Murder!

Hope that title didn't scare anyone! Eric and I went to Kasey and Brian's house for a "How to Host a Murder" dinner. It was really fun. All of my brothers and my sister were there. Tyler brought a girl named Lindsay. She was very nice and funny. We had a good time. Since I'm so much older than my siblings, I've never had a chance to date with them. It was really fun. My dad, of course, popped into to see how things were going! Thanks Brian and Kasey!

Here's a picture of us before we left the house. The kids were very nice to us and said we looked good. The time period was the 1920's. Eric was a smooth talking bootlegger and I was a lounge singing assassin!

Band Competition

AF Marching Band waiting for the awards at BOA western regionals

We went down to St. George last weekend to watch Sam's last band competition for 2010. It was really fun. The marching band got 1st place at the Red Rocks competition and 2nd place at the Band of American Western Regionals competion. They have such a great show. Eric and I always get a little teary when we watch it.

Most importantly Sam had a really good time.

We took Eric's Honda Civic down to St. George since there were only five of us. It made me appreciate the van! The boys were really good, but were rather sick of being crammed together in the back seat by the time we got home. Eight hours in a car in a 24 hour period is a long time not to have some personal space.

Fall is here. Yuck!

Yes, the leaves are beautiful and the temperatures are cooler, but it only means one thing...SNOW! Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Here are some cute family pictures to make the snow coming more bearable!

Life lesson: finish college before you have kids!

Here's a picture of Sam in her AF marching band uniform. People say she looks just like me, but I don't see it.

The title of this post says it all: I was stupid enough to not finish my bachelors degree so I am finishing it now when I have four kids, a workaholic (in a good way) husband, and a part time job. Granted I get to work mainly from home and I have a wonderful husband and fantastic kids and I'm only taking 2 classes, but still. I wish I could go back to my stupid 21 year old self and say, "Just finish now!" Oh well.

I do think it's good for my kids to see me studying. I haven't had to push them as much to get homework done after school instead of before bed.

The kids are liking school. Ryan seems to be adapting to 7th grade really well. Sam is loving being a big 9th grader. Ethan is making friends in a class full of "new to him" kids. Connor hasn't started school yet, but he and I are both excited for this Wednesday when he heads to his last year of preschool. Eric is adjusting to being the new head counselor at Hillcrest. He's doing the chains again for Hillcrest home games and having a good time. He is also going to be the boys basketball score keeper this year. That man is way too busy. He's still doing the jail on Thursday and Friday nights.

Here's hoping for a great 2010-2011 school year!

Summer is over (NOOOOOOO!)

It's the time of year I dread and love. Eric goes back to school, but so do the kids.

We've had a good summer though. We went to Montana to see Todd and Aimee's family which was as wonderful as always. We got to go to the carnival with the Murdock cousins.

Now if we could just get the snow to wait until November!

Duck Creek

We went on a family trip to Duck Creek near Bryce Canyon at the end of June. It was an easy going trip with hiking at Bryce, seeing Toy Story 3, and eating good food. My favorite part of the trip was when Connor kept calling the marmot that lived in the field by our cabin a Mormon!

We've also been busy with Sam's marching band stuff. She's suffered through a couple of parades and this weekend she'll march in the Steel Days parade. Go flutes!

Ryan and Ethan have been playing a lot of computer and Nintendo games. Ryan got to go to his first motocross event with his friend KC and an Orem Owl's game with Travus. Ethan is hanging out with McRae a lot this summer since McRae will be moving soon. We'll really miss that family!

Connor is in swimming lessons where he does his best to get nothing above his chin wet! He is enjoying himself. He says his teacher is pretty and nice.

Eric and I laid sod a few weeks ago to finish off the backyard. It's only taken us 12 years to finish the grass! We're going to be staining the deck sometime before Eric goes back to work (nooooo!). I LOVE SUMMER!

Summer is finally here!

It's hard to believe since it just snowed last week. We lost the tree branch that held up my clothes line. Very disappointed since there are no other tree limbs within reach. We are very grateful for the moisture. Every drop counts here in the desert.

The kids ended school with lots of activities. Sam got on the honor roll. Ryan won the Presidential Excellence in Academics award at his school. Ethan got all A's on his report card. Connor learned how to write his name. Ryan and Sam both had band concerts. Ryan and Ethan participated (grudgingly- as you can see in the above picture) in the dance festival at their school.

Sam and Ryan headed for youth conference today. Ryan comes home tonight since he's just a deacon, but Sam won't be home until Saturday. She was pretty excited. She and two other girls were in charge of some geo caching activities. She thought it would be pretty fun.

Eric has another week of school and then he is done (mostly) until the first week of August. There are going to be some furlough days at the Canyons district this year, but we'll just try to forget about the money we're not getting and enjoy our time together.

So glad for the sunshine. Got all my flowers into pots. Still need to hang a basket and stain the deck, but so glad for the sun!