now that there is no way that he can go. Brock does not like that answer and repeatedly tells Colby that he is a big kid and should be allowed to go!This one is taken at night, it amazes me that the bear looks like he is getting comfortable to just eat. Colby has been keeping a journal of what time he comes in and Brock about has the thing memorized. He went up again yesterday and the bear had been back in and eaten a bunch of the food, so he will go back up tonight and swap out the cards in the camera again, so I guess we will see what he has on those.

Erika

Graduation

2009-05-03T16:20:00.001-07:00

This week has been pretty crazy with all of the hunting, kids, finals, ball practice, and graduation. Yes I finally got my associates degree. I have been going to school part time for awhile now, and was waiting for two friends to have there credits so that we could all graduate together, unfortunately I waited as long as I could and finally had to do it without one of them. But Kimberly and I both got our associates degrees on Friday! I know I so should have listened to my parents and done it while I was younger--- But I now only have 20 credits and I will also have my Bachelors degree! It was a very surreal feeling, I remember graduating from high school and moving right to Montana, life was going to be an adventure and I was young and ready for it. WOW what 16 years will do, this time I had all my kids, Colby and my parents. It was neat to be able to hear them cheering me on when they called my name. I have always been there cheerleader, this time they got to be mine. Thanks!

At graduation we where honored to hear from President Thomas S. Monson it was so neat. He gave great advice to all of the graduates and closed his speech with reminding people what the two most important words in world were "THANK YOU" he said that we need to make sure that we say these words more.

While we where waiting for the processional the first presidency was down in the tunnel as well, I got the opportunity to shake Pres. Uchtdorf hand, it was neat to see these men who have devoted their lives to the Lord, they are spiritual giants who are so down to earth and such good men. It was a special experience.

I am so happy to have this leg of the journey done, and can't wait to continue to gain an education and knowledge. But I had better take the advise of Pres. Monson and say THANK YOU to my wonderful husband who always gives me support (even though he tells me that I am just in psychology to TRY to figure him out) my kids who have had to share my time with school. And to my parents who have always told me just how important an education is, and that I could always do it if I put my mind to it. And Kathy and Rog (Mom & Dad Dickson) for giving me determination (stubbornness?!?) and support. THANK YOU!!!!

Erika

Kids Grades

2009-05-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

I am such a slacker! When we got the kids grades I told Colby that I was going to put them on, I just totally forgot. I was cleaning off the roll top and saw Brett's award so I thought that I had better share....

Brett had a 4.0 GPA he worked really hard for it. So this year he has had 3.8, 3.95 and 4.0! Good job Brett, we are all proud of you!

Kaid got a 3.5 GPA this term and we are proud of him as well, Brock got straight A's so he was really excited. As where we! Keep up the good work!

Bear Hunt Part II

2009-04-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Let me just say that this totally FREAKS me out!!! I am not going to try and hide the fact that I am totally terrified by this! Colby went up to put out more bait for the BEARS and to swap out the SD cards on his tree cameras. When he got home he jumped on the computer and this is what he found....... Yes your seeing this right! A MOUNTAIN LION!!!!! All night I kept dreaming about Colby and a mountain lion, I told him about it this morning and he told me there is NO need to worry.

You can see the food on the ground, those are donuts which are out in the open and then under the logs, that is pumpkin pies. On the ground there is meat that Colby takes up and burns and then leaves for the bears.

Do you remember that I said I went up to the bait site with Colby the other day? Well right by the donuts is where I was sitting! I told Colby that I am NOT going back up there with him. All of the kids thought this was the coolest thing, I really don't understand what is so neat?!?! It just scares me! Colby missed seeing the mountain lion by only about an HOUR! He is hoping that next time he sees it or a BEAR!

Wish me LUCK!

Erika

Prom

2009-04-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

I know, I am so bad at getting photos up. But I did take a bunch of pictures but when I down loaded them to the computer I found out that the pixels in my camera are going out so I have a bunch of white dots floating around the pictures. UGH! So I guess I will need to get another camera. But here are a few....

This was Kaid before he left the house, you can tell he is Colby's child! No smiles! They had gone bowling and ice cream earlier in the day, then came home to get ready for the dance.I know Brenda will kill me for this, BUT I just could not resist! Natalie was worried about sticking Kaid so she told her mom that she needed to put on the corsage. Here is Nat, pretending that she is putting on the corsage. I had to go over to their house to get photos because Kaid said that they were not going to come back to our house. The needed to get the other couple. So luckily I ran across the street and got to take some.

Here they are just before they headed out, I think both of them were ready to leave the house and get away from all of the camera's there was myself, Kimberly (her sister), and both of her parents....I told you my camera is bad, but this is at Promenade, the dance was at the Provo Library and everything was inside, and it was total confusion and craziness. But I went over with Cindy, and got pictures. This is the group, Brooke, Taylor and Kaid, Natalie. They all looked so cute and grown up. They went to dinner after this and then went back to the dance, and later watched movies. I think they all had a good time.

The Turkey Hunt

2009-04-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, Kaid got a turkey tag for the Beaver area this year. He was so excited. When he drew out he realized that there was one small problem. The hunt started on Prom, he decided he would go to Prom (which I promise I will get photos of that soon) and then head out on Sunday to see if he could get a turkey. So he an his friend Scott loaded everything up in the truck and headed out for Cove Fort to set up camp. On Sunday they said that they saw a few but did not have any luck at getting close enough for a shot. So they got up bright and early on Monday to head out, they found the one that Kaid had seen on Sunday and they waited and waited, they decided that they would go back out after them in the afternoon, late evening. Kaid was where he wanted to be and he started to "call" in the turkeys. He had this one talking to him and he got it in closer to him so the shot was about 55 yards, and he decided to take it.

He was so excited, this is the best picture I have because it (the turkey) is now in the freezer waiting to head to the taxidermist. Yes, I will be adding to the collection at my house of dead, stuffed animals.

The stats on this kill are as follows: Kaid called it in, a 55 yard shot, and a 9 inch beard. And a happy child. What more could a mother ask for?!?

Erika

The Bear Hunt

2009-04-14T07:13:00.000-07:00

On Easter we decided to head up with Colby to go check his tree cameras and see if there had been any bears come in to the bait. So Brett and Colby headed up on the hike, and Brock and I stayed in the truck. I was trying to study for a test and Brock was decided that he was going to get out and play with his trucks in the dirt. I told him that was fine. He lasted about 10 minutes then he jumped in the truck and said that he was bored... Great I did NOT want to get out. We are in BEAR territory. I tried to distract Brock with games on my cell phone and on the palm pilot, he was totally BORED! There was no escaping it, so I told him that we could go for a little walk, but not far because I did not want to see a BEAR!

We walked just down the trail about 100 yards to the water, and Brock wanted to see if we could walk across it like Colby and Brett had done, I told him that we were not going to get wet but we could stand on the rock in the middle of the water and take a picture, so we did. Brock wanted to get one of me, I think he was hoping that I would fall in and then he could get wet.

After we had spent enough time at the water I told him that we needed to start back to the truck. He was kind enough to make a trail for me in the snow, he would stomp around so that I did not have to get snow in my shoes. In some places it was still 6 or 7 inches deep. As we came up the trail I saw a............

I bet you thought that I was going to see a Bear. We saw a bunch of turkeys, so we started to walk closer to them to see if we could get a better picture of them. As we were walking towards them, Brock was telling me all sorts of instructions on what I should do to sneak up on them. As we got closer to them the toms all took off and there was this one and one other that stayed around. Brock was determined to get closer so I stayed where I was and he decided to go around and see just how close he could get. He was so cute, he would walk close to the ground and then he would get behind trees and then do his turkey call and he had the patience to just wait it out. It took about 3 minutes for him get this close.That is right, that is Brock's hand on the turkey's back he was petting this turkey!

I can't figure out the last photo to make it big it was done on a cell phone. He was so excited just as he had made his way to the turkey and was petting it, Colby and Brett came back and got to see it. These were not tame turkeys but Colby said that there might be something wrong with it to allow humans to come that close and to touch it. But Brock did not care, he was so excited and he KNOWS that it was all his own hunting skills that he has gotten.

Erika

Life Updated

2009-04-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, these past few days have really flown by, with the funeral and Colby's birthday, getting ready for the BEAR hunt, and Prom life has just flown right by me.

Like I said it was Colby's birthday, he turned 35! We went out to dinner and to Cabela's to get him another camera and a tree stand. I think he had a great day...at least I hope he did.

Kaid sent me a text yesterday of this picture, the text said "Look at my art work hanging in the display case at school" I had to ask if he was pulling my leg, he assured me that he was not he said you can see the light in the reflection of the glass.

I have absolutely zero artistic abilities. But they get it from their great grandma Davis, she was an excellent artist. It is really nice to see that he is using his talents and awesome to be able to have it displayed, I can't wait to actually see the photo in person. He used water colors in the top half for the sky, and I can't remember what he said that he used for the log and the birds.

Goodbyes

2009-04-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

I have always told Colby that he is lucky because he never cries, I can cry over TV shows. It is really bad. But this weekend I had to say good bye to my grandma, Maurine Malmberg. To my kids she was grandma M & M. She was my mom's mom. She lived in California most of my life so I did not get to see her as much as most. But she was a very strong, faithful, caring lady. I remember going out to California several times to visit and picking lemons off of her tree in the back yard. We stayed with them a few times when Kaid had to have surgeries at the hospital out there.

I had the opportunity to go to the hospital once my mom was told that she would not be surviving, I went over and was able to spend several hours with her and my cousin's, it was a very special time to be able to feel the spirit and see the power of the priesthood. I know that she and my grandpa are having a joyous reunion. While it is hard to say goodbye, I know that I will see both of them again.

Erika

Prom

2009-03-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Well it is getting that time of the year! Kaid is a Junior so he decided that he would go to Prom. He asked Natalie. He did not get a photo of how he asked her (mainly because he is a boy and doesn't care about it) But he got a stuffed dog and a bunch of candy and wrote a note and tied it to the collar of the dog that said "I'd Roll over and beg for you to go to prom with me". It was really cute.

Well last week Nat answered him back....This time I got photos.

I loved this- In case you can't read it, it says "Kaid no need to roll over or beg me to go, I'm all out of breath, my answer is .....(Pop the balloons to find my answer)
This is the balloons that where on the floor of his bedroom.

He had tons of balloons in his room, some of them even had glitter in them so when he popped them it went all over! But her answer was YES! So now we have to get a tuxedo and all of that fun stuff. Yeah! Nat got her dress this weekend so we now know what colors we are needing to match. I will post more after prom.

Erika

17 years and Counting

2009-03-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that we have been married that long! It seems like yesterday that we were getting married. I pulled out our engagement photos and our wedding album. Man we were skinny! And I don't think I have seen Colby's hair that long since Beaver dared him to die it black. I think back to the day that we got married, it was such a special day. I am so lucky to be married to the man of my dreams. Colby has always been such a hard worker and provided for our family. We have been through a lot in our married lives; 22 moves, separations (due to work), 3 kids, 2 dogs, 3 horses, 4 pigs, pheasants and chickens, extended hospital stays, surgeries, going to college, etc.. And we have lived to tell the story! I am so glad that we take the journey together.

Here's to many, many more years together! I can't wait to see what life throws at us next and to be able to grow old with you and sit out and watch the sunsets.
For our anniversary this year poor Colby got sick (so did Brock) so we went to dinner on Friday night and then on Saturday Colby, Me, and Brock went to the Hunting Expo. It was a lot of fun, they were geared more towards kids that the other Expo that we went to last month. Brock got to catch a fish, and we watched the dogs in the big pool. We then went out to dinner and a movie, it was a lot of fun to just be able to spend time with Colby.
I love you!
Erika

The Results are IN!

2009-03-16T09:31:00.001-07:00

That is the BEAR results are in, and yes Colby drew a tag! He is so EXCITED. He can't wait for the hunt to start. When he thinks of bear hunting he gets all excited and just has a smile from ear to ear. When he envisions the hunt he sees a bear like the one above, just a bear. Oh I might of forgot to mention it is an archery tag. So they tell me that you will typically shot your bear 15 -20 yards away!!!! WHO in their right mind would want to be that close to a bear?!?!? Not only that close but you can bait the bears, so seriously who would not only want to be that close to a bear, but a HUNGRY bear!?! I assure you I will not be going on this hunt!

This is not even as scary of a bear as what I envision it being that close. (But on line it says that this is an aggressive bear) This hunt TERRIFIES me. And the best part is Colby put me in for the hunt. LUCKILY my results said UNSUCCESSFUL. (I think that they got it wrong.)

Celine....

2009-02-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

I bought the tickets for this concert over a year ago, it was postponed and this time it went off with out a hitch.. Kaid came because he knew that the girl to boy ratio was in his favor. (Kids!)

And just an FYI there are LOTS of pictures!

Bobbi & Judi had the task of trying to keep the rest of us in line. :)

We had so much Fun. We headed out about 4:30 so we could go to dinner before the concert. We went out to Chili's it was a blast. I had no idea that one gal could eat SO much.

We all laughed and ate and had a great time, once our bellies where full it was time to head to the concert. Just like at girls camp we had the music turned as loud as it would go...And we sang the songs over and over. ( I think I might have scared Bobbi and Judi) Cameras where going off every few seconds on the way up, people would pull up along side of me and look in the car like what is going on. I think they were looking to see if we had some one famous in the car. So needless to say we have tons of pictures.

So we get to the concert and park. We all walk in to the Energy Solution Center and make our way to our seats. I notice that our seats are "not so good" we are on the second to last row of the place. Are you kidding me?!? That is high! I had to sit there for awhile and get my bearings. They had a comedian come out and be the opening act for Celine, he was hysterical. We all laughed and laughed. Then it was time for the reason we where all there.... Celine! She was great, we all sang along with her and loved it.

So on the way home, we once again sang the songs. Once it was time to drop everyone off, the last group of girls decided that they where not quite ready to be done with the fun. So while I was dropping off Kylee (Larry) and Josie, Chelsey, Lacee, and Kaid decided that it was time to get on the top of the car and take photos!

The evening was a total blast! I am so glad that everyone was able to come and make more memories! Thanks everyone. I love you all!

Erika

Sweethearts

2009-02-25T19:31:00.000-08:00

Ok, as promised here are a couple of pictures from Sweethearts. I know that they are a long time coming but life has gotten busy, and I am just now getting to them. (And I am not sure why they look so bad) The first photo is a photo of Kaid and Shayli, Lauren and her date. They both looked really cute. The second is a photo of them trying to pin on the "corsage" the girls did not want to do the traditional corsages so they went with a really cute "sheriffs" badge. They seemed to be just as hard as a flower to pin on. All in all they all had a fun date and enjoyed the dance.

Husband Tag

2009-02-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

OK, so I was tagged last week by Melody..I put it off but I have a minute so I thought I would do it. This is a chance to see how well you know your husband...

1. He is sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Hunting Shows

2. You're out to eat what kind of dressing on his salad? Ranch

3. What's one food he doesn't like? Roast

4. You go out to eat and have a drink what does he order? Strawberry Lemonade

5. Where did he go to High School? Spanish Fork

6. What shoe size does he wear? 10

7. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Italian BMT

8. What would he eat everyday if he could? Tacos

9. What is his favorite cereal? Oatmeal (which makes me gag!)

10. What would he never wear? Shorts

11. What is his favorite sports team? Like anyone could not guess this! BYU Cougars

12. Who did he vote for? McCain (I guess, I never did ask him. I thought that is why it is private booths to vote in. :) )

13. Who is his best friend? Duh! Me

14. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't? Probably that I am the "lawyer" for the kids. (i am working on not being the "lawyer")

15. Did he play sports in high school? Baseball, football

16. What could he spend hours doing? Hunting, fishing, horseback riding, fixing things, and spending time with the family.

17. What is one unique talent he has? Raising Pigs! Who knew that?!?!

Colby is a great husband, father, and friend. I appreciate all that he does for me and the boys. He is always teaching by example. ( he never asks the kids to do something that he is not willing to do) and he has a heart of gold, he would give someone the shirt off of his back if they needed it. (I have seen him do this)

I tag Norma, Charlyn, Candi, Krista, Tara and anyone else that wants to play along.

Also, I will post Kaid's dance pictures and I do have a great post about the concert! Thanks Gals it was a BLAST!

Erika

Kaid Dance

2009-02-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this weekend was quite busy at our house. Kaid had Sweethearts and the rest of us just had life. Kaid told me that I could post this photo, so I am going to take advantage of it. He said that they could never get a picture of him when he was higher in the air. But he assures me that he was indeed higher.

This is part of his Sweethearts dance date, they went snowmobiling in the day and then came back home to get ready to go to the dance. I will post those photo's once I get them off my camera. He had a good time.

Erika

Celine...

2009-02-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

I know this won't come as a big shock to most of you but I will admit it, I am a bit of a trouble maker:) I try to do as my mother taught me, but sometimes I just can't help myself. Well a few years ago I was in our wards YM and had the wonderful opportunity to go to girl camp, (here's a shout out to "Larry" and the rest of the homies!) Anyways, we caught wind that there was going to be an "air raid" and we did not want to have a few of the girls wake up that way so the YW President gave me the charge to do whatever and yes she said WHATEVER, I had to do to keep them from waking up our ward....That was all I needed! So me and a bunch of girls dressed in Camo, stayed up all night and we won the battle! And it seemed that Celine was with us that entire camp experience, we listened to her all night staying awake and then from the very loudest setting in my car for all of camp to sing karaoke too. It was so fun and one of the funnest weeks I have had. (i got released shortly after camp, but that is another LONG story) But while at camp we all said that if she ever came to Utah we were going, well let's just say that I have a date with some of the very best gal pal's I know. I am so excited, every time I hear one of her songs I can't help but go back to that week in June....Thanks girls for the memories. The count down has started.
Erika

I'm DONE Part 2

2009-02-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

***UPDATE*****
I just got off the phone with the Vice Principal, he said that the District took in to account Bretts grades, attendance, and lack of problems in the past and have decided that it would be in the best interest of everyone if they ONLY give him a WARNING!!!! I am so excited. I never knew what all of the excitement was about in the first place. So Brett is now in class and was told that he can't bring ammo to school.

Ok, you all see that the boys look cute and innocent in this picture?! Well lets just say that looks can be deceiving. The past month, no scratch that the past year and a half we have been fighting a battle with the school. It seems that no one really cares if your child succeed in school they just want them to be there to get their funding. (Sorry mom and dad I know when you taught you were different! I am talking about now) And I am sure that in deed there are still teachers that care, they are just not at the schools that my kids go to. Enough said. Well it started with issues at or with Kaid, in Payson they never marked tardies, in Salem they are obsessed with making sure they have the best school and all that BS! They are just trying to make a name for themselves, anyway we will just say that Kaid has 24 hours of detention to make up! Yes that is not a typo 24 hours. So we feel like we are making some progress and "think" things are getting better and we find out that Brock cheats- see earlier post called Cheating if you need that story. Then we go back to dealing with issues with Salem, Colby and I take a day off of work to go over and straighten things out with them. We ended up spending 4 hours there! And then last night I get a call from Brett's school.....Hence the earlier post "I'M DONE!"
I am informed that Brett had 3 "17 shells" in his pocket and the school is a "Safe School" he is in direct violation of the Safe School, the Vice Principal is waiting to hear from the School District as to his punishment, BUT he assures me that he is looking at anywhere from 10 days to 1 year suspension. Are you freaking kidding me?! He did not have a gun he had some shells in his pocket...He did not threaten anyone, he simply forgot that they were in his pocket...Are you freaking kidding me?
I went in this morning to see what they had decided. The Vice-Principal said that they have not heard yet what his punishment will be. I tried explaining that Brett was a good kid, never been in trouble or anything. His response was it doesn't matter he violated policy. And they will send him to skill building until they find out how long the suspension will be. He told Brett he could work on his missing assignments while in skills, I asked if the Vice-Principal knew who he was dealing with. Brett had a 3.95 both terms and is getting a 4.0 right now. So what homework does he need to do?!?!
Are you freaking kidding me?! (I know that I have said that- but come on, this is ridiculous) So as soon as I hear anything I will let you all know.
Erika

I AM D.O.N.E!!!

2009-02-05T13:44:00.001-08:00

Okay you see that I started waving the "White Flag" I am serious I am DONE I don't want any more surprises any more phone calls from people telling me that this or that has happened! I am DONE! Put a fork in me I am DONE! I am going to be "pretending" that my life is great and wonderful, and that my kids make all the right choices. My life is great, My life is perfect, I am a good mother, I have a wonderful family, I love my kids, I love my life. (Repeat as necessary)

Erika

Journal

2009-02-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

First off I only write this, because this is more of a journal for me. So if you don't want to read that's fine.
lately it has been really hard watching my kids grow up and make decisions for themselves. I always thought that I would enjoy this time, and now I am not so sure I want them to grow up. It seems that Satan is working so hard on the youth and as the mom I can't make all of the decisions, I have to watch my kids make their own (decision) and then help them with the consequences which fallow. The past month decisions and consequences are seeming to be a daily thing in our household. I really just want to throw my hands in the air and say "I'm DONE!" But I can't because I would let Satan win if I did that. I would be giving in and no one but he would win. So daily I get up and start over, I continue to try to teach my kids right from wrong and instill in them a testimony that they will know. That they will be able to stand up for what they know is right. When I was younger I would hear the statement "it takes a village to raise a child" I thought that who ever said it was a crazy person. I now as a mom realize that the statement is so true, I need everyone to help raise and be examples to my children. It seems that there can never be enough people in their lives who love them and want what is best for them. I want my kids to know that I don't expect them to be perfect, BUT I do expect them to strive to be. I want them to realize that their actions now, will affect their futures. They need to make right choices and reap the rewards.

Snow Party

2009-01-28T14:08:00.001-08:00

For our "ward" snow party, we usually go out to the church farm and have fun, this year we were told at the last minute that the church was no longer allowing motorized machines on the property. So we had to punt, luckily we found a great lady that said we could use her property. So we headed over for an afternoon of fun. Brock was so excited to go and get to be out in the snow, I think he was on a tube the entire time. He was freezing by the time we got home. But he enjoyed every minute.

This is what Brett did the entire day, he would drag kids around and drop them off and get another load of kids. He loves to be in charge.

This is a photo of Kaid after he had gone on a ride where Vern tried every trick in the book to get him to fall off of the tube. He never did fall off he just got a face full of snow. I was pretty amazed that he could hold on through some of the tricks that Vern did.

This is what Colby did, he sat and talked to everyone and made sure that they were warm and had plenty to eat. He is really good at taking care of people. For some reason he never wants to get out and take a ride on the tubes.

This is me, Chelsey, and Nat, we were braving the tube with Kaid in the driver seat...Needless to say we where ready for a wild ride. He loves to be able to get his old mom flying in the air. We held on as long as we could but the three of us where no match for Kaid. Kaid was taking Nat and Lacee for a ride and they did not even make it out of the gate. It was quite comical. I think everyone had a good time and made memories that will last a lifetime.
Erika

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-01-22T11:29:00.001-08:00

OK, so how lucky am I to have two amazing moms! And both of their birthdays are in January. So I get to let them know how much I love them and appreciate the things they do for me. For some of you who I have not seen in a while this is my birth mother, I have had the opportunity to have her in my life for seven years now. How lucky I am to get to have her and her family share our lives. Kathy is wonderful; she has taken us in and loved us without even a second thought. She is the peacemaker and is always thinking of others. I have learned many things from her, and I get a lot of things from her (inherited) it has been fun for me to see where I get my long legs and funny feet, my stubbornness. (Which by the way is a WEAVER thing) I truly love her and love getting to know more about her and the many talents she has and shares with me and the boys. Mom I hope that you have a great birthday and know that I love you and enjoy having you and dad in my life. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Love,
Erika, Colby & The boys.

Laughter Lives Tuesday

2009-01-20T07:31:00.000-08:00

This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.Ok, I saw this on another blog that I love to read and thought that I would give it a try. I am going to start with a little bit of background to our family for those that really don't know me. We have two older kids (16, 13) and then one younger (Brock, 7) So the other night the big boys were both out with friends doing what teenagers do on a Friday night. So Colby and I decided that we would go out, we asked Brock what movie he wanted to see, so off we went to a movie of HIS choice, and then we went out to dinner. During dinner we were all talking and Brock piped up and said "You know I have decided that I don't want to date you two any longer, your not as much fun as my friends" Colby and I both sat there in a state of SHOCK! Did my 7 year old just tell us that we where no fun?!? We both burst out laughing and Brock said "WHAT?" He had no clue what we where laughing at.
So now it is your turn...What makes you laugh?

Cheating

2009-01-19T08:37:00.000-08:00

Last week I was talking to Brock about how his day at school had gone and how he had done that week, he proceeds to tell me that his teacher only gave him 90% on a test because she had said that he CHEATED! I asked how did you cheat, he said that he did not, but that his teacher said that he did. I knew that we had SEP the next day so I thought that I would talk to his teacher then. So the next day as we were driving to SEP's Brock was extremely nervous, which he usually is. But I kept asking for more details on the Cheating he did not give me anything other than what had already been said.....So in we go to meet with his teacher, we sit down and she tells us that Brock is doing well and there are no concerns at all. I was a bit puzzled by this so when she asked if there were any questions I of course said YES. I proceeded to tell her what Brock had said the night before, she had a weird look on her face and said that Brock has never cheated, and Brock said it was on my math time test......The light went on with the teacher, and she started to apologize. She then proceeds to tell me that they were working on doing speed tests, so before they started Brock went through his paper and wrote a 1 in front of all the problems, which would have allowed him to finish the entire paper in the time allowed, but one problem....Not all of them would be ten or higher... So she told Brock that he could not cheat the system. And once she gave him a new paper, he only missed one, so he got 99% but Brock said that it was 90% because he is not understanding the 99%. It was really quite funny once we got the full story. His poor teacher felt so bad, she kept apologizing and said she will find a different way to say things. You gotta love a kid that thinks outside of the box. I always knew that Brock was the one that was going to keep us on our toes!

Happy Birthday Mom

2009-01-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

Today is my mom's birthday. She is the best. I hope that she has a great day. I wanted to just let her know just how special she is to me. My mom has always been there for me, she has always been cheering me on. She never showed her disappointment in me, which I know there where many times that she was. She has taught me so much through out my life, she gave me so many opportunities and still continues to teach me things, she has taught me to cook, clean, be a better person, sew (she is still trying to teach me that one) she always "brings back" my plant. I don't know how many times I take a dead plant to her and she can bring it back, she will bring it to my house for a few weeks and then I take it back to her and she works her magic...She is awesome. But I think one of the most important things that my mom has taught me was to love, and have faith. My mom has never not had both of them in her life. She loves everyone and she has never had her faith falter. She is such a strong women. She amazes me I am proud to be her daughter. Mom, I hope that you have a great day and know just how much I love you. Happy Birthday! Mom your the best.

Love,

Erika ,Colby & the Boys

Recap of December

2009-01-03T19:15:00.001-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it is the end of a year....Time sure seems to fly by when your the parent. I remember being a kid and thinking that it took forever for Christmas to come and then forever for my birthday to come around...Now, I blink and they come and go. This month we had a lot of fun and really enjoyed our time together. We started the beginning of the month the the Ward Christmas party, it was a lot of work but a lot of fun. Colby, Kaid, & Brett really came in and helped out at the last second. And they didn't even complain. The next week I had finals that I tried (key word) to study for...I really didn't apply myself like I should have. There was too much other stuff that I had going but I was able to get a 4.0 so I must have done alright with the studying. (Colby said he wonders if my parents will still pay me for grades?!?!)
The next week we were headed to LAS VEGAS, yes I typed that correctly Vegas! Not for the NFR, but for the Pioneer Bowl! BYU vs Arizona... We went down with Colby's parents and two of his brothers and their families. It was so much fun. We went down early on Friday so that we would be able to go to the fireside, I still get chills thinking about the spirit that was there. When the team gets up and sings "As the Army of Heleman" I can't describe the power it has. It is an awesome sight.

If any of you know Colby, you know that PATIENCE is not one of his best virtues. So with that said as soon as we hit Las Vegas you could feel his stress level rise....We wanted to go to the outlet stores and while we were driving up and down the streets looking for them (because we couldn't ask for directions, and I should have printed them off line) we came across this man, we even had to flip around to get a picture. From some of the YW/YM Colby gets texts messages about the people who wear helmets and running shoes....10 minutes in Vegas and we find one standing on the corner. He even had a "guitar hero" guitar on his back. We all laughed and laughed.

The next day we shopped at the families new favorite store "Bass Pro" if you think Cabela's is neat, it pails in comparison to the Bass Pro shop. I could have spent hours in that store, oh we did. They had one of the neatest aquariums I have seen, they had real ducks in the store and neat mounts.
We then went back to the hotel and geared up for the game. We decided to go early so that we could do some tailgating...so we went to the stadium and watched people and listened to the bands. Brock wanted his face painted so we waited in line and he told them exactly what he wanted...
Then we went into the stadium to our seats. There were about 20 of us so we had a pretty good cheering section, we were surrounded by Arizona fans. At the start of the game they had David Hasselhoff sing the National Anthem and there were some of the troops from the Air Force base there to carry out the flag.. It looked really neat.

I was not prepared for the cold, we were in Vegas in a Desert who knew that it could snow there?!? It had snowed a few days before we got there but it was so cold that they still had snow on the ground in some places. So once the sun went down it got COLD! But we weren't going to let that keep us down, we cheered and loved everything about the game.
Most of you know that my kids require sleep, will with the time difference it was really getting the best of Brock, the kickoff was at his bed time in Utah, so by the first of the second quarter Brock was asking how long until bed? I told him several hours, he was not amused. So with about 10 minutes left in the second quarter he asked if he could sit on my lap, yep you guessed it! This is how he spent the rest of the game, that is until I decided in the last of the 4th quarter that I was COLD- Brett, Brock, and I went out to the car. Colby & Kaid joined us after the game was over. Even though BYU lost we still had fun. They played hard and that is all that matters. Right?!Brock did not notice the cold at all, that is until I had to give back the blanket when we went out. We all had a blast and enjoyed the time to be away from home and the stresses.

Christmas was great, we had my parents over for dinner and were able to just stay home and relax. We rang in the New Year with Kaid and Brett out with friends, and Colby, Brock and myself at home. Brock did not see the New Year, but Colby and I did.

Reflection

2008-12-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

Three years ago I was riding in an ambulance wondering what was going on, how things would be, and praying that Brett would make it. It seems like it was yesterday when I got the call from Brett, I was at work and he was home sick. He called and told me there was an explosion and he was on fire....I remember rushing home and seeing Brett outside looking so hurt, he had no hair and was covered in ash, and already was blistering. He got in the car and we headed to the hospital, we were later transferred to the Burn Unit at the U of U, where we stayed for the next 4 days.

It was there where we learned what had actually happened to Brett, we had a small propane bottle in the basement, which was defective. It had filled the room with propane and when Brett went to put a piece of wood on the fireplace, it exploded. Which caused him to burn 45% of his body with 2nd and 3rd degree burns.

We learned how to dress and care for his burns, we learned new exercises to help his skin so it would not lose it's elasticity. We learned so many things while we were there. But some of the most important things we learned where not taught to us by doctors, nurses, or social workers. They were taught to us by the tender mercy's of a loving Heavenly Father, he once again taught us the power of the Priesthood, Prayer, and families. He showed me that I am never alone, I can remember running down the hall and finding a bathroom and crying and shouting... Why me, why Brett? And then getting on my knees and asking for help, the calm that washed over me was unreal, but I knew that HE was walking hand in hand with me on my journey and was not going to let me go it alone, nor would he allow Brett to go it alone. Heavenly Father sent alot of angles to our family in our time of need, there were friends who took in our other two boys, and never even questioned when we would get them..(This was just a few days before Christmas)There were friends who came and cleaned my house so that I would not have to come home and deal with the smells...People who cooked for us and came by or called to see how things were going and people who just prayed..We know that prayers were answered, because we have Brett with us and he is whole.

There was a lot of recovery, bandage changes, and trips back to the burn unit. But all of us have learn so much. We have watched Brett turn his accident into strengths, I have watched him grow closer to the Lord, and know that he has a purpose here on earth. He has learned lessons that most people never learn. He is much wiser and more caring. We have watched Brett reach out to those who are different and try to build them up. We have seen Brett turn the other cheek to those who made fun of him, he rose above the teasing and still befriended them. Brett is an example to all of us. He has made such progress, it is so nice to have the long road behind us; but we would not trade the trip because of what we have gained.

This is a photo of Brett once he was able to come home, it was taken about 10 days after the accident once most of the swelling had gone down and he was looking more like himself, the white bandages were what we would change twice a day, he was wrapped like a mummy, and Colby and I got to play "cut and paste".

Brett was able to attend Burn camp the past two years up at Camp Tracy, he has been able to be with other burn survivors and learn and experience things with them. He looks forward to this every year. It is very neat to see him shine and be with others who have experienced some of the same experiences. It is nice to see him forget about things and just be a boy...He seems to come back each time with a new attitude, it is neat. It is neat to see they confidence that he returns with.

This is a photo of Brett and Brennon, one of the Junior counselors at Burn camp, this summer. The counselors have either been burn survivors or they work in the burn unit, Brennon is a burn survivor. Brett you continue to amaze me each day in your ability to show compassion to those around you...

Erika

Activities

2008-12-16T08:13:00.001-08:00

Ok, I know that I am really bad at updating this as things happen. But one of my callings in the ward is Activities person. So with that said in our ward we typically do an activity each month. And since I am over the activities I am usually in the back working on something and not there with my camera, so I have to rely on people to help me remember the moments and take pictures for me.....So my sweet friend just emailed me some photos so I thought I would share them. The first ones are of the annual "Turkey Shoot" this is always done the day after Thanksgiving and we usually have a great turn out...this year we had over 100 people.

This is what Colby and I did the entire time... He would "throw" and I was the score keeper. This is Brock he was shooting a 410..He got 3rd in his age division he got 9 out of 25.

This is Brett, Kaid & Colten. Brett took 1st in his age division he got 20/25.. Kaid was told that next year he would have to move into a different bracket "the 25" he got 24/25. He also took 1st. This last photo is Brock getting his prize from the Bishop and Alan Davis.

It is a lot of fun, this year we even had Kathy and Roger stay over and come out...Hopefully they will continue the tradition, I know that the grand kids sure liked having them there. Roger shot well but I can't remember what he got.

So with the Turkey Shoot over the next week was the annual ward Christmas Dinner....This is a major undertaking....And I would not have been able to do it with out the help of a few great ladies who jumped in at the last second...To help save the day.....Thanks!!!! Bobbi, Janet, Kimberly, and Norma. And to everyone else who helped that I did not see.... We ended up feeding about 250 people..We ate and then the YW did a program and then of course we had a special visitor from the North Pole....

I do have photos on someones camera of all of my boys on Santa's lap, but right now I am not really sure who's camera...So if you have them on yours please shoot me an email....Thanks!

I missed when Brock was having his conversation with Santa.. But I asked what Brock said when Santa asked him what he wanted...I was a BIT shocked. Brock wants a CELL PHONE! I asked what Santa said, and he said that Santa thought that he could do that! I am going to have to TALK to Santa about that.

Class Assignment

2008-12-11T14:42:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago in one of my classes we were given an assignment to take our families names and for each letter say one thing about them...I decided that since this is like my journal I would transfer the assignment to this so I can remember what I thought....

C- Compassionate

O- Optimistic

L- Loyal

B- Brave

Y- BYU Fan (Y is hard)

M-Magnetic (he is quite the charmer :)

c- Cute

K- Kind

A- Adventurous

I- Intelligent

D- Daring

B- Brave

R- Responsible

E- Excels

T- Tenderhearted

T- Treasure

B- Bold

R- Respectful

O- Outgoing

C- Creative

K- Kind

I have been blessed to have such a good family. I love all of my boys! I hope they know that, and how proud of them I am....

Brett has a concert tonight I will get photos of this one.....

Erika

I FINALLY figured it out!

2008-12-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

So this age thing is really working against me. I am really starting to notice my body is just not the same as when I was younger. I have noticed lines, aches, pains, and the big one that I am fat. So with that said my good friend and I started walking in the mornings to work off some of the fat. We get up and walk a little over 1 1/2 miles each day (expect Thursday's) and at first I was quite excited because I saw the scales going down....But now I am just staying right there not gaining but not loosing...I have felt kind of bad, her kids even tease use about still being committed to the exercise thing, they tell me that she is not one to stick to a routine. We have been doing this for six weeks now, and I just got an email that explains my ENTIRE problem.....And my walking partner can attest to just how much metal is in my mouth (she works at our dentists office :) )

So I wonder if we are done walking?!?!?!?

Erika

Gratitude

2008-12-01T18:37:00.000-08:00

OK, so I am one of those people who hate looking at people's blogs to find that they have not posted in weeks...Well I am one of those people who has been slacking.. Sorry, I will try harder to post. I had every intention of posting before Thanksgiving about what I was thankful for, but that did not happen so I feel like I need to do it now.

I am so very grateful to have a wonderful family, they are so supportive and loving. I have great examples and tons of people that love me and my family. I am grateful to have a job, a house, a warm bed to climb into at the end of a long day, 3 wonderful boys that keep me guessing and on my toes, for a great husband who loves me, to have a religion that I love and can live, to live in a great neighborhood, to have a great walking partner (even if she does beat me), wonderful parents ( I am so lucky to have 2 sets) My mom and dad who raised me, they have given me so many gifts and reasons to be grateful. They are truly amazing, the most wonderful gift they could have given me was the ability to love, and to care. Thank you. Thank you for being my parents I am so lucky to call you mom and dad. My next parents, my birth mother and dad (Kathy and Rog) I am so thankful that Kathy would choose to have me. And too now allow me and the rowdy bunch into her life, we sure turned it upside down...I hope she knows how much we love the two of them. And enjoy being able to love them and have them apart of our lives.

I had great intentions of getting a photo on Thanksgiving, we had it here at the house and I wanted to put a photo of my mom's but did I think to get the camera out?!? That would be NO.. So I am going to post a photo from 2 weeks ago when we were at Great Grandpa Ivan's 80th birthday..

What a fun Thanksgiving we had, it was nice to be able to have family around and to enjoy the day and the company. Thanks for everyone for making it a great day. I am truly blessed.

Erika

Teachers.

2008-11-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

Last week was Brett's birthday, on his birthday I went to the mail box and there was a post card for him. I brought it in and read who it was from and about started to cry, it was from his 5th grade teachers. Mrs. Hair and Mrs. Beveridge. They were his teachers 2 years ago and they have sent a card for the past 3 years. You all know that I come from educators, but I know that my parents did not send their former students birthday cards, not only a card but they are still giving him a hard time about liking BYU! What awesome teachers!! Who does this?

5th grade was a hard year for the Davis household, after Brett's burn and the problems we had with people teasing him and making his life hard, we were worried about sending him back to school.. I did not care if he learned anything that year, we just wanted him to have a little bit of self confidence and not feel inferior to everyone. These two women gave us so much more than we could have hoped. Not only did Brett get back some of his self confidence, he actually learned quite a bit. We will forever be grateful to them for what they were able to give back to Brett. They took the time to care about him and his well being. And they still are caring about him, it is truly amazing to me that they would take the time to do this and make a kid feel special and like they matter.

I guess with the holidays approaching and the anniversary of his burn we have a lot to be thankful for and it is all starting to hit me. I hope that I can make a difference in a person's life like these two wonderful ladies.

Happy Birthday Brett!!!

2008-11-03T11:50:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Brett!

Wow, does time fly by or what?!? I remember 13 years ago heading to the hospital to have you, it was a blizzard and we were hoping and praying that we would make it to the hospital. We finally got to the hospital (everyone was waiting for us) and seven short (or LONG) hours later you were born. I will never forget when they put you in my arms the love that I had for you was overwhelming. You had such a strong spirit, you were so alert you were looking at everything. You had your cute butterfly birthmark on your chest (I sure miss that) but that way I knew I would get you back. You were the only baby in the hospital while we were there so you were so spoiled. I would have to fight the nurses to be able to have you with me. I would hold you at night and think how lucky we were to have you in our family. When Kaid came to the hospital I could hear him as he was walking out of the elevator saying where is my brother? He quickly came into the room and ran over to the bed and unwrapped you, he wanted to make sure that you were alright. He counted all your toes and fingers, he told everyone that you were "his" We all could not wait to have you come into our family!This is a photo of you and dad, you were about 4 months old. this was a day that Kaid and dad went out fishing on the River- you loved when they would bring the fish home and put them on the picnic table, you would squeal and squeal.

This was your third birthday photo- I know you don't remember Montana, but you would always tell us that you were the best thing to ever come out of Montana. And you know what I would have to agree!!!!!
Brett you have been such a joy to have in the family, I love being your mom. I have enjoyed watching you grow up to be the young man that you are. You have a special things that you need to accomplish here on earth. And we know that you will do them. I know that you have had to endure many trials in your life, but they have helped shape you into who you are becoming. We have watched you turn your struggles into strengths and have seen how you are able to help those around you who are hurting.

We want you to know that we all love you and want you to have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Love,

Mom,Dad, Kaid & Brock

Halloween!

2008-10-31T07:47:00.000-07:00

This year I was just not prepared for Halloween, it's tonight and I don't even have candy. I am heading to Walmart when I get off work to get some, so don't worry you can send your kids to my house. I will be prepared by then. I thought that I would post a couple of cartoons to set the mood for the rest of the day. I will post photos of pumpkins and costumes later tonight! Happy Halloween!

Grades

2008-10-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

Brett has been so excited to be in 7th grade and finally get "real" grades. He loved the idea of getting A's, B's, and C's...I know who likes grades?! The end of 1st term was last week and each day Brett was on the computer looking up his grades to see what he had. Some times he is a better parent then I am!! Well today I got a phone call while I was at work and it was Brett letting me know that he had his REPORT CARD! He was so excited, I asked him what it was and he said that I would have to wait until I was home and look for myself......

Here it is a 3.95 how cool is that?!?!?!? We are so proud of him, and all his hardwork. He had tried so hard to have good grades. It is neat that he was able to get these. He would have had a perfect 4.0 but he was transfered into the Utah Studies class 2 1/2 weeks into the sememster because his art class was too full, we were told that he would not have to make up the work for the time he was not in class....They lied he had a test on the first day of class and did not know the information. The teacher counted it against him. He tells me this term he will have the 4.0. Way to go!!!

Court Of Honor

2008-10-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to the boy's court of honor...It was nice to see their hard work payoff. This year their scout camp was at Timberline (down in southern Utah) both Kaid and Brett were able to go. Kaid was asked if he wanted to go at the last minute and luckily he had the time off and was off of crutches so he was able to move around and enjoy things. Kaid received 5 merit badges tonight, and Brett earned 9. Brett earned the most of all of the boys at scout camp. Kaid earned the last one he needed to get so all he has to do is his "project" for his Eagle. Hopefully we can help him get that done in the first part of Spring. He needs to make sure his project will be approved and get it set up.

Better Late Than Never..

2008-10-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

So this last week was quite an eventful one, we had lots going every night. On Tuesday Brett had a choir concert at school, we went and was a very nice evening. They had all of the grades involved and I got to listen to some of the girls from the neighborhood. I'm sorry I don't have pictures - next time.

On Friday Colby got off work early and asked if the boys wanted to go up the canyon, so as soon as I got off work we headed up.... it was so pretty we went to Payson Lakes and went fishing.

We were able to walk right down to the lake and set up our chairs. It was a little cold, but a lot of fun. Colby got the poles ready and we sat down and watched the sun set. It was a fun night. We were hoping that we would see a buck near by so that we could fill one of the deer tags that we had, but no such luck. But with the fishing we did have some luck....We caught one fish (actually I caught one) as you can see I let Brock hold it I did not want to have the smell on my hands....

After this we headed home so that everyone could get ready to head out in the morning to go deer hunting....

What Time of Year is this?????

2008-10-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

If any of you are wondering what the answer to the above question is.. In our house it is hunting season! With 3 boys and Colby the season starts somewhere in early August and ends......I don't know when. It seems that they are always out hunting something or out scouting for something else. But whatever it keeps them out of trouble. (for the most part) This weekend was the opening of the rifle deer hunt, so out we went. We went with the Koller's and meet in the Walmart parking lot to head out to get some deer. We were up way early and when we got to where we were going to hunt everyone split up into groups. The first being Dave, Lisa, and Ryan. 2nd group Kaid, Matt, and Brett. 3rd Colby, Me, Brock, Jared, and Ty. The first two groups were on 4wheelers and we were on foot. Did I forget to say I have asthma which is typically activity induced asthma?!?!? We started on our walk-hike I kept making Colby slow down because I was dying....We finally got to our destination or so I thought! We found a bunch of deer just eating and guess what there was a BUCK!!! but could we get any one with a tag to answer the radios or cell phones? NO. so Colby said he was going to go higher on the mountain and we needed to stay there and watch the deer to see which way they go if they leave, and remember to be quite!!! did he forget it was me and the "little boys" quite is not in their vocabulary let alone their beings... So we sat there and waited watching the deer that was just looking at us not really concerned with our presence, I felt like a broken record saying be quite. So we decided that we should all close our eyes and just relax for a few minutes and apparently it worked. This is what Colby came back down the mountain too.

Yes this is everyone of us asleep. We did not even make a sound. Aren't we the best hunters around?

So after a morning and part of the afternoon we decided to head back toward the group and see what they wanted to do. We made our way down the mountain and found the group and Kaid and Matt had decided that they did not want to hunt out there any longer and they wanted to go somewhere else. Colby called a friend to see if he could get a key to get them on to another piece of property. His friend said "tell kaid to pull up his skirt and get back out there and hunt" we all laughed at this and Kaid replied back that he would get a deer before us....so the pressure was on, Kaid and Matt went and took the little boys with them and the rest of us went back out to see what we could do. We had been out about 2 hours and we get a text from Kaid saying he needed help lifting up his skirt while he cleaned the deer, we told him that we needed photos before we would believe that they had gotten one........

The is Matt with his first deer, the second is the "little boys" Brock, Ty, and Jared. They were all pretty excited. Kaid was happy to be able to help Matt get his deer, he only had one day to hunt so it was exciting.

Since the race was now officially on for us to get a deer we headed into town to get some gas and some shakes...We decided to celebrate we got double bacon cheeseburgers as well.

I know that this is a little bit blurry, but Colby took it on his phone. I don't know if we were just starving or what but this was the best food I have eaten in a long time.

This is Dave, Lisa, Brett, Ryan and me. Lisa was a trooper she was just getting over an accident and she did not complain, even though she was in a lot of pain. So all in all it was a good weekend. We only got one deer but it was not for lack of effort. Hopefully we can fill the rest of the tags this week.

Here Piggy, Here Piggy, piggy,piggy

2008-10-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the blurry photo, I was using my phone camera. I went up to feed the horses last night with Colby, Brett, and Brock. And this was the first time I could see the pigs in the light, Colby and the boys bought pigs this weekend. Can you count them???? He bought six they are really cute, but they are noisy. And let me tell you they like their food... Brock was trying to come up with names for them all, I think he is getting overwhelmed with trying to name them because he said how about Joe, Smokey, Sierra, B, Y, and U! The first 3 are the horses names and B, Y, and U are what the last three pigs were named. It really cracks me up because Brock will know what one is what and will call them by their names, when we slaughter them he wants to know what one he is eating, I know it is morbid but that's how he is.

Reba, Reba, Reba

2008-10-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

OK, so as promised. Brett and I went to Salt Lake to go see Reba, we got off to a late start and traffic was a mess there were 4 accidents along the way and then we missed the exit we needed to go eat at TGI Fridays. So we went to Training Table for dinner. We then heading up to the concert. We took Colby's badge so we could park close (this came in very handy when we were heading home) and then went into the concert we found our seats and waited. We had talked about the opening act and wondered how it would be done because they had said that Reba & Kelly would be performing together, we had no idea what to expect. Then all of the sudden out comes a tall blond with a sign that says "get on your feet" we couldn't figure out who it was until she said something........ It was barbara jean!!! Actually Melissa Peterman (she played Barbara Jean on the show Reba)

She came out and did stand up for about 40 minutes, let me tell you she is hysterical, Brett and I laughed and laughed. I loved the television show, but really did not think that she would be that good. Once she was done we were ready to see Reba.

This is Brett and I waiting to have the concert start. They had a huge drape around the stage and they would shine lights on it to change the colors of the stage, it went deep red and then the lights went down and you heard the music start. We were both so excited the song that they started with was from the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" Brett did not know the song but all of the older people knew it. Once the curtain dropped this is what the stage looked like.

They would take turns singing a few of Reba's songs and then they would do a few of Kelly's songs. They sang a lot of Reba's old songs which are some of my favorites. It was a really good concert. Brett and I both enjoyed it. Once it was over and time to come home we headed out of the concert and to the car and were on the road heading home in 3 1/2 minutes!!!! Thanks to Colby's key pass!!!! I have never gotten on the road from a concert that fast. We are defiantly going to have to take it for Celine next month! We were home so quick we even beat Kaid home fro
his night out!

Erika

Guess Where I am going TONIGHT!!!!

2008-10-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am going to go to the Reba & Kelly Clarkson concert tonight! I am so excited. I love Reba and have always loved her. Last time I saw her at the Usana, with Michelle. We had a lot of fun, this time I am going to be going with Brett! He has to go to 4 concerts this year for one of his classes at school (we never had that assignment when I was in school) so I will update tomorrow. By the way did I say I was excited?!?!?

Erika

Hee Haw Farms

2008-10-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

Last night I took the boys and Kaid's friend, Shayli to Hee Haw Farms.

This is over in American Fork, we have gone each year for the past four years. The kids all seem to like it. I enjoy it until I remember while I am there that I am allergic to it all. This year was colder than years before so it made it easier on my asthma while I ran around the corn maze trying to keep up with the boys.

We started out going on a hayride, the photo is a bit blurry but we were moving and the boys were watching to see when the candy was going to be thrown at them.

We then went into the corn maze, Brock has more energy then I think should be allowed. He was on a dead run throughout the entire thing. We usually go earlier in the day but this year with Kaid's job we waited until he got off, so it was dark when we went into the maze, this makes it hard to chase a kid who moves like Brock. Kaid and Shayli were in the lead and Brett and I brought up the rear. Brett is good to his old mother.

After that we went over to pick out pumpkins, go on the slides, and walk through the haunted barn. Brock said that it was not scary at all. The petting zoo had closed by this time, however all of the animals were still there and you could look at them. They have a pig that is the size of a small cow. It was HUGE.. Brock and Brett found a small John Deere tractor and both started riding it around....

It was really quite funny to see Brett on this tractor he was having a hard time getting it to go anywhere. I went over with Brock to see an animal and all of the sudden you hear this loud, and I mean loud crash, every one turns around to see what it was and there is Brett laying on the ground with the tractor up in the air, he had hit a fence and fallen over. I was laughing so hard that I really could not help him until I stopped. I know that we should not laugh, but I assure you that we were laughing with him, not at him. I think everyone enjoyed it and had a good time.

An Average Weekend

2008-09-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend was full of fun and memories. It started out on Friday with Kaid, Kayden, and Brett heading out to Ephriam to kill varmints. This was wildly successful they all had fun and we did not see them until late Friday night. On Saturday Colby and Brett went out hunting to try to get Brett's first deer... No luck.

But Kaid and Kayden went back to Ephriam to hunt waterfowl, boy oh boy they hit the jackpot!

This is Kaid & Kayden's Geese. This was Kayden's first duck hunt and first goose.

This is Kaid's goose or as Kayden says "it's not a bird, it's a baby plane!" This goose had a 5' 10" wing span. So needless to say this is another one that is going to be gracing the walls of my house! Lucky me.

Then it was Brett's turn to try and get his deer, Kaid took him out and with in a half an hour they were texting me pictures of the deer he got. This was the muzzle-loader hunt (black powder) and Brett's first big game tag.

This is a great first buck, it is a 2 X 3. This was about 110 yard shot, with open sights. He must take after his mother!

So all in all it was an eventful weekend, the freezer will be full, as well as my walls.

Enjoy,

Erika

Brock and his posse..

2008-09-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken two weeks ago, the night before the BYU and UCLA game. BYU football team puts on a fireside the night before any game (home or away) we went to the fireside, and let me tell you the spirit that was there was amazing! This is something that is not required by the Coach, this is strictly voluntary and I bet there was easily 80% of the team there. It was truly an amazing night. If you have the chance to go to one of these you should take the time to go, you will not be sorry.

Afterwards the team has a little meet and greet, so Brock was so excited to go and see Jan Jorgensen again. Jan came this summer to the Stake Fathers and Sons and spoke, and got talking to Colby about the outdoors and we ended up having Jan and his girlfriend over for dinner and horseback riding. It was alot of fun, and Brock found his new best friend. He thinks that Jan is awsome. So he was quite excited to have his friends get to meet him, and to get there picture taken with Jan.

In the picture l to r: Jared, Jan Jorgensen, Brock, and Ty.