Again?!

Yes - Evan has braces again. (He's lookin' kind of mean and angry here but he's just doing that for affect - he's really been OK with this)

Evan's first set of braces came off a couple of years ago. But in follow up retainer checks it became evident that his jaw was still growing! For the past while we've been waiting for the growing to stop and for a year the xray shows the same jaw line thus it was time to put the braces back on. He should just have to wear them for a year. So - he will be off to college with braces - but off to his mission with straight teeth and a proper overbite.

"Wanna daaaance??" Just kidding - Evan would never ask that...

Claire was in a Play

"I Believe in Make Believe" was the stake play this year. Claire got to be in it.
She was a dancer...


She was in the ensemble...

She helped behind the scenes...

(That's Christy and Keoki Williams as the King and Queen.)


She had a great time. And we loved watching her dance and sing and move scenery! It was a fun play.

It's Ryan's Birthday

It's Ryan's birthday today. He turned 20. We're hoping he had a good day. I'm sure the package I sent him didn't make it on time. I'm sad about that. I've been thinking about him all day long.

You know - it's amazing he made it to 18. check this out


Thank goodness for adventurous boys.

Too funny to pass up

The timing of this is perfect - thinking of Lili's excitement for her fabulous new Kitchen Aid mixer she received for Mother's Day.

I too have a Kitchen Aid mixer - I love it (though I didn't know I would) and my children love it. We use it all the time.

A month or so ago, Evan and I went to Sur La Table to buy a replacement CO2 cartridge for his and Claire's soda maker. I don't know if you all know this by now but Evan is a gadget guy. And come to find out it isn't just building/electronic/knives and such type gadgets it is ANY kind of gadget. Thus Sur La Table was another gadget paradise for Evan. He came across a hand operated beater. "OH, I've always wanted to use one of these...Can we get it? It would be good for emergencies..." Now, I know you're thinking that if the electricity is out thus forcing us to use a hand beater we wouldn't be able to bake anything. But since my children are generally more interested in batter and dough anyway, we really don't need to bake anything. So - I bought the beater.

And it has been used.

Today was the first time it was used for beating batter.

Look at that determination!


Who needs electricity when Evan is around?!


The spoils.


Ah another use for the Kitchen Aid mixing bowl - a giant mug.

Free Coloring Pages

Helping with a babysitting project, someone told me about the Crayola site. They have tons of free coloring pages. They are very cute. Just thought I'd share.
http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/

Pillow Case

For their activity last week, the YW in our ward made pillow cases for shut-ins in our ward. This week Claire's Mia Maid class made pillow cases for themselves.

Fabric is so incredibly cute and fun these days! Oh yeah, and she was going to use her "head scarf" in the former pictures for this pillow project - all those fabrics coordinate! But she changed her mind and put ribbon on for trim instead of making an extra trim with the "scarf" fabric.

Another One Step Closer Story

For Personal Progress, Claire made a dress! It is her 10 hour project for Integrity. She's showing integrity by making a modest dress. ;-) All she has left to complete her Personal Progress is to finish reading The Book of Mormon - the Virtue project. Go Claire!



The fabric on her head is for her next sewing project.

Provident Living

Our ward RS continues to have an RS meeting the first Tuesday of every month - 2 in each quarter are dedicated to Provident Living. Last night we discussed Water Storage and Using Food Storage.

We were challenged to get 2 weeks of water stored. Water first, food second.

Here are two sites I think look interesting, helpful and fun
safelygatheredin.blogspot.com
One of our instructors last night showed us how she came up with her 3 month storage plan suggested by this site.

foodstoragemadeeasy.net
A gal in the ward likes to follow this site. She says they sometimes issue challenges to their readers like "Your husband is bringing his boss home from work and he's a vegetarian. What are you going to serve?" the idea being they need to come up with something from their food storage.

We also got a heads up about a water bottle with a filter in it. Church distribution sells it for much less than you can find it else where. See here and here.

Be Prepared!

One step closer

Remember this?
Car designer extraodinaire...

Eric is one step closer to the dream coming true - he's been accepted into BYU's College of Engineering and Technology.

YAY Eric!!

A Rare Sight

He's not the bishop anymore. And - it has been different. He still is very busy - worked to nearly 8 last night. But - on Wednesday night - when the rest of us went off to YM/YW (I went to help YW sew) he stayed home. Generally, the past 5 years, on a Wednesday night, Greg would have been off to the church too. We came home near 9:00 to find Greg working on our clothes drier that started giving us trouble this week.

It's nice.

By the way - his new calling - Ward Missionary - one of the callings he'd hoped for. :-)

Time Flies

I came across this 5 year old picture while looking for a different photo - it reminded me of one taken more recently. Notice any changes?

Fun at the Beach

We made our way to the beach on Saturday - Eric's request. We happily obliged.