Climb every mountain...

Well, maybe not every mountain, but at least Mt. Baldie...

That is what Dan, Lanie, and Kenzie did today.

Nothing like hiking 2 hours straight UP; it was so high in the altitude that it was hard to catch their breath.

"WHY???" You may ask would you want to do this...

See this is a annual tradition that Dan's Dad (Opa) does with the grandkids each year, and ONLY if you climb the mountain without anyone carring them, Opa gives each of the grandkids a uncirulated 1884 silver dollar (which today I found out the value is $299.99) and a gatorade (thanks to Lanie who came up with the idea three years ago when she climb the mountain for the first time...she was thirsty!) The girls love reaching the top and sitting around eating their hogies and chips. It is almost more exciting then the whole hike. Kids enjoy the little things in life and remember the funnest things.

Opa is a great Opa and Loves his grandkids so much. This year he turned 71 and he was still able to climb the mountain with 13 out of the 29 grandkids. Also, all 4 of Opa sons (Dan's brothers) were there to spend the day with their dad.

Pappy (My Dad) was suppose to go, but "hurt" (excuses don't get you pass your own granddaughter) his back/ankle. Mackenzie told Paps when she got home from the hike that "Pappy (54) must be older then Opa (71) because Opa was able to climb the mountain just fine." We all just laughed, but I think that Paps really thought about that and learned something from his granddaughter. Kids can be so honest!

The girls will sleep go tonight and are already looking forward to doing it again next year with their Opa and cousins. Kenzie even found a heart shaped rock and carried it the whole way up and down and now has it sitting in her room and will always have a memento to reminder her of her fun yet tiring day spent with her Dad and Opa.

August Birthdays Rock!

...and the People who have August Birthday's rock even more.

Dan (27th) and Eliza (31st-which Liza is the older one) both have birthday's the same week, so the four of us got baby sitters and went out to celebrate in style.

First, we went to Tepanyaki for dinner. I hate the smell of fish and the thought of smelling that yicky smell has kept me and Dan away from a real yummy place. I loved that place and it was fun to watch the "entertainment" of the cook and it didn't even smell like fish at all!

The Cook was making the fried rice and was throwing the egg around and we had to catch the egg pieces on our mouths...every did it the first time and leave me to not do it the first time, so everyone had to watch me do it again...with the pressure on me, I caught it the second time!

Off to Boondocks for a game of mini golf and go-karts...but while we were driving we listened and laughed to Leslie Hall...watch this video from youtube for a good laugh! We were dancing with our windows down, bumping to the music all the way down the freeway.

We mini golfed and and I am pretty sure that I lost and Curtis won himself an itune song when he got the one and only hole an one of the game. I wonder what song it will buy for himself???

And when we went go-karting...Liza is the one with the lead foot. She lapped all of us that was until Dan came up to her in his kart and bumped her backwards causing Dan to take the first place in our mini race.

We then head inside to play the 10 tokens that we each had on the the arcade games...

we all said that we know why we don't gamble, we loved to watch the tickets come out and would try to play the same game again trying to get lots of tickets again, only to be riped off or jipped.

But with all of our tickets together...look how many we had!

You can tell that we are parents, because we walked around the building to find a little boy/girl to give all the ticket to. We found this darling little boy and gave him ALL the tickets. I don't think the boy knew just how many he got, he was just happy to think all of those tickets were HIS! It was fun to watch him smile!

Thanks you guys for a fun night and remember, "I'm scrapbooking ever thing we do" (Leslie Hall from her song This is how we go...I'm tell you, this is hilarious and this girl is a mess.) Curtis: What are we doing for your birthday in Nov. besides buying David Aruchualta's new CD?

30 + 1 =

Dan Today!

Happy Birthday Dan!

31 looks good on you!
Here is the birthday boy with all of his kids helping him celebrate. The kids were excited to give Dan the gift that they picked out...an outside shade canopy! The kids knew that we have been using the canopy of our friends, so they thought that we should just get Dan his very own.

We sang to Dan while we brought him his "cake" of doughnuts with three candles (for how many decades he has seen) and with no ice cream since Dan is a Lac*tard we enjoyed our treats.

So I thought it would be fun to look back on the year that Dan was born...

1977

President: Jimmy Carter

Gallon of Milk: $1.67

Loaf of bread: .36 cents

Gas: .65 cents

Average income: $15,000.000

Monthly Rent: $240.00

Apple Computer Inc. was introduced to the public

First Commerical Flight Concord London to New York City

Inventions: Artificalcial Heart, Personal Stereo, Linked ATM, Neutron Bomb, Fiber-Optic Communication

Popular TV Shows: Levern & Shirley, Happy Days, M*A*S*H, Three's Company, Little House on the Prairie, Charlie's Angels

Popular Movies: Rocky, King Kong, Stars Wars (broke box office records topping $400 million world wide)

Popular Music: James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Hales & Oats, Abba, Stevie Wonder, Barry Manalow, Barbara Streisands

Sports: NBA Champions Portland Trail Blazers vs. Philadelphia 76ers 4-2

Super Bowl XI Oakland Raiders vs. Minnesota Vikings 32-14

WOW! Looking back on all the things that happened in the year that Dan was born, made him realize that HE REALLY IS OLD!

Happy Birthday Babe, you are only as old as you feel and act, so you will forever be 21.

Enjoy your day! You deserve it!

She's growing up too fast...

...our little girl just won't stop growing.

It was hard enough emotionaly to celebrate her sixth birthday and now the very next day I have to let her go to Kindergarden!

I was actually pretty sick today; I hate being sick!!!

So Delanie (and MYSELF) was lucky enough to have Dan stay home and help Lanie get ready for her FIRST DAY of KINDERGARDEN!!!

So THANKS to Daddy for the outfit picking out, the hair doing and the picture taking!

Dan, you are amazing!

*** So I guess I will let it slide this time that Lanie was almost 30 mintues late on the very first day of school...Dan (and I) didn't know that early "Mondays" also mean early to school as well as leaving for home early. Leave it to us to make her late on her very first day.

She didn't mind, she was just excited to be there...finally!

Here is Lanie standing outside of her class room...if you can't see it, Lanie's teacher is name is Mrs. Mikulecky...that is a mouth full no matter how old you are, let alone a 6 year old.

Good Luck Delanie!

Mom and Dad know that you are going to enjoy school and will learn a lot and make lots of new friends. You make us proud and I know that you will make the teacher proud as well. I hate seeing you grow up, but I know that it has to happen, so enjoy being a kid and I will enjoy being your mom...Promise!

6 never looked so cute!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you,

Birthday Dear Delanie,

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Delanie is so happy to be 6

She is excited to be "another hand" when she holds up how old she is.

Look at that piece of cake that Delanie thought she needed: "It does say MY name on it, so I should get that WHOLE piece."

How do you agree with someone when it's their birthday???

Delanie was so excited to finally open her presents...

From the moment that Lanie woke up she was asking to open her presents and you can tell by her face, that she loved them all. Oma and Opa were nice enough to let us have the party at their house and have the whole family over. That alone would have been a "BIG" present for lanie, she just loves her cousins and playing with them.

Delanie favorite gift was either her mp3 player or her High School Musical "Build a Bear."

Delanie at SIX:

* Starting Kindergarten

* Plays city league Soccer

(last week she scored the first goal of the game which is a BIG deal if you remember the post on "soccer with a tender touch")

* Weekly Dance/Cheer/Tumbling Lessons

* Loves High School Musical, Johnas Brother, and Hannah Montana

* Enjoys Neighborhood and Primary friends

(she was so looking forward to standing up in Primary and have the kids sing to her and not to forget to mention, picking out of the "treat" bag"

* Helpful, Entertaining, Spunky, Lovable, Creative

Happy Brithday Dear Delanie, Happy Birthday to you...

AND MANY MORE!!!

The Olympics are over...

...till Summer of 2012 when they will be in London, England!

Total Medals:

Gold Silver Bronze Total

United States of America: 36 38 36 110
China: 51 21 28 100
Russia: 23 21 28 72
Great Britain: 19 13 15 47
Australia: 14 15 17 46
Germany: 16 10 15 41
France: 7 16 17 40
South Korea: 13 10 8 31
Italy: 8 10 10 28
Ukraine: 7 5 15 27
Japan: 9 6 10 25
Cuba: 2 11 11 24

Team USA: You should be proud! Because you made US proud watching you in China!

The great outdoors!

So we were heading out to the mountains for a night of camping and when we pulled into Costco's parking lot to fill up out tank with gas;

what we saw was photo worthy...

Check out our gas prices!

Who would have thought that we would get excited about gas prices under $4.00?

Off we go straight East to the mountains of Heber and we got to our camping spot and we decided to set up our "Home Sweet Home" for the night.

The kids were so excited to watch the tents go up for this was the first time that any of our kids had gone camping.

Here is how we spent Friday afternoon:

The "Dads" took the older kids on a hike to find the "lookout" tower and each kid wanted to get their picture at the top...
...and even Kenzie wanted to show off to the boys that what ever they can do, she can keep up with them even though she is a girl. Kenzie has a good time playing with the boys (Jackson, Braden, Riley, and Johnny) but makes sure we know that "they're just friends."

Dan likes to tease his daughter, but the truth is, no guy will be good enough for his daughter.Here is Friday night: (Doesn't it just scream Kumbaya?)
We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.

We made "tin foil" dinners.

We darted back and fourth from the smoke.

Laughed. Liza "sang" to her marshmallow "crush" before eating it up...

See how she BURNED the marshmallow, she actually likes it like that and burns it on purpose.

YUCK! if you ask me...Can burned Sugar really taste that good?

I love this picture of Carson; it is how we all felt when Friday night was over.

We wanted to sleep, but I really have to admit that I woke up once in the night and I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it and I would have to get out of the tent and sleep in the car...no it wasn't all the snoring I heard from the "other" tents, but it was that I had never tent camped before, I ALWAYS have stayed in a trailer and I don't like knowing that there are "wild" animals walking around MY tent!

But I am proud to say.........I DID IT!!! I slept in the tent ALL NIGHT!

Here is Saturday morning:

Look at the Carson face in the picture on the bottom: that is what all the kids looked like the whole time. Us moms would wash their hands and faces to watch them fall again to the dirt. It was a never ending task we had to face.

Also, Carson NEVER wore shoes the entire time we were there. I don't know how he could walk on the hard rocks without shoes...maybe it is the hot coals we make him walk on for his discipline when he gets in trouble. These rocks must have been a piece of cake, but he doesn't get that from Dan or Me, we both have baby feet.

We went to the pond and watched the zip line and canoe.

The kids didn't like it, but didn't know the more they moved in the boat, the more the boat would rock. They wanted to be done after one time after going to the other side of the pond.

But guys will be BOYS!

See the guys took the canoe from the kids and wanted to have their own Olympic event:

The teams were Dan and Curtis "Stroke"- Dale and Paul "the OLD men underdogs"- Jeremy and Dustin/Bishop " Cheap Shots"

So the rule was row down to the other side of the pond and go all the way around the rock and row all the way back: first time back was the winner.

Jeremy and Dustin got the Dale and Paul to somehow tip their canoe and the both of them fell out of their boat...thank goodness that was a prequalifing round.

So the REAL race was to begin and to make a LONG race short...the "OLD"men WON!!!! They won the gold. Dan and Curtis took the Sliver and the ones who took the "cheap shot" took the bronze!

Who said that we missed the Olympics while we were gone!?

With the camping trip done and everything finally packed up; (that is a lot of work for just one night) we were heading down the canyon when Delanie and Mackenzie both thank Dan and I for a great camping trip. I guess they really did enjoy the whole camping experience and I have to admit, it was a lot of fun.

Thanks you guys (you know who you are) for putting up with our family's chaos and for a fun ward camping NIGHT. Next one is in our back yard!

Thank Goodness for Tivo...

We are going to be gone camping with our "ward" Church Friday night to Saturday and I think that I might go through anxiety not being able to watch the Olympics!

Dan and I are completely addictive watching the Olympics!

No matter the time of day; it could be first thing in the morning to the wee hours of the night, we are watching...

So the thought of not knowing what events we are going to miss is a bit stressful and so like I said above: Thank Goodness we have TIVO, because you better believe that it will be set (and Feef don't even think about turning it off while you are house/puppy sitting...OR ELSE!!!)

Is anyone else addictive as we are???

So I was watching the Olympics when Bob Costs gave some helpful tips to the Olympic viewer and how to take full potential of the Olympic experience:

1. Stay Hydrated

2. Tell yourself you only NEED 4 hours of sleep a night

3. Wear sunglasses to hide your red eyes from all the late night watching and lake of sleep

4. Crank up your ipod and listen to whatever Michael Phelps is listen too...you'll be a winner for sure in your daily retinue

5. Skip work/errands: you'll never going to see another Olympics like this one again!

So no leaving hints or slips on what is going to happen Friday and Saturday during the Olympics in my comments...I want to watch it when I get home!

GO TEAM USA!!!

Attention:

Ladies tell your husbands....

That if they wanted to "surprise" you with some red beautiful roses...

you can tell them that there is a good deal at our home.

I want me kitchen counter back...

Don't get me wrong, Dan buying me all those roses was great and I love them, but he even said he was surprised how much space they take up.

So, if you are even curious what that many roses look like or you are in need of a single rose, a couple to even sprinkle in your tub/bed/stairs, or you want a half or even a whole dozen...

you know where to come.

Sorry Ladies:

This man is taken and he is MINE!!!

So I walked down the stairs to see this...
not just one dozon red roses...

not TWO Dozon Roses...

not even THREE DOZON ROSES...

...but 10 DOZON RED ROSES!!!

(For those who need help with the math...that is 120 red roses in my kitchen)
(with a route 44 Diet Dt. Pepper from Sonic and a card...Does Dan know me or what???)

He knows what makes me happy after 9 years of Marriage!!!

Yeap, Today is our anniversey and 9 years ago today we got married...I started my very own fairy tale...I know a bit cheesy, but I have said it before, I am a hopeless romanic and I have found my prince charming and boy does Dan treat me like a princess!
Who gives 10 dozon roses??? Not just any guy and that is something Dan is not...he is NOT your average guy!

Also, in the card that he gave me...it says, "Redeemable for your "garanite" new counters top"

(Wow! I just mentioned it the other night while we were at Lowe's and he really did listen to me, I thouhgt that he was too busy with the kidos to even have heard me.)

So here we are back in May 1999... This was our engagdement picture. I think that I still look pretty much the same; maybe 30+ pounds more now...but Dan looks so young!

I was 19 and he was just shy of his 22nd brithday!

Purposal: We were heading to where the reception was going to be at, (yeap, I was already planning the wedding and bought a dress with NO ring on my finger, but I had olny 3 months to plan and arrenge things) when Dan said that he was hungry and he wanted Mickey D's...so Dan got the both of us a Happy Meal...NOW we were off to Deepwood Park (for those who are from Oregon) and I don't know when he did it, but when we were sitting there, Dan showed me his "toy" from his Happy Meal and then asks "What did you get?"

Inside my bag was a RING BOX!!! The rest was history!

9 Years ago... August 20, 1999

(Can anyone tell me who is in the picture with Dan and I...Bishop Burton=the presiding bishop of the church. He is a a very good family friend and we were lucky enough to have him fly up to Oregon and marry Dan and I in the Portland Temple.)

(Here are some of my favorite pictures from our day: )

I can still remember...

*The special feeling Dan and I shared sitting and waiting to be married in the temple

*It was the hottest day in August that Oregon has had on record
* Driving down the freeway in my dress and bearly fitting into the Jeep

* Our Cameraman and how he made us laugh...falling down in the mud/grass causing him to be late to the reception. You should see our wedding video>>>it will make you laugh!

* Leaving the reception when it was over and thinking "What is my parents thinking?"

*Having a late night run to taco bell and Dunk in' Donuts because we were starving!!

* Opening gifts the next day at my parents and my mom asking "What did you two do last night??"

*Filling up a UHAL trailer and heading to my new home of Utah with MY HUSBAND away from my parents and sister.

*Staying in my in-laws basement for 2 weeks while our apartment was getting ready...I don't recommend this to any newly married couple. I swear we went to bed at 6:00 every night!

It is hard to believe that 9 years have come and gone and what memories we have made together:

* Married in 1999

*Living in Salt Lake

*Pregnant with our first in 1999
*Move to Orem to manage 44 apartments

*Mackenzie Joy was born in Sept. 2000

*Dan attending the Uof U and UVSC in their accounting program

*Pregnant with second in 2001

*Delanie Grace was born in Aug. 2002

* 2004 build our first home in Lehi

* Dan becomes self employed with taxes and bookkeeping/payroll

* 2005 pregnant for the third time...finding out that it was baby number three and four

Nov. 2005 Carson Twelves and Cassidee Mae are born

We have gone through 6 cars and 4 pets, lived in two different apartments and now a house.

Knock on wood, no major health issues and believe it or not, I can still say that we are happy, blessed in many ways, and are still in love just as much as we were 9 years ago!

Life has come at us and likes to throw in some twist and turns, but working together (that is the key to a successful marriage) we can work through anything.

So here is to Dan and just how much I love him and just how lucky I am to have him in my life.

Dan, you are a great husband, friend, and dad. I am thankful for each day I get to spend with you.

"From Here to Eternity" just like it says in our rings.

"Here's to another 90 years" I LOVE YOU!

Bitter Sweet...

Here I am sitting at the computer, thinking to myself,

"Wow! That was an early morning!"

See, today was the first day of school for Mackenzie, (Yes, we start early here, but we are done the first part of May...look I am already thinking when school will be out.) and with her, she is so excited to get back into school, so she was up by 7 am to start getting ready for school.

During "back to School" night, she was telling us "just how good it was to be walking the halls again of the school."

She loves it so much and she is such a good kid. Learning comes easy for her and she WANTS to do school work and I don't think she will grow out of it. She likes to push herself and uses what she learns, (when she was learning to spell, she would write notes to each family member telling us what she loves about us.)

So here is our big second grader: But before we go, she knows the routine:

Stop and take a handful of pictures!

(My kids know if they just smile and not fight the situation, then they get done with pictures faster...smart kids!)

With her lunch packed and backpack in hand, she is ready to walk out the door.

Here is Mackenzie outside of her class room, she is excited to get in there and start learning.

Here is Mrs. Graham, Kenzie's teacher and you can tell by the smile on both of their faces, they are both going to have a wonderful school year.

So, you better believe that when 3:30 (Mondays are early days) comes around, that Lanie, Cassie, Carson, Daddy, and myself will be outside waiting for the bus to come home to hear about Kenzie's first day of school!

Made you laugh!

Date night with friends: we are at Chilli's first for dinner and we didn't know that Curtis was going to give us our first show of the night... Look at the greasy stack of chips with some cheesy dip on it..."Dare you to eat that..." What is it about guys and getting dared??? Oh Curtis, you make that look so good!

Question: What goes best with Cheese???

"Crack"ers!

(Second Show before Brian Regan)Here we all are waiting for Brian Regan...Funny Funny Man!

It was our third show for the night...we had to move our chairs so many times due to the fact that dumb people don't know how to listen.

Here is Liza and Curtis: Liza made me take this many pictures of the two of them!

(She wanted the perfect picture of the both of them.)

So Liza do you approve of any of these?

Look just how many people can to see Brian Regan! 4000 people this night and 4000 Wednesday and Thursday as well. I think people think that he is Funny. It was so popular that they had to add the two extra nights!!!

Let's the laughs begin!!!
2 hours of straight laughs and it was well worth it.

Here is part of Brian's act from Youtube:

Enjoy!

("Walked the Moon" )

His new dvd comes out soon and the jokes are F-U-N-N-Y! He will be on comidy centeral on Sunday Sept. 7th. I dare YOU to watch it!

Good-Bye my Summer...

...Summer is officially over!

BOOOOOO!

So us moms took our kidos for one last day of fun before our days turn into routine and homework...booooo! I am not looking forward to that.

So ReNae, Eliza, Mindy, and myself headed out to Harrimen to let the kids run wild between the playground and the splash pad.

Us moms sat in the shade with a little breeze and even a bit of overspary would hit us every little bit, and we talked, visiting about different things, enjoying each others company, and the kids would "let us be" as they were enjoying the afternoon playing with friends in the water and occasionally coming over to ask for a snack and a drink.

Off to Wendy's for a quick and cheap lunch on our way home and before I got onto the freeway, two of my four kids were asleep due to wearing themselves out.

It was a great way and tons of fun to end Summer!

Thanks...I think.

So it's 10:00 am and I am still in bed...how did that happen???

Nothing like starting your morning off with a bit of a panic and start to wonder what is going on. I can hear the kids all down stairs and I hurry down the stairs to see if everything is okay and to make sure the house is still standing...

This is what I walk to...Breakfast of Champions and total control of the TV!

HOHOs and Oreo cookies!!

All four of the kids were in heaven to say the least and

Before I could even get upset and ask what the heck is going on, the girls are quick to answer,

"Did you enjoy sleeping in?" They were allowing me to "sleep in without any eruptions."

Oh, how sweet of all of you kids, but you really shouldn't have.

(Eat those treats OR letting me sleep in is the question)

So, I am learning that they were so helpful and thinking of me, to benefit them, you gotta love kids and give them credit to just how cleaver they can be...when they want to.

So Thanks kids for allowing me to catch some extra ZZZZZZ's...I think.

Soccer with a tender touch...

Soccer season has begun for the kids and as you can see, Miss Lanie is excited to play before the game has started... She wanted to put her uniform on right when she got out of bed. This is her first City League sport to play in...

The game was to start and this is our "entertainer" miss Lanie. The look on her face tugged on my heart. As a parent, you hate to see your child uneasy or unconfortable, and Lanie was. This is a side of Lanie that we never knew of; she is always the first to do things, carefree, and wanted to play with people weather she knows them or not...today was not that case!

She was so unsure of things, tears even came. She wanted NOTHING to do with soccer and wanted to sit on the side lines. Thank goodness I was wearing my sunglasses, it was hiding my tears to see my baby girl upset.

When I thought we were going to leave and I had thrown $40.00 in the garbage...

THEN this little girl on the team came up to Lanie and sat beside her and asked if she wanted to kick the ball around till she was use to it. It once one of the cutest things I have ever seen and again I was glad I was wearing my glasses! Tears started to come to my eyes even faster and bigger...I am such a boob.

(this picture was after the game: Note>>>Ashton (this is the little girl) and Lanie are both smiling!)

So this little girl took Lanie by the hand and they ran onto the grass together. Lanie was still a bit scared, but hey she was out on the field, which I thought was not even going to happen!

By the end of the game, Lanie was happy and full of smiles. She was already talking about next weeks game and how she is excited about it. Wow! What a difference a friend can make!

This little girl THEN gives Lanie this little homemade fan (as if she hadn't done enough) and it totally made Lanie's night. Come to find out, Ashton lives just a bit away from us and that both girls are going to ride the same bus!

***Question>>> Why is it that kids can be friends with anyone??? Why don't they judge other kids when making friends???

Adults need to take note of this and just be yourself and enjoy others company. I look up to kids and for the lessons that they teach me on a daily bases. I need to not judge and be "scare" to hang out with people who might be different them me. It makes me think of that saying that I heard a long time ago...you have to be a friend to have a friend.

Little Aston had no idea what big difference she made on Lanie's evening and on me, and what, it took no money, little time, and by just being herself. Aston could have sat "laughing" or "ignoring" Lanie, but she choose differently and went out to become a friend.

Thanks girls for reminding me what friendships can be made by just being me and not caring about what others may think.

(Who knew Soccer could be so tender and touching!?)

I swear tonight was worse then any Hallmark commercial that makes me tear up