The Basement

We had to add an additional breaker panel to make room for the amount
of breakers needed to finish the basement.

 With the sheetrocker's coming on Wedenesday, I had Tom Hull, our nephew-in-law, Matt Aardema, and Trevor over on Saturday to help me get ready.  We finished all the electrical, HVAC and the last bit of framing.  Thanks to all those that have donated time out of their busy lives.  It looks real good though.  I had to cut out a pipe, see below, and replace the joint and pipe leading to my furnace.  There was a crack in one of the pipes due to an incompetent HVAC repair man.  Thankfully I was able to get into the floor joists and get it fixed.  I had to rip out some framing though to get to it.

See the 3" PVC line I had to replace.  Man that was awful.

The cold air return in the basement.

Cold air return.  2 8" holes.  It sucks real good!  Yeah!

Three Cakes in 5 Days....and Nights!rog Cake

Frog Cake

 Lana and Lynette made three cakes this week.  The best story of the week is that they bought some junkie fondant and it made their lives a living He..!  They were both nearly in tears and at four in the morning on Thursday night/Friday morning they called a lady for help.  The awesome part is...she came.  Sadly, she talks a big game but was really of very little help to them.  So, long story short, they called on the expertise of another lady they know, and she too was willing to come down, from Morgan, and help them make it right.  Aunt Kay came over and helped them with the flower arrangement on the wedding cake and miracle of miracles...it turned out fantastic.  Great job ladies, and thanks to all those that pitched in and helped them out.

Raider's Cake

Wedding Cake

Great Grandma and Grandpa's House

Kate and Eli swinging at Great Gma and Gpa's House

Kanyon, on the far left, Kate and Eli with Noah pushing.

Sunday was a great day for us as a family.  I especially had a great day.  In one of the families we home teach, The Branch Family,  the father, John was baptized about a year ago and yesterday he received the Mel. Priesthood and was ordained to the office of Elder.  He asked me to do it.  It is the first time that I get to pass along my Line of Authority.  I talked to John about the Line of Authority, he had never heard of it before, and he is super excited for me to provide it for him.  I was officially released from my calling as the Young Men's President, which is a huge bummer, and sustained and set apart as the first counselor in the Elder's Quorum.  I am really excited to start working with the men and fathers in the ward.  I have been working for years with many of their boys so it will be nice to try and help out the new Young Men's President by working with and trying to ge the fathers more involved.  I went in to Elders Quorum first, so they could sustain and set me apart, then went back to Priest Quorum.  It was quite an emotional experience for me.  I started to cry and shared my testimony and love with the boys.  I wanted to say "Hasta la Vista, Baby" but couldn't as the changes had yet to be announced over the pulpit.  Lana has been working tirelessly this week on three cakes, one of which was a very difficult wedding cake.  She and Lynette were up all night Thursday and even called in some reinforcements to help them out.  Thankfully everything turned out fantastic.  She is really, really talented when it comes to anything creative.  I am glad she enjoys making the cakes, it is a great outlet for her.  I do think, however, that they will wait a while before doing another difficult wedding cake! LOL!

Great Grandpa sitting out back watching us play.

 On sunday afternoon/evening we went up to Great Grandma and Grandpa's House to spend some time with them.  Grandpa is looking lots better.  He is still pretty bruised up from his fall though.  He thinks it makes a great story.  Grandma said all the men in the ward were teasing and making jokes and and all the women were giving him sympathy so all in all I think he came out of it all right.  I convinced him to let me reroof his garage.  At least the north west section.  All the shingles are curling and look terrible, I want to get them replaced before the weather changes or he's going to have some water problems.  Grandpa came out back to look at the roof with me and to show me some shingles he has in his shed, you know how he likes to be involved on everything.   Then he sat outside in the chair and watched me push the kids on the swings for a while.

Great Gma and Gpa Spencer

Eli trying to get back to the swings in the backyard.

 Eli loved the swings so much that we had to lock him out of the backyard.  We are sitting under the awning on the driveway chatting and he kept running into the backyard so we locked him in.  He was a little irritated with us for a few minutes.  then we distracted him with candy! LOL!

Grandpa the poser.  He saw me taking the picture and struck a pose!

 Kate and Grandpa are both bugger pickers!!

My family posing with Great Grandma and Grandpa.  Cute Huh?  It was a fun evening and I think Grandma and Grandpa really enjoyed us coming over.  On our way over to visit them we drove past the mountains on Mountain Road just before the hill going up to the Catholic Church and on the North Ogden side there was a big fire.  There was a helicopter dropping water and ten fire trucks there.  Someone must have called it in fast 'cause they had it under control and when we came back home it was out, THANKFULLY!  Everything is so dry that with a little wind we could have had a serious problem.

First Day of School 2012

Breakfast of champions

Today was the first day of school for all of our kids with Eli being the only exception.  Lana is feeling a little lonely.  She went from a house of five rambunctious children to one easy baby.  Well, honestly Eli isn't that easy, he is all over the place and is curious about everything so he is climbing onto, into and under everything.  I got up and made hootenanies for the kids.  It is the breakfast of champions after all.  I can't believe that we burn through two pans these days.  Mour little family is getting so big.  I got pictures of all the children before they left the house and then pictures of the older children getting on the bus.  I am super excited to have them back in school.  Now life will return to a semblance of normalcy.  Lana and I had an appointment with the Stake Presidency last night at 8:30 so we weren't able to give the kids their blessings and get them into bed until after 9:30.  They were all a little groggy this morning, but super excited about school once they gained consciousness.

Kanyon getting on the bus.

Kanyon waving goodbye.  I can't believe he is in sixth grade.  Wow!

Kanyon's first day of 6th grade

 Kanyon is getting so old.  He is in 6th grade this year, but, in just a little over 2 weeks he will be ordained to the office of a Deacon and have the Aaronic Priesthood confirmed upon him.  That makes Lana and I feel OLD!

 Kate is so dang cute.  She loves her little Lady Bug backpack.  She started her second year of preschool at Miss. Helen's this morning.  Next year she will be in Kindergarten.  CRAZY!

Kate's first day of her second year of Pre-School with Miss. Helen

Our three elementary kids walking down the driveway to go to school this morning.

Kids waiting at the bus stop this morning.

Noah getting on the bus

 Noah is so funny.  He wanted so badly to wear my BYU hat to school.  I totally have him indoctrinated.

Noah's first day of 5th grade

 Emma is our nervous Nelly.  She loves to be at home and even though she is so excited to go to school she was soooo nervous to go.  She is darn cute though with her curly hair. It is getting so long.  Shortly we will have to change her name to Rapunzel.

Emma's first day of Second grade

Brigham City Temple Open House

Eli had to wear booties too since he wanted to get down and hoof around.
With the cute booties on he looked like "Mormon Smurf".

 We went up to the Brigham City Temple Open House today.  I hadn't been inside since the flooring had been installed.  It was absolutely beautiful.  It is a super small temple.  There is only one endowment room; but, you do move from one room to another, so they are able to have two groups going at a time.  You have to schedule an appointment though to go through an endowment session.  There are three sealing rooms, all of which are pretty small.  The baptistry and chapel are tiny too.  The wood work, windows and marble and tile are stunning though.  The grounds outside are amazing too.

This is the North East stairway coming out of the parking garage onto the garden terrace.

This is the main entrance on the East side of the temple.

Families can be together forever...through Heavenly Father's Plan.

This is a view of the fountain out front and of the Tabernacle across the street.

Kate loved the fountain.  She wanted to get in and play.

There were apple trees all over the grounds on the west and north sides. It was a nice touch given the history of the city.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT SO YOU MAY ENTER!  Holiness to the Lord!

Three Wheelin"!!

Eli is a maniac on the three wheeler Katelyn got for Christmas.  He was rippin' up and down the driveway and running over the unaware pedestrians!  Kate was really good to hold on to him so he could stand on the gas pedal and steer the bike.  He was cacklin' like the wicked witch as he tried to run people over.  Wayyyy cute.

Cabin Trip August 2012

Eli, Lana and Kate lounging around in our sleeping bag.

We had a blast at the cabin this weekend.  The temperatures were nice and we spent the days playing in the river and fishing at Witney Lake.  Witney Lake was probably 60-70 feet lower than I have ever seen it.  I forgot my camera when we went to the lake, but the kids flew kites and fished from the shore.  Poor Eli was stung on his chin by a wasp while he was playing in the mud.  He and I waded into the lake.  After he was done playing in the water he went and played on shore again and was a huge mud ball when he was done.  It was a lot of fun though.  Kanyon was the only one who caught a fish, sadly, it got off the hook just as he was ready to bring it ashore.  You can see that we all slept in sleeping bags.  Safer and more comfortable that way.  Plus we don't have to remake all the beds when we leave.  We just stuff our bags and go.

Eli loved the concept of a "Sleeping Bag".  Coolest thing ever in his book.

Meredith taking a nap.  She rag dolled Lana into bed with her like a WWF super star.

Eli the climber!

Nothing is safe in our house.  Eli climbs on everything.

Eli is so proud of his climbing ability.

Rabies!!!!!

Watch out!  He has Rabies!

Eli has such an independent streak.  He gets that from his mothers side of the family!  I was feeding him some yogurt and after a few bites he decided he was done with me feeding him and so I let him feed himself.  He looks like Ole' Yeller got ahold of him.

Day at the Zoo, Saturday, August 4th, 2012

It was sure hot at the zoo.  We were over 100 so the kids loved the mist machines and fans around the zoo.  It was a lot of fun to see the Jazz Bear and to get his autograph.  The animals were, for the most part, fairly lethargic due to the heat.  We still had a fun Saturday afternoon hanging out with Sal and her kids, Ryan and his kids and Ryan's brother and his kids.

Entrance of the Zoo

Entrance of the Zoo

Eli was most displeased that we passed him off to a huge furry thing.

Watch out for the Rhino's horns.

These statues are made of metal.  They run cold water through them so they don't burn all the children touching and sitting on them.

The polar bear was neat.  He was pretty active.  He was probably on a sugar high since he was eating a frozen watermelon.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb.

Kanyon had the temperament of an Ape that day.  Smile kid.  Life is fun.

Emma is getting so big.  She is nearly the size of an adult female gorilla.

Katelyn and Noah measuring up to the gorillas.

Lana was not too pleased with her rice bowl.  JK!  I just caught her with a funny face.

Katelyn and Emma watching the Girafffes.

The big daddy gorilla has nothing on my awesome size and strength.  I have a super sexy mate too!

One big old fat bubba.

Awesome statue.

What a bunch of cuties!