Enjoying the fireplace

Saturday, December 5, 2015

To be like M&M!

Monday, November 30, 2015

M&M was sitting on the couch studying and MJ was sitting next to her copying down the things that M&M was writing! And Kay was sitting on the other side brushing M&M's hair! It was really cute!

Sounds of the Season 2015

Saturday, December 5, 2015

M&M was able to participate in the Sounds of the Season concert again this year with me. It is fun being able to share this experience with her as well as with my parents!

Small Business Saturday

Saturday, November 28, 2015

My brother-in-law was hired to paint a mural somewhere in Salt Lake for Small Business Saturday - which is sponsored by American Express and takes place on the Saturday following black Friday. He had an unveiling party Saturday morning which we went to the tail end of. There was a snowstorm the night before and it was bitter cold for the party!!

Thanksgiving 2015

Thursday, November 26, 2015

I don't have any pictures from Thanksgiving this year!! I think we went to my parents' house along with my sister and her family.

BYU football game

Saturday, November 21, 2015

We have never taken our kids to a BYU football game so when I heard a deal on the radio for some discounted tickets for their last home football game, I talked DH into us going with Luke and M&M. It was a fun experience - although it got a little cold towards the end of the game! They also won which made it nice - although it would have been more exciting if the game had been a little closer! We also enjoyed watching the marching band!

Hanging Christmas Lights

Saturday, November 14, 2015

We had a few weeks of some nice unseasonably warm weather just after Halloween so DH took advantage of it and hung our Christmas lights up early. He is getting much more comfortable climbing up on the roof - and it is definitely easier at this house than at our old one! A couple of the kids wanted to give it a try as well. Luke was a little terrified, but Kitty and M&M didn't mind it.

Trick-or-Treating 2015

Saturday, October 31, 2015

DH took the younger 4 girls trick-or-treating. Luke and M&M were still down in St. George for their marching band competitions. I made this baker's hat for Kitty.

 I also made the wings for MJ's costume - out of some wire coat hangers and black fabric and her antennae out of a head band and some pipe cleaners!

Fall color!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Another picture of my fall mums with some of our Halloween decorations!

New Trees

Monday, November 2, 2015

We decided to plant some trees on our parking strip in front of our house. I wanted some trees that would be some good shade trees with some color to them. These are a variety of maple tree called Sunset Norwegian Maple. They are supposed to have a beautiful fall color. They are little dinky things right now though!

Unfortunately when we dug into the ground to plant them, we ran into sprinkler pipes so we had to dig up quite a bit of the ground to figure out where the pipes were and then move some of them. It ended up being quite a bit of work and DH ended up having to take a day off of work to finish it all. We also ended up having some cool, windy weather for the project! And in the end we somehow ended up with more dirt than we could figure out where to put it!!

Painted pumpkin

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Kay's school class painted some pumpkins for an art project and then they were used at a local grocery store for some decorations. Kay was told that on Thursday she could go to the store and get the pumpkin and bring it home. She was excited to show it to all of us.

Winter Band Concerts

Tuesday, October 28, 2015

M&M and Luke both had their winter band concerts on the same night so DH and I had to split up.


I don't have any pictures of M&M's band for the concert - except for some blurry ones!

Pumpkin Carving 2015

Monday, October 27, 2015

Left to right: Kitty, MJ, Blondie, Luke and Kay





M&M was around this year but she had too much homework since it was the end of the quarter and she was leaving later in the week for the marching band trip to St. George.

Mt. Timpanogos Competition

Saturday, October 24, 2015

This was M&M's last local competition before the St. George trip and state competition. DH and I were both able to help at this one. This was DH's first and last time chaperoning for M&M's marching band - he usually stayed home to watch the younger kids while I chaperoned. Now that the kids are getting older though, we are able to leave them to watch each other which is nice!

This is one of the competitions that I have always chaperoned for. It is nice because it is fairly close and doesn't take up the whole day! Luke's band didn't compete at this competition because another band was doing the same show and they apparently had picked the show first so that excluded Luke's band from competing.

The lighting was horrible for trying to take pictures on the sidelines with my little point and shoot camera, so none of them turned out. This is one competition where they take a group picture afterwards. So here is my best attempt at the group shot:

M&M is on the back row - far right person

M&M as the band president got to stand in front of the band and call them to attention during the awards ceremony - since the drum majors were all on the field for the awards. If I remember correctly, M&M's band did not place at all at this competition. They ended up in 4th by just a fraction of a point...

Youth Halloween Dance

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Luke and a friend of his decided to go to the Multi-Stake Youth dance together. It was a Halloween dance so they were able to dress in costume if they wanted to. Luke and his friend are both really big Dr. Who fans so they each dressed up as one of the Doctor characters. I had a hard time finding a suit coat for Luke that fit the style he was going for and that fit him. I finally found this one at one of the local thrift stores and it wasn't too huge on him. He sewed a little pocket on the inside of the coat so that he could put a sonic screwdriver there. We also had a hard time finding the right bow tie. My dad had a couple that Luke took a look at and decided on a solid red one. Here he is with the completed look:

Ward Halloween Party

Friday, October 23, 2015

Our ward had a Halloween costume dance party this year. We started out with a chili dinner and then the cleared away the tables and chairs and played dancing music. The younger girls thought it was a lot of fun.

Garden

Wednesday, October 21, 2015
I tried planting some tomato plants and cucumbers this year. I think it wasn't quite the right place for the tomato plants because we only got a handful of tomatoes and the plants never got very big. The cucumbers struggled a little too but I did get a few cucumbers before the first frost hit.


Here is a picture of my red and yellow mums in full bloom:

Davis Cup Invitational

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

I went up to Kaysville to help with Luke's band for the Davis Cup Invitational. I met the band up there so that I could stay and watch M&M's performance later in the evening. Blondie went on a field trip for her orchestra class to shadow the marching band during the competition. They rode up on school buses and followed the band around and were able to go up into the stands to watch them perform. Afterwards they stayed and watched some of the other groups before they left. I was able to get permission to have Blondie stay with me instead of returning with the rest of the students. Unfortunately Blondie's nose started bleeding for some reason while we were in the stands and it just kept bleeding and bleeding... At one point I had to go back to our car to get a tissue box for her! Poor girl!

Luke's band got 2nd place and took the visual caption. M&M's band got 2nd place again too - which they were really excited about! They also took the percussion caption.

The props for Luke's band that we had to wheel around to the field and off again. They were very big and took several people to push/pull them. They looked really cool on the field.

Halloween cookies

Thursday, October 15, 2015

I typically don't make Halloween shaped cookies but DH had to throw together a last minute activity for the Deacons Quorum so he volunteered our house for the boys to come over and make and decorate cookies. It was funny seeing the 12-13 year old boys cooking and decorating! I had to borrow cookie cutters from my neighbor though because we didn't have any. After that I decided to keep an eye out for some at the store and I bought some that the girls then used to make some more cookies.

MJ- Science Project

October 14, 2015

MJ had to do a science project for her school class. She tried different objects around the house to see if they would float. I first had her predict whether each item would float or not and then she would test it and record her results. This is the poster that she drew for her project:

I love the rubber duck that she drew! (She wanted me to help her with it but I told her that she needed to do it on her own. I think she did a really good job!)

Wasatch Front Invitational

Saturday, October 3, 2015

This competition was held at Luke's high school. Both Luke's and M&M's bands were competing. I volunteered to help with Luke's band and DH brought the younger kids over to watch both of their bands. My parents came as well. After I was done helping Luke's band I was able to go up into the stands to watch M&M's band. Apparently we didn't take any pictures of Luke's band at this competition. DH was video taping it and I was on the sidelines helping out the band. Luke's band was one of the few groups that it actually rained on! It was cloudy before they performed and then it rained during the first part of their show and then afterwards the sun came out and it was nice weather after that!

M&M's band got 2nd place (out of 2 bands). It was nice for them to actually place but it will be nicer to see if they are still able to place when there are more bands!

M&M had to carry on one of the side props this year.

M&M is just to the left of the person with the baritone that you can see.

M&M with her baritone - front and center!

The skies looked awesome after the storm that went thru during Luke's band.

M&M is the front person in the line just to the left of the 50 yd line.

M&M is the left-most person in this block.