Hatch Family!

My Hobbie!!

2010-12-31T10:24:00.005-07:00

Photography is one of those things that relaxes me. I enjoy taking pictures and then I enjoy editing them once I am done. It is something that I could literally sit and do for hours. Could I make a living doing it? Probably not because I am not because I am not that good, so I will just continue to have fun with it. My three angels!

SISTERS

This is one of my favorites!

John at age 12

Jess age 10

Abbi age 7

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

2010-12-31T09:43:00.005-07:00

CHRISTMAS!!

Every year on Christmas Eve Matt sets up our train under the tree. It is always fun to see the kids faces on Christmas morning when they get up and realize the train is around the tree. The presents have always been rearranged and the train is on and playing its Christmas music. As you can see this year Matt made a tunnel with the presents for the train to go under.

Jess with her loot from Santa! She specifically asked for a blue sock monkey and she got it.

Abbi with her doll that Santa brought.

John loves the guitar Santa brought him!! He can't wait to have lessons and learn to play.

Abbi with her new boots! She had been asking from some for over two months and was so excited to finally have them.

Abbi with her beautiful porcelain doll. The girls get a new porcelain doll every year.

Jess opening her doll. Matt found a really cute set this year at an antique shop. Both girls love the dolls!

Here is Jess' doll!!

John wanted a mask that covers his entire face, I think he got it. When he goes out to play in the snow the only thing he complained about getting cold was his face.

John in his new hoodie.

Me with my new wallet, I needed on desperately.

Matt with is 1776 history book. He loves history!!

Jess in her new hat and shirt! She is so full of it, as you can see.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve at mom's house. Myself and all of my brothers went in on a present for my mom and Ron. Mom and Ron opened the present Christmas Eve while we were there for the party. We got them a GPS system and they were very surprised. The thing that mom loved the most though was the card we gave them that was signed by all.

Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year. Everyone is more joyful and willing to spread the good cheer. I appreciate that my kids are getting older and we can focus more on the true meaning of Christmas, Christ! I enjoy that they are able to look outside of themselves and think of others. They get anxious to shop for each other and what they can do for others.

Christmas morning is so much fun because they all get excited to see the presents opened that came from them.

Concert and Recital Time!!

2010-12-12T15:44:00.008-07:00

It is that wonderful time of year when we get to see our children display their talents in various concerts and recitals. I love the weeks leading up to these concerts especially at Christmas time. I have always loved Christmas music and with all three of my children playing the piano and John the violin, I get to hear a lot of Christmas music. These are not the best recordings, but I hope you enjoy them. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-11T14:09:00.005-07:00

I know that I am late in posting but I want to catch up. For Thanksgiving we went to Newcastle and spent the day with Matt's family. We had about 24 family members for our dinner so we reserved the gym at the church. It was great to be at the church and have plenty of room for all of the kids to run and play. Once we were done with our fabulous dinner and the gym was cleaned up a game of basketball was played. I enjoyed sitting around talking to my sisters and just relaxing most of the afternoon. I am very thankful for the family that I have and that I am able to live close to at least some of them.

Some of the cousins

Matt and Rachel

John playing ball

The game is on

The game ended with poor Rachel getting bog piled!

Trunk-or-Treat

2010-11-03T12:27:00.002-06:00

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays! The kids get so excited when thinking about what they want to be for Halloween and they almost always surprise me with what they want to dress up as. This year our Halloween consisted of going to two Trunk-or-Treats and going out Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood Sunday night. This picture is of the kids all dressed up ready to go to the Trunk-or Treats.

John always has to be something scary for Halloween and this year was no exception. He wanted to be a pirate,but not just a regular pirate. He had to throw in this gross mask to make himself look scary. He also informed me that he is getting to old to go out Trick-or Treating with his family and that next year he wants to go with friends.

Jessica wanted to be a clown this year. It fits her personality so well and everyone loved her clown costume. I loved it because all we had to buy was the wig and red nose. Jessica was invited to a Halloween party Friday night at Grace's. She wore her costume for the party, so Jess ended up wearing her costume 3 nights in a row. In order to make it to the party on time Jess had to wear her costume to piano as well, she was little embarrassed when people would stare at her as we drove down the interstate.

My Abbi wanted to be a cat. We looked at many cat costumes and she finally decided to be this black and white one. We found this really cute cat nose to wear with the costume, but it was a little tight and hurt her nose. Dad did a great job at painting her face though.

For all of our festivities this year the weather was great. Normally on Halloween night it is really cold, the ground is often covered in snow and you have to bundle up so much that you can't even see the costumes. This year the kids went out just how you see them in the pictures. John and Jess did not have anything on under their costumes and Abbi just had leggings and shirt under hers. We could not have asked for a more perfect night.

Pumpkin Carving Time!!

2010-10-24T20:43:00.003-06:00

We got our pumpkins at the beginning of the month at a pumpkin festival and the kids have been dying to carve them ever since. So today for family home evening we finally carved our pumpkins with Steve, Mike and Chantel. John decided he wanted to try etching his face this year instead of doing a typical carving. It took a lot of time but turned out great as you will see later in the post. I have a creative son!!

Jessica dug right in when it came to taking out the seeds. This girl loves to get her hands dirty!

Abbi on the other hand was little more neat about the process of taking the seeds out. She took her time and used a spoon or the scoop to clean her pumpkin.

Here is Abbi's finished pumpkin. She had very little help from me and did wonderful.

Here is Jess' finished pumpkin. She decided to do an owl and it turned out great, with a little help from dad.

Here is John's finished pumpkin. As I mentioned earlier it took a lot of time, but it looks awesome. He had pumpkin shavings all over Mike and Chantel's house, but he is very proud of his pumpkin.

School is in Session...

2010-09-11T09:49:00.006-06:00

And my kids could not be happier!! My three sweeties ready to start a new school year.

Gone are the glasses, say hello to contacts!!

(He has been wearing contact for about 7 months now, but this is the first time since 2nd grade starting a school year without glasses.)

John in his "perfect 1st day of school" outfit to start 7th grade. It took a long time to find just the right outfit, not only for the first day of school either. He and I went school shopping and John had to try on everything before we could consider buying it. He had to make sure it fit just right and looked GOOD on him. It is so fun to watch the changes he is going through and that he actually cares about his appearance. He is a wonderful young man. (Just a side note, John is now 5'5" and is wearing a size 11 shoe.)

Jessica is now in 5th grade and is still my spunky little girl. She is quickly becoming a young woman though and is caring a little more about what she wears as well. Once we bought her school clothes I told her to put them away. A little while later she called me into her room to show me that she had hung up all of her shirts in the order she was going to wear them for the first two weeks of school. Jess and Abbi switched Elementary schools this year and Jess was a little nervous about going to a new school. She had a great first day of school though and has made several new friends, one of them is a girl named Grace who just moved into our ward. She is a very outgoing young lady and makes friends so easily, for that I am grateful.

Abbi is in the 2nd grade and loves school! She is always so excited to pick out her outfit and has always worn a skirt on the first day of school. She loves any occasion that she gets to dress up and look pretty. This year it was a little more of a casual outfit, but she looked darling. Abbi use to be a very shy little girl and I was a little worried about her starting a new school, but she surprised me and was not even nervous. I thought she was going to have me at least walk her to her class, but she didn't. I helped her find her place to line up and she said "bye mom, you can go." It almost made me cry to know that my baby does not need me anymore. I am so proud of her though, she is growing up so fast. She too made new friends very quickly and loves her new school. Her teacher is great!! He seems to love what he does and so far has made Abbi's 2nd grade year great.

One More Week of Summer....

2010-08-24T08:43:00.014-06:00

How Can That BE??

It seems like we wait most of the year for summer to come and then summer comes and goes in the blink of an eye.

~This summer has been a busy one, but one filled with fun adventures~

Here is a run down of our fun from this summer.

We have pool passes and went swimming a couple times a week. The kids and I are officially fish.

We went to Reptile Gardens several times!!

Twice this summer we were able to go camping with friends at Angostura Reservoir and had a great time.

The kids and adults enjoyed playing in the sand and keeping cool in Angostura Lake during our second camping trip. The first trip was fun but a little cool and rainy.

We all love going to Spearfish Park and playing in the river,on the playground, and feeding the fish at the hatchery.

Abbi was not sure about going in the river at first. The water was really cold!!

Jess was having fun on the rocks in Spearfish River

Some of our hiking adventures!!

There were plenty of hikes this summer. Two of our favorites were Roughlock Falls trial to the water fall and Harney Peak. Here is Jess on the trail to Roughlock Falls.

We were able to hike Harney Peak which is a 7 mile hike. All of the kids did great and it only took us 4 hours.

This is the troop at the beginning of the hike....

And they made it to the top!!

I'm Here!

2010-07-22T08:18:00.004-06:00

It has been awhile and I have been neglecting my blog.

I am here and I am alive.

It has been a very busy summer so far trying to keep the kids busy, having fun and out of trouble while I take three classes. We have been managing though. I will update my blog in more detail later, for now here are a few pictures to prove we have been having some fun this summer.

We have taken several trips to Reptile Gardens

This is Abbi at the dog park. I think the kids enjoy going to the dog park just as much as Sabrina does.

John and Jess at Sylvan Lake after we had hiked Harney Peak

13 Years of Bliss

2010-06-01T10:07:00.009-06:00

Spearfish Lodge

For our anniversary Matt and I stayed at Spearfish Canyon Lodge. The next morning we got up and hit the trails that are in the area.

The first one we took was about a 1/2 mile and took us to Spearfish Falls. Matt and I have been to this area many times before but had no idea this pretty waterfall was here.

Spearfish Falls
After Spearfish Falls trail we took trail '76. It is an old mining trail that the miners use to use and hauled gold over the mountain to the train. The train actually ran right by the Spearfish Fall.

Halfway point of trial '76

The view from the top of trial '76
Matt and I did not read about trail '76 before we started. When we reached the half way point we were already tired because it was a steep trail. Well when we reached the halfway point there was a sign that said steep incline and loose footing. Matt and I debated if we wanted to continue of not and decided to go ahead. The first half was nothing compared to the second half. It only got STEEPER as we continued our hike. Once we finished the hike and were back at the bottom we noticed a sign that tells you a little about the '76 trail. It is only 3/4 of a mile, but you climb 1000 feet in that short time. The views from the top were amazing though and we were glad we did the entire hike.

Once we were done with the '76 trail we decided we needed a little break. Just outside the lodge we stayed in is an area with tables and benches so we sat down for a little break from hiking. It was so relaxing to sit and listen to the river.

While we were sitting there a little Robin decided to visit.

Throughout the day we say dozens of hawks. They were circling the sky, but were really high up. I kept trying to get some pictures of them, but this is the best I could get.

Our next hike was the trail to Roughlock falls. We have done this hike before which is a nice easy hike. It is about a mile long and has beautiful scenery the whole way.

Roughlock Falls in Spearfish Canyon

Little falls at the base of Roughlock

Roughlock area again, it is so gorgeous there!!

Once we were done with all of our hikes it was time for lunch. We headed to Spearfish and had lunch there. After lunch we walked around Spearfish for a little while to let our lunch settle then it was off to Spearfish park. We got our bikes out and put them to good use. Matt and I rode around Spearfish for over and hour. I don't know how many miles we rode on the trials in Spearfish, but it was a lot of fun. It is such a pretty town to explore.

We ended the day with a barbecue at my mom's with Mike and Chantal. We had some yummy stuffed burgers and fruit salad and of course my mom's potato salad. It was a great way to end a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

My BABY is 7

2010-06-01T09:15:00.007-06:00

Does that mean I am getting old?

I can't believe how big my kids are getting.

For Abbi's birthday we went to Spearfish park and had fun as a family and then later that evening we had Grandma & Grandpa, Steve, Mike & Chantal come over for cake and ice cream.

Matt playing Frisbee with the kids. Abbi missed it!!

Relaxing at the park!
Abbi and Jess love this little bridge. They try to bounce each other off of it.

John trying to be tricky with the Frisbee and throw it under his leg. It did not work that well.

Jess and Abbi feeding the fish. It does not matter how often we go to the Hatchery, they love feeding the fish!

Abbi's cake that I made. She wanted one that looked like the beach.

Blowing out her candles!!

Opening presents!!

Abbi also had a party at Putz N Glo with friends.

Here she is in their special birthday chair.

Brock getting the ball in the hole.

Four little girls waiting their turn to golf.

Reagan and Makenna discussing their next move.

Opening Presents!!

Blowing out her candles!!

Don't know, but Megan looks cute!!

We all had a lot of fun especially the kids. Happy Birthday my Abbi, we love you.

6th Grade Orchestra

2010-06-01T08:42:00.004-06:00

John has been in orchestra for three full years now. Hard for me to believe how fast the time has gone. Middle school brought a lot of growth for John in orchestra. When he was in 4th and 5th grade they only had orchestra twice a week and only for 30 minutes. In middle school he had orchestra 5 days a week and for about 50 minutes. The improvement that I have seen in his violin abilities has been amazing. John had three concerts for his middle school and was 1st chair for all three. This is amazing to me because I know that some of the kids have been playing for much longer than John. The last concert John's main competition ( a boy named Levi) tied with John for first chair. John sat in first chair position for the first 3 songs and then switched with Levi. I was happy to see that Levi was able to be first chair because I happen to know that he has been playing since he was 4. John was happy for him as well and was more than willing to share the 1st chair spot with him. John really does not like being in the spot light. Here are two of the songs they played for the concert. I hope you enjoy them!

12, How Can That Be?

2010-05-14T20:22:00.002-06:00

My baby is not a baby any more at all. In fact my sweet little boy that came to us 12 years ago is growing up so fast that he is taller than me and has been for about six months. I know, as many have pointed out I am not that tall, that is not the point. John was not suppose to get taller than me until he was at least 12 years old. He did not pay attention to that though and he just keeps getting taller and more handsome as the years go by.

I feel terrible but due to the fact that we were barely settling into our new house I did not know where my camera was. Therefore I do not have any pictures of John's birthday or his special weekend. John's birthday was on a Friday and we went to dinner at Boston's as a family and then went to see Furry Vengeance. The dinner was great and the movie was very funny. Grandma and Grandpa Finn joined us for the movie and they enjoyed it too.

Then on Sunday we had Grandma and Grandpa Finn, Grandma Jeanie, Bob and Lauralee, Dawn and Rod and the kids, Laurie and Richard and the kids all join us for church. It was great to look around the chapel and see how much family John had there to support him in receiving the Priesthood and to celebrate his birthday. When John was ordained a Deacon there was barely room to move in the bishops office because we had so many attend. Matt gave John a beautiful blessing that had many of us in tears.

After church we all came back to our house and had a wonderful lunch. Thank goodness the weather was nice and the kids were able to go outside and play. They got a game of kickball going and also played dodge ball. I don't know who won, but I do know that they had fun. Later many of us also played a fun card game called Cover Your Butt. It is a game that we were taught at the Finnardsleyton (for those of you that don't know that is Finn, Bardsley, Moulton) family reunion this summer. The Hatch cousins had fun learning the game and were sad when it was time to go.

John you are such a special young man and I am so proud of you. You amaze me with your generosity and caring attitude. Your dad and I have always felt that you are a very special spirit and the older you get the more it just confirms it for us. God has something very special planned for you and I feel so very blessed that He trusted me to be your mother. I hope that you will always keep the sweet spirit that you have. We love you John!

Jessica turns 10!!

2010-05-14T20:10:00.006-06:00

Jessica is 10!!! How did that happen? Time does fly when you have kids and it seems like they grow up in the blink of an eye. For Jessica's birthday she wanted to go to Watiki. She invited two of her friends and we went and had a good time. After Watiki we went back to my mom's and had pizza and cake and ice cream.

Here are Jessica and her friends at Watiki having a blast. Girls are so funny when they get together and it was hilarious to listen to them talk to each other. The topic was often boys which made me laugh even more. I feel that they are way to young to be talking about boys, but it was still humorous to listen to them.

Jessica in her new hat and shirt. Jess loves wearing hats and had wanted this one for a couple of weeks. She loves wearing it now.

Jess the morning of her Birthday. She insisted on opening her presents the morning of her birthday. It was a great incentive to get her ready on time and even early.

Better Late than Never

2010-05-14T19:44:00.004-06:00

Sorry that the pictures are out of order and just at the beginning but I could not move them. Blog was not cooperating with me tonight. Oh well!!

This post is more for me than for anyone else. While we were living with my mom I did not have my program to download my pictures. Now that we are in our house I finally downloaded my camera. Some of the pictures that were on my camera were from Easter. We had a wonderful Easter at my mom's.

Months earlier we had invited Steve and Trish and their girls as well as Dave and Julie and their boys to join us for Easter. We did not know at the time that we would be putting our house for sale and then selling it in 10 days. When Easter rolled around and we were not in our new house yet we were not sure what we were going to do about Steve and Dave coming for Easter. Thank goodness they spent the better part of their childhood growing up here and were both able to find other arrangements for sleeping.

The day before Easter we all got together and had an Easter egg hunt at my mom's. The kids all had a lot of fun finding the 100 eggs that were hidden. Then the kids dyed Easter eggs and had fun playing with each other. To top the day off we had our big Easter dinner on Saturday so Dave and Julie could join us. We did not want them to miss out because they went home on Sunday.

Easter morning brought more excitement as the kids searched the house in our traditional Easter morning egg hunt. It is always so fun to see the kids run about the house trying to find all of the eggs as well as their baskets. Easter fell on General Conference weekend and that is traditionally spent at Laurie's, so once we were all ready we headed to Laurie's house. As always the kids had fun their with their cousins between sessions. The house is always very lively with 14 kids in the house, but the adults still manage to listen to conference and feel the spirit that is always present.

Our Easter weekend was fun and I am so thankful for all of the family that we were able to be with.

All Moved In

2010-05-11T13:46:00.003-06:00

Well our house took much longer for us to get into than we expected but we are finally moved in and getting settled.

I will have much catching up to do on my blog because while I was without my computer we celebrated Jessica's birthday, John's birthday and Mother's Day ( picture to come later).

For now I just wanted to say we are in our new house and doing well.

The adventure has been fun, but I am glad we are DONE!

Just Because!!

2010-02-03T10:24:00.003-07:00

Just because it has been a long time since my last post! Too long as a matter of fact and I feel bad about not keeping up. In my defense life has been very crazy, so bare with me as I catch up, this will be a long post.
January was a normal month and we enjoyed bringing in the New Year with two of our kids actually making it until midnight. I did not even stay up until midnight this year! January was also filled with a lot of cold weather and snow. It has been unusually cold here and the amount of snow that we had has reminded many of how it use to be, at least that is what they claim. Matt even said it is more like when he was a kid. So besides being cold and snowy January went well.
February on the other hand was not normal at all. Matt and I had been wondering for several months whether it would be smart for him to go back to school seeing as that I am in school right now myself. We had also been wondering if we should sell our house. We knew that if we sold our house we would not make much of a profit on it with the economy the way it is right now. But we also knew that if he went back to school it would mean that I could not work because I would go to school during the day and he would go at night. So after months of pondering what to do and praying we were still confused as to what the right answer was. We decided to fast and pray about what we were to do. After our fast we both felt impressed that it was the right time for Matt to go back to school and that we needed to sell our house.
So on February 10th we put our house on the market and put our faith in Heavenly Father, Matt got the paper work rolling so that he could go back to school for his Masters, and we waited. The only thing is we did not have to wait long. Our house sold in 10 days! We sold it for just $1500 below our asking price and were asked if we could be out in one month. When Matt and I put the house for sell we thought we would have at least 5 months before our house would sell being that all the other houses that were for sell on our street had been on the market at least that long. Matt and I were now in a race to find a place for us to live before we had to be out on the 19th of March. We had not been seriously looking as we thought we had plenty of time to find a suitable house for us.
We finally found the house that we want and were so happy, until we ran into a snag. Matt and I had asked my mom if we could put a manufactured home on some land of theirs and they agreed. We did not think there would be a problem as there use to be a home there for over 30 years. But when we went to get our building permit they said no and that we have to get a variance if we want to put a house there. Okay fine, we will do it just let us know what we have to do. Little did we know that the process would take over a month. We do not have a month to sit and wait we have to be out of our house now, so what did we do, we moved in with mom. Thank goodness my mom and Ron were kind enough to let us bunk with them for a while. We thought it might only be two weeks at most. Here comes the other snag, after we were already out of our house we find out that there is another meeting we have to attend before we can get permission. Now it looks like we might be with mom and Ron for more than a month before we get into our house.
Despite all of this Matt and I feel very blessed that our house sold so quickly and that we were able to make a profit on the sale. We did not get what we wanted and were not able to move directly into our new house, but we still feel blessed. Our stuff is all in storage right now and we should find out on the 7th of April when we can move forward with our new home. Once we are all settled into our place I will post some pictures and then I am sure I will be able to look back and laugh. Right now though I don't find it all funny. County rules can be very annoying at times!!

Note: I reread this post and realized that the date of publication and the post do not make sense. That is because I started this post and could not finish it. By the time I finished it and actually posted it it was more than a month later. Other note, it is now April 17th and we officially got our house yesterday. We will not be able to move in for about another two weeks, but at least we know there is an end in sight and we will be back in a house of our own soon!

Christmas Fun!!

2010-01-03T20:15:00.003-07:00

Our Christmas season was filled with family and friends and I feel so blessed to be able to say that. I know that not everyone gets to spend Christmas with loved ones and there have been times when I have been in that vote. Just two years ago we were without Matt for Chirstmas for the second year in a row because he was deployed. So again I feel blessed to have been surrounded by those that I love over this Christmas season.

Our Christmas season started with Christmas concerts and parties that were just the ticket to get us all in the mood. The concerts were all wonderful and I was so pround of all the kids and how well they did. Jess even had a solo in her Christmas concert and did very well. She still shocks me at how much she has grown up since moving here three years ago. When we first moved here she was extremely shy and I would have never imagined that she would get up in front of her whole school and sing a solo, but she did. She also sang at our ward Christmas party while John played the piano (to see a video you can see my facebook page). Speaking of our ward Christmas party, it was great. We had a lot of fun with our friends that night and the entire program was great.

Once the kids were out for break we had fun playing in the snow, baking, and playing games. We were very lucky to have a white Christmas and to have a perfect sledding spot for kids. My mom's drive way is the perfect size for most of the kids and when they get cold they can just go in and warm up. We spent Christmas Eve at mom's sledding and then also the following Wednesday. The kids also had fun building snow forts in the drifts. This is a favorite due to the fact that we often get blizzards and once they are over we have drifts that are 4 to 6 feet tall, sometimes more. Mom's are even better though as her's will reach up to 8 feet. Needless to say they were in fort heaven for several days.

Christmas day we had a day planned full of fun, but due to our blizzard we were snowed in for two days and spent a quite day with just the five of us. It was nice though to be able to relax and just have fun with new toys and playing games.

I guess I better rap this up before I ramble on too much. I did not put a lot of pictures on here because I posted them on my facebook page and most of you that follow this blog are also my friends on facebook. So if anyone wants to see more pictures of our Christmas fun see my facebook page.

Gift of Music!!

2009-12-15T10:16:00.007-07:00

I am going to brag, but it is my right as a mother. John has been playing the violin for about two and half years, which is not that long, but he is really good. For his Christmas concert he had to audition to see what chair he would get and he got first chair. He did not think he would since he knows that there are several kids who have been playing much longer than him. This video is of John walking out to tune the rest of the orchestra and then their first number. It was a great concert full of Christmas music to get us in the mood for this wonderful time of year.

Just a few days later we were able to go to John's first piano recital. John loves playing the piano and has fiddled around on it for years. This year I decided that I better get him into lessons before he picked up too many bad habits. He surprised his teacher by picking this difficult piece, for a first year student, and then surprised her more by actually being able to play it. The gift of music is something he has certainly been blessed with and Matt and I love having our home filled with music!!

Sorry they are not the best recordings but they were both done on my camera.

The Nutcracker

2009-11-29T09:37:00.002-07:00

As a family we went to see the Nutcracker Friday night and we all loved it. I was not sure if it was going to keep Abbi and Jess' interest for the full two hours, but it did. I loved the questions that I kept getting from Abbi. She wanted to know who all of the characters were and what there names were and what they were doing. Thank goodness I have seen the Nutcracker before and know the story because she was not happy with the simple answers or watch and see. In the program was a short version of the story and John read it to Jess while we were waiting for it to start, so that helped the two of them understand the ballet. I was very impressed at how well the dancers did, it made it so fun to watch.

I don't have any pictures because I forgot my camera, which ended up being fine because we were not allowed to take pictures of the performance anyway. It was a great night out as a family, one I am sure the kids will always remember.

Photography!!

2009-11-17T08:41:00.006-07:00

So as many of you know photography is a hobby of mine. I love taking pictures and then editing them. It is especially fun for me when the subjects are my kids. Here are some pictures that I recently took while at a local park.

Jessica is always so photogenic and loves to come up with poses as we do our photo shoots. She is always finding fun places and then says "mom take a picture", the one of her standing is one those poses that she did all on her own.

John often does not like to do a photo session as he finds them "boring" and is getting "too old"!! But he was very fun during this photo shoot and most of the pictures turned out great. He is growing up way too fast though and no longer looks like a child, he is turning into a very handsome young man.

Last, but not least, is my beautiful Abbi. She loves to take pictures and is very cooperative, but on this morning it was very chilly, that is why her coat is on. No matter how much I tried to convince her that she would be fine without her coat for a few minutes she would not take it off. Towards the end of the shoot she did finally take it off, but I love these pictures with it on.

Matt Loves Halloween!!!

2009-11-06T08:41:00.009-07:00

Halloween turned out to be so much so fun this year. My kids are finally at an age where I don't have to drag them along, as a matter of fact they drag me now, and we can stay out longer than 20 minutes without whinning. Our Halloween fun started on Friday night with us attending our wards Trunk-or-treat. It turned out to be a chilly night, but that is to be expected in South Dakota. Jess wanted to be a mummy so I attempted to make her one by tearing up some material and wrapping her up. By the time we were done with the trunk-or-treat she was carrying half of it in her hands. But it was cute while it lasted!!

Abbi wanted to be a fairy this year and I decided I could make her costume as well. I made her little skirt and bought the wings, it turned out looking cute. Here she is pretending to fly.

John was a scary looking scarecrow that scared all of the little kids, but he loved it.

Because the mummy costume did not work well Jess decided to be something different Halloween night. She got into our bin of costumes and found John's old vampire costume. Here is Matt putting on her makeup. She looked great as a little vampire.

While Jess was going through our bin of costumes Abbi saw this old skeleton cosutme of John's and decided she needed to be something different as well. She loved the skeleton costume because it glows in the dark.

Not what Abbi would typically be because she is always all girl, but she loved it.

We also have a Halloween party every year and invite family and friends over. One of the highlights of the party for the kids is when they get to do Matt's treasure hunt. Matt does very elobarate treasure hunts that invovle a little haunted house for the kids. This year Matt's theme was Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Clues were hidden through out the hieroglyphics that the kids had to search for using clues that Matt gave them. Once they were done they had to find Cleopatra (me) and tell her the answer to the clues. If they were right I led them to their treasure. Here are a few pictures of Matt's hieroglyphics.

This was all painted with paint that lit up under black lights. It was really neat looking when all you could see were the hieroglyphics all lit up.

This is Matt's mummy that the kids named Larry Legs.

2009-10-19T10:09:00.003-06:00

Here is John's Fall Orchestra concert. It was short and sweet. I only recorded the 6th graders, but after them the 7th and 8th graders played. The whole concert was only about 30 minutes long, but they all did a great job.

Nervous Boy!!

2009-10-18T20:58:00.002-06:00

John has been playing the violin for a little over two years now and he does well. John has always been the type of kid that does not really get nervous in front of large groups. On Thursday I finally saw him nervous. He came home on Tuesday and informed me that he was first chair for his orchestra concert Thursday night. He was fine with that until his teacher let him know that he had to walk out on the stage after everyone else and tune the rest of the orchestra. For those of you not familiar with a symphony this is what a first chair violin always does. When he walked out on the stage you could tell he was a little nervous, but he did very well.

John also played in church for the first time today. The primary program was today and John played his violin while another boy played his cello and a girl their age played the piano. They did a great job and I know that John is relieved to have this week over.

Sorry I don't have picture because I recorded his concert and did not get any from today. You can trust me though when I say he looked very handsome and did awesome.

Going Punk Rock!!!

2009-10-07T12:22:00.004-06:00

Even though this is going to embarrass myself I promised my mom I would do it. A couple of weeks ago the kids decided for family home evening that they wanted to have fun with Matt's hair and my hair.
Jessica fixing my hair beautiful!!!

I was finally able to see what my hair looked like!!

The Beautiful Black Hills!!

2009-09-09T08:26:00.003-06:00

Over the weekend we were able to get out and enjoy the hills. The hills are just beautiful and there are so many places we can go hiking and have picnics.

School is in Session!!!

2009-09-04T20:53:00.004-06:00

School has officially started and I cannot beleive that I have a child in middle school. John was a little nervous the first day, but he hardly every shows it. He did very well and came home excited to tell me all about his first day of sixth grade. I think his favorite subject so far is orchestra. He has been playing the violin for two years now but in elementary school he only had orchestra twice a week. Now he gets to go to orchestra every day.

My sweet girls were so excited for school to start that they were ready almost 30 minutes before it was time for them to leave. Usually I am dragging them out of bed!!

Jess is in the fourth grade and loves her teacher. Mr. Burke was John's teacher and Jess was wishing all summer long that she would get him for a teacher. When she found out that she had Mr. Burke that made her want school to start that much faster. Jess is still my social butterfly and I think that the only reason she likes school is because she gets to be with friends for seven hours a day. As long as she does well in school that is fine with me that she is very social.

Abbi is in the first grade now and feels so grown up beacuse she gets to be at school all day and even gets to eat lunch at school. Abbi has settled right in to school this year which is a big change from last year. Last year I always had to walk her to her door and wait until the bell rang for school to start. This year she does not even care if I am there, in fact most of the time she is gone without even saying goodbye. :( My baby is growing up too fast.

<

Family Reunion

2009-08-16T22:23:00.011-06:00

I could make this a very long post with all of the pictures that I have, but in an attempt to keep this simple I will just touch on the highlights of our reunion.

This past week we had a family reunion at Camp Rimrock here in South Dakota. We rent out a church camp all to ourselves, which includes a large lodge and 10 or so cabins. The lodge has a large kitchen and part of the fun is planning and cooking the meals together. What else do we do at our reunions?

We sit around and chat with brothers, cousins, and other relatives that we have not seen in, well way too long.

When the temperature rises the best thing to do is...

Play in the water and float down the river!!

Reunions are for...
playing games and making crafts!!!

We end our family reunions with a dance. Everyone always has so much fun making a fool of themselves that no one cares how much of fool they are being.

It was so much fun and I can't wait until we have our next reunion. See you all in 2011!!!

Tooth Fairy

2009-08-06T20:30:00.003-06:00

So my baby girls is growing up. She lost her first tooth and was so excited because to her it marked a major mile stone. She could not wait to show everyone who would pay attention long enough for her to tell them and show them. Then just six days later she lost another tooth. An hour later Jess lost one as well. I think that the tooth fairy is going to go broke with all of the teeth that are coming out in this house.

Abbi looks so cute with her two top teeth missing, it cracks me up everytime she smiles at me.

String Retreat

2009-08-06T20:13:00.003-06:00

So as most of you know John plays the violin and loves it. He had the opportunity to go to a week long orchestra camp and had so much fun. It would be boring to me to sit in classes learning to play an instrument for hours at a time, but music is something that he loves and is very good at. We took him to the camp early on the morning of the 27th of July and did not see him again until the night of his concert on the 31st. The concerts that we listened to that night amazing, especially considering the kids only had five days to learn them.

No Excuses!!!

2009-08-06T13:03:00.003-06:00

So the last time I wrote a post was right after the kids birthday's and now here it is the beginning of August. I do not know where the time has gone. We have had a great summer so far and look forward to this last month before the kids start school the 1st of Sept. In order to keep this post from being a novel I am going to post some pictures highlighting our summer so far. I promise to be better about posting on a more regular basis once things calm down. Oh, wait my life does not know any other pace than fast speed. I guess I am just going to have to be more faithful about keeping my post up to date.

Cakes

2009-05-28T14:22:00.003-06:00

Every year for my kids birthday they get to chose a flavor and design for their cake. Here are the cakes that were made this year. No laughing, I do not claim to be professional.

This is Jessica's cake. She chose chocolate cake and wanted a monkey. I used a moneky shaped cake pan which made it easy. The only problem I had was I accidently bought whipped frosting, very difficult to decorate with.

Abbi wanted a yellow cake that was a princess with a purple dress. I made a barbie cake for the first time, and found out just how much time it takes to decorate a dress. It turned out well, at least I thougt so.

John wanted a marble cake and a violin. I am not an artist at all, so I had John draw a violin on the white frosting with a toothpick and then I did the best I could to make it look like a violin.

They were all very happy with their cakes, and that made all the hard work worth it.

My Little Princess

2009-05-28T13:52:00.005-06:00

Where did the time go? It is so hard for me to believe that my baby is six. Abbi has always been our little princess. When Abbi was a baby everyone called her a porcelain doll because of the perfect little face she had.

Abbi at age two.

When Abbi was around two she decided she needed a new name. She insisted that we call her Bella. If you called her Abbi she would put her hands on her hips and say "I Bella".

As you can see from the past two pictures Abbi's hair all of the sudden decided to grow very quickly. I love Abbi's long dark hair.

Abbi keeps wanting me to cut off her beautiful hair, but I just can't do it. The picture of Abbi in the tree is her five year old picture. It sadden me to know that she was going to start school that fall. My baby grew up too fast.

Abbi use to be very shy and still is at times, but when she started kindergarten she really blossomed. Abbi loves school and loves to hang out with John and Jess, probably more than they would like her to at times. It is so fun to watch you grow and learn. No matter what though you will always be my baby.

2009-05-09T21:32:00.002-06:00

John has always been a very easy going child and has brought so much joy to our family. He has always been my helper around the house and with his two sisters. I think that he sometimes wonders why he can't have a brother, but for the most part likes having two little sister to watch out for and to tease.

John has always loved to learn and is a very smart young man. He loves music especially classical music. John plays the violin and the piano and would love to learn more instruments. Sports are something else that John enjoys, especially soccer and basketball.

I really admire John for his positive attitude and willingness to serve. John spent half of his tenth year in a cast of some sort due to a bad break in his lower right leg. This did not stop John for being positive and still helping others. He loves to help the younger children in school and serves as a personal tutor to one little boy for math. He also helps the kindergarten class with reading, math, and art projects whenever he can.

John you are a great son and I feel very blessed to be your mom. I love you!!

Where DId My Chubby Baby Go?

2009-04-24T09:45:00.009-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS

My sweet girl was so chubby even at birth that the nurses called her a butter ball. Jess has always had the sweetest smile and brought so much joy to our family.

This picture is of Jessica when she was 4. It was right around this age that Jessica decided she was going to become extremely shy. She would not talk to anyone that she did not know. At her kindergarten screening she would not do anything they asked her to and she almost was not allowed to start kindergarten because of it.

For those of you that know Jessica now she is not shy at all. She has grown into a beautiful, confident young lady who loves to have fun and hang out with friends. She is certainly not chubby anymore either. She is tall and skinny. I tease her that she has hollow legs, because it seems like that is all she is, legs. Jessica has many ambitions one of them is being a veterinarian when she gets older. I have no doubt she can do it. She is the type of girl that when she sets her mind to something she is going to do it, no matter what. Jess you bring so much joy to our family and keep us on our toes. We love you!!

2009-04-04T15:24:00.001-06:00

Snowy Day Activities

2009-04-04T15:01:00.003-06:00

With all of the snow we have had it has meant a lot of time in doors as well as outside. I showed some of our pictures from outside in my last post, this one is going to be about our indoor fun. In the past two weeks we have done a lot of baking, mostly cookies, but I also made some chocolate suckers that were really good. I did not think to take pictures while we were making them or even right after ward. So I have one picture showing not even a third of what we made.

I also got the wonderful idea of making a paper-mache egg from a friend of mine. We started this activity last night and finished most of them today. I was not sure how they would turn out, but they look great. It was a good use of many hours while stuck inside due to snow, again.

Of course with all of the snow we have had plenty of time to do a family favorite as well, play games. In the past two weeks we have played some games that were starting to collect dust because they did not get played as often as others. I believe we have played every game in our house and remembered how fun many of them are.

I really want spring to come, but at the same time being stuck in the house as a family has been fun.

Blizzard Part II

2009-04-01T10:07:00.002-06:00

As I said in my last post we were hit with another snow storm. The kids missed two more days of school, but I don't think they cared. They had so much fun playing in the snow. Our drifts were not as high from this storm because the wind direction changed often. We had snow covering more of the yard though which made it fun for snowball fights with plenty of places to hide from those trying to hit you. It was a fun two days, but today the kids are back in school. I just hope that spring will come soon. My flowers were already coming up and I don't want them to die from the cold.

Slide Show of Blizzard

2009-04-01T10:05:00.001-06:00

March 2009 Blizzard

2009-03-30T08:29:00.010-06:00

On March 16th we had a typical spring blizzard. We did not get much snow, but what snow we did get all got blown into drifts as you can see from the picture. Grass that was strating to turn green and then the drift of snow. Due to the large drifts and bad roads the kids had no school for two days.

Here are the girls climbing our mountain of snow. In one corner of our yard we always get a large drift with our blizzards.

They also enjoy sliding down the drift on the sleds or just on their butts. To give you some perspective as to how high the drift is, the fence behind the kids is a six foot tall fence.

All of the kids enjoy making snow forts out of the drift.They love the snow and play out in it for hours. As I type this post we are having another blizzard and the kids are out of school again. Part two of this blog will be posted later with pictures from our latest blizzard. If these storms keep coming I don't think the kids will ever have summer break. They will be in school making up all the snow days. As of right now they do not get out of school until June 11th. YUCK!!!

CRAZY Saturday!!!

2009-03-23T11:33:00.010-06:00

Our Saturday started with getting to the Civic Center early in the morning for John's last rehearsal and for his orchestra pictures. Once we were done with his rehearsal we had to head home for John to quickly change and grab his pinewood derby. Then it was off to the church for the pinewood derby. John made a Ford Coupe, with a little help from Matt.

John's car did well at the derby. He took second in the Webelos pack and then went to the final round. In the final round he placed fourth.

Later that night Matt and I attended the last hockey game of the season. They lost, but it was still a blast to attend. We went with everyone from his new job. The company that he works for is named Ferber Engineering and they had a hockey night. Most had their families their and it was nice to be able to meet the people who Matt works with.

John had his orchestra concert Saturday night as well. We actually were in the hockey game and had to skip out of it to go watch John play. Normally John's orchestra concert last about an hour and a half because they have other grades that play in the concert as well, but we only watched the fifth graders. Because we only watched John play we only missed one period of the hockey game.

Okay now here comes the proud mommy, and yes I am going to brag. This is John's second year playing the violin and he plays really well. He had to audition this year to see what seat he would get in the orchestra. Out of 98 violin players he was 7th. If you say it in symphony lingo he was 3rd chair, 1st violin. He loves music and I love watching him play. He lights up when he plays and when he talks about music. He has informed Matt and I that he would like to attend Juilliard. Who knows if that will happen or not, but there is nothing wrong with aiming high. Below are a couple of the songs they played and I recorded on my camera. Not the best recording but you can at least hear a little of what they sounded like.

If you would like to see more of the pinewood derby or hear more of John's songs from his concert you can visit his blog. His link is on my blog.

Grateful

2009-03-20T09:57:00.002-06:00

I am feeling particularly blessed today. The weather is gorgeous and I am home enjoying it instead of being stuck at work. The two little kids that I watch now are so fun and make me laugh all the time. I love watching John play with the little ones as well. I did not think that he would want much to do with them since one is 2 and the other one is almost 2, but he loves them and they both love him. Emerson really loves John and can't wait until it is time to pick him up from school. She gets so excited when she sees John and starts screaming his name, it makes all of us laugh.
The other reason why I am feeling very blessed is because of the job that Matt has. Matt recently got out of the Air Force which was a risky move considering the economy right now. But so far we have been very fortunate. He had a wonderful job offer before he ever left and the company has turned out to be a great move for him. He really enjoys the people he works with and what he does. It is so nice to have him come home with a smile on his face again. He works longer hours now, but our phrase right now is "welcome to the real world". There are not many jobs out there that you only work from 8 to 4, if that, like he did in the Air Force.

Alright enough of my rambling. I just wanted to express my gratitude for all that I have.

Lovin It

2009-02-22T08:33:00.002-07:00

I had my first full week of being home with my kids again and it reminded me of why I love being a mom so much. Some of you may be thinking, aren't all of your kids in school, and the answer is yes. Abbi my youngest is in kindergarten but only for half a day. It about killed me when on her first day of school I was not there to pick her up. It has been so much fun to be the one to pick up my little girl from kindergarten and to be the first one to ask how her day of school went. I love seeing her big smile as she runs out of school to the car. Abbi and I have been having a lot of fun in the afternoons together until John and Jess get out of school. That is the other nice thing about no longer working. When I go and get John and Jess I am not just getting off of work and feel like I need time to unwind. I can give them my full attention as soon as they get home. I feel very blessed to be able to be a mom and would not trade this job for any other job in the world.

Another update

2009-02-18T10:35:00.002-07:00

This is another update on John's leg. In the last post John had just been put in a short leg cast. He was in that cast for a month and then was put in a walking boot. He was only allowed to put some weight on his leg, but John was fine with that. What thrilled him the most was that after four months of sponge bathing or covering a cast to shower he was able to take a shower and scrub really well. It was funny because the morning after he got the short cast off he took a bath and shower. We went back to the doctor on Monday, Feb. 16th and his leg is continuing to heal in fact the benign tumor that was found is also filling in with bone. This is wonderful news as it means we no longer have to worry about John needing a bone graph. John is now free of crutches for the fist time in five months and is allowed to put full weight on his leg. He still has at least six more weeks in the walking boot, but we are just glad his leg is healing well.

Valentines Day!!

2009-02-18T10:22:00.002-07:00

Both Matt and John got up early on Valentines and made breakfast for the girls in the house. We woke up to a decorated kitchen and the wonderful smell of heart shaped pancakes. Matt also knows something that his wife is addicted to and that is chocolate. Instead of giving me real roses he gave me chocolate roses instead. They were very good!!

Later that evening my mom was kind enough to come over and watch the kids while Matt and I had a night out. We went to dinner and then to a hockey game. In case any of you are wondering the hockey game was my idea. Matt has been getting a lot of slack for taking me to a hockey game for a Valentines date. Not only was the game my idea, but I bought the tickets. We had so much fun watching the game and we got to support a wonderful cause as well. Valentines night happened to be breast cancer awareness night and they were trying to raise $10,000 dollars to go to the Susan G. Colman foundation. All the hockey players wore a special pink jersey in support of breast cancer. All who attended were asked to wear pink as well. The arena was sea of pink, it was an awesome sight. They met their goal which meant that 10 of the hockey players shaved their heads. Matt and I has so much fun that we hope to catch several more home games before the season ends in March.

My Animal Lover

2009-02-18T10:13:00.003-07:00

From the time that Jess was little she has loved animals and they love her. We have a German Shepard that only Jess can get to play. Matt tries and the other kids do at times but Sabrina loves Jessica. The other day I took some pictures of her playing with Sabrina.

Ignore the dirty window in the picture. They are due to Milo who is pictured above. He jumps on our sliding glass doors when he is ready to come in from outside. This time of year it is difficult for me to keep them clean.

Jess has a silly look on her face in this picture, but I love that it looks like she is dancing with Sabrina.

Pay it Forward

2009-02-13T19:42:00.002-07:00

Pay it Forward... kind ofOriginally posted by Jen...The first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me to you. My choice. Made especially for you. Of course there are some restrictions and limitations:1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!2. What I create will be just for you.3. It will be done sometime this year.4. You have no clue what it will be... it may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake something and mail it to you. who knows? not you, that's for sure.5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.The catch is that you must re post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog.The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!! Oh and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!

I cannot promise that what I make will be incredible, but it will be something made with love.

Land

2009-01-31T18:51:00.003-07:00

On Thursday Matt and I became land owners again. When we lived in Cheyenne we had just a little over five acres and we loved it. Since moving to Rapid City we have wanted to have land again, but just had not found the right lot for the right price. That is until a few weeks ago, Matt found some land for a very reasonable price and we really like the location and the view. We bought 20 acres with a view of the Black Hills. The only bad thing is now Matt and I cannot use the excuse of having no land to put horses the next time the girls ask us for a horse. I am sure it is still going to be awhile before we get horses because the land right now is, well just that, land. It is not fenced off and does not have a barn or any of that good stuff on it. Anyway, this is more a post for me because I had to write this down and I don't keep a written journal well at all.

Back To Reality

2009-01-18T10:15:00.003-07:00

The Christmas break was wonderful, but now it is back to reality. That is the reality of school for the kids and myself as well as back to work. I really miss the time I was able to spend with my kids over our break. I love to stay home and play games, read books, do puzzles, and just be with family. In my opinion there is nothing better than spending all day with my three sweet children that God has blessed me with.

John's Leg

2008-12-31T12:10:00.002-07:00

John said that I needed to post and update on my blog about his leg. So that is what I am doing. For those of you that don't know the beginning part of the ordeal with Johns leg you can check my blog titled "My Poor Boy". John spent two months in the external fixator and once that was taken out he was put in a long leg cast. He was in the long leg cast for a month and we were told that if after the month was up his leg did not show improvement he would need a bone graph and plates put in his leg. Thank goodness when we went back to the doctor on the 22nd of Dec. we were told wonderful news. His leg is finally healing and he was put into a short leg cast. John was delighted to be able to have at least some movement with his leg again. He kept saying over and over, "I can bend my knee". We are all hoping that when John goes to the doctor at the end of Jan. that he will get his short leg cast taken off and finally be done with the long journey of healing his leg.

Christmas Eve & Day

2008-12-31T11:31:00.006-07:00

On Christmas Eve all played games and the one that stole the show was Rock Band. John loved playing the guitar, probably because it is similar to playing the violin.

Here we are all enjoying the wonderful food and playing Rock Band still. We also played pictionary with Christmas Carols and other Christmas words.

Christmas Eve Santa was busted at our house. He was making too much noise and it woke the dogs and I. I managed to sneak down our stairs and get a picture of him.

Here is our Christmas tree. It was one of the most perfect trees I had ever seen.

Jessica got a new coat and was modeling it for us.

John loves books.
He received some for Christmas as well as got a gift card to his favorite book store.

Abbi on her scooter. She and Jess both got a razor scooter from Santa.

Abbi and her Barbie, that is all she wanted for Christmas and she got a lot of Barbie items.

Dave and Josh were in town and got up early just to see the kids open presents.

John getting into his stocking. There was an MP3 player in there and he has loved putting all of his classical music and church hymns on it.

Jessica also had an MP3 player in her stocking. She has a wide variety of music on hers, from classic rock,church hymns, the Beach Boys, and Country songs.

Fun Things Leading up to Christmas

2008-12-30T21:36:00.007-07:00

Oh, the wonderful Christmas Programs. This was Abbi's first year and I was surprised that she sang out and was not shy.
Singing Jingle Bells with their bells a ringing, it was cute.

John loves to sing and is good at it. In one of the songs they sang all of the kids must have forgot the words, but their John was singing out nice and loud. It was as if he had a solo.

In this next picture Jessica was not too happy to see the camera.

With Christmas come all of the fun activities before hand. One of my favorites is the baking that we do and of course you have to make a gingerbread house. Now don't get all excited thinking that I made this completely on my own. My mom knew how busy I was and thought that making a gingerbread house would be a fun project for the kids and I to make. So, she bought a kit and we just had to put it together and decorate it.

The kids were so proud of the gingerbread house they made. I helped a little, but they did the decorating.

Christmas Eve we were at my mom's house. We did the same thing we always do. We eat, play games, sing songs, and enjoy one an others company. The kids always open on present Christmas Eve. This is of course the highlight of their night. This year Matt invited three of his buddies from work. They are all single guys with no family around. I was glad that Matt invited them so they would not be alone on Christmas Eve. So that this post does not end up being too long I will post pictures of Christmas Eve with pictures from Christmas day.

Christmas Pictures

2008-12-25T23:13:00.003-07:00

I usually take the kids Christmas pictures much earlier than on Christmas Eve. This year we have been very busy though and Christmas Eve is when they were finally taken. Here are my favorites from the Christmas 2008 photo shoot.

Abbi adores her big brother and insisted that she have her arm around John in this next shot.

Temple Square

2008-12-22T21:27:00.007-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to Salt Lake for my aunt's funeral. While I was there I decided to take advantage of it being close to Christmas time and we saw the lights at Temple Square. It has been at least eight years since I have had the privilege of seeing the beautiful display of lights and my girls have never seen them.

By the end of our walk around the girls were cold, but had loved seeing all of the lights. The funny thing is we left Temple Square and ended up at Leatherby's eating ice cream.

School

2008-12-19T15:30:00.002-07:00

So some have asked what I am going to school for. I am getting my Bachelors in Early Elementary Education with a double major for special education. I have always enjoyed working with children, but have a soft spot for children with special needs and just love to be around them. A few years ago I did some volunteer work for and equine therapy group that helped disabled children learn to ride horses. I think this is what initially sparked my interest in working with children who have special needs. I am hoping that my education will also help me when I have time to volunteer in equine therapy again. Right now I am too busy with family, school, work, and church callings to do any volunteering. Someday I will have more spare time though and I will most definitely find an equine therapy group to volunteer my time.

FINALS ARE OVER!!!

2008-12-17T21:36:00.002-07:00

I feel so much better now that my finals are done and over with for this semester. I think that I will actually be able to focus on my family, church callings and catching up on my blog site. My poor children and Matt have felt neglected for about the past two weeks as all I have done in my spare time is study and homework. I think that they may be as relieved as I am that they are over with.

Snowstorm

2008-11-08T19:15:00.005-07:00

Wednesday night we had a big snowstorm that continued into Thursday. We only received about ten inches of snow, but the wind blew like crazy. As a result we had drifts in our yard that were about five feet high.

Here are some pictures of the girls playing in the snow Saturday night. It was significantly warmer on Friday and Saturday and some of the snow melted. You can still see how much snow there is though in these pictures.

Jessica was trying to slide down on her stomach, but I think she went face first instead.

Matt and I loved this storm because it allowed us to miss two days of work. Two wonderful days in the house staying warm with our kids and playing games. There is not any other way I would rather spend my days than with my kids.

Halloween

2008-11-08T18:54:00.004-07:00

AHHH!!! Halloween night. This happens to be one of Matt's favorite holidays. This year we had a party at our house and Matt did a scavenger hunt for the kids.

Jessica was going for a beautiful, kind witch, but she still wanted dark makeup around her eyes. So that is what she got.
The picture that is dark is of a coffin that Matt made and inside the coffin is a very scary looking pirate. The scarecrow and the raven were part of the hunt as well. They all received the first clue and then had to find nine more. The last clue led all of them to Matt who was dressed like a pirate. They then received a riddle the first to solve the riddle got a treasure map. This map led them to a hidden treasure.

John was a pirate because we thought that he had a perfect peg-leg. While we were out trick-or-treating some people thought that his broken leg and the pins were all a part of the costume. It was kind of funny to see some peoples reactions when we told them it was real.

Here are Abbi and Reagan dressed as beautiful princess'

Matt did an awesome job painting John's face.

Abbi thought she was very special Halloween day because not only did she get to wear her costume to school she also got to wear some of mommy's makeup.

Crazy Hair Day

2008-11-08T18:44:00.004-07:00

Only the kindergarten classes were allowed to wear their costumes on Halloween day to school. The older kids had a crazy hair day instead.

Jessica had five ponytails in her hair.

John has very long hair right now because of his broken leg. We have not figured out what would be the easiest way to cut it since his leg cannot bend at all and we do not want hair to get in his bandages. His long hair was good for crazy hair day though.

Pumpkin Carving

2008-11-08T18:27:00.007-07:00

I know it has been a while since Halloween and the time we actually carved pumpkins, but I am just now getting around to putting them on here. The first pictures are of the finished Jack-o-lanterns. We thought they all turned out well.

John designed and cut out his all by himself.

Abbi did a cat, it is kind of dark in this picture though.

Jessica did a skull.

Here we are getting our hands dirty in cleaning out the pumpkins. Jess thought it was gross and was pulling some very funny faces.

After cleaning and carving five pumpkins we had a lot of pumpkin seeds that we roasted and enjoyed eating.

My Poor Boy

2008-10-02T21:40:00.004-06:00

Monday night at football John was tackled and broke his leg. He did a doosie as you can see. He broke his tibia and fibula about three inches above his ankle. He spent three hours in surgery and now has a screw that will permanently be in his tibia. The external fixture will be in his leg for at least six weeks. We are counting this as a blessing though. When they did the x-ray they found that John has a benign tumor just below where the break occurred in his tibia. This tumor weakened the bone and is likely the cause of the break happening in the first place and certainly the cause of the break being as severe as it is. John's orthopedic surgeon said that tumor may heal itself along with the broken leg, but they are going to keep a very close eye on it over the next couple of months. His football career is done though as the doctor does not recommend him playing contact sports ever again.

John has really amazed us with how high his spirits have been these past couple of days. He has been very good as Matt and I figure out how to be nurses and take care of him. Matt has been doing a great job at giving him bathes, but we have told John not to get to use to being treated like a King.

A Day in The Life of The Hatch Family

2008-09-28T19:57:00.003-06:00

I have recently felt like a chicken with its head cut off due to our busy schedule. I thought it would be fun to post what a typical day is like in our household.

Wake up for Matt and I is 5:30
Matt goes on the base and works out with his squadron and I work out at home
6:15 I head upstairs to get in the shower and ready for work
6:45 wake up girls and get them ready for school
7:00 John gets in the shower and gets ready for school
7:15 Matt returns from his work out and gets in the shower
7:30 we all eat breakfast
7:50 we are all out the door, Matt off to work, I take the kids to school
8:00 I leave the school and go to work
2:00 I get off of work and pick up Abbi
2:55 John and Jessica get out of school
3:00 do any homework that John and Jessica might have
3:30 snack time
4:45 John gets ready for football
5:00 make dinner
5:15 Leave for football practice or game
5:30 the girls and I eat dinner, Matt and John are off at football and eat when they get home
6:00 on Tuesday and Thursday we all go to John's football games
7:00 Mon. Tue. and Wed. school for mommy starts
8:15 Bedtime for the kids, Matt has this duty by himself three nights a week now
8:30 free time for Matt every night and for myself on the nights that I don't have school
10:00 I arrive home from school on the nights that I have class
10:30 bedtime for mommy and daddy

This is a typical weekday in our household. Just typing it out is enough to make my head spin. I also have a very busy church schedule as I was just called to be the First Counselor in the Relief Society. With this busy schedule I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful husband and three wonderful children. If it were not for them I would not be able to manage my life as well as I do.

Ahh!! Football

2008-09-28T19:43:00.003-06:00

John is playing football for the first time. He really did not want to play, but I thought it would be good for him. He kind of needed some roughing up and learning how to be a boy. He was not to happy at first, but after the first practice he decided that he loves it.
Here is John in his practice jersey. He practices two nights a week for an hour and a half. After the first full week of football he came home really sore, but with a huge smile on his face as he was telling me all about the fun things they do at football practice. He loves doing the drills.
Here is John at his first game, he is number 25. He is a striper and for those of you that don't know what that means he is a defense man. They classify you by your weight and he made the weight requirement by one pound. He plays right guard.
For those of you that don't know John that well, he is the most kind hearted, gentle boy that I have ever known. For about the first two weeks of football he would apologize every time he tackled someone. He now thinks that it is great that he can go out there and tackle someone and take out some of his frustrations and not get in trouble for it, he actually gets told good job. I believe that football is quickly becoming one of his favorite sports.

First Day of School

2008-09-28T09:09:00.004-06:00

Yes it has been almost a month since school started, but it has been a very busy month for me. I am also in school and have classes three nights a week. John is playing football and that keeps up busy four nights a week. This is why I am just now getting to put a blog up for the first day of school.
John is in the fifth grade and that means that it is his last year in Elementary school. I cannot believe he will be in middle school next year, my little boy is growing up and is not so little anymore. He is only 3 inches shorter than I am.

He was thrilled that school was starting. Summers are not his favorite because he cannot go to school and he loves to learn.
Jessica did not like having her picture done on the first day of school, this is the only one that I managed to take of her. She was too excited to go to school and just wanted to be on her way. Jessica is in the third grade now. She has the same teacher as John when he was in the third grade. I was very pleased with this because she is a great lady. Her name is Lori Reurink.
Abbi is in Kindergarten, I can't believe it. Yes, that means that all three of my children are in school now. Abbi loves kindergarten and really enjoys meeting new friends.
Abbi, is my princess and loves to dress up pretty. This is the outfit that she wanted to wear for the first day of school even though it was very warm that day (it was about 90).

Spearfish Park

2008-08-23T22:09:00.005-06:00

One of the things I love about living here are all of the great parks. Spearfish park is one of our favorites here. We do not get to go as often as we would like because it is about 40 minutes away. However we went on Thursday and had so much fun. Jessica found some mud and this girl loves mud. Here she is bringing me a mud cake she made for me.

The water was a bit cold at first, but refreshing. It was 100 degrees on this particular day.

We had a wonderful day!!!!!

Hot Summer Days

2008-08-23T10:40:00.004-06:00

One of our favorite places to go during the summer is to Canyon Lake Park. It has wonderful playgrounds and lots of room for the kids to run. The best part of the park is the little stream that runs through it. It is the perfect place for them to cool off on hot days.

On this particular day Abbi was having fun splashing in the water while Jessica and John caught crawdads. We now have two pet crawdads from the trip to the park. They reside in John's room in a tank. We will see how long they survive the constant handling from the kids.
Jess sitting on the side of the stream watching John catch the crawdads. In a later post I will have to put some pictures up of the crawdads they caught.

The Fair Is In Town!!

2008-08-23T10:16:00.008-06:00

The kids were thrilled when we told them that the fair was in town. It has always been a hightlight of the summer for them. It means fun animals to see, crafts to do, carnival rides to go on, and their favorite "the rodeo". Here they are painting some ceramics at the fair.

The kids love to go on the big slide. This is one of the few things that Jessica likes to go on. It amazes me though because she is afraid of heights.

John loves all of the rides at the fair. One of his favorites is a ride called the Hang Glider. Here he is all strapped in ready to fly.

Abbi is too short to go on many of the rides, but she loves the merry-go-round because she can ride a horse.

Falling Asleep

2008-08-07T18:36:00.000-06:00

After a long day at the park and playing in the river Abbi was apparently exhausted. We got home and she wanted to watch some TV, I told her that was fine but please put on some dry clothes first. She instead put her towel on the couch and started watching TV. Not much longer this is what I found.

Photo Shoot

2008-08-04T14:30:00.000-06:00

We went to the park the other day and I did a photo shoot with the kids. These are some of my favorite.

Jessica loves to pose for the camera, usually they are funny, but this one turned out cute.

I have too many favorites of John in this shoot, he is a photogenic young man.
Jessica looks way too old in this photo, but I love it.

I managed to get a couple of good shots of the three of them.

John and Jessica both wear glasses and they are transition lenses. They would not stay light so in most of the pictures they do not have them on. This one John obviously does, but I still like the picture.

Hatch Family

2008-07-27T15:34:00.000-06:00

I decided since many of my family memebers were starting blog sites that it would be fun to start one of our own. With Matt being in the Air Force many of our family members and friends live far from us and this is a fun way to keep family and friends updated on what is happening in our lives.