Alright! Who put Miracle Grow on the Christmas Tree?

It wasn't that big when we cut it down!!!

Autumn Activities

A Slide show of all our activities during October & November

From Movies

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yS8rd0wMwVa3t7OFt0HP3g?feat=directlink

November Stuffings: Part 1

Okay, so it is a little late, but, I just KNEW that y'all wanted an update on our adventures.

November found us busy traveling:

Dad/Grandpa Mark's Surprise 60th Birthday Party

(pictures anybody? I have gotten in this awful habit of bringing my camera but forgetting to take pictures)...it was a cold weekend.

Mindy's attempt at wogging a 5k (how long has it been?) in Heber City took us out in the cold to a "Fun Run".......

Jaina decided I needed help stretching afterwards.

Soon, they all joined in...

....and the Heber Valley Cowboy Poetry Festival.

Freezing Our Patooskis Off

The past few days, I have often mused to myself the following:

"It sure is cold out here!"

(For the 1st time in my adult life, I have considered getting long-underwear!!!)

"After almost a decade in North Carolina, we have moved to Winter Wonderland!"

"Hmm....this snow is so pretty! I should take some pictures of what a cute, quaint Christmas town Vernal has turned into..."

Then, we got more snow. Actually....we got hammered!

We really did shovel our driveway last night, you just couldn't tell when we were done... the snow just kept coming. We finally stopped around 9pm when another inch had accumulated after Cam and I had shoveled the entire driveway once and then Jason and I did it all a second time.

I really do need to get some pictures of our snow....

I thought we got a lot on Halloween.

Then, I thought we got a lot last weekend over my birthday, we got around 4-6 inches.

Then, last night, we easily got over 1 1/2 feet of snow and it is still coming.

Ever been snowed in? Well, guess what?!?!? When a snowplow comes through your neighborhood and plows up the road, its really nice. However, they leave behind a wall of snow so high, that you need to use a pick-ax to cut through in order to try and dig a path. Well, since we don't own a pick-ax, we tried knocking some of it down with our little shovels....it didn't work. We ended up digging a path down the side of the road until we found a spot low enough that we could get our poor van over. We were late to church and Jaina and I were pants and boots under our skirts because the snow was so deep.

So, here is a list of a few things Winter in Vernal has taught us so far:

1. I am already tired of hearing, "You think this is cold? Winter hasn't even started yet!" (this during our -teens temperature days)


2. FACT: Did you know that Vernal tied with Siberia last week for the coldest inhabited place in the world? The only colder locations were uninhabited places like the North Pole.


3. We are excited when we see the forecast calling for "Warmer temperatures around 8-10 degrees" (below freezing, yes but positive #s!!!)


4. 4-wheel drive vehicles at every house is NOT the luxury we previously thought and that has been hyped about in newspaper articles discussing the financial demise of Uintah Basin. Winter so far has illustrated that evidently, every household needs a 4 wheel drive vehicle to just get out of the driveway! If both adults work, you need two vehicles with 4-wheel drive to enable both parties to get to work in this weather. Not an over-indulgence in fun grown-up toys...a necessity for this area that nobody ever hears about.


5. During the winter, women wearing boots to church back in NC was a fashion statement. Women wearing boots to church during the winter in Vernal is a necessity or you legs will fall off. Here, it's not vanity or fashion, if you want to get through feet of snow on your way to church, you need to wear boots or get frost-bite.

I need to go shopping!

LOL!!!!! What a game it was.......

And the winner is.......

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Another fun and adventurous Halloween this year!

Our annual FHE of pumpkin carving resulted in lots of goop everywhere

(FYI: guinea pigs do NOT like pumpkin guts--we checked) and some amazing creations of art.....

The kids and Daddy all dressed up this year. Mom/Mindy's Mrs. Weasley outfit is missing, fess up! Who took it?!?!?!?!?! I can still do a good impersonation :)

BumbleBee--the Transformer

Zombie Cheerleader

Scream Freak

Alfalfa (with rotten teeth)

We attended the Ward Trunk-or-Treat Party at the church and enjoyed the games there and then handing out (mom) and getting (everyone else) candy. Then, Alfalfa took the gang and some friends out trick-or treating around the neighborhoods while mom went home to hand out candy to anyone who braved our closed road. Nobody came, more for me!

Next day at church, Jason won the best overall costume award for not only his outfit, but for his "campaigning". All night, he would gather groups of kids, young, impressionable minds, and tell them not to eat all of their candy at once, or their teeth would end up looking like his.

Poor kids, they were terrified and just stared at his mouth and solemnly promised that they wouldn't. One little girl even insisted later that night that she brush her teeth again, because she didn't want to look like Bro. Saari! Parents were grateful, maybe Jason should have been a Dentist.

(click on collage to see larger images)

It's beginning to look a lot like.....Halloween?

SNOW!

We woke up Halloween Eve to over 1 inch of snow on the ground with continued snowfall throughout the rest of the day. The kids were all excited and Jaden even got to play in the snow while Jaina suffered through getting her hair brushed.

The snow was gone by the end of the day, but it was pretty and very cold!!!

Don't worry, Halloween Day warmed up quite a bit and we only needed jackets that night for trick-or-treating.

Weird weather!

(see the mountains in the background? Aren't they gorgeous?!?!?!?)

Cameron Fencing

Vikings Flag Football--Fall 2009

...and Jaden's got the ball!...

Confident player at the end of the season


Mighty Men!
(Daddy Jason was Asst. Coach)

Block 'em!

Go get him! Run, Jaden, Run!!!

Wa-hoo!

He got tackled...

WAY TO GO BUBBA!

No, Jaden is not frowning, he is just being very serious....that is what football players do.

For all his complaints, Jaden enjoyed his first season of football. The other day, as we were driving by his practice field, he told me, "I sure do miss those guys."

"Who?" I asked, " Your football team?"

"Yeah, I had fun playing football, can't wait till next season!"

Anybody else remember these songs?

Jason and I showed this to the kids, and we have been laughing ever since!!

Fall update

Fall is here!!! With fall coming we are going to experience some changes. All the kids are wrapping sports. Cameron finishes fencing next week with a tournament. He finished swim lessons this week and is moving on to level 4. He talks about how easy swimming is now, and has really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I think fencing will end because of a lack of sign ups. That does not include Cam though because he has loved it!!!

Jaina will finish tennis next week with a tournament. She has done well and enjoyed it. She is going to move up in dance this week because she's at a higher level than the group she's currently in. She's excited about that because I think she knows some of the students in the class above her from school/church.

Jaden finished football with a bang! He scored a touchdown on the 2nd to last game. I wasn't able to be there for it... Only one of two games I missed. Mindy said he was playing Running-Back took the hand-off to the right, and ran unnoticed around the right corner for 10 yards for a touchdown. This helped change his outlook on football. Previous to the last game he stated he hated football before each practice, and at least once during each game. However, he had a great coach who didn't focus on winning, and every child got to play every position every game. There wasn't a child who didn't enjoy playing the game because of his commitment to helping them all succeed! If all recreation coaches could be like this, many more kids would probably enjoy and stay with sports.

Mindy is currently still able to stay home! She is loving it, and especially enjoys working out each morning after dropping the kids off at school. She runs a couple of miles/day, and at times bikes or lift weights when she gets tired of running on the tread mill. She bought some new running shoes that has helped her experience be more positive. She says she feels like she's running on air:) Previous to the new shoes she was having trouble with her toes falling asleep and knees hurting. I haven't heard any complaints since then...

Flag football/Tennis

Jaden recently started flag football, and Jaina started tennis lessons. Jaden is the youngest on the team, but has enjoyed it so far. He doesn't understand the game completely, but is learning. He has had some successes such as catching flags, etc. He's pretty nervous about starting the more physical parts of the game. Monday they start on working on blocking and we'll see how he does.

Jaina started tennis last week and appeared to enjoy it. She is pretty athletic, more so than the boys. It seems to come more naturally for her. She was happy until the end when they moved a girl up to the intermediate level (who is about 14), and she had to stay with the "little kids" who are about her age. She has practice again this morning, and we'll see how it goes...

House hunting is very time consuming, frustrating, etc... We made another offer on a home in the area, and they countered. We countered again yesterday so we'll see where it goes. It's a beautifu 4 bedroom home in a well established neighborhood, where the kids won't have to change schools. Hope it works out...

Mindy's sister Julie has established a fun tradition on her blog I want to start adding to our blog. It's funny family quotes...

Cameron and Jaden were fighting in the van while Mindy and I were looking at a house. Mindy came to the van and said what's the problem? Cameron said, "I have many years of pent up anger and frustration" We laughed since he is a whopping 11 years old.

At football, Jaden said to his coach, "I don't want to be the hiker!" His cooached asked why, to which he responded, "I don't like to get sweaty!"

Jaina's favorite quote is "I hurt myself" which is repeated several times per day. I usually respond by calling her a wimp...

Mindy's favorite quote is, "It's in a box somewhere" which is her common response to all questions having to do with requests for toys, etc... The next most common quote is, "Let's just buy this house and get it over with." I think she's tiring of living out of boxes :)

My famous quote has to do with my boss this week. A teacher came in and said, where's Debbie, she's not in her office? She looked in the wrong office. Debbie, the principal said I'm in my office... I stated, I just saw her come out from under her desk. She's so short she didn't even have to bend down to get under there." Needless to say my boss has been easy to get along with so far and hopefully it continues well...

Back to School (finally) !!!

The Big Day FINALLY arrived!!!!!!!

Cameron woke up at the crack of dawn, literally, excited, dressed and ready to go to Middle School.




He even WILLINGLY let Mom take pictures.



Jaina & Jaden had an entire extra hour to get ready for school, elementary school starts at 8:20 here.




They were all excited and a little nervous starting at another new school, but, they all came home happy and reported making new friends.

Crystal's Birthday Party with Cousins!

 

 

 

 

Uintah County Demolition Derby

Alright, so a few days ago, we go to the county fair, and cars come in looking like this: (look above) And we had no idea what was going on until this started happening
( look above) they started bashing into each other. We had lots of fun watching the car's radiators blowing up