Water, A Natural Wonder

Water, A Natural Wonder.  Brittany, A Naturally Wonder and Lucky Girl!! 
The fourth graders drew posters that went with the theme, Water,  a natural wonder for a contest sponsored by the Divison of Water Resources. 

Brittany thought about her poster for about a week, and then KNEW what she wanted to draw.  She looked pictures up on the internet and studied them FOREVER then used them for guides for her poster.  She spent many nights working on her poster and using all kinds of colored pencils to get the coloring right . . . .and we aren't even going to talk about how long it took her to draw on the trees on the "horsehead" on our mountain.  After she finished her poster she decided it needed a last minute touch of glitter and a border to finish it off. 

Lucky Girl . .. her poster was chosen to represent her school in the contest.  It was sent to the next level, where it was selected as the winning poster for our water basin.  She was invited to a banquet with the other 9 river basin winners.  We went to Salt Lake on May 4th for this grand event.  The evening started with the artists standing by their posters and having professional pictures taken by their poster. During this artists reception we were able to visit with all the artists about their posters.

 I loved listening to the responses Brittany had for the people who asked about her poster.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Q: Where is Blanding?
A: Have you ever heard of Monticello?  Its just past there.
(Loved this one!  Who knows where Monticello is?  I asked her why she said Monticello instead of Moab - which most people have heard of - and she said, Well, Monticello is our county seat, so people should know where it is.  Smart Girl!! )

Q: Is that at Arches National Park? (pointing to the arch in her poster.)
A: Sure.
(She actually had looked at pictures of Wilson Arch and the arches at Powell.)

Q: Are those cave dwellings? (pointing to the dark parts of the rock)
A: Nope.

Next we ate some appetizers while some balloon artists made balloon creations for all the kids who were in attendance.  After that, we were treated to a yummy dinner of chicken cordon blue or ham . . .. all very delicious.  After the dinner each artist was recognized along with a representative from their school.  The winners received $100, a trophy, and a certificate.  The school received $125 and a plaque to hang up.  Then they all had their pictures taken.

At the end, a grand prize winner was announced.  (We didn't even know their was a grand prize.)  Brittany turned to me when they had said that the prize was a trip to Lake Powell and said it would be funny if she won because she had drawn part of Lake Powell on her poster.  Then they announced her name, and we started laughing!  Way to go Sis!  She was the grand prize winner of over 800 posters in the contest.  She won a 5 day/4 night trip to Lake Powell on a houseboat, courtesy of Aramark. 

The theme was, "Water, a Natural Wonder" and the theme on her poster was "Water - Utah's Landscaper".  Posters were supposed to be judged first on theme, and then artistic merit.  Way to go Brittany!!!  My theme?  Brittany . . .  A Naturally Wonderful Girl!!!!!!

Project Runway

We were all at Grandma LouAnns. Brittany wanted to start a sewing project so they were sorting through some material. Jensen found a piece of plaid material that he liked. He thought he would make a vest out of it. It was just a square piece of fabric, but he knew if he just cut some holes for his arms, it would make a great vest.



He didn't measure or anything, just started cutting. He didn't like it at ALL! So . . he patched up one arm hole (sewing a new piece of fabric over the hole . . all by himself.) Then he thought it needed pockets, so he sewed on some pockets. He wanted it to close, so he made a closure at the neckline. After he saw the vest on himself, he didn't like it much.

The next day we talked about patterns, and what they are used for in sewing. He decided that it would probably be good to make a vest using a pattern. SEW . . . . he got out a hunting vest and traced in onto new fabric. He figured out how it was put together, and traced the pieces accordingly. (Mind you. . . .I was not helping him!!!) That afternoon when I got home from school, this is what he had accomplished. (And no . . . .we did NOT Help him with any of the sewing. And Yes -- - -he did sew one of the pockets upside down and had to un-stitch it and fix it.)


Watch out project RUNWAY!!!!

A few days later, he was wearing his elf costume to school. I had taken off the red/white cuffs that were on the shirt. He wanted them on. I wasn't home . . .so he took it upon himself to sew the cuffs back on. (See picture in the halloween post).

What a guy!! Gotta love him! And . . .gotta love Grandma LouAnn for supporting these kids in their sewing adventures! Heaven knows I couldn't help them!

Boo Hoo Hoo

What a strange halloween for me this year! Jensen went trick-or-treating with his friends, so did Brittany. Brooklyn went to a carnival with her friends. I sat home and folded laundry while pouting because my kids are sooo big . . .they didn't even need me on halloween!!! Crazy that they are growing up so fast. Makes me a sad. Anyway . . .enough of the tears.

Jensen and his football buddies! Love his friends! We are so lucky that he has the great cousins and friends that he does! These kids are great.

Same goes with Brittany and her other 3 amigos!! I am pretty sure these 4 were roommates in heaven! They all get along sooo well. They were cut out of the same mold. Love them!!

I waited and waited for all three kids to get home so I could get apicture of all of them together. They look pretty hammered at this point! I guess they needed to consume more of the candy they hauled in to give them a boost!!

The kids dressed up Friday at school for halloween . . . here is one of the four amigos. Love the stache!

Check out this elf! What a goof! One of his best friends dressed up as Santa. Check out the red/white cuffs on his shirt . .. he sewed them on. (More to come on his sewing abilities in another blog.. . the kid is awesome!)

Wish you could see the twister board on her head. What a funny girl! She wore this to school and to her band concert, and then was witch on halloween!

My funny boy thought it would be great to sort his candy and count it all. He wanted to know what the "most popular" candy was on halloween! Tootsie Rolls were number one. Here's the breakdown:

Tootsie Rolls 49, Life Savers 22, Suckers 21, Twizzlers 13, Smarties 11, Snickers 6, Laffy Taffy 6, Butterfinger 6, Reeses 6, Sweettarts 5, Milky Way 4, Twix 4, Gummies 4, Jaw Breakers 4, Baby Ruth 3, Skittles 3, Starburst 3, Hard Candy 3, Whoppers 3, 100 Grand 2, Bubble Gum 2, Dots 2, 3 Musketeer 1, Almond Joy 1, Kisses 1, York 1, Mike & Ike 1, Fun Dips 1, Big Hershey 1

After the kids get home and the laundry was folded we finally ate dinner - the traditional (Dinner in a pumpkin!)

Dancing Queens

Love Love Love these girls! Each year duing shipping the girls take DAYS (and that is no exaggeration) planning the "Dancing Queen Show". And there is really NO way to describe this event!! All ages particiapte and entertain! I think this year they entertained close to 70 people.

We all gather at the porch (new or old) at the Ivin's cabin to watch dancing extraordinaire!! The girls spend days decorating, choosing songs, practicing, advertising, costuming, and presenting this show. This year they even wanted to put their handmade flyers on the cows that would wander down the road . . . after all .. . .we wouldn't want anyone to miss out on this event would we?

This sign was killing me . . .. but you can't help but love it. You would think it was written by a small child, but you would be wrong.

These girls were planning out the music . . . .I can't even count how many songs they started with and changed and changed, and changed again. But, they did pick great ones!

Making the programs. Each person who attends the show comes with a ticket (handmade) money to spend on concessions (also handmade) and gets a program (yes . . .handmade).

One of the BEAUTIFUL programs.

These are some of the concession boys. They use boxes and tie them around the necks, then sell concessions during the show. This year we made them glow in the dark glasses so we could see them easily. (Not that they needed help . .. they are very persistent in selling their "goods")

One on the MANY (and that may be under-estimating) signs that were hung up to advertise the grand show!

For the finale - Michelle Halls had a great idea. We made stick people out of glow sticks for the girls. We turned out all the lights and had the CUTEST stick people dancing. It is impossible to get a good picture, but this was about the best I could do. It was a riot!!! What a fun idea!! How we will EVER top this year?
Thank you dancing queens . . .not for letting us freeze out in the cold of the mountains in October, but for entertaining us all WEEK long, (maybe most importantly staying busy and out of our and your brothers' hair!). You were all FANTASTIC!!!

Slacker Pictures

I am bound and determined to try to get this blog a little more updated! Could be rough!! NEVER NEVER NEVER take a year off!! My goal is just to start going through pictures and posting . . .there will be no rhyme or reason to the order .. . just need to get things written down. So . . .here are a few pictures from one of our favorite places in the whole world. The lone cone . . . .. OHHHH . . it was beautiful! We love our little place under the cone.

The Forest . . . .OHHHH . . one of the prettiest places you can ever go when the leaves are changing!!

The Cone & The Forest .... .LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!

One, two, BUCKLE my shoe

SO . . . . . Some amazing ladies in the county put together a local gymkhana for the rodeo game enthusiastics around the county. For those of you who are wondering, the definition of gymkhana is: a meet at which riders and horses display a range of skills and aptitudes. BJ and the kids all participated.

There were three meets, and the final meet was this past Saturday. (I wondered about a horse meet in November, but the weather was BEAUTIFUL!!!)

During the first meet, Brittany took 4th place.

The second and third meet, Brooklyn placed. BJ took 2nd in the last meet. (I was not very diligent in getting pictures of him. OoopS!!)

Jensen didn't place in any of the meets, but if you ask him, he doesn't care, because he was training FLOYD. (Floyd is BJ's 5 year old horse that Jensen has recently placed claim on.)

Preston and his kids participated as well, and Preston pretty much ran the show because he did SO well.

My family all did great . . .and had a lot of fun. (Unless you count the five minutes Brittany was upset each meet when she didn't do as well as she wanted to.) I was SUPER proud of them.

I was really excited to actually be home on a Saturday, and get some work done, but ended up spending pretty much the whole day watching the gymkhana. It was totally worth the filthy house I went home to!!

At the end, everyone who participated in all three meets received prizes. Brittany and Jensen picked cute saddle bags, and BJ got a halter/lead rope. Brooklyn, however, got something a little more pricey!! She was the Junior High Point Winner!! She received a belt buckle for her achievement. She promptly changed out her grand champion hog buckle for her new buckle.

Big shout out to Shauna Shumway and Wendy Benson, and all those involved in having such great prizes donated for these kids!!

BIGGER SHOUT OUT to my awesome family!! Way to go guys!!!

Frankenstein or a Mummy?

For Halloween, I told Jensen he should be either be

FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER OR A MUMMY

I would think that with stitches and a bunch of white gauze, both options would be great. Jensen didn't think so. I also would have thought that an accident invovling sharp instruments during the week of halloween would have taken place while we were carving pumpkins, but no, not at our house!!!

Thursday night I was at a R.S. activity and got a call from a VERY sad child. Through the crying, I heard the words, "running", "Didn't know", "open" and "CUT REALLY BAD!!!!" I knew it was Jensen, so I hung up immediately and headed home. On the way home I called Brooklyn to see how bad the cut was, and she didn't even know about it. When I pulled into the driveway, Jensen was on the porch, crying. I took him in the house, thinking it couldn't really be that bad. He had a wet washcloth on his left hand. I lifted the washcloth up, and between the spurts and gushing of blood, I could tell we were going to need some stitches. I asked the girls to please pick up the house and get to bed (It was 8:50 mind you). I told them I would be home soon. I called BJ on the way to the emergency room and let him know what was going on. (This was the third day that I had spent hours in the clinic by the way . . . . getting a little bit tired of that place.)

A quick assessment by the ER tech, and we knew we needed stitches. The doctor did a great job. Jensen was even greater. He didn't cry when they cleaned it out, gave him numbing shots, or put in the stitches. For a seven year old, I think he is pretty DANG tough!! I kept joking with him though, hoping to make time go a little faster, or keep him side-tracked. After the doctor started putting in the stitches, I told Jensen he could be Frankenstein's Monster for Halloween instead of a bear. (Did I mention he was wearing his costume when the accident happened, and thus, in the ER room too . . .kind of special.) Once they got the gauze on his hand, I asked him if we should just take a little bit extra gauze home and he could be a mummy. He didn't find my humor very funny.

So, six stitches later, we headed home. I was spent. Done For. Finished. Exhausted. Mentally KaPut. and knew I would be heading into a disaster area when I walked in the door. But to my surprise, Brooklyn saved me!!

I walked in to a clean front room, dining room, computer area, and clean kitchen. All of these rooms had been a WRECK when I left. Bless her little heart! (Yes, I am getting tears in my eyes just writing this.) What a great girl! She could tell I was stressed out (in my defense, it had been a long, crazy, sick child, busy work week). She had stayed up late to clean everything for me!! How did she know how much that would mean to me??

I never did get the full story from Jensen . . .. I am pretty sure it involved RUNNING with scissors, he claims he has something to do with CRAWLING with scissors. Hmmmmm..........