THEY'RE HERE!!

After 8 long years of hearing how Eric was bringing his family back to the states with him... it's finally happened! Eric, Cyntia, Jared, & Trisha are all here now! It's been the most amazing week with them, getting to know them and sharing our cultures. They are going to fit right in here!

Daniel and I got to have a date night in Vegas Saturday night (Thanks Jen and Jimmy for having a sleepover for the kids - luckily the Lindell cousins were home for the weekend and so that was fun!) We ate at the cheesecake factory (mmmm...) and then watched the fountains a few times and headed to the airport. They landed just as we were getting there, so perfect timing! This was about 1030 so by the time we drove home it was 2am. We visited and I got in the shower at 3am and back up at 8ish to get ready for church! We just hung out on Sunday and visited and had dutch oven. Daniel took Monday off due to rain (and his brother FINALLY being here) We took all the kids to jump'n jacks and then ate these super good super nacho type stuff! :) It was so good. Tuesday Mya and I took them out to Zion and we had a picnic with Daniel and did the tourist thing in Zion. Came home and had sloppy joes and the boys went to scouts to play baseball. Today we went to see the Temple because besides Eric this was the first time any of them had ever seen the Temple in real life. Off to in&out for lunch and then to check out Barnes & Noble. Then we found some good to stuff to cook with at the Mexican market here and came home and Cyntia made home made corn tortillas (my personal favorite - I'm SO lucky to have 2 sister-in-laws that can make my favorite food!!) and carne asada and chis mol... it was absolutley to DIE FOR!! I could eat that everyday all day! Tomorrow we will have a little birthday party for Trisha because her birthday is Friday, when Daniel will take them and meet John in Evanston to take them on to Lovell. We will miss them and see them with everyone else in May for Sean's graduation! Can't wait!!

This picture is funny because if you read both their shirts it says "HI, I'M HERE!"

Cake for Brynlee

This is for my dear friend Michelle's granddaughters 1st birthday! It's 4 chocolate 6' rounds with chocolate butter cream and fondant decorations... it's a giant candle if you can't tell. :) Only have to say that because while I was making it this morning Mya said it was a firework!

Tara's commercial

So last year I got a shot of my neighbor girls Tiffany and Channing in NYC on the Today show! And last night... as Daniel was watching TV I walked by and saw this commercial with TARA in it! So I rewound it and got my camera out and here ya go! :) She's quite the celebrity in the music dept. here at Dixie!

Fall Friends

Meet Mya's new friend "Guy"She took him out to the front step to watch the cars go by

Held him close for a picture Even put her hand on his leg while rocking with him in the chair
And even shared her clothes with him!

Freakishly Funny!!

2010 Hikes=Daniel 2 Jamaica 1

There used to be a time when we were on a hike in Zions every weekend, now we're down to 1 all summer for me and Daniel got to go twice! Don't worry. Our lives are FULL! I'm actually in the process of eliminating a lot of stuff! :) So TODAY was MY day! Daniel, Kurt, & Carson graciously let me join them on their outting! We hiked Birch Hollow after a week full of rain. Luckily it really wasn't too wet or muddy!

Daniel, Kurt, Carson

A little team buildingWe have several pictures with different groups on this log, the boys were good sports and humored me with one more photo opp! Notice everyone is wearing long sleeves, it was pretty cool up there, expecially in the canyon. What a BEAUTIFUL Fall day! It was 80 in St. George.Daniel on the last rapell Too Cool Carson "jellyroll" Honey

Curt, your headlights are on!

The Fall colors in Orderville Canyon were GORGEOUS! This should be an annual trip for sure.
There's construction in Zion up the switchbacks to the tunnel and they've repaved beyond the tunnel. So Pinecreek has been closed most of the summer. We saw people starting down today, but I wasn't too jealous because I know how cold it would be! But we did get to be the last car through the tunnel as we must have been in line behind an RV or something, so the Ranger handed us a orange stick to give to the Ranger on the other end showing that he could let traffic through from the other side again. Knowing that we'd be the last ones in and no one was coming the other way either... we stopped at a window and took this picture out the window of the Zion tunnel! :) Not a very exciting picture... but taking it was!!

Carson & Nicole's cake

Cake Class!

At Michael's school they have what they call Thunderbolt time. It's about a 30 minute period 3 times a week where the kids get to enjoy an enrichment class or and intervention class to better understand concepts they aren't getting, or even go to study hall. So I had this fabulous idea to volunteer to teach a cake decorating class. It was really fun and I think the kids enjoyed it (I heard a couple of them say it was their favorite TBT EVER!) but it took ALOT of prep time, not to mention it was smack dab in the middle of my day. I had to bow out for next session, Eric and his family are coming and will stay with us for a week which would have been right in the middle of class again and I think once was enough for me. It was mostly fun to get to be able to see how Michael and his peers are at school. 7th grade boys are weird. :)