Scouts

For some reason, I don't think I can do a blog entry without pictures, so I always have to wait until some event happens to take pictures at and then I can do an entry. I need to change that. I'll try to do better.

Update on my robbery. The police recovered my stuff, but I still can't have it because it is evidence. What a pain!

We went to Lauren's baby blessing and spent the day with family yesterday. The salads were yummy. I am bummed because I forgot my camera. Jen if you are reading this, send me a cute picture of your cute baby!

Trevin got his Wolf badge, 1 gold and 4 silver arrows and some belt loops at pack night this week. We are so proud of him. He has worked hard.

Tyrel was advanced to Life Scout and just needs 3 more merit badges and to do his Eagle project. He is threatening to beat Travis who has all of his merit badges, but can't get motivated to do his project. There are 15 scouts in our ward all working on Eagle projects so he is so busy helping them and I think he doesn't have time to do his own. At least that is what he thinks. I think he has time and just needs to get it done. Sean told him he couldn't get his driver's license until he gets it, so maybe that combined with a little brother on his heels will get him going. He has a project picked, he just needs to get it done. We will keep you informed.

Travis had a sad week this week, his friend Bo, who has been on his football team the past two years was killed on Tuesday. He was walking (or maybe he was on his scooter) going home from Young Men's on Tuesday night and was hit by a car (or truck, I should really pay more attention to detail) Anyway, it has been a tough week for Travis and has made us all think about how blessed we are and think over how much our life and our family mean to us. He wasn't going to go to the funeral because he said he had enough sadness for the week and wanted to move on, but he ended up going and was glad he did.

School is almost out. The kids are looking forward to the summer, I'm not. I really like the structure and routine of school. Summer always throws me off. We have a summer routine, but it just isn't the same. I'll have to try harder this year to do better and have a better attitude.

Trevin was in the Hershey track meet this week also. It was a great day for a track meet and he had fun. Let me just say, none of my kids will be track stars (I don't think so anyway, maybe they will surprise me!).

Phone Call in the Middle of The Night - a good thing?!

I guess I'll tell you the bad part first. Monday night we went to get ice cream for our Family Night treats. We got home and parked my car in the garage as usual. Tuesday afternoon I went out to my car to go visiting teaching and I noticed the glove compartment and the console were open. Missing were my checkbook, credit card, drivers license, and a cashiers check that I was going to deposit that day. So I spent the afternoon cancelling credit cards, cautioning our checking account, putting a stop payment on the cashiers check and filling out a witness report for the Sheriff. My credit card had already been used 4 times by this point. Needless to say, I was having a bad day.

Well, I went to Young Women's, ran kids around for soccer practices, had to tell everyone to make their own dinner because I had a bad day and didn't get anything out. Watched the recorded episode of American Idol with my hubby and went to bed. At 11:28 p.m. our phone rings. Now I don't know about you, but usually a call at that time of night means something bad has happened. So, with my adrenaline pumping I answer the phone. It was the Spanish Fork Police Department. It seems that they had someone in custody that had my credit card on them. He apologized for calling so late, but wanted to find out what else was missing because the full report had not been entered yet. He said he would see if he could recover the rest of my missing stuff. I got a call today that they got my checkbook, minus the register, my driver's license and my credit card back. So I guess that is good news right?! I guess it should be fun trying to balance my checkbook without a register, yuck!

Mr. and Mrs. Nielsen

We spent the day Thursday in wedding festivities for Troy and Lisa. It was a fun and long day. They were married and sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. That was followed by pictures and then a luncheon at the Olive Garden. After that we spent the evening at the reception held at The Old Meetinghouse. It was fun to be with family and great to see Troy and Lisa so happy. They are off on their honeymoon to Hawaii now. Congratulations Troy and Lisa, we love you and wish you the best!!!

I had to post this picture of the nieces and nephews from the wedding also. It is fun to see them all together and having fun. Someday they might all pay attention at once, but that is part of why it is so cute.

Easter Sunday

Well, we were busy getting our talks written because we had to speak as a family on Easter Sunday. Travis and Tyrel wrote their own talks this time and did a wonderful job. I was really impressed with what they wrote and said. Sean helped Trevin with his talk so for the first time ever, I only had to write one talk, my own. This was a good thing since 5 of us had to give talks on 1 general conference address and it is hard to stretch 1 talk into 5, so I read "The Peacegiver" for more material for my talk. If you haven't read it, you should. It is a great book that helps us see another part of the Atonement that we don't normally think about. It was a great read and I am certainly glad we got our turn for talking in church out of the way for a few years (hopefully).

Spring soccer started last week. Trevin had his first game and they tied. Tyrel has back to back games on Thursday and Friday of this week. He is excited to be playing soccer again. He missed it in the fall because he did football instead.

My grandparents flew out from Denver this week and we got to have them over for dinner on Friday night. It was fun to get to visit with them and catch up. The kids were excited to see them. I did take a picture, but I'll have to post it later because I am too tired tonight. I have been gone all day to a scrapbook day with my friends and just don't have it in me to drag out the camera and load in on here.

Talk to you soon!

Just Chillin'

What is up with this weather? I thought Spring had finally arrived and we woke up to 3 inches of snow again this morning and it looks like we might get more this afternoon. Sean says he is doing his part to make the biggest carbon footprint he can so that global warming can take over and Spring can arrive. So why don't you all go buy bigger gas guzzling vehicles and leave all of the lights in your house on so it will quit snowing already this year.
I did this scrapbook layout of Tyrel's snow cave that I had to share. The first picture was taken inside the cave, the 2nd photo is Tyrel and Trevin peaking out of the entrance hole. They had Brother Smith, who plows the church parking lot, put all of the snow all winter long at the end of the parking lot. THey ended up with this huge mountain. All of the scouts spent their Scout nights and every day after school for 2 weeks digging out their snow caves in the church parking lot to sleep in for their February campout. They ended up with 3 people in Tyrel's cave. I was amazed at how big it was. Tyrel could almost stand up straight in it and there was plenty of room for 3 people in it. It was really warm inside also. He said they had to kick out of their sleeping bags because it got too hot inside during the night. They had a lot of fun with it. It even had little snow steps leading up to the entrance.

Basketball is finished. Travis and Tyrel's team made it in to the final 4 in the 3 city playoff tournament. It was really fun to watch them this year. Now we are just waiting for soccer. Tyrel and Trevin are both playing and Tyrel also gets the job of being a ref for the younger teams this Spring. He is pretty excited for the extra cash.

I play the Banjo!

For our YM/YW activity we got to be graced with the presence of Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. Their guitar player is in our ward, so we lucked out I guess. The banjo player is someone who grew up in Sean's ward, so we knew 2 of the 4 band members. They gave great talks and put on a great show. My favorite song is "Dream Big" which you have probably heard on the radio. They also sang a Christmas song by request of one of the audience members which was a beautiful song called "The Gift". Travis actually was so excited because he went to their concert a couple of years ago at Christmas time and got a "I Play The Banjo" T shirt which is one of his favorites. I'm attaching a picture he took with his cell phone (not very good quality) and the Youtube video of "Dream Big".

Spelling B-E-E

Trevin took 2nd place in the 3rd grade spelling bee. The boy that won was his friend Matthew from across the street who is also in his class. Matthew actually has gone on and won the district spelling bee also. Trevin was kind of sad when he missed his word, but I thought he did great even though he didn't study the word list at all and Matthew studied every day after school.

Trevin's words were

L-e-a-f
H-a-l-f
B-r-a-g
G-r-i-p
L-i-l-a-c (I thought for sure he would miss this one, what 8 year old boy even knows what a lilac is?)
W-h-i-t-e
W-r-i-t-e (he had them use this one in a sentence so that he spelled the right write)
B-a-l-d
S-m-a-l-l
A-r-t-i-s-t
P-e-r-f-e-c-t
P-e-r-s-o-n

J-e-r-k-y (I though he missed this one as I was typing them on the laptop as he spelled, I spelled it j-e-r-k-e-y, I guess he is a better speller than I am)
Q-u-e-e-r
C-o-r-r-e-c-t-l-y
S-a-f-e-l-y
H-o-u-r-l-y
S-e-n-s-e-b-l-y (This is the word he got out with. Should have been s-e-n-s-i-b-l-y)

The last picture is of the medal that he got for finishing in the top two.

Work is still crazy. I used to think 45 loans was bad, now I'm up to 130, but I have hired some help so we are managing. One thing about the lending business, you have to make hay while the sun shines, as the saying goes, because it can be a very up and down industry. We are in full swing with Basketball season right now, so our Saturday mornings are consumed with basketball games. The boys are having fun and doing great this year.