Fire And Blood.. (not necessarily in that order)

So Steven absolutely LOVES fires! To build fires, play with fires and the bigger the flame and the hotter the coals the Better! So for Family Home Evening Steven brought his firepit up on the deck and he built quite the fire! I seriously thought the 8 foot flames with an east wind were going to catch the house on fire. He brought it down a notch or two. I am certain the glares he received from me had nothing to do with that!

So a camp fire is cozy and fun to roast marshmallows and make smores but it comes with a price. The lovely camp fire smell absorbs in not only your clothes but your hair too! Now I am not opposed to sitting around a nice warm fire and chattin' but when I have just washed my hair and it actually turned out good for once I was relunctant to join the family by the fire. I did give in and went out and enjoyed Stevens oh so warm fire. I took a few photos to document the occassion. See his blue coals... the stick he is using to poke at the coals is about 2 feet shorter than when he started.
We all came in after a bit and I tell ya, that camp fire smell really takes hold of everything. Steven kept telling me how good I smelled and to get over it. Until morning...
Steven wakes up sniffing.. pokes me and asks if I smell that. I said smell what? He said it smells like something is burning. He sniffs me and says oh my it is you! I reminded him that just last night he was telling me how amazing I smelled and that he really liked it!!! ( ya know, well enough to use as perfume) Needless to say I had to rewash our bed linens too! Oh my, the things i do for love!!

But isn't it a most awesome fire?

He has asked to build one everynight.. I told him I didn't mind but I wouldn't be joining him. He hasn't built one since.

So I had to throw this in... when I was taking my sister Chelle to the airport 3 1/2 weeks ago I was wearing sandals and tore my toenail back lifting her luggage up on the curb. I quickly flipped the nail back and wrapped it in some tissue I had in my car and drove home. In the 12 minute drive home my sandal and gas pedal were soaked with blood and the throbbing pain was near unbearable. I mean what do you even do for an injury like this?

For 3 weeks it hung on strong to the cuticle..

Finally... it came off! yay!!! I seriously never realized how sensitive a nail bed could be! I walked around with a limp for a couple weeks. I couldn't wear any shoes.. the pressure hurt too bad. But I would do it all again if my sister came to visit again! :)

Really I would!!!!

The Effect of soda pop on Teeth Science Project

So back before Christmas Break Cole and 2 classmates, Josh and Randy, started a science project for their Honors Science class. Originally Cole took the idea of what happens to a nail if it sits in a can of Coca Cola. Well his teacher declined that and said to use teeth. So these boys began by asking me for any teeth I might just happen to have laying around. Thank goodness the Tooth Fairy had left a few behind. They carefully measured out the exact amount of each of the sodas. They took pictures to document every step. They measured each tooth then put the teeth in. 24 hours later they took the teeth out and took more pictures and measurements. They as I was very alarmed at the discoloring after just one day. Here is a picture of the Mt. Dew tooth before

After... look how yellow the root of the tooth is already!
Here is the A&W Tooth ( ok I hit back space and the before picture disappeared? Has this ever happened to you? I have no idea how to get the picture back without starting all over and yeah... that is not going to happen) Sorry

It is not so bad after one day.

The Squirt Tooth Before...

After... it actually appears to be brighter.

The Coke tooth before.....

After... yikes!!

Pepsi before....

After...

for those of you who know me I LOVE Pepsi! I had no idea that if left sitting on the teeth it did this!
The boys continued this process for 8 days. The Coca Cola tooth is the darkest brown and decay is evident in the root of the tooth. The Pepsi tooth is also a dark brown but slightly less decay. The Mt. Dew tooth is completely bright yellow and decay starting in the root. The A&W tooth was a light brown with little decay and the Squirt tooth remained white and showed no sign of decay. Well this is good news for all of you Squirt and A&W drinkers. As for us Pepsi and coke lovers.... Brushing your teeth immediately after consuming is a marvelous idea!

Oh, back to what I was saying at the beginning. Their Teacher shot down the nail in Coke Thesis and gave them the tooth one. Guess What? Now they can not enter the Science Fair because they used the Human teeth. The Fair would have allowed the nail project. To make things even more frustrating since they cannot be in the Science Fair the best grade they can get and did get is a "B"! This Teacher has really hit some nerves this year! I tell you what... I am finding that Some High School Teachers are on a power trip! It is extremely frustrating. These boys put in several hours and time doing this project and their final Tri-Fold poster board was amazing! They deserve an A on this project!

Sierra's Like Totally Rad 80's Sweet Sixteen Birthday Party!

So The Theme for Sierra's Sweet 16 Party was A Totally 80's Flashback! I was really impressed that all of her friends came dressed in the Era! I am sure it helped that most of their parents were teens in the 80's! She invited, wait... back up, her friend Savanah handed out the invites for her party! Sierra is a silly girl. She felt awkward handing out her own invites.

(gotta love this girl)

Thank you Savanah for handing them out:)

Sierra is HOT!!!! Move over 80's Madonna!

Cole is sporting his Dad's Mt. View Letterman's jacket and football jersey. "The 80's jock"

Love the "Top Gun" sunglasses!

Danielle put on the "Michael Jackson" Jacket and grabbed the boom box! HOT!!!!!!

Grant and Kadyn bringing the 80's "SHORTS" back! You go boys!!!

Cassie, Sierra, Charmaine, Celena & Nicole

Charmaine, Celena and Nicole Again!

Like totally for sure!!!

Mikayla, Taylor, Grant, Kadyn, Savanah, Cassie, Celena, Macie & Sierra

Michael Jackson AKA Brandon Fast and Madonna AKA Sierra
Seriously, Brandon threw it down on the dance floor.. MJ would have been proud! He won the guys dance off! Totally Awesome Brandon!

So here is Rachelle's posse!!!

Moo-Moo, Young flight, Young Swagg & Jiga-Boii

The Dream of wearing a Hot Guys Lettermans jacket finally came true 20 years later!!!

LOL

See what I mean! HOT!!!!

I know after holding the heavy boom box we are so appreciative of the I-Pod!

Can you believe back in the day we would carry those things around to have music?!

Seriously, I should have posted some of the pictures of the kids trying to hold it at Sierra's party, they were struggling. Not quite sure how to hold it either!

Okay it is well after midnight and the party guests have left... ahhhh.... what a night! Thanks again Rachelle for helping me transform my house into The 80's Party place!

I am still laughing at where we put the love seat.. balancing between the washing machine and the counter across from it! (we had to move the couches to make room for the dance floor!) Dang, I should have put that picture on here!

Well I think that about 40 came to her party. I will consider it a success! Thanks to my Sister Rachelle! I could not have done it with out you! I love you :)

The Dinner before the BIG Surprise!

So after Sierra passed her driver's test we took her to Red Robin to celebrate! Steven had been keeping a big secret from her for 2 WHOLE months. Well to be honest he told a few people and word got around, but thankfully not back to Sierra or any of the other kids. So to set up the surprise Steven was to meet us at Red Robin because he was in a meeting (believable because lately that seems to be a daily thing) So He drove her present there and parked it on the other side of our Excursion so it was hidden. Meantime we all enjoyed a delicious dinner. Our waitress was very generous and hooked Sierra up with alot of balloons. Maddy, Rachelle, Sierra and Presley
Sierra even let them sing to her! And she got her complimentary ice-cream Sundae.

So now it was time for her to open her present. Steven and I agonized over and over on how to give her her present. This is what we came up with. I found a little die cast convertible BMW at Target ( the night before, I had been looking every where and had no luck) We stuck the key to her car in the box and wrapped it up. I can just only imagine what was going thru her mind when she opened it up. HA Ha nice joke Mom and Dad! well then her Grandpa told her to take it out of the box and the key fell out. She seemed a little puzzled then. Steven tried to play it off that maybe Target was having a big HooRaa that who ever gets the box with a key wins a car. Nice try Dad.. not buying it. Well, I snuck out of the restaurant and put the Big pink Bow on her car and waited with the video camera for them to come out.

I Don't know who was more excited? Sierra or her Daddy?

Sierra I think was in shock! She asked, "When do I have to give it back?" (thinking we rented it for a joke)

I think the best reaction we got from her was when she realized it was a convertible!

Happy Sweet Sixteen Sierra! You deserve nothing but the best!

Then it was cake time! Thanks to everyone that kept the secret and made it an awesome surprise for Sierra!

Funny little side note: Cole got a twinkle in his eye, the sparkle of hope for a car when he turns 16! Rachelle turns to Steven and says so what are you gonna get Cole? Stevens reply, um I got a couple of years to think about that one! UH... no you DON"T! you have 15 months! Now that look on Steven's face was worth a million! lol

Sierra Get's her Driver's License!

Okay so a little info leading up to this moment. Yes, she is all smiles in the photos below. That was not the case earlier in the day. Let me back up even further. Friday Sierra went and took her written test at the DMV. Happy day she passed! YAY. BUT... Sierra's little sister Syd brought the stomach flu home from school a day earlier. She passed it onto Cole and by Monday Sierra had it. Not good! Her Birthday was in 2 days! It was the first day of the new semester at school and she was already missing classes. We borrowed her Grandpa Lindhorst's PT Cruiser for her to take her drive test in. And she needed to drive it around to get the feel of it and to know where all of the buttons and gagets were on it. I am certain Sierra had lost 10 lbs. from vomiting. ( I know that just sounds gross )but Sierra does not have 10 lbs. to spare. With 2 days of no eating she was weak and still a bit under the weather. Sierra managed to make it to her afternoon classes, thank goodness because I had a big surprise to pick up from the airport that day! Auntie Rachelle! They were all surprised to see her when they got home from school or in Sierra's case when we picked her up. Well she drove the car around that afternoon picking up last minute stuff for her party. She felt better and had the confidence that she needed with Grandpa's car. So this brings me to the Big Day. February 3, 2010. The day had arrived and with it all her anxieties of taking her test. She felt that as long as it was not raining that she would be fine. Well, I arrive to pick her up from school and just then it decides to poor down rain. She did not have an umbrella and was distraught in the 50 feet from the school to the car. Needless to say she was in tears. I managed to calm her in the mile drive to the DMV. She had about 20 minutes until her actual test and thank Heaven it stopped raining. Believe me when I say that this was not the same girl that I picked up from school that day! She was sooo relieved to pass her test her whole persona changed. Huge confidence builder! And she looks gorgeous!( even after the rain)
Here is her "passed" driver's test paper!

Sierra pretending that this is her own car! LOL ( at this time she had no idea what was waiting for her!)

Sierra, I am so proud of you. You are a very safe driver!

Better Late Than Never! Happy 12th Birthday Madelynn!

Well like I just stated, better late than not at all. Madelynn turned "12" back on January 23rd. I now have 2 daughters in Young Women's with me :) YAY!

With Maddy being involved in many things it was difficult to squeeze in her party. We managed to fit it in on Friday the 22nd right after her softball practice. Then she had to be up early the next morning for a Basketball game. (we don't know how to do life any other way than BUSY) Maddy , her friends and her sisters(they are a packaged deal) played games; scatergories, guestures(Thanks Delaney) the spoon game and a few others. They ate pizza and chips and candy and seemed to have a blast! Thank you to all of her friends that were able to attend. In This photo: starting from the left: Maddie Sheehan, Maddie Huff, Delaney Jackson, Madelynn and Emily Rombach( Yes 3 Maddy's)
In this picture Maddy instigated the others to play with their chocolate cupcake! Madelynn has always enjoyed playing with her food, squeezing it through her fingers, squishing it through her teeth, wearing it all over her face and fingers!
I am a bit disappointed that I do not have more photos of Maddy's party. I delegated the picture taking to Steven and most came out a bit blurry :(
I did get a whole disc of video though :) (YAY ME)
On her actual birthday we took her and the family to Red Robin for dinner and then to see the movie The Tooth Fairy. It was alot of fun! Happy Belated Birthday Madelynn!

Crazy, Busy, Awful Beautiful Life!

Well I must say that I did not have any idea how crazy, busy life would be as my children hit their teens. First off, we have 2 computers.. Sierra and Cole do the majority of their assignments online in High School. So basically if I do not utilize the time they are at school on the computer I do not get to use the computer. Well unfortunatley other things take priority while they are at school and that puts me back to no computer time. I am soooo far behind on my blog. I feel just awful that I never blogged about Christmas, and New Years and Madelynn's 12th Birthday. And Sierra's sweet 16 Birthday. Right now it is 2:25pm and they will be home in approximately 10 minutes so obviously I will not get anything other than this tutoral posted today.
The 3 younger girls are all playing Basketball right now. Maddy is playing on the 6th grade team for Clear Creek Middle School. Sydnee is playing on a 5th grade YMCA team and Presley 2nd grade YMCA team. Cole is playing on our wards team. So Saturdays are filled with games.
I do intend to catch up... hopefully I will get some computer time later, only have one kid with basketball practice tonight! Fingers crossed!
Oh, And Rachelle, Thank you again for making the trip up here for Sierra's birthday! I could not have pulled off her party with out you! You are the best! Love ya!

19th Annual Gopher Boat Race

Every year The GHS Science Dept. Host a Boat race/ competition for any Freshmen students.. offered as an Extra Credit Project. There were more than 20 boats that entered. They could do it by themselves or have a partner. Cole chose to do it with his friend Randy Thompson. They spent approximately 8 hours designing and building their boat. The object of this competition was for the students to make their boats using only, plastics, cardboard, pvc pipes, recycled plactic materials and tape. And for the boat to be able to hold them and paddle the length of the pool. They were each timed on their speed, and judged on their design. And lastly which boat could hold the most people and make it across the pool. As you will see in these pictures that the students were very creative. I would say that out of the 20, only 7 of them made it across the pool before they sunk or their boat fell apart. It was very entertaining and fun to watch. I over heard one of the teachers say that this was their largest turnout. The bleachers were full of spectators cheering for their friends. As i mentioned they had to use paddles to get across. some of the designs of the boats could have made it if they could have just used their hands and feet.
The majority of the boaters got wet.

Like this one
This red boat is awesome. I am pretty certain it had the 2nd best time.. and design. These girls did a great job.
For most of the boaters the most difficult part was getting in their boats with out tipping them over.

Okay I really don't know how I got this picture in there twice... I am going to blame it on multiple interuptions while trying to upload the pics for this post. lol

So here is Cole and Randy with their boat. They used recycled roofing material... they were 4x4 ft chunks. The boys used this hot wire cutter to shape the design until it broke then they torched a machete to finish up. Then used alot of duct tape to put a seal all around it.

The boys had the fastest time across the pool.

They also won best design and their boat held the most people. They got 9 boys in it.

This boat I think could float down the sandy river with no problems!

Cole was very relunctant to do this project. We basically had to insist that he do it. He actually had fun and said it wasn't so bad, and glad he did it! Great job Cole and Randy. Your boat floated and it was the best!