Yo, This is Travis and i just turned 13. well, you know what that means, i am now a teenager. for my birthday, i got a huge, circle chair, a rug for my room, a lamp, some bike stuff, a really cool sweater, and aroun $150!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A lot of my friends came over for a sleepover party that started at 5 and went till 10 in the morning. at around 12:30 at night, we went tping at the Heston's and Pederson's houses. we got caught at the pedersons house by the stupid neighbor who threatened to call the cops and release the hounds wich were really 1 little 15 pound mini-me dog. we made up for it by getting the Heston's house sooooooo bad that they asked us to come help them clean it up. This is the best party that i have ever had and i am planning on making the next one even better.

Library Field Trip

Today I had a new experience, for the first time in 9 years of having a kid in school, I chaperoned on a field trip. Sandra's class went to the Brentwood Public Library. I was supposed to drive students there, and help supervise. It turns out that they had more than enough parent drivers, and I only had to take Sandra. She was excited to get to go with only me in the car. She decided that a field trip to a place you have been to many times before is not very much fun. She did get to check out some books. I guess this is one more advantage the younger kids in a family get. It's much easier to help them when there aren't littler ones you have to find care for.

Bags

Last month for Enrichment night we were going to make tote bags out of placemats. The samples were really cute, I thought it would be really fun to do. I got a little too carried away when I went to the store to buy a placemat and had to buy several. I finally got them all made. They are very easy and fun to do.
Originally I thought I would make them and fill them up with something as a Christmas present for the girls. Unfortunately I didn't want to have to work on them in secret, so they have seen them. Now I don't know what to do. They don't actually like the ones I had intended for them, (they all want the yellow and brown ones, which I wanted for myself, even though I have no use for them) and they really don't need any more bags. (Purses and bags are one of the things I am always secretly trying to get rid of whenever I help them clean their rooms. They have shelves of them) I thought about saving them till Christmas and hoping we get some girl cousins in the gift exchange, but I know the girls would really like to have them. Until I decide what to do, they are just sitting in my living room being a bit annoying. I bet within a couple of days the girls will just start taking them over, my guess is Cammie will be the first to start using one for her treasures she collects.

Fletcher's Clothes

When we adopted Fletcher, we were told that he had a little bit of separation anxiety. In his old house whenever he was left alone, he would go gather a pillow and a doll and put them in the living room while he was home alone. The first time we left him home alone, we shut all the doors to the bedrooms and left. When we came home we discovered that he had raided the laundry room and brought lots of dirty laundry upstairs and scattered it around the house. Now he likes to take his clothes and pile them up around and on his bed to cuddle with. Occasionally he will even growl if someone tries to take clothes away. This is the pile that he had accumulated yesterday and this morning while I was showering.

Fletcher's Begging Talent

Just now, as I was leaning against the couch, Fletcher went into the pantry and began to whine. I thought he might have wanted a treat, but they were all gone. Then I figured, maybe the pantry still smells like his treats. That was to be proven wrong. When I went in, he just kept on whining, and smelling the shelves. I kept asking him what he wanted, and he put his front paws on a shelf, and started smelling a higher shelf. I took things off the shelf that he might want, to see if he would come after that. Finally I tried the beef jerky, not quite sure that that was what he wanted, but he took one and ate it.
Only about a minute later, he was whining in the pantry again. This made me pretty sure that it was not the beef jerky that he wanted. So again I asked him what he wanted, but he just kept nosing different stuff. And he kept whining........................................................................................... Finally, he put his front paws on a shelf and got up higher. Yep, it was the beef jerky he wanted. I could tell by the way he was nudging it enought to get it onto it's side a little bit.

I got them down, and took them to my mom who was sitting at her desk, and informed her that I was able to confirm that it was the beef jerky that Fletcher wanted. She just said "Well, he''s already had one today", but I supported Fletcher and his whining with a convincing, "C'mon". Mine and Fletchers arguement won, she took out a pice, tore off a third and asked, "What tricks can you do boy? What tricks are you going to do?" He got past this by sitting and shaking without being told. This continued till the stick was gone, and then my mom put them away in the pantry.

Fletcher hasn't been whining since that.

Kyle

Today in Relief Society we had a lesson on marriage. During the lesson a comment was made about how many of the role models in society are not actually good role models when it comes to marriage, that they tend to prefer living in sin to marriage and sometimes are vocally negative about marriage. One of the sisters took offence at this comment, I think she just didn't hear the whole comment and how it was meant, and left the class. This got me wondering about a couple of things.

1)Are my husband and I being good role models for our children for what a good marriage should be and that marriage is worth it?

2)How easily do I take offence in my marriage, or life, when it probably isn't meant? Am I being overly sensitive or letting the stresses of my day affect the way I hear Andrew, the kids, or others make comments and put tons of negative meaning into them when it isn't intended?

Here we are on our wedding day back in 1992My grandparents on their 55th wedding anniversary, May 23rd 1992, after our family went through the temple with me for the first time, to prepare for my own upcoming marriage.

My grandparents about the time they got married. They were married for over 68 years when my grandpa passed away in 2005. When I was little I used to think that they didn't really love each other very much because they used to bicker alot. One day I saw them kiss and be a little bit affectionate with each other and I was shocked. When I was a teenager and around them more I came to realize that a lot of their fighting was actually playful and they were happy together. Sometimes I wonder what my own kids think about the relationship Andrew and I have, are we making it a positive thing in our home?

These are my grandpa's parents on their wedding day in 1908. I don't know how long they were married, but thought it would be neat to add them. I do know that they were married for life.

Another comment made in class today sort of said that widows are the happiest people, not because their husbands are gone, but because they no longer have the influence of Satan trying to break them apart and helping them to blow things out of proportion or be extra irritated by the little things, and that they really didn't matter all that much, so they only remember the good stuff. (This is my take on what was said). This is a good thing to try to remember when we are taking offence at what others say or do, does it really matter in the whole scheme of things, will it help in any way to be upset over it, it it really worth the effort or energy to be bothered. Wouldn't we better of to just let things go and believe the best.

Cammie went to her first big girl birthday party today. It was at the new super exciting Chuck E. Cheese. The party was for a boy named Alex in her pre-school class.

Cammie was a bit overwhelmed by everything at first, but after a bit she relaxed and had tons of fun finding new things to do.

She had fun playing with some of her new pre-school friends.

Getting those all important tickets. We actually ran out of time to use up all her tokens, so we will be going back tomorrow morning to finish up and cash in those tickets. What a lucky girl. I probably never would have done that for my other kids, I just would have made them quickly use everything up in the next two minutes, then given them about 30 seconds to pick prizes with me nagging them to hurry up, guess it does pay off to be the baby.

Friday after the wedding we went up some canyon to camp overnight and then spend Saturday playing in the very shallow river and attempting to tube down it. There was a lot of "bottoming" out on these tubes.

Sandra found a bunch of rocks in a hill and was determined to dig them all out. She did pretty good, there was just one large one she didn't manage to get, probably because she decided to spend alot of time in the water and playing with her cousins.

Cammie did not like tubing. She was worried that the tube would pop and she might be dumped in the ankle deep water. She says next year she will like it better. She really enjoyed just playing around in the water on her own.

Andrew decided that he would be a "REAL MAN" and do the river without a tube. It was quite entertaining for all who watched. I'm not sure if he did ever manage to float above all the rocks.

Here is Andrew's better than Disneyland tube ride. There was actually a current in the water that helped them all go round and round.


Sunday night everyone came to Andrew's parents for dinner. All the kids decided to dress up silly and put on a little play.

Jonothan the drag queen hopeful.

I missed the actual play as I had gone in to start getting us all packed up to head home on Monday. It was a good trip, if only we could somehow not have to spend the 13 hours each way in the car.

I really enjoyed my new camera I bought before we left. I dropped my old one a few weeks ago and it no longer wants to work. I just didn't want to go on a trip without one, so I had to buy a new one. Andrew was refusing to use it because it is pink. I must say that after handing it around to people at the wedding to get pictures of us, I was glad for its distinctive color. I could always find it right away amidst the handfuls of silver and black cameras.

Wedding

Last week we decided to make the wonderfully fun trip to Bountiful to see Andrew's little brother Nathan get married. The trip there wasn't so bad.

We pretty much try to keep the kids plugged in the whole time. Kyle spent most of the trip trying not to throw up. This time he actually made it all the way to Nevada before his first barf bag use. He blames Nevada for his car sickness whenver we head to Utah.

Friday was the big day. We all wondered whether or not Nate would really go through with it. Especially since no one had seen him that morning. Much to our surprise he was at the temple and he did say yes. Now we have a new addition to our family. Welcome Monica.

The kids decided that weddings are boring. They just had to wait for everyone to come out of the temple. It was a very hot day. There was tons of waiting, waiting for their parents to come out, waiting for the new couple to come out, waiting while hundreds or maybe thousands of pictures were taken, waiting for the new couple to show up at the restaurant when everyone was starving. Lots and lots of waiting.

It did give them some time to spend with their cousins they haven't seen for a long time

They had fun helping to decorate the get away vehicle.

This is my favorite family picture from the wedding. Even though the kids are all goofy, it just looks like Andrew loves me soooo much.

These are just a few more family pictures, with Andrew's family. This is all his siblings and spouses except for one sister Juli who couldn't come from Wisconsin because she is due to have a baby anyday.

This one includes all the nieces and nephews that decided to skip school to come.

Here are Nate and Monica after they opened the afghan I made for their wedding present. I finished this in the car on the way there. I think I was a little close on getting this one done. Here is the finished project. I like the way it turned out.