Ready, Aim, Fire....Explode

Scott and Charlie have an annual tradition of burning all the dead plants from the previous years garden each Spring. Today was the day. Last year we had a jungle of tomato plants, so there was a lot to burn. They have looked forward to burning stuff and acting like "real men." (See the picture.) Upon clearing the garden, they found a lone yellow squash hiding under all the tomato plants. Scott told Charlie to throw it in the fire and we would have cooked squash for dinner. Well.....it didn't quite happen like that. Two hours later, there was quite an explosion. We literally have squash seeds stuck all over our back yard. They also covered Scott. Hmm...very manly. :)

Janet Turns Twelve!

Janet had a great birthday party on Saturday. Just imagine a bunch of twelve year olds watching and singing Enchanted. (Very loudly!) Can you say Advil? Actually, we had a lot of fun. Janet is excited to be a Beehive and go to Young Women's. She is a great kid! Love you Janet!

Christmas Traditions

Painting Christmas cookies is one of our family's favorite Christmas traditions.


Anne made a Buddy the Elf and Christmas Ninja

This year we had our fourth annual Neighborhood Nativity. It was a huge success! We had more people then ever show and up. We all had a great time!

Smiling Kids (Big Happenings!)

Elizabeth got her drivers license last week. Look out world! She is excited to have her freedom. Mom and Dad are excited to let her drive herself to her many activities. (Check out those COOL wheels!)


Elizabeth was one of eight students that qualified for the AMA's math contest "Who Wants to be a Mathematician." At the competition she took 2nd place. The whole Empire High School Math Club showed up to cheer for her. She truly is a MATH DEMON.


Charlie has discovered electricity. After learning about circuits in school, he told us he wanted to build one. Scott gave him a little direction and the materials. Before we knew it Charlie was in the backyard building a circuit. After some trial and error, he got it to work!

Halloween Costumes

Anne offered to sew Isabelle a dalmation costume this year. She did a great job! Janet made her own costume! Anne made one for herself. Mom sewed Charlie's Voldemort costume.

That left Elizabeth....She wanted to be Giselle from Enchanted. But I wasn't really sure I was up to that much sewing. So I put her off for quite a while. Finally a week before Halloween everyone had a costume but her, and the "Mom guilt" set in. So off we went to the fabric store. Each day I worked on the costume a little knowing that the night of October 30th I would probably have a lot of work to do. Well that was an underestimation on my part. Thursday night I got the kids to bed and really dug in. I thought I would probably be done between midnight and 1:00 AM. Well, at 6:30 in the morning when Elizabeth was supposed to leave for Seminary I was STILL sewing. I didn't finish until 7:30 when we took a few quick pictures and sent her off to school. I was exhausted.

Was it worth it? Absolutely! The smile on Elizabeth's face made every stitch worth all the time and effort. Some times you just have to sacrifice a little time and sleep as a Mom. It was a morning I will always remember.

One last thing. This was Charlie's program from October 30th. His part was so adorable. The video was taken from behind the piano, where I was, but is still so cute. Right after he said his part they sang "Do You Love Me"!

A Mother/Daughter Trip to Mesa

Anne and I took a trip to Mesa yesterday. We had so much fun. Unfortunately I forgot my camera! We went to the Mesa Temple, where Annie and I got to do temple work for an ancestor, Christina Levingston. Then we met Cynthia at Joe's BBQ for a great lunch. Lastly, we went and saw Annie's favorite teacher at her old elementary school, Mrs. Montgomery. It was such a great day. I just love having daughters that are my best friends!