Wells Family

Why Close Roads for the Winter...

2012-02-12T08:08:00.000-08:00

...when there is no winter? I was hoping to do a little hiking/exploring around the Oak Grove area and maybe a little hiking up the front side of Pine Valley Mountain, but it wasn't meant to be. We drove on the dirt road for a few miles but came to a locked gate and had to turn around. I told the kids stories about Timberline scout camp that I spent at Oak Grove, and we moved on to plan B - Zion.

We checked the Emerald Pools off our list. This is the lower pools...

...upper pools...

Of course, the kids had to make their way over to the one little snow patch and have a snowball fight. This is another hike that Drew is looking forward to in the summer so he can jump in the water. It was only in the mid 60's today, so we decided to keep dry.

Remember how I said Drew's basketball season was over, well now it's really over. They played in the All-Star Hoops league and won in the championship game vs a good Cedar team by 2 points. A big soccer tourney next week, and baseball is right around the corner!

And finally, it was Jazz Bear night at the DSC basketball game.

The whole fam-damily was there for a good time. The kids have freedom to roam, parents can visit and relax, and the team is top notch this year. The Jazz Bear was fun too.

Groundhog Day, Basketball, and Adventure of the Week

2012-02-04T15:44:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, when I had way too much spare time on my hands, I was a big fan of Groundhog Day. Not the actual day, but rather the movie, starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Chris Elliot. If ever I came close to memorizing an entire movie, this was it...of course it made it easier that the movie was one day played over and over again.

Our neighbors have a family tradition to decorate cupcakes with little groundhogs (almond joy) poking their heads up through the dirt (cupcake and icing) and were kind enough to include us in their fun.

They barely lasted long enough for a picture. Poor little critters - never had a chance.

Basketball has never been my thing, but I'm not afraid to support my kids who are playing it. Laynee plays for the ward...

and Drew for the Thunder. Yes, that is a picture of a picture - if you've got a problem with that, then I'll just go private.

Finally, the HOTW (Hike of the Week). Kyle was supposed to join us on this one, but in the end, it was just the kids and B-Awma. We hiked Johnson's Arch in Snow Canyon - another first for me, and BONUS - it's free. The trailhead is before the fee area begins.

Another beautiful day and stunning red rock canyons.

After last week's 4+ miler, these two boys were grateful for the brevity of this hike. Didn't ride on my shoulders once (but I didn't say they never asked).

Another week down.

Captain Jack, Red Mountain, and Sunday Dinner with Grandma

2012-01-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

I'm a Dixie College Preschool Alum, but I don't remember ever being "Captain Spencer." Every few months, the kids get a turn at being captain of their class, and Jack really knows how to own this day. He's been looking forward to this one for quite a while. He gets to lead the class in recess, snack time, and other various activities and he does it well.

Speaking of owning, I have to pass along a quotable from the little Captain himself. While playing Wii Tennis against Seth, he must have scored and turned with a puffed out chest and arms opened wide, "Oh! You just got owned by a four year old!"

The next time he's Captain will be on his 5th birthday and I'm sure the count-down will begin before too long.

We stopped in to pick up the Kyle Wells family before heading on our hike. So we helped finish their back yard landscaping project which involved a trampoline, which is now at ground level, and a ton of little red pebbles.

Drew helped christen the project by being the first to jump out of the tree onto the trampoline.

On to the adventure of the week. Red Mountain Trailhead is between Diamond and Dammeron Valley and usually has some horse trailers parked there. Shana originally introduced me to this hike shortly after returning home from my mission. We don't remember it being as long as it was, but we also weren't giving piggy-back and shoulder rides to 4 and 6 year olds back then.
The kids loved the patches of snow, and it served as a reasonable source of refreshment along the way.

Maddie was snoring at this point, but the vista was right around the corner.

All in all, it felt like a 4+ mile hike (there and back), but don't have any hard data to back that up. We motivated the little boys by promising them a nice hot pizza when we made it home. The view overlooking Snow Canyon was more impressive than I remember. Once again, we had nice weather and a great time.

And on one final note, we've enjoyed having Grandma Sullivan (M&M Awma as named by Laynee back when she had 5 grandmas to keep straight) over for Sunday dinner. It's important for my kids to know my Grandma and their Great Grandma, so we try to get together as often as possible.

Much Needed Rain. Bad Timing.

2012-01-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

Announcing the next child in line for me to hound relentlessly to practice their piano pieces so they don't live with the same regret that I do for giving up on piano - Seth Gardner Wells! The kid likes it now, but then there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in the months and years to come. Nevertheless - No Piano? No Sports! It's standard policy.

Laynee and I headed out for a morning of hiking. Drew couldn't make it because of his three basketball games. So we headed out to find the West Rim trailhead. We weren't going to hike it all, but just scout it out and see how it is. We made it just past the endpoint of the Subway trail when the rain started turning into slush into snow. I don't do bad weather driving - let alone on steep incline roads with "die-cliffs" on the side.

So we turned around and we hiked the last (or the first, depending where you start) mile of the Subway hike, so I could show Laynee the canyon that leads up to the Subway. We're planning to hike it this summer.

Cold, wet, and muddy, but a good time. We'll have to catch up with the West Rim another time. For now, we'll just be thankful for the precipitation - it's much needed.

And after three basketball games, it was Papa John,s Pizza to the rescue. "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. Papa John's."

Vegas Baby!

2012-01-15T07:13:00.000-08:00

I'm actually not a big fan of Las Vegas. In general, I go there to fly somewhere else, and that's about it. BUT....they do have multiple Buffalo Wild Wings, and it has been over 6 months since my kids or I have sat down to our favorite wings. It was especially fun to sit down and watch the end of the Niners vs Saints game. We were all glad to see the Niners win so Papa Judd would be in an especially good mood.

So we headed down as a family to dig in to one of our favorite eateries which we came to love back in Louisville. This is what Seth looks like "all Jacked-up" on teriyakis. I think he's in the middle of a growth spurt, 'cause he didn't want to quit.

This is Jack "all Jacked-up" on chicken fingers (not quite into the wings yet).

Drew's not afraid to pound a few wings right before a big soccer game. After all, soccer games come around all the time, but B-Dubs...not so much.

Shana is not a huge fan, but even she got into a Salt-n-Vinegar wing.

I was very impressed with the wings. They were every bit as good as the ones I ate nearly every Tuesday night back in Louisville. We were just missing Nicole, our regular waitress. That wouldn't have helped much though, cause instead of ordering "the usual," we shared a platter of 50 traditional wings!

Ok, Ok....so we didn't make the trip just for the wings (but we could've). As alluded to earlier, Drew played in the Vegas Cup soccer tourney over the weekend, so we had an additional excuse to visit Sin City.

On another note, Laynee logged a personal best on Saturday morning, running 5.25 miles on the Virgin River trail. Way to go, Laynee!

Week in Review

2012-01-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

Sam and Erika moved in on Monday, January 2nd and fortunately I had a day off to help out. In fact everyone helped out. James brought the pizza and we made a couple of trips with the truck and Uhaul trailer. It's easy to move young couples. Call the Elder's Quorum when you've got a few kids and have accumulated another 5 to 10 years of crap.

Even Nick and Janci made it down from Cedar City.

Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of the Pinewood Derby. I'm not an engineer, I never liked model cars, I took the minimal amount of shop class in middle school, and I (my mom) earned my eagle scout by the age of 13 - and I was done with scouts. So I try to keep Drew's expectations low and hope there's good refreshments. With the help of Kyle, my brother who is an engineer and did like model cars as a kid and took shop and cabinet making in high school and surely earned more of his eagle than I did, we made a respectable showing of 9th overall (out of 20+ cars).

I tried to catch Drew in the act of biting his fingernails...actually, his fingernails are pretty much gone. He just chews on his fingers now.

We didn't make it on any fun treks this weekend, but enjoyed watching Drew in a couple of basketball games. Lest you think that he's the only member of the family, laynee and I are back into jogging (a bit), and the boys are signed up for baseball for the spring.

My next hike that I'm really looking into is the West Rim of Zion -top to bottom, but it might have to wait a bit.

New Years Eve, 2011

2012-01-01T07:46:00.001-08:00

Firstly, I'd like to give a Happy Birthday shout out to Eric Pelton. Moving on - Kyle put this little jaunt together. I'm sure we maxed out his truck's payload as we all piled in wherever we could fit. This weekend trip was out to the Little Black Mountain Petroglyphs just south of town. The petroglyphs were quite impressive, but the kids just loved hiking around all the big rocks. I even asked some of the younger ones how they liked the writings or pictures on the rocks, and they replied, "What drawings?"

A few of the adventurous hikers took off for the top of the mountain, including Shana, and Drew. While they "collected clay," we doodled on the rocks down below. We were all covered in dirt by the time the hike was done (especially Jack), but it was a great little getaway, and further evidence of the beauty of southern Utah.

That night, we headed over to Kyle's house for games and food.

The adults joined in on the McArthur tradition of ringing in the new year at 9pm with the folks at Temple View RV. They do it right with Bingo, a live band, and dancing...plus, they're in bed by 9:30! I'm an awful dancer, but even I hit the floor during the slow songs to show them all how to do the bear hug.

Bingo was intense. I almost landed a gift certificate to the Cracker Barrel - only redeemable before 4:30pm.

We finally capped off the night with a game of seeing how many marshmallows the kids could stuff in their mouths and still say "fifteen puffy poo's, sixteen puffy poo's." Good for a laugh and another sugar rush.

I don't have any problems with 2011, but I'm always excited about the prospects of a new year. Hooray for 2012!

Boxing Day 2011

2011-12-26T16:15:00.000-08:00

So Boxing Day is traditionally a British Holiday following Christmas where the wealthy gave a box of gifts to their servants. I happened to have this one more day off work, and Heaven forbid a weekend go by without going hiking. Drew was willing to get up early and head up to ZNP once again. Our plan was Hidden Canyon with an optional Emerald Pool. Kyle texted me about when I hit Springdale, so we made plans to meet at the lodge at noon. It's such good quality time with my kids to get out and do these hikes. I've really come to enjoy these outings. When Seth and Jack can hold their own better, they'll be invited as well.

We came across a sweet ice-fall early in the hike. Ice is always fascinating...unless it's on a slanted trail that leads to a "die-cliff"

More fascinating ice.

Drew and I were quite hungry by the time lunch rolled around, so we headed to the Red Rock Grill at Zion Lodge. Drew put down a third-pounder with cheese and bacon. I enjoyed some butter-nut squash soup and turkey sandwich. We met up with Kyle's fam and hiked to the lower Emerald pools afterward. Beautiful weather and scenery.

Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

The kids were allegedly awake at 4:54 am, although I didn't hear them rustling until 6 am. We had threatened them with life and limb that 7 am was as early as we were willing to go. So when the clock struck 6:58 they were in our room (I guess they were planning on traffic delays between their room and ours). Back in the day, Dad would then go build a fire and we'd wait on the stairs until it was all ready for the grand entrance. Nowadays, I go turn on the fire and look around at what the kids will see on their Christmas morning, and hope that it's as magical as the one's I experienced as a kid.

We had church to make it to by 9 am, so Shana and I agreed (the children completely did NOT agree), that we'd do the Santa gifts before church and then open the others afterward. I really enjoyed it. In fact, I've never had a problem with Christmas on Sunday, even as a kid. I think it should just be one of those holidays that is on the 4th Sunday of the month as it is Christ and family centered anyway. Who do I talk to about making that change.

This is my Jingle Bells tie from Drew. Yes, it plays the song Jingle bells if you press the button at the bottom. Drew worked hard in school to earn the "Lion Loot" (his classroom monetary system) and outbid all the other kids in his class for this beauty - apparently it was so closely contested that the second highest bidder cried. Strong work, Drew.

Did I mention that I really enjoyed our ward's Christmas program, and not just because it only lasted 40 minutes (sacrament included). It was all very well done.

The kids took it easy during the afternoon. This is Seth's new chess board.

This is Laynee's new bag of HOT Cheetos, which is now most likely gone. Whatever makes you happy Laynee???

The boys really took to their "bounce-back." It's not that I don't want to play catch with them, but I'm not always able to, so now they can work on catching and grounders without me.

We did the Burgess gathering in the evening so as to make room for church services. Good food and fun was had by all.

Shana was in charge of entertainment, so we had a great bunch of minute-to-win-it games.

C'mon Kason, get that cookie in your mouth.

Drew and Kyler

More contestants

Pencil Game

Stack the Dice

Shake that booty

We had a couple great games of Candy Bar Bingo to cap off the evening. Christmas 2011 is in the books and if I were to summarize it, with one sentence or phrase, it would be a great time to come together as a family!

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-24T22:21:00.000-08:00

What a day! It was packed from stem to stern. I don't remember Christmas Eves in the past ever being so busy, but due to Christmas falling on a Sunday, we did a little juggling to fit in all that we would usually do in a couple of days.

We were up early to clean the church. The boys helped out and we all finished up in about an hour with time to spare before our next appointment.

When I was younger, Christmas Eve was undoubtedly the "longest day of the year." I'd sit around looking at the clock wondering when we could go up to Grandma's for our annual Christmas Eve party with all the cousins. So when I got old enough to drive, my sisters and I would pile in the little red mazda truck and go hiking to pass the time, and it always included a hike on the Red Hill - and it's tradition now. There was even one year that I was sick and Traci still twisted my arm enough to take them hiking.

Most of the time it was just me, Lauri, and Traci. The group has grown. We even picked Jeremy up on our way. It was the Sugar Loaf first and then off to the Narrows...

or fat-man's misery, or the devil's buttcrack (as the kids like to call it).

It's the annual test to see if you're still maintaining your girlish figure...and I am. There's one particularly tight spot where it closes in real tight on your chest. I can't remember who it was who said it, but you just have to imagine that the mountain is "giving you a big hug" through that part.

It's not much of a challenge for the little ones. Even Jack, as stout as he is, went through multiple times.

After a quick bite to eat at the Burgess residence, we were off to an afternoon of baseball. Homerun Derby to be exact. This is usually how we spend Christmas afternoon, but with Christmas on Sunday, we changed our schedule. Oh, and it was a gorgeous day. Sunny throughout.

I won.

Finally, the party of parties. Grandma Sullivan has been hosting Christmas Eve gatherings from before I can remember. They used to entail a pinata, singing with bells, treasure hunts from the cemetery to East Elementary, Santa's workshop at the Dixie College, and finally, bringing home a half beef as Grandpa's present to each family. Well, we've added a whole new generation, and I think Grandma is quite satisfied when the last guest makes their way out the door. We do love Grandma Sullivan.

Shana did well in her minute-to-win-it game.

Laynee balancing Ding Dongs on her head...not quite 6 though.

And the night cap down at B Awma's. The kids waiting on the stairs before they can come up and see their presents.

Happy busy day. Fortunately, tomorrow is a day of rest.

Holidays are a time for Family

2011-12-23T19:58:00.000-08:00

Traci and Co. arrived late last night, so we naturally threw the cousins together and watched them play for most of the day. We miss you too, Lauri. It was another beautiful day, so we hit the Little Valley playground. The crew played for at least two hours at the park and another hour back at our house.

Hello Jack, Hello Jake, shake hands shake hands, shake shake shake.

George and Drew rocked the crazy swing.

And then the middle aged boys - Scotty, Evan, and Seth.

Afternoon Wii break. What a bunch of nerds.

Finally, the occasion we had anticipated. Aunt JoEllen's Gingerbread making contest. She puts in a lot of work to prepare the houses and the icing and then there is candy galore. I'm just glad I didn't have to be the judge, because they were all....definitely covered with candy.

In the end, everyone was a winner, and hyperglycemic, and not going to sleep any time soon. Jack won the Fastest award for finishing his house first. Seth won the Heaviest Gingerbread house (it was more like candy food storage for a month). Drew and Laynee made awesome houses too, but apparently not awesome enough for me to remember what awards they won. It was a nice Christmas Eve's Eve.

Week in review

2011-12-17T15:34:00.000-08:00

Looking back on the past week, I really couldn't think of much that happened out of the ordinary. Work is good, kids are generally healthy (a few sniffles and runny noses is expected) and enjoying school. Shana's had Christmas wrapped up for weeks. Oh, wait! Shana and I celebrated our 14th anniversary on Tuesday in usual fashion...I go to work and we carry on with life as usual. Lest you wonder why we are such losers - we did celebrate on Friday by eating out at Larsen's Frostop and saw Footloose at the Flood Street theater. Awesome.

But when the weekend rolls around, I'm itchin' to pack it with activity and today didn't disappoint. Drew had a basketball game in the morning and although this is a pic of Seth his buddy Daniel, you can see it was on the basketball court where Drew played (but my camera is no good with action shots).

Next we were off to Drew's first piano recital. This is his buddy Ben. They both KILLED IT!

Stone Cold Drew.

The Crew.

Next, we met up with Kyle and Co. to hit the latest trail. The pick of the week was the Snow Canyon Caves. I'd never seen it, but knew the vicinity. Another gorgeous day, and the whole fam-damily came this time.

Jack and cousin Pickle-Breath (Evan) en route.

Laynee, always willing to stop for a pose, descending down into the mouth of the cave.

Good little hike for the family. This is actually in the cave which was pitch dark without our flashlights. There were even a few bats quietly hanging from the ceiling. We didn't disturb them and they didn't bother us.

Finally, we couldn't resist a little hike to the red and white sandstone of Snow Canyon. The kids had a good time and there's still a lot to see in the Southern Utah area.

Wells family tradition...in the making

2011-12-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

I remember making an annual trip to the SLC every holiday season to see the lights at Temple Square and polish off whatever Christmas shopping still needed to be done. We usually stayed in the Little America hotel, and if Dad was feeling well-off, we'd even get a room in the tower. Occasionally, we'd stay in the Marriott for convenience as it pretty much connected to Crossroads mall. I don't know exactly how old we were when Mom and Dad let us have complete freedom, but I remember walking the 6 city blocks from Little America to the mall with just my brothers and not thinking anything of it...we're my parents TRYING to get rid of us. I couldn't have been more than 10 or 11 years old. I guess they did tell us to "stick together."

So we watched the weather and made a reservation at the new Hotel Young. It's a 5 star joint, with all the warmth and hospitality and sugar cereal of a friend's home. About the weather - it had to be perfect because I have a clinical phobia of bad weather driving.

They were ready to party the moment we got there, so off we went to Temple Square via the TRAX.

The lights were awesome as were the crowds and the cold.

Since leaving KY, we all have been craving Chic-fil-a and BW3s. We made sure to schedule it in on Saturday.

And we hit a joint that was equivalent to Gattieland for some afternoon fun for the kids.

That night we left the kids to fend for themselves as the adults hit dinner and a movie. That was sushi for me and Cam and nachos and a slushee for the ladies. We're trying to broaden their tastebuds, but meeting resistance at every turn. We had an awesome time with the Youngs and look forward to this tradition for years to come.

Where did we go this weekend...

2011-12-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

The weekend rolled around and once again I was on a quest to introduce my children to how rad southern Utah is. There was an article in the Spectrum on Friday about the Red Cliffs up by Harrisburg. I've been there before, we were on a time crunch and this little gem, although better hiked in the summer, was a perfect fit. We had watched Shana in the finals of the Regional Church Volleyball tourney that morning and followed it up with Drew's first basketball game (way to bring home the W Drewby), and needed to fit it in before my work party that night.

It was a perfect little hike - even for Jack. He only fell down 4 times the whole hike, two of which happened in the first minute of the hike. It was a little sketchy putting him on my shoulders and scaling that one little part where they chipped away foot-holds so you don't have to swim to get by.

Thanksgiving weekend continued...

2011-11-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

Shana's been wanting to host a murder mystery dinner for a while now, and with family in town, we set a date and made it happen. The food was awesome and there were plenty of laughs to go around. Judd even stayed up past his bedtime...that's how we know the gathering was a success. Strong work Shana.

Oh, and here's a little family pic thanks to Nikki.

Thanksgiving Day 2011

2011-11-24T18:27:00.001-08:00

In reverse order of how the day actually occurred...Kids looking swell for some Thanksgiving pics.

Preparations being made for the feast, and what a feast it was. My personal favorites were the smoked ham and winter squash. A special thanks to Nikki for putting on a smashing shin-dig while nursing multiple cracked ribs. Here's to a speedy recovery.<
Shana and Erks on potato duty. The weather was awesome. We dined outside in the beautiful fall Southern Utah Sun. So much to be thankful for.

And Erika announced to all that the turkey was not the only thing cooking in the oven. Congrats to Sam and Erika.

We ended our hike with a quick jaunt to the White Sands of Snow Canyon. I didn't even get a ticket...but then again, I didn't really let the kids stick around long enough to see if we were gonna get a ticket. I remember the good ol days when Dad used to drive his Ram Charger almost right up to the cliffs of the White Sands hike... here's to good times.

Jack caught the hang of the whole "skiing down the volcano" once we got down to the smaller rocks at the bottom part of the volcano.
As you can see, the top part of our descent was a little "touch-n-go," but once we got down to the smaller pebbles, the kids were lovin' it. We came away with a few scrapes on our hands and legs, and pockets and shoes full of dirt and rocks, but the kids loved it.
Summit of the volcano with a beautiful view of Snow Canyon State Park.

Drew tore up the mountain and had time to go down into the center before me and the "young guns" made it to the top, but they all did great and didn't even complain nor cry. I would hike a few steps above the boys, give them my hand and pull them up past me and then repeat until we were at the top.

I've definitely been on a little hiking kick lately, but mostly just want to take every opportunity I can to show my kids what living in St. George has to offer. So having been in Zion for the past two weekends, we decided to stay a touch closer to home and tackle the volcano and White Sands of Snow Canyon state park. Mom and Laynee stayed home to help the Rimers out with the Thanksgiving dinner, and after a long morning of hiking, we were thankful for dinner.

Observation Point...check.

2011-11-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

Laynee and Drew agreed to accompany me to the top of Observation Point, and I couldn't be more proud. It was 4 miles up and an elevation gain of over 2100 ft, and we made it up in 90 minutes. After a quick lunch at the top where it was cold and we had to fight off swarms of pushy chipmunks who wanted a cheeto, dorito, or whatever would fall to the ground, we started back down which took all of an hour...maybe an hour and 10 minutes. I am amazed at the beauty that I grew up so close to and never fully appreciated. It was a nice cool day, thankfully, because this little hike would've been tough in the summer sun. When we got to the bottom, we went ahead and knocked out Weeping Rock...because it was right there at the same trailhead. Great times.

Sup?

2011-11-16T21:32:00.001-08:00

Yes, we moved back home, went straight to the lake, signed the kids up for soccer.
Halloween with the family was sweet...even for the minions.
Hiking in our back yard once again was awesome. It's good to be home.

Laynee takes over! o ya

2010-10-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

well my mom says i can take over the blog so this is laynee!!!!

A News Star is Born...

2010-02-12T04:54:00.000-08:00

Drew was chosen with a few fellow Zachary Taylor students to speak for his class about their school crib on the WLKY Local News channel here in Louisville. To see his first stardom role click here... http://www.wlky.com/school-cribs/index.html

Zachary Taylor needs your votes! Please help them get back into first place (its gonna take a miracle, they are like 5,000 votes behind) You can vote as much as you want in a day. (Just not one right after the other)

Good job Drewby my shining lil star!

Winter Wonderland

2010-01-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

The first REAL snowfall of the winter season is here. The kids got out of school early today (don't ask me why...the school board is whacked! They really should have stayed for all of school, or never should have gone in the first place.)and played for several hours. Sadly, we are never very prepared for snow. I really hate buying snow pants and boots when you only get to use them once or twice a year, and then they outgrow them. Money down the drain! Laynee has some of my old ski pants on and her school boots, Drew has some old size 5 snow pants on that come up to his mid calf, plus he is wearing Laynees church boots. Yes, he looked awesome and he didn't even care. Seth and Jack are actually outfitted somehow.

No matter what they looked like, they had tons of fun. A snow cave was made, some sledding occurred, and a few snow angels were created. Then hot chocolate was served. They had a blast! Now I'm ready for it to go away!

More Christmas vacation activities...

2009-12-27T08:38:00.001-08:00

Our neighbors the Macks are military retirees and they told us we needed to visit the Patton Museum, so this place has been on our list for a while. Now that Drew is in Cub Scouts, some of the things we do, he can pass of as part of his requirements. This was one of them. I've never been a big museum buff, but this place was pretty cool. It had tanks from all the different wars fought from World War I to Desert Storm. It had different types of guns, jeeps, missile launchers and other warfare. It is located about 1 hour south of Louisville in Fort Knox, which is the Army base here in Kentucky.

"Hitlers Nightmare"

Whoa what a bullet!

"General Patton"

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That night I was making dinner and the next thing I know I look over just in time to see Jack falling down the stairs. Nothing I could do but watch and scream. He fell from the very top stair all the way to the bottam. Luckily he rolled on his side, and it wasn't head over feet. Otherwise I think there would have been much more damage. He came away with a big bump near his eye, which over the last few days has given him quite a nice shiner! This is the 4th time he has fallen down these stairs. I'm not sure how to prevent it. The kid is completely accident prone!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-27T08:14:00.000-08:00

The afternoon of Christmas Eve I took the older kids ice skating with our friends the Lorenats. This was the first time Laynee and Drew had ever been, and it was my second time. The first time being back when I was 18. Drew was a stud. He picked it up very quickly and went full out. Not caring if he fell. Laynee was a lil more careful. We usually skated holding hands. It made both of us feel a little bit more reassured with our skating abilities. By the end we were doing pretty good as well. Drew didn't want to leave, but I was cold and my knees hurt. ( I'm def. getting old!)

I'm not so sure about this!

Drew and his friend Brock

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That night the Davis and Mendenhall families came over to have Christmas Eve dinner and decorate some cookies. We made some yummy Cafe Rio and the kids had a hay day decorating cookies. Christmas was in the air. The kids were crazy hyper and ready for a visit from Santa! I didn't get very good pictures, so these will have to do.

Ben, Seth, Justin and Drew
Laynee and Adison

Christmas Morn 2009

2009-12-27T07:52:00.001-08:00

Well another Christmas has come and gone. This year the kids were as excited as ever. In years past it has always been me and Spencer waiting for the kids to get up, not this year. Laynee and Drew asked if they could get up at 6 a.m. We said sure, knowing that in years past it never happened. The only stipulation was they could NOT set an alarm. Well the kids went to sleep and had vision of sugarplums except for Jack, which was sick all night with a horrible cold. No sleep for us. Sure enough at 5:55 a.m. Laynee and Drew came bounding into our room, just as we had settled ourselves down for a long winters nap. This was the first Christmas I can ever remember when I did NOT want to get up! I had to get up. I couldn't tell them to go back to bed and take away this Christmas moment. Soooooooo......here is Laynee with her electric scooter. She also got clothes, clothes, shoes, and a snuggie.
Drew on his new bike. He also got an air soft gun with all the equipment, and a remote control helicopter.

Jack saw these bouncer balls from Santa (one was his and the other is Seths) and he would not put them down. He carried them around for a good part of the morning. Whenever he opened a new present, he would try to hold it along with everything else. Funny kid. Jack also got a scooter, a sword, and baby dino.

I didn't get a picture of Seth this year, not sure why, but he got a skee ball machine, a sword, and a bunch of other stuff. All in all Christmas was a success once again.

Seth's Christmas Program....

2009-12-18T15:04:00.001-08:00

was today at his Preschool and he did a very cute job, with only a few rare dorky Seth outbursts. If I was computer/techy savy at all, I would upload a bit of his singing, but I'm not. They sang 4 songs. Christmas Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday Jesus. After the program, we went to his classroom and had some cookies.
They also had Santa there making a friendly appearance for all the kids. This was Jacks first encounter with Santa and we weren't sure how it was going to go, but he was so excited and went over and jumped on his lap and preceeded to tell Santa everything he wanted for Christmas. Santa gave them both a coloring book...I guess we will have to wait for another week to see what else he brings them.

Got your ugly Christmas sweater?

2009-12-11T10:15:00.000-08:00

Last week was the annaul Storms Christmas Party. As always, fun was had by all. We did most of the same things. Pot luck yummies, signs, mafia, name game, white elephant gift exchange, and new this year, an ugly christmas sweater contest. I looked everywhere for the worst, but really couldn't find anything. My sweater was ugly, but not bad. On the day of the party, Spence still didn't have a sweater to wear. He called me from work and I told him to pick one up on the way home...he said he didn't want to. I pretty much commanded him to, and I'm glad he did. This is the pretty lil' number he came home with......

And oh yes, he won! Cathy Lorenat put up a good fight with hers, but Spence could not be outdone. I think the fact that it was a woman's vest, and it was too small helped capture him the win. Upclose...isn't the bead work amazing! It really was like wearing armor it was so heavy.

Off to the races.....

2009-11-11T14:24:00.001-08:00

Kason and Melanie came out to spend a week with us here in Louisville. We took them to the Louisville Slugger Museum, the Gap Clearance Center, and today we went to Churchill Downs. I have never been myself, so this was something new to me as well. General admission tickets were $3, but a worker gave us free tickets. SCORE!!! Did I place a bet? Hmmm...ummm yes I did. How do you go to the track and not place a bet? I didn't even feel bad about it, and no I did not win. My horse took 4th. I was out 2 bucks, but didn't have to pay an entry fee, so I call it even.

Our box seats about 25 yards from the track, dead center to the finish line.

I told Seth just to make it fun, that if he called the winner I would give him 5 bucks. We watched 6 races, and he won once. The #10 horse Yikes. It was a fun day at the races.

Halloween Round 2

2009-11-03T07:45:00.001-08:00

The 2nd annual neighbor Halloween party. Our neighbors are awesome! Most of them are older couples, but they love to get together and hang out with the kids. We roasted Halloweenies (hot dogs), brauts, had chili, chips, and of course Sandy made lots of treats.

There is a house just down the street from us that we call the "blow up house." For every holiday they have tons of blow up decorations. Jack likes to visit this house and inspect them each holiday.

After eating, the kids got into their costumes and were ready for a night of trick or treating. This is Drew as a scary skeleton, grim reaper sort of dude. Seth as the blue Power Ranger, and Jack was the cute lil' green skeleton.

After about 2 hours of trick or treating this was Drew's haul. Yes, only Drews. He was quite proud that he made it to the JACKPOT level listed on his bag. Oh how he is my son! I remember running from house to house, not caring so much about getting to eat all the candy, but just getting as much as I possibly could. His bag weighed 6 pounds!!! Laynee and Seth had about as much as Drew and Jack did pretty all right for himself. All in all, we figure we have about 20 pounds of candy. YIKES!! Mason here we come!

Trunk or Treat

2009-11-01T11:00:00.001-08:00

Happy Halloween! We had our ward trunk or treat party the other night and as always the kids had a blast. It had to be held inside this year due to rain, but it didn't dampen their spirits. This is round 1 of dressing up. (round 2 is coming...you'll just have to wait a little bit.)
Drew...dressed up as not just any football player, but TROY POLAMALU from the one and only Pittsburgh Steelers! Yes, this was my idea, and a fine idea it was! Drew wasn't as happy about it until he got lots of compliments on his costume. He was finally reasurred that his mom had been right. His choice of costumes will come in round 2. It had a mask, and no masks allowed at church.

Laynee...our cute lil' 50's girl. Props to Grandma Janice for the costume. She made the skirt, and the sweater, even tho you can't see it very well, was hers from yes you guessed it...the 50's.

Jack...a Jackhammer this year. He has the coolest name for costumes! Although he looks dang cute, this costume was lacking in the functionability category. We had a hard time getting into and out of doors, and manuvering around people. More for him in round 2.

Seth...SpongeBob SquarePants. What can I say...stinkin cute! His costume was given to us by some random lady that met us while out on a walk. Weird, but he loved it.

Stay tuned for round 2.....

Halloween FHE

2009-10-27T09:15:00.001-07:00

The Monday before Halloween has been and always will be the annual pumpkin carving night. The kids look forward to this family home evening all year. Even tho they aren't real big fans of scooping out the pumpkin insides, hence Laynees face, they have a great time pretending to eat guts. It has always been an inside joke with Drew that he needs to try the guts each year. This year he finally got it and just pretended. Woo-hoo, it only took 8 years to get the joke!

The final outcome of our carving night: a wicked, scary pumpkin face carved by Drew and Dad, a skeleton face by Mom and Seth, and a lil' monster created by Laynee. Once again a good night had by all.

Montgomery Farms 2009

2009-10-11T07:44:00.001-07:00

We love, LOVE, LOVE this place! It has been tradition for the past 6 years to go up to Montgomery Farms in Underwood, Indiana one weekend in October. This event is the kick off to fall/winter and all the fun festivities that take place over the next few months. If winter wasn't so dang cold it would be my favorite time of year. This year we happen to show up on their fall festival day. This meant they had live music, vendors, and fun game booths for the kids to win candy and toys. They finished the day with fireworks at dark. Its not Montgomery Farms without the........

rope swing in the hay loft,

the corn pit, (where no matter how much you shake and shimmy, you always end up finding more corn in their clothes when you get home.)

the petting zoo, and of course the haunted hayride. Its always tons of fun to hang out by the campfire with good friends, eating dogs and smores! This year it was incredibly muddy due to the rainfall we have had. This made entering and leaving the parking lot, both on foot and car, an adventure. After some pushing and more pushing we made it home with a little more than a really dirty van. (We also reeked of campfire smoke. A major pet peeve of mine. ugh! Love campfires, hate the smell!) Looking forward to next year all ready. Sadly, it will be the last time for the Wells Family. :(

Hello 80's.....

2009-10-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

So I was giving Jack a haircut last night, and had an epiphany. Jacks hair was long, for him anyway, and it naturally grows into a duck tail in the back. I was remembering back to the good ol' days when boys used to grow out there "tail." I couldn't resist.

So I give you Jack from the front......

Are you ready for the awesomeness?

Jack from the side..........

Sweetest haircut I have ever given the boy! I put it in a ponytail just to show how long it was. I think the best part of it all was Spence coming home and saying, "Jack you got a haircut. Turn around and lets see it. " Totally unsuspecting of what was coming! His face and outburst of laughing was priceless! So now I take a vote......let him keep the tail (of which he is quite proud of. He didn't want anyone touching his ponytail.) or shave it. I'm totally ok with bringing the "tail" back into fashion. I have no shame!

Drew's new pet

2009-10-04T06:23:00.001-07:00

Speedo, the turtle, pretty much only lasted a week before I decided he wasn't the right pet for us. He wouldn't eat and I don't think he liked us. Therefore, we let him go.

Drew came home from school the other day with a new idea for a pet. They had been studying crayfish in science and were done with the topic. The kids were able to take them home as pets if their parents would allow it. Well, when Laynee studied crayfish, her lil' guys were just that. Little. So I told Drew it was fine and sent him to school with a small tupperware to bring it home in. When we picked him up from school, this is what we got. The thing is GI-NORMOUS! He barely fit in the tupperware! I told Spence, he could have a feast if he wanted to cook him up......the kids said I was mean! So this is "Red". The newet addition to the Wells Family. He lives in a bigger tupperware than before. He eats hot dogs and cat food, and as of now, he is still alive. I've got to say.....as far as pets go.....he ain't so bad!

Seth & Soccer

2009-09-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

So Seth started soccer for the first time this Fall, at the tender age of 4. His first game went pretty well. Today was his second game, and he apparently felt pretty good about his soccer skills. Please note that this story would be much better had you been there, nevertheless you can imagine as most of you know how Seth IS! He is playing and next thing you know he has the ball and is kicking it down the field yelling. So we listen closer...what is he saying??? Oh my, the kid is TRASH TALKING! Seriously. These were the phrases being uttered. "I'm the best." "Ya, you can't catch me dummies!" "You can't stop me." We were laughing our guts out. It was hilarious. However, it got embarassing as he wouldn't shut up! When the quarter was over, we had a kind talk about NOT saying anything on the field unless it was for your teammate to pass the ball. He did awesome even tho most of the kids are bigger and more experienced. He has had a good teacher from playing with Drew. I think that might be were he learned how to trash talk as well. Boys are such fun!

Happy 8th Birthday Drew!

2009-09-26T16:43:00.000-07:00

What a big day for our Drew. How many people get to be baptized on their birthday?!? We celebrated in style. Both of Drews grandmas came out, along with a surprise visit from his cousin George. Drew was so excited to see him! After some soccer games, we headed off to the church for his baptism, and finished off the day with a birthday party surrounded by friends and family. Happy Birthday and Baptism Bud! We love you!

FYI...the scrape on Drews face he got a couple of days before from a wicked awful bike crash after going off the neighbors ramp. Another FYI...Drew got an even bigger ramp for his birthday. Aren't we the best parents ever. We look forward to more bumps and bruises.

First day of school...2009-10

2009-09-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

A little bit late, but better than never!

Laynee A big 5th grader at Zachary Taylor Elementary

Drew 3rd grade at ZT

Seth Preschool at Trinity Presbyterian

What a Summer!

2009-07-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

So it has been a long time since I have blogged! I just haven't felt like it. So....... here comes a recap of our whole summer. When school got out we headed home to St. George. Spence had some job things to take care of while we were there. We headed up to Salt Lake for one of those and were able to hang out with the Young Family! We were so excited to see them. We had missed them tons!

These fun pics were at a place called "Classic". The kids had a blast.

We also went to Lake Mead for the weekend and got to have lots of fun swimming, tube riding, and of course EATING. While at the lake we had the awesome experience of running out of gas out in the middle of the lake. James was at the helm with a rope swimming, several others were swimming off the back, others were rowing, and the kids were waving and shouting for help. The rangers finally rescued us. It was fun, but hope it doesn't happen again!

My Seth is gonna be one awesome wakeboarder!!!

Spence headed back to Louisville after the lake, and the rest of us stayed and enjoyed a lil more time visiting with our cousins and grandmas. We went to Pine Valley and hiked up to the glorious water (Laynee named it) with Huggy Ama and Jordan, Kyler, and Bailey. We had a good time swimming out at Mason's pool with all the Wells cousins, and of course its not a party if B Ama's trampoline isn't involved.

We came back to Louisville on June 24th....Laynees 10th birthday. She didn't have the best birthday ever, but a week later she got to have a few friends go with her to see the Hannah Montana movie, have some pizza, and ice cream cake. I not being the best mom in the world forgot to take a picture of her party. But it did happen and she had lots of fun. Laynee is growing up sooooo quickly. She talks like a teenager, acts like a teenager, and quite frankly, Im not ready for her to be a teenager! She has started doing a little babysitting of her brothers now, so me and spence can grab a quick bite to eat every once in a while. That part of her growing up is the good part. For the most part, Laynee is a very sweet, smart, good girl, and Im glad she is ours.

Since we have been home, we have done alot of nothing. I LOVE nothing!!!! It has been a great summer because of nothing. Its nice not having plans, and only doing something if we want to. We taught all the little neighborhood kids how to play kick the can and come to court. They love those fun night games, and it has kept them busy during these summer days.

Jack is also potty trained! Yipee. I didn't think it was ever going to happen. One morning Jack and Seth came into my room to get me up to I could get them breakfast. I said to them, "OK, but I got to go pee pee in the potty first." Seth followed by saying, "Me too!" Jack then said, "Me too! I need to go pee pee in the potty too!" And he did. That was how he finally decided to do it. We strapped on his undies from then on. Wish I would have known that sooner! My baby is growing up. :(

And that brings us to today. Laynee and Jordan came running through the front door yelling "Drew found a turtle, can we keep it?" I thought they were joking, but then in came Drew holding a turtle. I wasn't sure what to say at this point. So for now, we are the proud new owners of a pet turtle named Speedo. Secretly Im hoping that someone is missing this poor little guy and will be hanging up missing turtle posters soon! Never thought we would have a turtle!

JACK...POT!

2009-06-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

Is it a break through, or was it just luck? Not sure yet, but Jack went poop on the toilet for the first time today. Yipee! Can't wait until I don't have to buy anymore diapers.

2009-05-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

You all know how desperately I wanted Jack to be a girl...well I might have got more than I bargained for! I had come to terms with having 3 boys, then the other day I walked into the kitchen and found this............... My Jack is glam and gettin ready to hit the town on a shopping spree! He was even willing to stop, pose, and say cheese. I don't think he has the looks to pull off feminine, glad he is a boy.

2009-05-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

This post is pretty much for my own satisfaction. When we bought our house, the deck needed to be stained. We opted for Thompsons water seal. We sprayed it on and it lasted for about 3 months. I wouldn't recommend that stuff if I was paid to. So our deck has looked like the before pictures for the past 18 months or so. The other day I had the itch to do something about it, and bought some real stain and paint brushes. Spence and I painted it that afternoon in about 4 hours. I think it turned out pretty good. There are some places that are a little bit orange because we got too much stain there, or it dripped, but all in all it looks WAY better than before.

BEFORE.....

and AFTER!

Kudos to my honey...

2009-05-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

I told Spence that I wouldn't blog about this...but I changed my mind. Women are allowed to do that right!!! Spencer is a pretty private, non-seeker of attention kind of guy. If I don't tell ya...you will never know. So here goes. (Sorry babe-but you deserve it)

Every year the residents have to take boards. They don't count, well not really...although the incentive is if they can reach a certain score, then the program pays for their real board test. The past couple of years that he has taken them, he has improved steadily. The first year was like a 19, the next was around a 22 and last year he got a 27, which for his year was really good. To pass the boards you have to get a 32. Each year he learns more and gains more experience...thus the bettering of his scores. So that brings us to the current year. He took boards in March. When he got home from the test, I asked him how it went...he said it was HARD! He was hoping he had raised his scores enough to be able to pass. With his reaction I was hoping he just hadn't gotten worse than last year! He had been anxiously awaiting for his results and yesterday on his day off they were delivered to the school. He took off and I waited. Finally I called him after he had been gone for about 45 minutes knowing that was long enough and figured he hadn't called me with good news, therefore, he must have dug a hole and threw himself in it. His response was..."I got a ridiculously high score!" I asked him if he was joking and he said nope, I have looked at it over and over looking for a typo but it says my name with a score of 38. I was extremely happy for him! He works really hard to keep school, studying, and family life all in balance. Way to go babe. I love you. He will be an anesthesia resident hero for the next couple of years! Now I just hope he doesn't divorce me for sharing this.

OMG...

2009-05-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

just thought I would share my luck with you today. I was sitting outside with Seth when something hit the back of my head. I thought it was a bug running into me. I felt to see what it was, and felt something wet. I looked at my hand to find BIRD CRAP! I have never been pooped on before by a bird, some close calls, but never like this. Some say it is good luck to be pooped on. I will wait for that good fortune to happen...until then...GROSS!

Summertime here we come...

2009-05-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

Drew, Seth, Jack & Cameron: The Boys of Summer!

For the past several weeks, well since it got out of the 50's, the boys have been begging to get out the swimming pool. They don't seem to mind that it is still pretty chilly out to be swimmin'. Our neighbors must have been hearing the same comments from their little boy because they gave in and filled up the pool.

Happy Birthday Baby Jack...

2009-04-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Jack is, and forever will be, my baby. I can't believe he is all ready 2! It really seems like just yesterday that I was in the hospital having him. He truly plays the baby part super well! He is as whiny as they come, he has no desire to potty train, (Laynee, Drew, and Seth were in undies by now) he loves sleeping in his crib, and won't give up the binky. Normally this would drive me crazy, but seeing that he IS the baby...I'm not caring so much. On the plus side of things, he chatters like crazy. Most of the time you can understand what he is saying as well. In fact, I think he might talk better than Seth. (just kidding, but Seth has really only been talking for about 9 months now.) His favorite song is "We Will Rock You" He goes around the house singing, "we will, we will ROCK YOU!" He is an excellent climber. He is in our cupboards getting food practically every minute of the day. He loves to get his own drink from the sink as well. He pulls the stool over and helps himself quite regularly, it doesn't even matter if the cup is clean or dirty. He also loves to wash his hands and play in the soap. His newest conquest is climbing up our chain link fence and yes, he can get to the top and thinks he can swing his leg over to the other side...did I say on the plus side of things??? At least he is making himself independent. We try to make the cup half full here in the Wells home as often as possible. Lately, Jack has been really into watching the movie "The Incredibles." After watching it myself, I've decided that he REALLY deserves his nickname Jack Jack! They both act exactly the same way.

Since our trip to Disneyworld, Jack has been in love with Mickey Mouse and the gang. We don't have the Disney Channel, so for his birthday he got a Mickey's Clubhouse DVD.

I decided that maybe if we start young, someone in our family will be good at working with their hands, and power tools. Its not the strong point of Jack's parents. He seems to like it thus far.

Happy Birthday to my baby boy. We love you Jack Jack!

Soccer Boy

2009-04-18T08:52:00.001-07:00

Getting congratulations from his teammates after scoring a goal.

Using his mad dribbling skills.

Drew eats, drinks, and dreams about soccer. He loves it. One day last week, practice was cancelled because of the rain....he cried! He is the best player on his team, and he knows it! (we are working on the cocky thing, but I figure being a little cocky is ok if you can back it up...right???) Today was the first win of the season and the kids were really excited. Drew scored 6 of the 10 goals for his team. Way to go Drew and team Comets!

Spring Break @ DisneyWorld

2009-04-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

DISNEYWORLD HERE WE COME!

We woke up at 2:00 a.m. (yes I said 2:00a.m.) to start our journey to Orlando, Florida. We arrived at about 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 29th to the Disney resort Carribean Beach. We stayed in the newly decorated pirate rooms there. We did 4 days of parks and ate with a different set of Disney characters every day. Now for the longer, detailed version of our vacation. Sunday we were exhausted from travel so we walked around the resort, hung out at the beach they have there, swam, ate dinner and got ready for our busy week!

DAY 1...Hollywood Studios(ie MGM)
We caught our bus and headed off for Hollywood Studios. Of course Rockin Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror were first on our list. Seth got to meet Lightning McQueen. The Power Rangers showed us some moves. We saw the Indiana Jones Stunt Show (which Seth freaked out about...it was too loud) and the Lights, Motor, Action Show which was amazing!

That afternoon we got to eat at Playhouse Disney. Leo and June from the Little Einsteins and Jo Jo and Goliath from Jo Jo's Circus were there to sing and dance and take pictures with us. Jack LOVED Goliath.

DAY 2...Magic Kingdom
Tuesday found us at the Happiest Place on Earth. B-Amma took Laynee and Drew on the big rides, while me, Spence, Seth, and Jack headed for Dumbo. For such a stupid ride wow was it a long wait. Seth and Jack loved it, so thats all that matters. Seth didn't like alot of rides. If they went into a tunnel (ie..Peter Pan, Pirates of the Carribean) Seth freaked out. Not sure why, and it made for a difficult day with him, but he loved Dumbo, Alladin, and the Goofy rollercoaster.

That night we hopped on the monorail and headed for the Contemporary Resort to eat at Chef Mickey's. The kids had a ball. We ate with Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.

DAY 3...Animal Kingdom

Wednesday we went to visit the animals. We ate breakfast with Donald Duck, Daisy, Goofy, and Mickey. It was Yummy!!! We went on the safari, rode on Everest (AWESOME btw) got wet on the rapids, not to mention in rained for about an hour in the afternoon, and scared Laynee and Drew to death on the Dinosaur ride. It was a good day.

DAY 4...Magic Kingdom

We headed back to the Magic Kingdom on Thursday. You can never get enough of Space, Splash and Thunder Mountains. We took a few whirls on the teacups, and did a few other rides that we didn't get to on Tuesday. We ate at the Crystal Palace with Pooh Bear, Piglet, Eyeore, and Tigger. By now we were starting to get a little tired of all the eating with characters. Cameras, cameras, and video cameras were gettin' old!

DAY 5...Carribean Resort

We gladly accepted our welcomed break of no more days at the parks. We were pretty worn out. So Friday we spent the day at the pool. They had a fun kiddy park that Seth and Jack loved. The bigger pools were fun for Laynee and Drew. They had two water slides that even Jack and Seth got to go on.

That evening we traveled over to the Floridian Resort for our last character meal. A dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the wicked stepmother and daughters.

Seth wasn't to happy about eating with Cinderella. But is was fun and the stepmother was the best. She was true to character and we had a good time. When Prince Charming came to our table, the kids looked at him like who the heck are you. Are you here to take our order??? He really just looked like another dude in a funky costume, nothing special.

The next day was Saturday, and that meant it was time for us to go home. We were sad to leave, but happy to get home. Even tho that meant leaving 80-90 degree weather and going back to 30-40 degrees with snow flurries. WHAT THE!!!!! I also now get to catch up on 10 days worth of laundry. That is a lot in case you wanted to know. Thank you B-Amma for coming with us, we had an awesome time and hope you did too!

One last thing that was pretty funny...On our way home, it was about dinner time and we asked where the kids wanted to eat. Seth asked us if we were going to have a great dinner and we looked at him and said, yeah, if you like Wendy's it will be great. Then he says, "What characters will we be eating with?" It was cute.

"Oh Idaho, I Love Thee..."

2009-03-24T06:32:00.001-07:00

O.K. not really, but after this massive project that Laynee has had to do I think we might know more about Idaho than the people who really live there! For a 4th grader, this was a gi-normus project. Just to rattle off a few of the things this project entailed:

A report (of course)

map of state

mobile of natural attractions

self designed t-shirt

diorama of indian tribe

state flag (hand drawn)

state bird (hand drawn)

tall tale

poem

brochure

license plate

She also had to take into her class a food from Idaho, we chose potato chips naturally, and she had to wear a costume of something that represented her state. She is a sack of Idaho potatoes. She gets to present her project to her class today. I'm glad we had 2 months to prepare this monster, and I'm glad its now over!

Future Guitar Hero Extraordinaire

2009-03-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

Jack is the future of guitar hero. He loves it all ready. He screams "ya-hee-o" (his version of guitar hero) all the way down the stairs when he knows thats where were going. He races to the closet where the guitars are kept, and straps up and gets ready to play. He insists on getting his turn too. Otherwise he stands right in front of the T.V. so you can't see. Gotta love the kid!

What a nuisance!

2009-03-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

I may look cute and cuddly........

but when I get hungry, I am not afraid to find trash that stupid people leave out! This is the mess I love to make...

Note to self: Stop leaving trash out on the deck. The raccoons always get into it! The lucky thing about the mess this varment left, was that I was able to recover that little yellow cup that Jack apparently tossed in the garbage. So thanks for the favor, I guess.

Happy Birthday Seth

2009-02-28T07:37:00.000-08:00

We partied at KaZoing for Seths 4th Birthday Party this year. It has a huge bouncy slide, an obstacle course, a birthday bouncer, a car race track, and another big fun bouncy castle. This place is just as much fun for adults as it is for kids. It never takes long for Spence to find his inner child, but even Huggy Ama got in on the slide fun. After an hour of jumping, sliding, playing and crazy, painful plastic burns we got to eat some cupcakes and open presents. Seth was pretty excited. Thanks to the Davis, Storms, and Price families for celebrating Seths birthday with us. We hope you had as much fun as we did.

For his birthday, Huggy Ama gave him this Steelers outfit. Now I have a buddy to get dressed up with me during Pit games. YEAH!

He also got a new bike. He is not quite sure about the bigger version of his old bike. He says, "It's Creepy!"

Best bed head day ever!

2009-02-24T06:24:00.002-08:00

It seemed like any ordinary day. I put Jack down for a nap. His hair was perfectly laid, it wasn't wet or anything strange like that, but when I got him up from his nap.....

HELLO BED HEAD! I don't think I have ever seen better. Way to make me proud Jack!

Hallelujah!

2009-02-19T11:24:00.001-08:00

We got our computer back! We have been without our computer for just over 2 long, very long weeks. It started having these pop ups that we couldn't get rid of, we couldn't override them, nothing. They were a nuisance and I was ready to throw the computer out the window. So after talking to Kyle several times and it not helping, we called for reinforcement. A computer geek came over and said, "this sucks." So he took our computer away and erased everything from its existence. He did put our pictures and the important savable stuff back on, but sadly...no more Monopoly. I paid 20 bucks for that dumb game too! Anyway, our computer came home last night and we had a wonderful reunion. We still have to reinstall a bunch of programs, like Kodak, so I can blog my pics, but it is nice not having so much JUNK on it! It is really sad when you depend on your computer so much. Its safe to say, "Computers...you can't live with em' and you can't live without em'!"

The @!*#$ Ice Storm

2009-01-31T10:14:00.000-08:00

To start this post off on a good note...thank you everyone for your prayers in our behalf. Thank you Storms for letting us crash at your place, and thank you electric workers for being out there in the freezing cold weather and restoring our power in only 2 and half days. Now for the not so good part...this week was CRAPPY! After the first snow storm that took place on Tuesday and school was cancelled, it went down hill in a very bad way. We went to bed with our tree all ready touching the ground (the first pic) knowing we were in for a bad night. Tree branches were breaking all around us all night. We woke up Wednesday to the sound of something pretty eerie. Our transformer to the many houses on our street went kerplunk! The ice storm that had occurred that night was breathtakingly amazing...but wow is it a fierce form of mother nature. Soon after the ice storm ceased, the snow started..AGAIN! It was approximately 20 degrees outside and we had no power. We called the Storms Family, and luckily they did. We hung out at their place during the day, and decided to brave our home that night. FREEZING!!!! We made the boys blanket huts to try to keep some warmth in their beds, but it didn't work so well. We made it thru the night, but when we woke up, I checked our thermostat to see how cold it was in our house...well it was so cold the register was buried to the lowest degree possible...50. It couldn't go any lower than that, or I know it would have. We went to the Storms immediately and stayed the whole day and night this time. Thanks again Storms, we would be ice cubes without you! Friday, it snowed again. The total accumulation of snow was approximately 10 inches with about 1 inch of freezing rain smack dab in the middle. We hung out with the Davis family for several hours on Friday afternoon to give the Storms a break from our craziness, then went home and turned on the generator. We were able to plug in our 2 space heaters and grandma's laptop so the kids could watch Wiggles. We still had to have our coats on tho, to stay reasonably warm. The pic above shows our little arrangement. We saw electric people driving around the neighborhood. We were hoping and praying that it wouldn't be super long before we had our power back, but the news had claimed it could be 7-10 days. How could we be so lucky to be one of the first people back on??? Well one hour later I saw a light come on in Laynees room and screams errupted. Living without power is something you never really get used to, but after these last few stints...well lets just say we are getting even more excited about leaving Kentucky. We celebrated getting our power back and Spencer finishing up his Jewish hearts month (which was a BEAST!) and went to Seth's favorite restaraunt...B Dubs.

Today, the kids had a ball in the snow knowing they could come in and get warm. They even made a snow cave.

The 1st Snow Day of the School Year...

2009-01-27T09:34:00.000-08:00

and the kids were very excited. It's always fun when we get a snow day, except for the fact that we have all ready missed so much school this year due to the wind storm that we had several months ago, that now we have to make up every day the kids miss. It is tacked on to the end of the school year. At this rate, they will be going to school into June. YUCK!

Drew sliding down Camerons hill on his new sled that he got for Christmas. I was very intuitive with this gift.

Even Jack got to have some fun in the snow.

Laynee wouldn't put on my snow pants because they made her look fat!?! So instead she choose this ensamble. Snazzy huh! (Blow the pic up to get the full affect!) When she was done, she was wishing she would have worn my pants. Moms always know whats best.

Seth loading up his dump truck with snow.

Our ZT Cheerleader

2009-01-24T12:43:00.000-08:00

Last year Laynee thought about trying out for cheerleader. When I told her she would be cheering in front of a crowd of people, she decided against it. She has never liked being up in front of people having to perform. She gets very nervous. I was also secretly, very happy about the decision. As the school year went on, she let her friends get to her and out of nowhere decided to try out. This can be nerving for a parent. What if they don't make it?? What if they do?? Well obviously she made it. She has had a fantastic time cheering. She was only nervous for the first game. I have to admit, I too was happy when she made it. She makes her momma proud. Way to go Laynee. Your my #1 cheerleader!

Morning Routine

2009-01-14T08:17:00.000-08:00

Every morning is purt near the same around here. We take Laynee and Drew to school, come home and I get some computer time, then the scene looks like this....

Jack and Seth in front of the T.V. with a coffee filter full of snacks, and I get five minutes of peace as I shower. So do I only take five minute showers...HECK NO! That is approximately how long I get before Jack Jack is flinging back the shower curtain and letting me know he is "all da" and he wants "mo". The kid is not small for a reason. When I don't retreat from the shower immediately he then has a hay day climbing up on the toilet and reorganizing my bathroom essentials. He has all ready eaten almost a whole tube of my coveted Natural Ice chapstick just this week! He is addicted to the stuff just as much as I am, only apparently not in the same way.` I should probably just get out of the shower sooner, but it is one of my most favorite times of the day. Especially in the cold weather. I love this stage of life.

Happy Birthday Spencer!

2009-01-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

Spence and his Birthday Cheese-CAKE

Missionary Madness

2009-01-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

The Missionaries were over last month and presented a lesson entitled "Putting on the Whole Armor of God." They went all out. They had made full body armor out of cardboard and aluminum foil, each in corresponding sizes for the kids. They had helmets, swords, and shields. The kids loved it! Thank you Elders DuPaix and Chappell for all your hard work!

2009-01-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I have finally given in to the blogging world. After about a year...I have finally caved. I hope it is worth the hassle. Here's to 2009!