Christmas 2008 photos

All the kids eagerly awaiting the parents getting up so they could open presents.

Trav pretending to crash, to demonstrate the cuddly effects of his new robe.

Misc. pictures of happy kids getting what they wanted.

My new play toy. A 17" notebook, that is all mine, and no one else's.

Oh, what do you do with the packing stuff?

You know how you want to avoid long lines and crowds at Christmas, so you order lots of presents on-line, so you can really get those special and perfect gifts for the ones you love. And along with your great carefully selected gifts, comes a LOT of packing stuff and tons of boxes. I know you are probably faced with the same dilemma that I have, what do you do with it all. If you dump it in your reclying bin, it will be full and there is no room for all your household reclyables, the same with the garbage.

Well, we came up with a solution.

Grandma, I hope the boxes we shipped arrive soon, and I REALLY hope you like your presents.

1 Rule

When we got Fletcher I had 1 rule that was not to be broken. I just found out that I am alone in this idea of no dog on the furniture. He secretly sleeps on my bed when I am not in the room, and apparently, is encouraged by the one other person I thought would be all for this rule.

Obligatory Twilight Post

With it being the day of the much anticipated movie finally opening, I have not yet decided if I am going to go see it. Sadly, the trailers have not made it look super-appealing to me and I am worried that it will be a big disappointment. I found this very entertaining recap of the movie. http://movies.msn.com/movies/galleryfeature/lost-twilight-script/?photoidx=1 (be sure to click through all 10 scenes) It actually had me LOL. However it may have ruined the movie even more.

Monthly Recap

For fall break, we made the trek to Utah, to spend a week up at Snowbird, so I could attend a yoga class I need for my certification. While there:

We visisted the quarry where rocks were taken from to build the Salt Lake Temple,

The kids had a lot of fun climbing on all the big rocks.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens,

Mindy is going to fight for a spot on the Ark.
Choose your grave size.
Hungry fish.
A worn out family, wishing they could jump into the water behind them.

Kyle went down with Grandpa to finish up his horsemanship merit badge.


Cecret Lake (ok, I didn't do this one, but the kids had a great time)

Again, climbing on rocks was a theme

We participated in two craft activities. The girls all colored t-shirts, and we did string art. This was so much fun that we did more at home.

On the last day of our trip, we had a shower for Christopher and Cassie. I failed to get any pictures of them, so this is stolen from Christine's blog. Thanks Christine, and I know the difficulty you had with that one person blocking you. Where are the pics from the wedding?

And finally Halloween. We had the worst weather we have ever had here, this year. It was cold and rainy. Within a few minutes of fixing the girls hair, it was flat again. Mindy wanted just a very pretty dress, and decided she was a prom girl, Sandra wanted to be Arwen from Lord of the Rings, and Cammie was Tinkerbell. Kyle wore pieces from his costume last year, because he couldn't find anything he really wanted to be, and Travis wore his graduation gown, and went out with a friend, just to get gobs of candy.

When they are all in the water they look a lot alike. I have to go by goggle color or swimming suit to tell the difference.

The big news is that Cammie officially became a swimmer at the end of the swim season this year. She competed in two meets. The first one was kind of scary, I had a horrid mommy moment and was worried that my kid might drown in front of my eyes, as she took over one and a half minutes to make it across the pool, and about 30 seconds were spent in one spot bobbing up and down. The second meet went much better and she took over 30 seconds off her time. Now if she would only learn to keep her head tucked, she would have a smokin' hot dive, instead of a belly flop.

We had our end of the season awards ceremony. Mindy received a special trophy for her work ethic. This is for always being on time, helping out, and doing her best in practices. Kyle wouldn't pose with his awards for me.

Cammie and Mindy both received Student of the Month Awards, (along with several others). Cammie's was for the kindergarten life-skill of the month: Alertness. Apparently, she is very attentive in class, and always ready to what she is supposed to do. Mindy finally got an award she was happy to get (it only took 6 years). Hers was for her writing skill. (In past years she has been honored to get the "off to a good start" or her most favorite "smarty" award, why do teachers think that would be cute or something the kid would be proud to have?)

(Travis is #8)

Travis decided to go out for water polo this year. Peer pressure can be a good thing sometimes. His high school has a huge JV team, so unfortunately, he doesn't get a lot of play time. But he does get a lot of practice time. This is a very good thing. I have decided that watching water polo games isn't too bad. They are fairly short, and the action is pretty fast. And, as a bonus, he gets to take his aggression out on the other team, with elbow jabs, fists to the face, and the all popular, kicking your opponent repeatedly as you swim to the ball.

Once again, I have Kyle pictures on my camera.

An interesting scratch from the dog.

What his eyeball looks like close up.

Travis is 14!!!

On September 21, 1994, our first child, Travis Wesley was born.

We were living in Seattle, Andrew was still in grad school, and I was working to support our family.

He is our favorite oldest boy.

I had to return to work a few months after he was born. Andrew was able to stay home with him most of the time. One day I had some film developed, and these pictures appeared. It turned out, that Travis's routine, was to start out in the high chair, sit there for a while eating, then napping, then he went to the bathtub, for as long as he wanted to stay in. Then it all started again, back to the high chair, nap time, and bathtub. Sometimes, he added in the Johnny Jump. This was in the doorway of our apartment, right next to the computer, where Andrew would be doing his schoolwork.

Travis has always been a really cute kid, with a great smile, and adorable curly blond hair.

Over Christmas break, when Travis was 8 we noticed that something just did not seem right with him. On January 3rd, I finally took him to the doctor. The doctor told us to go home, pack a bag and get to Children's Hospital, where we would be staying for a few days to a week. It turned out that Travis had developed Type 1 Diabetes. Fortunately,we caught it before he became too sick, unfortunately it is something that he will have to live with for the rest of his life. This is probably the biggest trial that he has had.

On Sunday, Travis turned 14. He was very excited about the presents he received. And his two little cakes, although he did wonder why he had opted to have the candles spread out between the two, since it made it harder to blow them all out, though he did prevail, and got them all on his first try. In Church, he received his Duty To God Award, and advanced in the Priesthood, to become a Teacher. Now he has to start getting to church even earlier to help prepare the Sacrament, instead of just trying to be there early enough to get one of the spots to pass.