Halloween

What a cute bunch of kids all dressed up for Halloween!

We decided this year to carve pumpkins in the garage. It was the best thing we have ever done! No mess in the house and very easy clean up.

Pumpkin Walk 2010

We got talked into heading up a scene at our cities Pumpkin Walk this year, so Jon has been busy painting pumpkins for the past few weeks. There were about seven other families that each had a part they had to do and then we all met and set it up this week. The theme for the Pumpkin Walk this year was "The Power of Animation". We chose (or was told by a good friend, who volunteered us for this!) that we would be doing Toy Story! Another set of families in our neighborhood did "A Bugs Life". It was a lot of work to get it to come together but to watch the kids and parents as they walk thru and get so excited about the scene is great. It was worth all the work. It is free to anyone who wants to walk thru and they have 1000's of people come for the five days it is open. Schools come clear from Ogden to see it. I was able to walk with Jack's kindergarten class thru it and he was so excited to tell all his friends what we did to help with it. The scenes were amazing this year.

Our family was in charge of the pig and slink the dog. Jon did a great job on them! He worked hard and as with anything he does they were perfect. He is such a perfectionist, I think he painted them a hundred times to get them to look just like the ones from the movie.

Each morning I have to go over and make sure all the pieces are still on and withstanding the winter weather we have been having. We also have music playing all day that I turn on. At night it is all lit up and amazing to see all the scenes.

Tennis 2010

Brianna & Heidi both made the high school girls tennis team this year. It has been a fun couple of months watching both of them play and improve. It was hard at times to choose who to watch, as they played at the same time at different courts, but we made it work. They both had a great year and did well. This was Briannas last year and she was able to place 1st in the Region for 2nd jv singles. We are proud of both of them and the hard work they put forth to improve their game.

Red Ribbon Run 2010

Mallory, Caleb and Jack wanted to do the Red Ribbon Run again this year so Jon and I signed up to do it with them. Jack and I did the 1 mile and the rest of them did the 3 mile. It was a fun activity to do with the kids on a Saturday morning. They all did great and finished the run.

Family Pictures!

It was that time of year again to try and get a family picture! Oh I hate this! It is so stressful for me to try and get everyone ready and looking at least halfway decent. It is getting a little easier as the kids get older. We had someone take our picture this time, instead of us setting up our own camera and running to get back in the picture. It was so nice! She did a great job and it was fast. We were only there for about 30 minutes and we were done.

Calebs 1st Scout Badge

Caleb is so excited to be in scouts and he was able to receive his 1st badge at pack meeting tonight. This scout thing is all new to us so we are still trying to figure it out!

Happy Birthday Jon

Jon was able to spend a few hours celebrating his birthday with his Dad who has the same birthday. We were on our way to the cabin on their birthdays so we stopped in Idaho Falls and had dinner and birthday cake with them. It was a nice evening and it made it special to be able to share it with Dad.

Happy Birthday!

LOTOJA 2010

It's that time of year again when after a very long spring and summer of training and spending hours on his bike Jon did LOTOJA. It is a very exciting day but also very tiring! You never know how your body or bike will hold up for the 206 miles that are required to finish. Jon started bright and early this year. He had put in lots of time doing races and rides all summer and was in great shape for the day. We saw him off at the start line and then headed home to pack the car. Jon didn't want to stop in Preston so the first time we saw him was in Montpelier.

Here he is coming in to the 2nd feed zone. He surprised us with how fast he made it. We weren't quite ready so it was a little crazy! He barely stopped to grab a few new water bottles and was off. He wanted to stay with the group he road in with so he didn't stop long, maybe at the most 30 seconds!

He crossed the finish line in 10 hours 9 minutes!

Here he is with a bunch of friends that he has trained with for the big day.

Craig Willis, Brian Broadbent, Mike Broadbent, Eric Hooley & Jon

All the kids went with me this year to support Jon. We had a great day yelling out the window and taking lots of pictures of him along the way. We are sure proud of him and the great accomplishment this is each year!

Powderpuff!

For homecoming week, Brianna was able to play some football. It is called powderpuff. This is where the girls are the football players and the boys are the cheerleaders. It is quite the sight! Brianna ended up with a few bruises but she had a blast doing it! It turned out to be a good game and her team won. Way to go Brianna!

First Day of School 2010

Here we are again taking the traditional pictures on the front steps before the kids head to school for the first day! We have had a great summer with lots of fun trips, family reunions and going to the lake.

Brianna is a Senior

Heidi is a Sophmore

Mallory is in middle school in 6th grade

Caleb is in 3rd grade

Jack is in kindergarten

We are lucky this year and the bus stops right in front of our driveway so the boys don't have to walk very far. They get to ride the same bus in the

morning together.

Here's Jack all excited and ready for the first day of kindergarten. It was a sad day for me but he is more than ready to go and it is so fun to watch them learn and grow each day.

The Ultimate Challenge

We spent the weekend in Park City so Jon could do a bike ride. He started in Park City and ended at Snowbird. It was 100 miles with 10,900 feet of climbing.

We did some shopping in Park City and then we got there to watch him do the last big climb and cheer him on.

Another bike ride finished safely!

Happy Birthday Brianna & Heidi

Brianna is 17 and Heidi is 15! Wow where has the time gone. We are so proud of each of them and the great young women they are. The are great examples to their sister and brothers. We are so blessed to have two beautiful teenagers! Happy birthday girls we love you!

We went to Pocatello for their birthdays to celebrate with their Aunt Becky and Uncle Jay who have the same birthday as them. We had a nice day visiting and watching the kids play. They got a cake with a tennis theme since Brianna and Heidi both made the high school girls tennis team.

Heidi got an Ipod touch

Brianna got a Kindle but has to wait for it to be shipped so she got a paper with a picture on it!