Jared's 10th birthday

Jared's 10th birthday was this month.  He was so excited for his birthday!  I took Krispy Creme donuts to his class for birthday treats.  After I watched Jared pass out all the donuts he told me I had been there long enough and I could leave.  I guess when you are 10 it's not so cool to have your mom around anymore!  Yes, it makes me miss the days when he was little but he is also such a fun kid now that he's bigger!

Birthday Cheesecake!

Nothing more fun than new Lego's!

It had been a few years since Jared had a friend party so we spent the week planning a Harry Potter party.  Jason had to go out of town unexpectedly so that meant I got to handle 10 extra boys in the house on my own!  I spent all day making fun treats for the party.  When Jared came home he was so excited about the treats he said, "Mom, this is going to be the best Harry Potter birthday party ever!"  Well, I'm sure it wasn't but that just melted my heart.

His excitement faded a little when it started pouring rain.  He had a game of quidditch planned for outside and he did not want it rained out.  It was cold and soggy but it did let up enough they went outside and played anyway!  Hopefully I didn't upset too many parents sending their kids home cold and wet!  The kids were sorted into houses when they got here and earned house points for the games they played.  They ate dinner at the Three Broomsticks and bought their treats and party favors from Hogsmeade.  Potions was a big hit.  What better for a bunch of boys then dumping a bunch of ingredients together and watching it bubble and change color!

Here's a look at Jared at 10.

What he likes: Lego's, candy, ice cream, cheesecake, pasta, football, football and football, watching TV, Harry Potter, and playing with his baby brother.
What he doesn't like: getting up in the morning, practicing the piano, doing his chores, homework, and swimming lessons.  The best thing I did this year before school started is buy Jared a really loud and annoying alarm clock!  It works like a charm!  The other day he said the funniest thing to me. "Is Skyler waking up at night as annoying as my alarm clock going off?"  "Yup!"  It was like a light bulb went off in his head and he understood!  Then he said, "Only it's worse because you can't just turn it off!"
Things I love about Jared:  his smile, his sun-bleached hair and tan skin in the summer, his giggle, his personality is much more like me than the other kids (both good and bad traits I must say),  he is an awesome big brother (Skyler loves all his siblings but he can't help smile when Jared is around.  Jared is really good at giving him love but also being gentle!), he's smart and imaginative.

Family Pictures 2012

We needed a family picture done since we didn't have one with Skyler yet.  Fall has been so busy I had a really hard time finding a day that would work with our photographer.  We finally settled on Tuesday evening for this week.  Last week the leaves were beautiful in the valley and the weather was gorgeous!  Unfortunately that doesn't last too long in October.  Tuesday turned off cold and stormy and we got rained out.  And the weather only got worse as the week went on.  Thursday we woke up to four inches of snow and it continued to fall through the day!  The snow was melting quickly on Friday but it also took down most of the pretty colors with it.  As I drove around town all that was left on the trees were brown and dry.  So much for fall pictures I thought.  Our photographer managed to find a few trees that were still pretty and I was amazed how good they turned out!  The only problem is that it was cold!  Poor Skyler froze! He did pretty good but wasn't quite the smiley, happy guy he always is at home!

Andrew (13)

Jared (10)

Kaitlyn (6)

Skyler (4 months)

Why do family pictures always end up with the kids wrestling?

...and throwing leaves?

I think this says it all...I've had it..I'm cold...Let's go home!!!

Andrew's a Teenager!

Andrew turned 13 this month!  It's hard to believe he is that old!  Sometimes when I put Skyler in one of Andrew's old outfits it blows my mind to realize he has changed so quickly into a young man!  Andrew decided this year that he wanted to celebrate his birthday with his friend Tony, who turned 13 just a few days after Andrew.  I was somewhat relieved that I didn't have to plan a big party but I also felt a little sad that he wanted to do his own thing without me.  Tony's mom went along as a chaperone/driver but they didn't want me to come since that meant three siblings tagging along as well.  The weekend after their birthdays they had their big celebration.  They went to a movie and to dinner.  They were planning on swimming after that but the pool had to close because of lightening so they went to Tony's to play Lego's instead.  These boys can still spend hours building Lego's even if they are 13!

On Andrew's birthday after the kids got home from school Kaitlyn disappeared.  I couldn't figure out where she had gone.  I went to check her room and the door was closed with this sign on it.

She was secretly making cards and pictures for him and spent hours that afternoon in her bedroom.  Then she wrapped them up in her blanket and put them on top of his stack of presents!

We did have our own family party on his actual birthday.  Nothing fancy.  Just cake, ice cream and presents.  But really, what else does a 13 year old need?  Oh, his one request was that I make Calizones for dinner.  My family loves Calizones but I hate to make them since they take forever and make such a mess but the birthday boy got his wish!

I am so grateful for Andrew in our family!  There is never a dull moment with him around.  His Honors English teacher asked the parents to write a paper for her to get to know the kids in her class this year.  I figured this was a pretty good summary of what Andrew is like at this age.  Here is what I wrote about him.

Andrew is the oldest of four children in our family.  He has always had a lot of energy.   When he was a toddler I struggled with finding an appropriate outlet for all that energy in such a small body!  Now he loves to run, ride his bike, play soccer, and play basketball.  He enjoys running 5Ks and trying to beat his best time and is excited to be on the cross country team at Mt. Ogden this year.  He often rides his bike with his dad on long 20 mile marathon training runs.  He was just getting into mountain biking when he had an accident that resulted in several stitches in his leg.  I thought it might scare him into staying on the road but he still loves to take his bike on the trails.  When we moved to Utah three years ago he took up downhill skiing.  He was a natural and picked it up easily.  He’s also a bit of a daredevil and loves to race through the trees and go off jumps!   He’s never been a child to just sit quietly and watch TV or play video games.  He’s much happier when he is active.

                Andrew has an outgoing personality and has always been able to talk to anyone.  When he was a young child we would frequently go over “stranger danger” but no matter how many times I told him not to talk to strangers he still talked to everyone.  As he has gotten older I have found that to be a great character trait that he can relate and talk to anyone so easily, even adults.  Because of that, he has always had a lot of friends and gotten along well with others.

                Science has always been fascinating to Andrew.  When he was little he used to tell everyone he wanted to be a marine biologist when he grew up.  We would go to the library when he was a preschooler and instead of heading to the picture books he would go to the nonfiction section to check out something about science.  At twelve he doesn’t have any definite career plans but his favorite subject in school is still science even though he has excelled in all areas.  He loves to do scientific experiments with things around the house even though sometimes I’m not too thrilled with the mess that it ends in!

                Andrew has been working hard in boy scouts.  He’s not quite 13 yet and he is only one merit badge and his project away from becoming an Eagle Scout.  He loves the camping, hiking and fishing they have done as a scout troop.  He started playing the piano just over a year ago and has amazed not only us but also his piano teacher in how quickly he is advancing.  Although he doesn’t always like to practice he enjoys being able to sit down and play some of his favorite pieces that he has memorized.

                One of Andrew’s great qualities is helping other people.  Often at parent teacher conferences I have been told how he helps other students that are struggling without being asked.  He’s a huge help to me around the house.  When he was gone for a week at scout camp this summer I really didn’t know what to do when I couldn’t ask him to help me with various chores.  He’s been a great helper this year in our yard mowing the lawn every week to pay for his scout camp.  His baby brother was born in June and he adores him!  He wanted to hold him every second he could this summer.  He’s been a great big brother and the only thing he really doesn’t want to do is change diapers!

                Andrew is a hard worker and loves to learn.  He was excited to be accepted into the honors program at Mt. Ogden and has always made getting good grades a high priority.  I hope you enjoy having him in your class this year.

In September Andrew finished his cross country season at Mt Ogden.  Their last meet was the district meet.  Andrew placed 7th.  Both the boys and girls team won the meet.  The Mt. Ogden boys dominated so much that they took nine out of the top ten places. 

Celebrating a district championship with Coach Stoker and Coach Turley

The only mishap of the afternoon was right before Andrew finished.  Instead of coming straight to the finish line the course went past the finish line made a U turn around a tree and then to the finish.  The grass was wet so Andrew was trying to sprint to the finish and slipped.  He was amazingly fast jumping up though!

                     

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

No, it's not Christmas yet but fall is just as wonderful! I love the colors and the cooler temperatures! I've been dying to get up to Snowbasin for a trail run but with a new baby I'm lucky if I find 30 minutes to slip out the door for a run around the neighborhood. We did enjoy a Sunday afternoon drive and walk at the Green Pond trail yesterday. The red maple leaves are gorgeous right now!

Kaitlyn loved collecting leaves. Andrew and Jared thought it was great fun to run ahead on the trail and hide from us in the trees. Their bright orange shirts were actually pretty good camouflage with the leaves right now.

How exciting Wyoming...Isn't

We decided to end summer with a big bang and go somewhere exciting for Labor Day.  We spent all summer close to home since we had Skyler.  Jason's dad lives in Kemmerer, Wyoming and for a long time Jason has said we should drive up there and take the kids to Fossil Butte National Monument.  So Labor Day was the day

Before I go any farther, I better explain my title in case I've already offended any of my readers who might be from the great state of Wyoming.  Wyoming has some absolutely breathtakingly beautiful parts.  Jason has been dreaming of a back packing trip to the Wind Rivers for years and Yellowstone is one of my favorite places.  However, I have driven on I-80 across Wyoming too many times and it is just not a place I would choose to spend much time.  Having gotten that out of the way we did have high hopes of digging up some exciting fossils or something even though I knew we weren't headed to the beautiful mountains.

We stopped in Kemmerer to pick up Jason's dad.  It's one of those blink and you'll miss it towns.  The highlight to Kemmerer is the first JC Penney store.  I'm not sure how it got started way out there but it did.  We didn't stop to tour the building though.  We'll have to save that for our next trip.  It's dreadfully cold and snowy in the winter although summer is probably quite pleasant.  Then we headed over to the National Monument that is only a few minutes away.  The visitor's center was nice and had a lot of interesting fossils to look at.  The kids had fun doing their junior ranger books and earning their badges.  We were hoping to hike to the fossil quarry where you could actually watch them dig out fossils but that was closed.  So the fun was limited to what was at the visitors center.

After a picnic lunch that involved a lot of teasing Jared about spiders, we headed to Fort Bridger.  When we got there it was swarming with people and no where to park.  I really don't think that many people even live in southwestern Wyoming.  We finally found a place to park and walked over to the fort only to find everyone cleaning up from a weekend mountain man rendezvous that had been going on.  There were hundreds of vendors there which meant the kids were constantly asking me to buy them something.  Unfortunately we got there too late to see any of the presentations that had been going on over the weekend or it probably would have been quite interesting.  Instead there were people backing up vehicles and trailers everywhere and taking down tents and I was clinging to the kids hoping they wouldn't get run over.  The fort itself looked pretty cool but we just got there at a terrible time to see it.

So even though we enjoyed spending the day with Jason's dad, next time I'm looking for an exciting day trip I'll probably head somewhere other than Wyoming...

Giggles, Cross Country and Life

Aren't baby giggles just the cutest thing in the world?  I hope this puts a smile on your face!  It sure does for me but of course my opinion doesn't count since I'm his mom.

This little guy is growing up way too fast!  The fantastic news is that he mostly sleeps through the night.  His pacifier has turned into my snooze button so when he starts to stir at around 5 am I give it to him and usually get another hour of sleep.  It is amazing how much more productive I am with a full night's sleep!

Skyler at 3 months

Andrew has been super busy since he started Jr. High.  It was quite the adjustment at first to have him gone for nine hours every day.  He's on the cross country team at Mt. Ogden and had his first meet a couple weeks ago.  It seems so crazy to me that he's old enough to be on a school team now.  When I drove up to the park and saw all the cones set up for the course it gave me the same butterflies in my stomach I used to get when I was in high school going to cross country meets.

The course was almost two miles.  Andrew ran a terrific race on a hot afternoon and looked great!  He placed 6th.  Mt. Ogden has a terrific boys team this year and placed seven runners in the top ten!

Andrew received his Life rank advancement in scouts this month.  This is a great accomplishment to be so far in scouting before he even turns 13.  I used to think boys who got their Eagle really quickly were pushed too much by their parents but he deserves all the credit.  He's worked really hard in scouting and has such a great attitude about it.  He was awarded 11 merit badges at this court of honor and is only one merit badge and his project away from his Eagle!

Summer's Over

Summer flew by so fast and now it is starting to feel like fall.  Here are a few pictures I never got around to blogging from the summer and some even from the spring.

My brother, Spencer, came to visit during his vacation from work this summer.  He loves baseball so we braved our first baseball game with Skyler and went to the Ogden Raptors game.  The game got a  little long when the Raptors were getting blown out but we made it all the way to the 8th inning before the kids were exhausted and needed to go home.

Skyler's first baseball game!  Many more to come in the years ahead!!

My sister, Rebecca, and her daughter, Laura came for a few days from Ohio.  These two cousins are so cute together!  I wish they could see each other more often.  They had a great time playing together.  Laura is nine months older than Kaitlyn but they are the same height.  Here they are chilling at the pool.  For some reason it's the only picture I got of them together.

Jason's Aunt Jane passed away in August.  Here's a picture of Jason's mom and her siblings that are still living.

Nancy, Martha, John, Liz and Pat

They are so much fun together!  Even though it was for a funeral I always love to see them.  Jason had a great time seeing cousins he hadn't seen in years.  I hate that funerals always end up being the time to see everyone you never get to see.  I guess someone needs to plan a family reunion...

These are pictures from a trip we took to Moab in the spring with our friends the Howards and the Larsens. We had a great time even though the weather didn't cooperate.  I did as much hiking as possible when I was 8 months pregnant and I watched the little kids while the older kids and adults went mountain biking.  It was a fun weekend but I can't wait to get back there when I'm not huge and pregnant and can do what I want! (I must have been forgetful at that point in pregnancy too since I kept leaving the camera in the car.  That's why there are so few picture!)