Jenna's 2nd grade Living Wax Museum

This year in Jenna's class her teacher, Mrs. Struebing, let the kids pick a famous historical character to research and portray as a wax statue that when you pushed a button on each character, it would give you interesting facts about the character. Jenna picked Pocahontas. My mom made Jenna's costume and she looked so cute. We wrote all of the research we did on her down in small, easy to remember lines that Jenna could recite when her button was pushed. This is what "Pocahontas" had to say:

"Hi, my name is Pocahontas, the daughter of a powerful chief. As a child I gave food to the starving colonists. I saved my friend, John Smith's life by cradling his head before he could be clubbed to death. I was born in Virginia in 1595 and died in 1617. I married John Rolf and had a baby boy named Thomas. I went to England where I was introduced as a Princess to the King and Queen. I had no formal education, but everything I knew, I learned from my mother and other women in my tribe."

She looked so cute and did such a great job. She was chosen as one of the students to give her oral presentation to the first grade classes. I was so proud of her!! What a great way for kids to learn about history and how to do research. Jenna really enjoyed this project and so did all of the kids in her class. They were all so excited to give their presentations.

Camp Switzerland May 2009

Joe and I took the kids camping this weekend and we had such a great time. We went to Crestline, CA and Lake Gregory. Our camp was named Camp Switzerland and it was so beautiful. We loved it so much, we decided to stay an extra day. We went hiking and exploring; We taught the kids how to play UNO at night when the bugs got a little too out of hand; and we just had a wonderful time spending time together as a family. Here are some pictures of our trip.


This is the area surrounding our camp. It was so beautiful!





We went hiking around the camp site for a few hours. The kids had fun collecting all kinds of forest treasures.





More hiking.





Jacob and Ryan playing around the campsite.





I couldn't resist taking this picture of twiddle dee and twiddle dum in time out. Man, life is so hard when you have to follow rules even when you are not at home!!




Snug in their beds, worn out from a big day of hiking and playing, the kids give in to total exhaustion.

Exciting News!!

We are so excited! Joe will be doing his Living ordinances in the Redlands LDS Temple May 23, 2009. My brother Scott is going to be his escort and we have some family and friends that will be attending the endowment session. I couldn't be more proud of all Joe has done to get to this point in his life. He is such a wonderful man and a great example to our family as well as members of our church. He is always so happy and excited to share the gospel with his friends and co-workers or anyone that asks him. I am so lucky to have him for an eternal companion. I will post pictures when I get them. Our next big step will be our temple sealing--I will keep you all informed when that will be. We are planning on being sealed in the Manti LDS Temple.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

This week Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in Phelan, California which is about fifteen minutes from our house. We were not able to go and volunteer to work on the home, but lots of our friends and family went and helped out. The family was a family that have an animal shelter and save all kinds of animals from dogs, cats and other domesticated animals to tigers, monkeys and exotic animals. Today was the big reveal and "Move that Bus" day as the show calls it. We decided it would be fun to take the kids to see it.

We drove over to Phelan and I realized that there is not one paved road other than the main road!! The road that led to the new house was totally blocked off, but Joe managed to find a way around it using another road. It was so cold and rainy; I felt so sorry for all of the voluteers!! We had to four wheel drive into the area. When we got there, they directed us to the "non-VIP" section--all of the voluteers were VIP and got all kinds of perks including a front row seat of the reveal. There were tents and stuff set up for all of the voluteers to eat and get drinks. As we were standing there, they gave everyone waters and really got the crowd excited.

We stayed in the "non VIP" spot for about an hour and they said it was going to be at least another hour or more. We decided that we should leave; the kids were freezing. As we were waiting, we got to see Ty Pennington (the host of the show)and several of the other people on the show. He came out and said hi to the crowd. As we were leaving, we were asked to come over to the VIP section so that they could get a bigger crowd shot. We walked thru so much mud and yuck (Ryan lost his boot at one point and we had to dig it out of the mud) and got to be on the front row for all of the camera crowd shots. They had us just cheer and then they had us chant "Move that Bus!" over and over. I started to lose my voice! We got lots of camera time.

The house was beautiful except for the massive amounts of mud everywhere. As we were standing there, they were bringing in rocks to pave the road in front of the house. Besides the house, they made a huge animal shelter. It was really fun. We met the Director of the show and Joe was given a carhart wallet which was pretty cool. All in all, it was a great time. They said that the reveal was going to be in two hours, so we decided we couldn't stay for the whole thing.

I am so glad that we went. I think it is great for the kids to see how much fun it is to help people. They really learn to appreciate what they have and how lucky they really are. If you ever get a chance to be a part of this project or anything like it, I would jump at the chance. The blessings are so great!!

Snow in Southern California!!

Last week we had a huge snow storm!!! They not only shut down every freeway from Las Vegas to LA but here in Victorville they shut down half of the main streets and almost all of the side streets. My clinic was closed for several days and the kids were sent home from school early the first day and a snow day was called for the next day. This is so crazy. The kids had a blast. They played in the snow for a total of about four hours both days. Jenna and Ryan had their snow stuff from Utah, but Joseph and Jacob just had what we could find for them. We didn't hear any complaints of kids being too cold though. They built a snowman and then jumped on it. They had snowball fights and slid on the ice down the drive way. Jenna told me that she had been praying that Santa would send snow for Christmas and he really had!! Joe put Ryan on the phone with me and then showed him the snow outside and he started yelling and laughing and said "Its a Christmas miracle!!" I laughed so hard I cried. I am just about sick of the cold though. I hope it doesn't do it anymore. I had forgotten that I hate the snow and the muck!! Oh well, it is worth it to see the kids have so much fun. Here are some pictures of the fun.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!

Well Friends and family it is that time of year again. Thanksgiving has come and gone. We had a wonderful day with Joe's family. I had a hard time though because it was the first Thanksgiving that I have ever spent without my family. Luckily, Joe's family is so good to me and his Mom cooks just like my mom.

Joe has had the outside Christmas lights up for about two and a half weeks now and He spent most of Thanksgiving break decorating the inside of the house. It has been so much fun to start our own new family traditions. We both had lots and lots of Christmas stuff from years past that we used to decorate most of the house, but we decided that it would be fun to buy all new decorations for our main tree in the family room (we have three trees altogether). I also made new stockings for everyone in the family. Our house looks so beautiful. I love all of it and I am so thankful that I have such a wonderful man to spend the holidays with!!

I hope everyone enjoys this time of year as much as I do. p.s. If you get snow--please send pictures!!!! I never thought I would say this but, I miss it!!!