Before....

...and After

Much better. Andrew wanted a Facebook account so bad he was willing to cut his hair. I love it.

Costumes

If you want to borrow any of these, let me know. I also have a few other costumes that I need to get pictures of. If you want to know what they are before I get the pictures up just give me a call.

Not For Another 2 Years at Least

Today I had the privileged of fulfilling my civic duty. I was summoned to jury duty for this week. I reported today at 8:45 am. We listened to lots of instructions and answered a lot of questions. I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the 8 jurors. I have never served on a jury before, and was pretty nervous at first. However I was lucky enough to also finish today. The case was very cut and dry and we all wondered why it was even brought to court. The defendant was charged with escaping official custody. I was hoping to be done by 11 am, but once I was selected, I knew it would be longer. During our first break, I was calling to make arrangements for the boys in case they got home before I was done. A plan was set in place, but we ended up not needing it. We reached a verdict quickly and were done by about 2:40. I made it home before the boys. Thank you to Kamra who willing watched Kiana for me all day today. You are a lifesaver.

I was lucky however that I was not selected for the other trial that was going on this week. As we were all leaving, our bailiff told us that the other one was a murder trial.

12 Years and Counting

Kevin and I celebrated our 12th anniversary on September 4th. Kevin had not made it to a REAL game yet this year, and they happened to have a home game that night. I called and got us some tickets. Kevin was very excited. Thanks mom for taking the kids for us. Thanks to Kelly for taking our picture for us, and thanks to REAL SALT LAKE for winning the game.
Thanks Kevin for an amazing 12 years that have just flown by and I look forward to the next 12. I love you. Happy Anniversary.

Read Today Book Fair

This summer the boys participated in a program called Read Today. It was sponsored by The Deseret News Companies (KSL). They had fun reading over the summer. Andrew read over 6000 minutes and Jared was just shy of 3000 minutes. I am so proud of them. So the Saturday after school started, we went to their book fair were Andrew and Jared both got meed Lt. Greg Bell and Olene Walker as well as Nadine Wimmer. Andrew was one of the top 50 readers in the state. They have had such great success, that they are continuing it year round so get your elementary kids registered. We gave notes to each of the boys teachers at back to school night and also to the principal so that we can hopefully get greater participation from more of our students.

They had a prize drawing and Jared won a book.

Jared also got to be News Anchor.

They also got to meet Brandon Mull. He signed some bookmarks for them.
Later I stood in line and all of our Fablehaven books autographed. In the 5th book, he wrote a special note to Andrew. He has a new series coming out soon that we cannot wait to read. It is called "Beyonders".

Mom and Kiana sitting in the shade while Andrew, Jared and Dad listened to Brandon Mull talk.

It was a fun day. The boys also got free backpacks with pen, pencils and erasers inside. Those backpacks are going to be turned into 72 hour kits for them.

First Day of School 2010

Sorry, it took so long to post this, our computer has been having a few problems so the pictures were unavailable for a while.

The boys were excited to start school again. Jared a little more than Andrew. We could definitely tell school has started again, because it is chilly in the mornings now. Fall is almost here. Where did the summer go?

Jared is in 3rd grade and has Mrs. Paur for a teacher. He seems to really like her.
Andrew is a big 6th grader and has Mr. Rounds for his teacher. We are very excited Andrew is in his class. He really likes him. I cannot believe that I have a 6th grader. It seems like just yesterday I put him on the Kindergarten bus. Jr. High next year and I am NeRvOUs!!!!

Here they are walking to the bus stop.
They both had a great first day and also a great first week. So far Andrew has been great at filling out his planner, getting homework done and turning it in. I hope this trend continues.