School 2010-11

School is back in Session, can I hear a "holla".

I really do miss my kids BUT I sure love the structure school brings with the neat little schedule that comes along with it:)

Alivia popped right out of bed this morning, btw she is an early bird this year so she goes an hour an 15 minutes earlier than last year. Hooray!!

Cooper was sleepy but got really excited when I started packing his lunch....

Mostly that he got to take a capri sun with him, they are rationed very strictly here at our house.

Some pics from this morning, Kessler wanted in on all of the action. (this is at Bauer's preschool when we dropped him off)
Bauer SO excited to go inside.

The 2nd grader and the 1st Grader. SO FUN!!

We met the teachers yesterday and Alivia has a really cute teacher, and Cooper has one of our favorites teachers in the whole world!!!

Some things that I love during the school year. (Fall)

New school clothes

Opening my windows at night.

My house stays clean a little bit longer than usual

I don't get bugged when I clean my glass front door and .05 seconds later there are finger prints it actually is a few hours with a clean door.

Corn on the cob

Fresh tomatoes

Pumpkins

So many others....

A trip to Germany (not every fall but this one)

I am so excited Ben and I are going to Germany in about 2 weeks and I can't wait. (without kids)

which means.....First Class (hopefully).....

Also Ben has been at a meeting in MSP for Target National sales meeting, and so we have put our 2nd annual back to school night (which I need to think of a catchy-er name) on hold.

Will give you updates on that soon.

A Temple with No Roof

Once again I had the honor of going to Heber Valley Girls Camp in Heber, Utah.

One of the most beautiful places on earth, the Spirit is so strong there and it such an uplifting place to be for 5 days.

This is about 5% of the pictures I took.

The furry creatures that visited every night.
There were a few bucks that would pass right by our camp every night, at one point one leader was standing about 2 feet away from one.

Me surrounded by Stake leaders/friends.

The robot, yeah I busted it out....

Some great pics taken by one of the YW in our ward.

Fun times.

On the sunrise hike, the sun peering onto the top of Mount Timpanogos.

The sunrise hike as well the sun peering through the trees on the way back.


Some highlights with out pictures.

Monday night FHE with the Stake Presidency, President Matheson is a wonderful speaker.

Tuesday Night Ten Virgin activity, will you have enough oil?

(another great activity that reveled our Iron Rod experience last year)

One of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Wednesday Devotional by Annie.

Thursday testimony meeting around the cap fire.

Friday Morning, time to go and say good bye for another year.

Cooper # Addi

Cooper made a friend in Kindergarten and has been talking about her all summer. We drive by the Oquirrh Mountain Temple a lot. A few times he has told me that is where he and Addi are going to get married, I then ask him what are you going to do when you get married to Addi? he said go to church.....

He tells me all the time as well about the day he walked home with her and they played a game called squeeze. I asked him what the game was and he said you hold hands and squeeze. I thought that was hysterical.

The other day at Walmart, Cooper had his 2 $ allowance to spend and he walked past a fake yellow rose and asked if he could buy it for Addi. We stopped by her house on the way home he hopped out of the car, he hid it behind his back, knocked on the door and gave it to her.

She then returned the favor the next day and dropped off a cute card and candy bar to him.

He then showed me this picture later in the day.

I asked him what the symbol was with his name and her name he said it was Addi plus Cooper.

Tru Wuv!!

Driving with the kids

Lots of craziness happens in the car. Giggling, crying, screaming, laughing, talking. Lately we have been driving around running lots of errands. One day I had my camera and just started taking pictures of the kids.
Lots of preparation going on here, Girls camp this week and a few days last week has been a full time job working on things from 9am-5pm.
Today and this week will be no exception.
I also have my 15 yr high school reunion this weekend, and let me tell you Ben is so excited for that. (not)
It will be fun to go hang out at a park and go see some old friends.
I will take some pictures of the camp preparation and post soon. I know you are dieing to see
13 bags of frozen rolls, 35 bottles of salad dressing, 4 bins of camp supplies, 13 crates, 13 pairs of crocs. It is going to be CRa-ZE!!

Liv's first volleyball camp!

The high school down the street held a Girls Volleyball camp for grades 3-8, I stopped by to see if they would let Alivia play even though she was younger and they did. There was another young little girl the coaches daughter was a 1st grader.

They talked about Volleyball techniques, handed out prizes (I thought were pretty cool, volleyballs, water bottles and t-shirts)

Like my last post the first day she hit it over the net only once, and the second day she hit it over the net 4 times and the third day she could almost hit it over every time.

She loved it, it brought back some fun memories for me.

I was also shocked why do all high schools smell the same, I felt like I was going to be late to class .

July Update

Ben and his swim shirt, he was very opposed to wearing something like "that", until he got burned again!!

the little fish of the family, he loves to swim, and is so brave (with he life jacket on).

Ben and his Bass, he didn't get skunked.....what????

Kessler hated the fish and was FREAKED out by them so I had to get the crying play by play.

Here are some more photos from our trip in HOT July.

Also an update of what has been going on.

I have been thinking, eating, sleeping, dreaming, pondering, emailing, meetings, shopping, making, crafting GIRLS CAMP.

Just about 13 days until the fun filled week, never done it as a Camp Director though should be a fun side of things.

Our days up there have lots of fun things, I would love to have a Whidden Family reunion up there. It is amazing. President Hinckley said it is like an outdoor Temple.

I have painted once again I actually was trying to finish what I started a month? ago....I painted the hallway which needed it in a really bad way and I re-painted the computer room it was a dark chocolate brown, I decided it was not working and painted it the same cream/yellow color and I love it very light and pretty.

I barely worked my required hours in July, I had to use a 1/2 hour or so of user time to make my hours and now I have the next 3 weeks off I don't work the first 15 days of August not on purpose but how it scheduled me. I am totally fine with it because of the craziness going on.

Ben is working mad hours, 10-12-14 hour days and seems to not have acquired mass amount of more grey hair but complains about his back and feet hurting. He has lots of changes at his store people moving out of state and to other stores, making him a little stressed about his schedule and who will fill the positions. The commute rocks though, I mean seriously and once that little expressway opens up from Redwood rd to right in front of his store I am thinking 6-7 minutes people, that is like living in Vanderhoof people. Minus the Mennonites, the cold temperatures, oh and almost all of the population.

Alivia is in a little volleyball camp held by the High School out here she is the 2nd to the youngest there is a 1st grader there, she managed to hit it over the net once today. But it learning lots of technique. I will post some pics soon.

She is starting dance again when school starts and will also be taking a beginning guitar class. I am so excited for her.

Cooper is my little space cadet and I have let it annoy me for too long so now I am going to embrace it and try some different ideas with that kid. It is not that he doesn't want to do what you ask him, he is just always thinking about bigger and broader things, but I need him to visit earth once in a while. Cooper will play fall soccer this year, we will see if he can follow the ball and not get distracted by the clouds or something.

The other day when Ben and I were sitting watching TV he came up to us and said "look at this, it is ADORABLE!" umm.....what boy says that....oh Cooper does.

Bauer is sad his mohawk is gone, he said his head is cold now. Yeah I doubt that with the 90 plus temps outside. He starts preschool this year, he will be in a Mon-Wed-Friday deal none of my kids have done one like that so we will see how it goes.

Kessler is talking, talking, talking. He said today "oh my heck" and says thank you for anything you do...and if he does something for you and you don't say thank you he still says you're welcome. His latest favorite thing is to ride the scooter, he scoots up and down the street and tries really hard to keep up with the big kids.

I am also thinking he might have outgrown his naps......NOOooooo (said in a voice that starts loud and then gets soft). That is my sanity for reals people, for reals.

Mormon Pioneers - Act of Courage - LDS Church History

I love Pioneer Day here in Utah or as some people refer to it "Mormon Mardi Gras"!

I love this little video...the best....