My bucket list...

My niece Erin posted her's so I was thinking I have 20 minutes to kill...why not! And these are in random order...

1. take all my kids to Disneyland one more time
2. return to Yellowstone, missed a couple of things
3. lose the pounds I need to in order to be 'healthy'
4. visit Bryce Canyon, Yosemite, Craters of the Moon...this could get crazy long
5. go to the Olympics--yep I had a baby during 2002 Olympics, yes, I am unlucky with timing sometimes!
6. finish all the books I've started and read the Hunger Games series and Fablehaven series
7. travel Europe, I would love to see ALL of it
8. walk the Great Wall of China
9. visit the Holy Land before the end
10. visit South Africa, my dad's homeland
11. go on a mission with Tim
12. visit the church history sites again, it's been awhile and I think they've improved them
13. go to the beach in the southern USA
14. go on a cruise
15. stay a week on the beach again
16. visit New Zealand
17. learn to make Artisan bread
18. actually learn the piano
19. finish my yard landscaping
20. live long enough to enjoy my grandkids
new additions...
21. go snowboarding
22. climb Mt. Timpanogos
23. Visit the Cahokia Mounds

Anna's Wedding

Anna is our first niece or nephew to get married! Here are some of the photos we took. We mostly videoed stuff for her. Tim and I had a blast driving up to Boise with his parents, his sister and her husband and their daughter. We stayed in the same hotel but we all had out own rooms. Tim and I have never left our kids more than one night. And we haven't done that in a while! We enjoyed the exercise room and pool at the hotel while we were there. The wedding dinner the night before was delicious. The ceremony wasn't until noonish so I visited my friend Melissa who lived across the street and has moved up there for 2 years. I miss her tons so it was great to visit. They picked me up from there. The ceremony was nice and Anna made quite the stunning bride and Buck was a handsome groom. The reception that night had a breakfast bar and I have no idea why I only shot a photo of the cake! The food was fun and yummy. She sang for Buck, that was cool! We all danced and it was great fun! I noticed I didn't get any photos of Nate in there but he is Amy's (Tim's sister) husband. Hans (one of Tim's brothers) came from Boston to the festivities so it was good to see him. Erick (another brother of Tim and Amy) and Liz were great hosts while we were there. We hope to visit them sometime... maybe next summer! We are so grateful to my mom for holding down the fort and Timo for helping her out. Taran left for a Chamber Choir Retreat Friday afternoon after we left. So I am grateful Timo stepped up and I am glad my dad was alright so she could do it! Blessed is what we are!

This week...yard sale extravaganza!

So I feel like I am starting to get into a groove of sorts. Last week was mostly spent in anticipation of THE YARD SALE for Taran's Chamber Choir fundraiser. We sent an eamil to the neighborhood--my friend Julie got everyones email about a year and a half ago so when we wanted mass communication everyone is on the list. She is careful of what is sent. Anyway we sent out that if people had stuff they were getting rid that we would take it off their hands to sell. This was over almost 3 months of collecting. I also got in touch with family close by for donations. Between it all Taran earned over a hundred dollars and his friend about the same. They split the stuff from the neighborhood. My living room was knee high in folded piles of clothing, sorted by gender etc. I thought once I should take a photo...owell too busy! Our garage was half full as well. By Friday afternoon I had everything tagged--price and name of kid getting money. We put Harry Potter on all the ones that were from the neighborhood. We borrowed 6 long tables from neighbors as well and put out all our wares--we definitely had the most organized and the most stuff as well! We also had 2 clothing hanging racks. Again I wish I had taken photos of the all the stuff we had! We filled our van with all the clothes--only the driver and passenger seats were available! We pulled a full trailer, and Taran's friend had a small truck they filled several times! I was hoping he'd make a hundred so I am thrilled. But exhausted! They are planning another and I say...no thanks! It's nice to have our garage back! I tidied it so we could fit both vehicles back inside. I wish I could have REALLY cleaned it but the house needed some attention as well. We are so grateful for all the help though it was amazing!

Other tidbits...Zane and the kids started piano this week. This is Zane's first year learning and he giggled all the way to his teacher's house. He has practiced everyday but won't take any pointers from anyone so we'll see. I got to see Zane play Saturday in his soccer game--most of Micah and his games overlap and Tim coaches Zane's team so I take Micah and haven't seen him yet. Tim was helping with the yard sale clean up so I went to the game and he had his asst. coach do it instead!

Gwen has been riding her bike a lot and loving it--notice her flat tire in the collage!

Micah went to his friend Luke's birthday party--crazy scientist theme, very fun! He didn't have any soccer games this week because they had one for Saturday and it got rescheduled. That was a blessing!

Izak a lot fun this week because he got to go on the annual 5th grade Clear Creek Camp overnighter. He had a blast and was gone Thursday morning to Friday afternoon. Teachers and administrators go along and the boys and girls go separate days. I think it does a great job of bonding between students and with their teachers and administrators. He had a soccer game Saturday morning we missed because we were setting up the yard sale stuff--it was an early game a half hour away. It didn't help that they lost too. Owell. He and Emily refereed 2 games Saturday. Nice that they can earn money even though they don't exactly love it!

Emily found out she is in the school musical, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, she is Truffles, a french girl Linus likes. She is thrilled. She also had parent teacher conferences and is doing great. Her flag football team lost again but she got the quarterback 'sacked' a couple of times.

Taran and Timo started their flag football season Monday. They are having fun even though they haven't won yet. Taran went to another concert Saturday night at UVU. Timo went to a surprise party for a friend--who is a girl and I heard he learned a new dance there! LOL. The high school had their parent teacher conferences but I didn't go since they are doing well and had no concerns. Timo will start the driving range in a week or so. WOW!

Tim spent most of Saturday at the yard sale except for the hour he mowed and showered. He took Emily to the BYU vs. Nevada game. They had fun despite the loss and found a great ice cream place in the mall after the game! Tim got a root canal Monday morning. He went to a choir tour meeting--there were two and I went to the other one.

Me, I started helping in Zane and Micah's classes Monday mornings. It was fun. Gwen went to my mom's--she picked up Gwen for me since Tim was busy at his root canal. I had scouts Monday we planned our camp out and had sundaes since 2 boys are moving on. I watched my friend's daughter Zoe on Tuesday while she went to the temple with her mom. I get to go this week! We are going to see if we can swing it every other week. I was able to get up at 5:30 am this week and exercise and read my scriptures. I also worked hard to get to bed earlier and I am working on my crankiness but I feel it getting better. I went to the A Capella Choir tour meeting. It is likely Taran will not go to this tour since NYC--Chamber Choir is a lot of money but he has more friends in the A Capella Choir so he somewhat motivated to do it. I expressed Taran's dilemma earning for both and she suggested pick the most important one and get all the money for it first--if he commits to the other and ends up short he'll be out of a lot of money and she didn't seem to think it would be a big problem to add him later. I hope he can do both--what a great experience! The other tour is going to a competition in San Francisco. They get to sing in this cool cathedral and stay at Fisherman's Wharf...like coming home for me. They would see Alcatraz and eat in Chinatown...wish we could afford it all. I love my kids having these great experiences when they are young. Especially since we will probably not make it to either place with them anytime soon. Gwen may be the one since our house will be paid off when she is about 12. I missed Women's Broadcast last night--both. I was originally going to go with my sister and mom to dinner and watch the broadcast. Then just dinner and watch the broadcast at home but I ended up with no sitters--Tim took Emily to the game, Timo and Taran had plans. I hope to watch it soon--I thought today but I spent a few hours on scout stuff today. More than I had planned. But necessary.

Have a great week as we start in to October Friday! And I am so looking forward to General Conference this week! YEAH!

Freedom Friday

I read this article by author Orson Scott Card...check it out here it's short BUT very good! Have a great weekend!

Trying to catch up ...here we go!

So I guess I'll just try to cover what I put in the photos to make sense of it all! But I will do so in reverse order...last week my friend Stephanie let me crash her picnic and apple picking. Our girls Gwen and Zoe are friends and in preschool together and the youngest. We are doing our best to do things with them since preschool is only Wednesdays. It was a great outing, she's the best! BYU football started up and Tim takes one kid (except Gwen and Zane)to a home game and me, each time otherwise he goes to his parents to watch the away games because we don't get those channels. Soccer has started back up but only Izak, Micah and Zane are playing this year--instead of the 6 oldest last year! Emily and Izak are refereeing soccer games as well. Micah and Izak are both doing competition which means 2 games a week is normal. Therefore they could not fit flag football in this year. Emily, Taran and Timo are playing flag football. Emily already had a game and she actually got a flag! Taran and Timo have their first game tomorrow-Monday. Labor day weekend we went to Tim's parents' for a potluck dinner and celebrate all the summer birthdays. Erick and Liz were down from Idaho so it was extra fun. Monday we were going to hike to Stewart Falls but the weather was very cool in the mountains so we chickened out! Owell... That afternoon we went to my brother Charl's for a end of summer BBQ and watched some of the Boise St. vs. Virginia Tech before we had to go home--school night! The Friday before Labor Day we went to Seven Peaks Waterslide Park. We ended up buying these amazing passes that last a year of admission at 7 peaks (next summer), and include 2 Trafalga places (min-golf, etc), Owlz baseball home games, Flash basketball home games! For our family it was quite a deal--if we only go to the water park 2 times next summer it will have paid for it! Actually we used that day so one more time! We had a great time there and are thrilled to go next summer! My mom celebrated her 70th birthday and Gwen and I took her out to lunch--my dad felt good enough to join in as well. She loved all the emails she got from family and friends--thanks! The Sunday before we celebrated at our house with all the family and that was fun. She picked the menu. Salmon yummm! I started helping out with a pair of twin 5 year olds (a boy and a girl)whose mother works as a nurse in labor and delivery. Another girl in our neighborhood is her regular babysitter and I do her on call and back her up. It's been nice because Gwen gets along great with them. It keeps her company. I took them to The Children's Discovery Gardens (Noah's Ark photo) and to Farm Country another week when they came. The Monday before school started I took the kids to the dollar movies to see The Karate Kid--the new version. We loved it. I think it's WAY better than the old version. I'm thinking this post is long enough. I want to post Yellowstone and Anna's wedding so I will try to add those this week. Have a great week!

Freedom Friday, Happy Constitution Day!

history of the constitution

I have a link under the picture to the history of the Constitution. Take time with your family to ponder it's role in our freedom and what we need to do to uphold it's principles.

A great speech given about the Constitution here

Abraham Lincoln said: "Let [the Constitution] be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation."

And to that I say, amen!

First Day of School...

We had a few firsts this year! Gwen's first day of preschool, Zane's first day 1st grade school all day, Emily's first day of 7th grade or first day of junior high and Timo's first day of 10th grade or first day of high school. I also got a cute photo of Gwen running to me after her first day of preschool. So far everyone 'likes' school as much as they 'like' school. They tried to move Izak from his teacher to a new teacher since his class had 40 students as did other 5th grade classes so they added a new teacher after the first week. But I refused! The real problem is that there is a charter school opening in a couple of months so some kids are double enrolled. They didn't really want to hire a teacher unless they really needed to but a bunch of parents complained so we have a new teacher that we may not need in a couple months! Taran is a senior--what?! He recently took the ACT to improve his score-- we hope for a scholarship. So far he is eligible to get into BYU, his current first choice, but it would be nice to get paid for it! The weather has been unusually cool already so not much hope for an Indian Summer! Hope your school year is going well! I hope we recover from almost $700 in fees and that doesn't count Taran's $1600 choir tour--thank goodness he has a job!

We are alive...

Hey fellow bloggers and family...not that you've missed us much but I have missed blogging! We are in the process of moving stuff from our old hard drive to a new bigger external hard drive. The old got full so I have a gazillion photos on my camera I couldn't upload and I just think with all we've been up to you'll want to see some photos, right? Anyway, I really hope I will be back next week! I used Tim's laptop to write this. I miss your blogs as well since I am not on much. Can you believe it's mid-September...fall is definitely in the air here! Love it! I can't wait to check out the canyon! Have a fabulous day and I hope you enjoy this photo from fall in Finland!