Stuff

So I find Monday's to be overwhelming. Somehow on Sunday, every weekend, a bomb goes off in my house and I wake up to find stuff everywhere! Instead of tackling it head on I am going to post to the blog and then clean clean clean to some Limbaugh listening! :>)

As many of you know, I have a love for woodworking. It is a skill that I am working on and I really enjoy it. Lance was so sweet and got me a planer!!! This will help me out so much. We had a fun time planing down some wood together this past weekend.


He also put a heater down in the craft room for me.
I know what I will be doing on these cold winter days! :>)
While Lance and I were planing wood, Lincoln was also busy. I have been very frustrated lately because I will walk around the house and find these:
These little screws will be all over the carpet. He is so sneaky about it. I will just think he is playing and the next thing I know he has taken apart a whole toy! I told him that he had to sit at the table and put the toys back together. (He doesn't like that as much.)

Now here is a picture of him "putting the leap pad back together." Does it look like he is putting it together?? No! He is taking more screws out of it! I didn't realize this until after I took the picture. Molli is being very sweet and helping to put the other toy back together. I am not quite sure how to nip this bad habit. He even takes toys apart that he loves! I hope that one day he will be a brilliant builder or engineer to make up for destroying all of these things. :>)

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year. It seems like the celebration of Halloween lasts longer and longer every year. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that my kids love to play dress up and pretend so costumes are used all month long! This year we had Hermione, a snake, a pumpkin and a dinosaur. We were able to go to the kids Halloween Carnival at school. They all really enjoyed themselves. On Saturday, Molli had a birthday party to go to so I took the kids around downtown Logan for a little bit. They enjoyed walking around and going to all the stores. The favorite thing was trick-or-treating around the neighborhood on Halloween night. The weather was so beautiful this year. It was very relaxing and fun to walk around up in North Logan.

Molli - She was pretty stoked about being Hermione. Her first choice was some fighter dude on a video game but I convinced her that she would be a better Hermione! :>) I asked her if she wanted to spray her hair brown. She said "No way!" and she made me promise to not put any make-up on her. I also thought she might want a time-turner necklace. She informed me that that was in Book 3 and she is the Hermione from Book 1. I am slowly learning!

Lincoln - He knew he wanted to be a snake for months. He also has the next couple of years already planned out. He was very happy with how the costume turned out. He was very excited to wear his costume to Mr.John's class for the Halloween party. It was an easy no fuss costume for Lincoln so he loved it!

Blake - He was determined to be a pumpkin because there are lots of pumpkins around on Halloween. Therefore, a pumpkin seemed to be the logical choice. His costume was done first so he got to wear it all of October. Every time he would wear it he would ask me if he looks cute in his hat. He definitely loved the fact that there was so much candy involved with Halloween. While we were trick-or-treating in Logan he told me that Halloween was the best day ever!

Bart - His brothers helped to decide that Bart would be a great dinosaur. He definitely was! He has the best roar around! The biggest problem was getting him not to chew on his tail. Other than that he was quite the trooper. He kept up with the other kids with no problem.

Grandma George

Lance's Great-Grandma passed away on October 23rd. Today we were able to attend her funeral out in Tremonton. I learned a lot about Grandma George today. I already knew that she was a wonderful woman who had lived a great and fulfilling life. However, it was neat to hear little stories and details about her life that I did not know.

Molli and I had the opportunity to go visit Grandma George last June. She was a wonderful quilter and owned a professional quilting machine. She enjoyed having others come and work on it. Molli's Grandma Debbe and Great- Grandma Lavon made a beautiful quilt top for her. We were so excited to go out to Tremonton to sew the quilt. Even Molli was able to try it. She was a natural! What a very lucky girl. Not many 8 year olds are able to say they made a quilt with their Grandma, Great-Grandma, and Great-Great-Grandma! It was a day we will always treasure.

I am so glad that we were able to make it out to visit Grandma George before she passed away. It was fun to be able to have lunch and chat with her. What a gracious host! We also loved hearing about Grandma and Grandpa Stenquist's life growing up in Tremonton. Although she has passed away, we know that she is with our loving Heavenly Father and that she is happy. We will always love you and be grateful for all you did for us!

Lincoln - my big helper

I just wanted to thank my sweet Lincoln. I think he is the hardest working kid and maybe even person (besides Lance) that I know. He asks me everyday what "big chore" I can give him. His favorite so far is to stack the firewood for the winter. If you can believe it he actually stacked most of the wood in the picture. Molli and Lance helped a little but the majority was Lincoln. I hope none of you think I am abusing any child labor laws. :>) He actually really does love it. I asked Lincoln to pose for the picture and he told me "Not right now! I am busy working!" Thank you Lincoln for all of your hard work. You are the best!

Lake Powell Day 4

Day 4 turned out to be a lot of fun. We went up Moki canyon in search of sand dunes. We went on a fun hike where there were lots of fast lizards. We kind of found the dunes but they were overgrown. So we decided to go back to camp. When we got back we noticed very dark clouds and lots of loud thunder. We went up to our tent and it started to pour. It was also violently windy and we thought our tent was going to blow away with us in it! After about 15 minutes it passed. We were all a little nervous as to what we would find outside. Lance checked it out and saw little flash floods around our campsite. It turned out to be the most fun of the whole trip! This one area had little waterslides and pools all along it. We went on the best hike and the kids had a blast!

The storm that caused our grief and joy!
The flash flooding. We followed it all the way up to the source. Pretty fun!
Lance sliding down the "waterslide" into the pool.
The boys wading in a pool.
Lincoln sliding down a "waterslide."
Molli sliding down a "waterslide"
A picture from above


This was such a fun trip. I think we all had favorite parts. I know we are all looking forward to doing it again someday. It is amazing how different each canyon of Lake Powell is. We only explored a little portion of this massively beautiful park. Until next time...

Lake Powell Day 3

Lance and I took a mini-date one morning. Bob and Michelle watched the kids while we went out fishing one morning. We didn't catch any fish but it was sure nice to be with Lance.

Bart was always on my lap during the boat ride. He really liked being on the boat.

Blake would randomly find somewhere to sleep on the boat. This was one of his more comfortable sleeping positions.
We went on a beautiful hike up Smith Fork canyon. This is a picture of the kids catching frogs. The frogs were everywhere!
A cool little nook
This was at the end of the hike. A cool little pool of water and a lot of sand.
The kids and Lance had fun jumping down the sand hill.
The kids really enjoyed hiking with Grandpa. Bob would tell Lincoln to throw the frogs up in the air. He also picked out a cat tail and Blake thought it was hilarious to try to get Grandpa with it.
When we were back at camp the kids loved to play with their trains on the rock. The ridges turned out to be great train tracks.

Lake Powell Day 2

Despite my pleas, cliff jumping was done by Lance and Paul.
They both loved it and looked pretty cool doing it.
We went on a hike up Forgotten canyon to some Indian ruins.
It was a hot day but the hike was still a lot of fun.
Family on the hike

Molli and Lincoln finding a cool spot after a hot hike.

We made it to the top! The Indian ruins were sure neat.

Lake Powell Day 1

We've never been on a trip as a family together that was farther away than Bear Lake. This was a big adventure for all of us and boy did we love it! Here is our trip in pictures. I think it is unanimous that we all love Lake Powell! We can't wait until our next trip.

Lance looking at all of the gas/money it took to fill up the van, boat and extra gas cans. :>)
The boat was loaded down. We were all very excited to scope out a great campsite.
This was our camp. It turned out to be a beautiful spot! We stayed in Hansen Creek Canyon. Our camp was up on a hill so it kept the kids away from the water.
They apparently did not inherit my fear of heights.
They all loved the morning hikes they took with Lance all around the camp.
Catching lizards was a favorite pastime. I think only one lizard lost it's tail. Not too bad!

Hooray for Kindergarten!

Lincoln has had such a great week at Kindergarten. He totally loves it! He got Mrs. Palmer as his teacher. This is the same teacher Molli had for Kindergarten. He seems to really like prep, especially PE and computer class. He has been so excited that he sits out in the van for nearly 10 minutes every morning before we actually need to leave for school. I am so happy that he loves school. I love that my kids love school!

*I have to point out that you know he must be excited for school if he gave me that big of a grin and posed for a picture for me. That is rare! :>)

A Great Visit

Karl, Jenna and boys spent the evening with us last night. What a fun time! Thanks for coming over and going on the boat with us. It was great to hang out. I got a few shots of the hubby looking great on the wake board. Karl is an incredible wake boarder. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the cool back flips he can do. Jenna was also very impressive with her boarding skills. It was wonderful to spend time with them. Thanks for the visit!

Molli's First Day of School

Molli is now in 3rd grade! I just can't believe it! She had such a great first day. She loves her new teacher, Mrs. Smith. Molli says she is very nice and very patient. Molli seemed most excited about the possible treats she could earn throughout the year and the parties that she is sure her class will win. She says the kids in her class are great. I am sure she will make a lot of good friends this year. I love that Molli loves school so much. She makes me realize that I shouldn't have stressed out so much as a little girl and should have just enjoyed life! She is such an inspiration to me. I hope you have a great year Molli!

Happy Birthday Bart!

My sweet Bart is now two!!! It is amazing how fast time flies. He still seems so little to me yet so big at the same time. He had a fun birthday. We of course went and got the obligatory balloon bouquet in the morning. Then we worked on his birthday cake. The kids had a blast decorating it. That evening we had a garden grill out with Grandma and Grandpa Balling and Jeff. It was a fun time. Bart enjoyed being the center of attention. He got a few presents, which were enjoyed by all. We all had a sugar high after eating that cake, but what is a birthday without a sugar high?
The next day he got a package from Grandma and Granddad Paxton. All of the kids were so stoked by the Mr. Potato Heads and the Disney club MegaBloks. It is great when all of the kids love the presents the birthday boy gets. Happy Birthday Bart!
We love you so much and hope that your third year is as great as your second.

A Dream Come True

We got a boat! We are so excited. This is a big step for us but it is a great step. We are excited to be able to get back out to Benson and spend some time in the water.