Happy Birthday Tyson!

My little boy turned 18 today! I can't believe how fast time flies! We started off the celebration with a birthday party at the Mendon Station two days before his birthday. He had a bunch of friends come. We set up the Wii on the projector and they played Just Dance 2. Tyson's favorite game. It was so fun watching everyone dance. I don't why, but the pictures look like it was snowing inside. They also played games, danced and ate!

The next day they went to the BYU - USU Hockey game. (see previous post)

Finally on his birthday, he opened gifts. A favorite was the guitar shirt. Yes it really plays!

Last, we ate cake. Eclair cake ofcourse!

Be Passionate or Stay Home!

One thing our family really likes is USU Hockey! USU vs BYU. Always a great game! USU won of course! The teachers and priest went from our ward. Jessi went with Cydnee Haws. Shonee and I were missing. We had a girls night and went to see Tangled!

7th grade is a Killer!

I just survived my 4th 7th grade book publishing project. Shonee had to miss the bus while we finished, but she made it to school and turned the project in! (breathe a sigh of relief!) For anyone that doesn't know, our middle school English students publish a book in 7th grade. We are not just talking about writing a story and stapling the pages together. This is a full blown, hard back, full color, published book. (I should have Shonee read that sentence...she is also studying adjectives :) ) Jessi caught the vision years ago. She spent a lot of time on her story and convinced me to illustrate it. I thought how hard could it be...right? Hours and hours later and many color pencils later, I was done. And "Frozen Paradise" was turned in. (It was a little late. I begged Mrs. Lyon for more time.) She turned it in and we waited. When we got the book back, I was shocked at the quality! Wow! I was glad we had worked so hard.....Little did I know.

Note to parents....Remember how many kids you have. What you do for one, you must do for another. I had completely forgotten the ordeal when Tyson entered 7th grade. I guess it is a little like Child Birth, you don't remember so you try again. After a little labor, it all comes back to you. Well that's what happened with his book. After starting the first picture, it all came back. I did finish however, and "One Wild Day" made it to school. It was a few days late, but Mrs. Lyon forgave me...She knew me.

When Justin entered 6th grade I started to panic. I still remembered! As his 7th grade year got closer, I got the chills. Was I up to another project? I did change out of my college art degree for a reason, right! But kids get older and he did make it to 7th grade. We started his project. Hours and hours later, we finished. I am sure Mrs. Jenks talked to Mrs. Lyon about this mother that was late with her sons book. But she let us turn it in late as well. "Running with the Pack" got published.

Of course I have dreaded Shonee's 7th grade year as well. But I started asking about the project early. "Are you doing a book?" "When is it due?" "Ask your teacher". The problem is Shonee often has no clue what she is doing in school. I don't say that in a mean way, she is just usually in a blissful state of obliviousness. She finally brought her packet home, just before Christmas......but she didn't tell me. When school started again after Christmas break, I told her to ask her teacher. She got a sheepish look on her face and retrieved the packet from her room. Panic...."When is it due?"..."I don't know?"......"Where we supposed to work on it over the break?"......."I don't know?"......"Do you have to take it back today?"....."I don't know?". I fired off an email to her teacher. She sent me back an email saying it was due on the 14th but Shonee could get extra credit if turned in on the 12th. I usually push my kids to do extra credit, but I knew there was no way. I was hopeful that I could finish by the 14th. (Mrs. Peterson doesn't know me). I worked and worked. I worked all day on the 13th, my hands hurt. Shonee came home and I was still working. Three hours later I was still working. I didn't cook dinner 'cause I was still working. Eventually Shonee came up to me and showed me her hand. Written in black permanent marker it said "Book due January 18". I was initially relieved......but then "You have been watching me panic, and feverishly draw and you didn't tell me until now?"......"I forgot, I just saw my hand". Then she hugged me, thanked me for doing her project and told me I was the best mom ever. How can you get mad? Eventually I finished. Like I said earlier, she missed the bus, (thanks Grandpa for taking her) but "Christmas Memory" did make it to school on time!

One more kid left. Maybe I can get Brecken to start in 4th grade. But seriously, I know my self. I will still be begging for more time in the end. Just like sewing prom dresses.....But that is another story.

Eagle Project

Tyson has been busy working on earning his Eagle Scout. He started his project last saturday.
There was a lot of work going on, but a lot of playing also. He is creating an inventory of all of the light and sound equipment that Mendon City owns. He will then create a manual so people know how to set-up, use, take-down, and put away the equipment. He just got signed off on his personal management merit badge last night. Now he just has to complete his Communications, and Citizenship in the World Merit badges and get his Swimming blue card signed.......This is going to be a busy month! I recommend to all parents and prospective Eagles.....Don't wait until two weeks before you turn 18!

Who cares if it is warmer!

Jessi got back from Houston yesterday. She had a ball and I had fun listening to her stories. It sounds like she had a great time. One problem. She kept mentioning gong back. It makes me sad. I know we have to all let go sometime. I know my kids aren't going to all stay here in my happy little valley. But I really don't want to hear how another place is better. It makes the inevitable seem closer. I want to remain in my happy little dream world of what I my future to hold.

But I guess we can't pass on our own dreams, we have to let them make their own!

Rockin out in Idaho

We had an awesome time in Idaho. We went to Briton's house and he got out his vintage guitars. Tyson and Justin were in Heaven!

This is a Fender Jaguar. I think it was valued at over $5000.

Tyson and Justin couldn't believe they were playing a Gibson Les Paul Custom 1957. Only 150 of these guitars were made. I asked Ty how a $250,000 guitar was to play. . . . He told me a lot better then his!

It was awesome to hear Uncle Leon and Briton play together! You can tell they have spent a lot of time on the guitar.

After Briton's house we went to Aunt Loa's and Arlen and Karla's. It was great to be with family and attend Kelly's farewell the next day. But I can't believe we didn't take one picture! What is wrong with us? Good Luck Kelly!

Knots in a Cherry Stem!

Tyson's band had their first real "Gig". They played an opening show for Me3 at Why Sound in Logan. They sounded awesome! They sang "Will you" (Lyric's by Todd, music by Tyson), "Thank you" (written by Raistlin), "Kissing in the Rain" (written by Tyson), "Drift Away" (This is a cover and I know I should know the band....but I can't remember), "Compatible" (written by Tyson), "Happy Now" (lyric's by Matt, music by Tyson) and "Julia" (written by Tyson).

They were great! Believe me! I have had them practicing in my basement for the last year and they are sounding great....Now!
They play another show on February 11, at Why Sound. They are the headlining band that day. I think they are going to sing two new songs they are working on called "Satan's Lie" and "Stay Gold".

Walkin' on the Wild Side

We have really enjoyed the wild turkeys and Phesants that have been visiting our yard this year. I counted 18 turkeys in our yard yesterday. Four were on our front porch. We have had as many as 15 Phesants and at least four on our deck eating out of the bird feaders at a one time.

Thank Goodness for Blogs!

Oh how I wish I had been blogging since 2002 and that I kept up blogging in 2010. Most of you might know our latest story. It all began last October. Or maybe that is where it ended. I had been so diligent with keeping our pictures organized. I had everything organized in Years, Months, and events. Todd had been so busy all year scanning in old Oswald family slides. He and Sherrie had identified and labeled them all. He was almost done photo editing them as well as the several files of antique photos we had scanned from Grandma Rhodehouse. I spent most of the year scanning in negatives from 1989 to 2002. I also diligently had them backed up on a large portable hard drive. Then came our mistake.... One day I noticed Todd "fixing" photos straight on the back up drive. I knew when I backed up our photos from the computer to the portable his "fixed" files would be erased. So I merged the back up drive with the main computer. In the process I filled up the hard drive on the computer. I then copied everything from the computer back to the hard drive. I compared both folders and confirmed that all was well. We had 53,000 files. Here comes the big mistake. I deleted everything off of the main computer. It was full and I couldn't do anything on it. I decided to delete everything then make a back up on the main computer with a zip drive from the portable hard drive. Are you still with me? Sounds smart right? Well not so. While in the process of making this back up zip file, my portable hard drive crashed. We couldn't access it at all. We took it in to a local computer recovery place. They told us to turn off our computer and quit using it until they could see what they could recover from the portable. 9 weeks later they told us they recovered 12,000 files. Not the same as 53,000 but better then nothing. They told us it crashed bad. There was damage to the disks and that they couldn't access the 6th disk at all. I queasily paid the $850 and took my files home. At home we found that many of those 12,000 files were corrupt. Many others were thumbnails only. Later I was able to get around 13,000 files from an old computer and another 6,000 off of this computer. So now we have the daunting task of sorting through over 30,000 files. No file structure was saved. No order. We have Brecken's birth next to Jessi's graduation. Everything is messed up. We also have thousands of files from facebook profiles, and album art that were recovered. We have to go through each of those also.
Miracles have happened though. I found some disks that Todd had backed up in 2005. So it looks like we have everything up to that point. Todd also found a box of favorite slides he saved from his family slides. I never threw away our negatives that I scanned in so we can redo that as well. I am now digitizing our boxes full of video tapes so that I can figure out when some of these photos occurred so I can get in order again. Then there is the miracle of blogging...I have all these photos from March 2009 to September 2009. If that isn't incentive to blog again I don't know what is... The moral of this story? Back up, Back up, Back up. We were told to have our files in at least three different locations on different types of media. By the way facebook doesn't count. It saves the files at a very low resolution. An now a plea from me. If you have pictures of our family from 2005 to present, could you send them to me. I will be forever grateful! Also if you have any old Oswald photos, (Leon and Trenna's Kids) I would love to get those together again. I promise they will be well taken care of. .... And double, triple, quadruple, backed up.

Where has my life been?

I got on Lezlie's blog to get a recipe today. I saw a link to my blog that referenced Brecken's birthday. I have to admit that seems like a lifetime ago. So my New Year's Resolution is to begin my blog again. Wait New Years was a lifetime ago also. Well anyway. I hope to put stuff on now and then. That way in 10 years when I am trying to scrapbook 2010 I might know what happened.

Happy Real Birthday Brecken!

After Time Out for Women and the homecoming game, we went to The Keen's for cake and ice cream! Thanks Carrie!

Mustang Homecoming!

We have school spirit! What more can we say! Justin and Tyson went to the game with friends. Todd took Shonee and Brecken. It was a great game and ofcourse Mountain Crest won! 16 to 6! Nikki and Jessi were enjoing a relaxing time at Time Out for Women.

Happy Birthday Brecken! Grandma! Jackie! David!

We celebrated Brecken, Grandma and Jackie's birthday today. Brecken's is actually tomorrow but we like to celebrate together. David is in Florida but hopefully will make it back for his birthday on saturday. Brecken enjoyed his new soccer goal, ball, bike helmet, lock, and treats! Thanks to everyone! He is excited to get to wear his new bear neckerchief to pack meeting next week where he will get a lot of awards!

Brecken made a candle at the American West Heritage center on his field trip yesterday. He made sure he used that one right in the middle of his cake.

Notice the tall candle in the center!

Grandma had fun too!



Jackie blowing out her candles. Grandma had to leave to go to a meeting.

Blacksmith Fork

We went to Blacksmith Fork where the rest of the Skinner family had been camping. We enjoyed a 4-wheel ride up to the spring. Thanks Dad and Steve!

We had a little friend show up. Grandma didn't like him much!

Updating Done!

I got caught up! Just a few pictures to add when I get them from Jessi!

Rendezvous and Fossil Butte

Todd and the kids went to Fort Bridger and to Fossil Butte today and Bear Lake today. Tyson was sick when he got up so I stayed home with him. We initially wanted to dig fossils but were a little sticker shocked when we found out how much it would cost. We do plan on doing sometime though. We will just have to save up the money!