Progress

I'm making progress.....
I received the pre-lit tree I bought last week and it took me 3 days to get it up and decorated because I have been so busy with work. BUT, it is now up and looks great. We made gingerbread houses and delivered to Trevin's teacher. Last night we did our shopping for the Sub For Santa families we have. We got little boys this year, so we had fun shopping for snowboots, coats, and monster trucks. We will deliver them next Monday night for our family night activity.
Tyrel has been busy practicing after school for the Christmas band concert which is this Friday. Travis has been busy IMing his friends. Trevin has started basketball practice. Hopefully we will hear from the coach for the other boys soon.
I got the Christmas cards made, addressed, stuffed in envelopes with letter and pictures, sealed and delivered. Look for yours coming soon to a mailbox near you!
We had the Smith Family party in Lehi. I went to the Relief Society Christmas dinner last week and the ward Christmas breakfast was moved to the 15th, so we will be going there this Saturday morning. SO far things are moving smoothly. I believe we will be ready for Christmas. My only worry is the neighbor gifts....I have been so busy with work lately that I don't have time for anything extra, but we have such great neighbors, I know I am going to have to find time somewhere. Maybe the boys can help me when they get out of school for the holidays. Hopefully work will be slow that week before Christmas also.
We finally got snow over the weekend! I went to town Saturday early evening to pick up Travis from working on a video he was making for his English class with his book group and the roads were really slick. We were coming up the road to our house and saw a car take out about 20 feet of white vinyl fence and keep on driving. I wish I could have got the lisence plate number but the roads and visibility were really bad. Travis said he wishes they would have got stuck so that they would be forced to be accountable for what they did. I hope they come back and admit to it and take care of it. Well, I'm getting emails for work, so I'd better end for now.

I'm Making a List .....

.....and checking it twice. LOL So much to do and so little time. I believe I've said that before. I feel like I am behind this year. Mainly because I ordered a pre-lit tree and it isn't here yet, so I haven't decorated and also because it isn't cold enough and I can't get in the mood. We did have a little snow yesterday, it just looked like a powdered sugar dusting though. So here is my list of what I normally do between Thanksgiving and Christmas (just in case anyone cares)
Decorate (boys have their tree up, but that is all that is done so far, hope my new tree gets here soon)
Get Christmas Cards Out (have cards made, and pictures developed, just need to print off the letter and mail)
Christmas Shopping (usually do this on Veteran's Day every year - DONE)
Wrapping Presents - DONE
Gingerbread Houses - scheduled for first Monday in December - when I was a kid we made these and gave to our school teachers for Christmas. I have continued this tradition with my kids and now that I only have 1 in elementary, we only have 1 to give away, but my older boys still make one and eat it themselves!
Sub for Santa Family - family requested, shopping scheduled for 2nd Monday in December, deliver scheduled for 3rd Monday in December (we do this every year)
Neighbor Gifts - scheduled to be delivered the week of the 17th - I make pumpkin bread, so we usually have to deliver 8 loaves a day unless I find more time in a day to do more baking. I tried doing something other than pumpkin bread one year and my neighbors were mad at me, so we are back to the pumpkin bread!
Ward Christmas Party - Scheduled for December 8th
Relief Society Christmas Party - Scheduled for December 4th
Smith Family Christmas Party - Sean's extended family party complete with soup, breadsticks, treats, a Pinata and Santa - scheduled for December 7th
Evers Family Christmas Party - Fancy dinner prepared by Kenalou scheduled for December 22nd
I'm sure Sean will have a work party thrown in there somewhere and we also usually have a friend party with all of our old friends from when we were first married, but we haven't been contacted yet by whoever is in charge this year.
Christmas Eve - make cookies for Santa - we leave cookies, 8 carrots for reindeer, egg nog, and string cheese (this tradition comes from a dairy council commercial on TV quite a few years ago)
then we sing songs with Sean playing the guitar, read the Christmas story from Luke, open 1 present - PJ's, go to bed
Christmas Day - Open presents, go to Sean's parents house for Christmas Morning Casserole, juice, and eggnog, come back home and play! Then Sean's family usually comes up to our house in the evening for spiral honey baked ham, rolls, and everyone's leftover neighbor gift snacks.
THEN WE HOST THE ANNUAL NEW YEARS EVE PARTY AT OUR HOUSE.
Whew! I hope I can make it through the month.

Busy, Busy, Busy....

I haven't written in a while. This time of year is always crazy. Last week we had our Young Women Evening of Excellence, so I was busy the week before that making invitations (which turned out way cute if I don't say so myself). The theme was "The Beauty Within" and the girls all got makeovers (makeup and hair) before and we borrowed a bunch of formals from women and girls in the ward for them to dress up in. They all looked beautiful. The boys escorted them to their seats for the dinner with their parents and then the boys also served dinner. The deacons didn't get invited to help (ha ha). But the Teachers did, so Travis got to dress up and he did look mighty nice. I had to give the lesson on Sunday so that took up some time. It takes a lot more preparation to teach the young women than it did to teach the 4 year olds I had in Primary before I got this new calling.

This week is Thanksgiving. In Sunday School our teacher had us go around the room and everyone had to say something we were thankful for but there couldn't be any repeats. All of the ones I could think of got taken before it got to me (family, good health, nice area to live in, etc) So by the time it got to me I was afraid there woudn't be anything left. I decided at the last minute that I am thankful for having the Priesthood in my home. Pretty good one huh?!!

I guess I'll have to end this for now. Thanksgiving is at my house, so I have to get cleaning done today because the boys will be home tomorrow and I have pies to make tomorrow to get ready for the big day!

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving and remember to think about all of things you are thankful for this year!

Oatmeal Disaster, NOT!

Okay, I have to tell a funny story. On Sunday morning I woke up thinking I would be a good wife and mom and make everyone a nice hot breakfast before church. So, I made oatmeal and when I was done I sent Trevin to round everyone up. He came back to the kitchen by himself and said, "Mom, isn't it Fast Sunday?" So, needless to say, I then had 5 cups of leftover cooked oatmeal and I really didn't think it would warm up very good the next morning YUCK! So, I set out to look for recipes that used leftover cooked oatmeal. I had never seen one, all recipes normally call for oatmeal uncooked. Anywho, I found this recipe for bread made with leftover oatmeal, made 5 loaves and it is wonderful, so I thought I would share it.
Oatmeal Bread
1 c. leftover cooked oatmeal
1 c. warm ater
1/8 c. brown sugar
2-4 c. flour
1 tsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. salt
In mixing bowl, stir oatmeal and water together to break up oatmeal. Sprinkle yeast on top. Let sit for 10 minutes. Add brown sugar, salt and 1 c. flour and mix to combine into wet dough. Add additional flour, mixing well after each addition until he dough comes together into a rough dough. When dough holds together, turn onto awell floured counter. Knead, adding more flour as needed, for 2-3 minutes. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. Knead for another 3-5 minutes adding more flour as needed. Surface should be smooth and not sticky. Place dough in bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. Punch down and shape into loaf. Place in a bread pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cover and let rise until double again. Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 30 minutes. Butter top of loaf. Dump out of pan and let cool an hour before slicing. This makes a really moist loaf of bread. Yummy.
That's all! It wasn't so bad of a disaster after all.

3 TIME SUPERBOWL CHAMPS

We had the most exciting end of seasons ever for flag football. Trevin's team lost over half of their games during the season, most of them just by a couple of points. Last Thursday they began their playoffs and won their game with each team scoring 2 touchdowns each in the last few minutes. We went for 3 extra points on one of ours and that made the difference in the final score. Saturday morning they had their quarter-final playoff game and they were able to beat the other Elk Ridge team, the Chargers. Last night they had their semi final playoff game against the Broncos and won amazingly by a huge score of something like 59 to 63. Then right after that we had to play the final Superbowl agains the 49ers. After a hard fought battle with the other coach playing all 9 of his players at one point and the refs "didn't see it" (each team is supposed to only have 6 players on the field at at time), we came out on top and won 36 to 37. It was pretty cool! So, Travis, Tyrel, and Trevin all won the Superbowl this year with their respective teams.

Halloween is over and I'm already hearing Christmas music on the radio. It's kind of weird because it is still so warm here. Trevin was a Ninja for Halloween. Tyrel went for his last year of trick-or-treating with his friend Tyler. Travis didn't get to go this year. He said we are kind of mean that way. He thought he should still get to go. But, he went with some of his friends and watched a movie and then had air soft gun wars in the dark. He had a lot of fun, but wanted candy so I gave him a full bag we had left over and that seemed to satisfy him.

Trevin has been busy practicing for his talk in the Sacrament meeting program next week. The boys all got their report cards last week also. Trevin is the only one in his class that hasn't missed a spelling word yet this year and got E's (for Excellent) in every category. Tyrel got all A's and A-'s. Travis got mostly A's with a couple of B+'s. They are all doing very well and I'm proud of them.

Travis is getting way too tall. He is 1" shy of 6' now. Trevin has already outgrown his school pants and looks like an orphan. Hopefully Santa will bring him some pants. Tyrel is pretty average for his age, a little on the taller side but seems to grow at a steady pace instead of all at once.

Oh, I did make it to my scrapbooking goal of 365 pages. Actually I am currently at 389. WOO HOO! Now I just need to get the journaling done on them.

I had my first sale at my new online store yesterday. I was so excited. I am still in the process of getting it set up, but drop by and see it if you have time. http://www.kraftykuts.biz/


That's all for now.

Got a 2 Point

Well, what should I write about today? It seems like such an uneventful life without football consuming our every waking moment. Actually Trevin is playing flag football still, but it isn't near the time consumer that tackle was for the older boys.

Travis got his braces off this week and got his retainer. His teeth look really good. It is also end of term this week, so both Travis and Tyrel have been busy making up missing assignments to get in before it is over. I can't understand why they don't turn it in when they do it the first time. They always seem to get lost if they don't get turned in right away and then they don't get full credit for them. They both have been getting good grades anyway though.

Tyrel got his braces on two weeks ago. So, we are in for another 2 years of orthodontist appointments. He is also taking CERT training and had to spend 13 hours last Saturday in his class and gets to spend another 4 or 5 hours this Saturday. He said last Saturday was the longest day of his life. But he will get 3 merit badges for completing the training, so I think it is worth it even if he doesn't.

Trevin has been practicing his talk for the Primary program this past week. We went to his parent teacher conference this morning and he is the only kid in his class that hasn't missed a spelling word yet this year. His other grades were all really good also. He just needs to work on the neatness of his handwriting. That seems like the report we got every parent teacher conference through elementary for all three of our boys.

Sean was gone over last weekend and up through Tuesday on the deer hunt. He was kind of bummed that Kevin and Kathy weren't there this year, but he had fun and got a deer. It wasn't a monster, but it will do. We just finished cutting and wrapping it up a few minutes ago.

That is all that is going on with us. My dad is doing great after his surgery. The physical therapist said he is where most people are after 6 months of therapy and it has only been 6 weeks, so I guess that means all is going well. He meets with the surgeon the first week of November.

Take care.

SUPERBOWL

Football is over. Yes, I am kind of sad about it. It was fun to watch my boys play and I really did enjoy the games. I am glad the practices are over. It kind of takes a toll on family time when there is practice every night from 5:30 to 7:00. Then we just rush home, eat, take showers and go to bed. But anyway here are the standings for the Superbowl.

Travis - won his final game 39-0 and then WON THE SUPERBOWL 12-6. His favorite position that he played this year was noseguard. Here is his photo!


Tyrel - WON THE SUPERBOWL 13-12. It was a close game, but they managed to pull it off. Here is a picture of him tackling the running back.

Trevin - had his first flag football game and won 39-21 with Trevin scoring one of the touchdowns! I missed it because it was at the same time as Travis' game, but Dad said he did great! He was pretty excited. He had his 2nd game last Saturday and lost. I don't even remember the score, but it was pretty sad. It was Fall Break, so there were lots of kids missing, but the few remaining hung in there despite the rain. Trevin got to play center. Here is his picture!

We went to take our annual family pictures on Conference weekend. They turned out pretty well but you will all have to wait to see when you get your Christmas cards. Sean thought we should all wear Steelers sweatshirts, but I refuse to have bright yellow clothes on for a family photo, so we settled on BYU hoodies and T-shirts.

I had set a goal to do 365 scrapbook pages this year. I've done pretty well. To date I am at 350, so I believe I should be able to get those last 15 pages done before the end of the year. Now I just need to get caught up on the journaling for all of those pages. That will have to be my goal for next year. Actually, I am about 3 years behind on journaling in my scrapbooks. OOPS!

Reflections

I had the following article published on a scrapbooking website a couple of months ago. I'm thinking it has been there a while and they will probably be taking it down soon, so I thought I would put it on here so I would remember it.


I have been REFLECTING on why I scrapbook…… I do it because I love it! It is my hobby and my escape. I also scrapbook because my family loves it. My boys love to sit and look through their books (even as teenagers) Wow, am I old enough to have teenagers? This got me thinking and REFLECTING on why I scrapbook for them.
My husband is my life. He loves me and supports me unconditionally and there is no way to thank him enough for what he does for me and for our children. I made him an ABC album for Father's Day a few years ago about the reasons I love him. It was the one and only Father's Day gift I have ever given him that he cried over when he opened and started going through it. It was a total surprise to him because I worked on it while they were all gone on a Father and Son's outing for church and I was home alone for the weekend. He is the greatest husband and father ever!
Travis…my 14 year old…when I REFLECT on Travis I think about how patient he is. He can be trying to watch a movie or playing a video game and have all of the little nieces and nephews crawling on him, shooting him with sponge darts, stealing his hat, and he never gets impatient or mad at them. He just takes it all and loves them and that is why I think patience is his best quality and one of the many things that makes me love him and makes me want to scrapbook for him to show him in one more way that I love him.
Tyrel…my newest teenager…REFLECTING on Tyrel's traits always makes me think about what a loving person he is. He can have ornery looks and he tries to show attitude, but deep down inside he is a pushover. He is always the one that gives hugs and kisses to everyone after family prayer each evening before he goes to bed, and they are not just like I get from the other boys because they are part of the routine, I can tell through his hugs that he really loves and appreciates everything that we, his parents, do for him, including scrapbooking his sporting events.
Trevin…my baby…who is not really a baby anymore, he just turned 8, but when I REFLECT on what I love so much about him it is because he is my baby, and I find that I love (and am also sad about) scrapbooking the last baby blessing, the last kindergarten graduation, the last baptism, the last pack night award ceremony, and there will be many more lasts as he brings up the caboose of our family, but he also gets the benefit of me knowing what I am doing when I scrapbook now. Or at least I think I do. I'm sure in 5 more years I will look back and think, “I could have done better on that page.
Well, this is pretty lengthy, but I did want to REFLECT on why I love everyone and because of that, I keep scrapbooking.

Sports and More Sports

Well, first off I have to apologize for getting behind. It has been a crazy week!

I'll start off with sports. Most new stations end with sports, so I thought I'd be different. Tyrel's game 2 weeks ago Saturday they won 36-0, last Wednesday they won 48-0, and last Saturday they won 12-6. He has another game tonight and then will have his Superbowl on Saturday. It has been a fun season and in a way I'm sad to see it end. We all love the games, but I will be glad to not have to run around to practices every day. Tyrel thinks he is going to go back to soccer next year. He likes it a little better than football to play, but he loves to watch football and is one of the most avid Steelers fans you will find. His room is even decorated wall to wall with Steeler stuff.

Travis' team won their game last night 12-0 against their rivals, the other Payson team. It was a really good game, but it is getting kind of cold for these night games. They won their Saturday game 20-0 and had a bye the previous Tuesday, so only 2 scores for him. I, being the great mother and photographer that I am, left my card in my computer last week when I was dowloading pictures, so I was clicking away at the Saturday games last week and went to look at the pictures I had taken and lo and behold, there were none! UGGH! I have it safely in the camera now, so hopefully I can get some this Saturday. It is too dark at the weeknight games for me to get pictures. The field is lighted, but I can't get a decent photo ever.

Trevin tied at his game last week 0-0. That seems to be a popular score. All of the teams are pretty evenly matched this year. Tonight is his last soccer game and he starts flag football on Saturday. He is pretty excited for his first year of football. They are already asking me when they get to start basketball. I'm glad that there will be a little break before that starts although it isn't as bad because they only practice a couple of times a week instead of every day.

We want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts concerning my dad. He had his surgery last Wednesday. It was a long a stressful day for everyone but worth it. It went great! He ended up having a hemangioblastoma which is the fancy word for a mass of blood vessels. The Dr. said it was scary for a bit when he got to them and they started bleeding, but once he got all of them stopped everything looked clear and normal. They had ordered up blood, but for some reason Dad's red blood cell count was really high and once they got everything stopped it was back down to normal, so there was no need for a transfusion. They also said that it wasn't cancer and that it as a very low chance of growing back. He was released on Saturday which was a couple of days earlier than they thought and has been here at our house since Sunday to be closer to physical therapy for this week. It has been great to have him here and hope he enjoys his stay with us as much as we enjoy having him here. Here is a cute picture of him in his cap and gown before surgery. Sorry dad, I couldn't resist.

We are having family pictures this weekend as long as the weather cooperates. We did have snow earlier this week which seems really early for this time of year and more storms are coming later this week, so I hope we can get them done since we all just got our hair cut and are ready to go. Will post pictures next time I update.

Play by Play

We've had some sad news this week. We found out that my dad has a tumor in his brain and will probably be having surgery within the next couple of weeks. So, please remember him in your prayers. It has been kind of a tough week but we are all trying to stay positive. I will try to keep you updated. We love you dad!

All of us at our house have been battling head colds this past week. Trevin had one at the end of last week, Sean went home from church Sunday with one and I came down with one on Tuesday. Hopefully the other two boys won't get it.


I finally got a decent picture of Tyrel at his game this week. He almost had an interception but it was a little too high. He lost a heartbreaker of a game on Saturday. They were winning 6-0, the other team was about to score and we got the ball on the 5 yard line. Coach for some reason had them do a reverse that close to the end zone and the other team sacked our quarterback and got a safety, score is now 6-2 but we are still winning. The boys played great and held them off for most of the game. Then with 52 seconds left in the game the other team threw a long pass and they caught it in the endzone and beat us 6-8. There was some really sad looking football players at the end of that game but hopefully they can play them again for the Superbowl at the end of the season and beat them. Tyrel has been trying to get the kicker position and he was able to kick off at the game on Wednesday night. He did a great job! They won that game 25-0. He's the green #20.

Travis had some great tackles in his games this week. They won their Saturday game 18-0 and their Tuesday game 13-0. His team is doing great and haven't had hardly any points scored against them the whole season. The boys are going to their first Jr. High dance tonight. They are both pretty excited to go. We'll see if they even ask anyone to dance.

Trevin's soccer game ended in a tie this week 0-0. It was a pretty hard fought game and he almost scored twice, but both teams had really good goalies, so it ended with no score. He got to go to Dad's and Donuts at the school this morning with Sean. Our school does this as part of their reading program. The kids get to take their dad's to school and have donuts and milk and then their dad's read to them until time for school to start. It is very successful and the kids love it!

And Now for Sports....

Since that is what it seems like our life is right now, I'm here to give you the update for the past week.

Travis' team won their Saturday game against the rival Payson team 27-0 and also won their Tuesday game against the Spanish Fork 49ers 33-7 which dashes their hope of having a shutout season.

Tyrel's team won their Saturday game against the Spanish Fork Eagles 34-7 and also won their game last night against the Spanish Fork Broncos 18-0. All points scored by rival teams in all of their games were runbacks on the kickoffs. Tyrel got to be a team captain on Thursday and got to go out for the coin toss (we won and elected to receive) and led in getting everyone warmed up before the game.

Travis and Tyrel's teams both have awesome defenses. In Tyrel's Saturday game, the other team never converted to a 1st down. They lost yardage on almost every play. I lost count of how many quarterback sacks there were. Any night that they don't have games, they have practice, so I am definitely a soccer mom (or should that be a football mom? Oh why not throw in a basketball, baseball, swim team, scout, and band mom also!)

Trevin's soccer team has won their last two games 1-0. Some kid on his own team threw a ball in his face while they were sitting out for a rest and he got a bloody nose (some people's children!) So by the time we got that under control and his coach sent him back in, there was like 5 seconds left. He did play really good while he was in though. Here is a picture of Trevin at his game.

Today is Sean's Birthday (as well as our neice Alli, who is two). He is now the same age as me, yes, I'm a couple of months older than he is. We don't get to celebrate though because he is going on a scout campout tonight with Tyrel. Maybe tomorrow night....... He usually wants pumpkin pie for his birthday treat but I haven't asked him yet. I'd better sign off and go do that. Hope everyone reading this has a great day!

And so it begins.....

Well, I've decided to start a family blog. I don't know if anyone will read it, but since I haven't been so hot at journal keeping for the last, oh, 16 years or so, and since this seems to be the thing to do, I decided to start. I'm hoping I can keep it up!


This probably isn't the best time to start since life is more than chaotic with Travis and Tyrel playing tackle football and Trevin in soccer right now, but I guess there is no better time than the present right.?! Football is consuming our lives with 2 hour practices every night except game nights and games for Travis on Tuesday, Trevin and Tyrel on Wednesdays, and Travis and Tyrel on Saturdays.


The good news is that Travis won his game Tuesday 25-0, Tyrel won his game 38-6 and Trevin won his soccer game 1-0. Here is a picture of Travis. He is #66 and the team they played had the same color jerseys, so that is why you see a lot of green. He is the one blocking right in the center of the picture, it is kind of hard to see his number.

I didn't get any pictures at Tyrel's game because it was too dark and pouring rain through pretty much the entire game. I'll have to try to get some Saturday and load them.

Travis and Tyrel are both in the new Mt. Nebo Jr. High this year and they like school as much as any teenage boy. Travis is in 8th grade and Tyrel in 7th grade. Trevin goes to Mt. Loafer Elementary and is in 3rd grade this year.

Oh, my "Reflections" story about why I scrapbook is featured on this site in case you want to read it. http://www.thewishbladingwell.com/. Look under the "reflections" topic and also look at my pages under the Design Team files as I am a design team member for this website.

Last thing, I'm posting a link to this lady's blog because I think she is hilarious. I hope I can write as good as her when I grow up....http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ Seriously, her life is very interesting but I wouldn't trade my calm, cool, collected children for hers! Read it if you need a good laugh.

Well, it is time for my lunch date with my hubby, so signing off for now. Oh, this blog is under construction and hopefully will be updated within the next few weeks.