Ward Christmas Party

(This is Lauren) Every year our ward has a Christmas party and this year they decided to do a play. They chose me, Kate, and my mom to be in it. We were all pioneers and I was Mary, Kate was Betsy, and my mom was our mom. It was where Mary knew that they weren't going to get any presents for Christmas and she felt bad for Betsy. So she made her a doll with her mom's help and in the end, Mary's mom made her a doll that looked just like Betsy's did. We had a lot of fun and people told us that we did great in the end. We also got our pictures taken as a family.

Halloween Costumes

 This halloween me and Kate went to our cousins Kayla and Marissa's house.(This is Lauren)I was a pirate who just got out of jail. It was supposed to be a punky pirate but I didn't like it so I added handcuffs and changed the name. Kate was a Southern Belle.

 We had fun trick-or-treating and we got lots of candy. We had soup and bread bowls before we went trick-or-treating and apple juice or "wiches brew", we put apple juice in a plastic cauldron and put ice in it so it had steam comiing out.

 Since Kate was a Southern Belle she had a big puffy dress and a big floppy hat.She couldn't really sit down but she liked it. A girl in her class had the same costume.:)

I was a pirate who just got out of jail  like I said I was supposed to be a punky pirate but got some fake handcoffs, put it on one hand and left the other one dangling and changed the name.


We had a lot of fun!!!

New Dog!!!



What A Good Boy!

     About four weeks ago, we got a new dog! His name is Jack and he is a German Rottweiler. He is fun to play with (execpt when he jumps the fence and jumps onto you)and always wants to meet new people. We've had a few rough times but gotten through them!All my friends want to play with him, but are sometimes scared of him. When he sees our cat on the other side of the fence, he gets so exited and jumps it! His old owners were sad to leave him, but was glad that he's in a happy home with lots of space to run in. He is 1 and a half so he still has a lot of puppy energy. We take him camping and he loves the sand dunes and rides in the pick up of my dads truck. He reminds me of Cooter our old dog!:(   We keep him in the house at night but has to stay on his bed. He is one happy puppy!!!

P.S.This is Lauren!:)

So Cute!

Cute Puppy Face!

                            

July 24th

We spent the 24th of July in Fairview, as it's become our yearly family tradition now.  We spent the time with Todd's family: his parents, sister Tami and family, and Tiffany.  We like to swim, go to the parade, and go to the drive-in.  Here's some pictures from that weekend:

Havin' fun in the Razor

A couple of months ago we decided to go ride the razor up the canyon.  What started as a quick ride turned into a long ride.  We kept going because it was so much fun and we loved the beautiful surroundings.  After starting at the mouth of American Fork canyon, we somehow ended up at Cascade Springs through a series of back trails.  Along the way we TRIED to cross this river:

We ran into snow - in the middle of July:

Saw a really big elk: (brown spot in all the green):

and finally made it to Cascade Springs:

What a great way to spend a Saturday. :)

Our favorite part of going to Lava Hot Springs are the following:  Fun diving boards...

Fun slides....

and great friends.

Kate got to get her ears pierced a little sooner than her 8th birthday.  Her cousin, Marissa, was turning 8 this past month, and she invited Kate to get her ears pierced with her.  Kate saw Marissa get hers pierced first, and got a little nervous when she saw Marissa's face turn red after they pierced her ears.  She even told me at one point she didn't want to do it after all.  After some persuading...

a chance to hold mom's hand...

and doubling up on the piercing (two girls pierced both her ears at the same time)...

 We gotter done. And she's extremely happy we did!!



Porter Rockwell's house

Over memorial day weekend we went to the sand dunes.  We had heard that Porter Rockwell's home was west of where we were camping, so we took a ride to check it out.  Believe it or not, this was the barn....

And this was his house.  We heard many stories about why this was.  He was a short man, he didn't need it any bigger; he dug the ground floor out of the house a foot so when someone came looking for him he could hide under the floorboards, he made it look like a shed so no one would know that's where he lived.  Regardless, it was very interesting.

 Kate found a frog hopping around.

 This was the area he must have kept his horses, it looked like an arena.  See how tall the fence was? 

These are for you Dad!

Dad:  Just thought I'd pass on a few pictures of SugarBay and the girls so you can see he's definately loved and used around here. :)

Thanks for letting us borrow him Dad!!

Demolition Derby

Todd had the opportunity to be part of a pit crew for a demolition derby car this summer.  Our good friend and neighbor, Brad, bought this car to raise money for his daughter's dance team.  Brad drove the car, and Todd and Drew (Brad's brother) fixed it when needed.  Brad got hammered several times and needless to say, Todd did a great job keeping him going.

Start of the race

 First heat

 End of the first heat, all banged up.

 Todd doin' his job in between heats.

 The girls made poster to cheer Brad on.

 

Before they started the second heat Todd had to run out and put some transmission fluid in to keep him going.

 Getting banged up again.

The car at the end of the race.  Brad did a great job under the circumstances.  Thanks Brad and Leslie for the fun time!