Memorial Day Weekend Fun!!

This weekend we left Friday morning and went up to my Mom's house in Star Valley. We got to visit with her and of course eat really good food. On Saturday we went first up to the grave yard and put flowers on my dad's grave. Then we went over to the ranch to check on Grandma's house. We thought it might be flooded with all the rain. I was not supprised to see that their is still snow over there. Not a lot, but some. Especially on the north faces slopes of the mountains. The rivers are all running very high and fast. When we got to my grandma's house, we were glad to see that their was not much water. A little bit had come in, but not what I was expecting. Here is a picture of Abigail and Joshua sitting on the fence that we used to play on all the time.



So on we went with our adventure. We went to one of my favorite places as a child. We went to Hooper Springs. Here is a spring that has naturally carbonated water. It is really gross to me, but I thought my kids might get a kick out of tasting it.



Then we went and played on the toys. They still have the great big teater totters we used to play on.

Then we went on into town and ate at the Main Street Cafe. It was really good food. Their carrot cake was absolutely wonderful! Then we walked across the street and watched the gyeser go off. The kids thought this was cool. Back in the early 1900's they wanted to build a health spa and so they started digging to find warm spring water when they hit this geyser. It has been exploding ever since then. It even threw off the schedule of the Old Faithful Geyser. Now they have a cap on it and it goes off every hour to release the pressure. When they first capped it it would blow off every cap. Then they used to manually have to come and let the pressure off of it. Now they have it electronically controlled so that it goes off every hour.



We also saw the Dinkey Train. This train was found when they drained the Alexander Reservoir. This train was to build the dam.


Then they played on a 40MM anti-aircraft machine gun that came off of a battleship.


Finally we made it to the graveyard and put flowers on Grandma Ginny, Grandpa Bert, Grandpa John and Uncle Terry Joe's graves. It was a great day. We came back home and had a wonderful weekend.

New Bedroom

It's time. Time for Wyatt to move out of Abigail's bedroom into Jacob and Joshua's bedroom. But with three boys in one room it took quite a bit of organizing to get everyone to fit into one small room.

But I found a bunkbed with a trundle underneath it. yah! The boys are all so excited to have Wyatt in with them. I thought Abigail would be sad but she is so excited to have so much space. It is working out well for everyone.

Happy Birthday Abigail!

Today was Abigail's birthday. She has had a wonderful birthday. Her birthday weekend started on Friday night when her Grandma and Grandpa Atkinson came down to share dinner with Abigail. This made her day to have her grandparents share in her birthday dinner. It made her feel like a queen.

Today she woke up and we gave her her presents. She had decided that she would like a birthday cake from Eleanor's Gluten-Free Bake shop rather than have many presents.
Here is a pic of her cake.




Then she had a birthday party. All her neighborhood girl friends came and she had a blast. We had originally planned to put up our waterslide, but then the weather has been so rainy we thought it would be too cold so we planned some other activities. Then one girl gave Abigail a hopscotch pad that you hooked up to the hose and when all the girls saw it, they just had to play in it. So they had so much fun running through the water.



With the Aloha theme party we had fun little drinks of Raspberry sherbet and sprite.


After the party Wyatt was sooo tired that he sat down on the couch and fell asleep. (After a huge fit). He was so made I had to take this picture because even though he is asleep, his face says, "I don't want to be asleep!!"



Happy Birthday Abigial. You are a wonderful addition to our family. We love you happy attitude and your willingness to always serve and be a good girl.

Mother's Day

This Mother's Day was a very good one. On Saturday we went to Joshua's 1st soccer game and then we went up to Kamas to be with John's family. This was good food and fun.

Sunday John had made me a beautiful video of the kids and gave that too me. It was soooo sweet. He also made a most delicious dinner and TWO pies. He is so awesome.

Down comes the rest of the tree

So last night we took down the rest of the tree. I have posted some video of this. It is not that dramatic. I was hoping for tree bouncing and something I could send into America's Funniest Video's but it went very smoothly.

I am so grateful to everyone who came to help. I think we have had upwards of 25 people here helping to get the tree cleaned up. Many hands really do make the workload lighter. Thank you all so much.



Now all we have left to do is to move the big pieces of wood to the backyard to dry so the scouts can use it.

Here is a pic of my house now that the beautiful tree is gone. . .

Last Night's Destruction

So last night I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to a big crack!!! I woke John up and told him I thought our tree had fallen over. He said, "No way" So we went and look out the window and sure enough our tree had cracked in half!! I was so sad.





Our neighbors tree had also cracked in half. There was just too much ice and snow on the newly budded trees and they couldn't hold the wait. I am so sad. This tree has offered us many, many hours of shade. I guess we will have to plant a new tree but by the time it is big enough for shade my kids will be all grown. We will miss you lovely tree.

A big thanks to all the neighborhood men who came and helped us cut it down. It was so nice to have your help. It would have taken us sooo long to get this done on our own. Thank you, thank you, thank you.



It is hard to believe that just a night ago my kids were sleeping out on the trampoline and now this.

April Fool's

I think this is an April Fool's day that I love. The weather has fooled us and it is wonderful!!! It is in the 70's. We have been outside most of the day. Tonight we had an impromptu smore's night. We started the fire and roasted marshmallows and made smores. It was a lot of fun. In fact John and the kids are going to sleep out on the tramp. I am so glad it is warming up.

On our own . . . Here we come

Well, John did it. He has his company up and running. He now owns Atkinson Electrical Services LLC. He is licensed and insured. He will be quitting his current job with Chipping Electric by the end of March. So if any of you need any electrical work done, please let us know.

This is a scary adventure for me as I have always enjoyed having a reliable paycheck and I know exactly what we would be getting. Now all that is up in the air and it is a waiting game. But we are excited and feel very peaceful about this decision. I know the Lord has guided us to this point. So wish us luck.

Nothing New Happening Here

Well, January and most of Feb. have been kind of blahhhh! Nothing new has much happened. The kids had a great valentines day. They each had parties in their classes and I went in and helped in Abigail's class. Our ward had a big valentine's party that I was in charge of. It was fun. We played clue in person. Our Bishop was "kidnapped" and then we had ten suspects and the audience had to figure out who did it with what weapon and in which room. All our suspects were great. They acted their part and did a great job. I think everyone had a good time.

Oh, one thing that was cool. I commented on a gluten free blog that I follow http://offthewheatenpath.blogspot.com/ and I won an apron!! A really cute, sassy apron. It is from http://www.csnstores.com/asp/superbrowse.asp?ClID=1264&filter=A10228~6890.

Randomness

The month of January has been a very slow, but crazy month. We haven't done anything interesting in paticular, but here are a few videos (thanks to my husband for the video camera for Christmas) and pictures.

Here is Abigail and Wyatt. Just being cute.


Abigail lost her first tooth! She was so excited. She has been waiting for this moment for about a year now. Everyday she would wiggle her tooth and ask is it ready? It finally happened.




Here is the family singing songs with the Karoke Machine

Christmas 2010

Well, I figured it is time to post about Christmas. This year's Christmas we were all sick. So Neither John and i felt very good on Christmas morning so we didn't take a whole lot of pictures.

Christmas Eve was the best part about Christmas this year. All three of my sisters, my mom and my nephew Roland and his girlfriend Kayla came to our house for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a lot of fun. We had dinner and we did the Christmas program from the FHE book. It was very spiritual. The spirit was here so strongly. I am so very thankful for the birth of Christ and the chance we get to celebrate and share testimony about it.

Here is a picture of the table.


Here is a pic of all of us in front of the tree.


It was a really fun night. I am so glad that my family was able to come and share with us. (Sorry family for sharing our lovely flu with all of you.)

Christmas morning came and all the kids were excited to see what Santa brought. Abigail and John did not feel well at all this day and they mostly layed on the couch.






Now we are all starting to feel better but I think this will always be remembered as the Christmas we were all sick.

Abigail's singing performance - SANTA

Last night was Abigail's friends and family performance for her singing group. She has enjoyed singing this year and has done a great job. I took some video, but Wyatt kept bumping me so sorry it is bumpy. Then on the second video I had in the small stick and ran out of memory so you only got part of the song.







Then this morning was our ward Christmas breakfast. The primary did the nativity. Then Santa came and each of the kids got to sit on this lap. Wyatt has been so excited all month because he wants a train. So he went right up and sat on his lap and promptly asked for a train. Abigail wore a dress because she wanted to impress Santa (but she doesn't know what she wants). So Santa told her he would bring her a suprise.






Oh, we are soooo excited for Christmas!!!!

Gingerbread Houses

Last night for FHE we made gingerbread houses. I love the kits you can buy that has everything all ready for you. Makes it soooooo nice. My three older kids did the house and Wyatt, John and I did the train. Needless to say our house did not stand up for long. It fell over while trying to decorate. It was pretty funny. Even though this is a VERY messy project, I think it is up there on things that I love to do at Christmas time.

Piano Recital

This week my kids had their piano recital. It was fun. I started recording Abigail and the batteries ran out and then she decided she couldn't play unless I was seated next to her. Pretty funny what our nerves can do to us.

Abigail playing Frosty the Snowman
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Jacob playing Up on the Housetop


Joshua Playing Deck the Halls

Temple Square

This weekend we went downtown to see the lights on Temple Square. We first started our expidition out at the store and each of the kids got to choose a gift for the other sibling whose name they chose.

Then we headed downtown. We had a coupon for the Discovery Gateway so we started out there. Wyatt and Abigail loved it. Jacob and Joshua were a tad bored in some places but liked others.

Here is Wyatt running the shovel.



One of everyone's favorite thing was the real lifeflight helicopter outside. It even sounded like it was taking off.




Then we had dinner at Chuck-a-rama. We had free kids meal coupons there from Halloween. The kids love it.

Then we met my sister and her family and looked at the lights on Temple Square. This is always a fun time.






No trip is complete without view the Christus.