~~Photo shoot by Mary Ann that I never blogged~~

This past July we went up to Utah to visit Grandma Joyner. While we were there, my friend, Mary Ann, did a Family Photo shoot for us so we could get some updated family pictures as well as get some with Grandma. I never posted about this part of our trip and want to so that when I print this year's blog out, it will be part of our memories for the year! As always, Mary Ann did an awesome job!! Thanks for working us into your busy schedule girl!!!
{One thing that I do want to notate, for memories sake, is that Jacob found two worms during the session. The thing about it was that on both occassions, he was seriously about-maybe-50 yds away from them!! Both times, while we're all posing and getting pictures taken, he jumps up saying, "OOOo,ooo! OOOOO!" and takes off running. He digs down in the sand a little and pulls out a worm!! We were all dumb founded. How the heck could he spot them from so far away?!! This story also explains why he's holding a worm in the permanent picture to the right of my blog!!!}

Jacob's 2 sec's of Fame on TV!!

Brant and I watched and waited intently during the evening news the other night, hoping to get even a small glimpse of Jacob! The tv Station had gone to his school several days before and done a little news clip on them. The kids all wrote down their questions and got and opportunity to ask them and chat some with the reporter. Here's a recording of the little clip that they did, in between the sports and weather:) Jacob is seen near the end of it and is to the left, in an open spot pretty much by himself. You'll know him when you see him-lol-being a little silly the second the camera hits him! His friend, Olivia is right in front of him waving and good friend, Graham, is "hugging" the reporter at the very end. Brant was awesome the first time we watched! He was pointing out Jacob and all of his friends in no time!! Thanks for helping spot them buddy!!

In the Mind of an Autistic Artist

I found this story, of Stephen, who is an Autistic Adult with a Photographic Memory. He is extremely talented!! They flew him up over New York and now, from memory, is free hand drawing a DETAILED paneramic view of what he saw!! Having our own little Autistic Artist in our family, I feel a connection to this story in so many ways and wanted to share it! Be sure to pause the music...I moved it up a little closer to the top so you don't have to scroll down so far:) Also, check out Rissa singing (right) BEAT IT, while you're at it:)....well, it's actually Brant's voice (lol)!


Watch CBS News Videos Online


Watch CBS News Videos Online

It's really made me stop and wonder if Jacob has a photographic memory b/c when he draws or makes things out of his clay, he's very detailed. He can see something once and recreate it either immemdiately or months later! And usually it's pretty exact. Once, in Primary, they were talking about the army of Helaman I guess had pitcures and had done 'Sharing Time' out of it and all. Before you knew it, he had sculpted a very detailed warrior out of his ball of clay. Teachers and kids, alike, were coming up to Marty and I talking about how amazing it was. Brant was the first to find me, "MOM! You should have SEEN what Jacob made!!!". {He has the need to have something in his hands most of the time so we, with Primary leaders consent, let him have a small ball of clay b/c it helps him feel a little more centered and focused.}

Daddy's off work for a week!!

The school district that Marty contracts into, was out of school all week last week, for Fall Break! It was so nice to have him home! Marissa LOVED play dates with dad, as did I!! We spent a lot of time outside b/c of the beautiful weather.

One day, Marty asked Rissa where she wanted to go for lunch and she said, "Pawk! ...WWeeeeee, Sweeeeng....Ruunnnn Fast!" Translation: Park!!! Slide, Swing...I get to run super fast!

So we packed a lunch and headed to the 'Pawk'!

When I asked Marty what he wanted to do for lunch, on a different day, he said, "Swing, club, ...green!" Translation: Golf! We were going to hit a coarse somewhere, but ended up not having enough time, so we hit the driving range instead. We dropped Rissa off to a friend and enjoyed our time together. I'm not sure if we even actually ate lunch, now that I think of it:)

When asked what I wanted to do for lunch, on yet, another day, I chose 'Sub, store', which translates to, "Subway and a little Shopping". Thanks for a great week together, Marty!! It's now Monday Morning and we miss you already (but we are glad to be getting back on our regular schedule, I must say:)!!

My Cousin Needs Your Vote for tv show, So You Think You Can Dance!!

My cousin, Justin Giles, is an Amazing Choreographer!! He is currently in the Top Eight running to be a new Choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance!
Please click on this link http://www.sytycdism.com/ and VOTE for him!!! Click on the red that says Which Choreographer Should SYTYCD Bring IN? and then under Contemporary Choreographers CLICK --Justin Giles!!! I expect all of you to go do it...NOW!!! :)thanks!!:)
...oh, and spread the word!! Tip: Send the LINK to your grandma's & friends & neighbors...& the Ice Cream Man... to make it super easy for them!!!!

Rissa & I Start Joy School!!!!

I was actually not even thinking about Preschool at all for this year, until some friends expressed that they really would love to have Marissa in their group. After a couple of weeks of thought, I decided to let her participate. She is the youngest and her attention span isn't as 'long lasting' as some of the older, much wiser kids-lol :)--but I know she's loving it!! She really is learning a lot and she LOVES being with her friends!! I love teaching them (every seven weeks)! I love to see how they all interact, play and how they absorb everything they are taught!! I have been so excited both times I got to teach! I was excited to watch her learning in action!! Well, I can see that she has learned a lot already...but after teaching last week, for the second time, I think I came to a realization and that realization was that she's way too much like her mother!! SHE IS A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY!! Chatty, chatty chatty! Here are a few pictures from the two weeks that I've taught.

I was the first to host Joy School, so this was the first week of the school year.

The theme for the month was Ocean, so I came up with an Ocean game that the kids had fun playing. We also learned about Circles and the letter A, we practiced cutting with scissors and we made little Aquariums for our craft. Apples were our yummy snack.

To get the wiggles out, all of the little princesses dressed up in Marissa's tutu's and ballerina clothes! We only had one boy that week ....he got to dress up in Super Man capes!

cutting, cutting, cutting!!


Last week was my second turn to teach. We learned about the letter E, squares and Orange.

I think I glued their Elephant Ears on up-side-down, but the kids didn't care! They loved wearing them!

We had Eggs with our snack. Some of the kids really wanted to try cracking it open, so I let them all crack one. We then boiled some and scrambled some to see some of the different ways you can cook them.

I cherish this time with her and am loving every moment at this age!!! It's such a busy age, but so much fun for a me!! Wheels are turning in her little head and there's a surprise around every courner....ummm... sometimes a not-so-good surprise....but I'm just trying to focus on the good, fun surprises and growth moments!!

Nana & Papa Come on a Surprise Visit to see US!!!!!

We were all so excited, early yesterday morning, when we got a call from Papa saying that they were in Las Vegas and were driving down to see us!! Nana & Papa are MY mom's parents, so the kids' Great-Grand parents. They live in SC, so we don't get to see them very often, so what a wonderful surprise it was!!! Marty, Brant & Jacob had to leave for a Scout Field day so Marissa and I had so much fun having them to ourselves for a little bit!!

Marissa immediately bonded with Papa!! Before we knew it, she was dressing him up and picking flowers with him! Not to mention that she had him running laps around the place, inside and out!! I was so excited for her to spend time with them! She knows them from pictures and from our family prayers, but it's a whole new thing to BE with them, HUG them and BOND with them!!

She and Nana bonded very easily too! The first thing on Rissa's list was to show Nana her baby that sucks her bottle and cries! Her Tutu, jewelry and fairy wings (well, Rissa prefers, butterfly wings!) were all on the list of "Must show Nana" too!!

Nana is known for her hats--they come in all different shapes and sizes, but we all love her baseball caps with glitter, rhinestones and BLING!! I loved sitting and talking with her! I showed her several of my pottery pieces that I made on the Potter's Wheel and sculpted by hand. I shared some of my sewing projects and we talked a lot about artsy stuff:) Nana is one of the most amazing women I know! She is soo talented!! She is an amazing painter & artist! She's also one of the best Story tellers that I know!! I have so many wonderful memories of her stories of fairies and princesses! She used to tell us stories about the fairies who lived in the woods that were (at the time) across the street from her house. We also talked and laughed about past Halloweens! The kids and I have the house decorated for Halloween, so I was telling her that every year when I'm decorating, I always think of the different years as a child of going trick-or-treating at her house. One year, she dressed herself in a black gown and paled her face and hands. She laid down with arms across her chest, in the long flower bed that is built into their porch. I'll never forget walking up to the porch, lights dimmed and some creepy music playing softly in the background. Was that my Nana? Was she really dead or alive? Made of plastic or blood and bones? My brothers and I get closer, closer, closer...BBWWAAAHHHHHHAAAAA!!!! I think my younger brother and I cried for a day about that scare!

Then there was the man down the street who stuttered. One year she sat in a chair, in black, with pantie hose over her face. Weird...again, we couldn't quite tell who it was! Well, that year, she scared the stuttering man down the street so bad that he passed out! When he woke up, all he could say was, "Mmmmiisss Giiillllleess.....IIIiiiiss tthhhaaattt Yyyooooouuuuu?!

Three Peas in a Pod! uumm, Jacob kept insisting on doing this goofy face...still cute kid though!

We got treated out to dinner and desert! We ate at Westgate b/c we knew they'd love seeing everything there! We ate at Shane's Ribshack (yum!) and then walked around to Cold Stone for some ice cream. Westgate has shopping, movie theatre and the Hockey arena is there. Concerts, motor crossing, Big Trucks...all kinds of events are held there! There are huge fountains that shoot up water to lights and music and it's just a fun place to hang out. On the way home, we drove 'next door' to show Papa the Stadium where the 2008 Superbowl was held. You can see how big it is, from our street, so he was really excited to get close up to it. He was amazed at the grass field that sits on a plat form and can be brought into the stadium for games, and then rolled (electrically of coarse) back outside.

During dinner, Papa showed the boys his GATOR BOWL ring! He played football for USC and was in the FIRST ever, Gator bowl in 1946 and HE MADE THE FIRST TOUCHDOWN OF THE GAME!!! He was later recruited by the Green Bay Packers, but declined the offer b/c he would have to leave Nana behind for months while he trained, etc. Nana was far along into a pregnancy and he wanted to be with her. Papa coached for some 30 years. He was inducted into the SC Hall of Fame as a coach, many years ago. Just last year, he was also inducted into the SC Hall of Fame as an athlete!! We all loved hearing him tell about these awesome experiences from his life!!

Brant loved listening to Papa talk about sports!! He could have listened to him for days!!

Jacob is planning all of the neat gifts that he is going to make them out of clay! He esp wants to make some things for Nana b/c they got a chance to talk about it a lot. He can't wait to make them and then take them to her when we go home for Christmas.

We are so very thankful for this quality time that we had to spend with such amazing grand/great grandparents!!! They have no idea how much their visit meant to all of us! We can't wait to see them again in a few months!!!

"I Tooted"!

So here's our little Princess tonight at the dinner table, letting us know that she "tooted"! This is always a topic that our little Rissa is ready to talk loudly about anytime, anywhere!! She was being so silly and funny while she ate, that I just wanted to capture it on video. We also got her to say a few words that are really cute when she says them, "He's so Cute", or rather, "He's so Toot" is one of them! Brant made the comment that "Marissa's not going to get many dates when she turns 16 if she's still 'tootin' all the time like she does now!". Dad is ok with that:)

(Don't forget to PAUSE the music:)

Fishin on the Farm

A few Saturdays ago, Marty was gone to a convention for work and the kids and I were bored and looking for something to do. WE called our good friends, the Garcia's, who live on a farm and have a beautiful pond...{large pond or little lake, I'm not sure which:)} ...and asked them if we could come out and fish! As always, they said, "Of Coarse!", so we ran to the store and bought some Night Crawlers and a few other things that you buy when you want to catch fish, and then we headed out to their house! Now I'd like to say that we had such a great time, and we did, until we tried to actually start fishing! Only then, did I realized that I needed one of those "Bobber-thingies" and maybe larger hooks would have been good too! It was a scorching 107 degrees that afternoon! So you can only imagine how 'fun' it was, throwing the bait out and watching it sink to the deeps of the big pond/little lake!! As we reeled it in, Jacob felt sure several times he must have caught a HUGE fish....only to learn he was dragging in every piece of algae plant that happened to be in the path of the mighty hook! Once we started fishing down near the reeds and other tall plant life, I 'reel'-lized that if I could throw the bait over a couple of the plants, or a floating stick or something, it would hold the bait and hook up so it wouldn't sink into the algae depths...it gave Jacob some hope, but still didn't work. aw-here are a few pictures---

oh, and here's one of our little 'pocket fishing rods' that we brought. Cute, but ridiculous! Don't waste your money on one!


Jacob gave up on fishing and started collecting snail shells!

As we all loaded up in the car, Rissa said, "I'm so hot!", Jacob said, "Mom, I think you need to take a Fishing Class...you don't know how to fish! I thought you did, but you don't!" , and Brant follows that reply with, "Mom, I think you owe us a Sonic Slush:)"! They were all right and we headed off to Sonic and then went home and jumped in the pool.

Thanks again Garcia's for sharing your big pond/little lake with us!!! :)

The other night, we all went out as a family to dinner and then to a few other places before heading home. On the way home, Kenny Rogers song, came on. With grand excitement, I hurried and told the family, "HUSH!hush! OOOOoohh Mommy loves this song!!!".. and then I cranked up the volume and began singing this beautiful song of his! As I sang (with my eyes closed:) I couldn't help but reminisce on the days long ago, as a child. It seemed just like yesterday! I remember riding side-by-side with my mom in the car listening to this song. My mom would put her Kenny Rogers 8-TRACK in the player, crank up the volume and cry and sing and cry and sing and cry and sing-along with good ol Kenny! Man are those some good memories! I didn't cry though...I just sang! Sang, sang sang! Even if I had forgotten a word here or there, I sang...until I heard a noise in the very back of the car. Was someone crying? Yes. Who? Why? Do I really have to turn the song down to let the inner compassionate mother in me shine? yes. I must. Even though it's the end..the best part of the whole song! The climax, if you will! so I turn the song down to hear that one someone is crying. I turn Kenny off so that I can hear better. "Is someone crying back there?" 'Yes", I hear through the sobs! "It's Jacob crying, mom", Brant tells me. "Jacob, why are you crying? What's wrong?", I ask. After a moment of trying to gather himself he answers, "It's this song, mom. It's so beautiful...and I miss my baby Chick! How can I live without him?!"
I should've known my little tenderhearted Jacob would find the beauty in the song! Thanks Kenny, you've touched all of our hearts...all of them:)

Jacob's Sweet Dance Moves

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

These are clips from Jacob's jam session at my cousins house a while back! I didn't have the camcorder with me, so I just started snapping shots!! You Go Jacob!!

Washing Clothes the Old Fashioned Way.....

....just couldn't resist, could ya!! Rissa loves the bath a little too much...or maybe she was just really upset about spilling that ketchup on her pretty pink outfit:) Her expression makes me laugh, b/c when we walked in, that look on her face totally showed that she wasn't quite sure if I'd be upset with her or not.....

...I must say, it was nice to have her bathed already by the time we got back to G'ma's house!

These were from our trip to Utah that I never blogged...and they are definitely blog worthy!! We were at my cousins house and Rissa just couldn't take it anymore that Ashley was in the bath and she wasn't, so she took matters into her own hands!

Swimming Like Fish

I'm being trained by my brother to teach swim lessons and so I've been working with some kids to get practice with some of the teaching techniques. In the Spring, I will be getting hands on training as well as certification from him, so that I'll be ready to open for business this next May!! Here is a video of Sara and Rissa swimming! They are both 2 yrs old! The 2nd and 3rd clips are of Brennen & Ethan, both 3yrs old! It was so much fun working with these kids and I'm sooo proud of them!! All of the kids were swimming in 4 days!!

Happy Birthday Marty Dear!!

Happy Birthday Marty!!! Well, actually it was Yesterday, but it was one of those crazy days during the week full of school, work and running around busy, so I do feel like we weren't able to celebrate to FULL CAPACITY! That's ok though, b/c that gives us all the more reason to stretch the celebration into this next weekend, right?!!

I did manage to get his favorite cake made! It's one of those, "family recipes that have literally been passed down from generation to generation". I must say, however, that I don't bake each layer in the ol fashion skillet, like my mother-in-law and her mother and her mother did:) Same homemade recipe though, and same delicious taste!! I got 6 yummy layers on there this time!!

Happy Birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you!!

AAaahhhhhhhhh WWWhhhhooooooooooooooo!!!

He did get some gifts too! The kids were excited for him to get a mini frig to put in his office...we also got him lots of goodies from SAMS to keep it stocked up!! WE LOVE YOU DAD!!!!

Snuggling, Family & Doughnuts

The last of our Utah pictures.....

rest

relaxation

Snuggling with Grandma

FAMILY

My cousin, Lee! They had us over for dinner one night and it always so much fun to spend time with them!!! Thanks Jenn & Lee!!!

I LOVE Jenn!! She is one of my favorite people!! We had such a great time, sharing crafty ideas, eating and laughing!!!

Every time we visit, we make Julia give us a concert! She has an AMAZING voice, seriously, she has the singing voice of an adult (ok, well that sounds funny, huh?!) ....so maybe I should say that she has the voice of an Angel, which she definitely does, but it's more the voice of...an adult angel! I only use the word adult, bc she has a more mature voice than other kids her age.

Anyway, this visit she entertained us with many of the songs from WICKED!! I really should've recorded one of her songs!

Rissa and Ashley had the BEST time playing together!!!! Actually all of the kids loved playing together and I loved that they each had a cousin that was the same age.

WE spent one whole, entire day ...from sun up to sun down:) at Seven Peaks Water park! We met the Christensen's there and played all day long!! I only have this one picture, to remember it by...well, actually, I do have a couple more, but they include ME in a BATHING SUIT, so they did not make the cut for the blog!!

MORE FAMILY...THE JOYNERS

Rissa and her little baby, Austin!
All of the kids LOVE Aunt Angeline!!
So we all played this game....well, I don't even know the name of it. Basically, you throw the balls across the yard and try to ring it on the bar. Each bar is different points, top being the highest. This is a picture of my balls-lol-all three of mine made it on the TOP bar!!! My niece, Cara and I, were teammates, and this was my last throw of the game!! ...we won and beat Angeline and Brittany!!! I liked that ball game, I need to find out the name of it though!

Some of the guys lined up to watch the 'competitions' that were going on.

Janell, G'ma @ Dana enjoying the beautiful weather! We LOVED the cooler weather, that's for sure!!

I love our nieces and nephew's!! This is our niece, Cara. LOVE HER! The only thing that we were sad about was that we didn't get to see Brett...BRETT, WE LOOOVVEE YOU TOO...next time we may just have to bombard him at work!!

Krispy Kreme

Does anyone else just love these doughnuts?!! We took advantage and went, twice I think, b.c the ones close to our house have shut down so we have been Krispy Kreme-less for a couple of years now! YUMMY GOODNESS!!

Ok, so to be perfectly honest, I went a third time...without the fam! I was soooo excited to get to see one of my good friends that I haven't seen in 18 years!!! Minta met me at my sis-in-laws house, and then we ditched and went to KK!
and just for the record, we did not eat all of these doughnuts ourselves!! we did take them home to our families!!
....or maybe we did eat them all!! lol---really! MINTA!! I had ssooo much fun with you!! It was so funny b/c from the second she got there, we were chatting and laughing non-stop like little school girls!! And even after talking late into the night, we still have so much catching up to do!! I can't wait to see her again....but until then, we'll have blogging and facebook, right?!!

I Love to see the Temple

I am really trying to get the rest of our Utah trip blogged, and I seriously need to be leaving for YW's RIGHT NOW :) so here are some of our pictures from our visit to the Beautiful, Salt Lake Temple!! I love the peacefulness that you feel when visiting the Temple! I am thankful for the Temple and pray that I always go often and never take advantage of having one close to our home!!

In all truthfulness, it wasn't the most peaceful trying to snap a shot of the kids at the fountain!! We were just about done and we were hot and ready to go eat, but life is good! We got this shot, smiles and all:) Good times, kids, good times!! We adore these three!

The Living Aquarium, Sandy, Ut

WE had the BEST time at the Living Aquraium while we were in Utah!! I think we all agreed that "Flappy" the Stingray, was our favorite, however, this picture of Brant and the Octopuss is definately my favorite photo of the day!!!
One of Jacob's favorite foods is Lobster & crab!! He was sooo excited to see this gigantor lobster...he wanted to cook it up and eat it!

Tiger Shark

Lost in the Swamp

cute kids in a cave

Rissa LOVED these fish!!! I think our next pet will be a fish or two for her-it was so fun to see her and listen to her in all of her excitement---"FEEEESH!". Oh, and to a two year old, feeesh are very interactive with you!! She loved that they play 'Peek-A-Boo' with her...popping out from the rocks and stuff

Brant must be wearing some good Worm smelling Cologne!! These fish followed him to each side of the tank, but they wouldn't follow anyone else! Maybe it's the red:)

FLAPPY!!! The kids gave this Stingray the name, Flappy, b/c he would litterally pull himself up the wall and flap, looking for someone to pet him!!

I started petting him and he just sat there, seriously, for about two mins! It was kinda like our dog-lol!! We all fell in love with Flappy!!

"Here Flappy, here Flappy!"
"....good boy, good boy Flappy!"

Day 1 in Utah....Declutter thy Mother's Shed....

When we go visit G'ma, we always tell her to make a list of things that we can all do together to help her around the house. Well, boy did we get to her!!1 We were so excited that we got to help clean out and organize her shed!!! Marty always likes finding "old memories" stuff!

G'ma rigged up a cool trash bag despencer--clever clever!!
Brant helped tons with keeping Rissa occuppied when she needed breaks from "hepping"! G'pa's old walker did the trick most of the time.

I just had to get a shot of this! JB White!!! I loved finding this box bc of two reasons: 1-for the longest time I shopped there (man they had good sales!!) and got my hair done there ...along with the fact that they were bought out years ago and no longer exist!! 2-When I was growing up, my dad was a Supervisor there, in the warehouse and so we ALWAYS had JB White gift boxes on hand! This was just one of those things that sparked a lot of memories for me.

We found Marty's Dad's Postal Jacket. Along with being in the Air Force, he was a Mailman. Our kids love the fact that G'pa was a Mailman....the old school kind, ya know! He didn't wear t-shirt and shorts and tennis shoes like ours! He was a hard core Mailman who dressed in the uniform and walked from door to door devlivering mail to the people of the world! It meant a lot to come across many memories of Dad.

OK----SSoooooooo...here's something else we found!
And upon ripping up the linoleum -- here's what we found!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!

So it wasn't before too long that Marty and I headed off to Lowe's to buy supplies for a NEW SHED FLOOR!! This was the first time we've ever replaced any type of floor by ourselves, so we had to do a little research at the "Do It Yourself" counter, but it didn't take too long before we had gathered our supplies and were heading out the door!


It was exciting to be taking this project on....but what if we TOTALLY SCREWED UP G'MAs shed floor??!!!! That thought did make us a slightly nervous, but didn't stop us!

Jacob was oh too eagar to saw something!!! We had even brought his Scout book with us, so it worked out well that he could knock two birds out with one stone!

We figured that since there was some water damage in the past, that we should water proof the wood, so Brant took on the job of weather proofing the wood. He actually took on many jobs, and his work was GREATLY appreciated!!!

I know that the Lord hears our prayers!! Our last two boards were, seriously, 1 inch too big! And G'ma had no power tools..only a hand saw! I just couldn't figure out how we were going to get the long, 1 inch strips cut with that tiny little saw! So I offered some very serious little prayers, and then I went and just started digging in all of G'pa's tools!!

When I saw the blades I just knew there had to be an electric saw of some kind - somewhere!! I think I also saw the Pearly White Gates of Heaven at about that same time!!! Not too much longer and I found this hand held saw, attached the blade and started cutting awayQ!!! I made sure that everyone got a chance to experience the joy of Power Tools!!!!

LOVE IT!! That was SSOOOooo much EASIER!!!! (Thank you G'pa!!!)
So here's the floor before Lanoleum
Nailing the Lanoleum down...I really liked the design I picked--I think it really brightened the place up! (G'ma loved it, so I'm happy about that:) ...and I am aware that there's a slight ripple in the middle....(huummmmmm...don't really know what to say bout that....I will probably use this picture in a lesson someday--talk about how sometimes there are ripples in life, or something weird like that?)
So here's the finished product!! The ripple isn't so obvious when 'stuff' is in there:)

Our Trip to Utah... Part one...Over the River and Through the Woods, to G'ma's House we go!!

So we had an awesome time visiting friends and family in Utah last week!! It's funny, bc there were about 5 other families from our ward visiting up there at the same time! One of my good friends, Jacey, has already posted about their trip (!! We've all only been home just a few days!!) and she has inspired me to attempt to get caught up!! So here we go.....On our way to Utah!
As I said, there were several families driving up around the same time. We and the Christensen's decided to just follow each other up, so we left super early in the morning and drove straight through.

One of our stopping points---this was too beautiful not to take some pictures!!


Rissa and Luke :)

All went smoothly til we came across an accident.......
Once we hit Filmore, we ended up stopped, sitting on the interstate for...well, honestly I'm not sure how long. Maybe an hour.?. We kinda had fun, so I didn't even pay attention to the time! Fun? well, maybe not FUN, but we had our friends right behind us, so it was way better than sitting there by ourselves! ...So back and forth we ran to each other's car! some guys got out and just strolled up and down the side of the interstate, while another guy decided to crush a few golf balls out into the desert! Me? I sat in the back and watched a movie with the kids while letting Rissa climb from the front seat to the back, front to the back, front-back.....I must say that after being in her carseat so much, she loved the freedom!
We didn't know for a long while what was going on b/c the interstate was backed up so far that you couldn't see anything at first. Before too long we saw tons of black smoke and then the fire trucks and all and we realized that something horrible had happened! It's blury, but Marty pulled it up on his Blackberry. A Semi-truck ran into the back of another, catching the engine on fire. In turn, the other caught fire too. The drivers were Air-Vac'd to a hospital.

Allyson I know has better pictures b/c I turned around and she was hanging out the drivers window snapping shots!! I was sitting in the back, on the opposite side of our car, so this is as good as I got. I think you get the point of how bad the accident was though.

Our arrival...
After 12 Hours or so of driving...and just sitting on the interstate:)-we made it to Grandma's House!!! Before we even went in the house, we tackled G'ma with hugs and kisses and helped her add a little "bling-bling" to her garden!
It was fun to see Rissa instantly bond with G'ma! She's old enough now to understand who she is and I think she was glad to finally SEE the G'ma that's in pictures!! We all loved staying with her and having so much time with her all to ourselves!

Back to School Already?!

I cannot believe that it's time for school to start again!! After a fun filled summer with lots of family and friends, Jacob was feeling like a "Mr. Grumpy Gills" (a term from Finding Nemo that the kids and I have picked up and use from time to time when we're not feeling the most positive:) about having to go to school this morning. This first picture tells it all. He wouldn't turn around b/c he said that he was "not happy about starting the fourth grade, this is a terrible morning and I'm not gonna let you take my picture!" So being the good mom that I am, I listened to his argument, said, "Ok Jacob, that's ok-you don't have to look at the camera" ...and then I snapped a shot of him from behind walking into school:) On the way in, the Principal saw him walking in and rushed over to greet him in this chipper, happy voice, "Good Morning Jacob!!! It's sooo good to see you back in school!! Are you excited to start the 4th grade?!". He didn't really stop, maybe slowed down a bit and kinda growled at her as he walked by. lol--thankfully our Principal has a good sense of humor and she also knows Jacob pretty well so I don't think she was offended by it:)

It's amazing how fast a child can change their attitude!!! All it took was one glance at seeing his name written in cursive on his new desk and all of the sudden he wants his picture taken!! Other than being a tad on the grumpy side this morning, he had a great day at school and did admit to me when I picked him up, that he loved seeing his friends again and that school's not so bad! He's going to learn tons of new stuff this year that I think he's going to enjoy.

Brant had a few 'minutes to chill', as he put it, after I taking J to school, so after we 'chilled' for like, 10 mins, Rissa and I walked him over to the brand new middle school! I love it b/c it's literally just across the street from our house!! As you can see, they haven't even finished the landscaping yet! Brant was sooo excited to start school today!! It was a little hard for me to drop him off, though! I'm excited for him to be at a new school where he has so many good friends...and he's so close to home!

He still had a smile on his face on his walk home!