Wyatt and Valerie's Family Blog

Abigail's Birthday

2012-02-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

Abigail is nine years old!

Here is the crown cake that I made for Abigail's birthday. It was super fun to create! She had her first friend birthday party. It was a dress-up party, we had a princess make-over academy! We did their make-up, nails, decorated crowns, had a tea party (they decorated sugar cookies and drank hot cocoa from tea cups). What a blast we all had. I don't know who had more fun, me or the girls?

Chalk

2011-09-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

Do you want to know one of my favorite things? I LOVE my children's art and I especially love sidewalk chalk, always have..always will. I really don't think I ever even used it as a child growing up (we had a chalk board in our home) but there is something magical about my children drawing on our concrete. It is beautiful to me and it makes me happy :)

P.S. Another one of my favorites is when my children make snowmen! It makes me smile every time I see them out our window!
P.P.S. (I do not want it to snow yet).

Wyoming, Japan

2011-09-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

We had the privilege as a family to go to Martin's Cove in Wyoming with our ward. Don't we make great looking pioneers? It was a fabulous experience! My mother was wise and graciously offered to tend Savanna since we were in charge of the food and we were glad she did!

For the month of August we had a 13 year old Japanese Exchange student, Maho. It was a great experience for me and our family that we will be repeating in 2 years with Alex and again with Abigail. The requirements to qualify for this particular one month program is that you have a child of the same age and gender as the student. Her mother made all of our children these traditional Japanese outfits called Jinbe (the short sets) and Yukata (the dress).

Where did the teenager come from?

2011-09-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

Brittany turned 13 yesterday, we officially have a teenager about the house! Where does the time fly? We are so lucky to have such a beautiful, strong daughter. We love you Brittany :)

She requested fondant cake with three tiers. She designed the cake on paper and requested the color combinations and I think she did a great job. This is only the 2nd fondant cake I've ever made and it is fun, I really enjoy doing it for my children-it's one of the ways I say: I love you!

Medley

2011-03-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day brought green themed things all day. Dinner was Thai food, we had green rice, green peanut sauce with green vegetable, kiwis, green orange julius', and our traditional pistachio cake, I didn't have to use any fake green coloring this year as everything was colored with food! Yes the leprechaun visited us and Parker's pants were green.Savanna is toilet trained! She's only 23 months but she was ready and is doing great! This means she needed to be able to get out of her crib to use the toilet. Wyatt made this little rail to keep he safe as we took off the front of her crib.
I got to go with Alex's class on their snowshoe trip, it was fun and we got to see a porcupine.
I love when my children build me snowmen, I think I should have one in my yard at all times but our snow doesn't cooperate because when it is too cold there is no moisture in it but this day, Alex and Abigail built three mini ones. If you could see the detail you would see eyelashes, eyebrows, smiles and even carrot noses! Thanks A&A you make my heart sing!
We just got 2 baby goats for 4H. They have to be bottle fed 4 times a day for a little while. The children love them.
Parker turned 4 and wanted a rocket jet plane for his cake, when the candles were lit it was "blasting off"

Kitchen Pictures!

2011-03-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

After 3 months I am very happy to upload pictures of our new kitchen. I documented the process all along the way of most every stage, so that's why there will be so many. Many thanks to everyone who was involved and a giant THANK YOU with much gratitude to Wyatt, his brother and his father. I appreciate all of your hard work!!! The first day. All of the cupboards have been unloaded, the appliances have been moved to the laundry room that now functions as our kitchen for the next 3 months and the old cabinets are taken off the wall. Wyatt and Felipe do the demolition while the cabinets are being built.
The 3 layers (sheetrock, plaster and old sheetROCK) on each side of the wall are removed.
One, two, three, LIFT! This I-Beam went into place with a lot less effort than the first section last January (go to my blog archive and see posts last January under "remodel" and 2 in February). The old adage, "many hands make light work" is true.
The studs have been removed and so has the old linoleum, plywood and tar paper off the floor in the old back entry.

Sheetrock is being attached to the metal beam with adhesive, the clamps are providing equal pressure. All during this process, new electrical wiring is being taken up into the attic and underneath the crawl space to give me more than the two outlets I had before. Wyatt is under the floor moving the plumbing around and also some furnace ducts.
Sheetrock and drywall has been completed. We are filling in the wood flooring where the existing walls were. Also the return air duct has been relocated to this wall.
The entire kitchen ceiling and walls have been primed and painted. Wyatt refinished the floor again (4 years ago, Wyatt had a friend who used to do it for a living help him so he learned some tricks -yet another skill) so all of it will now be the same. The base cabinets are installed on the exterior walls.
Sleeping Beauty. Look at those lashes!
You might be wondering, "why are there pictures of Parker and Savanna in the middle of the kitchen remodel pictures?" Well these were taken on one of the many trips I made to Idaho Falls looking for tile, paint, cabinet hardware, etc... Picking up formica, wood, the sink and supplies. What little troopers they were.
Can you say DUST!!! Wow remodeling creates dust in layers not just a film. I am in no way complaining, just documenting. It was a privilege to clean up in between each project. In a last minute, late night project Wyatt made me little shelves inside of the I-Beam and he pulled a phone wire so I can always have a phone (we seem to never have the cordless where it's supposed to be-can you say "Five little monkeys...")
Countertops were attached to the base cabinets, the sink is getting installed, Wyatt can now do this so if anyone doesn't want to pay for granite but wants an undermounted sink- call him, he's the man!
The raised bar is being created and the front of the countertop has been attached. The suspended seating support is installed.
Installing the formica.
All the beautiful cabinet doors are waiting patiently to have their hinges attached and to be hung. They are built out of rustic maple.
Hanging the doors, Paris and Nathan built them, what fine craftsmen they are. They turned out beautiful, and the stain... well now that's a secret!
Building the back of the island and finishing it off with wood.
The lights have been installed, Wyatt is so amazing, he was the electrician for this project too. He is so talented-Honey, is there anything you cannot do? They have lifted up the cabinet that goes over the refrigerator and freezer.
Backsplash tile set on the diagonal. Little details that make a BIG difference! Again, Wyatt worked with a professional tiler awhile back and picked up more skills.
Filling the tile with grout and then sealing it.This past summer, I stripped the six layers of paint off this original wood door to the bathroom so it could be stained and match my pantry door. I am just getting the last of the paint out of the nicks.
Toe kicks and the baseboards are being cut, stained and installed.
The finished pantry and bathroom door!
Shelves and counter are finished inside the pantry.

Inside the pantry (Wyatt added the wood flooring and finished the shelves).We are done!!! The appliances are in and everything has been cleaned. I love the two tone wood stain, the crown moulding and baseboards are a darker version of the stain we picked for the cabinets.
The china cupboard. The plate rack is Wyatt's baby. It's a fun addition :)
This is the counter height kitchen table Wyatt and I got ourselves for Christmas this year. It extends to seat 10. I love the fan/light above our table.
Suspended seating was the only way I was going to have a bar. Sweeping underneath this is a breeze so keeping it clean is manageable.
Here is the best overall picture of the room standing in the living room looking into the new kitchen, it's very open and bright. I like to have staring contests with the kitchen-obviously the kitchen wins but nonetheless I can do it for a long time ;) I am so grateful for this blessing for our family, words don't convey the joy I get from this. It is a completely different feel from what it was before, welcome to our gathering place!

Eight is Great!

2011-03-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

Abigail turned 8 years old and was baptized in January. She is a joy to have in our family. A peacemaker, a great helper and sensitive for sure. She was so excited for this day to come and thanks to all of our family and friends that joined us. Thank you Abigail for choosing to follow Jesus and be baptized and for being part of our family :)
Looking beautiful in her "second white dress" (Three White Dresses)

Random Pictures

2011-01-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Here we are driving to Thanksgiving, the road didn't even open until 11 am, the roads were icy, visibility was low and traffic wasn't great but we made it safe and had a great time.
These are cousins at the "Kid Tables"

Brittany decided to cook a surprise meal for me. I didn't know she had planned any of this because I stayed 2 extra days in Utah after Thanksgiving to finish Christmas shopping. Here are the 5 courses on the menu: We drank homemade wassail, ate homemade cheese ball and crackers, salad, leek soup in a bread bowl, roasted lamb with homemade mint sauce, homemade cheesecake! She cooked this meal all on her own with very minimal assistance. I am so proud of the things she is learning.
Here is our Christmas tree this year. It didn't come out of our mountains for the first time and it isn't a borrowed artificial one, I think it's our most beautiful yet. (The boys weren't posing for me, I just found them this way and had to take a picture!)
Brittany plays the Tenor Saxophone in band, here she is at her first concert.
Brittany is the 3rd from the right. She played the bells several times this season with a hand bell group.

Wow

2011-01-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

A lot of hard work has been going into our new kitchen and when we got home from our Pryor Family vacation this is the sight I got treated with!!! The base cabinets had been installed. The color is so me. The wood is beautiful and the cabinets are built wonderfully. Look for posts of the finished room later...

Family Pictures

2010-10-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law Miriam was so willing to take our family picture this year, I had had these outfits since the beginning of summer trying to get schedules to work out and things fell through but I am so glad now because the color of the grain was PERFECT for what I was going for AND it is our first picture on our farm! The weather was really cold to be wearing shorts and short sleeves so I'm grateful the children put up with my summer outfits turned fall family picture! These are the best ones out of the three different poses-our expressions in the last one are hilarious I can't remember what we were laughing at but it made for a memory anyway. I had these taken on Oct 10th and I am finally getting around to sorting through them so that tells you how busy I have been with our kitchen plans (I have been living in a paper world for a couple weeks designing). Thank you Miriam for taking these :)

Halloween

2010-10-31T20:14:00.000-07:00

This year, the Penfold family presents Brittany as Thing 1, Alex as Thing 2 and Parker as The Cat in the Hat! What a fun trio we had this year. Abigail came down the runway as a princess and Savanna is the cow. We trick-or-treated in the rain but it was not below freezing so all was well and the children had a great time. Earlier in the day we went to a local store to have pictures taken and their costumes judged, then to the fire station for a tour, glow necklaces, blinking lights and cider. It was a fun family night!

P.S. I posted this yesterday but today we went in to the store where they had their costumes judged and they won 2nd place! It was perfect because 1st place won a bike, 2nd place won $30 and 3rd place won $20 so we were actually hoping for 2nd because they divided it up and each got $10. We were all thrilled! :)

A series of posts long overdue!

2010-09-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

The First Day of School
Summer was extra short this year or so it seems. Thankfully everything we put on our special summer calendar the children and I make together and display in the stairway was accomplished and we had a great time but I was not ready to send them back. I guess knowing that the school system has them for 9 hours (2 of that is spent on the bus) and I only have them for 5 and one hour of that is in the morning getting ready for school so it doesn't seem to count; it's hard because they are my children and I don't even get to be around them the majority of the day! I like my family around me and I don't get that excited to send them away. I do however enjoy the time I get to spend with Parker and Savanna alone and getting projects done. But online schooling is ever on my mind!

Brittany is in Middle School this year in the 6th grade. Way too grown up for my liking but proud as ever since it's inevitable. She even wanted her hair done special!
Alex is as handsome as they come going into the 4th grade and the oldest at the Elementary school now that his big sister is gone. His diabetes bag is as much a part of him as the hair on his head.
Abigail is in the 2nd grade, can you tell she loves pink as much as I did at her age? I made this dress for her and 2 skirts also this year for school. I am loving having Savanna a little older so I can do fun things like this!

The following is a downpour of posts since I have neglected journaling these parts of our family for a while...oh did you know, this isn't for you who read it, it's a mini journal with photos for me that I share with you. Kind of handy since the majority of brothers and sisters and 1 set of parents don't live by us and the other set doesn't know what we do either so this works great! Enjoy :)

Fair

2010-09-16T12:18:00.001-07:00

This was our first year doing animal 4H...what a huge learning curve we had. A big THANK YOU to Grandma Penfold, Brittany got to do horse 4H because of her and thanks to Wyatt (really his good friend who is the Ag agent in our county roped us into this one) we got into goat 4H Alex and Abigail both had an animal. Funny thing was (except it wasn't that funny to me) Wyatt had meetings in Pocatello during fair week so everything that happened up until Thursday morning I had to do. I wasn't prepared for this and it was difficult to take on the responsibility when I had written it off back when it all started. I told Wyatt I supported them doing it but that I wouldn't be involved. The culmination of everything you do IS the week of fair so this was a bitter pill to swallow for me. THANKFULLY he was there for the showing because if he hadn't, the animals would have been shown "as is." I could write a detailed essay of everything that happened this week that would make you laugh but I don't want to take that kind of time right now but it will end up in my journal, next time you're here you can read it then! I can laugh about it now but I was in tears at the time.
Alex showing "General Grievous" his male Boer Goat
Alex and Abigail in their animals pen. (We had to set all this up down to the last straw) I was at my 'last straw' by the end
Abigail talking to the judge showing her female goat "Genevieve"
Brittany looking fancy on "Fancy"
Here is Brittany ready for her day long debut. She did great and had a lot of fun.

Teardrop Lake

2010-09-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my cousin, we were invited to go to this lake. Is is clear water, you can see the bottom even in the deep, so beautiful and secluded. Fun fishing and swimming and we made a fun day trip out of it (we were supposed to camp but farming and camping don't go hand in hand because of the water schedule). We had a yummy dinner and dutch oven cobbler and we will be going beck to this place again!
I just think this picture turned out so beautiful :) The reflection and the lighting are great.
Bathing beauty
I finally caught my dragonfly. I have wanted a real one in my kitchen for awhile now. Abigail and I spent time running around with this net my cousin had. I'm sure we looked pretty silly, lunging, running, missing and turning in circles but our time paid off when we netted the big kind! Abigail got several small ones. Did you know there are yellow, blue and green dragonflies? Beautiful insects for sure!

Amazing this little one even got in the water, as warm as it was for lake water, it was still cold and Savanna doesn't even love her warm bath yet. She enjoyed throwing rocks and splashing.

Camping

2010-09-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

I HAD to go camping at least once this summer, we had a plan to go with a cousin and that fell through, I had begun to lose hope until the Friday afternoon before school started we were at our friend's pond and I was telling her my woe and we decided to just pack everything up and go up the canyon overnight. Her husband is also unavailable so we knew we could do it solo if we went together.
Here are the children ready to get in. Remember this is Teton Valley creek water that is COLD. Melted snow this stuff is!
Alex built a teepee, pretty impressive for just a pocket knife :)
Our camping site by the river. No toilets, no running water, no problem!!!
Parker enjoying our pancake and eggs breakfast. We even baked cookies for lunch because of this little oven. No one can say we were 'roughing it' The outdoors is the best!

Brittany's 12th birthday

2010-09-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

Wow! How has time gone by so fast? Brittany is 12 which means she gets to go to Young Women's, weekly activities, Middle School, she gets to wear make-up now when she chooses. Wyatt and I look at each other and say I guess having a 12 year old means we're not newlyweds anymore...but seriously we don't feel too much older than when we had this beautiful girl! What do you mean over a decade has past? Oh yeah they do tell you if ya blink you'll miss their childhood. We couldn't have picked a better girl to be our oldest daughter, Brittany we love you.
Here is her swimming pool cake complete with a diving board, lap lanes and inner tubes!

A Goat in the Car

2010-08-09T20:39:00.001-07:00

Alex and Abigail are doing Goat 4H this summer and their demonstrations were this morning. I really didn't want to drive a big trailer down there for one animal and I had to get everyone up, fed, dressed, practiced, ready and at the fair building by 9 am. So here is the goat all loaded in the car...you know it's just another member of our family now (or so it appears) people take their dogs with them all the time, is a goat different? Ha ha ha

A wonderful daughter and family

2010-08-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have a wonderful daughter. Brittany did a wonderful job of making my birthday special this year. She had been planning this cake for quite some time and did a fantastic job. This is her first decorated cake. It's a recreation of Van Gogh's painting "Sunflowers"
I got three cookie jars for my soon to be new kitchen. I love this barn, I got "the old woman who lived in a shoe" and smokey the bear also. I will definitely fill them with yummy healthy cookies.
The children wanted to make us a restaurant dinner so they set up a table in our front entry; covered the entrance with a large sheet making it a private room, covered all the windows with dark sheets so we could eat by candlelight, set the table with the china, picked fresh roses from our wild rose bush and had us wear nice clothes.
They came in constantly filling our water and drink cups, making sure we didn't want for a thing, check out the details in the place setting...wow is all I could say, I was blown away.
Thank you family for all of it, you are something special and that is exactly how this day was!

Celebrity in Teton Valley!

2010-07-06T18:15:00.000-07:00

Wyatt was asked by our neighbor who built this tractor to drive it in the parade to showcase it. He even got out his classic blue and white striped overalls and was sooo good looking, I'm proud that he's my man ;)
Huntsman Springs had their Grand Opening and invited Glenn Beck to speak. It was FREE to the public and we got to go. It was wonderful and I felt so privileged to be able to attend. As you can see the sunset was spectacular as were the fireworks that danced in the sky afterwards to music and short video clips in between. It was one of the best 4th of July evenings I've had.
Here we are listening to the BYU-I symphony orchestra play patriotic pieces before Glen Beck spoke. All of the Penfold's and part of the Pryor's were there.
Abigail and Jessica (my sister's oldest daughter) watching the flower fireworks. They thought the buzzing/whirring sounded like a power drill.
Alex, Wyatt and Luke (my brother Scott's oldest son) watching a flower. They were in boy heaven lighting these.

Parker is mesmerized by the sparkler. We spend so much time protecting our children and teaching them not to play with matches and that fire is hot and then we hand them a flame on a stick that shoots little sparks flying all around and they love it so it's all worth it!
Brittany on candid camera with her sparkler. I remember as a child dancing around and writing my name with my own special sparkler. It was a grand time!

Dance Recital

2010-05-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

Brittany and Abigail had a year end recital today and had a great time performing for us.Enjoy the videos.

Abigail's Dance

Brittany's Dance

In LOVE!

2010-05-08T12:08:00.001-07:00

We got ten new baby chicks to keep up my chicken rotation and Savanna is in LOVE. She literally squeals every time we show them to her.

Parker is in LOVE with these chicks too, we put them in this old sink in a counter so it would be too high for him to handle them, he can just look over the top...well he is such a climber and has strong arms so he pulls himself over the side and hangs there touching, poking, holding, and teasing them constantly. It is fun for him and I like how much he loves the creatures but they are still fragile and it is hard to keep him away. I don't have to watch constantly though, the chicks tell me when he's in there, they peep very loudly and incessantly so then I run to their rescue!
And oh yeah, by the way...we are in LOVE :)

The blond version...

2010-04-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Going blond is totally worth it (at least until the roots start coming in and then this do would be a maintenance nightmare) Nicole did a great job! Once we got the red out and I used a special shampoo from my FIL that takes out the brassy tone, I love it and am trying to see if blonds really do have more fun :)
Here is the blonde version of me! Parker LOVES it, he frequently says, "you're blond just like me!" Abigail loves that my color matches hers and Brittany and Alex are getting used to it, they didn't care for it much at first and Wyatt-well he LOVES it too, I'll post an update later when I have the darker blond woven into it when the roots grow.

Festival

2010-04-25T20:14:00.001-07:00

Brittany and Alex just got their scores from festival this year and I am so proud of them. Brittany is intermediate and got 97 playing "Wild Honeysuckle Rag" and "Allegro" and Alex got a 98 playing "Simple Song" and "Boogie." We went to Rexburg first thing in the morning, they performed and then we went out to lunch together, it was just us three and it was a special morning.

Savanna's 1st Birthday!

2010-04-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

Here is Savanna's first birthday cake. I made her an edible rainbow! It is an Angel Food Cake with half whole wheat, real whipped cream frosting and of course fruit :)

My baby is one year old, how does it happen so fast is my big question?

She made us proud making a mini mess of her cake, I wish she would have gotten even more messy though :)

Yellowstone, Easter and the Pinewood Derby!

2010-04-07T20:48:00.001-07:00

Alex participated in his second Pinewood Derby this year, he had so much fun designing and creating his car with his Dad, here is his car coming in second place, he is watching his car, it's a blur because it was so fast!!!
For Spring Break, we went to Yellowstone and spent four nights there just for the fun of it, and just for a change of scenery. The children were out for a full week and since it is still snowy and cold outside here, I couldn't imagine being here for that long. Even though Wyatt couldn't come, we still had fun. My sister even decided to come so the cousins could have fun together, we had an awesome girls week out!
We went to the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center
We swam twice every day we were there, one session we even swam 3 1/2 hours and I finally told the children we were getting out and they still didn't want to! I think they could be part fish, but at any rate we still had fun.
Twins! (cousins that is) these two are the best of friends. Did I mention we swam? And swam and swam some more!!!

Here are all the colorful, artistic egg creations of the children this year, we had a great time.

We had a happy snowy Easter. (In the last week we have gotten several feet of snow, it snowed more consecutively this week than it ever did all winter-crazy huh? I guess that's Spring at 65oo ft.)

A Full Month

2010-03-17T20:54:00.001-07:00

One month has flown by and we have a lot to share. Each picture has its own story to tell:
As is with all years we started out St. Patrick's Day last night with the children setting up traps of all sorts they could imagine up to catch a lepurchan, I'm always quite amazed at the determination and zeal that they all have for doing this. Today we woke up and donned the green and while at school I whipped up more green creations to eat for a festive dinner with holiday style. All of our dinner was colored by "food" coloring: A green smoothie that gets the green from spinach and don't let the color fool you it really is yummy, despite looking like baby food peas. The Pryor tradition- green pistachio cake (okay this dessert has fake coloring but it comes from the pistachio pudding box, not much else I can do about that!) I put real pistachios in it this year, it was worth the shelling, Wyatt was in heaven. The last green item is pesto and obviously for you cooks the green in that comes from Basil. We put it over mashed potatoes that I was going to dye green with spinach but just ran out of time, there's always next year! We always have a fun St. Patty's Day :)
Abigail lost her first tooth! Finally, she has been waiting and waiting and waaaiiiitttiiinnnggg to lose one so she can get a sticker at school she is nearly the last one to lose one and many other of her classmates have already lost multiple. Can I hope that it's her excellent nutrition that keeps them in so long??? She's not even the youngest in the class. Can you see how happy she is?

Parker's birthday was really fun and hectic as we were getting ready to go to Denver the same time as celebrate. He chose a snake cake months ago and hasn't changed his mind so here is the slithering serpent. When asked what his cake was going to be he would say in his so very cute tiny voice, "I'm going to have a ssssnake cake!" (really emphasizing the 'k' sound on each end).
The last day of winter sports in school is the ski race so I went up and skied with Wyatt and the children. They are all doing so well, I am so proud of them. They have a lot of fun. I would love to get up there more. Brittany and Alex both placed third!This is Badger Creek where we will be going for next years family reunion. It has an old lodge and a tow rope (the best part) for the sledding hill. We went to check out how it all worked so we can let those of you in the Pryor family know details later. Parker and Savanna LOVED going down the hill.

Wyatt is on the United States Potato Board so this year he really wanted me to come to Denver CO with him (he did last year too but Savanna was due in 3 weeks) We had a great time. Thank you to Mom Penfold for supervising and chauffeuring the 3 older children and thank you to Melissa for babysitting the 2 babies. Wyatt was in meeting all day and so I would go during the day and walk around the city. This is the capitol building, it looks a lot like all the others I've been in (Idaho and Utah's) beautiful, I toured it and learned a little about the area. I also saw Margaret Brown's home (the unsinkable Molly Brown) it was amazing. I love Denver and wish we could go there next year but they are moving the meeting to Colorado Springs so I will get to discover a new city all over again! I also met a lot of very nice and interesting people at the meetings. We were taken out to dinner 2 of the 3 nights we were there to fancy places, I window shopped many really cool businesses and had my hair cut. This is just some of the things I did to fill my time. I couldn't justify sitting in the room watching satellite when an unexplored city awaited me!!!
I won "The Mystery of the Nile" DVD from Pasquale Scaturro and here we are with him. He was the guest speaker at one of the luncheons. With a name like that I guess you have to do amazing things, he was the guide for the first blind man (Brian something) to reach the summit of Mt. Everest and has done it multiple times, he has filmed several IMAX films and is an explorer. His stories were amazing and they let him go over the allotted time almost an hour because no one wanted to leave. It was lucky we got to be a part of this.

Pantry Door

2010-02-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

Here is my long awaited pantry door, I think this style is beautiful, artistic and brings this part of the room 'into' the kitchen by having a decorative door on the wall! These are my Valentine flowers, I have a very thoughtful hubby! Thanks Wyatt, you're the BEST :)Here is the inside, Wyatt has taken over! I wonder if I'll ever get to put food in there? It is a great place to put all the tools instead of in the kitchen or on the floor of the back entry. Last week he actually said he thought this would make a great office for him, I laughed and told him he could have the bathroom right next to this instead and then we would just make a new bathroom in part of the laundry room. How fun it is to dream, remodel and make things reality!
Once the inside is filled with all the shelves and we finish the fronts, we will just be waiting to start the cabinets. That will take a long time so patience needs to hang around the place 'til then.

More remodel

2010-02-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

The men put the first of two I-beams in (no it's not like a Sun-beam ;) hee hee) to span the dining area.
Here they are just after lifting it up onto the jacks and supports to be ready to set later.
Drilling holes into the metal, the picture doesn't show the difficulty of the actual task. In fact it all looks relatively simple but it was sweaty, red face inducing, muscle tiring work.
The beam is bolted in, anchored from underneath, the other men went home and now it's our job to get the rest of the existing wall out.
All cleaned up! That is temporary flooring in the wall space and we will finish the ceiling and take the last doorway out when we can do the other side.
Yeah! The last major hurdle finished before the cabinets can be started.

EQ Sledding

2010-01-31T21:03:00.000-08:00

Saturday the Elders Quorum had a sledding party and Janet watched Savanna so I could go, I just love sledding and we all had so much fun, it was so warm too. The sun was shining and it was 30 degrees, I had my coat unzipped because it was so nice. Here are the children waiting to be pulled up the hill by the snow machines. We were on the side of the mountain so the hill is quite long, not too steep though.

Remodel

2010-01-31T20:37:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the framed and sheetrocked new pantry. I will be priming and painting it in the next day or so so Wyatt can build shelves after he returns from Boise (meetings again) on Wednesday. The block step things are the space that used to be in the stairway going down to the fruit room, now thanks to Wyatt's vision it will be useful space for more shelves in the pantry. I can't wait to post a picture of the cool pantry door that should be here this week! Here is Wyatt and his biggest little helper Parker framing in the pantry and broom closet.
This is the day we started tearing the wall between our kitchen and hall/back entry out. There is 3 layers of wall on EACH side of these studs: modern sheetrock/plaster/old sheet"rock." See the original doorway that was uncovered? The space where the new pantry is is in the background. The old sink, cupboards and childrens coat rack are now a thing of the past! Hello useful space :)

2010-01-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

I have some catching up to do. My last post before our trip was in October so I have several months to briefly highlight. I am going the most recent and then back in time.

Savanna's 1st Christmas! She wasn't into opening her presents but she loved the boxes. Here she had just woken up.
Brittany and Alex got new bikes this year. Alex's is a stunt bike-do you think he could pump all of them?
Toilet Trained!!! On December 4 Parker was put in big boy underpants and has been in them since. He has done really well. He's the typical boy not wanting to go until it's urgent but it's better than diapers anyday :)

Thanksgiving was at Penfold's, a beautiful display full of a wide variety of colorful, delicious food. We are sure grateful for our harvest this year-to be done and to have gotten all the potatoes in safely. Truly a THANKSgiving.
Alex had his first friend birthday party this year. We had a lot of fun, this was a good group.
Alex turned nine on November 19th and he LOVES lego's. This is the biggest one I've seen.
We canned Grandma Ward's soup. A family affair that was a lot of fun. We of course grew the potatoes, the carrots came from Randy's and our garden. The onions from our garden and from Mom. Practically free food! Did I mention yummy too?
Peel, peel, peel and then peel some more! Great compost for the garden ;)
Wyatt's 35th birthday. German Chocolate Cake, my first attempt. It was really good.
My man is really spoiled, two cakes? You bet! A coconut delight for all the help during harvest since that's when his real birthday always falls unless it is Sunday. He gets sung to in Spanish and lots of happy birthday well wishes. I don't know if we'll ever stop this tradition.
Halloween in Utah is the best. Brittany wanted to be a vampiress; Alex, a ghost Jedi; Abigail, a horse and Parker is a puppy. It is warm and all the neighbors I grew up around get to see my children, all my siblings come and all the cousins go trick-or-treating. It is so much fun, this is our second year going down there-it might become an annual tradition!
Savanna is the pumpkin. It's tradition for all the children to wear this their first Halloween. She was having a nap when we went trick-or-treating and when she woke up, she handed out candy with Grandma.
We went down to Orem to see Grandpa and Grandma Pryor. I've made it a tradition each time a new member joins our family to take a picture with each of the great grandparents still around so they will always have that. We are so blessed to still have 3 great grandmothers, and 2 great grandfathers around!

Abigail's 7th Birthday

2010-01-13T21:33:00.001-08:00

Abigail wanted pink legos, she is really good with building things with them.
Here she is at school with her teacher Mrs. Mason. We made gingersnaps last night to pass out to her class, what a good little cook she is going to be :)
Abigail really wanted a pinata for her birthday and I didn't think I could get it done since we just got back so recently from our trip (see next post) but I did it, I made my first pinata, she was so happy with it and so was I!
Wow, after everyone had many whacks at the pinata, Alex finally broke it apart! Fun picture huh?
Tinkerbell. The light pink flowers are really hard to see. I have always wanted to make a doll cake and I had never made roses before or been shown how to either so I was so excited that finally one of the children picked a cake I could do both!
What a joy Abigail is in our family, she is so meek and happy. She teaches us to be kind and to listen, since she is so soft spoken. She also teaches us about passion. We love you Abigail, thanks for being part of our family! ;)

Florida

2010-01-13T05:32:00.000-08:00

Paris and Janet took the whole family to Florida for Christmas for 10 days (21 of us except Savanna, we had her stay with my parents, she did better there than she would have with us-thanks Mom and Dad!). There was a potato meeting with a huge trade show that Paris had to go to so by taking everyone it works for a business write-off. Two and a half days Wyatt and Nathan joined him at the meetings. Here are a whole bunch of pictures from our trip. We had a great time despite the fact that we had record low temperatures, the coldest morning was 26 degrees and the high was 49 (the day we went to the beach). We didn't need perfect weather to have fun, we loved this vacation but I was very glad not to have Savanna there even though we all missed her. Sorry that these pictures aren't in order. Anyway, everyone in our family came home healthy and have been since so I don't think the cold hurt us any :)
Here we all are at the Magic Kingdom our first day together. What a fun memory Dad and Mom Penfold have created for us all, thank you for the trip.

This was the childrens first time flying on an airplane, just the ride alone could have been the entire vacation, that's how much fun it was for them.
Mike from Monster Inc. posing with our family, look at Parker, he loved seeing all the characters, this is the perfect age to take children to see Disney.
The children joined anty from the land of "Honey I Shrunk the Kids!" they had just watched the movie so this was especially exciting for them.
Here are all the Penfold grandchildren minus the last three babies. We stayed in a five bedroom house and it was nice, everyone had their own space and yet we were able to have living area to hang out and chat too.
Jarrett, T.R., Parker, Abigail, Brittany, Kortney, and Alex after the Buzz Lightyear ride. They captured Zurg!!!
Here we are at Sea World getting ready to watch the Dolphin show.
Brittany and Parker in a fish tank. The "Nemo" clown fish were a hit.
Alex, Abigail and Parker were mesmerized by the dolphins. They were especially playful while we were down there which made for fascinating learning.
Brittany getting her pearl. Now she has one from California and Florida, we are going to have them put into an earring setting for her. What a fun memory these will be.
This is Alex up on stage battling Darth Vader at the Star Wars show. He was in seventh heaven!
We couldn't pass up an opportunity to have a photo with Mr. Potato Head! After all, we are a tater family :) This was the new Toy Story ride. It was an interactive ride you score points on similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride. It was a lot of fun!
Here we are at the Atlantic Ocean. Since we were at the Pacific Ocean in August, we've traveled as far east and west on this continent as you can within a five month time span! This was one of the days Wyatt was at meetings and Josh, Sara and Oakley were the only other ones who decided to come. It was only 1 1/2 hours to get there and the sun was shining. It was too cold to wear swimsuits but the children had a blast playing in the water with their feet and collecting lots of beautiful sea shells.
On the way home from the beach, we stopped by the temple in Orlando, it is beautiful like all the others and stands out from the city on as big of a hill as you get in flat country. Parker was even really excited to get to see "the temple."
Abigail and I in our car (Brittany and Wyatt are in the background) right after the picture, we switched places so Abigail could drive and I pushed the gas...shhh don't tell the magic kingdom cast member!
Alex wrestling an alligator, he makes it look fun :)
Aaaahh, Brittany too? Isn't she cute!
Our family at Gatorland (Kortney is filling in for Savanna). Isn't Abigail so sweet to save Alex from those sharp teeth? And Brittany is holding him back!
Here is Savanna on her first plane ride. She joined us on the last leg of our journey. We had a layover in Salt Lake so my Mom brought her to the airport so we could get her home, she did great! It was so good to see her again and her reaction to me was even better, I was ever so relieved that she remembered me and greeted me with a huge smile and outstretched arms!

A Winter Wonderland???

2009-10-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well this is what we woke up to Wednesday morning and it snowed ALL day long. Of course it interrupts the potato digging (a.k.a. harvest) but the severe cold temperature that comes after this actually makes the snow a blessing because it insulates the potatoes. Well it all melted and we went for a walk on Sunday afternoon in the 50's but this morning we woke up to this picture out our window again and it's 30* . I can't believe it was in the 70's less than a week ago!

An "Earie" Day

2009-09-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Well two weeks ago Tuesday, I had a reality check. Brittany got her ears pierced! Now this may not sound like a big deal but it reminded me how fast time flies and how old our children are and consequently how old we are getting. Like a friend said: we spend our life protecting our children from pain and injury, so then to willingly take her to have a little hole shot through the body we created for her is hard to do. I do remember back when I had mine done and how excited I was and how grown-up I felt so that tempers the pain I felt watching her have it done. It also didn't help that I had called a professional piercing business and the guy scared me to death almost to the point of having Brittany wait longer when he told me that Idaho State law says you have to be 14 to have it done with the autoclave unit they have which is medically sterilized. He told me that hepatitis is spread through ear piercing etc... anyway it is over now and I am happy with how it turned out and so is Brittany. Another milestone, another victory!
Before...Here are the earrings Brittany picked out! They are gold stars with a diamond in the center.
This is the actual moment that the gun pierced her ear. I was holding her hands and they got all cold and clammy. She said it hurt. I videoed the second ear and it was cute because she didn't wince as much but she said, "that one hurt a bit more," all the while smiling of course! For the next couple hours she said each ear alternated between feeling good and then burning/hurting.
After...The happy girl, she's doing a very good job of keeping the ear antiseptic on them twice a day and turning them with clean hands. Six weeks of healing now....

What a weekend

2009-09-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Brittany's 11th birthday on Wednesday. We made popcorn balls for her class of 30 and also for her soccer team, yes that amounts to eight batches of popcorn and a quadruple recipe of yummy gooey sauce!!! I'm either crazy or I love my children :) Then we had the family over for presents, ice cream and cake. (She requested a sports jersey)

Saturday we got up at 5:30 am to get ready to go to Grand View (by Boise) to go to Wyatt's Grandma's 90th birthday party. She has eight children and there are over 60 grandchildren and everyone but 2 were there, quite an amazing feat! It was an awesome party So many marriages and babies have come into the family since the last big shin dig so it was great to finally meet everyone and catch up with all the ones we knew. Once we were ready, we just woke the children up to use the bathroom and put them into the car in their PJ's, the hope was that they would continue their slumber but no that was not to be the happy ending to this mother's careful planning, they were all so excited that only Parker fell back asleep and that was not until an hour before we got there. (Disclaimer: Well truth being told, Savanna slept but that's what babies do). We had breakfast and got ready, hair and all in the car!

Here are the 2 sets of triplets. Mason, Parker and Jarrett (exactly 3 months between the last 2) and Savanna, Oakley and Cole (2 weeks between the 1st 2 and 2 months between the next)!

Lastly but not least, we sent Daddy home with his Daddy and all the children and I headed to Randy's home to see his wonderful wife Heidi and their cutie Tyson and baby girl-to-be. We had a fun day spending time together for Labor Day.

Family Outing

2009-09-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

We decided to drive to Mesa Falls for the day since Wyatt needed parts from Rexburg so we went the long way...we packed a picnic lunch, went to the waterfall and then stopped at Warm River to throw the fishing poles in before heading home. It was fun.

Summer Fun

2009-09-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Have you ever ridden a bull? Neither have I but Brittany and Alex thought they would try it out! Abigail just spun around on the bottom, I would definitely get sick. Our friends have a fire pond that is right out at the edge of our potato field and they invited us to go swimming. It was very warm on the top 2 ft. since there is no water flowing in or out. We have been 2 more times since. I even got in for an hour while Savanna was napping and it was so much fun to be me!

Back to School

2009-09-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

Brittany is in the 5th grade this year, it's her last year in elementary school. It's off to middle school next year.... Yikes!
Alex is in 3rd grade and Abigail is in 1st grade. This is the only year that they'll be in the same school together, what a joy this will be!

2009 Reunion

2009-08-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

We just got back from California to our annual Pryor family reunion. Monday late afternoon we left and made it to Battle Mountain, NV. Tuesday we made it to the San Mateo Memorial Park and camped in a beautiful redwood forest 20 minutes from the beach. EmmaLee (Scott's wife) grew up in this area so she and Scott planned this reunion and did a fabulous job. It was so much fun and definitely worth the drive!!! We had great food, great company and great activities. EmmaLee gathered recipes from everyone and spent so much of her time in our behalf creating a family cookbook and even included the recipes from her family when they did the same thing, I've been making a few and they are sooo fun and I get to think about each of you when I make your recipe :) Thank you!
Scott made a treasure hunt with a real pirates chest and real pirate booty, Dad and Mom planned a fun FHE and the family talent show was a real "treaure."
We went to the beach each day and played in the ocean, searched all the tide pools for sea life, enjoyed the sun and got sand where sand shouldn't be! Lucky for us the campground had hot showers to get rid of it and the salt water.
I love taking turns feeding our clan, it's fun to be the cook and fun to eat others' cooking :)
Heidi took our first official family picture with Savanna at the beach and did a great job. Thanks Heidi.
On Saturday, Wyatt and I went to Hailey's home (less than an hour away) to attend the blessing of Cole and the children spent more time swimming in her in-laws pool, we went to an awesome frozen yogurt place called yogurtland and enjoyed seeing their home for the first time. Paris rode home with us Sunday and we stayed the night in Reno at Circus Circus which is always interesting and fun, then we got home late Monday night.
What a fun week this was for our family. Looking forward to next year (it's our turn to plan it send me your good idea's!).

Painted Toenails

2009-07-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Brittany was so cute to paint Abigails, hers, and my toenails patriotic. She did a great job and in fact mine are still painted.
Grandma Penfold always gets matching outfits for all the grandkids for the fourth. Don't they all look so cute?
Here we all are, I even got Wyatt to wear shorts!
Watching the parade.

I am finally getting around to writing about the 4th of July! We went to Victor to the parade. I think the children's favorite is the candy that is thrown. There is a craft fair in the park afterwards that we wandered through and then we got lunch at a deli that had a big blown up jumping house, sumo wrestling, a dunk tank, and waterballoons so we played in all of those then went to Grandma and Grandpa Penfold's for a BBQ dinner. And to end the day you can guess what we did of course...fireworks! We watched the city's display and went home very late with very tired children since it doesn't get dark for so long. It was a great day!

Mom's Surgery

2009-07-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well as I mentioned in the previous blog, we went to Utah for Dr. appts. and on Father's Day (Sunday) Wyatt left Savanna and I at my Mom's and took everyone else back home so I could stay and help her the first part of the week that Dad went back to work. She had a total knee replacement surgery. I appreciate Wyatt so much for wanting to have "special time" with our children, it was pretty hard to say bye with lots of tears from all the children but it was a really enjoyable time to get to know Savanna better just the two of us! I even got to go out for a fun evening with my sister to a movie and dinner at Zupas, we decided that we needed to do it more often! This is Mom "laid up" enjoying the baby.
Savanna at 2 1/2 months, she's a cookie cutter of all our children.
Here is Grandpa Pryor with Savanna, we know where those beautiful blue eyes come from!

Penfold's in "High School Musical"

2009-07-07T09:04:00.001-07:00

This is the famous cafeteria from High School Musical, we have seen all three movies and my children all love it. While we were in Utah for Alex and Wyatt's doctor appointments I took my sister and her children and mine to East High to see where the movie scenes were filmed. If we go to St. George again we'll have to go to the resort the 2nd movie was filmed at!
Here is Sharpay's locker!
This is the stage where all the theater tryouts etc.. are. The children had to go out into the auditorium to sit where Mrs. Darbus had tryouts.
This is East High School, here is the sketched concrete that shows at the beginning of the movie. The children thought it was soooo hot, it's a big school so they were a little tired after we'd walked around campus.
Sharpay's pink parking spot is almost all there. :)

A big blog

2009-07-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

I got on the computer and realized it's been awhile since I've updated everyone on our family's life. There is a lot to tell! I can't believe a month of summer vacation is already finished. I will post some of the last of school and post another blog of our first month of summer later.
Alex's 2nd grade class performed "Peter Cottontail" he was so excited for me to come to see what they had been working on for so long at school!
Abigail made this flower in Kindergarten and I just love how cheery and happy it is, it's still hanging up. It rained for nearly a month here and this flower made the days brighter! It's almost as big as she is. :)
Brittany made this pop-up book in 4th grade this year and she wrote the story all by herself, I loved it so I took these pictures so she could "read" it to all of you and you can all enjoy it too! She is so creative and does well in art!

Well we finished up the baseball season with games every night of the week between the three children (yes Alex played too but I never got a picture of him).
Here is Abigail ready to bat, and her throwing the ball. What a cutie!
Brittany on base! This was a regular sight, she enjoys ball, does really well and even got invited to try out for the all-stars team but you have to travel to places as far as Bear Lake for games...no thank you, we'll get to that in H.S.
Hitting the ball is the best part of baseball in my opinion, go Brittany! I got to watch almost all their games from the inside of the car with Savanna- the cold, rain and wind didn't agree with her. She's already logged more time at ball games in her short life than most!
The end of school music program, here is Alex and his grade singing "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas. He wanted to keep his ribbon he had so much fun.

Here is Brittany playing the recorder. They really sounded great, their teacher had accompaniment for their song which made it very fun!

Hot Dogs

2009-06-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

The weather has been nice and we were invited to have our first hot dog roast at Dad and Mom Penfold's. It was yummy and lots of fun, I especially like all three Penfold men in the background roasting their dinner. I am hoping for many more of these to follow.

The ballerina

2009-06-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

Abigail had her first ballet recital last Saturday May 30. She did a great job and more important she had fun.

Baby Blessing

2009-06-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Here is our new little...big family! The more people in a picture the funnier the expressions.
This is the entire Pryor side of the family.
This is the Penfold family minus Hailey's family.

On Sunday, May 24 we blessed Savanna in church. She was blessed in the dress that I was blessed in almost 32 years ago! It made it very special. Thank you to all the family who came, almost everyone was there and even a few cousins, an aunt and uncle and friends were there. We enjoyed dinner after church and because it was raining, I'm grateful our home could hold the 40 people that were there! I'm grateful for everyone who helped bring food as well, we have such an awesome family.
Then Monday was Memorial Day and we went to Teton to honor the veterans and loved ones at the cemetery there. We had a fun picnic at my Grandpa's with the family once again. Thank you to my Dad and Mom for coming early to help me get ready for this fun weekend and thank you to my mom-in-law and cousin for letting everyone else sleep in your homes this time.
Savanna is now sleeping up to seven hours, not consistently yet, but she can do it. She is a good baby and the children still love smothering and loving her. Thank goodness she is so tolerant of all the loving!

Mother's Day Morning

2009-05-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

I woke up last Sunday morning (Mother's Day) (okay I am posting this late) to my children bringing me breakfast in bed that Wyatt had made for me. What a happy surprise it was and nice to enjoy an uninterrupted meal that was warm when I finished it. My yummy meal consisted of hashbrowns and a fried egg (my favorite), strawberries, fried plantain, juice and sausage. Pretty great huh? I have a wonderful family, the children all made very cute things in school to give me and they wrote the nicest notes. I had the opportunity to sing with a friend in Sacrament Meeting so Wyatt got to stay home with Savanna while I went to enjoy the Mother's Day program!

One Month!

2009-05-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

Savanna is 1 month old today. It only feels like it's been 2 weeks so how the time flies. We have enjoyed a new baby and not the sleepless nights but that comes with the territory. Here are some pictures of Savanna.
Alex is such a sweet big brother, he loves to feed his sister. He likes how she keeps the spirit in our home :)
Brittany is so grown-up and such a nice help to have around! Her friends are all jealous that she has a baby to play with. She likes Savanna!
Abigail is Savanna's mini-mother, always holding her. Parker says, "Sananna is soo tute" all the time, holds her for 30 second intervals often and let's me know when he needs me to put "Sananna down."
Right before bath time! Look at those big eyes!
This was almost midnight, she is way too alert for this hour, we're working on the day and night thing. But Mommy and Baby were having a photo session.
I couldn't believe she picked her head up this high at 3 1/2 weeks. I guess she wants to be like the big kids!

More snow!

2009-05-04T08:50:00.001-07:00

Well it is Driggs and we do live at 6500 ft but come on it is May and I've heard all you Utahns have mowed your lawns! We haven't even thought about lawn mowers yet :)
This is what we woke up to the other day and it's snowed twice since, see what you're all missing?
The children were concerned that the flowers were ruined by the snow but they are hearty breeds here and when the snow melted (it never stays past the afternoon this time of year) they perked right back up thus no flower damage.

Baby

2009-04-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some updated pictures since these sweet darlings change so fast. Savanna is doing well, she is a good baby and is more and more alert each day. Her siblings adore her and she loves to be held. She is extremely tolerant to noise (being #5 she ought to be!) and is a joy to our family already.

Savanna Penfold

2009-04-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

After what seemed like way to many days over due (just 3) Savanna decided to join our family at 6:30 am Friday April 10, 2009. She was 20 in long, 7 lbs and her head was 13 1/4 cm.
Valerie is doing wonderful and has all the nurses wishing all the labors went as well as hers. We got to the hospital at 5:00; at 5:30 Valerie was at 7 cm and an hour later Savanna was here.

One Happy Mom.

Dad is just as excited!

Savanna's first bath

An exciting day

2009-04-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here Brittany, Alex and Abigail are with an egg on a plastic spoon racing to the other end trying to get there first. They were very tentative the first run, but on the second race, they were more confidant (they all figured out the eggs were hard boiled!).
Brittany was the first rider of our family to do the elk hide race. The hide has a handle attached to it and it's hooked to a rope that Wyatt holds around the saddle horn. The rider sits, kneels, or lays on the hide and the horseman pulls the person down the arena and around a barrel and back to the start. Some of the bigger kids who were laying on their stomachs had their pants filled with dirt because they were hanging off. She has her hood and glasses on for dust control but this arena had perfect dirt that stayed where it should be...on the ground and it wasn't too much of a problem like last year. They came home filthy last time.
They had so much fun doing this because Wyatt is a gentle "driver" On the way back, Alex held on with one hand while waving the other in the air and whooping like a real cowboy, it was pretty cute.
In this picture you can see Wyatt pulling Abigail, I was proud that she was brave enough to do this but she was determined and had a smile the whole time.

On Saturday, there was a fundraising event for our valley to get an indoor arena for the fairgrounds. Of course we went since Wyatt and the children love horses and such. There was horse pull competitions followed by children's games and then later that night we went to a nice dinner where there was an auction.

One week to go...

2009-03-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well here I am one week from the due date and I am ready to have this baby. Lots of Braxton Hicks and not much else, I have another appt on Thursday and I will find out if I'm dilated any. The weather is not very cooperative right now. We just got several more inches of snow so it looks more like January instead of April. Since we have to drive over the pass to Jackson, I am hoping that the next week of forcasted storms will be mild.
Whenever the baby kicks hard or she turns and makes it hurt down lower and I say ouch, Parker always comes over and says, "tiss the beebee" and I have to bend over or get down so he can kiss the, "owie" he is so tender so we finally got a picture of him doing this!

Jr. Jazz Basketball

2009-03-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Hey all you sports fans... here is Brittany and Alex at their Jr. Jazz Basketball games well actually Alex's age doesn't play games just small scrimmages and lots of technique training, Brittany's age plays full on games and I can't believe how aggressive the girls are at this early age. Alex is done for this season and Brittany has several more games. They are signed up for the upcoming baseball/softball season, Abigail too and they are doing 4-H too (cooking and leather) so it's okay for this to be done. They have done extremely well and had a lot of fun too.

Pint Size Ballerina!

2009-03-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is Abigail at her ballet class she's never taken dance before and she is enjoying it. Heather her teacher is very good with little ones and is teaching them the positions and different form, technique, posture etc... She thinks it's fun to put her hair in a bun and wear her pink leotard or black one or mix and match both. In the first picture she is sliding and the second she is working on leaping where her front leg goes out straight. Girls are so much fun!

The Derby!

2009-03-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

Last night was Alex's very first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Race. He named his car the American Dart. It is the one painted patriotic. He had so much fun designing, building and painting his first car. Way to go Alex :)

Parker's Birthday

2009-03-09T20:38:00.001-07:00

Today Parker turned 2 years old! Wow how time flies it seems he just joined our family a few months ago not 2 years. He LOVES tractors and is obsessed with them so we got him a stuffed tractor to sleep with and a big metal one with a disc to play with. I could not get him to look at the camera he was so excited about the new one atop his cake. I asked Parker if he wanted a dump truck cake or a cheesecake and two different times he picked the cheesecake (we had recently had one and he really liked it) It made it super easy for me and he actually ate his birthday cake!
This morning when Parker woke up, Abigail and I sang Happy Birthday to him and at the end of the song he started blowing, he knows what's coming and was practicing for his candle blowing-which he did so cute and perfectly, Yay Parker!
We had the family over for homemade mint oreo ice cream (thanks Daddy), presents, and of course cheesecake with huckleberries on top! It was a fun evening.

Snowsledding!

2009-03-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Here is Brittany, then Abigail and then Alex going off a small jump in the middle of one side of the hill. It was cool to catch them in mid-air!

The weather here has started to get warm (up to 45 degrees) melting a lot of snow and then it will turn super cold again (like 15 degrees) and snow and blow so I wanted the children to get to go sledding again at least once more just in case after one of our warm days it never snows big again. We went to a pit that's near home and it was the perfect size for climbing back up the hill after going down :)

Here is sweet sister Brittany taking Parker for a ride. I love the expressions on their faces. They had just hit a little bump and as you can see, Brittany is concerned to keep the sled upright so her baby brother doesn't experience a whitewash and he is full of pure delight, enjoying the ride down with so much pleasure!

All four of the children went at the same time, they had just started going down even though it looks like they are sitting still. Wonderful Wyatt is the sled pusher getting everyone going.

Mommy's big contribution was making the hot chocolate and photographing the family for posterity and all of you (lol). Daddy is wonderful for going up and down the hill with the kids having fun for me since his belly isn't stuffed with a basketball that weighs 25 lbs.

This was a fun afternoon with hot chocolate waiting back at home to warm us up of course, yum yum!

Chocolate :P

2009-02-25T09:21:00.001-08:00

I had to make a dessert for the Cub Scouts to auction off at the Blue and Gold banquet last night and Parker knows that the beaters are always great so of course he wanted one. This is what he looked like after a few minutes with chocolate cake batter, he was so happy to have a taste. So cute!

Ski race

2009-02-24T08:14:00.000-08:00

Brittany and Alex participated in the school's winter sports program again this year. Here is pictures of them at the top of the race course getting ready to go. The next day at school the awards were presented and both of them won second place in their grades! They love skiing and Wyatt went up each week and taught again also.

Valentine's

2009-02-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

Wyatt and I spent Valentine's Day in Utah with the children. It was a busy weekend starting off with Wyatt flying to San Diego Wednesday out of Salt Lake. The children and I drove down early Thursday morning for Alex's diabetes doctor appointment. Friday my family went to the Draper temple open house, it is beautiful and my girls LOVED the Bride's Room, my mom planned a really fun Valentine's party for that evening and Wyatt got home late that night. Saturday we spent the day in Tooele sledding and eating a super delicious BBQ ribs meal at Scott and EmmaLee's then while my parents watched our children, Wyatt and I went out for dinner and rented a movie called "Fireproof," I highly recommend it, perfect Valentine movie, all about love. We came home Monday afternoon and stopped in Idaho Falls to see Wyatt's Grandma who has been in the hospital since Christmas night! I decided that this was the last long trip that would be made before this baby's born. Only 7 more weeks to go :)

YF&R

2009-02-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

The last weekend in January, we took the boys with us and had Wyatt's sister Nicole tend the girls and we attended the annual young farmer and rancher conference. The first night was at a roller skate rink, the boys had fun in this climb gym, Parker loved being pushed in his stroller around and around so I could safely skate pregnant! and Alex loved laser tag and not skating, he made it around once and was on his backside more than his feet, it was sad. Here's all 4 of us at one of the many meals we ate there. One morning after I got out of the shower and came in the room this is how I found Parker and Alex, isn't it so sweet :) I'm glad they are buddies!

Neighbor's gifts

2009-01-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of December we went and delivered our neighbors' Christmas gifts. Brittany and Abigail tied ribbons and a note that said, "We think you're an incredi"bow" neighbor!" to each package of Christmas bows and then Wyatt hitched up the horses to a wagon with wheels instead of sleigh runners because back then we didn't have any snow yet, and we went caroling to all of our friends and neighbors. We had a lot of fun and will definitely do it this way next year!

Abigail's 6th Birthday

2009-01-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

Abigail chose a beehive cake complete with little bees! I had so much fun decorating it and it was easy (that's the mandatory requirement for all the children's cakes).

Parker got to come to the party at Kindergarten too! Here she is with her teacher, she chose to bring cupcakes for her class and she put the frosting on all by herself with a decorator bag and fancy tip, she had a lot of fun and the class loved them!

She chose Lucky Charms for her special breakfast cereal, and she chose pumpkin pancakes for her dinner, easy day for me! She got to eat on the "red plate" and said she had a wonderful birthday!

Christmas and Yellowstone

2009-01-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

Last year I made these just like the rocky mountain chocolate factory sells (caramel, then white chocolate, then toppings like nuts, toffee, chocolate chips) and I had so much fun making these fancy caramel apples I just had to take a picture!
We are so excited to go use our saucer sleds!
Christmas Eve was fun with Grandpa and Grandma Penfold reading the Polar Express, we acted out the nativity and opened the cutest PJ's and then exchanged the siblings gifts.
Here we are in West Yellowstone. We went right before Christmas because the children were out of school for two weeks and we needed to go do some family things with them. We are trying to make memories because that's what they'll remember later, the happy family times! We left Sunday night and got back Christmas Eve in the afternoon. We swam in the very nice indoor pool two times each day (yes our skin was DRY, but it was so much fun), played in the snow, snowmachined, went to the IMAX and saw a Lewis and Clark movie, saw animals at the Bear and Wolf Discovery center, watched movies and played games in the condo. It was super relaxing and we really had a "vacation."

Recital

2009-01-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

On December 21, Brittany and Alex had their Christmas recital, this was Alex's first recital since he started piano. He played Little Drummer Boy. Brittany played two songs, Pat a Pan and The First Noel. They both did very well, we were so proud of them!

Male Bonding

2008-12-12T20:39:00.001-08:00

Wyatt went to North Dakota with two friends on a hunting trip for almost a week, they had a great time between the three of them, they shot 7 white tail deer, and over 30 pheasants. When they got home, all of the families got together to have a BBQ and to help as the men cut up the meat and ground some into burger and cut steaks from the rest. Wyatt is planning on making his own jerky this year and the few batches he's tried so far have been yummy!

Ward Christmas Party

2008-12-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

On Dec 5, 2008 our ward did the Back to Bethlehem program for the annual Christmas party. We are all dressed in clothing from the era, it was a lot of fun, we got to go around to all the little "shops" on the street buying lamb, cheese, ham, fruit, breads, sweets, drinks, small toys, crafts and a dinner of fry bread and taco toppings. We got to 'witness' Joseph and Mary trying to find a room at the inn and sing carols to the newborn babe. What a fun way to start off the Christmas season with our family!

Ultrasound

2008-12-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

On Monday, November 24 we took everyone except Parker (thank you Miriam for tending) to the second ultrasound to find out the gender of this little one and...drum roll please...It's a Girl!!!!
The children really enjoyed seeing and hearing the heartbeat, guessing what each little body part was before the Dr told them and being a part of this new addition to the family.

Alex's Baptism

2008-12-06T17:49:00.000-08:00

On November 22, 2008 Wyatt was able to baptize Alex. He was so excited and planned the program all by himself so thank you to all who participated at his request. It was a wonderful day. We had delicious brownie sundaes afterwards. Doesn't he look so grown-up in his new suit?

1st Haircut!

2008-12-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

Aunt Nicole was so kind and cut Parker's hair for the very first time on November 14. He is 20 months old. He was so good and sat so still, he kept saying "ouch" the whole time but I know it didn't hurt I think he was imitating his little sister Abigail when she gets her hair done. It was so cute and he looks so handsome now.

Alex's 8th Birthday!

2008-11-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

Today is Alex's 8th birthday and we took treats in to his 2nd grade class, he enjoyed having the class sing to him and at lunch the whole room sings as well.
This is his number 8 race track with his new cars. He has been excited about and planning this cake for over two years. He is really excited about this upcoming weekend for his baptism!

The Costumes!

2008-11-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a nice picture
of each of the kids on Halloween night, Brittany is all dressed up as a cheerleader, Alex is a large footed BB player, Abigail is baby bop and Parker is a duck. We went to Utah to trick-or-treat with the cousins that live there and we enjoyed a very warm evening (I wore a short sleeved shirt with no jacket) that was nice. These are some of the fun treats that we ate at my Mom's home! A brain, fingers, eyeballs, mouths and spiders.

Halloween Carnival

2008-11-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

We went to a local nursery and had a fun time doing activities with the children in their costumes. This one of Alex is his successful apple bobbing venture! The duck costume still quacks after 9 years! Brittany wore it her second Halloween, some batteries are amazing. We bobbed for apples, had our faces painted, planted grass in a small pot, had a costume parade and got treat bags.

Ag in the Classroom

2008-11-08T21:32:00.000-08:00

Since our potatoes were on the small side this year, Abigail went out in the field and picked out a small potato for everyone in her class and we went in and did a fun presentation for the kindergarten. Several years ago, the Farm Bureau came to our farm and filmed a very nicely done video of Wyatt and our family because he won an award so Wyatt took parts of that and linked it together with my Edu'tater' video and we showed that to the class. Then all the children washed their little potato and I went and baked them in the microwave. They put butter and salt on them and had it for their snack. It was a lot of fun and the teacher wants to "rent" the video every year from us so I think we'll just make her a copy. It's always a lot of fun to go into the schools and teach about agriculture. Abigail really enjoyed doing this fun activity!

Potatoes

2008-11-08T21:24:00.001-08:00

The children are trying to earn money for another small four-wheeler and so during harvest they went out and picked up the baker sized potatoes from the field that were left behind. We came home and they weighed them into ten pound bags. We made two giant signs, one colored and the other one black because it was faster and then some smaller ones to hold. We went down to the main road and they had a lot of fun selling potatoes and giving out recipes to go with them. They made sure to tell their customers that they needed to keep them in a cool, dark place and to say thank you. We went down and did this four times and we were very successful every time and sold all the bags we had each time. In Idaho instead of lemonade stands, I guess we have potato stands!!! ha ha

Brittany the Cheerleader!

2008-11-08T21:19:00.000-08:00

Brittany and a friend went to a cheer camp over at Jackson High School and then they got to perform at the game. She did great and was in heaven. She had so much fun and isn't she so cute!

Election Season Over!

2008-11-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

Wyatt and I have had a chunk of our time taken up with politics. I was asked to be the treasurer for a guy running for county commissioner which entails setting up a bank campaign account with him and managing all the ins and outgoings of the monies involved there and filing several reports with different deadlines to the county. I still have a few more to file even though the campaign is over but it will be minimal. I was also asked by a different candidate to do a radio ad for him so Brittany, Alex and Abigail think I'm famous because they heard Mom on the radio! Wyatt has created a web page; http://www.kendalljolley.com/ two mailers that went out and are very professional and worked on many mailing/voter lists so needless to say I am glad that it is over and that it won't take any more of our family time.