So.... We got a new puppy! Her name is Lucy and she is a german short hair pointer with a mix of wire hair pointer. The crazy story behind this new puppy is that one weekend we were supposed to go fishing and we had planned on this trip for a while. The night before, we had gotten all the fishing poles ready along with a picnic lunch and we were all so excited for the morning. When I woke up, the sky was dark and all the kids were still asleep so Scott and I went grocery shopping in Idaho Falls.
When we made it there, we finished getting our groceries and suddenly... our tire went flat! So we took the car in to change the tire. Scott soon left to go to Sportman's to get more things for our fishing trip. Come to find out, he ran into someone he knew that was looking at puppies in front of the store and along comes a little puppy asking Scott to hold her. He held her and she snuggled right up to him.

New puppy

This is our new puppy. Our last dog, Zog, died the end of March. Scott and I decided that we had better get a new one soon or we would realize how conveniant it was to not have a dog and not want one. This cute little devil is Dempsey and we adopted him from the animal shelter. They told us he was Boxer, German shorthair, Pointer mix. I wonder what else he is......

He and Brevin are two little monsters together. Brevin opens things up and Dempsey gets in and chews them up. We have had him for 2 months now and he is housebroken and about twice the size he is in this picture. He jumped up and put his feet on the counter yesterday, and stole Bailey's bagel....He has definately helped us keep our house cleaner. Things cannot be left on the floor or he chews them...especially shoes and socks. I think it is the stink factor. Even though he is a stinker, we have sure loved him...he keeps things lively and we enjoy his company.

Caley's new room

These are the blocks for Aimee's new quilt. It is done in the same color pallette as Caley's, just in a different pattern. They are called pinwheels. I hope to finish it by her birthday in July. Until then she will be sleeping on the floor on her mattress and box springs. It really helps her not shove things under her bed.....

Here is a close up of the pattern of Caley's quilt. It is called "Shooting star" and I go the pattern off of quilter's cache.com. I machine quilted a five point start on each block. It took FOREVER. I think that is why it took me 9 months to finish this quilt. First I had to come up with the desire....and then the time to sew all of those stars. It turned out great. I traced the stars on with a regular graphite pencil and washed it afterwards. It came out wonderfully.

This is her new room. We painted the walls a soft lavender color and we remade a blue dresser that my grandma Taylor gave us. We painted it white and antiqued it with sandpaper. It is neat because the blue comes through a little it and adds to the distressed look of it. I love the beds. They are very heavy. We just got them at DI...it is their furniture line that they sell. The whole room was designed around the canopy that I bought 5 years ago....and never used, so they girls demanded that we put them up. Personally, I like the room better without the canopy's...

Our Best Friend

Although we have a lot of fun and we are so happy, we were sad for three long weeks. Zog had stopped eating and became very week. After about a week and a half we took him to the vet and to our amazement, didn't find a single thing wrong. We brought him home and waited for another week and a half. Last Sunday he passed away, leaving his afflicted body. Of course we were sadened but we soon realized that he wasn't suffering anymore. We will miss him greatly and there isn't a day that we don't think of him.

Caley's Babtism/ Bailey's Birthday

All right, Bailey's birthday was the day after Caley's babtism, March 6. The cake she chose was one of Scott's favorites, Strawberry Jello Cake. You could say that he was very grateful for her choice. She turned fourteen and is such a great help around the house.

Caley turned eight and she was excited to get babtized. For weeks when we asked her if she was excited she replied with, "Yes!" We had family come and celebrated.

Sydney is doing volleyball this year. It is so much fun to watch her grow and do something that stretches her. She is very talented. Now, she is serving over hand and can serve it over the net, recieving a sure piont for her team.

Merry Christmas.

Guess what????Santa came!!!! After opening presents and playing and eating and eating and playing, we thought we would spend some time on the snow hill. This has been an easy going, relaxed, laid back kind of Christmas. It has been awesome.
Sydney had to forego sledding because she had surgery done on her big toe on Thursday. She has been having a hard time with ingrown toenails, so we had the problem taken care of. She was wearing this really cool boot to accomodate her spud bandange on her big toe. She was sad she couldn't sled. She loves a good adventure.

Bailey and Aimee had a lot of fun. Aimee kept closing her eyes because Bailey's boots kept kicking up the snow. Her cute little face was all red from the melted snow.

Peyton loved sledding down on an old snowboard. The snow was really packed and he was flying. He kept falling off at the bottom and crashing. He liked it a little bit better when he had a turn on the tube.

This girl had so much fun...look at that smile. Santa got her all decked out for Christmas, new boots and new cozy coat.

Look at this cute face. He did a really good job of keeping his hat on, considering how much he hates them. I took him down on the tube once....he looked scared to death, so we only did it once. It was fun to get out for awhile.

Brevin's first birthday

Brevin turned 1 on December 7th. Wow, where has a year gone? To go from such a tiny little baby to this busy, busy boy who can walk, and starting to talk and into everything!!!! Babies are not babies long enough. He loved the idea of presents. Anytime it is okay to tear something apart, he is more than willing to comply.

And he really loved cake....that is only a face a mother could love.

This is the farm cake I made for him. It was fun to make. The barn and silo are just rice crispy treats and we just ate the cupcakes. Brevin didn't care what it looked like, but the girls had fun helping me put it together.

What a cute little face. Happy birthday Brevin! We have loved having you in our family and look forward to next year when you are a little more stable on your feet and when you can start putting things into the drawers instead of pulling everything out. We love your smile, your cute little waddle and love the sound of your chubby little feet hitting the hardwood floors. We love to snuggle you for your naps and love to rescue you when you wake up. You have made our family so much more complete. We love you.

Potato Harvest Vacation

Here in Rexburg we get a fall break in October from school called Potato Harvest. We usually do not do anything, but this year we decided to take our summer vacation then. We went to Scott's parents house in Penrose Colorado and spent a very fun week with family and doing some really fun things. We spent two days with Scott's grandparents in Pueblo getting caught up on some family history and enjoying their company very much. Scott has a grandpa Johnson who is just amazing. Peyton wanted to get some life history and Shorty shared with him some really neat experiences and showed him some things that he got when he served in WWII. Then we spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa Gibson. Grandma Gibson has so many great family heirlooms it is amazing. War uniforms, old teddy bears, dolls, scout books and badges from various relatives. It is amazing how good a shape all of the things are in and are so very, very priceless.

We spent one of the days in Colorado Springs. We went to the dry pack cannery and dry packed some hot cocoa and powdered milk for our food storage. I had never done that before. We have a wet pack here and Scott and I have gone and done that before, but not the dry pack. It was fun. The kids got to help and the people working there were so kind to us. They let everyone help adn we just parked Brevin in his stroller and he sat by grandma while we did it.

While we were in Springs we also went to the Olympic Training Center. What an awesome place. We have been there one time before, but it is amazing to see what people can accomplish. We love the spirit of the place.

One of the highlights of the trip was going to Happy Apple Orchard. Is is a pick-your-own orchard that Scott worked at when he was in high school. It is such a fun place. They do apples and berries and then in the fall the do pumpkins. We went at pumpkin time and it was so fun. There were gobs of people there. Tony, the owner, is always so kind to us and the kids all call him "uncle Tony". He has an amazing place. If it every was for sale, I would love to buy it.

It was a great trip and we loved being able to get away for awhile. As always, a week is never enough time and 13 hours is always too much driving. But we made great memories!!

I know this blog is kind of crazy. I am still figuring some things out, like how to move the pictures to go with the writting. When I get if fixed, I will rearrange this post. But until then....enjoy.

My little stinker

I wanted to share some pictures of this little stinker. He has been getting into my plants and eating the bark chunks and playing in the dirt. He is definately a boy. No kind of punishment matters. You move him and he goes right back. This poor plant has taken a beating. Before he started eating the dirt, he would just pull the leaves off one by one. Just because it was fun. I have to finally put this plant up higher so he could not reach it.

Look. He doesn't even feel bad. He is so excited that the got that much dirt out before he got busted. I also have a tall ficus tree that he has been tasting the dirt on and it was in the living room. I moved it to the kitchen so he would not see it any more. Out of site, out of mind kind of thing. Well, it ended up being just a better hiding place for him to eat the dirt. He is definately a boy!!!!

Winter in Rexburg

So, this is what Monday brought with it. I thought that we would only get a little bit of snow and then it would quit. No....it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. It snowed so much that it broke a branch off our big willow tree in the backyard. We had to shake the snow off of our fruit trees so that their limbs did not break. It was crazy. Needless to say, Aimee got to build her snowman with Peyton. They had so much fun!!

Sydney and Peyton having a snowball fight.

Why do kids always think snow tastes so good. Yuck, but here Aimee is with a mouthful. At least she isn't running through the sprinkler. She looks much warmer in her coat, hat, and gloves. Although, she did come in soaked just the same.

First snow in November

It is snowing....but I can't complain. It has been such a nice fall. It is the 2nd week in November and this is the first yucky weather we have had. Aimee was so funny this morning. She has been waiting for it to snow for awhile, talking about what she wants to do when it finally happens. We had a pretty cold day where it froze about a month ago and she told me that "it smelled like snow". Today she was so funny. She made Peyton promise that when he got home from school that he would help her make a snowman. Oh the optimism that child has!!! Then about a half an hour later, she changed her mind and wanted to go run through the sprinkler.....There is nothing quite like a trip through the sprinkler at a positive 32 degrees in November. Good thing we already have the sprinklers shut off for the year.

My first blog.

I have finally overcome being computer challenged, at least a little bit....Now I can share cute picures.