A Great Day Indeed!

"Aside from actually seeing you being born and that time that Wayne Gretzky said "What's Up?" to me in line at the bank, you being out of diapers is the best thing that's ever happened to me. It truly is."
-Dr. Cox, Scrubs

Nick is officially COMPLETELY potty-trained! He hasn't had an accident in over three weeks, including through the night. We are all so excited!! He earned a three pack of Justice League guys-Flash, Green Lantern, & Martian Manhunter. Nick is SOOO excited about this. His ultimate favorite guy is Flash and finding a 3 inch one has been quite a feat in itself. But we found it & he earned it! We're so proud of you Nicky!!!

My new favorite thing

Anyone who knows me knows that I love the ocean, whales, dolphins, fish, etc., etc. and since I don't live near the ocean, my fishtank is the closest thing I have to it. They also know that I love things to be clean! So once a month I suffer to clean my fishtank. Well, this very strange looking device is my new favorite thing. It is the JBJ Instant Siphon Gravel Cleaner. It is used for cleaning fishtanks. It is seriously awesome. Most gravel cleaners require you to suck the air out somehow to create a siphon. The suggested thing to suck with? Your mouth!!! So you need to suck gross dirty water out of your fishtank into your mouth!! Disgusting!! Ben insists that he won't kiss me if I do that and since I want him to kiss me and the idea of sucking the yuck out of the fishtank isn't appealing to me, I suffer each month trying to create a siphon by pushing the darned vacuum back and forth a million times to create a siphon. It's very complicated and takes me forever to do-but it eventually works and I don't have to suck the water! Anyway, I was determined to find something that worked better and I found this. The little pump thing creates the siphon for you-no sucking involved! It works so well. It usually takes me about 2 1/2 hours to clean my whole fishtank-this cut it down to 1/2 hour! Amazing and well worth the added cost! It will really make a big difference in my life-adding an extra 2 hour onto my month for ME time-every second counts, right? Maybe I'll have to upgrade to a bigger tank now....

Weekly Wrap-up

The week started off with Labor Day meaning no work and no school. We decided to take advantage of the sales and spent the day looking for a new couch. Ben and I are extremely indecisive people but we finally decided on one and are now enjoying our new couch that is sooo comfortable and not worn and torn. Yes, I finally admit that a white couch was not a good idea to have with little kids around. So does anybody want one that is worn and torn? We feel kind of embarrassed to even give our old one away. But if you're desperate....
On Wednesday Nick begun Joy School at our house. He has been so excited about it for weeks now. The night before he insisted that he needed a backpack. We found him one and he didn't take it off for almost 24 hours-except that I insisted he needed it off to sleep. It was really cute. Joy School is a neighborhood preschool program that a group of mothers take turns teaching. The curriculum is all ready for you and you just supply a little bit of time and lots of love. It's so great. I've had so much fun teaching Skylar and now it's fun to continue with Nicky. We have a great group this year-2 boys and 2 girls, so that should be really fun. Three are kind of "second generation" kids since the old group consisted of their older siblings. It will be fun to get to know the younger ones. I'm really excited.
Skylar started dance again on Friday. She is going to be in the competition group, Mini Stars, this year. She has really anticipated moving into this group but was a little hesitant when we told her it was going to be harder work. She finally decided she was up for it. She was so excited to get back to dancing. They got down to business and started practicing for their Christmas concert the very first day. Skylar's all about getting down to business so she loved it.









Our kittens opened their eyes this week. They are the cutest little things. Here's Nick with his favorite, Flash, and Skylar's favorite is Kara(Supergirl). The white ones are Arrika and Q-Tip. Kade loves giving them kisses by blowing on them-I think he's taken the whole "blowing a kiss" term literally. It's so cute! It's been so much fun to have these kittens and the most fun is still to come!

SUMMER 2007

The Summer is unofficially over. We've had such a fun summer. Here's some highlights:

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE:
Big fish at Big Springs & Nick loved the stinky geysers








Fishing with Grandpa Bruce







Visit to Bear World-the bears were walking around our car!








SKYLAR LEARNS TO SWIM & WE GET TO SEE UNCLE ED:








TENNIS & SWIMMING LESSONS:








BEN & CYNDI's 10th ANNIVERSARY & GET-AWAY TO SF








PARADES & CAMPING ON PARADE ROUTE:








WARD PIONEER TREKS (Ben & Skylar-no pictures of Ben!):








CAMPING:















OREM OWLZ Games:
















WATER FUN-Swimming, Slides, & Sprinklers:

















& JUST PLAIN OUTDOOR FUN:

S-Kade-R

Weekly Wrap-up

This has been quite the week with Skylar starting school and Soffee's kittens being born. Skylar has LOVED kindergarten!! She comes home everyday so excited and ready to share every detail of her day. I'm so glad that she loves it so much. She's so cute. Since Skylar was in school everyday this week, we settled more into the school night routine and didn't do too much throughout the week. On Thursday, Ben and Skylar finally got to have their daddy/daughter date at 7 Peaks since kids under 5 aren't allowed in pools because of the freaky virus going around. I stayed at home with the boys and played outside. Kade is OBSESSED with skateboarding right now and it's all that he wants to do. He loves it! It's really funny.
Friday night brought our last Owlz game of the season. It was the mascot, Hootz's, birthday so they had a bunch of his "friends" (other mascots from around the area) there to celebrate. There's nothing like a bunch of freaky guys in costume to make the night entertaining. They had a pinata for the kids-a disaster with 100 kids-but the kids loved it! We had a good time.
Saturday was our busy day. My niece, Katie, was baptized. Nick decided after seeing her that it didn't look as bad as it had when my other niece, Mae, was baptized last month. I asked him if he'd changed his mind about being baptized and he said "Me will do it if you go with me." I told him that Dad would help him get baptized and he said " Okay. Me will do it if Daddy holds my hand." What a cutie! We had a nice lunch at my brother's house, complete with nuzzies from Grandpa!
After the baptism, most of the family headed for the BYU football game. My mom, Ben, and I stayed at our house to babysit the little kids-our kids and my sister's two girls. Skylar was so excited to get to spend the entire day with her cousins. They had such a fun time. Of course, the kittens were a big hit. Soffee's so sweet, but still very concerned, about letting the kids hold them. If we only hold two at a time, it makes her much more relaxed.
Our friends, the Stuebners, blessed their little girl, on Sunday. It was nice to go to that and the great lunch afterwards. As I watched my husband help with both the confirmation of my niece on Saturday and the blessing on Sunday, I felt so glad that I was married to someone that could hold the priesthood. Skylar also received a Father's blessing on Monday before starting school. The priesthood is such a comfort in our home. I swear the only time our kids sit completely still is when he's giving them a blessing. I'm so glad that we are able to benefit from it.