Life Is Good

A few weeks ago we went to visit Hill and Keith and the kids for the weekend. We had such a great time. We got there on Thursday night, so we were able to go have lunch with Sareny at school on Friday and then Jeff and I each read a story to Sareny's kindergarten class. I couldn't believe how well behaved the kids were. They listened so attentively! Sareny loved being "special" and getting to sit up in front with us. Isaac got kind of shy about it, but he loved it too.

This is the second time we have done this at her class, and it really is fun because it makes her so happy.

Of course Jeff and Keith went golfing after that, so we went to my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, also known as Hob Lob, and found cool stuff and lovely fabric. I bought some ribbon so we could make Finley and Sareny these adorable hair thingys. They are such sweet sisters.

Cute little Finney.

Sareny, with her cute little gap-tooth grin.

But then tragedy struck and Isaac got hurt. Here he is getting some lovin' and attention from Grammy after his mishap. He had to snuggle for quite awhile before he got over it.

Let me just say that it is virtually impossible to get a picture of these three where all of them have "eyes open, hair neat, expressions pleasant" so this one is a keeper even though Fin was wanting out of there.

Saturday we took the kids to the zoo and spent the whole day there seeing all the sights. The kids loved it. Sareny and Isaac rode their bikes around the zoo, which was really nice. It was amazing that Isaac, our resident couch potato, rode his the whole day!

Hill was trying to be the papparazzi and hid behind a tree to capture this famous couple..........

The above explanation about trying to capture happy smiles on everyone's faces (especially at the end of the day) applies here as well. Finley is fixated on some problem with her shoe and Isaac looks like he wants to cry. Contrary to how this appears, they had lots of fun!

Isaac would not ride his bike unless someone walked along and held on to his jacket. I think he was paranoid about going out of control on the slight hills. Funny kid.

The end of a fun, but long day at the zoo! What cute little kiddos.

Sunday we went to Church and had dinner, then headed home, even though Sareny begged us to stay. But then she remembered that Zander was coming over to play on Monday, so all was well! We had a fun trip and are already wondering when we can go again!

The Wall of Fame

On February 19th Jeff was inducted into the new "Basketball Wall of Fame" at MVHS, along with his good friend Gary "Batch" Batchelor. As the first to be inducted, they were honored with a plaque and a short life sketch during half time of the boys basketball game for their contributions to MVHS sports programs.

Jeff with Assistant Principal, Hal Mortensen, Athletic Director, Matt Messer, and Principal, Grant Hanevold.

Jeff has coached and taught at MVHS for 36 years, coaching boys basketball for 32 of those years, and he is still assisting with coaching football and boys and girls track. I know I am bragging a little, but I'm pretty proud of my hubby. He led the Pirate basketball team to six straight appearances in the state championship game, winning the title in 2003. He's been basketball coach of the year for the Southern AAA Conference seven times, and the Nevada Coach of the Year twice. He was the girls track coach when they won three state championships and two runners-up, and was named Coach of the Year five times. He was assistant boys track coach when they won seven consecutive state championships. He has been on the coaching staff of nine football state championships while being the defensive coordinator. Jake's senior year he was coached by his Dad in football, basketball and track! I don't know if he loved it, but I know Jeff did. He still loves teaching and coaching after all these years, and you can only imagine how sore my backside is from cheering him on from the bleachers for 36 years!

Jeff and Gary coached together for at least 21 years, give or take, and taught together even longer than that, and Jeff has nothing but respect for Batch. You couldn't have found two better men to honor.

Congratulations to my sweetheart of almost 37 years!

Weekend At Home

Since I didn't get to spend any time with my parents at Christmas time, I decided to go up to visit them the weekend of Martin Luther King Day. I got there Friday evening with all my plunder so Mom and I and Lexi could have a fun weekend together. I have been in a sewing mood lately, and am in love with aprons, so when Mom asked what we were going to do I suggested a sewing weekend. She was game (she's always lots of fun and up for most things) so Lexi came Saturday morning and we had the best weekend together. I brought fabric and notions and my sewing machine and we set up shop. Everyone picked out fabric for an apron and we got busy. Here's Mom ironing her completed apron. My Mom taught me to love sewing, as she has always been a fabulous seamstress, but she's 80 now so I had to help her along a little. But she did great, as you can see.

Lexi is just learning to sew, although she finished a darling quilt earlier in the year. She really wanted to do it herself, and I was proud of her. I didn't have to help much.

My Mom is the best cook, even still, and I'm sure she will put her apron to good use. She cooks my Dad a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and oatmeal every morning, come heck or high water!

Mom and Dad wanted us to try their favorite Mexican restaurant in Salina. I have to admit, it was pretty good! Dad turned his head right when I snapped the picture, and I think he did it on purpose. He said he was a little embarrassed that I took a picture! One thing I loved about the weekend is the softer side I saw of my Dad. He was kind of cute and kept bringing all of us little plates of goodies and a diet Coke every now and then as we were sewing. I was quite touched by his thoughtfulness!

Lexi and Mom modeling their new aprons. I didn't have mine made yet, so I took the picture.

Mom's brother had given her a dominoes set for Christmas and she wanted to learn how to play it, so we got quite involved playing Mexican Train. We kept changing the rules though, so I'm sure Mom was confused by the end. We had so much fun Lexi didn't want to leave Sunday night, but she finally had to so she could go to work Monday morning.

Here's a little display of our crafts we made. We made dish towels and little zippered pouches that are really cute as well as the aprons. The pouches have clear vinyl on the front so you can see what's in them, and are so handy to keep little stuff in, and very fun to make.

This was right before Lexi left to go home. We had fun finding her a nerd outfit for her FHE "Nerd Fest" and I wish we would have taken a picture of her outfit. It was the bomb. Mom had just the perfect denim, elastic waist pants that were too short for Lexi and showed her ankle socks off to a T. I later heard she was the hit of the Nerd Fest too!

We had the paper boy take this picture just as I was about to leave on Monday. I enjoyed the weekend so much. I love my parents more than I can say, and do love spending time with them. I wish I lived closer to them! Shortly after this picture, I left and Mom and Dad went to move some hay for the cows, and Mom suffered a serious injury when the pickup truck accidently started rolling back and ran over her right leg. We all consider it a miracle that she was not injured worse than she was. There were no broken bones, but much tissue damage, bruising and swelling. She has been laid up for three weeks now, but is slowly doing much better. We are so grateful that she is going to be okay. Life can change in a minute, which makes me want to spend time with all the ones I love as much as I can. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Lexi for a memorable weekend!

Christmas Part II

We made it back from Hawaii on the morning of December 29th just in time to meet Holli, John, and Rhys, who had arrived at our house the day before, after they had a hideously long drive across the dam. We hadn't seen them since last June, so it was great to see them again. Hillari, Keith, Sareny, Isaac, and Finley got here a little later in the day. We were so glad to see everyone, but we were all quite tired as well. Jeff, Lexi and I had just finished a very long red-eye flight from Hawaii; Holli and John had come from Georgia about the time we left for Hawaii and had been in Phoenix with John's family for over a week, and Hillari and Keith and the kids had just come from their more than a week long stay in Spokane with Keith's family, so everyone was a little wiped out. We had our second Christmas that night and opened our presents to and from each other, and for some strange reason I didn't take one picture of it! I'll blame it on being a zombie, I guess. Jake, Liz, Josh, and Charlie, came the next day, and the kids had all drawn names again this year, so they all opened those presents together. Some of the fun things we did while everyone was here were ride the Ranger, of course; feed the fish again, which is always fun for the kids; go to the park to play; play the game Mafia; and have a "lame" (according to Lexi) New Year's Eve party. In Lexi's defense, I guess it was kind of lame. Jake and Liz didn't even stay up until midnight! Here are some of our cute pictues:

Sareny and Lexi made these awesome puppets and did a puppet show for us.

It was pretty cute and funny.

We all want Rhys and Finney to be good friends, but for some reason they haven't hit it off. Rhys does like to hit Finney and pull her hair though. Maybe that's a sign that he really likes her, you know how boys are..................

Here's Isaac going down the slide at the park.

Joshie in the swing.

Cute little Charlie.

These two little cuties do get along sometimes!

The big kids playing pepper.

Love this picture of Sareny and Isaac.

I look a little scary here, but Charlie sure is cute.

I gave Rhys a bath in the sink, and couldn't get him to smile for anything. He's such a cutie even without a smile.

Holli and John were the last ones to leave, and we had a little s'more making night in the back yard.

We also met some of the relatives on Jeff's side of the family at Sizzler for dinner. Jeff's Mom and Frank, Mike and Laurie, Tiffany and Baden with their little boy Taden, and Tracy and Lynnette with Kelsie, Kollin, and Karston were all there. Here's John, Holli, Lexi, Tiff, and Baden.

Rhys and Taden had fun running around and annoying all the old people who seem to love Sizzler...............

A cute little picture I snapped of Rhys on their last day here. He is such a busy little boy, it was unusual to get a picture of him sitting still! We love our family so much and enjoy having them visit us. We all had a very Merry Christmas!!!

Mele Kalikimaka OR Christmas Part 1

Well as most of you know, Jeff, Lexi and I spent Christmas in Hawaii with Cassidy, James and little Truman this year. They were so nice to let us come and stay with them in their small apartment! We really had a great time. It was a little wierd. I mean, we went to the beach on Christmas Day! At home we never have snow or anything, but at least it's cold. It seemed strange to have it be so nice and warm. Here are some of our favorite pictures, in no particular order:


Cass, Lexi and James getting ready to hit the pinata.


The girls making the traditional Christmas Eve fare of Crook Cracks.

I just had to include this one of Lexi with the star of Ha, the show at the PCC, (also known as the Polynesian Cultural Center.) He was kind of sweaty and gross because it was after the show.

This was at the PCC also. Even though Truman looks a little bored, it was really lots of fun.

Lexi and I learning a game at the PCC.

Chinaman's Hat in the background.

We decided to try one of the many shrimp shacks around the island. Cass and James got brave and ordered the ones you have to peel. They weren't aware that they also came complete with heads, legs, and poop. They were nearly impossible to eat.

We were going to bury James, but decided to just bury his legs. It looks kind of freaky though!

Cass and James took us to a beach where there are lots of sea turtles and we were lucky to see this one on the beach. We also saw a few whales jumping out in the ocean.

Truman was so cute and happy. We drug him to the beach nearly every day, and he just took it all in stride. We had so much fun seeing him and getting to know him.

One of the first things we did was hike to the top of Diamond Head. It's a pretty steep hike too!

We were so thankful we got to be there for Truman's blessing day. Their Church building is very beautiful. It has a reflecting pool kind of like the one at the Temple, and a unique tile mosaic of Christ that you can see in the background. It was a lovely day, and James gave Truman a beautiful blessing.

More Blessing pictures.

This was the day we sent Lexi to the "singles" Sunday School class, thinking she might meet a cute guy. But after the class she told us no one in there was under age 50, and most were at least 80! Poor Lex.

Here we are at the Poly lookout. The scenery was all so gorgeous.

This was looking out from the Punchbowl.

A happy little beach bum baby.

I did say the pics were in random order...........this one should have been up by the other Diamond Head one.

The happy little family the night we left. It was so hard to say goodbye. The week flew by so quickly, and before we knew it it was time to come home. Can I just tell you how hard it is to have your daughter and her family so darn far away! Cass and James, thanks so much for showing us such a good time and letting us sleep in your bed! It was a very memorable time and we love you both. I hope we get to come again sometime. (Cass, I want to know if James cringed when he read that last line!)