A Sunday Treat

Catch up

2010-04-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!! I video taped coloring Easter eggs but didn't get any pictures with my camera. It's hard to balance both camera and video camera. But here are the boys on Easter morning with their Easter baskets.

March's theme for cub scout pack meeting was "Take Flight". We took the easy way out and toured the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg. It's a pretty cool museum with small airplanes, old and new that all work. There are even some from World War II. The boys seemed to enjoy it. Here are Ethan and Jacob in front of one of the planes. I think it was a bomber.

My grandmother Bartholomew passed away in March. She will be greatly missed. We went to visit her a little over a week before she died and it was a wonderful visit. She was able to sit up and talk to us for about an hour. I got a couple pictures of her talking to the kids. She had all of the great grandkids (mine, Rose's and my cousin Sharlyn's) come up to her and tell her their names and how old they were. Darren got better pictures but I don't have those. Then she had my aunt Kathy make us all ice cream cones. That's just like my grandma.

My grandparents headstone at the burial.

Ami, me, Rose, MaryAnn, and my cousins Lisa and Casey at the viewing.

And last but not least -- Biggest Loser. The weekend of the funeral it was my mom's turn to clean my Grandpa Christiansen's house. I went and helped. After we were done, we all went out to lunch. On the way back from lunch we passed the KSL building in Salt Lake. We saw this huge line and wondered what was going on. Then my mom remembered she had seen something on TV advertising Biggest Loser auditions. These people were all lined up to audition for the show. I made Tracie go around the block twice so I could take pictures and videotape. Maybe one of these people will actually be on the show and I can say they were on my blog.

Bowling and fridges

2010-02-27T10:49:00.001-08:00

Since Christmas there really hasn't been much to blog about. I guess that means our life has been quiet and normal, which is good. Last summer the screw that held our refrigerator shelves up broke in half, leaving half of the screw inside the back of the fridge. We couldn't get the screw out to replace it with another one. So we called the Sears repair guy and he couldn't fix it either (we've called him for our oven, washing machine and refrigerator and he has not been able to fix any of them -- so that means we have old things that can't be fixed, he doesn't know how to fix them, or he is trying to get us to buy new appliances from Sears.) Anyway, we have had money set aside to buy a new fridge a couple of different times but have not done it and, instead, have lived ghetto (see pictures below). The other day I decided I was tired of everything falling out when I tried to get to a certain item or things getting smashed by other things being set on top of them. Darren and I went refrigerator shopping yesterday and bought a new fridge. Jacob was the assistant and really wanted (a water fridge). He kept saying he was thirsty while we were in the store and I realized it's because he thought he could get a drink out of one of the "water fridges" on display. Unfortunately for him, there's no way a "water fridge" would fit in our tiny kitchen so we had to buy a boring regular fridge. To me, though, it wasn't boring -- it was exciting.

Our ghetto life before

Wow, it's amazing how much better everything fits when you have shelves.

The new fridge in our kitchen.

Kevin was making a cheese sandwich the other day. I was in the other room and it looked like he had a huge block of cheese that he was trying to put in a sandwich but he just had a piece of bread sitting on the cheese while he was getting ready to make the sandwich. So we thought it would be funny to take this picture. Sometimes you just have to entertain yourselves.

Last Saturday, Tracie hosted an Oscar Meyer turkey bacon party. She got free bacon, coupons, recipes, note pads, etc from Oscar Meyer. All she had to do was make a bunch of food with turkey bacon and have a party. Ethan, Jacob and me went to the party (Darren and Kevin were at Kevin's basketball game). Kat and Andy also came up for the party. That night the Clarks and Kat and Andy went bowling. Kat won, I came in second and all those boys were below us :-) We also all used bumpers.

Kevin bowling

Jacob posing for me.

Jacob had a hard time leaving Kat and Andy alone. He even intruded on their cuddle time.

Ethan bowling

Serious Ethan

Darren bowling

Boston 2009

2009-12-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

Darren and I just spent the past week in Boston. We went out there for Andy and Kat's wedding on Friday and then stayed until Tuesday to do all the tourist things. The wedding was beautiful. A lot of pictures were taken but none from my camera. I carried the video camera around while Darren photographed. It was a sunny day but very cold and windy. Andy and Kat were troopers staying out there in the cold without coats, gloves or hats. The reception was lovely as well, but again, I just video taped and Darren took the photos. So you will have to wait for those.

Saturday we still had our rental car. We were trying to decide if we should drive north or south. After getting advice from a few people at the wedding we decided to drive north. We first went to Rockport, MA and visited Halibut Point State Park which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. It was windy and very cold. The beach was all huge boulders and when the ocean waves would hit the rocks it would freeze. So there was ice everywhere. You had to be very careful where you stepped.

Tracie posing by a tree at the park. At the parking lot you followed a wooded path before you got to the beach. That is where this was taken. Darren didn't want us to take this picture because he thought it was dumb and girls don't go around hugging trees. He's right but it made a fun picture anyway.

After the state park we drove into Gloucester, America's first seaport. In the downtown area there was a Christmas tree made out of lobster cages with buoys for ornaments. Tracie is practicing her cheerleader moves and Ben is eating her foot.

Darren and I by the Christmas tree

Dad and Tracie on one of the boulders

Dad being brave and touching the icy water. Right after he got up the waves washed over his feet. Good thing he wasn't still kneeling down.

All day Saturday the weatherman were predicting a huge storm for Washington DC and every other place north along the coast. It wasn't supposed to hit Boston until Saturday night. And they weren't sure if they would get 1-2 feet of snow or 1-2 inches. On Sunday morning we woke up to a white world and it was still snowing. I don't know how much they actually got but I would guess it was somewhere in between. We decided that we weren't going to spend all day in our hotel room just because of some snow. After all, we are from snow country. So we bundled up and ventured out to the Subway since we no longer had our rental car. We rode the Subway to the Boston Art Museum. Then we rode it to the North End, Boston's Italian Neighborhood, to eat lunch. We loved that neighborhood and would have loved walking around it more if there wouldn't have been so much snow still uncleared. By that time it was time to go to TD Gardens where the Celtics play. We had a fun time watching the game, then came back to the hotel for the night.

Ben, Mom and I on the subway.

Darren and I at the basketball game.

The Boston Art Museum

Ben's snow angel

Monday was our last day to be tourists so we felt like we had to cram a lot of stuff in. We left the hotel at 7:30, got on the Subway and rode across (actually under) the Charles river to Charleston MA. We ate breakfast at Dunkin Doughnuts (we knew they would have one there because they are on every street corner in Boston) then climbed the hill to the Bunker Hill monument. I couldn't remember much about the battle of Bunker Hill. They have a wonderful monument that you can see all over the city since it is on a hill and very tall. The museum across the street tells the story of the battle and it was actually very moving for me to hear. Next time I go to Boston I am going to catch up my early American history so the places mean more when I visit.

After Bunker Hill we walked to the USS Constitution, a ship either from the war or a remake of it. I'm not sure which because it is closed Monday through Wed and we couldn't see it. So we walked back across the bridge to Boston and found the Old North Church instead. That is a cool building. It is the original one from Revolutionary war times and is still used for church services today. There was an old cemetery by it but it was too hard to wade through the snow to look at it.

The science museum was next, then the aquarium, then the skywalk observatory tower where you can see all of Boston from high above. We did manage to get a lot of things done that day but there are still many things I still want to see -- anyone for another trip to Boston.

Ben, Mom, Tracie, and Dad hiking up Bunker hill. Check out the Dunkin Doughnuts cups :-)

2009-12-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving this year but I have no pictures to prove it. I had my camera with me but didn't take any pictures. We drove down to Fayette on Wed, spent Wed night at the Gunnison Inn and had a great meal with all of my brothers and sisters and their families, my parents, Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew, Grandpa Christiansen and aunts, uncles and cousins from both sides of the family. It's always great to see people you don't get to see very often. After dinner some of the crowd went to get Christmas trees. I stayed behind to visit.

Thursday night we went to Salt Lake so we would be ready to get up bright and early for black Friday! We missed some of the great deals by not being there right when the stores opened but Darren went with his Dad and sister and got the most important things. Good job, Darren! We spent the rest of the weekend with Darren's family except for a bridal shower for Kat.

Sunday, when we were driving home, Darren showed me a facebook message he had received from our neighbor. It said something to the effect that a pipe had broken in our back yard and water was spurting everywhere so a different neighbor had called the city and the city had turned off our water. We were stressed out the rest of the way home wondering if we were going to have water and, more importantly, if water would be all over the basement. As soon as we got home I ran in the house and checked out the basement and Darren checked out the backyard. Nothing was in the house, thank goodness. In the backyard were some cool ice formations along the fence and paths in the garden where the water had run but that was all you could see. Apparently we didn't winterize the sprinkler system like we should have and the expensive back flow valve we had to special order broke. Something to deal with in the spring.

Here are a few pictures Kevin took while we decorated for Christmas:

Me putting strings on the new ornaments

Ethan putting the star on the tree. You can tell the Christmas bulbs were put on by kids. I rearranged a little after we were done.

Jacob "helping" by playing with the decorations.

Fall 2009

2009-11-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

I've been called to repentance by Rose and Andy. Andy, here are your Halloween pictures. Rose, yes, I will try to do better. It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about. I just haven't been motivated to sit down and get it done. So here are a hodge podge of pictures from the last 6 wks.

We (Darren and I) were in charge of our first pinewood derby in September. It was also Kevin's first pinewood derby. So we got the experience of making a car (okay the neighbors actually helped Kevin with his car but Darren helped Ethan make one).

Here are three of the cars starting out on the track. I was the scorekeeper so Kevin took this picture.

The course set up and ready to go.

The score board

Kevin turned 11 yrs old in the past 6 wks. One of his presents was a bottle of Amazing Sauce from Wingers because he loves Wingers wings so much --- not that he gets them too often.

These are my two sick boys. At the beginning of October I was supposed to go with Darren to CAlifornia and Rose was going to watch the boys. But two days before we were to go, Jacob came down with the flu (I don't think it was swine flu. All we know was that the nose swab they did came out positive for flu.) Ethan started with fever the next day. It was also the week Eastern Idaho kids have out of school for potato harvest. So my kids spent their vacation days sick in bed and I spent my CA vacation days taking care of sick kids. Kevin didn't get sick but he was not happy about staying in ID when he could have been playing with Jared in UT.

There was a straw maze advertised in the newspaper and I thought it would be fun for the kids. So we took the neighbor boys and tried it out. It took us about 40 minutes to get through the first time. The older boys did it a second time and were done in 10 minutes.

Boo at the Zoo -- what better place to trick or treat than at the zoo? Especially the day before Halloween. That's two nights of trick or treating.

Jeff and Tracie were good sports and tagged along with us.

A leopard and a witch. Not a traditional witch's cat but it works.

And, last but not least, I made applesauce with the many apples on our trees. My co-worker lent me her fruit/veg grinder attachment for a kitchen aid and it sure made applesauce making easier than the last time I tried it. It took two days and a big mess but we now have many jars of yummy applesauce -- that my kids actually like.

Table Rock

2009-09-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

The Rexburg 16th Ward went on a hike to Table Rock this past Saturday. For those of you not familiar with our part of Idaho, it's a very popular hike. It's located right next to a scout camp so many scouts hike it every year. But so do a lot of other people. Someone in our ward said it is listed among the top 20 hikes in America to take. Table Rock is on top of a mountain that is right next to the Grand Teton Mountains and is on the very edge of Grand Teton National Park. Our two youngest kids were too young to make it so Darren said I could go and take Kevin. When I found out it was a 15 mile hike I decided not to take Kevin until I had tried it first. Now I wish I would have because three of the boys a few months older than him did it with no problem. But I will definitely do it again so he can come. And anyone else that wants to go can come, too. Don't let the length scare you. It took us pretty much all day with lots of rest breaks. It's 7.74 miles to the top with an increase in elevation from about 5000 feet to 11000 feet. It took us 5 hours to get to the top and four hours to get down due to someone twisting their ankle. Here are my pictures to prove I was there:

Me by one of the four creek crossings. The trail was very pretty with creeks, lots of trees, wild flowers, etc. Some of the people in our group saw a moose but it was gone when I got there.

Table Rock from far away. It is the round looking mountain on the right. The other two mountains sticking up in the background are part of the Tetons.

I was trying to show all the ant like people walking on the ridge here but they don't really show up.

Another view from far away.

Here it is a little closer...

And closer...

And closer...

until it's really close. But the last bit was the very hardest. It doesn't look that hard in the picture but it is very steep and has a lot of loose rocks. I wish I would have taken a picture of the huge pile of big rocks you have to cross right before you get to this spot.

Finally on top of Table Rock!! The Tetons look close enough to touch.

My friend Kimber, and I on Table Rock.

A view of the canyon between Table Rock and the Tetons. Can you find the little lake down there?

The Tetons.

Some of our ward sitting on Table Rock and a different view from the top.

Another view from the top.

Labor Day

2009-09-12T21:55:00.001-07:00

Over labor day we had two clone troopers visit our house - one was tall, the other short. I thought they used guns but these clone troopers used light sabers. They must have been Jedi clone troopers.

We also had Harry Potter visit. It was a busy weekend with strange visitors.

This is produce from out beautiful garden.

This is our compost pile that is going to make a beautiful garden and beautiful flower beds next year.

This is a picture of a helpful insect that lives very abundantly in our garden. When I was out there last I saw 10 on one little plant.

And this is our beautiful garden.

Clark family reunion 2009

2009-08-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of this month we attended the Clark family reunion in Island Park. It was only Darren's parents and siblings with their families. Just the perfect size. Pat used some of her inheritance to rent a "cabin" (someone's summer home that is much nicer and bigger than the one I currently live in). We stayed there for 3 nights and spent one day in Yellowstone. The house was on the Island Park reservoir and had a private boat dock so we brought canoes and spent a lot of time by the water. The following pictures might not all be in order but they tell the story.

The last night we were there we (meaning Curtis and Sam) built a fire in the firepit and roasted smores. This is one of the only pictures I have of Jacob sitting calmly.

Kevin, Curtis, and Carson roasting marshmallows (actually Shandy is the third one roasting marshmallows but you can't see her in the picture).

Dexter came upstairs one morning with his giraffe shirt on. Jake was wearing a different shirt but as soon as he saw Dexter's shirt he had to put his matching shirt on.

Headstand competition between Camilla, Curtis, Courtney, and Kevin. Dexter and Jacob were attempting it, as well. I think Courtney won but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Uncle Mike and Curtis kept the boys entertained one evening with a little fun rough housing.

I had to take a picture of Carson's shoes because they look so much like my own boys' shoes. Boy's shoes do not last very long.

Ethan managed to find bugs even in Yellowstone where there were so many other things to see.

Darren, Carson, and Jake looking down at the bottom of a beautiful water fall and canyon. We had to take a nice little hike with switch backs to get there. It was hard to keep Jacob from running down there but it was even harder to get him to walk back up.

The canyon at the bottom of the falls. I found a cool puzzle in West Yellowstone with this same place to take home as a souvenier.

Picnic lunch in Yellowstone.

Another lunch picture.

Dexter, Ethan and Jacob at the mud pots.

A bat we saw flying through the air and then crash landing in the water. Darren rescued it with the oar and let it go on dry land.

This picture amazes me and gives me a new respect for Sam. He has his 1 year old son, Cameron, my 4 year old son, Jacob, and my 6 year old son, Ethan, in there with him. And the only help rowing is from the 6 year old. No one forced him into doing this, either. Pretty amazing Sam.

Jacob on the dock. Most of the kids jumped off the dock into the water. Not Jacob. He wasn't brave enough. But we had a rule that any kid by the water had to wear a life jacket. I knew one of the kids would fall in the water without trying and Jacob was the one that did it. Thank goodness for life jackets and for Uncle Sam being there to pull him out when he was crying and sputtering.

2009-08-10T14:26:00.001-07:00

After the Clark family reunion in Island Park we were home for one night, went to church in our home ward and then headed down to Utah. We first stopped at Curtis and Shandy's house for some yummy fish and chicken tacos -- and good company. Then we went to West Jordan. We hung out with Darren's family and had family pictures taken. Tuesday morning we went to Fayette. Darren went fishing up in the mountains and the boys and I stayed in Fayette. We spent the morning hanging out with my mom, playing with leggos, catching grasshoppers and trying to find chickens. Fayette is overrun with grasshoppers this year and Ethan loved that. My mom gave him a glass jar and lid and told him to catch as many as he could. She wanted him to catch them because she hates them. He wanted to catch them because he loves them. I would have taken a picture of 20 grasshoppers stuffed in a pint jar but it was pretty disgusting with everything grasshoppers leave behind. You'll just have to use your imagination. My mom had to leave in the afternoon to take care of Rose's kids up north. But we had a little time with her before she left.

The boys and I also took a walk down to my grandparents house. They were out on the porch so we all sat out there and talked until the boys started to fight and I could tell it was getting to grandpa. I didn't have anyone to run interference. But it was a great visit while it lasted. And I got a cute picture.

When my dad got home from work we ate dinner and then went to the Fayette Spring. I grew up swimming at the spring. This is also where the town of Fayette gets their water and one of the main reasons my early ancestors settled here.

I had to wade into the spring to get this picture.

My dad on the four wheeler and the boys getting used to the water. The dragonflys and bugs on the water made them a little nervous.

The spring is not very deep but Kevin found a short rope swing that he had to try out. (This is the deepest part of the spring where kids sometimes get baptized.)

Letting go.

Because the Fayette Cemetary is on the way home from the spring I wanted to stop by and check it out. It's been a long time since I've been there. I have a lot of ancestors buried here but my great grandpa and grandma Lyman I knew so I had the kids pose by that tombstone. Kevin had fun checking out the dates on the tombstones and seeing that there were children buried there.

Catch Up

2009-07-23T21:49:00.001-07:00

I've had a lot of things to post but seem to be getting lazy with my blog. So this is my catch up update.

Happy Birthday to Jake! His birthday fell on a Tuesday, which has been a very hectic day this summer with work, soccer, scouts, and more. So he got pizza for dinner, a store bought cake and a quick celebration betwee all of our other activities. But he didn't seem to mind.

A couple of weeks ago, the boys hair was driving me crazy so we got out the clippers.

The "before" shot.

And "after" - doesn't that look so much better?

When my mom and dad were here visiting around the 4th of July they surprised me with these beautiful flowers. When they gave them to me the lillies weren't open yet so I told my mom I would take a picture for her when they were. Aren't they so pretty?

A couple of weeks ago we went to the drive in movie. It's a fun night but not something we do more than once a year because it is so late. The movies were Ice Age 3 and Night at the Museum 2. Ice Age 3 was cute, Night at the Museum 2 was boring, especially since it was 1 am and I was tired. But it's always fun to watch the movies from your own car, especially if you have room to stretch out.

Monday night Tracie thought it would be a great idea to spend family home evening at the Idaho Falls Chukars game. Jared was visiting for a few days so we all had a great time at the baseball game -- minus Jeff - poor thing had to work.

Here's the whole crowd except me.

Ethan and Jake - Ethan isn't grumpy, he's just being serious.

Kevin and Jared are not being serious. After the game the kids get to run the bases. We were all down by the gate waiting for the players to get off the field so the kids could go out there. As the players pass by all the kids are trying to get broken bats and baseballs from them. Jared was one of the lucky kids that got a bat and Darren caught one of the balls.

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our 4th of July weekend.

While we were waiting for the fireworks to begin we broke out the glow sticks. Darren had the boys moving them around so he could get these cool photos. He's done the same thing with sparklers at past 4th of Julys.

Between the parade and fireworks the guys went fishing (since they couldn't the day before like they were planning - see sprinkler disaster post below) and the girls/kids went to Rigby lake. Here is me after getting buried in the sand by my sons.

Jake buried - he was hard to keep buried because he kept wiggling.

Everyone had to have a turn - except Tracie and Kat (chickens :-))
Ethan getting buried.

Kevin buried.

Jacob and Ethan at the beginning of our sand castle. It turned out to be much bigger but Tracie has it on her camera. Maybe she'll post it.

Kat was worn out and slept for most of the parade. When it was time to go Andy decided to help her wake up.

Kat waking up

Andy and Kat

Ben and Darren

Tracie and Ben

Jake waiting in line to spray the fireman hose. We were sitting near the fire station and while everyone was waiting for the parade to start they let the kids try to knock a cup off of an orange cone. They also had the fire truck there with the ladder fully extended. You could pay $3 and climb it. Since it went about 3 or 4 stories none of us were game.

I love this picture. My brothers are all great uncles. Jake was climbing all over Ben and Andy and they just endured it. We went to Idaho Falls for the fireworks and this is them just waiting.

Sprinkler System

2009-07-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

This past week my brother, Ben, took a week off of work and came to Idaho to help Tracie and me put sprinkler systems in our yards. What a way to spend a vacation, huh? Monday we rented a pipe puller - the first half of the day was spent at Tracie's house and the second half of the day at my house.

Tracie holding the pipe for Ben

Ben with the pipe puller.

They worked on Tuesday and Wednesday at Tracie's house and finished her sprinkler system. I had to work those two days so neither Darren nor I helped there. Late Wed night Andy and his girlfriend, Kat came up to Tracie's house. So Thursday morning when I came back from my run I found Ben, Tracie, Jeff, Andy and Kat already hard at work in my yard. We spent the day digging and putting in the sprinkler system. By the end of the day most of it was done. There were only a couple of things left to do when they all went home (to Tracie's house).

Me - I must be taking a nap or something.

Darren

Ben - I think he's letting Jacob listen to his I-pod. Hopefully not an Alice in Chains song.

Andy

Kat

Jeff

Tracie

Friday afternoon they came up again. Unfortunately this day didn't go as smoothly. The last step was to cut into our main water pipe and install the sprinkler. This was the part Darren was very nervous about. Because our house is over 50 years old, something seems to go wrong every time we do a project. After several trips to the plumbing store there were no parts that would work. It was Friday night, the day before a holiday and after 5 pm. We had no water in our house. Darren's worst fears were realized. We had to call a plumber, hoping that he would have the right parts. But we found out plumbers don't have after hour privileges at plumbing stores, either. He only had the parts on his truck. He was able to fix it temporarily so we would have water over the weekend but can't fix it permanently until Wednesday. So we still can't see the benefits of Ben's hard work and our new sprinkler system. Hopefully that will be a future post.

Oh, and before anything could be done, Ben told us we had to dig down to our main water pipe, which was about 6 feet down. So Darren, Tracie, Jeff, and I all took turns digging. We didn't have it finished by dark on Saturday night. Since Ben was going to start Monday morning we had to finish digging the hole on Sunday. Darren said it gave new meaning to keeping the Sabbath Day holy :-)

Darren digging the hole

Ethan kissing a huge worm Darren found in the hole. This picture is for Mary Ann since we were told she likes kissing worms.

Another worm photo

And still another one

This toy dinosaur was also found in the digging. If only it were a real one and we could sell our house for lots of money.

This is just a random picture of my beautiful rose bush. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's only in bloom for a couple of weeks.

Teton Dam Marathon weekend

2009-06-14T18:59:00.001-07:00

No, I didn't run the marathon -- at least not yet. This weekend Rose came up to run the 10K race at the Teton Dam Marathon races with me. And of course, the rest of her family came to cheer her on.

This is the before picture when we still looked fresh. Since I didn't have my regular photographer there (Darren was in Southern Utah with students) I gave my camera to the older kids. I think my nephew, Jared, was the one taking all the pictures. I had a few interesting photos on the camera when I got back from the run. I decided some of them were blogworthy, so the following are Jared's photos.

Luke laying on the grass with his spiderman.

Kevin, I guess posing?

Luke, Jacob and part of Dave.

Me, about to cross the finish line. I was very impressed with this photo. He caught me at just the right time.

One of the kids waving a clapper thing they passed out to all the onlookers.

Kevin's mouth

Kevin scratching his head.

Then, I took over the camera. This is the boys wrestling in the grass while we were waiting for the awards ceremony.

Ethan doing a trick for me on the playground.

The kids waiting for the slide. A little while later a boy peed his pants at the top of the stairs. Luke and Jacob were following right behind. The boy's mom was trying to get him down but the kids behind him weren't about to get down and give up their place in line. I had to pull them off the ladder. The mom took the boy off but then the kids tried to go back up and there was pee dripping off the stairs. The little boy in the gray shirt was putting his hands right on the steps and his mom wasn't around so I tried to get him to put his hands on the railings. Someone had a water bottle and poured it on the steps but I'm sure that didn't kill the germs. Gross.

Best buddies Luke and Jacob.

This is one of my favorites. Rose with Michelle and Heather.

Heather climbing the rock wall. I think she made it half way up.

Kevin just getting done with the rock wall. He only went up a little way and then wanted down. I didn't have enough time to actually get a picture of him on the wall. Jared did

the same thing so I didn't even get a picture of him. And Ethan wouldn't do it at all.

Kaitlin made it all the way to the top.

The twins after the race - not looking as fresh anymore but with our medals. We got a lot of twin comments.

Luke and Jake forming

a train down the slide (that was before the pee incident)

I thought this was funny. We only have one bathroom in our house and Dave was in there taking a shower. Luke and Jake both needed to potty so they were both standing in line right outside the door.

Sunday morning - Luke, Michelle, Ethan, and Jake on my bed playing army guys.

Sunday morning breakfast

We also went swimming at Green Canyon (indoor thank goodness). The hot pool has a roof that is sometimes on and sometimes not. This time it wasn't on and it started pouring rain so we went out and sat in the hot tub. I hadn't even gotten my hair wet but by the time I had sat in the rain for a few minutes it looked like I had dunked my head under the water. We ended Saturday with pizza at Dave's sister's house and a game of Ticket to Ride with me, Rose, Ethan, Kevin and Jared. It takes a lot of something to be very tired at the end of a long day and play a board game with three not so tired boys. Overall it was a very fun weekend. The only thing that would have made it better was if Darren was there having fun with us.

Science projects and cookies

2009-05-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

This week we did something in our family we've never done before -- a school science project! Every fourth grader had to do a science project for the science fair in order to get an A. Having never had to do one before (neither Darren or I ever had a science fair when we were in school) we weren't sure what to pick. I started looking at some of the suggested websites for ideas and I called Rose for help since she is a science teacher. All were great ideas. But then I saw one that I knew would be the best. It was "Can you make a photograph without a camera?" Darren was on board with it (he had to be because I couldn't help with this topic). And, of course, Kevin had to agree to it since it was his project. Darren and Kevin spent a few days at the photo lab and out in the yard working on projects. My job was to help type up the report and do the display (it takes a lot of patience waiting for a fourth grader to type a report - Darren actually helped finish that because I didn't really know everything they had done). And Kevin actually thanked Darren for helping him with the project and said he enjoyed it. The day of the science fair he was able to show others what he had done and he said they were all impressed.

Darren and Kevin working on the display.

The cyanotypes (questions regarding the process have to be addressed to Darren or Kevin)

I can't remember what these are called but you use special paper, put the leaves or whatever you are photographing on the paper, put them under glass and put them in the sun for a while.

Kevin and the finished display. The pictures in the middle are scanograms (scanned on a scanner).

The other day Jacob brought me some cookie cutters, and in a sweet voice with a sweet look, asked if we could make cookies. The other boys weren't home so it was just the two of us. This type of cookie is not my favorite to make because it causes a big mess. But with only Jake it wasn't too bad.

Jake "helping" roll out the cookies.

Decorating and eating the finished product.

Our Weekend

2009-05-11T11:41:00.001-07:00

The end of April began baseball season for Kevin. When my brother, Gary, was a kid he was on the Cardinals team. I remember them having a tough time and not winning very much that year. So when I found out Kevin was on the Cardinals I wondered if that team name was jinxed. So far, it seems to be. All the other teams are much better and Kevin's team spends 3/4 of the game in the outfield. Hopefully it will get better. But he does look very handsome in his uniform.

Darren's parents came to Rexburg for a few days. Since they are now retired they decided to take advantage of experiences like watching a grandson's play and baseball game. Friday night we went out for ice cream cones. Jacob really got into his.

Ethan's kindergarten class put on "The Three Little Pigs". Ethan was one of the narrators and he did an awesome job. He had a lot of lines to memorize and he needed very little prompting from his teacher.

Ethan's class before the play.

Since Pat and Carl were staying at a hotel with a swimming pool, we had to take advantage of that. I was the only one that didn't get into the pool or hot tub. Once you are an adult you're not as willing to get your picture taken in a swimming suit but here are three of the swimmers.
(Jacob liked his "big muscles")

Salt Lake weekend

2009-04-27T18:33:00.001-07:00

This weekend we made a quick trip to Utah for my father in law, Carl's, 65th birthday party. I forgot to bring my camera. So all the great photo opportunities were lost. We had great food, great cake and great conversation. We enjoyed shopping, live soccer, hanging out and lots of traveling (okay that part we didn't enjoy so much, just endured). When we got home I took pictures of the only things I could to represent our trip.

When we were watching Parker's soccer game, the boys were playing behind us on a grassy hill. I wasn't present but apparently, Jake was rolling down the hill and hit a metal pole. His ear was a little bruised but not much. After a full day, though, it has a nice black and blue look over the whole top half. It's ugly but doesn't seem to bother him.

This is a picture of my new running shoes. I joined a running group through the city of Rexburg recreation dept and went to the first meeting on Wed. It turned out I was the only new person and everyone else has been running together for a year. They all had just gotten back from running the Salt Lake Marathon. I was very much intimidated. But I did find out that the best place to buy running shoes was at Ossines on Redwood Road in Salt Lake. So when I was down there this weekend Darren and I went there to get me some new shoes. They also have a free service where they analyze your feet and watch you run. Then they help you pick the best shoes for your feet and running style. I tried them out this morning and so far, so good.

Easter 2009 and a few extras

2009-04-12T19:11:00.001-07:00

I know I am a week late but I took pictures of our during conference activities specifically so I would update my blog and never did it. So following are some of those.

Tracie started this puzzle on Christmas day and it has been unfinished since then. So Saturday I worked on it. When I was this far done I had to move it into the living room to free up the dining room table, got caught up doing something and when I returned it was half way destroyed. So Tracie and I finished it again on Sunday during the afternoon session. I made sure Jacob and Ethan knew I wasn't happy, though.

We bought the boys these boxes at Ikea a while back. As with most things there you have to finish it yourself. Ethan begged to paint his so we did that Saturday during conference (I think that's why I moved the puzzle). Darren helped Ethan and it turned out pretty well.

Kevin working on his box.

A few days ago I saw Ethan and Kevin sneaking around, dressed weird. Come to find out, they were spies. Pretty creative in their outfits, I think.

Kevin in his spy outfit.

Before the Easter egg hunt. I take pictures like this every year - first the empty basket, then the full ones. It has been crappy weather every year since we have been going to them but it was great weather yesterday. Kevin had his first baseball practice so he didn't get to go. He didn't really care, though.

The full baskets. Jacob froze when all the other kids started running for the eggs. By the time I coaxed him out there we only got two eggs before they were gone. A kindergarten friend of Ethan's was standing next to him and saw that Jacob only got two eggs. Without being prompted by any adult he took two of his eggs and put them in Jacob's basket. I thought that was so sweet. His parents weren't even around and I didn't know them so I couldn't tell them what a good kid he was.

Jacob painting Easter eggs

Kevin with one of his masterpieces.

The boys acting normal. :)

Easter morning - if Ethan had longer hair it would look like MaryAnn morning hair (no offense MaryAnn)

Ethan with one of his eggs.
HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!!!

After the funeral

2009-04-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

This post is all about our Utah adventures after the funeral. We stayed with the Mitchells for the first two nights. It's always crazy when my three kids and the Mitchell five kids are all together.

Here's cute Michelle. She was walking around the couch with a tissue in her mouth so I took her picture.

Thursday night many of my siblings came over to play games. Many brought treats so I took a pictures of that yummy display - and Ethan's hand reaching in to grab some jelly beans.

Bachelor brother Ben was proudly displaying this shirt. Whatever, Ben, you'll change your mind eventually.

Tracie and Jeff put on a scavenger hunt for the kids after hitting the dollar store. Here's Jeff playing Santa Claus and handing out the goods.

A wild game of spoons.

After the Mitchells it was a couple of nights at the Clarks. Saturday we went to Orem for lunch at CPK and Shandy's soccer game. Here's the group of fans at the soccer game. The kids didn't last very long just sitting and watching. My boys were wild examples for Dexter.

This is the best picture I got of Shandy on the soccer field. I promise it's her.

Darren must have taken this picture. I like it because it's a candid shot.

Saturday night Jacob watched The Incredibles with Shandy. It was a fun weekend but we had to leave early on Sunday to try and avoid most of the storm. We hit some of it in the Salt Lake valley but made it home right before the blizzard in Rexburg started. Whew!

Miriam Beth Lyman Christiansen

2009-03-30T15:21:00.001-07:00

My grandma Christiansen passed away on March 21 and we went to her funeral on Thursday, March 26. She was a wonderful grandmother. I lived with her and my grandpa for a couple of summers and I feel like it was a great opportunity to get to know her better. I also learned a few new things at her funeral. She will be greatly missed. Funerals are sad but they can also be happy. It's a wonderful time to see family that you never get to see and I enjoyed talking to all of my cousins/aunts/uncles. All of my cousins on that side of the family were there.

Here is a picture of my grandma with my mom, Rose and me at a Utah State mother/daughter activity.

The great grandkids (and youngest grandchildren) sang "Grandmother" from the Primary songbook. Here they are practicing. It's funny how half of them are not singing and just looking around.

After the viewing on Wed night my siblings (that were there so far), their spouses and my parents went out to dinner. I love hanging out with my adult brothers and sisters and parents, especially without little kids to interupt us.

It was very cold at the cemetary. There was a tent set up with a heater in the middle. I already had a spot with my kids right by the heater and I was too afraid to lose my spot. That's why this picture is taken from this direction even though I would have gotten a much better picture from the front. But then I saw Darren with his much better camera and skills in front taking pictures and I felt okay about staying in my kind of warm spot.

The church felt so nice again all warm and cozy, especially with delicous smells coming from the kitchen. Here is my cute hubby.

Heather was going around with the camera taking pictures.

This is my cousin, Rebecca's, little girl, Gracie, jumping over the broom while Ben was trying to sweep. He was very patient and let her keep doing it over and over again, sometimes landing on the broom.

My cousin, April, is working on becoming an EMT/paramedic. She had all the kids lined up as test subjects. She knows how to make good use of her time.

Another dinner photo.

Saturday at the park

2009-03-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Everyone is talking about how great the weather has been and the past two days in Rexburg are no exception. We have made it all the way to 60 degrees. Yesterday I even went outside and raked the front lawn and cleared out one of the flower beds. I went running outside for the first time this year and it was so much more enjoyable than running on a treadmill. Today Darren helped Kevin get his bike tires pumped up so I followed the boys to the park so they could ride.

Here is Kevin being a little bored. He wanted someone older to play with than just his little brothers.

And here's Ethan being a little grumpy. He was mad that his friend and brothers didn't want to do what he wanted to do. He also fell on his scooter, scraped up his elbow and got a goose egg on his forehead so that didn't make him any happier. Especially when he had to walk home because we didn't bring the car. Darren and I both tried to get a picture of his injuries but he was in no mood by then to cooperate.

Jacob had a wonderful time. Darren stayed longer with him at the park after I took the injured home because he wasn't ready to leave.

Grandparent trip

2009-03-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out how to get cute blog backgrounds like everyone else. I know, I'm slow. I chose a spring background because I am optimistic that spring will eventually come to Rexburg. It was nine degrees when we woke up this morning - not the best spring weather. But the weekend forecast goes up into the 40's. I guess we'll see what happens.

Anyway, back to the reason for my post. This past weekend Darren was out of town again with a student trip. My kids were out of school half a day Thursday and all day Friday because of the end of the trimester. So I decided the kids and I could take a trip of our own. I am very fortunate to still have both sets of my grandparents around. My Grandpa Bartholomew has cancer and my Grandma Christiansen's health has been declining quickly. We decided to take a "visit my grandparents trip". Thursday we drove all the way to Fayette (that's a long drive with kids and only one adult). Friday we spent the day hanging out with my dad and also spent a couple of hours visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew. There was a lot of talk about sheep -- I learned a few new things about my Grandpa. My mom had to work on Friday so she didn't get to hang with us until late afternoon. The boys had fun with four wheeler rides, carving with grandpa and pretending to not be afraid of the cat. (It's sad that my kids have so little exposure to animals that they are nervous around a cat.)

The boys at Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew's house. Why didn't I have my grandma and grandpa get in the picture, too? I wasn't thinking.

My dad has some new carving tools. He let Kevin and Ethan each pick out a picture they wanted him to carve. He cut it out and then let Kevin do some of the carving on his. Ethan just watched my dad do his. The picture I had of my dad and Ethan wouldn't load for some reason.

After 4 wheeler rides, carving, and lots of tickling my dad needed a nap.

Saturday morning it was my mom's turn to clean her parents house in Salt Lake City. So we drove up there and spent several hours cleaning, trying to get rid of ants and visiting. Rose, MaryAnn and Ryan also came to help so it made it more fun. When we got there my grandpa was sitting by my grandma's bed with a bottle of 409 trying to keep the ants off of her because she can't do it herself. It was hard to see my grandma like that because she has such a fiery personality - she can keep right up with my dad's brothers and that's saying something. It was very touching, however, to see how much my grandpa cares for her. We spent the night at Rose's house, went to church with them and then headed back to Rexburg. We hit a snowstorm around Pocatello and Kevin said he could tell we were in Idaho because the weather was bad.

Flowers and Pack Meeting

2009-03-02T14:26:00.001-08:00

When I went out of the house this morning, I noticed a little splotch of yellow by the front door. Our first crocus was out and looks so pretty when everything else is so brown around it. But Rexburg still has a lot of old, dirty snow to get rid of as you can see from the other pictures.

Thursday was our first pack meeting we were in charge of and it was also the Blue and Gold Banquet. Here is Darren overseeing a game called the ABC's of America.

Darren giving Kevin his awards. I should have gotten up from my seat and went in front of them to take the picture.

A skit the Webelos put on.

Gummy Bear Man

2009-02-27T20:13:00.001-08:00

Tonight Kevin and Ethan were in the living room working on a project together. When I went in there I was given a comic book that Kevin and three of his friends had written at school. Apparently, Kevin is the "publisher" which means it was his job to bring all the copies home and put them together like a comic book. So that is the project he and Ethan were working on. I am taking it a step further by "publishing" it online via my blog. Enjoy! (You will probably have to click on each picture to make them big enough to read.)

Valentines and my past

2009-02-14T18:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope it was a happy one for all of you. Darren had to go out of town for part of the weekend so he surprised me on Thursday with half a dozen beautiful roses. I took a picture of them but blogger seems to be too busy to add it to this update. I got Darren 6 car wash passes. I think that men have an easier job on Valentines day than women do. Get a woman some flowers, chocolates or jewelry and she's set. But there really aren't any traditional Valentine gifts to give men. If any of you have any good ideas you can send them to me and I might use them next year.

Today I needed something to keep me occupied so I got out some old pictures and scanned them into the computer. I did it so I could put them on facebook but now I think I will do more and save them to a disc. It's good photo preservation. My mom has most of my pictures at her house but I do have a few in my book of remembrance.

Family picture when I was 14 years old.

Rose and me sitting in a chair.

Junior prom - one of the few high school pictures I have where my hair looks half way decent.

Third grade

SnowFEST 2009

2009-02-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

Instead of watching the Superbowl I am updating my blog. (It's not even on at my house - GASP)
Yesterday the boys and I attended the annual Snowfest that the city puts on. Either Darren or I post on this every year but it's a fun Saturday event you can enjoy in the frosty winter.

This is Ethan after sledding down the hill the one and only time he did. He wouldn't turn around when I wanted to take his picture because he was mad. Apparently his sled slowed down halfway down the hill and the boy behind him slammed into his back. He told me that that boy was now his archenemy. We had to have a discussion about forgive and forget.

Kevin going down the hill.

Kevin with his sled.

Ethan bowling while Jacob watches. Each kid that bowled got a free pass to one of the bowling alleys. I guess we'll see if they actually get used. (We tend to collect things like that but never use them.)

The three boys on the wagon ride around the park. No, that's not snow on Kevin's coat. It's a gaping hole that needs to get fixed.

While we were waiting in line for bowling, Jacob was eating snow. When he started sharing with Ethan I had to take a picture. Then I realized he was getting the snow from where people had been walking and I had to put an end to it.

This is not snowfest but it is a wintry picture. Last year our windows looked like this a lot. This year they've only been like this a few times. It's been plenty cold this year just not as cold as last. This past week was the first day the schools got canceled this year and I'm pretty sure there were 2 or 3 days cancelled by Feb 1 last year.

The New Me

2009-01-17T14:58:00.001-08:00

I got my braces off December 23 but the holidays took precedence on my blog so I never posted my new look. Here is me with no braces, new glasses and shorter hair (at least shorter than early December).

Blog update

2009-01-17T13:07:00.001-08:00

I finally changed the look of my blog. It has been boring for a long time now but I just haven't made it a priority to fix it. But it's Saturday today and Darren took the two older boys ice skating. I decided to take advantage of the kind of quiet (Jacob's still here telling me that dinosaurs eat trees and that he's hungry) and fix my blog so you all would have something better to look at. Enjoy!

Our Holidays

2009-01-03T15:52:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays! Following is a long post that covers our last two weeks or so.
First, Christmas Eve. Darren was driving around the outlying areas of Rexburg and came upon a sign for a live nativity that is 20 minutes long and starts at 6 pm for 5 or 6 nights in a row. The last night was Christmas Eve. We decided that would be a fun thing to do as a familly. So we all bundled up and headed out to Burton. It was held in front of a stable with straw bales for seats. We were happy to have the denim quilt in the back of the van to sit on because there was a little snow on the straw. The live nativity went through the whole nativity story and then they served homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate. And all of this was free, too. There were parts of it you couldn't hear or see very well when they took place off to the side of us but overall it was a great Christmas eve activty, one that might become a tradition for us if they keep doing it.

All my boys waiting for the show to begin.

Jacob didn't get into the show too much but he loved the real animals. He got to pet some of them after it was over. You can see all the padding this girl has under her costume. It was a pretty cold night.

After the live nativity we went home and ate our Christmas Eve dinner. Then we read the nativity story from the Bible and retired downstairs to watch the Christmas Story. (not the Bible version, this time) :-) Tracie and Jeff came up part way through the movie. We hung out for a while and then went to bed so Santa could come.

Christmas morning Darren ended up waking the kids somewhere between 6:30 am and 7:00 am. I thought for sure they would be up before us. Then the kids woke up Tracie and Jeff.

Kevin with his rubix cube. They're still around. When I was a teenager I could only get two sides done at one time. We would just give them to our Aunt Sheri to finish them up.

Ethan with his tin of Pokemon cards. He got one tin for his birthday and one tin for Christmas. He was one happy kid.

Jacob with gorilla mountain. He played with that and the other animals he got all day long.

Christmas day was a very snowy day. When we woke up there was lots of snow and it still kept falling most of the day. Tracie and Jeff planned to stay the first part of the morning with us and then go back to Idaho Falls. But traveling around Rexburg was pretty hard since there were no roads plowed. Tracie had made some potatoes to go with the ham I had and we were going to eat them at her house. But since we couldn't get there we ate dinner at my house and just had boring old rice to go with it. AFter lunch Darren decided to be brave and try driving Ethan to the park to go sledding. When he made it, the Spencers decided they could try the drive home. They also made their destination. We had thought about going to Utah Christmas evening but only made it to Idaho Falls. We took our leftover ham and ate Tracie's yummy potatoes for dinner. The next morning we headed down to Utah. The Idaho roads were pretty good but once we crossed the border the roads were snow packed and not very fun to drive on. We saw several slide offs and one roll over on the way down. Thankfully, none of them were us and it didn't look like anyone got hurt in any of the ones we saw. We made it to the Mitchell's house just in time for the annual Bartholomew Christmas party. I always enjoy being with my extended family. I wish we had more time to spend at things like that. Ami brought her nativity costumes so we did out own version of the nativity with the kids. I was very impressed with her costumes. She made them all! Great job, Ami. Thanks for sharing with us.

Here is Jacob in his donkey costume. We really needed a shepherd but he wanted to be a donkey so we went without shepherds. He looked so cute as a donkey I had a hard time being the narrarrator with a straight face.

The audience, some of them.

All of the kids with their costumes. They all look so cute. I ecpecially love Luke's (I mean Joseph's) face.

Many presents are distributed at the party. Ethan got a set of musical instruments and right before this picture was taking there was a band going on with my mom, Tracie, Jeff, Jake, and Ethan. But it was breaking up when I got the picture. Jenna seems pretty interested in joining.

This is special agent Ethan. He also got a spy kit for Christmas. Too bad the mustache only lasts one wearing.

On Saturday my mom's side of the family got together at IHOP to celebrate my Grandma Christiansen's birthday. I counted about 35 people there. Here are Grandma and Grandpa.

New Year's Eve Tracie and Jeff came up again. They are such good sports to keep coming up and keeping us entertained. We made homemade pizza and played games until midnight. Then we made a lot of noise. Ethan tried to make it until the New Year but he fell asleep early and I couldn't wake him up. Maybe next year.

Jeff thought he could make more noise by blowing two horns at once.
Darren forgot he was supposed to blow the horns with only the mouth.

The barbeque chicken pizza.

Everyone celebrating the New Year.

While we were in Utah, we had to visit Cabellas. Curtis and Dexter met up with us. All the boys loved looking at the fish and other animals. My boys also love to help Dexter. It's pretty cute.

Birthday #6

2008-12-21T17:40:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday, Ethan! Yesterday he had his first friend birthday party. My mom used to give us a big party every year and she did it for all of her kids. Even made great cakes, too. Kudos to her. It's not an easy thing to do. We made it only one hour. Darren had to do a Christmas bird count in Idaho Falls but Tracie came up and helped. Thanks to her, we survived.

Eating cake and ice cream with his friends.

Ethan's favorite uncle, right now, is Jeff because Jeff gave him his old guitar for his birthday. So any uncles that want to compete better get working on it. That will be hard to beat. The kids keep saying Ethan got 3 instruments for his birthday. Kevin gave him his toy ukulele (or however you spell that), Jeff gave him the guitar, and then the guitar also had a tuner with it. So, to them, the tuner counts as an instrument.

Ethan with his new scooter (that came from Black Friday sales). Too bad it's been snowing all day and he can't even go outside and ride it. And since it will probably not get above 30 degrees until late February or March, the snow will not be melting anytime soon. That's what happens when you have a birthday in December.

Christmas at the Carousel

2008-12-12T20:04:00.001-08:00

Tonight Santa came to the Rexburg carousel. Ethan had written a letter to him in kindergarten so we went down there and delivered it. Santa even pretended like he could understand what it said. Santa's great! We drove by the park first without telling the kids what we were doing because we didn't want to wait in any long lines. But there were no lines. There was only one child in front of us.

Santa and Ethan

All the boys with Santa. I was surprised Jake didn't get scared.

Everyone got to ride free on the carousel. Darren rode with the boys and got some great pictures. Jake looks like he's freaked out here but he really wasn't.

Kevin and his photogenic expressions.

Ethan

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-07T20:48:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend. Last time I tried to update them I couldn't find most of my Thanksgiving pictures. But this time they appeared. (I'm sure it was me and my greatness with technology).

Kevin helping Darren put up Christmas lights. He's going to do a great job when he gets a little taller.

Parker, Darren and Jacob riding the Trax home from temple square.

Jacob on the Trax

Carson and Kevin standing in the circle that turns when the Trax turns. They thought that was pretty cool.

Ethan, Jacob, Kevin, Parker, and Carson on temple square.

Grandma and Grandpa Clark with most of their grandsons at Temple Square.

Another Temple Square picture. This one kind of shows how wound up they were. If there was anything available to climb on or any water to play in they wanted to be right there.

Darren trying to take a nap after Thanksgiving dinner.

Darren photographing the Thanksgiving spread. Everyone worked so hard and it looked so great it had to be documented.

Me, Kristi, and her sister, Emily at the 5K run in Bountiful on Thanksgiving morning. We had a workout before we pigged out.

This was from the drive down from Idaho. Ethan was trying to play the gameboy but it was too bright so he was creative and put the backpack over him.

It's Autumn time

2008-11-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

I can't get through a fall without posting a leaves post. Especially with our yard. One weekend in October we raked some leaves but there were still a lot on the trees so we knew there would be more raking to do. Thursday I was in the mood so I went out and raked alone with my Ipod. Kevin had been home all day because of fever during the night but he never acted sick at all during the day. With all three kids home and Darren gone to Idaho Falls, I decided I needed a break. So I didn't even want the kids to come out and help me. I left Kevin in charge of the kids in the house and I worked alone. When it was time to put the leaves into the bags, however, I did need help. So here are some pictures of the kids helping pick up leaves. Kevin was the bag holder and the rest of us picked up leaves. Jacob and Ethan aren't much help and I was tired from raking the leaves. I didn't have the energy to make them stay and help. But I'm feeling it today. My back and thighs are sore from bending and straightening so many times. The front lawn still needs to be done but that will wait for another day and Darren.

Kevin showing how the wind is blowing the bag open.

Jake posing on the leaves. He was good at wrecking the piles.

Ethan tearing apart his Halloween pumpkin with a garden shovel. He started doing it on the cement but I made him move to the garden.

Jake putting leaves into the bag while Kevin holds it.

Kevin and Ethan showing how tired they are after all that work. (and all the bags of leaves that came just from the back yard)

Late Halloween

2008-11-08T15:15:00.001-08:00

I'm slow at getting the Halloween pictures up but here are two of them. I have a great video of Kevin doing the Limbo at his class Halloween party but it took so long to load that it just stopped. I have given up for now but if any of you know the best way to get videos on here, let me know. I have a MAC if that makes a difference.
The boys right before trick or treating

Kevin doing the limbo

Blue potatoes

2008-10-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

If you have been following Darren's blog lately, you'll know that he has been photographing potato harvest. One night this week he came home with a gift one of the farmers had given him. Blue potatoes. For Sunday dinner today we tried them out.

The blue potato with skin.

The blue potato peeled.

Mashed blue potatoes. Darren, Kevin and I weren't hesitant to try it but Ethan was. He thought it looked like frosting and frosting with gravy or butter did not sound very appetizing to him. He finally tried it and the potatoes were gone by the end of dinner. They tasted just like white mashed potatoes. Purple potatoes with brown gravy doesn't look very pretty, however.

Family Birthday Party

2008-10-05T17:29:00.001-07:00

Today is Kevin's birthday. Because some of my family and some of Darren's family were still here yesterday (from coming to the wedding) we decided to have a birthday party for Kevin, his cousin Carson, his cousin Luke and his Grandpa Bartholomew. It turned out to be a fun afternoon.

Kevin hitting the race car pinata.

Ethan hitting the pinata. I think he made the most dents but Kaitlin was the one that finally broke it all open. (I think - correct me if I'm wrong)

Jacob trying to hit the pinata. He didn't do so well.

Collecting all the candy. Some of the kids were really picky and, because they spent so much time looking for certain types of candy, they didn't get very much. Others just grabbed everything and got a big bag full.

Luke, Kevin, and Carson blowing out the candles on the leftover wedding cake. Thanks Tracie and Jeff. We did the same thing after Nalani's wedding, too.

Kevin with all of his presents.

Jacob "holding" Cameron with Grandma Clark's help.

All the kids eating their pizza.

Tracie/Jeff wedding

2008-10-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

Tracie and Jeff got married Friday. It was a full day of wedding/family. The weather was so beautiful until 4:30 when the ring ceremony was supposed to start. All of a sudden the wind started blowing everything away. So it was a quick move to the church house. Lots of hands make fast work and it was soon up and running. Here are a few photos of the day.

Getting ready to cut the cake

Eating the cake

Darren, MaryAnn, LaCee, Rose and Ryan hanging out after the lunch.

The Bartholomew nieces and nephews at the Idaho Falls temple. I just realized all the boys are standing up and the girls are sitting down.

Andy, MaryAnn, Tracie, Rose, Ryan, Susan, and Gary. All of the siblings except Ben. We missed you Ben.

Famous TV couples

2008-09-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

Second post of the day. I go for a couple of weeks without posting and then have to catch up. Last Saturday I was supposed to do the games at Tracie's Idaho Falls bridal shower. But my family and me got sick so Darren took the refreshments and games down for me and gave them to Tracie's roommate to do. I felt bad leaving it all on her shoulders but there was no way I could have gone. I also stayed up late the night before preparing the games for the shower and was disappointed I didn't get to see the fruits of my labors. So I decided to just post it on my blog. Here's the game. I will list the last name of several couples. You have to fill in the first name of the guy, the girl and the TV show. You get a point for each name (girl, guy, TV show) Let's see who watches the most TV. (And no cheating - I got these off a web site so that would be easy for you to do, as well. But you can't do that: - ))
Heffernan
Mariano
Ricardo
Cleaver
Brady
Barone
Halpert/Beesly
Taylor
Keaton
Kwon
Huxtable
Shephard/Grey
Addams
Witter/Potter
Arnold/Cooper
Flinstone
Geller/Green
Costanza
Crane/Moon
Buchman
Scavo
Morris/Kapowski
Bundy
Simpson

Family Pictures

2008-09-28T16:52:00.000-07:00

One of my birthday presents this year was a family picture. Darren arranged with Jeff Smith, a photographer on campus, to take our picture. He took lots of shots. I chose to put the ones on here that show the fun of taking family pictures with three energetic little boys (especially a three yr old). There are some great ones that are not on here. Anyway, I feel much better knowing that we have a current family picture now and I think they turned out great.

Homecoming

2008-09-12T14:02:00.001-07:00

Jacob, Ethan and me went to the Madison High School homecoming parade today just for the fun of it (Okay it was really for the candy). Here are some pictures of the afternoon.

Jacob, Ethan and a couple of our neighbors waiting for the parade to get to us.

This is what Jake did while the noisy army tanks passed by us.

Watching the parade

Shopping Trip

2008-08-30T16:25:00.001-07:00

This was one of my Saturday activities - helping Tracie find a wedding dress. Don't worry, this isn't the one she picked out so I'm not giving anything away. But doesn't she look pretty? Mission was accomplished.

Green Canyon Camping Trip

2008-08-30T16:18:00.001-07:00

Last night we went on our last camping trip for the year. Darren had the idea to camp at Green Canyon Hot Springs (which is only 40 miles away) and go swimming. The camp ground is the best kind - it's grass so it's not as dirty! We got there around 5 pm, set up camp, cooked hot dogs for dinner and then went swimming for about three hours. Kevin did his first front flip off the diving board, Ethan did his first jump off the diving board (with a life jacket) and Jake and I played in the shallow end while Darren helped the bigger kids. Then we went back to camp to make smores. Each one of the kids actually asked to get their pjs on and go into the tent (I know that's not exactly asking to go to bed, but close enough). I can't say I got a great night's sleep. I was a little cold but I don't think anyone else was. And, of course, when you sleep in close proximity to Ethan you get to hear him moan. This morning the boys were awake first and not very quiet. Hopefully, they didn't keep any of the neighbors from sleeping in. We packed up after a cold breakfast and came home. Here are a couple of pictures.

Kitchen phase three

2008-08-24T17:51:00.001-07:00

When it rains it pours. Third post of the day. After posting last weekend's fun pictures, here are this weekend's work pictures. Friday morning Kristi came over and we painted the kitchen cupboards. We were hoping to just put primer on them and then paint but the guy at the paint store said we had to sand them first. Sanding took up a good part of the day. Once we were able to just paint it went pretty fast. But Darren was also kept busy all morning helping the roto rooter guy fix our bathroom sink. Thursday night Darren tried everything he could to unclog the sink but nothing worked so he called the roto rooter guy Friday morning. Of course in an old house it's never just unclogging the sink. I don't know everything he had to do but Darren went to the plumbing store about 10 times to get new parts. We ended up with a new sink faucet, too. And the killer is this: when we got our new kitchen faucet it cost $750 because we bought the faucet from the plumber and paid him to install it. That was very naive and stupid of us so don't ever do that. This guy charged us something like $250 to install the new faucet, fix all the broken parts, and unclog the drain. Darren had to buy the new faucet but at the store's cost not the plumbers jacked up price. And the plumber Friday was there for a longer amount of time than the one that did the kitchen. So shop around guys. Anyway, everything is working great now and here are some before and after shots of the kitchen.

Phase 1: removing the wallpaper (Kristi has been involved in every phase. Isn't she great?)

Phase 2: Painting the walls deep copper. ( I love the names they give paint colors)

Phase 3: Clover honey cabinets.

Lagoon

2008-08-24T16:42:00.001-07:00

Last week we went to Lagoon with Carrie/Sam and family (including their niece, Melissa), Carl, Tracie and Jeff. I hadn't been since before I had kids so my kids had never been. It's a fun day but also tiring. We were going to drive back to Rexburg that same night. But we didn't leave until 10:00 pm and we were all tired at that point so we crashed at Rose and Dave's. Thanks, Mitchells! Anyway, here are some photos from the day. I realized I didn't get any pictures of people on the crazy rides like Wicked but there were lots of them that rode them. Kevin was the biggest daredevil of them all.

Me, Carson and Ethan on Music Express.

Kevin, Me, Ethan, Jacob and Tracie waiting for the Tilt a Whirl. Jake wasn't a big fan of the ride. The whole time he was crying and saying "I scary". But he survived.

An action shot Darren took on the Tilt a Whirl.

It looks here like Jake is pulling faces at Jeff. But he is actually pulling faces at himself in the reflection of Jeff's glasses.

Carson and Ethan on one of the kiddie rides.

Parker on one of the kiddie rides. I tried to put Jake in the back seat. He kept saying he was scared but I knew he would like it so I walked away. When the worker came around to make sure they were seatbelted in he told her he didn't want to ride and she let him out. Oh well, I tried.

Hogle Zoo

2008-08-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a summer mini vacation. The main reason we went was to go to Lagoon with Darren's family. But we had to have things to fill the day when others were at work so we went to the zoo on Friday. Tracie joined us on our vacation and Rose and her kids and Curtis/Shandy/Dexter came to the zoo, as well. I realized there are no pictures of animals in these but the people were cuter anyway.

Jared and Kevin on the train, being silly, of course.

Ethan and Heather on the train.

Some of the group at the bird show.

Family Fun Night

2008-08-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we went to The Riot Zone for miniature golfing and go cart rides. Here are some pictures of our fun night. (We have to keep up with the Indiana Clarks and show our put-put pictures, too.

Ethan showing off his skills.

Darren was smart to not pay for Jacob to golf because all he was interested in was playing in the water.

Kevin finishing up a hole

We didn't keep score but Darren beat all of us.

Jacob in the water again.

Darren teaching Ethan how to hit a golf ball.

Darren and Ethan in the go-cart. Kevin is right behind them.

Refreshments! We tried out a new dairy in Rexburg. They have really good ice cream cones.

Jacob really wanted pink ice cream.

24th weekend

2008-08-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

These are just some pictures of our weekend (24th of July weekend). The 24th of July is not a holiday in Idaho but my parents and Ben came up to Idaho to celebrate their holiday. On Friday evening Mom, Tracie, Jeff, me and the boys stopped off at the St Anthony sandbar to have some fun. Tracie was the only one with a swimming suit so she got to be in there with the little ones. I had never been there before but it was fun so is probably somewhere we will go again.

We also stopped at Mesa Falls on Friday. Here is Kevin posing in front of the waterfall.

Kevin and Jacob on the stairs at Mesa Falls. I had to run to keep up with them. It should be twice as hard for Jake to climb those stairs since he is the shortest but it seemed to be no problem for him.

Dad and Ben looking at the falls.

Kevin coming out of the waterslide at the sandbar.

My second attempt to get him coming out of the water slide.

Memories

2008-07-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Fine, I'll give in and do it, too.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory (or more) that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing (but you don't have to) and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

2008-07-20T17:51:00.001-07:00

Like Darren said in his post, we went to the Idaho Falls Chukars game last night. Here are some of my pictures from the game:

Wait a minute, I bought Kevin a blue snow cone. How did it turn green? ( a little help from Mountain Dew) Can you tell Kevin is proud of it?

Jeff and Jake horsing around. Most of the time we spent in the grassy area next to the field so the kids could run around.

Jacob standing on the bleachers. He had a good time climbing over them until they filled up and and he couldn't do it anymore.

Tracie, Kevin, and Ethan

Tracie seeing how fast she can throw. I think it was like 58 miles per hour or something like that. She can correct me if I'm wrong.

After the game the kids got to run around the bases. (This picture was taken by Darren but it was on my camera so I am posting it.)

Ethan with the ball he talked the other team out of. He really wanted a ball and Tracie told him sometimes the pitchers that sit on the bench right by us will give out balls. He and Tracie asked them once but they said they didn't have one for him. Ethan is a very persistant little kid if he wants something. He kept asking Tracie to ask again but she said no. Someone pointed out the balls that were under the bench right next to the fence. Ethan put his hand under the fence and worked out one of the balls. When we realized what he had done we told him he had to put it back. Tracie went with him and asked the pitchers if he could play with the ball for a few minutes and then give it back. They told him to keep it. He's pretty proud of that ball.

Dogpile on Kevin!

A cute family watching the game.

Happy Birthday, Jacob!

2008-07-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

Jacob's three! Here are some pictures of the celebrations.

Jacob was a little afraid of the flame on the candles so he would only blow from far away. Luckily, his brother was willing to step in and help.

Opening presents

Jacob on his new bike.

More presents. I like Ethan's face in this picture. He looks so happy because this is the present he gave to Jacob. (It's a ball.)

Gary and Ami visit

2008-07-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

Gary and Ami came to visit Wed night, on their way to a family reunion. It wasn't really on the way, they had to take a detour but we appreciated them coming. I only took one picture. It is of Brianna doing my hair. I've decided it feels pretty good to get your hair brushed and gently played with. Jacob tried to help but he's not as gentle.

Saturday, July 5th.

2008-07-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my 20th high school reunion. Darren didn't have too much fun but Rose and I had a great time talking to the people we hadn't seen in a long time. Our best friend from high school, Shonnie, was there. It was very fun to see her.

Gunnison Valley High School partial class of 1988. (photo by Darren Clark)

After that we went home and Tracie got all the kids to wash our cars. What a good sister!

Tracie, Kaitlin, Jared, and Kevin working hard -- at least two of them were working hard.

Ethan working hard.

The little ones trying to get Grandpa wet. It was risky going out there to take pictures. Luckily my "you'd better not" look was good enough to scare them away.

Watching fireworks, notice how tightly Jake is hugging Tracie. He wasn't a big fan of the noisy fireworks.

Our camping trip

2008-07-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July weekend we went camping with the Bartholomew family at 12 Mile Flats in the Manti-Lasal forest. Right after the t-ball game on July 2nd we made the long drive from Rexburg to Fayette and another hour beyond that to the mountains. We spent Wed night on the mountain and most of the day Thursday, as well. After 4th of July festivities in Gunnison we came back up Friday and stayed until Saturday morning. Kevin, Ethan, Brianna, Kaitlin and I hiked up to Camel Rock on Thursday morning. Darren had taken our camera for his big fish so I used my Mom's camera. I don't have those pictures to post but maybe my mom will post them. I used to hike up there when I was a kid so it brought back fun memories.

Ethan and Mom around the campfire.

Andy, Brianna, Ami, and Jenna. Those cheeseballs Brianna is holding were a very popular treat. My parents' trailor door was orange when camping was done.

Kaitlin and Ben

Darren spent most of his time fishing. Here is one of his catches. He looks pretty handsome in all his fisherman getup.

Jacob trying to get to sleep in the tent. Or maybe I should say me trying to get Jake to sleep. He had no intention of going to sleep.

Jacob helping my mom and dad make ice cream. He was helping practically the entire time.

Ben teaching Kevin to drive the 4 wheeler.

The place Jacob spent most of his time -- the dirt. Next time I am bringing double the clothes for him.

One of the camp cooks.

T-ball is Done!

2008-07-12T16:41:00.001-07:00

Our last game was on July 2. This is most of the team. We had three others (two were girls) but they didn't come as regularly.

Heise Hot Springs

2008-07-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

We don't have a public swimming pool in Rexburg. We can go to the college to swim but the shallowest part is 4 feet so it's not the best one to take short kids. About a month ago the boys talked us into going to Heise Hot Springs to swim. (I know, I should have posted this a month ago.) I didn't really feel like going but we went and it was fun. They have a regular pool with a diving board, a water slide, a warm pool, and a hot tub type small pool. We didn't pay for the water slide this time because it's expensive enough to take a whole family just to the pools. But we had a good time. Our favorite is the warm pool. We went again last night and just payed for the warm pool. Here are some pictures Darren took that first time.

10K 2008

2008-06-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

Today was my anual 10K race with the Teton Dam Marathon. It was a harder race this year than last year. If any of you are familiar with Rexburg, two of the miles in the middle of the race were up Millhollow road (which is a steep, long hill). My goal was to beat my time from last year but I took a few minutes longer this year because of the hill. At the awards ceremony, though, I was surprised to hear my name called out as second place in women 35-39, especially since I was 2/3 of the way back in the line of runners. But the older you get the less people your age run, so the better your chances are of winning a medal. In some of the groups 50 or older their were only two places because there were only two people running in that age group. Because we live in a college town, there are a lot of 18-30 year old runners.

Zoo

2008-06-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

If you have read Tracie's most recent blog posting, then you already know we went to the zoo in Idaho Falls. It's not a big zoo, nothing like the Hogle Zoo. But it is a nice small zoo that is fun to go to a couple of times a year without big crowds or expensive prices. Here are some pictures I had. Most of the time I was using the video camera but I did get a few still shots.

The boys in front of the zoo.

Kevin pretending he's an otter.

The boys and Tracie on the tiger. I didn't notice Jacob was biting Ethan's jacket when I took the picture. I'm not sure why he's doing that but he's probably pretending to be a tiger.

Catching Up

2008-06-05T11:27:00.001-07:00

I've been a slacker and haven't updated my blog for a while. I've had things to put on it but just haven't done it. So this will be a long post.
A weekend or so before school got out, it was a warm day/night. So Darren put up the tent and the boys invited their friends over for a sleepover. I wasn't sure they would make it all night, especially Ethan, but they did and they had a great time.

Ethan, Kevin, Layton, and Daylen in front of the tent.

T-ball started on Tuesday. I am the coach so I didn't get to take any pictures. My neighbor, however, did and she was nice enough to share them with me. So here are two pictures of Ethan and T-ball. He was so excited for his first game and he did a good job. We just have to work on the kids actually getting the ball when they are in the outfield instead of just watching it roll past them.

Ethan and his buddy, Jud.

Ethan running to third base.

We finally got some shrubs planted in the front of our house. We planted burning bushes and another one I can't remember the name of right now. Darren will know.

Ready for planting.

Darren and Jon planting. My job was to photograph.

All planted.

Darren posted about our trip to feed the fish. Here are some of my photos from the trip.

Darren with a stonefly on a stick.

Darren was photographing the stonefly on his own hand but decided he needed someone else to hold it. He knew that the only other person in our family that would hold it was Ethan. Here is Ethan patiently holding it so Darren could photograph it. Ethan ended up taking it home as a "pet".

Ethan and Kevin feeding the fish.

Darren feeding the fish.

Last Saturday we attended Pack Meeting. It was a hike along the Cress Creek trail south of Rexburg and then roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Kevin, Ethan and me went to it while Darren stayed home with Jacob.

Ethan wanted to roast a hot dog but didn't dare get close enough to the fire to roast it. I ended up doing it for him.

Kevin hates hot dogs but wanted to roast one so he roasted a hot dog for me.

They had a tug of war at the end. Kevin is on the end.

Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

2008-05-15T12:05:00.001-07:00

Spring has finally come to Rexburg.

I also have to add my experience I had this morning. Last week I saw advertised in the newspaper that there would be swimming lessons put on by the city this summer. Now that might not sound all that cool to some of you but to people in Rexburg it is a cool thing. We don't have a city pool and the fitness center that used to offer swimming lessons sold out to a security company a couple of years ago. The college has offered some lessons in the past but that building is under construction so they haven't been offered there, either. So anyone who wanted swimming lessons had to go to another city to get them. This year the city contracted with the security company to use their pool for lessons. Sign ups were today from 9 - 5, Friday evening and Saturday morning. I told Darren I was going to get our kids signed up right at 9 on Thursday morning so I could get first pick of the times and be sure my kids got a spot. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one thinking that way. I guess people started lining up way before 9 am so when I got there at 9:20 am there were probably over 100 people ahead of me. And most of them weren't just signing up one kid, either. We waited for two hours and there were still a lot of people ahead of us. I had to keep bribing Ethan and Jacob with McDonald's so they would be patient. (And they were pretty good.) Finally the mayor and a couple of other city workers decided to make up a form we could fill out and just leave. They kept the forms in the order we were in line so it was like our paper was taking our place in line. If they hadn't have done that we would have been in line for probably 1 1/2- 2 more hours. I'm not sure if my kids will get in. I hope it was worth the wait. But I guess we'll see. Hopefully this emphasized to the city how much we really do need and want a city pool. And we did have lunch at McDonald's.

Trip to Utah

2008-05-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

We decided to go to Salt Lake this weekend at the last minute for Carrie and Nalani's baby blessings. Here are some photos from the trip:

Actually, this was before we left. It's just a shot of the boys watching TV in my room. I think it's funny that they like to lay on the bare hardwood floor and watch. Doesn't sound very comfy to me.

This is Ethan and Kevin at Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake. We had never been there but the boys, especially Jacob, loved it.

Another photo at Wheeler Farm. Kevin and Jake throwing rocks in the water. We had to keep telling them to throw away from the birds. There was a pair of Canada geese on this stream and two little babies.

Carrie's baby's blessing was at 9 am. We stayed for the entire Sacrament Meeting and then went to Orem/Lindon to Nalani's baby's blessing at 1:00 pm. We made it through the sacrament on that one and the boys just couldn't sit through another sacrament meeting. So I suggested we just take them outside and wait. We found some lawn outside the church to sit on and after we had been there a short while I saw a snake on the cement. Apparently there are a bunch of garter snakes that live in the crack of the cement by this railing. So, Jed and Nalani, you have snakes that live at your church. Darren thinks they spent the winter there. Above is a picture of the boys looking in the crack at the snakes. There were quite a few in there. Once the snakes realized we were there they stayed in the crack. So for those of you that don't like snakes, don't worry, they were inside most of the time.

Here you can kind of see a part of a snake sticking out.

Darren, of course, had to play with one of them. He put it on the grass and it quickly slithered under a fence. There was a dog on the other side of the fence and I could kind of see between the boards of the fence that dog was interested in the snake that just came into his territory. I don't know the final verdict of the snake vs dog.

Carl had a tree that needed to be planted and he had problems with his eye this weekend. He put Darren and Sam to work planting it. They did a great job!

Pirates from Grammar Island

2008-04-18T12:50:00.004-07:00

Kevin's class performed a play about grammar today. It was called Pirates from Grammar Island and he played an antonym. This is my first attempt at putting video on here so I hope it works. I missed his one line speaking part but here is a clip of a song he sang.

Cookie Story

2008-04-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

Kevin has been into cooking lately. He wanted to make some cookies Sunday afternoon so I gave him the recipe and stood by while he made them. I've been trying to teach him abbreviations on recipes so this recipe only had c's, t's, or T's instead of the measurements being spelled out. He was doing pretty well until he carried the full flour canister back to the other side of the kitchen and dropped it. It shattered and, because it was full, flour was everywhere in the kitchen as well as small pieces of sharp canister. What a mess! I cleaned that up and let him keep making the cookies. But that also meant I wasn't watching what he was doing. When he was done I tasted the cookie dough and almost gagged. It was way, way salty. He had put 1/4 cup salt in instead of 1/4 teaspoon. And he had tasted it before me and said it was good. I guess the kid needs some help with his palate. I made him taste it again and he realized what I was talking about. So we started over and I watched him more carefully this time. The whole process of mixing up a batch of cookies took almost an hour when I could have done it in 5-10 minutes. It was a patience tester but kind of a funny story, too. I know my mom probably went through similar situations when she was teaching me to cook, even though I don't remember them. I appreciate her patience with me. His cookies did turn out fine in the end and I think he learned to read recipes more carefully. I should have taken pictures but it didn't cross my mind at the time.

2008-04-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago when we were in Utah, we went to IKEA to spend our gift certificates from Christmas and Darren's birthday. We really did only plan to spend the gift certificates but ended up buying two dressers as well. Kevin and Ethan have been using 3 drawer rubbermaid drawers for a long time as their dressers and I was really tired of those. IKEA has very reasonably priced dressers and I suggested we just go ahead and get them. So we did. However, once we got them home they had to be put together. So here are Kevin and Ethan putting together their dressers while Darren and Jon watch :-)

(You can totally tell the above picture is posed by the magazine Jon is "reading")
Here's what really happened: (Darren also helped, even though it doesn't look like it in the picture)

One of the finished dressers. Thanks to Jon for, once again, helping out with a home project. He had helped put some together for his Mom's house and had great experience. The pictures on the wall are all crooked because the boys keep taking out the tacks that hang them up and they are only hanging with one tack each.

And below is a random picture from this weekend. Some of Darren's family was here for a family wedding and we did some fun things but this is the only picture I took for some reason. Darren and Carrie have some on their blogs. This picture is Darren and Jacob by the Snake River on the Idaho Falls greenbelt. The sun is in their eyes and that is why Jacob's are closed.

New Orleans!!

2008-04-03T12:53:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of our fabulous trip to New Orleans, the big easy. Unfortunately, the battery died on our camera the first full day we were there and I didn't bring the charger. So most of the pictures we have are on Darren's camera. He will have to post those to his blog. I did get a lot of use out of the video camera so if I can figure out how to post some of those, I will. These are all pictures from our first day there.

Part of the French Quarter - taken by Darren

One of the delicious restaurants we ate at. It was also in the French Quarter. You can kind of see some of the surrounding buildings.

We didn't have a car there so a lot of our transportation was on the cable cars. We spent some time waiting for the cars to come. This is how Darren made good use of his time on one of those waits.

At the convention the students in our group went to, they had vendors like Crayola, Roseart, etc giving out freebies. We came home with a lot of art supplies and this is Ethan putting them to good use.

Jackson Square

2008-04-03T12:36:00.001-07:00

Jackson Square is a park/square in New Orleans with a big statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse in the middle of the park. It is surrounded by a lot of benches, a fountain and beautiful flowers and trees. Right outside of the square is a beautiful old Catholic church. I don't remember the name of the church --- I'm thinking St Andrews??-- but maybe someone will help me out in the comments. Anyway, it is one of the oldest Catholic churches around. The outside doesn't look that old because they work hard to keep it up. But here are some pictures on the outside and inside. Darren took all of these pictures so I hope I don't get in trouble for posting them. But he usually doesn't post anything from my snapshot camera and these were on the snapshot camera. They deserve to be posted because he did a great job. I am giving him credit, though :-)

Jackson Square with a beautiful Live Oak tree and some azaelas.

The Catholic church

A painting and one of many statues inside the church. These were at the very front behind the altar.

Some of the candles burning. You could purchase a candle to burn in the gift shop.

Holy water

One of many stained glass windows.

Me sitting on one of the pews.

Easter 2008

2008-04-03T12:32:00.001-07:00

Happy late Easter! I forgot to post Easter pictures until I saw them on everyone else's blogs.

The boys with their Easter baskets

Kevin painting eggs.

Ethan showing off his newly colored egg.
Jacob was thankfully asleep during egg coloring time.

Rebecca's Tag

2008-03-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

This is an answer to Rebecca's tag. The question is: How did you choose the names for your children?
I'm afraid there are no amazing stories here. For our first child there was really only one name Darren wanted and that was Kevin. So at the hospital I gave in. For the other two I wrote down a bunch of names I liked from the baby book, and gave the list to Darren. He vetoed most of them but agreed to the ones we chose, Ethan and Jacob. Middle names, though, are family names. Kevin's middle name, William, is after Darren's grandfather. Ethan's middle name, Darren, is obviously after his father. Jacob's middle name, Keith, is after my dad.

My personality

2008-03-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here is my personality map. Thanks, Carrie, it was fun. For those of you that don't know how to do it, just put the cursor over one of the colors and it will show you what it represents. The bigger the square, the more I have in my personality.

Darren's b-day

2008-03-14T19:33:00.001-07:00

March 6 was Darren's birthday so here are some pictures of the big celebration. Better late than never. Enjoy!

Darren lighting his own cake.

The pose before blowing them out.

One of Darren's presents.

Another of Darren's presents. For Christmas last year (from work) he got a triple combination and this past year he got a Bible. He was excited because he has needed some new ones. So I bought him a new scripture case for Christmas to go with them. One of the first weeks he took them to church he left them there and we have never been able to find them. Of course, his name wasn't in them either. So he got some new ones for his birthday. And his name was on them this time.

Ice Removal

2008-03-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

This winter, as the snow on our roof has started to melt, it formed a huge overhang of ice. It was pretty hazardous. If a piece fell it was probably big enough to hurt someone or something it fell upon. We quit parking next to the house. Yesterday I was inside fixing dinner and I heard huge banging sounds. I was about to go yell at the kids to quit banging on whatever they were banging but then I looked out the window. Darren had gotten home from work and was trying to knock the ice down with a broken handle of a shovel or hoe or something like that. So I ran and got the camera to document it. I was a big "help".

Darren hitting at the ice (and the mini van in the background).

Chunks of ice falling.

Chunks of ice falling on Darren. It did hit him on the arm/hand and made him bleed. Good thing it wasn't on his head.

Some of the ice on the ground.

Clark's New Ride

2008-02-25T18:28:00.000-08:00

Some of you already know that last Monday we bought a new minivan. It is a Toyota Sienna and we love it! I should have taken a picture earlier but didn't and now Darren has my camera. So I'll post a picture later. Anyway, it's a great car. The story I want to post tonight is the sale of our Geo Prism. I looked on the Kelly's Blue Book website and found that for the condition and miles of our car I could sell it for $1800. We priced it at $1200 or best offer so that it would sell fast. Darren said if I sold it, I could decide what to do with the money. So today I contacted the local papers to put adds in the classifieds and I also put a "for sale" sign in the car itself. This week I planned to drive that car around and park it on the street at work so it would be more visible. Tonight I drove it to Albertsons to pick up some chicken for dinner (it was cheap chicken Monday). A couple met me at the deli counter and asked if I was the one selling the car. I said I was and they said they were interested. So they met me at our house about an hour later, test drove the car, and offered me $1000 for it. Darren and I had already decided that we would accept that if someone offered. So I sold my car in one day. And that's my story.

Deep Copper

2008-02-16T13:01:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago Kristi came over and helped me paint the kitchen. A few months ago we took the wallpaper down and it has been that way ever since - which means it wasn't looking very pretty. So here is what the new phase looks like. When it finally warms up and dries up enough outside we will do the cabinets and trim. More on that later. Darren and I attempted to change the outlets to white but found that it's more complicated then we thought. We figured the old ones would have to do for now.

Kristi on top of the fridge. She looks like she's having fun, doesn't she?

Finished product

Another finished product

Space Derby

2008-02-02T15:16:00.001-08:00

I am supposed to be doing taxes right not but the software is not working as it should (actually it's probably me not knowing what to do with it on our Mac). So I have to wait for Darren to help me and decided to make good use of my time by updating my blog. I have a lot of pictures for blog entries so the next three entries are new. Make sure you check all of them out :-) You never know what you might miss.

Thursday night was Kevin's first Space Derby at pack meeting.

Here are Darren, Kevin, and Ethan sanding down the rocket.

This is what Jake was doing during the rocket making. He was more interested in dinosaurs at the time.

Putting the finishing touches on the rocket.

Getting ready for the rocket to fly. Darren and I often take turns going to Kevin's functions because Jacob is at a difficult age to take to some of them. Darren usually goes to pack meeting but decided he wanted a break from this one. That was fine with me because it was my turn to go. That is, it was fine with me until I got there and realized this was almost as much a dad event as it was a cub scout event. I was the only mom helping a scout. There were moms there watching but it was the dads that were involved the most. Then when they told me his rocket wasn't ready to fly I did not know what to do. I hadn't done anything with making it, that was all Darren. So I didn't know what it needed. I had to borrow a pocket knife from one of the dads, look at someone else's finished rocket, attempt to make some notches in the bottom and borrow a piece from another scout to make the rocket ready. We did get it done and Kevin's rocket won both times it raced. So it all worked out in the end. But we will know at the next derby, Darren must be there. And in all fairness to Darren, he didn't know it would be such a dad event, either.

Kevin and his winning rocket.

Kevin's rocket "in the air". His opponent's rocket didn't even make it far enough to be in the picture.

Miscellaneous

2008-02-02T15:10:00.001-08:00

Below are some miscellaneous pictures I have taken recently to use on my blog but have never added them. Since they don't really go with any other pictures, I have just combined them.

Our beautiful blooming Christmas Cactus.

The serving bowls my parents brought me back from Costa Rica. They worked great when we had taco soup.

Kevin and Jacob doing their morning ritual - watching cartoons in my bed. Ethan requested that I take this picture so I did it to humor him. But it is cute.

Snow

2008-02-02T15:01:00.001-08:00

You've all seen Darren's blog and the many winter photographs he has been taking. In fact, he's out right now doing some more. Here are my snow photographs. I know, they don't compare to his but it's the best I can do.

Darren shoveling snow. Look how much snow we have shoveled from our driveway this year. It's almost as tall as Darren is.

This is the flower bed by our front door. I love this spot for early blooming flowers because it is against the south side of our house and is the first place the snow melts completely. In the past four winters we have lived in this house the crocuses start popping up in late February, early March. I don't think it's going to be as early this year.

Ethan and Kevin like to come out and "help" us shovel the driveway. They get the shovels out for about two minutes and move snow around, then play in the snow. Here Ethan has made a bed in the snow.

Kevin's bed in the big pile of snow next to the driveway.

All the boys on the sled at Snowfest (see Darren's blog for more info/pictures on that).

Our Sunday morning/early afternoon

2008-01-21T10:32:00.001-08:00

This year we get to go to church at 2:00 pm. I've never done that before, and, to be honest, it's not my favorite time to go to church. But it does leave a lot of time in the mornings to do things. We are still trying to get our routine worked out. Darren and I have decided to try and put Jake down for his nap at 11:30 or 12:00. So yesterday morning I wanted to put him in the bathtub and get him all ready for church before his nap. That way we could wake him up right before church and he would be ready to go. His hair was looking really long and unkempt. I decided to get out the clippers and cut his hair before I put him in the bathtub. He's not the most cooperative kid at getting his hair cut. In fact, he hates it. He had tears rolling down his face and all the hairs that fell onto his face stuck to the tears. I had Kevin take some pictures but he didn't get very close. When I was two thirds of the way done the clippers broke and I couldn't get them to stay together long enough to finish. About this time, Darren woke up from his nap ( or maybe Jake's screaming woke him up?). He tried to fix them, gave up and went to Walgreens to get some new ones. Then I held Jake while he finished the hair cut. By that time there was hair all over the bathroom , Jake and me. I put Jake in the tub while I worked on Ethan's hair. His haircut went much quicker. Just as he as getting in the tub with Jake, he noticed something in the tub that wasn't supposed to be there. Lets just say Jake had done something in the tub that would have been easier to clean up in his diaper. I quickly pulled Jake out of the tub which caused a lot of water to get all over the hair on the floor of the bathroom. We got the tub cleaned up, new water put in and kids back in the tub. Then tackled the bathroom mess. It turned out to be a not so relaxing Sunday morning/early afternoon.