Oh Boy, I've Got Joy!!

This year I joined a mother's co-op with Logan called "Joy School". It's kind of like preschool but it's values based learning. We talk about honesty, sharing, the earth, obedience, trust, etc. There are 6 boys in the group with TWO sets of twins. So there are 4 moms total and we teach 2 times a week alternating weeks. Logan has REALLY enjoyed spending time with the 5 other boys and he likes going to Joy School. On the other hand, I'm not real crazy about when it's my time to teach. It takes a special person with LOTS of patience. 6 3-year old boys for 2 1/2 hours can be pretty hectic. They are good for the most part but it can be kind of stressful. You can learn more at: http://valuesparenting.com

Tonight we had our Joy School Christmas party. The boys put on a little re-enactment of the nativity. Then they sang a few Christmas songs. It was cute. Logan was an inn keeper and then one of the three kings. The boys performed their program last week at an assisted living facility for the residents. One of the little boy's big sister played Mary for us. And one of the mom's helped out by being the angel. Here are a few pictures from our evening: Logan telling Joseph & Mary, "No Room" The whole group. The Three Kings. (Luke, Logan, & Mark)

Sledding

Our first significant snowfall provided us with awesome sledding conditions today. This was Emily's first time sledding and she LOVED it. She would sit on the sled at the top of the hill and say, "One, GO!" This year we picked up a couple of smaller single rider sleds which gave Kaya and Logan the opportunity to haul their own sleds up the hill and ride to their hearts content. It was a lot of fun!Emily ready to ride! There's only one way to get up the hill. Emily would laugh out loud the whole way down. Kaya Logan

Fish Kisses

What's Happening??

Here are a few pictures of what's been going on with our family:

Our first snow of the season. Isn't it beautiful? It didn't last long but it was sure a pretty sight. The kids and I (Mostly ME) made homemade applesauce. We borrowed this fantastic contraption from our friends and bottled I don't even know how many jars of homemade sauce. It is SOOOOOO Yummy!! (And Healthy too!) The annual carving of the pumpkins and a fun family photo. Here is a picture of the kids ready to go trick or treating. Logan was pirate, Kaya was a black cat, and Emily was a Viking's Cheerleader. This picture was taken on Kaya's second day of having H1N1 (Swine Flu). The poor girl was totally wiped out for day 1 and started feeling better on day 2. (Halloween). For the next 5 days she would be fine ALL day and then get a fever every night. She couldn't go back to school until the fever was gone. Luckily no one else in the house got sick with what she had. However, Emily did get sick with something else on the day Kaya went back to school. She woke up late one night with a really high fever, rapid heartbeat, and shallow breathing. I ended up taking her into the ER since Kaya had just gotten over the swine flu. It turns out she had some other virus that only lasted for about 2 days. Thank goodness!

Emily is now 15 months old. She doesn't walk...she RUNS. She climbs, sings, talks, picks on Logan, and is such a sweet girl. She's getting in 4 molars right now and boy has she been grumpy. But the sweetness surely outweighs the grumps. She knows more than 2 dozen words and surprises us with new ones every day. On a sad note, Aaron's grandfather passed away on November 12th. It is always difficult to lose a loved one, but we are happy that he has been relieved of his earthly body and the pains associated with it. Grandpa James Stanford will be dearly missed. Here is a picture of Aaron's grandparents on their 60th wedding anniversary. We recently decided we wanted to upgrade our minivan to something bigger with more power for towing. We don't do car payments so we decided to sell both our vehicles in order to get what we wanted. Aaron's truck sold in 24 hours. WOW!! We ended up trading in the minivan to the dealership where we bought our new family ride. It's a 2003 Chevrolet Express 3500 Van. It's a 12 passenger van but we'll take out the very last row for extra storage when camping and on long trips. We got a GREAT deal and best of all...paid CASH. Aaron has a company vehicle which made this possible too. We'll save our money now so that Aaron can buy a 4 wheel drive "beater" vehicle to take exploring and geocaching.

A Random Update

Here are a few random pictures of the kids:

September in Review

This month we celebrated MY birthday!! For my birthday I received tickets to see Jimmy Wayne, Dierks Bentley, and Brad Paisely in concert. Aaron & I attend the concert this past weekend and were pleasantly surprised to find out we had EXCELLENT seats. The concert was held in an outdoor amphitheater and it was a packed house. Brad Paisley put on a good concert and it was a lot of fun!

I finished making the cross stitch birth announcement for Emily.
(I have made a different one for each of the kids.) I finished just in time to enter it into the Utah State Fair. I didn't win anything this time but we had a good time taking the kids to the fair. Having a fair entry was good motivation to get it done.
This month has been a busy month for canning fruits. I received peaches and pears from neighbors and worked hard to get them preserved. I still have more pears waiting to ripen. We also picked up some fruit from the local farmers market. This year I made a peach/raspberry jam and it turned out so YUMMY!Now that I canned all these jars - I needed a place to put them. We have a "cold storage" room in our basement. It's basically a small concrete room poured under our front porch with concrete walls. It's designed specifically for food storage keeping food dark and cool. I built a shelving unit that is 6 feet long by 18 inches deep. I was pleased with the results and am happy to have a place to place our emergency food storage.
Aaron was a good sport and took the kids to George Eccles Dinosaur Park one Saturday while I was canning. They had a good time exploring and enjoyed their day out with Dad.
Emily is almost 14 months old now and is cuter than ever! She knows a couple dozen words, a few signs, and can follow simple directions. She has 4 teeth and is so much fun! The silly girl loves to eat the cherry tomatoes out of the garden and loves being outside. Her hair is long enough to do some cute pigtails:

Camping Fun

Mom & Emily

Kaya, Logan, Cassie, & Candace

This past weekend we went camping as a family with some friends and other fellow geocachers. We headed out to Potter's Pond in the Manti-Lasal National Forest. The kids really enjoy camping, playing in the dirt, exploring nature, and eating marshmallows. We had a fun time exploring the area and doing some geocaching. We had originally planned to stay for 2 nights and ended up coming home late the 2nd day. We weren't as prepared for the cold weather at night as we should have been and we knew there was a chance of rain in the forecast. We chose not to freeze another night and take the chance of getting wet. We lucked out and made a good decision to come home, since it DID rain, and it rained hard. We have a good tent, but lots of rain takes the fun out of camping. Logan even got to reel in a fish from the fishing pond. We happened to be walking by when a gentleman was in the process of reeling in the fish he just caught. He offered to let Logan take over. He was pretty stoked and enjoyed his first fishing experience. He wouldn't hold the fish for the camera though. He touched it and thought it was too slimy! Maybe next time... Aaron, Logan, & Kaya going on a raft ride to find the "Treasure Island" geocache on the island in the middle of one of the ponds.

Happy Birthday Logan!!!

Today is Logan's 3rd Birthday! Where has the time gone? Logan is 110% all boy - even if he is willing to play dress up with his sisters. He has good aim when throwing a ball and he loves to ride his bike and scooter. He can turn anything into a gun, sword, or any kind of weapon. His FAVORITE movie is Night at the Museum. He often pretends to be Larry Daley, wanting to dress like a security guard, carry keys on his belt, and he even pretends to carry around a manual. He has quite the imagination! For Logan's birthday this year he got a 2 wheel bike with training wheels. He can just barely reach the pedals but he manages and can ride the bike pretty well. He is very proud of himself! Logan wanted to go swimming for his birthday so we went to the community pool as a family and went swimming in the afternoon. We convinced Logan that Chili's would be a good place for dinner. (He wanted to go anywhere with a playground!) After dinner we came home, opened presents, and sang Happy Birthday. Logan is a good boy and is very polite. He can also be VERY stubborn and independent, but aren't all 3 year olds???
Happy Birthday Buddy!!!

Happy First Birthday Emily!!!

Today we celebrate Emily's first birthday. Emily enjoyed having Happy Birthday sung to her first thing this morning and by bedtime she could say something that sounded like Happy Birthday. I took Emily to get her pictures taken and then we went to the Salt Lake County Fair as a family. After the fair we went out to dinner and then headed home for cake and presents. It didn't take Emily long to realize that the piece of cake was all hers and it tasted GOOD! Emily kept saying, "Mmmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmm". Emily didn't quite understand taking the wrapping paper off the gifts but she was sure excited to see a new baby doll in the first box. She is giving the baby "loves" in the picture. The next present had Elmo in it and she was just as excited to see her favorite red furry friend. She LOVES Elmo!! She was in heaven with her new toys and enjoyed the extra attention. Emily has been such a good baby. She is so sweet and full of smiles. Emily still doesn't have any teeth yet. She has 4 trying to poke through as we speak. It should only be a matter of days now. Emily is a full fledged walker too. No more crawling for this gal. She loves to follow around Kaya & Logan and especially likes to torment her brother by pushing the buttons on the TV when he's trying to watch something. She knows it gets a rise out of him and enjoys doing it. :) Emily says about a dozen words and understands a few signs. We hope she had a happy birthday!

Kaya's First Day of Kindergarten

Today is Kaya's first official day of kindergarten. She was SO excited to go this morning and couldn't wait to get there. Kaya met her teacher last week and had a one on one assessment. Yesterday the class had an unofficial day to learn where the bathrooms are, where to get dropped off, picked up, etc. We are so excited for the new adventure. Kaya is such a smart girl and LOVES being with her friends and going to school. I hope she always loves school and learning!

Camping 2009

We had the opportunity this summer to take a vacation with Aaron's family. We went camping for 4 nights in Yellowstone National Park and 2 night in Grand Teton National Park. We had a fun time exploring the National Parks and seeing all the sites. We saw TONS of wildlife and enjoyed spending time together. Here are a few of the pictures from our trip: The first family picture of the vacation as we entered the park. Aaron & Emily cruising around the campsite. Kaya showing us how good her s'more tastes! Logan enjoying a s'mores.
Our kids were so dirty by the end of each day but they enjoyed every minute of it! We visited Old Faithful.
(Don't mind the kids and their ice creams. It was HOT outside!) Our family at Mammoth Hot Springs.
Aaron and his sister Wendy posing for a Geocaching picture.
We did lots of caching on our vacation.
The whole family at the Continental Divide.
Kaya and Logan at Yellowstone Lake.
We did A LOT of walking/hiking to see the sites.
Family Photo at Inspiration Point in Yellowstone.
Our second camping stop was near Jackson Lake. What a beautiful view! The kids enjoyed playing in the rocks and swimming in the awfully cold water.
Emily LOVED being outside and in the dirt. She had so much fun being able to cruise around and explore. Nick, Wendy, Aaron, Steve, & Ryan went on a whitewater rafting tripThe family in front of the Grand Teton National Park sign.
The sunset on our way home from camping. What a beautiful ending to a fun vacation.