Sweet... 17!

Happy 17th Birthday Ashly!

Cutie Pie!

We love and adore you!

Thanks for making us smile

for all these years!

Happy 15 Years Dallan!

We are so lucky to have you.

You are such a joy.

And oh so cute!

Thanks for 15 wonderful years.

We are proud 

of all that you do!

New Paint and Finished Homemade Table

I have been busy giving my front room a makeover.  Here is the dining room with its fresh paint and new chairs as well as the new table and benches that I built.  I don't have all the pictures on the walls or the glider chair recovered, so the other side of the room will be unveiled a little later.  Maybe a lot later depending on how much motivation I can muster the next few weeks.
The picture doesn't do the paint justice.  It is a nice sea foam green color,  NOT baby blue!  :)  It's a drastic change from the barnyard red.

I got the plans for the table online at anawhite.com.  I modified it of course, because I wanted square.  I made the benches just by using the same basic design as the table.  It's a heavy beast,  Brian did not enjoy moving it in for me!

The chairs I bought at a local furniture store and the window in the background I plan on making a nice stained glass piece to put in it.  Clear glass, not colored.  I'm way excited. 

I am itching for compliments, so please drop a line.  :)

Tanner's Orchestra Concert

Tanner has become quite the musician. We are so proud of him and his musical talent.

Look Who Turned 13!

Happy Birthday Tanner Man! We love you clear to the sky and back!

My newest item

I just wanted to share this piece with you. I particularly like it. It is for sale. $40 I wish I had better light when I took the picture because the red and blue are very vibrant. It can be hung either horizontally as shown or vertically with the red star on top.

National Archery School Program

Having only held a compound bow 3 times in his life, Tanner decided that he would like to compete at a State Tournament in Salt Lake City this week. And compete he did. Tanner has a real natural talent for the sport. He scored a 216, coming in 2nd in his school group. It was also a competitive score with the rest of the state. He didn't place, but he was in the top 15 %. Way to go Tanner! I guess you deserve to finally get that bow set that you have been asking for.... so you can practice for next year and be the Grand Champion!

Happy Birthday Hallie!

Happy 11th Birthday to my
loving
sweet
adorable
beautiful
kind
happy
daughter!

Guess Who Found the Leathers this Year!

Didn't we just see Ashly in this outfit? I guess Hallie found them and thought they would be perfect for Halloween this year. She added the red lashes and fake nails to make it "her own".

ShellyBdesigns

I am finally up and running. Who knew I would try and start a business?!

Click HERE

Ashly's Homecoming

Shelly runs her first Half Marathon

For Mother's day this year Shelly got a unique gift. Brian registered her to run the Hobble Creek half Marathon. Though he thought he was doing something ingenious and awesome, it turns out that he heaped a lot of stress and pressure on Shelly. Next year he is promising to get chocolate. To complicate things even more, Shelly had had surgery just two weeks before the race and had to run with a brace.
Her goal was to run it in 2 hours and 30 minutes but she decided that she would accept anything under three hours. Anyone that knows Shelly knows that she gives everything her all. When she crossed the finish line of her very first Half Marathon the clock said 2 hours and 19 minutes.
The reward for finishing? A t-shirt. Unlike other races where you get your shirt before, only finishers get one here.
Here she is about 10 minutes after the race posing for a picture. I can't believe that she has a smile on her face. Everyone, including Shelly, expected a sore morning the following day. However, she was just fine. Her family is so proud of her! Way to go Shelly!

Grandfather and Granddaughter

Ashly's first pair of coveralls. It was a joyous occasion for her to find a pair her size (we found them at DI). She is proud to be "just like grandpa!".

The truth is.... she really needs them. Her new job is mucking stalls at the large animal vet that is here in town.

Way to go sis! We love you.

Indiana Jones Takes on and Destroys the Lego Armada

This is Tanner's latest project.

Find It Here

My Trip to Malaysia in a Nutshell

In Kuala Lumpur, there was a festival going on and so I got to see some native dancing. I loved it! The costumes were beautiful and the music was fun and lively.
The same place that the festival was held, they have a rainforest preserve. Shirlee, the kids and I strolled through it. Actually, we carried the stroller because of all the stairs. We were so drenched and tired when we were done. We didn't see any exotic animals. The only wild life we encountered were dontseeums. Tiny bugs that bite. Well, they bit everyone, except me. I was lucky.
Toilet in Tokyo airport. I love the 'powerful deoderizer feature.
Shirlee and I got henna tattoos at the base of the Batu caves. It smelled funny. According to Shirlee's father in law, Dr. Keddington, it was perfectly safe and we weren't drugged with anything when the paint absorbed into our skin.
This was at the top of flight of stairs #1 in the Batu caves. There were LOTS of stairs. There were also lots of shrines and 'mini' temples where the Hindu were worshiping.
This is the first monkey that I have ever seen outside of a cage. It had a Mt. Dew.
Um.... need I say anything?
The fishy foot spa was not my cup of tea. I paid $2 for 10 minutes. I think I lasted 3 minutes.
Very cool palm.
The building right/center is Shirlee's home (18th floor). This picture is taken from a mall that is located directly across the park.
This is the view out of her front window. Cool, huh!
This is the view from my potty. Really. And that is my shower. There is a shade you can pull down! :-)
More cool plants. I loved all the exotic flowers and trees. I thought these looked like little fireworks.

And there it is! My trip to Malaysia in a nutshell.
Thanks Dave & Shirlee!

May Picture Journal

Tanner is so glad that he has graduated from elementary school. He is very excited for Jr. High!
Hallie learned that it's a bad idea to ride a scooter without shoes and socks.
Ashly attended the Festival of Colors this year.
Tanner played well in his orchestra's final performance.
Dallan played tennis this year on the Jr. High Intramural team. He did great!

Now summer begins..... I wonder what adventures the kids will take us on now.....

Charged Up

Dallan is a tinkerer. He takes anything apart that I will let him, then proceeds to modify it, or fix it, or just learn how it works. Yesterday was no different.

He found an old Black and Decker drill that doesn't work. So I gave it to him. Yes, I even let him do this even though only shortly before this he admitted that he has melted a pair of socks while doing some other projects. I didn't think to ask him if they were on his feet when this occurred. I'm afraid to ask now that I think about it.

Not long after, I heard the drill working. Good job kiddo! I wasn't really surprised. Although, I admit that it included an external battery pack and duct tape.

A little later, he came to me with a completely dead drill, announcing that he had just lowered our power bill. Huh? He explained that he had some wires reversed, so that when he went to recharge the drill it actually drained what was left in his batteries into our home wiring. Therefore, helping power our home appliances.

I'm not real sure if I'll see a deep cut in my next power bill, but hey, I love this kid.

A pig in a post from Ashly

Hello! Its Ashly!! For those of you reading this that are not aware, I have been raising a show hog since the end of December 2010. Where? Springville High School (other high schools with the FFA do this as well). Why? The students in the FFA have the opportunity to buy and raise a hog every year, and then take to a stock show to sell.

Raising a hog is a lot of hard work, and it takes dedication. Once every week, I cleaned out 1 of the 7 pig pens that we keep the 48ish hogs in. That includes filling the feeder with buckets of hog chow, shoveling out a ton of poop, and replacing any wet, nasty straw. My hog was really fat and had to be put on a diet during the month of April. That involved feeding him 2 times a day. Once at 7 in the morning, once at 5 in the evening. That added a lot more hours to my time hanging out with pigs. And a ton more complaints from my Mom that I smelled like pigs.


This is my hog. His name is Remmus (Summer backwards :] ). At the time this picture was taken, he weighed about 280 lbs. His ear tag number is 1279. He is a Hampshire. Together, we participated in the 2011 Spanish Fork Stock Show. It was so fun to be there with all of my FFA friends! We pretty much just showed, missed school, and hung out for 3 days!!

Thursday was the market competition and Friday was the showmanship competition. To prepare for competitions, I gave Remmus a bath so that he would look clean, and smell good! I think I got just as wet as he did during all of his baths!

During the market competition, the judge looks at your hogs' muscles, height, fat, length, etc. and decides on a 1st place blue ribbon hog, and a 2nd place red ribbon hog, based on how well the hog looks as far as meat goes. Remmus won a red ribbon in his class!

The showmanship competition is the one that I was excited for. I have worked really hard with Remmus, walking him, and getting to be his friend. He is very obedient, and I managed to somehow get him trained to the point where he would come to me when I whistled and called his name!! My FFA teacher had no clue how I did it! Honestly, neither did I. We didn't win anything though, because another persons' hog bit Remmus, and started a fight. I was a little disappointed because I could see the judge watching me, and following Remmus, but better luck next year!!


On Saturday, I sold Remmus for $500. I paid $300, including him, vaccinations, and feed. I am going to miss him, but.... not his poop. Or cleaning up his poop. Or how funny he smelled.

Spring Break in Beautiful Southern Utah

Goblin Valley.




We brought along the GPS unit and had fun GeoCaching amongst the Goblins.

Ever licked a Goblin before?
Think Van Halen's song Jump for the next few moments.






After Goblin Valley we found some juicy burgers in Hanksville and an old wooden mill from the 1800's.


Capitol Reef, Grand Wash hike

Escalante Reservoir

Petrified Forest hike

Anasazi State Park
Kodachrome State Park, Chimney Rock
Yep we had a blast over Spring Break. The first day was spent hiking in Goblin Valley and then looking around Hanksville. We slept in Cainesville, woke up early, and went crazy on day 2. We went to Capitol Reef National Park where we hiked part of the Grand Wash and then enjoyed ancient petroglyphs. That done we continued on to Escalante where we enjoyed the reservoir and the Petrified Forest. We broke for lunch and then journeyed on to Anasazi State Park. There we toured the museum and an ancient dwelling. Since there was still some daylight we kept going to Kodachrome State Park. Here we marveled at the chimney's and hiked to see Sheakspeare's Arch. On our drive home we managed to spend at least 1 or 2 minutes in Bryce Canyon (at least we think the road was barely inside the park). Whew!