Harry Potter 7

(This is Katrina talking)
Yes, I saw Harry Potter on the opening night. IT WAS AWESOME!! My brothers and I were out playing in the terrible snowstorm and I made this cool design on the fence...









This is the sign that was created from the wand,the resurrection stone and the invisibility cloak that the Peverell family made after they died. If you have seen the movie or read the book then you probably know what this sign is. If you don't know what this sign is then I really suggest you see the movie or read the book.

It's official...I am the mother of a teenager!

Katrina turned 13 last week. Where has the time gone?! She is such a wonderful daughter. She is smart and beautiful. She is a great sister to her two brothers and a good example for them. We are so blessed to have her as a part of our family!

Halloween

The boys were Harry Potter-ish wizards. Here they are casting the "Expelliarmas" curse.

Katrina went with her friends to her first Jr. High Halloween dance. Look at these pretty princesses.

Jim and I were costume idea stealers! Thanks Allison, we were a big hit at our neighborhood party, especially because In-N-Out opened here 2 weeks ago.

Jim and I chilled on the porch with hot chocolate and our fire bowl. We had so much fun while the kids ran around trick-or-treating in the rain.

Happy Halloween!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Wind Cave

We took the kids up Logan Canyon last week and hiked to Wind Cave. Here is a brief description of the hike: "Millennia of wind and water erosion have created a delicate triple arch and natural cave in the limestone outcropping at the end of this 1.9-mile trail. Also known as Witch’s Castle, the location of this interesting formation provides a clear view of the China Wall, a limestone rock formation, as it winds through most of the canyon’s midsection. This is a steep trail". I should have paid a little more attention to the last sentence in this description when I read it. Had I known before we started how steep and treacherous this hike is from the bottom of the canyon to the top, I would never have suggested it!
It was beautiful though. The fall colors were amazing and the cooler fall weather was perfect for this hike. Jim and the kids loved it, I however, have sworn never to hike up there again. My knees and hips are still in agony 9 days later!!

Back to School

Christopher is in the 6th grade and Caleb is in the 4th grade.

Katrina started Jr. High and is in the 7th grade.

Girls Camp

A couple of weeks ago I went to my first year at girls camp. The theme this year for the stake was testimony. The theme for our ward was BOOT CAMP. BOOT stands for "Build on our testimonys." We got to print our names on dog tags and everyday we would get a little item to put on our necklaces.
We did lots of activities some of them were making those tool flowers, charms for our necklaces, making testimony blocks (we would write our testimonies on them and we would make a testimony wall with all of them). We played lots of games, we went tubing (my favorite) on the Ogden river, we also went canoing on a little lake and we played a huge game of Life with our stake. The wards had their own teams and we tried to kill Goliath with slingshots and water balloons. We also played bowling (the pins were bad things in life and we tried to knock them down) and made boats as if being Noah. On the first night my friends and I stayed up probably until 2:00 in the morning. The rest of the nights we stayed up till 12:00 pm and woke up at 7:00 am. We had delicious meals and loved helping making them. We had lots of smore's and TONS of candy. It was so much fun being around all my new friends and old.
My first year at Girls Camp and it was a BLAST!!!

The view on our 5 mile hike.

Yea that is a 3 inch cockroach. It was in one of the tents and the worst part was it was on someones leg. It flew in the tent and then flew out.

One of my leaders french braided everyones hair. I loved having my hair our of my face.

All of my friends.

Me on the last day of girls camp.

Caleb's Cabbage

Caleb started a cabbage plant last spring at school. We finally harvested his HUGE cabbage head. So far we've used it for fish tacos, egg rolls, and Coleslaw and still have some left!

Navajo Lake

Sunrise...

Sunset...

The kids and I just got back from spending four glorious days at Navajo Lake with my Mom and Dad and Aunt Carolyn. It was heaven! No commitments and no worries. We ate when we were hungry and slept when we were tired. We usually had no idea what time it was and didn't care. We fished a lot and caught a little.

We crawled down into Mammoth Cave and had a pinecone fight with Grandpa.
The kids climbed up the lava flows. We went rock traveling down the creek and had a lot of fun until Grandma fell in. ("Are you okay?" snicker, snicker, LOL)
So gross! Katrina has this fascination with fish eyes.

We boated on the lake and laughed until we about wet our pants thanks to Aunt Carolyn.


My Mom, the mighty fisherwoman!! And current fishing champion! To the right of where she is wading is "her rock". She has fished from that same rock for I don't know how many years.

We finished up our trip by going to the 24th of July Pioneer Day parade in Panguitch, Utah where my pioneer ancestors settled. It was SO fun! The parade goes down the street and around the corner and then doubles back. It was like no parade I've ever seen, but I tell you what, the kids came home with a grocery sack full of candy, band-aids (from the fire dept.), and frisbees.


There was even a Veater Family tractor pulled float. That's right, in Panguitch, we're celebrities!! (Pop. 1,520 in 2008)

It was such a fun and relaxing trip. I am so glad we were able to go. Mike, Shell, and Eric, it was the Navajo of our childhood. It was perfect!

California Vacation Summer of 2010

Our trip to Southern California was long and fun. We had great dreams of laying on sunny beaches for a good portion of our ten day trip, but that was not to be. I guess the "June gloom" decided to linger into July this year but we still managed to get some sun at the tail end of our trip.


We spent one day of our trip at Disneyland. We participated in their "Give a day, Get a day" program by making jewelry for foster kids. It was so fun. The last time we went to Disneyland, we found out the hard way that Caleb is afraid of heights. It was miserable. This trip totally made up for the last one. The kids went on all of the big rides and LOVED them!




It was fun to eat at all of our favorite places (BJ's, Rosa Maria's, Thrifty's) and it was a lot of fun spending the 4th of July weekend with Jim's family swimming, BBQ-ing, and watching fireworks. We loved spending time with most of my family while we were down there too. We had so much fun together going to Disneyland and the beach, playing games, going to see Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me and of course eating Rosie's. We all went to Matt and Wendy's wedding reception and it was so much fun to see old friends and neighbors.

Go Red Sox!

Caleb is playing Little League for the first time this year. What is it about a little boy in a baseball uniform that is so adorable??

My Brilliant Idea, if I do say so myself...

So this year for Spring Break we were home, ALL WEEK. It was turning out to be an eternally long week of bickering and whining until I came up with my brilliant idea. A two day project of making paper mache pinatas. (I can't figure out how to add the accents to those words, but you get the idea.)
First we started out tearing LOTS of newspaper into strips. (I may have had them tear a lot more than we could possibly need just to lengthen the time.)

Then we added LOTS of layers of goopy newspaper strips, again, lots of layers were required. :)

We let them dry overnight and then started painting.

Here are the finished products.

A very fun, very lengthy activity.

WHAT IS THAT???

Can you guess?





It's Trina on the tramp!