Update

Here's a few pictures of the kids from the summer. I haven't downloaded the pics that we've taken lately. Life has been a little busy over here. I started checking some blogs today for the the first time in a while and it looks like a lot is going on in all of your lives too.

Makenna is in 4th grade. That sounds crazy that she is already that old. I still remember my 4th grade very well. She's in the cake decorating club on Fridays and loves it. I'm coaching her soccer team again this year but it has really been a challenge. We switched leagues this year and decided to try the league who's boundaries we live in and it has been quite different and frustrating. Still Kenna's team has been doing very well. She is a skilled player. Makenna also takes piano lessons and is excited to be able to play I am a Child of God, Jingle Bells, and Star Wars. I teach an art class on Tuesdays for kids her age that she attends as well. Most of the students are home schooled. It's been a lot of fun and makes me still keep a little bit of art in my life and review the basics.

Jarom is in 2nd grade and is doing very well. He's in the science club on Fridays and brings home all kinds of wierd stuff they created or experimented with. Boyd is coaching his soccer team. Jarom starting taking piano this year. Ever since he learned to do flips on our friend's trampoline he keeps asking us when he can take gymnastics.

Saryn is finally happy to be old enough to have her own extra curricular activities. She started ballet class this fall and loves it. I'm impressed with her teacher who actually knows all the terminology and how to teach ballet. Aubree wishes she could go too and when she sees Saryn getting dressed for class she runs and has to put on a "ballerina" costume too. Saryn also is Preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We went to the pumpkin patch last week. The girls got to pick out their pumpkin, find their way through a hay bail maze, pet a bunch of horses, cows, goats, sheep, go on a hay ride and enjoy a snack there. It was quite the place and lots of fun!

Aubree is almost 2! She talks a TON! She has quite the vocabulary for her age, no doubt thanks to her older siblings. She also has a one track mind. Last night, after seeing Jarom's hurt toe and the bandaid he received, she instantly insisted that her toe was hurt too and needed a bandaid. Long story short; she wanted the bandaid, then didn't want the bandaid, tantrum persued, tears, time for bed! The next morning at 6am, we hear her wake up and yell, "MOM! BANDAID!" She can open doors, help herself to nearly anything and want to do everything the older kids do.

Boyd and I have been super busy keeping up with everything. This last weekend we were able to have my brother Brad and his wife watch the kids for 3 days while we traveled with our youth group to Salt Lake City for General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. It was blast and amazingly enough we were able to get all 48 of our youth into the Conference center for at least one session of conference. It was an awesome experience for them since most of them had never been to Salt Lake before. We spent Friday touring the Humanitarian Center, Welfare Square, The Church Art History Museum, and Temple Square. We had rented two homes down there, one for the boys, one for the girls. On Saturday we caught a special showing of the movie Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and then stayed in that theatre and got to watch the first session of conference there. Everything worked out great but I don't think we slept for 3 days straight! I loved conference, the talks were amazing and so inspiring. There are so many good ones that I want to reread. I truly believe that they are inspired words that come from a loving Heavenly Father that help us guide our lives and find success and happiness in our challenges and every day life. I believe with all my heart that this church is true and lead by the Savior, Jesus Christ, who truly lives and guides a prophet today, President Monson. Because of the Holy Ghost who has testified through the most noticeable feelings of warmth, love, peace, and assurance, countless times to my heart and mind, I couldn't ever deny it.

recipes and kid doings

My two littlest girls have some great stories that I'd like to remember. Some of you have heard them already, some haven't. But I want to write them down somewhere. Saryn likes to climb our wooden, splinter infested fence. She always has a festering slinter or more but usually has a major violent tantrum if we try to work them out with tweezers. So after another fence climbing incident and feet full of splinters I put her in the bath tub to try and soften up the skin before I attempted to dig them out. While I let her soak I worked on the computer in the office next to the bathroom. After awhile it registered what the "squirting" noise was and I raced into the bathroom to find the bathtub filled with slimy suds and bubbles galore! Saryn had emptied 3 bottles of shampoo, body wash and conditioner into the water! Argh! It wasn't too long after ward that I noticed a pair of scissors sliding ever so quietly back onto to the counter where I was looking at coupons. I knew in an instant Saryn was up to something again. I don't know how many inches she cut off but it was a significant amount which moved her from the "long hair" category to the definate "short hair" category....and with bangs! She actually got the length of the bangs just right and with all the compliments she's gotten with how cute it turned out, I don't think she learned the lesson that you shouldn't cut your own hair, especially with out asking mom! I just hope she doesn't try her hand on Aubree's hair next. Not too long after that as I was running out the door to the garage I couldn't help but notice a small lake of water, half in the bathroom and half right outside the door. Maybe it was only an inch deep but it seemed like 5 inches deep to me. As I opened the bathroom door I found all 8 of my hand towels and the rug soaking up what they could with a plastic grocery bag full of water in the sink. What in the world??? After questioning all the suspects the truth was finally revealed; Saryn thought the best way to transport water to where ever she was going was to fill up a grocery bag and carry it to her destination. "But mom the bag kept leaking so I had to keep filling it up and carry it again." The next incident involved water and the upstairs bathroom. We had my brother Brad and his wife Lindley over for Sunday dinner. As we were cleaning up, Aubree (20 mo.) came running up to me and said, "mom, I soakin' wet!" And she really was soaking wet. Then we heard the water. Makenna was the first up the stairs and in her words she said, "Mom! It's a waterfall!" Aubree had plugged the sink and had the water going full blast. It was pouring over the counter onto the bathroom floor, soaking the vanity and everything in the cupboards underneath and starting on the carpet in the hallway. We kept the fans blowing on the affected areas all night. At Target yesterday Aubree saw a baby and yelled, "Mom! BABY!" and then like she does when ever she sees a dog or a cat she started to make the sound it makes,"Waaa Waa!" The baby's mom heard her and said, "Yep, that's what the baby says." Aubree makes us laugh every day. She is so cute and says and does the funniest things that we don't expect someone that small to even think of. I've never had a kid this young pretend so well. Aubree frequently, every day!, pretends she is a cat or a dog. She'll scratch up our arms and meow and try to cuddle like a kitten or pant like a dog and bark and try to lick us. So funny!

Now for the recipes. What to do with all those tomatoes from those gardens?
This is a spaghetti sauce recipe that I've been making for the past 3 years and we think it's pretty yummy. I use it for spaghetti, lasagna, and even pizza sauce. I think I play with the spices every time and add a little more of this and that and probably through in some others too so it turns out a little different every time but here is the basic recipe:

Spaghetti Sauce:
3 onions chopped
12 cup peeled chopped tomatoes
2 T sugar (sometimes I add this, sometimes I don't)
1 T sweet basil (I use regular basil)
3 tsp oregano
2 T salt
2-3 tsp black pepper
1 tsp. garlic salt
3 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste (when I make huge batches of this I use the big Costco cans of tomato paste

Combine and cook for 2 hours. Put into pints (I do quarts) and add 1 tsp lemon juice to each pint (2 tsp for quarts). Process 35 min. in a boiling water bath or 40 min. for quarts, or 15 minutes at 13 lbs pressure. A triple batch usually makes around 11 quarts for me.

Yummy Pork Roast:
This is another of my favorite recipes. I canned apricot jam for the first time this year. I didn't know how easy it was! You don't have to peel apricots!!
This is for a pot roast in a slow cooker. I put my slow cooker on high and for the sauce I mix one package onion soup mix and 12 oz. apricot jam/syrup with 1/4 c. water. Pour sauce over pot roast in slow cooker and cook on high for 6-8 hours (my pot roast is usually frozen). Break apart pieces and let them all soak up the flavor. I often add a little ground rosemary in the sauce too! I love the taste of rosemary.

Fun times and inpiring talk

AAAAHHHHH!!! Life has flown by. Sorry for not posting pics again, I'll get to it one of these days! We had to get a new camera and with that we got us a 4 G card so we never run out of room and consequently never HAVE to download the pics. Life in a nutshell for the past couple weeks: Last weekend we spent up in McCall. Boyd's boss has a timeshare up there that worked out perfectly for us. The kids and I spent most of Saturday swimming, hiking, huckleberry picking, and enjoying the Disney channel while Boyd had his field day to get his hunting liscence. Boyd's new hobby is bow hunting. It was tons of fun and actually a very relaxing mini vacation. Last night we just got back from Utah. We attended a Ricks family reunion up at a campground in North Ogden. Little bit of rain, but the family relays, marshmallow catapult contests, soccer matches, and good visits outweighed it and we had lots of fun catching up with family. We stayed one night with my brother Tyler in SLC and toured a little of Temple Square and watched the movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. School starts this Wednesday! Back to life!

My friend just emailed me this amazing speech given by Sheri Dew at the World Congress of Families in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Aug. 10, 2009. You MUST read it. I felt like doing cartwheels I felt so inspired by it. I believe every word of it with all my heart!! I only wish more people did and fought for it too!
Read it HERE!

The President has my respect, but not my vote!

This has been a whilwind of a summer to say the least! We've done tons and have had lots of fun but can't seem to keep up with everything and blogging is one of them. But when I recieved this email I HAD to make time to post it. I loved it! I haven't been too outspoken in the past when it comes to politics but things are definately changing in the land we love! Here it is plain and simple:

"This Professor is a Genius

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

--------------------------------------------

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK,
we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that."

We're in our first week of 3 weeks of swim lessons. It's great, we all have a class at the same time, even Aubree and me in a Mommy and Me class. We love the water and still dream of the life we once lived on the beach. In my bathroom downstairs I posted the same quote found in the beach house we rented in Florida during grad school. "If you're lucky enough to live on the beach, you're lucky enough!"

Have a great day!

Okay! So somehow, according to my blog life has not progressed past the middle of May. Yes, we are still here, it's just that life got super busy and hasn't really let up. But today I am pausing to take a break and fill you in (hopefully as briefly and quickly as possible)on all that has taken place since then. Of course it's all better with pic's so here it goes: Saryn graduated from her first year of preschool. It was a co-op preschool where 6 moms got together with kids the same age and rotated weeks teaching the kids preschool in our own homes. Saryn loved it and is looking forward to it again in the fall.


Next we took off towards Rexburg for Memorial Day weekend and stopped by Shoshone Falls on the way there. It was pretty but man was I worried I was going to lose a kid through those rails!

Up in Rexburg we stayed at a cabin with my family and went fishing and visited Yellowstone Park. On Memorial Day we visited Boyd's Dad's grave.









All the Young Women leaders that I work with and I hiked up to "Tablerock" in Boise to plan out our "Return to Virtue" hike. Soon afterward my camera of 8 years died so I don't have pictures of when we later did this hike with the YW but it was a great experience and a lot of fun. I've missed hiking!

Makenna had her first piano recital!
We had a ward campout at Givens Hot Springs. Luckily we were swimming in the indoor hot springs pool while it rained the hardest and for the rest of the time the weather was pretty good. This is a picture of Saryn at the campout with her new haircut. The first time she tried cutting her hair herself it wasn't a big deal, she cut some off both the side giving it a "feathered" look, nothing drastic so I didn't fix it or anything. This second time she was more daring and chopped bangs and the rest of her hair to the length you see here. I was not happy at first but after I cleaned it up and evened it out it looked pretty cute afterall.

Jarom's birthday was the Saturday of the ward campout. After we got home we went miniture golfing at Wahooz and had my brother Brad and his wife Lindley over for a BBQ and cake and ice cream afterward.





That next Monday I took off for girls camp for 3 days and then a mini-moon with Boyd. When we returned we went to Roaring Springs water park with the kids and attended our niece's baptism. Then it was back up to Rexburg for the 4th of July. Boyd stayed for the weekend but then returned to work while I stayed another week with the kids. Our most exciting news yet is the addition of a 2nd CAR to our family!!!! WAHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We are ssoooooooooo excited. It has been 2 1/2 years of surviving (very creatively) with only one car. It can be done but it's not all that easy! I'll have to post more pics later, I'm out of time!

Yesterday we left the house at 7:30am and returned at 6pm. We spent the day at the park at the Nampa Kid's Cup. Jarom and Makenna each had two games to play so we packed a lunch and lots of snacks and spent the day playing at the park, jumping on the blow up toys, and touring the booths in between games. Makenna's team had a tough day of games. We were undefeated until last week. They matched up all the teams of the same playing ability for this tournament and we met our match a couple of times. We tied the first game. Makenna played hard and really saved us. She was all over the field and scored us two goals. By the second game we played 2 hours later our team was still tired and the heat didn't help either. The team we played against is a very well coached team that has been playing together for 5 years now. We've wanted to beat this team all season. Kenna's team certainly has the skills and talents to do so but this other team hadn't even played yet that day and were fresh and ready to play hard which resulted in a 2-0 loss for us. Oh well! I was so proud of Kenna's team though, they played hard and gave it their all and it was a lot of fun to coach them. Makenna finished another strong season.

Jarom had a great day of games. Jarom scored three goals his first game and he kicked one shot so hard it blew through the net in the goal after zooming through a web of 5 players that were in front of him! Man I wish I had it on video. We were worried how Jarom would play for his second game because he was tired and not feeling so well by then. But he played his little heart out and was all over the field again. His team won both their games and even defeated a team that was undefeated. Afterward we went to Primos for a Pizza party and trophies for his team. Boyd has had a lot of fun coaching his team and did an awesome job.

We all came back a little sunburned a worn out, happy to have played, but ready for a summer break from soccer.


This is our engagement picture taken nearly 11 years ago. Boyd and I continued to celebrate our 10 year anniversary this week. Tuesday was the official day, May 12, 1999, so we went out to lunch at the local airport cafe. A bunch of Boyd's patients have been talking about it for awhile now so we wanted to try it out for our self. Small town place but with the BEST food! We've been recommending it to everyone! And they have very reasonable prices from $4 to $6.50 which includes tax and for a LOT of food!

On Friday for date night we got to put some gift certificates from another of Boyd's patients (he has the nicest patients!) to use at Tacono's Brazilian Grill. What a fun place! It's an all you can eat buffet and they just walk around with skewers of 13 different types of meat, pineapple, and veggies. They come to your table and they cut it off for you. It was so YUMMY! The pineapple and the fish were my favorite!

I just finished an art project that I posted on my art blog. I've enjoyed working in watercolor lately but I'm planning on starting a new piece and moving back to oil. We'll see how it goes. I'll write more later.