Issue 91

Presidential Eagles

On Presidents' day we made the trek out to Farmington Bay to see the Bald Eagles who are passing through. We went earlier than last year, and were rewarded by seeing many more eagles (approx. 30 or so). We also took our cousins which made our birding trip extra fun. We topped it off with a pic-nic and hot chocolate. I feel a new Presidents day tradition coming on!

Webelo Scout and the Fort of Frosting

At our troop's Blue and Gold dinner this week Daniel received his Webelo scout badge and 3 more activity badges (fitness, scholar and citizen) to go with the scientist badge he had already earned. He also got the award for the tallest cake in the cake contest.

Dinosaurs

Thanks for the trip to the dinosaur museum Aunt Brooke!

Photos by Steve L.

Issue 90

Art Show

An artist at heart, I wanted to teach my children drawing lessons this year. As I started designing the lessons, I decided that they would be so much better if we invited some other students to join us. And so, I started teaching art lessons in October. What a joy in my life! I love the amazing students I get to work with and I do the exercises right along with them, thus adding the art that has been missing for too many years from my life. This semester I've had 2 classes, with 5 students each - including 3 of my own children.

This week ended our first semester, and we celebrated everything the students learned with a formal art show Friday night. They all have progressed so much and I'm proud of their hard work and love to see their natural talent. Next semester - portraits!

Speech Tournament

Steve took 4th place in Impromptu at the Wasatch Speech and Debate tournament hosted at Weber State on Saturday. He also competed in Spar Debate. Way to go Steve! We're so proud of you!

Happy Valentines Day!

Some friends invited us to a fun family Valentines Party Saturday night. An Italian dinner, games, movies, and dancing. The best part was watching Janey and her dad dance the night away. She taught him all her best clogging moves. I even got to steal a dance with my sweetheart.

Valentines Day we had a lovely dinner at Steve's parents. The little girls spent all week hand crafting valentines cards and have given them to everyone that has crossed their path. If we missed seeing you this week, consider yourself loved!

Issue 89

Discovery

I couldn't resist a couple cute pictures from our field trip to the Children's museum. Sandwich anyone?

Baby Mollies by Whitney

My Dalmatian mollies had babies! My female, Cream, had seventeen baby fish! It's really awesome seeing them grow. They are two weeks old now and I can see their spots. It's really exciting for me to be able to breed such a classy looking fish.

Consequently, if anyone is interested in starting their own small aquarium these little guys will need homes soon.

Girls Night Out!

A matinee chick flick movie, dinner out, some outlet shopping and a sleepover in Park City. What more could a girl want? Steve and Steve were at scout camp and my mom and sisters and sister-in-law stole away for some much needed R and R. Only wish I'd gotten some pictures. Thanks ladies! (And a huge thanks to Aunt Em, who slept over with my kids!)

Issue 88

Yellow Belt

Saturday was one of those crazy "divide and conquer" days. As in, "I'll take Steve to Mock Trial practice, and plan the menu and shopping list, and open the high school for the Liberty Bowl, while you take Janey Girl Scout cookie selling and Daniel to karate. Then, I'll pick up Steve from Mock Trial practice, take Whitney to Liberty Bowl practice, and then pick Daniel up from karate." Oops, we both tried to pick Daniel up. At least we didn't both forget him. Then it's "while your taking Janey on a lunch date to In-and-Out Burger and doing the grocery shopping, I'll be at the High School with Whitney, helping run the Liberty Bowl. Thanks for taking Daniel to his yellow belt test this afternoon, I wish I could be there too." Then it's, "So glad you and the camera made it in time for the last Liberty Bowl round and medals ceremony." And finally it's "Thank you for cooking dinner for our company tonight while I vacuumed the High School and locked it down. It tastes wonderful, and the flowers are lovely."

Daniel started taking karate (Kung Fu style) in December. He attends 4 times a week: one private lesson and three group lessons. In just over a month he qualified to test for his yellow belt. Dad and the kids got to see the belt ceremony and then came to the high school to show Whitney and I the awesome new belt.

What Daniel says about the experience:

"They had us do 100 jumping jacks, we had to stand in a squat and keep our arms out straight (like an airplane) for 10 minutes, 50 sit-ups, 50 push ups, 50 squats, and a whole lot of other exercises. Then he made us run from one side of the wall to the other 25 times as fast as we could. Then he tested us on all our blocks and kicks and punches. Then we did some other stuff and then I got my yellow belt. It felt pretty great but exhausting!"

Liberty Bowl by Whitney

This Saturday I was in the Liberty Bowl! The liberty bowl is a buzzer competition were teams of four compete to see which teams can answer historical questions the fastest. The competition is comprised of a number of rounds in which two teams go up against each other. The wins and losses, along with the points scored for each question, are totaled to determine the winner.

I have done lib. bowl for three years now. The first year I was in the Jr. division. I didn't meet with my team beforehand and found out who they were when I got there. It turned out that none of them knew any of the questions, and I myself had only done a cramming session the night before. I ended up dragging my team to a totally unexpected bronze medal!

The next year (last year) I was added to the Natalie team. It is called the Natalie team because Natalie is on it. She is a homeschooler who wakes up at four in the morning every day to study! She is amazing and I'm glad that she is my friend. Last year we studied multiple times a week and scored a gold medal.

This year we studied about three to four times a week and got a silver medal. It's kind of weird because we actually won the most points of all, but we lost more rounds than the first place team. So we actually should have gotten first place, but there was a mess up wen they were figuring it out so we all went home with silver.

But I'm not bitter.

One of the cool things though is that now I have a bronze, a silver, and a gold metal! It looks really cool on my wall. They are framed.

I really enjoyed it and the cool thing is that my cousin Brooklyn was competing in the Jr. division, (I am in the senior division) and her team won second place too! So that was really neat. Steve didn't compete but he wants to do it next year. The next competition is in Jan. so we usually start practicing around October.

The funny thing is, is that Natalie had never ever gotten less than first in a liberty bowl competition before and was genuinely shocked that her team hadn't won this year. Before, the only round she had ever lost in her four years of competing was to me, (which is why she asked me to be on her team). So she was very distraught. I was talking to her after and joked, "So practice next Tuesday?" and she said, "yeah, pretty much." and walked off with a straight face.

I've talked to the rest of my team and the thing is we all think that she is serious.