Introducing Jarlie

Here's the newest member of the family, Jarlie. I'm not sure where the really dark eyes came from, but he/she looks like he/she could be a sibling to our other four. After seeing Mom and Dave's internet baby, I had to try it out too. Here's the website if you want to try: http://www.vw.com/vwhype/babymaker/en/us/

True Blue Fan

Do you recognize this man? He may look like a bruiser to you, but it's really just Jarin. He decided he had had enough of his long, curly, lush hair. So he cut to the chase and went straight for the buzz. I thought I would hate it, but it's only been two days since the hack and it's starting to grow on me. (The real reason he cut his hair was because he made a deal with his Young Men that if they got rid of their long hair, he would too. Well, the deacons kept their end of the bargain, so Jarin had to keep his. Way to be a good sport Jarin!)

If you can't tell in the picture, Jarin is holding BYU sugar cookies we made last night for his co-workers. There were about 60 cookies and he saved the last 5 for us. They ranged from oval shaped cookies with a Y on it, to helmets with a Y, to brown footballs. Jarin said his office LOVED them. They are gluten-free and surprisingly taste better than normal sugar cookies. He respectfully wore his black U of U sweatshirt to symbolize "death to the Utes" tomorrow as he hopes to be attending their funeral (well, at least watching it from Uncle Jim's house).

Happy Halloween!

I loved Halloween this year. The weather was unusually warm. Halloween was on a Friday. We hung out with Scott, Maran, and Hannah that night. And, of course, the candy is always delicious. Thanks kids for doing all the work and getting the treats! Jarin actually did a bit of trick or treating himself. Instead of staying home to hand out candy, we brought it with us to hand out as we passed by the neighbors. You'll have to see as you scroll down how my creative and attention-loving husband handed out the candy. Boy is he a ham!

Here's our darling angel walking along in the school parade.

Dallin couldn't decide what he wanted to be until about a week before Halloween. That's when he picked out the cheapest Halloween costume anyone could think of. He wanted to be a bag of trash. Unfortunatley, we miscommunicated about what he should do with his costume at school and he threw away his "trashy" costume. So, he wore three other costumes that we had lying around that day (he was a bit undecided).

We didn't get good individual pictures of Sienna, Taylor, and Jarin. But here is a group shot. If you can't tell, Sienna was a Snow Princess and had the most beautiful eyes that day. We put mascara on her and her blonde eyelashes turned into these lush, long eyelashes. I think she enjoyed feeling so pretty and getting comments on her eyes all day. Taylor came up with the idea of being a hobo for Halloween. That was easy enough. His sign said, "Hungry. Need treats." In a sense, aren't we a bit like the beggars on the streets at Halloween time? And Jarin . . . was a toilet. Nice, huh? The kids would lift the seat to retrieve their prize from inside the toilet bowl. He would tell the kids, "Trick or treat. Lift my seat." Some kids weren't too sure about that and would give him funny looks.

Afterwards, we got home about 8:00 and ate Mummy Dogs, fruit, and orange/banana smoothies topped with Cool Whip shaped ghosts. I should've taken pictures. But I got in such a hurry that I forgot. I probably won't make this meal a tradition. Personally I like the soups and chilis in a bread bowl. We'll have to see if we can find gluten-free bread bowls next year.

We ended the day by snuggling up with each other on the bean bag and watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas." We thought it would be a good transitional movie from Halloween to Christmas. But it ended up being even more weird than we remembered. The most important thing was just spending time together. While lying there on the bean bag, I felt so much joy just being with my family.

Hi There, Remember Me?

The kids' first day of school was August 18th. Summer seemed shorter than usual this time. Kamrie started first grade, Dallin started third grade, and Taylor started fifth grade. They all seem to be enjoying their teachers and classes so far. But we never have had bad years in the past. So this year shouldn't be any different. Taylor already enjoyed an overnighter at Clear Creek, UT with the other fifth grade boys earlier this month. He's growing up too fast. I remember how old I felt when we got to go to an overnighter at Sly Park, CA in grade school.

Dallin earned his Wolf badge in August. He was very self-motivated and kept bugging me to help him complete all the requirements. Great job, Big D!
(Apparently I didn't realize how much I looked like a frumpy mother that day. I thought I brushed my hair. Oh well, I DO have four kids who keep me very busy. That's my excuse.)




Sisi's first day of preschool was Sept. 9th. She goes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11. She is in a similar type of preschool as Allie. There are six moms who feel like we are smarter than a three year old and can teach our own free (or dirt cheap) curriculum. We each take two weeks in a row every semester and teach the letter, number, shape, and theme of the week in whatever teaching style or method we want. The kids also get to have structured play time. Sienna loves it and feels like a big girl just like her older siblings. She even has Kamrie's old backpack from last year. (Obviously the sun was in her eyes for this picture. I didn't like the shadows that were being cast on her face, so I had her close her eyes and then open them for the picture at the very last second.)




Dallin is on a competitive traveling soccer team. He was hand picked by a coach who was tired of the recreational soccer and wanted more. Coach Bjorn is an amazing coach and doesn't even have a child on this team. (He has a daughter the same age, but this league is for boys only.) He and another guy from Saratoga Springs started this competitive team for the first time this year. The Saratoga Sting u9 (under age nine) is in first place out of ten teams so far! They are amazing to watch! I love that Dallin gets to be a part of something like this. In this particular picture, Dallin was the MVP for the game. He worked hard and made one goal. He almost made two more, but he was off sides both times. So they didn't count. We are proud of all his hard work.




One last thing . . . this is Jarin's contribution to the Cougs! Go BYU football! (I'm not sure what the pinkish, orange thing is in the middle. Maybe you can figure it out.) Since we love attention around here, this seemed appropriate. There have been many comments made because of this. In fact, one father in the neighborhood had to drive his six year old boy down to our house to show him "the Y" because he was concerned that there were too many "U" decorations in the area.

Some Updates

Obviously I'm not the most talented at blogging. Nevertheless, here we are with our latest (and oldest) news.

Today I was released as a den leader over Dallin's Wolf den and called to be an assistant secretary in the Primary. We have such a big Primary that we have two counselors and a secretary over the senior Primary and two counselors and a secretary over the junior Primary. I am the secretary over the junior Primary. I am actually very excited about this calling. I love working with young children. They are so sweet.

Jarin was released back in February or March from his calling as the Primary Chorister. Now he works with the 12-13 year old Boy Scouts as an assistant Scout master (as well as a Home Teaching supervisor). Needless to say, he is very busy with the Scouts/Young Men now.

Jarin is working VERY hard in his new landscaping job with Odyssey Landscaping. It is the busy season right now because the snow is gone and everyone is getting ready for the outdoors. So we hardly see him. His responsibilities are with sales and account managing. His dreams about driving a truck have come true. He drives all around Utah in a brand new Toyota Tacoma talking with hundreds of new people. He is loving his job and I am loving having an income!

Some More Updates

Taylor is pinning on the mother's pin because he earned his Bear rank in Cub Scouts. He worked hard to accomplish this and here is why . . . scroll down



He went from this . . .

to this.

Yes, we had to bribe him with contact lenses. He's very active and his glasses kept getting in the way. He's so much happier with them and actually takes better care of them than I do of mine.



This is what happens when teeth meet teeth.

The boys were jumping up to bite the string of a deflating balloon (fun game, I know) when their teeth met in the air. Fortunately Taylor's front right (his right, our left) had just a minor chip. Unfortunately Dallin's right front tooth got the brunt end of the deal. He now has half of a fake tooth. That's boys for you. I'm sure we'll have plenty of fun accidents in the future with these two.

Birthdays

Here are the birthdays I have missed over the last few months:


Feb.10 : Kamrie Jeneal turns 6! She wanted a "date" with her parents. So we took her out to dinner at Red Lobster (her choice) and went shopping at the mall and Toys R Us.

This is one sweet girl ready to dig into one sweet cake.

This is the family, minus the mom because she is always behind the camera.

March 28: Jarin turns the Big 3-5! We took the whole family to get some burgers from the Training Table. It wasn't his first choice to eat out there; but it was getting late, we were hungry, and the Training Table didn't have a wait like everyone else. However, we made up for it by going to Red Lobster later to get his favorite meal, the Ultimate Feast, thanks to Mom and Dave's gift card.

We're ready to dig into a gluten-free angel food cake with strawberries! Yum! Yum!

Jarin's reaction to Mom and Dave's card.




Jarin's reaction to my (sniff) card.

April 19th: Sienna Marie (aka Sisi) turns 3! This time we took the family to Red Robin.

Sisi was very excited when the waitress brought out this monster of a Mudd Pie.

As you can see, we were all very excited too!




She almost inhaled the fire trying to blow the candles out.
Her cake was very pink--just how she wanted it.

Sisi loves her new dress that Grandma D made for her.

Life

Sienna insisted on doing the dishes. She actually did a good job rinsing and placing them in the dishwasher. I need to cherish this because her enthusiasm for helping will fade, I'm sure, like the others. We are not allowed to call her our baby anymore. She will correct you and say, "I not a baby. I a big girl." And that she is. We are potty training her this week. Her "number one" is doing great. Her "number two" needs a little work, as I feared. She is afraid to go number two in the toilet. She will actually ask me to put a diaper on her when she needs to go. A few minutes later after she has "done her duty", she will let me know and I put her underwear back on (after I clean up, of course).


Kamrie had two loose teeth for a couple of months. She was excited to get her permanent teeth in, until the first one came in behind her baby tooth. I called the dentist and made an appointment for her to be seen because I wasn't sure if it would somehow still come out on its own or if it would need to be pulled. The dentist said that it had to be pulled. She only had a topical ointment placed around her tooth before they pulled it out. But she was tough. Then the dentist had to try and decide if her other bottom tooth would have the same problem. If so, she would be right back in to get it pulled as well. He felt it would be wise to pull it now versus later. This one was harder to get out. I could see her body tense during the process. I HATE watching my kids be in pain. Tears came to both our eyes. But she was still very tough and the dental assistant commented on how amazingly brave she was. Kamrie then got a big chocolate covered ice cream cone from Arctic Cirlce and eight quarters from the tooth fairy that night. Kamrie said she felt the tooth fairy take her teeth and give her the money. She now has a harder time saying words with "s" and "sh". It is quite cute.
















On the left is the Juarez Temple in Mexico. This is the temple that inspired President Hinckley to build many small temples around the world. On the right is the "Jenny Phillips" fireside group that went to Mexico to sing a few weekends ago. They are standing in front of the LDS high school called the Academy. They sang here as well as for the Stake in the area. Jarin stayed with a really nice couple with a big house. The wife is from Utah and the husband is native to the area.

Temple Square

Every December we like to go to Salt Lake Temple Square and look at the lights. This year we invited Grandma Nae, took some hot chocolate, and had a nice time enjoying one of our holiday traditions.

Dallin's Baptism

So Dallin was baptized and confirmed over a month ago on December 1st. I don't know what my deal is, but I can't seem to either find the time or the energy to blog sometimes. But here it finally is.

It was a wonderful day with Grandma and Grandpa D, the Spragues, Grandpa Stevens, Quin and Vanessa and family, Becca, the Flints, and a couple of neighbors who showed their support. We enjoyed quite the snow storm that morning. Thank goodness we had several soups to choose from for the luncheon afterwards. It was the perfect meal for a cold, blustery day. Thanks to everyone who helped out by bringing a soup, for the gifts, and for showing up. I really appreciate everyone's love and support for our sweet Dallin. It was a special day for him. I am so happy that he has chosen to follow his Savior and gain the awesome gift of the Holy Ghost to help him in this life. I am really proud of him and his decisions. Here are some pictures from that day. Dallin isn't smiling in them because I think he doesn't like his smile (he has mentioned that once before). I know it was a happy day for him.