General RS Meeting

This year my ward had the opportunity to go to the conference center to attend the General RS meeting of conference. It would have been really neat to have gone there to watch it, but when my RS pres called to confirm my ticket earlier in the week, I felt like I should tell her that I was not going. Because of Kielle's accident there is no way I would have left my family all afternoon to go up to SLC so hopefully someone else had the opportunity to take my tickets. I ended up recording it on our DVR and watching it with Aaron after the kids went to bed. I wonder if I'm a little bit odd, because most of my married life I have watched women's conference with my husband and I LOVE it! We sit and talk about what the speakers have shared. Last night I paused Pres Uchtdorf's talk for a half hour as we discussed something he said and then started it up again as we finished our thoughts. This is truly my favorite way to watch. I 'm not excited about "going out with the girls" or getting away from making dinner (not that I don't mind these things on other occasions.) But there is something I really love about watching it with him right next to me.

The Rip-Stik has been grounded!

At least that what Kielle has said and I agree. Yesterday, Kielle and Ada were coming home from their cousin's house and Kielle hit an uneven patch on the sidewalk. She hit head-first on the sidewalk and then proceeded to scrape up the rest of her body while she was at it. She sent Ada to hurry home and get me and by the time Ada got me Kielle had walked herself down to the end of our block. The accident happened about 3 1/2 blocks from our house. I was trying to assess what happened at first she had a huge goose egg with a cut on her temple, scrapes on her shoulder, arm, waist, & knee. At first I didn't think too much of it, we cleaned her up, I threw her in the tub to get all the dirt off her, but she seemed to get progressively worse. She felt like throwing up, she was trembling, she was really tired. So Aaron & I decided to take her to the after hours clinic which is just 2 blocks away. She ended up throwing up at the clinic ( right when they put a bowl under her chin!) and the P.A., without saying it, made me feel really horrible about her not having a helmet on. I used to be really vigilante about the whole helmet thing, but the kids would often leave them outside and they would get destroyed anyway and I have since given up. Maybe I'll have to be more vigilante again...

Any how, they sent us over to the ER to get a cat scan. I was really nervous for her. Luckily she had no swelling of the brain or internal bleeding. She has a mild concussion. She needs to take it easy for a week. She's not allowed to do anything that would potentially give her another concussion. So no rip-stik, bike, flag football with the boys at school, etc.

It was a rough night last night and kind of a rough day today too, but she's starting to seem like she's doing a little better tonight.

Seven Years Old!

Today Ryan turns 7. He still has these huge beautiful brown eyes. Later, I will post his "Almost 7" photos. Ryan is so thoughtful and a very good friend to those around him. He is very sensitive and I like that about him. He is such a sweethear! Happy Birthday Baby Butter!

Gas & Roses

Tessa is always quick on her feet. The other day she tooted and it smelled really bad.

Me: Ewwww.
Tessa: Why does it smell like ROSES everywhere?!

What a trip!

First Day of Kindergarten

My kids started school 3 weeks ago. I didn't take any photos of the first day of school for the older kids this year. Ada didn't even get to go to her first week of school because she had this bronchitis thing that 3 of her siblings had had over the summer. She got it in time for the first day of school. because she had exactly the same symptoms, I was able to tell the doctor what medication to give us and she was feeling better by the next week.

I did take pictures of Tessa since I will never have a kindergartner again. She was so excited to start school.

The sun was bright in her eyes!


There's my big girl off to school! Wow! Now we have 5 in Elementary Schoool--Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd,4th,& 5th!!!

We love Jensen

Isn't this kid adorable?! We loved having our cousin,Jensen, come and play at our house. Every day his mom had a gift to open that the kids could share. One day it was sidewalk chalks and they literally went through the entire box of chalk while Jensen was with us. All Jensen had to do was grab one of the kids and say "Come play me." and they couldn't resist his cuteness. I think they even had some sort of royal nickname for him although I can't remember it anymore.


We started a landscaping project while Jensen was here and he was not happy unless he could have his little hand shovel and help unload the mulch from the truck. By the way, Paul, thanks for letting us use the truck while you were in Europe! It gave us a deadline for the landscaping!

Jensen was such a delight! We were so happy to have him. The kids can't wait til they get to see him again.

Softball Season (Ode to Summer)

More summer catch up...

Ada & Kielle both played softball this year. It made for one crazy month of running the girls between 2 different fields and often having games overlap. But they had a lot of fun! This was Kielle's 2nd year and she and Ada were in different leagues. Ada was in coach pitch. Her best position was 3rd base. She was really good at getting the ball and getting girls out.








Kielle was on a really great team with great coaches. They made it all the way to the state tournament! For some odd reason I never got a photo of her playing. Aaron was coaching the girls' at tournament and he let the kids man the camera this is what we got...


Next year Aaron will be coaching both Ada and Kielle that should be nicer at least for the fact that we will only have to go to one field!

Caramel Dumplings, anyone?

Kielle & Ada's Activity Day leader just sent me an email saying she's one of 6 finalists in a cooking contest. Here's her email:

Dear Family and Friends,
I have some very exciting news and I need your help. I entered the the Utah's Own Downhome Cook-off on KUTVChannel 2 News. I was selected as one of the six contests that get to appear live on the 12 o'clock news with Chef Bryan Woolley to make my recipe. My appearance date is actually tomorrow September 2. I will be on the channel 2 news at noon, so if you are home and want to tune in.. . I am so excited, but nervous too! The part I need your help with is this: after I appear on the show my recipe will be posted on their website for 1 week. There will be two finalists chosen from the numberof hits your recipe receives within the one week period. So if all of you will go to www.kutv.com then click on FOOD, then just click on my recipe. It will say Utah's Own Downhome Cook Off: Caramel Dumplings. The two finalists go on to compete at the Utah State Fair for the grandprize. I would appreciate all of your support in helping me out with this. I would love to be one of the finalists. Wish me luck!

Thanks,
Shaun-ta'

Even if you don't know Shaun-ta' you should still go out and click on her recipe because then she might win and she is a pretty amazing lady. She always has such well prepared and thought out activity days for the girls'. We think she's pretty wonderful! Last week she had the girls make a shepherd's pie dinner and then take it over to a family who just had a baby!

Kielle said they made this recipe at Activity Days last year and it was realy good!

So go check out her recipe and help her make it to the state fair!

Pierced Ears!

When Ada was in Kindergarten a couple of her friends got their ears pierced and she wanted her ears pierced very badly. So Aaron and I talked about what the appropriate age for our daughters to have pierced ears is. In Aaron's family it used to be a tradition to pierce the girls ears when they were babies ( a Scandanavian tradition, he says.) The tradition ended when his great-grandmother's earrings were ripped out of her ears in grammar school. I got my ears pierced pierced when I was 14 (I think) My sister Juli has confused me on this issue because she says I got them pierced earlier than she did (age-wise) and that it was not fair. So maybe she could clarify the actual age. Anyhow Aaron & I discussed and decided that 8 would be a good age for her to get her ears pierced. She would be old enough to be responsible for taking care of her ears and keep track of earrings too.

She had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of her 8th bday so she could FINALLY get them pierced. She actually had to wait another 2 weeks past her birthday, because I was gone at girls' camp. But she was OK with that.

Here she is BEFORE (see no earrings.)

The gal who pierced her ears was really a trip. Lots of fun, although she did pierce Ada's first ear with the wrong earring. So she took it out and got the right one! That was kind of un-fun for Ada.
Here she is with her new earrings! Yeah! She's loving it.

Ada just hit her 6 week mark last Thursday where she can technically change her earrings out for other posts. She did the trade and found that it hurt pretty bad and is now willing (I think) to wait a little longer to switch her earrings again.

Now, I need to convince Kielle that she wants earrings...