The Living Planet Aquarium

Friday, the kids and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. The building is a supermaket or something of that size that has been converted for the aquarium. I was extremely impressed that they repurposed the building so ingeniously. Anyway, its about the price of a movie and your ticket is good the entire day $6 kids, $8 adultsThey have a hands on area that the kids can touch a manta ray (sp?), They also have starfish, and other various creatures that the kids can touch and experience different textures.Emily calls these the"freaking jellyfish" (because she was freaking out watching them! and her brothers thought it was hilarious) I personally thought they were kind of creepy myself, you watch them too long and anyone would get a little squeamish!Notice the 12 year old controlling the computer game, the 6 and 3 year old's rapt attention and the teenager making faces!This display made it seem like the kids were actually piloting a boat out onto the Great Salt Lake.This was part of the man made coral reef that the kids could climb on and under. The kids had fun, we laughed alot at the funny antics of the tropical fish etc. They all said they'd like to go back, that usually means they had a good time.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful day, Craig and Birdie came to our house for the Thanksgiving feast and we sat down at the table by 2:10 (I had everything scheduled to be done by 2:00) I was excited that my schedule worked- Birdie has a finite amount of time that her strength/endurance to be up and about lasts so it worked out perfectly. The turkey came out perfect, it was so tender the leg bones came out as we were moving it to the platter. Creighton made a quick run to the grocery store and brought me back some Thanksgiving flowers (he knows I live for flowers). We had 3 different kinds of pie for dessert, but the lemon cream cheese was the hitWe still don't have any diningroom chairs, so we used the kitchen chairs again this year

Creighton put some Big Band music on as we were sitting together after dinner-Birdie and Erie used to dance with us at their house to many of the songs that he had on his MP3 player. Birdie was doing a little quick step as she and Craig were leaving and so the kids got the idea to dance . Anyway, we have this funny tradition as a family to dance after movies (the closing credit music) so the kids started dancing together in the livingroom, it was darling. Creighton grabbed me and was dancing in the entryway, until I had to get pictures of the kids because they were so cute.Paris read her "Thanksgiving books" to me after dinner, that she had made at school for just such an occasion. After the girls were in bed, Creighton, Connor, Zachary and I all watched Hancock on the diningroom wall (you can see the huge blank wall behind Creighton in the first picture) with the projector. I love it that I have my own personal big screen for movies! Who care if we have to wait for full dark to watch. (too much light in the livingroom). That's the projector above my head -you can just barely see it. The dresser has taken up permanent residence behind this couch until we get the tv room downstairs finished, so we can have movie nights!

My little cheerleaders

Emma and Paris were cheerleaders for Halloween, sorry I am so behind, but today these pictures reminded me that they are my cheerleaders. They always greet me at the door with a cheer and a smile. I love yous always follow. So here's to My Cheerleaders because every mom needs a good cheersquad to remind them to stay in the game.

I can hardly wait!

I once again visited the Twilight site to see if any new pictures had been posted, here's a new one I found as well as the newest trailer. http://www.comcast.net/data/fan/html/popup.html?launchpoint=Search&repeat_search_query=twilight%20movie&v=898304730

The Harry Potter sites are still showing the old trailer;however, I found this new trailer, check it out:
http://www.comcast.net/movies/reelnews/1433/firstlooknewharrypottertrailer/ The Britains have an awesome trailer out right now for Harry Potter, much better than the teaser they've had out before. Twilight's new trailer is also verrry yummy! If you are a fan and haven't seen the trailers out check out the addresses above.

Playoff Update

The boys played their hearts out but we lost, 41 to 7. The season is over for the Spartans. I have to say that for a first year team who had never played together before, who was expected to be bottom of the barrel in performance this year-the Spartans really showed them! They lost only 3 games out of 10 and only to the hardest teams. Good job boys, and thank you coaches. Because we have no high school yet, we had no high school coach so all of our coaches were volunteers coaching against regular hs coaches. They did an exceptional job with the boys and their dedication is to be commended. They coached in their free time after work, on weekends and in the early morning so that these boys could have the best experience possible and prepare them for next year. It is because of their dedication that we will have a good Varsity team next year in a brand new high school. Hats off to the coaches: Coach Parker, Coach Bates, Coach Martin, Coach Canfield and (the one whose name I can never remember:? the Coach with one artificial leg (seriously, he only has one leg).
So the football saga comes to an end.
Phew, I'm not going to miss all the time involved! But I will miss the fun and camraderie.

Playoffs begin

We woke up this morning to the poster and balloons on our front porch. I guess the cheerleaders were pretty busy this morning. I immediately woke Connor up, he is soo funny, you could tell he was pleased but he was trying to stay cool. Ha ha Today is the first playoff game at 4:00pm in Pleasant Grove.

Basement Bathroom #1 Progress

We've been slowly working on the 3/4 of our basement that remain unfinished. The electrician came two weeks ago and basicly rewired the unfinished rooms with separate switches and plugs, night lights in the hallway (which he left for me to install), and the washer and dryer plugs for the laundry room downstairs, etc. Anyway, this past weekend Dad and Mom came for Zach's birthday and ordination and Dad helped us get a cast iron tub in and put up the green board for the walls. We have a room! Thanks Dad, you were just the push we needed to keep going. Today, which is also Emmalee's birthday, I had the plumber here to finish the toliet, sink and shower valve. The travertine tile went in last night, and he came back this evening to finish the grout. I was working on the wainscot for the wall behind the toliet and sink, it isn't quite finished because we need to finish the mudding and taping this weekend before I put the top molding on. Progressss! We have a working toilet in the basement!

The batteries in my camera were dead!

Last game before the playoffs and my camera batteries were dead. The Spartans played Orem HS tonight... we lost 30 to 25 the boys actually intercepted the ball at our 15 yard line with 10 secs left on the clockin the 4th quarter but the QB threw the pass a little to far to the left and the Reciever couldn't reach it in the end zone so we lost by a very little bit really. The boys played hard! After the game, I had a car full. Connor's friends got dropped off at the game and then didn't have rides home (who does that?) We were in Orem so I piled everybody in the car and brought them home. It was fun! The girls totally razzed Connor, you can tell they are all good friends and have fun together. He took it and gave it right back, respectfully of course. Anyway, Playoffs are in two weeks so we get a couple days break from everyday practices. Yeah!!!!

The winning streak has been broken

As you all know our family's current pasttime is attending weekly football games to cheer our Spartans on. We played Springville this last week on Thursday night and finally met our match. I love Springville, as many know we lived there for about 13 years, it was great to be back in the city. I think that the Springville freshman team had 3x the number of players that we did... and they were all very large boys. Ok, I'm sure they weren't all huge, but the ones we walked by as we were leaving were taller than Connor or at least as tall- an Connor is one of maybe 4 on our team that are almost or are 6'0. Wow! I knew there was something in that Springville water. Anyway, about the loss. I have to say that our boys really played hard and did the best they could- hats off to the offense who time after time marched that ball down the field yard by yard to finally score. Springville won 40 to 15. We (Craig, Cory,Zachary, Paris, Emmalee, and Connor's friend McKenna) cheered until we were hoarse. Threw the football back and forth to each other (this was Emma's favorite thing to do), ate the worst Taco Bell meal I've ever had, and groaned as their fresh players shot past our players to score. The little girls danced to the music, and Zachary and Paris played catch on the sideline for a little while.

All I want for Crissmess....

She tried to sing the song and it sounded just like it should!

Spartans vs Timpview

Paris climbing around on the bleachers
The Spartan Cheer Squad Go Girls!
My daughter has a photo bug :) Too bad she's soooo cute.
Emmalee and Zachary playing a game to pass the time

Craig and I





Last night the Spartans played Timpview- they were ahead by 20 pts at the half, but Timpview recovered and scored 15 before the end of the game. Tough second half for the boys, some of the 2nd and 3rd string players didn't get to play because it got so tough second half. We had a nail biting last 4 minutes of the game, the other side (including the referees) gave Timpview several unfair advantages (like not keeping the clock going when Timpview had the ball) and an extra point on the scoreboard they didn't actually legitimately win-anyway the Spartans won 20 to 15 (not 16 they did eventually fix the error) It was a fun game, still not many parents attended on the opposing side (sad) but they appear to have a really good program. Running through the cheerleaders at half time (they usually have a banner for them to run through)Even Gabe Olsen #29, the player who got hurt two weeks ago was on the sidelines (standing the whole time!) with his teammates. Sorry the pictures are soo dark.

All the players are congragulating Spencer on his awesome interception, but Connor has to take a peek to see what the girls are doing (ahem, Jessica) She is the one on the right, he's #60 I actually didn't realize what this picture was until I looked closer, I think its funny I caught him looking back at the cheerleaders.

San Diego

Craig got the opportunity to go to San Diego for 4 days with his sister and her family. This is one of the sunset pictures he sent to my phone. I have it on my phone wallpaper, maybe someday I'll see a sunset over the ocean in person again.

Another Spartan Shut out

Half time shuffle
Team circle

Issac Birchett and Zachary at the game

Craig, Austin Birchett(Connor's age) Mike Birchett, Kristi Birchett

Sorry everyone who is following the football game scores, it has been a busy week. The Spartans played Payson last Saturday and they won again 37 to 0. Since it was in Payson, the Birchetts joined us for the game. The boys played hard and did a great job. I have to put in a plug for the cheerleaders and cheerleader parents. They are there to support the boys, just as much as we are and have made this season lots of fun- every game our section is triple or quadruple the spectators that the other teams have and I know that that makes the boys play their best and try really hard to be good sports. Often the other teams don't have cheerleaders and there may be only a handful of parents that show up. I think we have a really good start to an awesome program in years to come, if current trends are any indication. Here's hoping!







Connor and team doing the victory jumping jacks on the opponents' field

Student Council

Zach looking very handsome in his sunday best
Unknown to his dad and I, Zachary gave a speech to his class several weeks ago and was nominated to be his Student Council Representative. We were very proud of him for his inititive and organization to get elected. What a great kid!