Ben's Baptism

BOO!!!
Wow, it's Halloween. That means I didn't blog once for the entirety of October. I have a ton of things to catch up on so I will just give this a whirl.
First off, the reason for not blogging.. . life is just crazy. You know how they say you only use 10% of your brain. Well, work is taking up at least 5%. . . probably closer to 7% of my brain. That leaves me a measly 3% to handle the more important things in my life. The kids have adapted incredibly well to our schedule. I have adapted. . .not as well as them. I so don't have it in me to get motivated to blog. Yet, i don't want to leave all of the lovely things happening behind. So, let's start with Ben's Baptism.

Well, we were very excited for this event. Many of our family memebers made the long drive to Ogden in order to be with us on Labor Day weekend.

Doesn't Ben look handsome. All ready to go. We, of course were running late, so let's hurry! But before we could get out the door the phone rings because. . .

something is wrong. The doors to the Stake Center are locked. What in the world!!! Phone call, phone call, phone call. . . .finally over an hour later success. Someone who has a key to the building and the font.
Gracious family waiting and waiting.. .


Finally inside, we still have to fill the font. Apparently Labor Day weekend is the worst weekend to have a baptism. It came down to a simple mistake. . . the guy in charge forgot and was out of town for Labor Day. The baptism was supposed to start at 6:30. We started about 2 hours later. You know what though, we still had a beautiful baptism. It was really neat to watch Ben be baptized and recieve the Holy Ghost. He isn't a man of many words. After the baptism he simply said "I feel good."
Ben was baptized along with a sweet girl in our ward. . . Anna.

Our family. . . they are just awesome. Not one of them complained about the long wait.



So, it was a really fun day. We had a nice bar-b-q before. . . so at least everyone had full belly's during the wait. We can't say enough about how much we love our family. Can't say enough about how much we love Ben!

The First Day!

Two children in school. Slowly my children are growing up and leaving the nest. I will tell you what, Rachel just couldn't wait. She was so excited to start kindergarten. In fact she said "I just can't believe it is FINALLY time for me to go to kindergarten." It was better than Christmas for her. I took her that afternoon for her first day. She was a little shy and I sat on the stage with her until they were ready to start. Then they told us to wave goodbye and I left my girl to start finding her own way in the world. She comes home everyday telling me about her new friends. I think it is amazing to her that there are so many girls in the world to play with. This will be a very happy year for her. :)

Now, Ben. He was not excited at all for school to start. I can't believe he is already at that stage of "my favorite subject is recess". However, I have to say that he is doing great so far. He has a new to teaching teacher and he seems to like her. He has to read and write 3 sentences for homework every night. He tries to think of how he can say what he wants to say in the fewest words possible, which Nate praised and I condemned. Another attribute that must come with being a boy.. . for the most part. There are always some exceptions. All in all, for how difficult the school year ended last year, so far this year things seem to be going well.

Back to the grind stone. It is nice to have kids in bed before 10 pm and start to regain a little of the evening time. We are trying to be on a schedule of homework at seven, jammies by eight, and in bed by 8:30 . . . well, I mean quiet time. They still don't go to sleep until 9:30 or 10:00, but at least they are out of my hair. . . I mean that in the nicest way possible. :)

Ben's Birthday

Well, Ben's birthday was a big hit. We had all the neighborhood kids over for a celebration. Games, a pinata, and of course cake and ice cream. Planning parties is stressful for me. I am not amazing at it in anyway, shape, or form. However, I am determined that all three kids will get to have a kid birthday party this year. . . so now I have one down. I wish I were more like my sister in law who has amazingly creative birthday parties. Anyway, on with the show.
Ben's favorite gift this year is a remote control airplane he bought with birthday money we gave him. When Nate and I went to buy the plane we didn't see exactly what Ben was looking for, plus they were all pretty expensive. Now, I don't mind Ben getting a nice toy. . .but I did want him to understand that he had a set amount of money for his birthday. If he chose to spend it all on a remote controlled plane then he could. I don't know, I just wanted him to take good care of it and be happy with it because he would have to give up other presents to get it. In the end, it has been a great present. It is a remote controlled plane about 10 inches long. It is very lite weight and sensitive. You have to fly it at a big park because it can get some distance. I highly recommend it to anyone who may want a beginner remote controlled plane.
I can't believe Ben is 8 years old. He is such a cute kid and we love him so much. He has been nothing but fun since the day he was born. He is a wonderful older brother and great example to his sisters. He does love to tease them now, but they also play together and get along wonderfully. Today I went in the bedroom where they were playing and asked if I could play with them too. They told me no because it would be too embarrassing. Apparently it is not cool to play in front of your mom when you are 8.

Here We Are!

The crazy fast summer is over. And, it has been crazy. We were supposed to move mid August but the week before we (when I say we I really mean Nathan) decided that we didn't want to rent anymore. So, we have been trying to get someone to give us a home loan. . . it may be a few more months before that pans out. If anyone has talked to me personally then you probably know I had to eat some words I may have said at the end of the school year. I won't reiterate them. I still have hope that we will get moved by Christmas.
In more exciting news, we found out that we are expecting another baby. I am only about 9 weeks now and haven't even gotten to the first doctors appointment. It seems like things are going pretty normal so far. Nate and I already have a bet about whether or not it will be a boy or a girl. It's a girl . . . I am telling you right now. Nate thinks I am crazy. We'll see who's crazy. :)

So, aside from those things, I have also started working full time with Utah Virtual Academy. Still special ed, just a bigger case load and I am still working from home, which I love. Aside from the distractions (housework, children, and the list goes on and on). Nate has been working with his new company, Accu-System, for about 8 or 9 weeks now. He mostly redesigns machines that are made to cut wood cabinets or a ton of other wood things. He likes it there. The people and the job. It's a pretty secure job since the engineering team only consists of himself and an electrical engineer. Our two jobs together are a much needed blessing and the only reason we can even think of buying a house right now.

Now, summer has been filled with a lot of fun. Recap.

Isn't this the cutest picture of my girls. Rachel has turned into an excellent big sister and it shows.
We had our Stalker family reunion at Jordanelle. It was a lot of fun as usual.

We went to Lagoon. We debated because we went on one of those terrible rain storm days. It poured rain until about 1:30 but we trudged on and the sun came out about 2pm and stayed out for the rest of the day. We had a fabulous time. I was so glad we still went. Half the reason was because a couple of years ago the same thing happened and we chickened out, only to have the sun come out about 12:30 and taunt us for the rest of the day. I was not going to let that happen again.

For a catch up blog, this is short. Coming soon are the first day of school, Ben's birthday and baptism, and then the girl's birthdays as well. I am sad to see summer go, but glad to have some structure again. I'll be back soon. :)

Wait JUNE, wait, Come Back!!!!!

I simply can't believe June is already over. July isn't going to go any slower either. Man, I love summer. It's so easy going. We stay up late and the kids sleep in until 9am pretty much every day. I wake up earlier, but just have lots of quiet time in the morning. It is wonderful. So far summer has been fabulous. We kicked it off with that great memorial day trip and here is some of our other adventures.

Family Reunion
This was a very extended family reunion for Grandpa Baxter's family. The kids just had a blast exploring around Mutual Dell. The highlight was this awesome zip line.




Ok, so that was fun. A few days later my kids and Nate decided to officially kill my birthday. . . by destroying my huge birthday balloon. :) I told them all that my birthday would live on as long as the balloon did. I think that balloon would have lasted until next year. So, my little family took matters into their own hand. The balloon did well until Nate got to it. Then it was over. I am still mourning the loss.




Antelope Island
What to say about Antelope Island. The first time we went was last year. I think we went on a warm spring day in April or May. It was beautiful. No smells or bugs. This year we wanted to go again but didn't get around to it until the second week of June. As we drove over the pass from the main land to the island the most atrocious smell hit. I thought I was going to barf. I held my breath over the entire pass. Now, once we got over the pass the smell was significantly better and we were able to have a pretty good time. Bugs were plentiful, but it was fairly harmless little flies. We didn't get any bug bites, although we did put on bug spray. The water does look a little gross. Lots of little floaties. I didn't mind putting my feet in it, but I did not want to touch it. Nate was less afraid and got down and dirty with the kids. He always does. I love him. :)




Nobody told the kids that fully submersing themselves in this water could be harmful to their health. We just let them play. They had a great time. . . and I learned to take my trip to Antelope Island before May is over. . . probably in late April or Early May.

Just a fun little side note trivia. At the end of June we have officially gone through 5 bags of Popsicles and about 200 otter pops. Early in the summer I decided to make Popsicles and microwave popcorn the snacks of choice. They are cheap and I don't mind feeding them to the neighborhood kids. On the down side, our yard constantly needs picking up due to hundreds of popsicle sticks and otter pop wrappers. Don't worry. The kids do it. I also make them clean their room every day. They are beginning to not like me. HAHAHA.


Waterfall Canyon
Waterfall canyon is a beautiful hike. It is fairly challenging. Mostly uphill with many large rocks to climb up. It is well worth the effort. Unfortunately for us, this is the hike that we dropped our camera in the creek. Thus, I only came out with one picture from the entire hike. I know, we are still in the parking lot. . . but I promise we made it to the top.
Miraculously, after dropping our camera in the water, it still works. I brought it home. Took the back off of it and let it dry out for almost 2 weeks. The day I decided to brave it and put it back together I prayed that it would work. Now is not the time for us to have to buy a new camera. I closed my eyes and flipped it on. I almost jumped for joy that it still worked. It doesn't have even one problem. I personally attribute this to a blessing of tithing. God is good to us. I am grateful.


Just the Boys
Nate takes Ben on a special camp out every year. I can't say enough about how much Ben looks forward to this event. This year they rented a kayak and went to a breathtaking little reservoir east of Ogden. They had such an good time. . . until they got stranded on the way home. The road was closed because of a terrible accident in which five people died. They had to wait about three hours before they could get through. Other than that though, they had a blast.



Random Ramblings
If you didn't already know, Nate scored a job in Taylorsville. He started this week and it is going well. Consequently, we have decided to move closer to the family. I think we have settled on Lehi as it is half way between family and his new job. We are hoping this job will be a longer term situation and we can settle down for a few years. We are planning on moving sometime the last week of July. Hopefully we will find a place by then or we may have to live in my parents motor home for a few weeks. :) We can't wait to be back close to our family and friends. It's really exciting. It has been 8 years since we moved away to get Nate into school. We have gone through lots of wonderful growing adventures during that time, but I am ready to move on. :) I am ready to come home. I was thinking that might never happen so I am just thrilled with these current events. I can't wait. :)

Memorial Day Weekend 2010!

A number of years ago my parents decided to buy their first motor home. They used their starter motor home for a couple of years. . . but then they moved on to a bigger motor home. Generously, they kept the first motor home and allow all of us kids to use it whenever we want. Well, we decided to take a short trip for Memorial Day Weekend to Dinosaur National Monument. Sadly, the really cool parts of the visitor center are closed right now and many of the roads around the area are closed as well, so we didn't see much in the way of Dinosaur National Monument. However, we managed to have an absolutely terrific time anyway. This is the story of our trip to Vernal, Utah. Let's Ride.

Travel in the motor home is different. Seatbelts are not required (perhaps they are but we didn't use them). It takes a bit to learn how to walk around while the motor home is moving. I made sandwiches on the road. . . going up Provo Canyon, in fact. . . I was very sick afterward and will never attempt that again. Word to the wise, large vehicle+canyon=lots of swaying and car sickness. The kids had quite the good time though, as seen below.






We stayed at a KOA in Vernal. This is not considered camping. No campfires are allowed and you are packed in like sardines. . .but it had electricity and water hookups for the motor home. I guess if we consider the motor home, then it is not really camping anyway. I have no pictures of the KOA. Sorry to disappoint

Our first order of business was to visit the Dinosaur National Monument. We thought we were going to get to see Dino tracks. . .unfortunately we only got to see fossilized fish scales. Not the easiest things to see. But this little hike was beautiful with some fun rock formations to boot. A shuttle bus takes you to this hike and it is practically the only thing you can actually reach at Dinosaur National Monument right now.


This is the beautiful flower that was growing all alone in the desert. . . that we stepped on trying to take pictures in the strange rock formation. I hope it grows back next year. I felt very bad.


Construction will be finished in about another year. . .so two years from now we will probably try again. However, do not fear, we found other great things to do in Vernal.

After our somewhat disappointing visit to Dinosaur National Monument during which we saw no Dinosaurs we headed back to Vernal. They have a very new Natural History Museum. This was great, with hands on displays for the kids and real Dinosaur bones. Yea!



This museum comes very highly recommended by our family. Our next task was swimming. The KOA had a pool. . . but it was a bit cold to swim outside. So, on we went to the brand new rec. center in Vernal. Another great spot. Emily got herself ready for the pool. Something seems to be amiss.



Now, after our huge day, we thought we would treat the kids to a big meal at Golden Corral. We got in line and paid for our meal. . . and promptly after Emily fell asleep and Ben and Nathan became ill. I won't specify the symptoms, except to say we had to leave the restaurant without eating. I convinced them to give me take out instead. I don't know if it was the pool. I hope not, because the pool was awesome. Anyway, we all slept it off and by the next day we were ready to go again.

What's that? What's that you say? You say you are getting bored and could I end this post already. . . well, just remember this is for posterity. You don't have to like it. :)
Ok, so on with the show.
If you head East of Vernal and get into the back country their is this great place to go called Josie's Cabin.

Josie lived off the land and built this cabin. She raised pigs, cattle, chickens and probably some other farm animals. She used the box canyons to create natural corrals for her animals. She was friends with many outlaws who roamed these parts back in the day. She lived here until the 1960's when she died. No running water or electricity, but beauty all around. We explored and hiked around Josie's cabin for most of the day. This was, by far, my favorite part of the trip.








Yikes, I almost forgot to include a pic of the Indian graffiti, of which there was quite a bit. That's it. That was our vacation to Vernal, Utah. I would say it gets an A+ for beauty and places of interest. It was a super fab weekend. My bum now hurts from sitting here so long. Gladly, I can now resume with my regularly scheduled life. THE END.