Who is that unmasked man?!

Trevor shaved his beard after 13 1/2 years! He did it late one night as a surprise. The kids did not recognize him in the morning! The people at the BookTable didn't recognize him at work, either. He really does look completely different. For me it is like a time warp. The last time I saw him beardless was when we just got married! Too bad I can't suddenly drop my gray hair and extra 50 pounds to jump back to what I looked like on our wedding day! I told Trevor that I'd bet a lot of money that he wouldn't last 2 months without the beard, and he said he didn't think he'd take that bet. So, it'll probably be back soon. Kind of fun for now though.

Hair update

UPdate in the continuing saga of me trying to grow my hair out. Trying and failing mostly. I've made it 4 months since my last hair cut. Maybe I'll actually succeed this time.

Emily in her children's choir costume

Here is Emily in her dress costume for the Cache Children's choir. She looks very nice, but she hates it. The first day she had to wear it (for a nutcracker performance) she cried for at least a half hour about how there was no way she could possibly "maintain her dignity in such a ridiculous outfit!" (direct quote). A week later, she can laugh at herself, which is why I can type this on the blog. The choir sounded absolutely wonderful at the nutcracker performance.

A Nony Mouse

When I was a little girl, about age 4, I once sneaked a handful of chocolate cake before dinner. Though the evidence was clearly all over my face and hands, I of course denied that I had been the culprit. My mother asked me if it was our friend A Nony Mouse who had stolen the cake. Poor A Nony got in a lot of trouble over the years!
Well, this Thanksgiving, A Nony Mouse struck again at our house! None of my children seem to know what happened to this Thanksgiving pie!

Emily in the opera

Emily successfully completed her opera performances this weekend. She's exhausted, but she was glad she participated. She learned a lot of really good life lessons in addition to the musical education. Things like: sticking to something when you are tired and frustrated, learning how to be patient with a director who is a little crabby, making friends with kids you've never met before, etc. The opera was really cute, and very professionally done. Very family friendly. I was very proud of her for all her hard work. She was wonderful! My dad came to watch on Thursday night, and Trevor's Dad, Suzanne, and both sets of his grandparents came on Saturday afternoon. What a treat to be able to have family attend these kind of events!
Here she is in her costume.

Emily in homecoming parade

Here is Emily marching in the USU homecoming parade. She is singing with the Cache Children's choir this year and this was one of their activities. She is also singing in a production of Hansel and Gretel with USU opera, and a small choral part in the nutcracker at the end of this month.

Sandi's visit

My sister Sandi stopped here in Utah on their way to Texas. They finished school in Oregon and are headed down south to be closer to Scott's family. The plan is to work for a year to get residency and then Scott will finish his degree. WE had so much fun visiting with them. Sandi said she hadn't seen my kids in 3 years! Her baby boy is so adorable. Cute smile and very good natured. My kids loved their dog, Peanut, too.

Camping at Lava Hot Springs

Over labor day weekend we went up to Trevor's Dad's property at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. WE all needed a little break. It was fun to camp in Grandpa's trailer and swim in the hot water. We had beatiful weather. WE took a little hike, fed the chipmunks, built a fire and cooked on it for Max's scout requirement, played with rocks, etc. It was a nice relaxing weekend. Trevor's dad has really worked hard on this camping property. They have hauled tons of rock, built a nice fireplace area, and shed, etc.

Sam and Ginny's birthdays

Since I've been out of the blogger loop for awhile, I haven't posted anything about the most recent birthdays. I think Ginny's pictures are still on the camera, so I'll have to add those later, but here are a couple of pictures of Sam at our family party. Both kids had a little party with friends, and a family party with their grandparents. It's so fun to be close to family for these events!

Ogden Dinosaur Park

Last week we visited the dinosaur park when the kids were out of school for UEA. Grandma Ann took us there. It was a lot of fun. The kids were given some cool geodes from an educator there, and we had fun watching the mechanical dinosaurs move. There was a scientist cleaning fossils in the lab inside the museum. Ginny's favorite part is the sand pit where the kids can discover fossils and clear away sand with paint brushes. It was done up for Halloween so there were some pretty creepy scenes with human body parts hanging out of dinosaur mouths. I was worried Ginny would freak out, but she didn't. (Good thing my sister Nancy didn't come with her kids....) I did get a giggle out of a giant T Rex skeleton with a small Halloween skeleton riding it's back like a cowboy. Yee Haw! These pictures were actually taken when we visited the park earlier this summer, but I didn't ever get around to posting them at the time. It was a fun day. Thanks Grandma Ann!

cousins

Here are a few pictures with our fun cousins. Emily with Anna and Leah. Leah and Lance. Sam with Adam. my kids with Aunt Sandi, Uncle Scott and cute baby Mannix. Cousins Roman and Malcolm at Roman's birthday party this summer. These were all taken this summer, or early fall.

project peace

Okay, so since the last time I really wrote anything, our family has completely been in chaos. The move was really hard on us. My kids have been struggling more than I thought they would, and the charter school thing has been tricky. They really have a lot more homework, and much less time to play and relax in the evening, which doesn't help the psyche around here. We're up late with homework almost every single night, no matter what time we start. I will say that it has gotten better, and the kids are slipping into a routine, but it's still tough. Child number 2 needs more time with friends. There aren't kids his age right on the block, so I have to call to set up play dates, which is tough to make happen very often with everyone's busy schedules. He needs more fun and friends to balance the frustration in his life. I'm adding this as a priority to help improve project peace.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle sibling rivalry and power struggles? We've left behind the tough years of babies, diapers, and chasing toddlers, for much more emotionally grueling struggles of kids, tweens and an almost teen.

At the adult session of stake conference this past week, the stake president outlined some concerns, counsel, and promises. The promises were just what I've been praying for: Peace amid worldly turmoil, war, economic recession, and personal struggle. Help from the other side of the veil in raising our families and doing family history work. Peace and help. Just what I pray for daily. I want to lay claim to those promised blessings, so I am really going to do my best to follow his counsel. WE were asked to read the book of MOrmon and mark all the scriptures that speak of Christ. (isn't that all of them?) Prayerfully stretch and increase our temple attendance, and re-center our priorities to be around gospel centered homes. Choose what is best among the good things like Elder Oaks said in conference. The last thing was to choose and fellowship a less active family. That one is more of a challenge because I don't know anyone in this ward yet.

OUr ward here is really nice, but neither Trevor nor I have a calling yet, not even home/visiting teaching. It's hard to really feel like you are a part of things until you have a job. This is part of what I was worried about when we decided to move back to Utah. I guess you sort of feel like they don't really need you here. It's a good feeling to be needed, and feel like you are really helping the ward in whatever calling you have. I've been attending choir, so I guess I've met a few people that way. I suppose we'll just keep trying to meet people and attending meetings and hope they ask us to help sometimes soon. Maybe they don't want to give us a calling because we are renters and won't be in the ward for too long? But we really will probably be here for a couple of years at least. That's longer than we lived in Missouri.

Boy, am I whiny today! I know I just need to buck up. Trevor is working really hard and seems to have a steady flow of instruments that come in for repair. We're figuring things out. I successfully filed our quarterly sales tax reports last week. Small triumph to have figured that out on my own. There are so many details to running a small business! It's hard, both and emotionally and financially. I think in generally things are good, though. People say that it takes at least two years to really have everything running smoothly in a new business. Trevor spent Saturday trying to re-organize the shop. With summer rush, he never really had time to get everything ship-shape, so he wants to improve his organization and thus his efficiency now. This week I need to call a bunch of band directors to schedule visits to their schools.

Last thing....I am officially starting a diet today! All the stress of the move and business are showing up on my waist line. (What waist line?!) Back to regular exercise and counting calories. I'm not going to do anything special other than cut back portion sizes, and skip dessert. I'll try not to eat after 8:00 p.m. too. I'd like to say 7:00, but it's not realistic with our schedule. Pilates, yoga, walking, etc. Wish me luck!