Zak turns 4!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZAK!!!

Well today my Zak is a big 4 year old. I can't believe he is growing up so quick. We had a little birthday party with 3 of his friends, and he had the time of his life. I love when he is so entertained by simple, easy things. We had a great time. We love you Zakky!

What a Week

Wow, what a week we have had. Brian, Amber and Les started school, we have had all 3kids to the doctor, medicine for 2 of them, Amber to the dentist, and some really weird diagnosis. Les finally seems to be doing better, although not completly there yet. Zak just had a minor rash that is almost better now. Amber has a funny lump in her cheek. We took her to the dentist becuase we thought it might be a tooth problem, but he said there was nothing he could do for it. He said that it was behind her jaw, probably her parotid gland. So off we went to the medical doctor. He confirmed that it was her parotid gland that was swollen, but that there is no reason to know why. He put her on an antibiotic in case it was caused by a bacteria, but said that if it was caused by a virus or a plug, that wouldn't help...I guess we just wait and see. It is pretty tender for her. I only hope this isn't a sign of what the school year is going to bring for us. I still don't have pictures of the kids heading to school for this school year.

Zak will start school on Wednesday, and is very excited. Hopefully we won't have anymore stragne illnesses that keep him out.

Crazy Kids

Wow, I have funny kids. He must get it from his Daddy!

First Day of School

We have already had an eventful day today, and it is only 9:00 AM. It is the first day of school at our house! Les threw up before 8:00 this morning, I think he is really nervous about 1st grade. He almost started to cry when I told him good-bye. On the walk to school, Amber got a bloody nose, fortunately, it wasn't too bad. I didn't get pictures because I was worrying too much about wether or not I should let Les go to school since he has been sick anyway. I sure hope the day gets better from here.

Congratulations Scott & Tami

Scott and Tami added a new little one to their family on Thursday. This makes six kids for them! If I understand correctly, his name is Isaac Matheson Baird. I haven't seen him yet, but Mom says he has really thick black hair. Congratulations Scott & Tami!

My Pictures

I have spent the last few days moving all of my pictures off of my old computer before I lose them completely. I have put my favorites on the slideshow in the top right corner of this blog. Take a look, I'm sure that they won't mean the same to you as they do to me, but I decided to share them anyway.

We just got another picture of Amber with Corbin Bleu. She wanted it since the other one didn't look as much like him with his hat on!
He was signing her backstage pass!

Zak's been tagged!

OK, it was really Les that was tagged, but he didn't want anything to do with it, so he said Zak could do it.

1. What is something your mom/dad always says to you? “Clean your room” (unfortunately, it never seems to happen when mom says it)
2. What makes your mom/dad happy? “Cleaning our room”
3. What makes mom/dad sad? “Not telling the truth”
4. How does your mom/dad make you laugh? “Saying funny things”
5. What was your mom/dad like as a child? “Daddy was silly, and Mommy was silly too”
6. How old is your mom/dad? “Dad is 18, and Mom is 17”
7. How tall is your mom/dad? “Dad is long, and mom is short”
8. What is your mom/dad's favorite thing to do? “Not clean your room”
9. What does your mom/dad do when you're not around? “Make their beds”
10. If your mom/dad becomes famous, what would it be for? “Art” (WOW, he is obviously too young to realize that neither of us got any artistic ability)
11. What is your mom/dad really good at? “Daddy is good at yo-yo-ing and does a good job at it, and mom taking pictures” (I don’t think I’ve ever seen Brian yo-yo!)
12. What is your mom/dad not so good at? “I don’t know” (My kids think I’m perfect still!)
13. What does mom/dad do for a job? “Daddy makes staves, Mom works for Ben Franklin” (I can tell Daddy’s been out of school all summer. I don’t think Zak realizes that Daddy goes to school to teach, he thinks Dad goes to school like Amber and Les go to school as students every day.)
14. What is your mom/dad's favorite food? “What is your favorite food mom? You like to eat pizza, Daddy likes to eat corn on the cob”
15. What makes you proud of your mom/dad? “Make us dinner”
16. If your mom/dad was a cartoon character, who would they be? “Maybe Bob the Builder, he’s funny” (We’ve been remodeling the bathroom all summer)
17. What do you and your mom/dad do together? “Play games”
18. How are you and your mom/dad the same? “White skin” (He now realizes that Marsh, Mark and Ty’s skin is different)
19. How are you and mom/dad different? “You’re a mom, Dad’s a dad, and I’m a brother”
20. How do you know your mom/dad loves you? “Lets just do I don’t know”

Sunday Visitor

A funny thing happened Sunday afternoon at our house. We had a visitor in the Dining room.

He pecked a hole in the window screen and then got stuck between the window and the blinds. He kept trying to fly through the window, but of course that didn't work. Brian pulled out the screen to try to get him out the window without getting him any further into the house, but the blinds moved just enough that he fell to the floor, and Brian was able to pick him up!

Amber meets Corbin Bleu

The highlight of Amber's Month...Corbin Bleu. She was able to go to his concert at the Weber county fair, and get a backstage pass to meet him! (For those of you who don't know Corbin, he is one of the main stars of High School Musical.) Wow, now won't she be the envy of every tween girl! She had so much fun. She got her CD and backstage pass autographed, and Radio Disney was there with posters autographed by all of the High School Musical stars.

Woodbadge & Family Camp

Wow, what a week we had. Brain attended Woodbadge training, and the rest of us went to the Family Camp that our Council does once a year with Woodbadge.

Brian was assigned to the Eagle patrol, and had a great time in his training and with the others that he associated with. He learned a lot, and is looking forward to earning his beads. His goal is to have them about the time Saundra & Lynn return from their mission next spring.

Family camp had some amazing things planned for the spouses to do while our kids were off to their activities. Horseback riding was probably my favorite thing that I did, and I hope that when the pictures are available, there is some from that trip. I also got to go repelling, river running, and kayaking and canoeing on the lake. The repelling scared me to death, but I was proud of myself for doing it. I have never done anything like that, and I wish we would have had time to do more! I made some great friends, that I hope to keep in contact with. We'll see how that goes, I'm not very good at that.




Amber had a lot of fun at the Archery range. She enjoyed trying those new things. She was in the 8-9 year old girls group. Along with archery, she got to shoot BB guns, swim, go on the lake in the row boats, canoes and sail boat. She also got to go to the nature lodge at camp, and participate in Indian Lore and arts and crafts. She had fun meeting new girls her age and socializing with them. I don't know how many e-mail addresses she got, but I know there were several.

Les enjoyed having a few boys his age around. I don't think that it would have taken anything more than that to keep him happy. But to add to his fun he also got to participate in all the fun things that Amber did. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of pictures, because I was off doing fun things while the kids were in their groups. But there were camp photographers whose job was to catch all the pictures we couldn't. So I am waiting on those pictures to be ready so that I can get some of them.

Zak was in the Small-Fry group it had a lot of 3-4 year olds in it. He had lots of fun doing pre-school type activities. He got to go to the Nature lodge, and participate in Indian Lore. Otherwise, that age group spent most of their time in their campsite playing on the playground that was brought in, watching movies, and exploring. Their favorite thing to do was play in the dirt...and there was plenty of that around. For their skit, they sang Five Little Monkeys..it was SO cute!

After we left Camp Bartlett, we went to Star Valley Wyoming so Brian could have some time to fish on the stream. We also took the kids fishing at the lake.

While Brain fished the stream, we stayed back at camp, and the kids played in a stream that went through the camp site.

While the kids fished at the lake in the evening, I got bored and took pictures.

Isn't it amazing the things that have been put on this earth by our Heavenly Father for us to Enjoy. I always love to go to the lake when we go with Brian on his fishing trips, and we are always grateful that he takes fishing seriously (family joke) enough to take us along. I know that we cut into his stream time, but I am glad that he wants us there.


It's no wonder the Simmons have been fishing here for so many years. It is a beautiful area, even if there are bears...hehehe.