Introducing....

The HOUCKS!!  (houcks.....houcks.....houcks....)

Now that they have lived with us for a month officially, we decided to take some pictures of them. And what better place than the lovely canyon. The colors were just dipping into the autumn color scheme. They should be amazing in a week or so. So without further ado, I give you Doug, Kami, and Buckwheat. (You have to guess who is who.)

I would say they are really easy going people. A bit too serious at times, but besides that.

And their dog is pretty cute too. Look at his little paws on the frame.

They are amazing with our kids, and patient to be living and sharing space with a house full of girls. Really, the basement is NOT set up as a separate apartment. They share the kitchen and laundry and pretty much everything with us.

Basically they have become part of the family. We love them.

They are staying with us while Doug finishes school.

We get them at least until April...perhaps longer if the planets align.

Did I mention that they are in love? They are super cute.

Don't worry, we took some pictures of our family too while we were out enjoying the evening. The sun was setting, and the weather was perfect.

We stopped by some wild flowers and the girls picked a whole bunch. (Look for some in my hair later.) Here are some daisies together.

Ivory was digging the attention from the camera.

The girls found a large puddle and threw many of the flowers in there. I liked the reflection of my Fave 5.

Kami and Doug were nice enough to take some family photos for us. Look how well we blend in with the trees here. You can hardly see us.

The Aspen forests were stunning as always. I love how close they grow together and how beautiful they are.

As usual, we can never get everyone smiling at once. Can you spot the odd man out?

Kami caught an epic battle as we left the grove.

Tyler was lucky to escape with his life. Robyn makes one rough pirate.

June was loving the outdoors.

She found the biggest mushroom I have seen in a while. Don't worry, we didn't eat it.

We did sample some other foliage though.

Tyler decided to make our trip to the forest last forever.

There were so many names carved into the trees. I thought it was cool to see carvings from back in the 80s, and I'm sure there are many further back than that. Kami disapproved of our tree graffiti, but I thought it was very romantic.

It may take you a while to find our tree. For a better view, it looks like this.

Now you should have no trouble finding it.

I figure it was okay for Tyler to carve up a tree since I had already pulled off some branches. I can't help myself. The colors are so vivid and inviting for fall. My kitchen needed a boost into the season.

Happy Fall to you all.

Reminisces

Really, I could use that title for many of the upcoming posts seeing how I will be digging back into the archives. However, I hope to intersperse them with some current events as well. My method is simple....go back to the last photos used and proceed from there. Apparently I stopped blogging consistently somewhere around the end of school. That is a REALLY bad time to let the ball drop. The end of school is notorious for great blog posts and epic children programs. This last year was no exception.

But those weren't the first pictures I ran across. Instead, I found a few that I find very amusing. One of the kids got a game (thank you Grandma Dargan) that uses pictures and rubber bands. You loop the bands where they tell you and they sketch out a picture. June decided to beyond the templates and make a few designs of her own. You should be able to tell what this means.

But how about this one? Useful for a hotel that doesn't allow pets (or foxes?).

I was very impressed with her creative genius.

Okay, NOW to the plethora of school events. Ivory won an award one morning. I think she had the highest reading score in her class. Here she is accepting her paper. (Too bad I have no idea where it got to.)

Robyn's class did a talent show. Robyn showed off two of her stellar abilities. The one being piano...

And the other being the classic ability to dance to music.

Don't knock it. This is serious stuff in 3rd grade. She went over to her friends house many times so they could rehearse their number. She did really well and I like to think that she is the lead singer there in the middle with her backup singers, but really I think it was because her mom wasn't going to fork out money for a green shirt.

June was quite busy at the end of the year. Fourth grade is the year they learn about their state, so we were enlightened on many things Utah. The kids put on a whole singing program to honor the state. You would think that children singing songs about beaver trappers and coal miners would get boring, but I was actually awake involved the whole time. I was mostly impressed that they were able to learn and memorize so many songs on possibly less interesting topics.

Here she is really getting into the music.

Her fellow classmates were all good performers.

There were speaking parts too, but I can't remember at all what she spoke about.

It was fun to hear the Utah County song again. They sang it when they did their county projects.

Come to think about it, I kind of miss hearing June sing Utah songs around the house. Maybe I will request one this week and see what she remembers.

To continue with the Utah theme, the class did a pioneer dance for the dance festival. June wore pioneer clothes for almost a week straight, what with the program, festival, and a class trek. (That is another post). June really digs square dancing. I mentioned that the dance she performed for the festival was one of the same ones they taught us at Martin's Cove. She was a pro, naturally.

She knew her curtsies.

And her dosidos.

I like this picture because she stopped to wave in the middle of the song.

June really got into the dancing. In half the pictures her hair is flying about, or her feet are off the ground. She danced with gusto.

They were really fun to watch.

Back to Ivory now. I didn't sign up to volunteer on field day. And I can't remember why I ended up there. I think it was to talk to another mom who was helping out. But for the brief moment I was there, I happened upon Ivory about to compete in an event and even more miraculous, I had my camera with me. (I know, the stars aligned and everything.) Nothing beats a good potato sack race. Look at this girl go.

Here she is coming back and some people haven't even reached the half-way mark.

Needless to say, Ivory led her team to victory. She was so happy.

Lastly, we'll highlight Robyn once more. Her class also did a small play called 'Character Matters' in which fairy tale characters learn to be polite and well mannered. Robyn played the part of Snow White who learned to be more considerate of the dwarves' feelings. Here she is waiting to go on.

For some reason, I didn't get another good picture of her. That is probably because I was sitting too close and taking video instead. Here are a couple of her dwarves.

I really enjoy going to all these programs and events. I like to see my children being confident and having fun. And I feel very satisfied that they are finally blogged. Another check mark in a long row of boxes.

Shameless Bragging

WARNING: This post is for computer nerds.

Maleen tells me I shouldn't brag, but I can't help myself:

This week I became the proud owner of a fiber optic box...on the Utopia network. Sweet. I like the part that says, "Faster than 99% of the US." That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Robyn's 9 Year Gallery

What what?? Yes, we finally have another gallery on here. Let's pretend that Robyn didn't have her birthday last April and that I didn't wait four months to take these pictures. We could also pretend that in the meantime Daisy did not have a birthday, so I am not that much further behind. That was fun. Let's play pretend again some time. You could come over and we could pretend that all my boxes are unpacked and I can find everything.

No? Well, instead, let's view some cute pictures. Robyn and I had a lot of fun. One evening when I was feeling particularly guilty, I did Robyn's hair and snatched her away. Of course, when I started the french braid, I missed a whole section of hair and then I didn't know what to do with it. Oops. But Robyn loved the finished product. (Even June asked for me to do her hair like that later.) Who knew I was such a modern stylist.

I love these pictures because I think they really show Robyn's personality.

At the end we had some kind soul take a picture for us. Sorry I look so tired. This was back in the cat pee days. (Not that I am looking much better now.)

Then I took Robyn out for a treat. She was so thrilled. She said she had NEVER had two scoops. This is probably true since we don't splurge like that when the whole family goes out. But when it is just the two of us, we have to live a little.