Moving

For those of you who didn't know, we have relocated to Rexburg, ID. We are back in Brian's old stomping grounds and loving life. It's definately a faster paced life than Big Piney ever could be. My older boys are really enjoying school because they each only have 5 classes instead of 7. Brody likes it because he goes to the same classes everyday and doesn't have to remember which schedule they are on! He mostly enjoys being able to sleep in that extra 45 minutes and not have to get up for early morning seminary. He said all schools should be required to do release time instead of early morning! Braydn is loving all the attention from the girls. Brian and I have been told that girls are actually fighting over him. Hopefully it won't go to his head! Carson is loving the girl scene also and is actually enjoying his classes! Kelton, Ashlee & Kadin are loving the fact that they don't have to ride the bus anymore! I have to help them cross the street every morning and afternoon because the school doesn't provide a crossing guard yet, and they actually bus the kids the 1/2 block to school. Hopefully this fall it will be different once they widen the road and open the new high school. We moved into a great area. The elementary and high school are right across the street. The high school is still being finished so Brody won't attend there until this fall. Braydn & Carson at the Jr. High and won't see the old high school once it's converted to the Jr. high because they will be in 10th grade by then.

The school system is a little different here. The elementary goes preschool through 4, so this is Kelton's last year at this school. The Middle school is 5 - 7, the Jr. High is 8&9 and the High school is 10 - 12. Next year I will acturally have a child at every school! I don't think I was prepared for Kelton to be done with elementary school. It means he's that much bigger!

Brian is waiting for the construction season to start and we are told it is looking like the end of April, which is good news for our pocket book!

I am going to be starting beauty school in June and will be finished next June. I am way excited, but worried about how my kids will handle life. Guess we will be going through a lot of cereal!

All of the kids will be participating in baseball this season. Brody will be umpiring for the first few months until the older league starts in June or July. Braydn & Carson are both playing and helping umpire the younger kids' games. Kelton, Ashlee & Kadin are all playing and their games start on Tuesday(4/20). They are all excited and can't wait to start playing "for real". I will try and keep you all posted!

Wrestling

Brody did well at State Wrestling considering he didn't wrestle most of the season. He lost his first match, pinned his second and lost his third. He was excited to think he had made it to the second day and had 3 matches. He said he was going to state mainly to have fun and to support the team. He didn't really expect to place this year given the fact that he probably wasn't really well enough to even be wrestling. He is trying to do some strength training on his shoulder and back to get ready for football season this fall. He said he is definately going to wrestle again next year and hopes he will have better luck. (I hope so too!)

Wrestling Season

It seems like we have been doing wrestling forever! This was one of the boys' first matches. Brody's season started in November and will go until the last Saturday in February. Carson's season didn't start until January and lasted through the middle of February. I don't get to see the older boys but for a few hours at night during the week. They are gone every weekend from January through the end of February. Braydn was the Manager for the Middle School this year because he broke his pinky finger through the growth plate right before Christmas Break. This is Carson at one of his first meets. He did really well pinning the kid in the first round.
This is another kid that he wrestled and beat.

Carson did really well this year for the Middle School. The coaches are impressed with his natural ability and talent for wrestling.
These were the only pictures I ended up with during all of wrestling season. They both happen to be of Carson. Brody only had one home meet this year, so I didn't get to see him wrestle much.
Brody had a rough season. Brody did well all through December, but when January hit things didn't go too well for him. The second weekend in January Brody was at a tournament and partially separated his shoulder and had a fracture the growth plate of his clavicle collar. His first match back after that injury he was out with another injury. This time it was his lower back. He ended up with a bulging disc from unsportsmanlike conduct from a kid he was wrestling. He has just gotten healed from that and went to Regionals this weekend (2/19). He didn't do too well, but placed 7th overall and that put him being able to go to State Wrestling. It is next weekend (2/25) so I hope he does well!

Ashlee's Dance Recital

Ashlee has been busy since September learning new dance routines for their performance. In January the big day finally got here. This is Ashlee before the performance. The recital wasn't until 7 p.m. and I think we were asked every 10 minutes if it was time to go!
This is Ashlee with her dance teacher Miss Neika.

Ashlee during one of the performances. She is second from the left. Her friend Shelby is the first one on the left.

Here is Ashlee in the midle of another dance number.

Ashlee has dance every Monday afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30. She just got moved to the older group and she is very excited! She loves dance and never complains when she has to go. She can't wait until their next recital in May!

Coyote Calling

Carson got some coyote calls for Christmas. He also got a new prarie dog decoy to help bring the coyotes in. They got skunked on the coyotes, but they did get to see some awesome Mule Deer while they were trying to call in the coyotes.

Nerf Gun War

For Christmas this year, Santa brought everyone a Nerf Gun. Santa was even kind enough to bring Brian and I not only the biggest Nerf Guns, but add a few batteries and they fired 6 shots every 3 seconds!
This is Carson and Braydn helping the little kids put their guns together for the war.

Brody trying to figure out his gun "works".

Braydn became the master tech of getting the guns out of the packages, broken fingers and all. Ashlee, Kadin and Kelton wait patiently for their guns to be out of the boxes so they could start shooting.

We had a lot of fun. Brian and I didn't figure out we needed batteries until Christmas morning. Needless to say we had to fire ours manually until later in the afternoon when we finally got batteries. The kids guns came with scope lasers. We found out that Star like to follow the red light so much we made her nuts. Some days she sits and stares at the ceiling waiting for stuff to move!

Christmas 2009

This is the first Christmas in our new house. We were all excited to be in a house and not the travel trailer! We all reminisced about Christmas last year in our 30' travel trailer.
Brody, Carson and Braydn with their "loot".

Ashlee with all of her goods.

This is Kadin with his new piece of equipment.

Ashlee's Impromptu Birthday Party

This is Ashlee going through "The Spanking Machine" at her birthday party. She invited her friend and little sister over at the last minute.

Kelton is playing Heavy Heavy Hangover. It's a game that the kids like to play at birthday parties.

Here is Kelton again. The object of the game is to hit the person over the head with the gift. The birthday person is supposed to wish the gift giver something in return. (It never happens at our house).

This is Leena. She is the little sister of one of Ashlee's friends. Ashlee invited them over to open presents and have cake and ice cream. (Mom didn't know until after the fact!) They had fun and ate cupcakes and played a few games.

Elementary Christmas Program

This was the Elementary Christmas Program. This was Ashlee's class. She is on the front row in her red dress.

This is all of the first grades(that I could fit in my camera). Kadin is on the second to back row almost in the middle of the picture. He is looking to the left. It's always fun to see the little kids get up there and do the field glasses with their hands to block the bright lights while they look for their parents. It's always fun to go and watch because you never know who's kid is going to be doing what!

Kelton's class performed also, but I don't know what happened to the pictures. He always blames me about forgetting about him!

Concert Choir

Ashlee was chosen this year to be part of the High School Concert Choir. They performed 2 songs with the High School Concert Choir.
This is Ashlee in her new red dress for the concert choir performance.

Ashlee is in the front row, second from the left.

Ashlee waiting for the performance to start. She was way excited and nervous.

Band Concerts

This is the Winter Band Concert. Brody plays the Tenor Sax. He always sits in the middle, so we never get good pictures of him.
Another of Picture of the top of Brody's head at the concert. Brody plays in both the Concert Band and the Jazz Band.

Braydn is the one in the middle. He is waiting his turn for the 8th graders to perform at the Band Concert. Braydn played the flute up until this year when he switched over to the Tenor Sax.

Braydn still waiting. He sits in the back also so we only get good pictures when they are waiting to go on stage.

Middle Piney

This is Lacy. She had so much fun playing on the lake that was frozen and snow covered that she wore herself out. She got packed in and packed out of Middle Piney Lake.

This is Meagan. You can see how much fun she had!


Brooke and Kadin. Obviously it was a quiet ride home! Cameron and Wyatt are in the back, but they still have energy!

Brian let Marissa drive on the way home. She had just gotten her permit before they came to Wyoming for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanksgiving 2009

Brian took the cousins up and hiked into Middle Piney over Thanksgiving. They got a surprise of snow, but nothing they couldn't walk thru. They had fun shooting the guns once they got up to the lake. It's about a 2 mile hike.

This was another pose of everybody. They all had fun, but some of the littler ones had to be packed in and out.

This is the parking area at Middle Piney.



This is one of the hills at Middle Piney. When there is more snow, it makes a fun hill to climb on the snow machines.