Turkey, anyone??

These birds came through the driveway and yard a few days before Thanksgiving.

How do they walk through snow without their feet freezing?

There were about 20 of them, eating, jousting and checking out my chickens in the shed. Then they all lined up single file and walked across the yard and off the hill.

I love getting to see the wildlife up close and personal. It's one of my favorite things about living on the edge of town. Now if it were bear or mountain lions, which are around but I haven't seen, I would have fewer warm fuzzies about it!

On a Sunday afternoon...

Even though church is from 11-2 this year, there are still plenty of afternoon and evening hours to fill. This is one activity that hasn't happened around here much in the last two years, so it's good to see it again.

A father/son chess showdown...

Both seemed to be a bit rusty from the extended absence but they played a couple of games and enjoyed their chips and salsa as well.

Are chips and salsa brain food? 

It sure is nice having Montana home! 

Winter Wonderland

The weekend before Thanksgiving we were gifted with a glorious, wet, snowstorm. It started out as a foggy, rainy, sleety storm but it ended up dumping almost a foot of the wettest snow I've ever seen.
If you stepped in it, a pool of water formed around your foot. If you tried to shovel it, you were trying to move water with a shovel. And it was H E A V Y!
Around town, many trees paid a heavy price, losing branches and some even gave up the ghost. Part of town lost electricity when a tree took down a power line.
It was reported that at Camp Jackson on the Mountain there were 2 feet of snow and in that was 4 inches of water. The newspaper reported that after that one storm Monticello was at 324% of normal for the water year. Granted the water year had just begun in October. But it's a good beginning.

What a glorious scene...

The mountain in hiding...

I love it when a storm comes softly and gently enough to 'frost' the trees and houses. I love looking out my front windows onto a Winter Wonderland.

Check out the snow on the top of all the signs and rails. Unusual to see that in windy Monticello.

Grandmas are the best!

I have always been impressed with Grandma's desire to play with and spend time with the grandkids. She is so kind and lets them talk her ear off and always brings candy to play "Don't Eat Pete!" with. On this trip to visit, she spent time playing with the boys and their stuffed animals. They loved it.

I hope I can learn from her example and try to be part of my grandkids' lives and play with them when I get the chance!

Fort Building....

I had an interesting insight hit me today. Just recording it for my remembrance...

When we first moved back to Utah after living in Arizona for 7 1/2 years, my kids and I stayed in Monticello with my parents while Curtis lived and worked in Provo and tried to find housing for our family.

It was June and summer was starting, and for some reason we could not get the boys to go outside and play, explore or do anything else. One day Grandma and I told Jordan, age 8, and Montana, age 4, to go down off the hill and build themselves a fort. Montana asked us in a very serious manner if there was a library in town. We told him yes and asked why, to which he replied, "Well, maybe we can go there and check out a video on how to build forts!"

My first thought was "poor, little, city boy". We tried to hold in our laughter and told them they didn't need a video to build forts, that they could just figure it out. If I remember correctly, they never did build one. Too much time cooped up in houses, with videos, and a mom who didn't want to go out to watch them in the heat of the AZ sun. Sad.

Lately, I've had an urge to really study my scriptures, rather than just read them. However I never really start because I feel like I don't know how or where to begin. So I've been reading about studying scriptures, hoping to find insight and inspiration in the words of those who know how to do it. And I keep putting off just opening my scriptures and studying.

As I thought about this yesterday, I realized that I have been 'going to the library to get videos on how to build forts'! I keep looking for outside guidance instead of just figuring it out for myself. Instead of using the actual resource I keep dancing around it, reading about other people using the resource.

It's time to just 'build my fort'. To open those precious books and study them.
The fact that the scriptures are compared to a fort in this instance is not lost on me. As I learn to read and study and ponder I will fortify myself spiritually to protect myself and my loved ones in these wicked, crazy days.

I love how Heavenly Father teaches us quietly and gently by our own experiences. Feeling very grateful to Him today.

Beauty ln the Sky

These are just some random pictures taken over the last week. I love watching the sky here. I love the colors at sunrise and sunset...

This was an interesting thing we saw in sky the other day. There must have been just a swath of moisture there and as the sun shone through it we got a bit of a rainbow. I almost wondered if the heavens were going to open and angels appear. I love where I live!

Good things:

Watching my boys play together...

Honey candy!

Curtis making a yummy brisket dinner with the new smoker! Mmmmmm.

Dig in, boys!

'There's ice cream?'

'I want some!'

'No! I want some!'

'Hey, let's both get some!'

Our new jungle gym!!

Curtis is really glad to have Montana home, because he has temporarily taken over the job of jungle gym. I'm not so sure Montana's all that thrilled to have the job but he's a good sport and lets the little guys climb on and beat on him. 

XC awards dinner

Here is Cambria with her girls XC team as they are presented with individual awards. Cambria lettered again, and was recognized for being a team captain. They only had 7 girls on their varsity team this year but they did so well.

Cambria wasn't able to train with the team every day since she has a part time job. She has mentioned that she is considering serving a mission after she graduates and she said she thought it was more important to earn some money than to give all her time to running practice. It's hard to argue with that and we are very pleased. We feel blessed to watch her stretch and grow and become an amazing young woman. 

Good things:

A beautiful Sabbath day...

Having Grandpa and Grandma Welch here...

Hearing Montana share his thoughts in his talk today!

Realizing how much he has grown and learned....

He's on native ground again!!

The long awaited day finally arrived. It was the day to pick up Montana at the airport because his mission was over. 

He was supposed to fly into the Cortez airport at 4:03 pm. Mom and the little boys and I went early to do some shopping at Walmart. Curtis brought the school kids and came later.

As luck would have it I got in the line of the slooooooowest checker at Walmart and we were cutting it really close getting to the airport. There was a plane there when we got there but it loaded up and took off. We all settled in to wait and after 20-30 minutes the workers finally! Asked us if we were waiting for a passenger named Barton. We said we were and they told us that Denver had notified them that he had missed his connecting flight and would be coming in on the next flight at 8:30. 

Well, how to kill some time was the question. We went back to Wslmart and wandered, we went to KFC for dinner and then back to the airport to wait. 

These photos show how we spent the time. Lots of snoozing, Solitaire playing, running, game playing, crawling under chairs, petting the airport cat, screeching and yelling. I'm so glad no one else was there.

Finally we saw the plane land and so we got out our sign and anxiously waited to see his face. Of course he was almost the last one to come into the building. 

He barely set foot in the door before his sisters attacked him! 

It is SO good to have him home. We are thankful for his service, for his example and for his personal growth, but it is Sooooo nice to have him back!

Miranda, Miranda!!

My girls really love Miranda, who happens to be the alter-ego of some woman who posts these crazy 'vlog' posts on the internet. She sings(I guess you could call it that) and gives fashion and make-up tips. Anyway, they always go around talking like Miranda and using her voice and strange words. It's funny.

Our lovely trio of 'Mirandas'

One night the girls thought it would be fun to, yet again, dress up like Miranda. And somehow they talked their dad into it as well. Hair center-parted and bobby-pinned and a smear of lipstick in the general lip area....and this is what you get! Yikes.
I remember my dad letting us put his hair in curlers and barrettes and if it was long enough small pigtails....guess the apples don't fall far from the tree. (don't think we'd have gotten away with lipstick though...)

p.s. I think Curtis was a good sport to join in! He is an awesome dad.

I think that's just a little scary....

Good Things:

MONTANA is home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hearing his voice again

Watching him interact with his siblings. 

He's grown up!

Halloween...2013

Halloween was quite interesting this year. Most of my kids are too big to dress up and trick or treat. The school carnival was combined with a city celebration and  held the Saturday before Halloween.(and we didn't go! Shhh, don't tell anyone) so it seemed almost anticlimactic to dress up the boys and go on about 2 streets before saying 'enough's enough!' It was a cold one! And since the gas was out, it wasn't all that much warmer at home.

Soren was a ghost hunter, wearing his camouflage and toting a spray bottle of magic ghost repellant. Charles was Batman, and James? Hmmm, I can't remember.

Sadie and her friend were 'Smartie-Pants' the helped me with the boys for those 2 streets then they went for a much longer time and came home with enough candy to choke an elephant! 

I've always been in the 'Eat-it-all-now-have-a-good-bellyache-and-be-done-with-it' camp. No rationing one piece a day here!

One more down and only 10ish more to go!

Candyland-the favorite board game

We are not big board game players in our house. But one that we do play quite often is Candyland. The little boys and I play sometimes when everyone else is in school.
This day I was happy to see that Soren and Charles had gotten out and set up a game. It was fun to surreptitiously watch and listen to them.
I love to see them choosing to play and spend time together in a happy way!

Oh, no! not Plumpy!

The rug in the living room is always the best place to set up the game!

Writing practice

Charlie practicing his letters with permanent markers. Oh, boy!

Since starting Joy School Charles has learned to write his name and likes to get pieces of paper and practice his writing. He is becoming much more proficient with his letter-writing and likes to write to his big brothers. We have lots of sealed envelopes lying around our house!

So fun to see him grow and learn!

Sugar run

This year the grade school decided to have a fun race the day after Halloween to help the kids burn off all the sugar they had ingested the night before. It was their PE class for the day. Soren's 2nd grade class had to complete 2 laps around the track, or 1/2 mile.

Look at that form!

He did well when he ran, but for some reason whenever he got on the far side of the track he walked. Guess we need to get him running a bit more for fun and exercise. Too much Wii and Legos and book-reading...

'lengthening his stride...'

heading into the 2nd lap

            

Joy school Halloween Party

Charles has enjoyed his stint in preschool. Halloween just happened to fall on a preschool day this year so the Halloween party was even more fun. All the students dressed up and showed their costumes to the parents/grandparents. They had learned several songs, which they sang to us, and had prepared treats for us. I am so happy that Charlie has had this chance to gather with friends and play and learn a couple of times each week. It has been hard for him but it has been good for him also to get him out of his shell a bit and meet some new people. We do hard things!

my little Bat-Man twirling his cape for the crowd.

Looks like I can only get the back of him.

You can see Charles' standard pose for the rest of the program.
I think he got embarrassed about spinning.
He never looked up or sang any of the songs.

you notice where Charles' witch-face is and where everyone else's is...

Charles and his Joy School teacher, Mrs. Eardley
He pronounces it Mrs. Urgley.