August 2012

Well August was a month full of ups and downs. While my family celebrated birthdays, school starting and the end of summer, other people we know felt the loss and devistation that life can bring. It is a sad but strong reminder that you never know what tomorrow (or the next hour for that matter) will bring so take each breath as if it is your last and enjoy every second you have on this Earth. Our time here is not guarenteed and it is way to short. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my own "little" life and problems that I forget to stop and "smell the roses" there is a lot going on right now for me but I need to work on looking past the bad and focusing on the good. My kids are happy and healthy (for the most part) I have a roof over my head, food in my cupboard and some pretty great people in my life. So even with all the bad I am going to try and focus more on the good since the bad will always be there and sometimes the good is hard to find.

Well Kaden broke his arm (AGAIN) the second week of football practice and hasn't been able to play football. He missed playing in the Jamboree and will miss his first game. He has still been going to practice but can't play so he is frustrated. I am hoping he will be able to play the second game of the season.

We bought a bird and named him/her Sitka. It has been a lot of fun having a bird in the house again and this one is a lot nicer then our other one was. The kids all love it and take turns playing with it. Sitka is VERY spoiled and has a HUGE personality. So fun!!

We celebrated McKenna turning 15. She isn't as excited as MaKia was to get her learners permit. She hasn't even read the book. MaKia was bugging us to take her the day she turned 15 but Kenna needs a little push to get going.

MaKia and McKenna started High School this year (well they started technically last year but this year they are in the High School). They where both nervous about going to such a big school but they seem to be adjusting well. Kaden is in 6th grade so this is his last year in Elementary school.

I had a suprise party for MaKia. Her 16th birthday isn't until September 2 but I wanted to have a surprise party for her. My cousin Shannon came and "kidnapped" her while I decorated the house and had everyone come over. She was suprised and we had a good turn out. I think she was happy with it.

MaKia took Kaden to the first High School football game. I love this picture of the two of them together. They actually got along and had a good time together. So nice and rare when this happens :)

July 2012

July tried to burn us down :). The fire season is crazy in Utah this year. I can't believe the amount of fires we are having. Some of them have been pretty close to friends and family so it's been pretty scary....

We celebreated the 4th of July with breakfast in Riverton, then swimming with Scott's siblings and mom and then we went to his cousin Lori's house for more swimming and a BBQ. No fireworks this year due to the dry conditions. My son wasn't happy about it but the kids survived the no fireworks. I think they all understood. We did do fireworkd with the Menloves, Mill's and Blacks on the 24th of July. We had a GREAT BBQ at my moms house and most of her family came. It was great to see everyone and I love that so many showed up. We need to get together more and keep doing the get togethers throughout the year it is nice to just spend the day with family and catch up.

Scott's mom did Grandkid pictures since she didn't get one when we did the big family pictures. The kids wore red, white and blue and we just went out by her house. I think they will turn out way cute.

We finally gave in and let the kids paint their rooms. We told them when we bought the house they could paint their rooms and then just kept putting it off. So finally they were able to get it done. We actually did it in a weekend (all four rooms) CrAzY huh. It was fun and they turned out really cute. Each room shows the unique taste of each child. They each did a chalk board wall, which is crazy of me because of the chalk mess but they like it and I even made one in my kitchen :). MaKia did pink and brown with pokadots, Mersadez did all pink, Kaden did Boston Celtic Green on 2 walls and New England Patriots blue on the other two walls. I thought it would look bad but the dark blue and dark green actually doesn't look to bad together. Kenna did a teal, ocean blue type color on two walls and a lighter greenish/blue on the other two walls.

My highly anticipated 2nd book in the trilogy I am reading came out and I had to buy it the day it was released. I bought it on my IPhone so it's REALLY small but I am almost done with the 1991 pages and I love it. I can't wait for the next one :)


We took a trip to Cherry Hills with Scott's family for the weekend. I have never been there but Scott and Kenna have. It was fun, different, but fun. We camped out and it was REALLY bad!!! We hooked the trailer up and then headed over to put up our tent for Scott's sister to stay in. Well the kids go back to the trailer and start screaming your trailer is flooding!!!! I was thinking ~no way....Well, yes way, they opened the door and it was a swimming pool. (the place we stayed had hookups so we were hooked up to the water). The kids turned the water off and Scott started sweeping out the water. I grabbed some towels (I had brought some for the kids swimming and only 2 extra so I didn't have very many to spare) and starting trying to soak up as much water as I could. Luckily the carpet only got a little wet in the top corner so hopefully no mold will grow....The pipe under the kitchen sink shredded. Scott said from wear and tear, it just being old, Grandpa said it was from not winterizing it right....Not sure exactly what happened all I know is one more issue to fix...I am starting to wonder if it's worth it....We try and use the trailer as much as possible but this last year we have had to fix so many issues it's frustrating....I need to get it paid off then maybe paying out all the money for repairs won't "kill" me as much. We tried to fix the leak but we had to replace the whole kitchen tap and, after three trips to Home Depot and one to a trailer place in Layton, we couldn't find a part to repair it. So we had no water all weekend. We turned it on long enough to brush our teeth at night and that was pretty much it. So I am thinking the trailer will sit the rest of the year and I will see what I can do next year before we head out....The kids had a good time at Cherry Hills so I guess it was worth it.... :)

Kaden started football he is on a B-team again and his assistant coach is the coach he had his first year playing and he has a lot of football friends on his team so he is pretty excited. He wanted to make the A-team this year but we told him he can play more on a B-team so it's better. Three guys on his team actually made an A-team and declined to play on a B-team. He only has 21 players, which seems like a small team, but it should be fun for him.

I expermented with a program that allowed me to write on pictures and these are what I came up for my first try. I had to post them so I have "record" of them :)

Still didn't take enough pictures this month....We got a new MAC computer (well Scott did for his Birthday) and he put some pictures from Cherry Hills on it but it keeps telling me I need a new version of FLASH to download anything....So they will sit on the computer for a little longer until I can get the new version to actually work.