Our Son, the published Author!

Hayden wants to be an Author when he gets older. He devours books at home and there has even been a time when I had to threaten to take away his book if he didn't do his chores!

A wonderful opportunity presented itself through Grandma last summer. She had found out about a writing camp that was being held right there in Twin Falls. She enrolled Hayden!

Every summer the kids individually get to spend a week at Grandma's and she usually finds some summer camp classes for them to take while they are visiting. Hailey has done cooking and theater and this was Hayden's first year to get to go to camp at Grandma's!

This was a very reputable group that put on these classes and the wonderful thing about it too was that they would have their work published into a book in the end!

Here is our official author Hayden. He wrote a wonderful piece called "The Lake" and it is on page 57! I have a feeling this won't be the last!

Congratulations Hayden!

Here I am getting my picture taken with the author - this will probably be worth a lot of money someday! I will have to have him autograph the picture!

Trip to Twin Falls!

Kurt took the kids to visit family in Twin Falls for Thanksgiving. Kurt's brother Mark, his wife Jenice and their two little girls Lillian and Kate all made the trek up from Arizona to Grandma's in Twin Falls, Idaho. I still have troubles with the ride there but Hailey took pictures in my place. Thanks Hailey!
I was sad to miss seeing everyone but the pictures were fun to look at.
Of course the photographer had to get an image of herself first! Nice picture Hailey!

So, enjoy the pictures!

Aunt Vonnie, Jenice and Baby Kate!

Jenice with Kate, Uncle Mark, Hayden, Kurt and Vonnie playing poker I believe. I wonder if Kate understands the rules yet.

What a cutie!

Mark seems to be taking this very seriously!

Hailey and Kate!

That's Kurt's cousin Sherry's husband Jeff in the background!

Ethan (Jeff and Sherry's boy), he sure is growing up!

I thought this was cute too - wish it wasn't so blurry!

I heard Tyler and Lillian were "thick as thieves" while playing together! That is so sweet!

Lillian sure has grown too!

Tyler, Ethan and Lillian

It was Kate's first birthday! Happy Birthday Kate!

Jeff, Ethan and Sherry!

Well, there is Uncle Jack in the red shirt!

Tyler, Hailey, Lillian and Ethan!

All in all I think the kids had a wonderful time playing with their cousins for the day!

AAAAHHHH Pizza!

There aren't a whole lot of words that I really need to use for this post. I can't tell you enough how much this family likes pizza! We found something fairly economical and yet fun with pizza. Kurt's Mom introduced us to these little mini pizza doughs already made up at Winco, 5 for $1.99! Not only do the pizzas turn out great because you can put on them whatever you want but it is fun to do!

Here are a few pictures of dinner one night!

Oh, they also sell Cheesy Bread Sticks . . . one package, about 8 pieces for $1.99! These are

de-lish!

They only take about 5-8 minutes to bake . . . .

Be careful not to add too much cheese!

These are yummy!

"MAN LOGIC" !

Sometimes there are things that happen in life that you just have to share with someone. I have decided that "someone" is my blog audience.

If you have kept up with the blog you will have gotten the idea that we are having issues with our dog getting into the garbage can. She is either shoving the lid up with her nose or just plain knocking the whole thing over so she can "help herself" to the goodies located within.
Our fix to this is to make sure that the door to the pantry (which is where the can is located) is closed. This has created yet another problem . . . now if there is something "aromatic" in the garbage it then creates an interesting aroma in the pantry.

Today when Kurt went into the pantry such an aroma came to him. He decided to open the door to the pantry to air it out. But what to do with the dog? Kurt used his "man logic" to fix that situation!


He did the only reasonable thing a man could do . . . tape it shut with nice heavy duty tape!

I laughed really hard when I saw this! It never occurred to my sweet husband to just take the trash out!

Church Sitting :)

Almost every Monday I have the joy of getting to babysit while brethren from the Church go out to talk to people about the Bible! Because of location I watch the same family of kids a lot! That is fine with me, they are practically family.

This sitting I decided that I wanted to do a theme on scientific things - things that God made, things man made but how God created the basics of everything down to atoms and such.

I wanted to do things that had chemical reactions and I think the kids had a good time!

First we made some "Gooey Gunk" (I think it is like Gak):


Aren't kids creative!

Jayden's turtle . . .

I think Owen is starting to make a snake . . .

I can't remember what Ingrid made but I also forgot to turn the picture around the right way, sorry Ingrid!

After we played with that for quite awhile we went on to the next one. This stuff is called "Magic Muck" and it is really weird. When you first pick it up and squeeze it you can make a ball out of it and then you open your hand and it turns back into a liquid and drips!

Some kids were reluctant to touch this!

The next thing didn't go as well as I had hoped. I was trying to re-enact a volcano with red food coloring for a fantastic effect. . . . Hmmmm.

I wasn't quick enough with the camera and it overflowed so fast I didn't catch it but the kids really enjoyed it!

Owen, Hayden, Emmett and Tyler!

The kids had a lot of fun . . . I should have made washing the dishes part of the "fun"!

After all that brain work we decided to have a snack. Simple pretzels and popcorn!

Tyler, Uriah and Hayden!

Smile Ingrid!

Emmett ducking away from the camera . . .

Hi Alayna! It was sad because Hailey didn't really get a chance to do this with us because she had a BIG project due the next day and needed Kurt's help with it, so Alayna was the only teen girl!

I would like to do another science based topic again. This was fun. What a great group of kids!