First Day of School

Today is the first day of school. Devynne's senior year, Dylan's junior year and Dakota's 7th grade year. I have mixed emotions about this. Usually I look forward to the kids being back in school. I like the routine of it. Family prayers in the morning, normal bedtimes, the kids having a structured, learning environment to go to each day, seminary and so on. This year a part of me still feels this way, however, the realization that they are growing up is upon me today. Not much longer and Devynne will be flying the coop and Dylan isn't too far behind her. It makes me a little sad. :(

It's also hard to believe that Cadie is now a sophomore (actual high school where she lives), Cody is in the 7th grade (official middle school for him)and Carson is now a 6th grader. Anyhoo, here's to a great school year for all of our kids.

The token "first day of school" pictures. :)

Just a Little Late

I realized today that I didn't blog about Cody's birthday. We didn't forget his birthday, I just didn't blog about it. Cody turned 13 on August 4th. We can't believe he's officially a teenager. Crazy I tell you. He's a great kid and we love him tons.

C-caring (extremely)
O-over the top about the Jazz
D-darn cute
E-extremely kind

M-middle child (like his dad)
A-animated
N-nutty sense of humor

Happy Birthday Cody. :)

Ahhhhh Satisfaction

I feel such a sense of satisfaction when my kids' bedrooms are clean. I just love it. I know it's crazy and it's such a little thing but I love when their rooms are clean. They have to clean their rooms and make their beds everyday (or they are supposed to anyway) but they never do it the way I do it. So I hit all their rooms today since my sister and her family are coming tomorrow for a short visit on their way to California. And I've also been looking for a colorful ceramic fruit bowl for the last couple of weeks and I found one! At Pier One on clearance. Yay! It really is the small things. :)

Dakota's

Dylan's

Devynne's

Colorful fruitbowl

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER!

Steve made these scrumptious chocolate chip cookies and they are the best I've ever had. They have the right amount of chips and were baked to perfection. They are slightly chewy with a slight crisp at the edges. They were made from the simple, basic recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag and I'm not sure what he does differently from me but the kids and I agree that they are simply fantastic! Just look at them, they even look perfect. Yum-my!

**Correction, Steve just told me that he didn't use the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. He used his "twist" on the Betty Crocker recipe. He's our chef alright. :)

A Day of Golf

While some of us were vacationing in Cheyenne and experiencing EFY in Cedar City, Steve spent a day golfing with his friend Doug. One of the places they played was near St. George, Utah. I think the course was called Sky Mountain and while playing Steve took some pictures on his phone. They surprisingly turned out really well so I thought I would share them since the scenery was really beautiful. Here you go. :)

Dylan Goes to EFY

Dylan spent last week in Cedar City, Utah attending EFY for the 3rd year in a row. He had a great time and is still missing it. He took tons of pictures and so I snagged just a "few". He had really great classes and did the same service project that Devynne did went she went to Salt Lake (coloring mats for children). He met some new people and got to see some that he knows from the prior two years. Both Devynne and Dylan truly have wonderful experiences when they go and I can't wait for Dakota to be old enough so he can experience EFY as well. It had been almost two weeks since I had seen Dylan with my Wyoming trip overlapping his EFY trip so I'm very glad he's home. :)

By the way, the date on his camera is not right. :)

A Star in the Making

Devynne took this video in Cheyenne of my sister's daughter Ava. Pause my music to hear it. She's a cutie!

Vacation Pics!

Devynne, Dakota and I just got home from vacation. We went to Cheyenne, Wyoming for 9 days to visit family and do some Frontier Days stuff. Steve couldn't get away from work and Dylan had to be to EFY before we came home. My vacation pictures usually are of people and not places as you will see. We had a great time though. I don't have pictures of everything but some of our "fun" was:

Pancake breakfast downtown (by the time we were at the front of the line they had served over 10,000 people within 2 hours)
The fairgrounds
The Indian Village
Horse drawn tour downtown
Tour of the old Governer's Mansion
Trip to Denver for Psychic Readings (mom, missy and ink dink)
The Finals Rodeo
South Dakota trip (Dakota went with his cousin Rhett)
Lots of shopping
Lots of family dinners and family time

These are the pictures we had on Devynne's camera. I'll have more pictures later of Dakota's South Dakota trip and of my dad and when I get them I will post them. :)

Devynne and Ava


Dakota and the girls


Part of the line at the pancake breakfast




Devynne, Ava and Claire


Annabelle



Indian Village


Downtown






My mom, Devynne and Ava


With Missy (my sis)



Ink Dink, Grandma and mom





4 generations


End of vacation and looking tired :)

Simple Conversation....I Don't Think So

Dakota was eating lunch while I was doing dishes and washing strawberries and blueberries having a nice time chit chatting away. Then...

Dakota: Why do we have two eyes instead of one?
Me: Maybe for depth perception. (sounds good to me)
Dakota: Well if I cover one of my eyes, I still have depth perception so that can't be it.
Me: I guess because Heavenly Father created us in His image and He has two eyes.
Dakota: Who created Heavenly Father?
Me: Uh......
Dakota: I mean think about it. Who created Heavenly Father and the universe He lives in? Who was the first Heavenly Father and who created the first universe? And do we have a Heavenly Grandfather?
Me: Uh.....(shaking my head with bewildered eyes) It is alot to wrap your head around isn't it? (me trying to buy some time)
Dakota: I don't get it.
Me: You know, I just think about THIS world and OUR Heavenly Father and Mother.
Dakota: How do you make spirit children?
Me: Uh......(really? where is Steve when I need him)

My Latest Craze

I love this show!! Talk about rivoting television!! It's on Tuesday nights at 9:00 on the Discovery channel. I spent hours watching it one day when they were running a Deadliest Catch marathon before this latest season started AND WAS HOOKED. Love it!!!