Westra's visit.... Go BYU!

My brother Todd and his sweet wife Sharolyn and 4 cute kids came to visit this week. They came down to watch the BYU game last night. I feel bad, things were a little crazy while they were here! We had a train party here on Friday night and some friends for breakfast on Saturday morning... so it was nonstop entertaining! Crazy but fun! Ashley and I got to babysit the little girls Saturday night while everyone else went to the BYU game. We were brave and took them out shopping. I am not used to car seats and diaper bags! And we didn't have a stroller. So I let little Emily walk while we were in The Gap and she was reaching for some lotion on a glass shelf and totally fell, sending all the lotions and body sprays to the floor and since the shelf was glass, it sounded awful and she bonked her head on the shelf as she fell!! It was quite the scene!! Not a very good babysitter. I felt SO bad. She was a tough little girl and only cried for a minute. I envisioned us running to the emergency room for stitches! So after that we took them to Jason's Deli for dinner and had some ice cream. That always makes things better! In all of our shopping, we did find a new comforter for Ashley's bed. She wants her room redone for her birthday.

It was so fun to have family here! I miss them all so much, especially this time of year.

3 tired girls after a long night of shopping... watching Finding Nemo.














Cute family!



















(Notice the TP hanging from the tree in the background.... John caught 4 teenage girls tp-ing our house on Friday night. he scared them to death! It was pretty funny, then he invited them in for cookies and to see the train set. the mother who drove them was mortified! Such is the life with a good looking teenaged son!)

Mitchell couldn't stay on his feet!

Mitchell finished up his fall soccer season today. I always enjoy soccer season, but I must admit that I am always happy when it is over. It was pretty cold out there today. Mitchell played good today... he was a bit tired though, 8:00 am is a little early for him. He was become a great soccer player over the years. He is excited to be in high school next year and try out for the school team.


Down he goes one more time!

We are off to the Sunburst Shutters Christmas party. It is a bowling party! We will let you know who wins.
**update** I beat John by one point! Not sure what the kids scored?? But it was fun.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

I took the kids to see Santa for the 17th time yesterday. I just hung the new picture along with the other 16 Santa photo's on the wall. I just stood there and looked at them for like 10 minutes. It is amazing how time flies. It seems like yesterday that I celebrated Christmas by giving birth to our little Ashley. That was an amazing day, one I will never forget. It was snowing like crazy and she was early and I was so scared! But all went well, and I remember so clearly holding my new baby, looking out the hospital window watching the snow fall! Beautiful!!!

I must say that seeing Santa these days isn't quite as exciting as the days where they "believed". No fun! All they want is real expensive things now! I miss the days where they were thrilled with the little Barbie and toy cars.... I guess now it's a new kind of fun! Merry Christmas!

3 more things to cross off my to do list.... YAH!

I am feeling really good! I think this is the earliest that I have ever gotten my Christmas cards done. They are ready to pop in the mail tomorrow. We always do a little collage of photo's with a theme and it usually takes me a long time to remember how to use the Photoshop Elements program to get it done, but this year I remembered the program and I got it done in a week instead of 2. How was that for a long sentence?? I am not a writer, I hated English class! Last years snow globe Christmas card took forever.

And John got the train set done last night. This is definitely the earliest that has gotten done! It looks great. He decided not to do an "I spy" this year, but do a "find what's wrong with this picture" theme. He has a bunch of things wrong, like a lamp post coming out of the sky, and cars going the wrong way and the best thing is that he made a volcano in the middle of a neighborhood. He put's dry ice in it and it looks totally real... very cool. We had our first little train party tonight and had the Jarman's (John's boss) over for dinner. The twins absolutely love it! They ask John all year whenever they see him, if the train is up yet. They were pretty cute. Here are couple of pictures of it...see the KFC bucket rolling down the street??





We also got our Christmas lights up. John taught Mitchell how to do it this year, so hopefully he can do it next year all by himself. So, I am getting closer to being ready for Christmas! I have a lot of shopping to do, but that is fun! Off to the mall!

It's Raining, It's Pouring!!!

Yah, it's raining. It smells so good. I went out for a jog this morning and it looked a bit cloudy, but didn't think the rain would come for a bit... I was about a mile into my run and it started raining. It actually made me really happy. The air was fresh and clean and it smelled so good. I miss the rainy days. I know it sounds crazy, but true. It makes me a little homesick for Seattle! The only bad thing about rain in Vegas, is that people don't know how to drive in it! You would think there was 6 inches of snow on the ground. The roads become very slick because of the oil build up on them and people don't understand that they have to slow down.

We are off to get Mitchell a hair cut! YAH... he looks like an orphan. He finally agreed to it and I didn't have to bribe him with money this time...

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

We spent thanksgivving weekend getting the house all decorated! It was a lot of work... but fun. The kids enjoy helping with the tree... and I am one of those mothers that likes to rearrange the tree after they decorate it... you know, they put 5 red balls right next to eachother and clump everything together, so things just need to be moved around a bit.... well, while we were decorating this weekend, Ashley said "Mom, remember when you used to rearrange the tree when we went to bed." I said, "What do you mean I used too?" She got pretty mad at me. Then she was putting some of, shall we say my "not so pretty" ornaments on and I said, "Put the ugly ones down low or in the back." and she said, "Mom, I made this in 2nd grade!" oops. Needless to say, I didn't get much help after that! I felt pretty bad. I'm not always the smartest or best mom, but I try.

I can't believe it is Christmas time! Time sure flies. I am going to do my best to enjoy the season and remember what it's all about!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We have so much to be thankful for! All week I have been feeling so lucky for our good health, great husband, great kids and so much more! We have a lot of people in our ward that are struggeling with health problems and such and I have had the opportunity to provide some service and as I have talked to these sweet sisters I have helped I have felt so greatful for the ability to serve and help them. It's much easier to give then to recieve! I feel so blessed today!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner over at Joanna Jones' home. She is my brother Scott's mother in law. It was fun to get to know Jenn's family better. They made us feel very welcome and everything was so good! We were in charge of bringing some turkey, green bean caserole and yams. Last night I was in the mood to bake, so I made an apple pie too. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable day! We missed being with more family... I hope you all had a good day.

Here are some pictures from the day...
John and I getting the turkey ready to take to Joanna's.

Scott and Jenn






Chris, James & Stephanie











Tanner hanging out after dinner...












John and the kids letting their stomach's settle.












Time for dessert... yum!










Ashley fell in love with the little babies! This is Jenn's cousin little Noah! I think he thought Ashley was cute! He sat with her for a long time.

Happy Thanksgiving! We are greatful for all of you!

Ellen!

Ashley and I LOVE watching Ellen everyday. It's a pretty funny show. 2 years ago I was able to get some tickets to a taping of Ellen and I gave them to Ashley for Christmas, but the show date ended up being during finals, so she wasn't able to go. I went with my good friends Keri and Susan. We had a blast, but I felt guilty the whole time that we were using Ashley's present. So I was so excited that I was able to get tickets again. This time I made sure the date was a day there wasn't school. So, Ashley invited her good friend Kami to come with us and we drove down Monday morning to Burbank, CA.

We found our way to NBC studios and got our passes and then stood in line for 2 hours. While we were in line they asked us to fill out a survey and then came around and asked us questions. they were looking for people who would play an audience game. They called my name 2 times and asked me lots of questions. We really thought that I might get called up to play a game, but I didn't. Bummer! I was actually relieved, the game (celebrity couples) wasn't one of my specialties, so I would have made a fool of myself!

One bummer about the show was that there is a writers strike going on down in Hollywood, so a lot of actors won't cross the picket lines.... so when we got there we aked who was going to be on the show and they didn't know??? That surprised us! So, they played an audience game and a few other things. The main guest that will be shown on the show is Celine Dion, but they filmed her last week!! Big bummer. We were sad that we didn't get to see a big celebrity and no audience prizes... but the main reason we went was to see Ellen and she was great. We sat right behind "Striker" the DJ. Ashley and Kami talked to him during the break and he gave them a hug after the show!! They were so excited. When you see Ellen come in at the very beginning of the show, she pauses and makes a funny face, that is because she was laughing at Ashley. Ashley was screaming and jumping up and down when she walked in and she saw Ashley and paused for a second and gave her a funny look! they totally made eye contact, it was cool! So, look for us in the audience. We are on the far right hand side. We were in this little section that only had 4 chairs. I have no idea if you will be able to see us... but it's worth watching.

After the show we drove up to Hisperia and stayed the night with Edie and Luke and cute little Carter (John's sister). We played a fun game of Phase 10 and stayed up way too late! I still can't believe Edie came from behind and won! She wasn't even cheating like the girls were! Thanks for having us! We got up and left this morning. We stopped in Primm to shop at the outlets for a little while and Ashley is exstatic that there is a new Hollister outlet there. They had some amazing prices.... Just in time for Christmas shopping!

saturday sports

oops, we forgot our camera! Tanner wants me to write about his football game yesterday. I think it was probably the most exciting flag footbal game in history! It is playoffs and the winner of the game plays next week in the "Superbowl". We were playing the only team that beat us and we wern't expecting to win. We had lost 30 to 6 last time. But the boys played hard! The score went back and forth, we missed one extra point and so we were down by one, then we got an interception and got ahead and made a 2 point conversion. Then they scored again and it ended in a tie game! They ref's didn't know what to do, they knew there needed to be a winner, but they usually let the games end in a tie so they didn't know what rules to do for a tie playoff game. So they made some calls and then decided it would be like college. Each team got a chance to score. We went first and scored and made the extra piont. Then the other team scored. Then the center hiked the ball for the extra point and he messed it up and it hit the ground! It was so exciting and yet so sad for that center! If they had made the extra point, they would have called them the winner, because they beat us earlier in the season. So we are off to the Superbowl next week! That means one more week of practices... I was kindof looking forward to being done! Oh well.

Then we ran straight over to Mitchell's soccer game and they were loosing 2-0 at halftime and then Mitchell scored and it change the dynamics of the game. We scored again and played really tough. It ended a tie, but felt like a win because they played so good!

Oh My Gosh...Tanner is so funny. Last week Ashley lost her camera and she told everyone she would pay whoever found it. So Tanner found it for her and everyone was happy! Just now, Ashley came in with another offer because she spent the last half hour looking for the camera, with no luck finding it. Tanner got all excited and ran to a drawer and pulled out the camera, he had hid it from her! She asked why he did that and he said, "I really need some money". It was so funny! maybe you had to be here.

Ashley and I are off to CA in the morning to go see a taping of the Ellen Degeneress show! We will write all about it on Tuesday! I am not sure if it will be aired on Tuesday or Wednesday. So be sure to watch!

Happy Birthday Mitchell!

How could my little boy be 14? I remember the day he was born and it doesn't seem that long ago.... man I'm getting old! He has grown several inches in the last few months and his voice is getting deep and the girls are calling! We got majorly TP'd on Friday night. They used the normal Tp and then put post-it notes with little notes on them all over the house! I didn't get to see it, but they say it was pretty bad. A little old man at church today said his neighbor asked him if he saw the house down the street that got TP'd so bad and he told him he new us and the neighbor was worried that someone hated us. Then he came over to look at it closer and read the post it notes and soon figured we must have a teenage son and there were girls after him!

Mitchell is still very mellow and people don't think he talks much, but we let them know that he does at home! He's a very good boy and we are so happy to have him! He got ordained a Teacher today and that was very neat. He also finished his Deacon's Duty to God. Good Job! Happy Birthday Mitchell! We love you!

Crazy Halloween week

Wow...what a week! The kids had all sorts of school activities and projects, John was very busy at work and I had a busy week with my calling.

Do you know how hard it is to find a plastic skeleton 2 days before Halloween?? Mitchell had to label all the parts of a skeleton in Spanish for his spanish class and then decorate it in a halloween costume. He told me about it last week, but we forgot to get a skeleton over the weekend so I had to go searching on Monday.... I seriously went to Target, Linens and Things, The Great Outdoors, Joanne's, Michaels, K-mart, Wal Mart, Lowes, Vons and then finally Kohls and they had one! It cost a fortune... but I was desperate. I wonder if teachers know how hard the parents have to work for kids projects.... So here it is - a Hula Skeleton!

John was in North Carolina on Sunday and got home Monday night around 8:00 just in time to decorate pumpkins. It was a fun FHE. Here are some pics from the night....





Tuesday I was busy with volunteering at the High School for a few hours, Birthday shopping for Mitchell, Tanner had cub scouts, Mitchell had soccer practice, Mutual for John and big kids and YW meetings for me. Wednesday I went with Tanners class on a filed trip to a Silver Mine way out in the middle of the dessert. It was pretty amazing. They had miles and miles of tunnels that were dug out by hand. You could see the gold! A couple owns the mine and does tours and plays some fun games with the kids. they got to launch balloons across the road and play horse shoes. It was fun to spend the day with Tanner and get to know his teacher and the kids in his class. Tanner has a very interesting class.... I think that is all I will say about that, so I don't say anything mean.

Halloween night we took Tanner to the "trunk or treat" at the church. It was fun. He was Nacho Libre and Mitchell was a hula girl?? and Ashley was a pirate. Halloween is great in Vegas, no jackets needed! It was a beautiful evening and it was fun to see all the kids dressed up! Ashley appreared with her friends and begged to stay out past 10:00... no luck. She is sure she has the meanest parents! Mitchell met up with John and Tanner "Trick or Treating" in the neighborhood and got some candy. He had a bit of a bad night, his friends couldn't decide where to go and what to do, so they ended up doing nothing! So he was bummed that he didn't get much candy. It was still plenty though.



Friday was our Stake Youth Leadership retreat. We took all the class presidents and YM/YW presidents up to a retreat facility up in the mountains and did some leadership training activities with them last night and then this morning all the bishoprics arrived and we did more training for them and the youth. It went great and I learned a lot. It always amazes me how strong the youth are! They honestly blow me away. They know the scriptures so well and have amazing testimonies. I didn't know half of what they know when I was their age. I feel so lucky to work with such great kids.

I am so glad this week is over! I am ready to slow down a bit. Hopefully we will have a nice quiet Sunday. It is Mitchell's 14th birthday tomorrow! Can't believe he is so old!

Tanner the Entrepreneur

Tanner has been a into oragami for a while now and he just discovered that he could make some money from it. He made a bunch of these "Fingers" and sold them to kids in his class. He made $3 from one boy and $5 from another! Pretty good money for a fourth grader! He made one mistake though... he tought his biggest client how to make them... ooops! Oh well, it keeps him busy and he's not watching TV! It amazes me that he remembers how to make all these different things! My Grandma Verhaaren would be proud, she loved showing us how to make little creatures, hats and boats!

Homecoming continued...

Check out this "smilebox" I made of Ashley's pictures from homecoming.

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

Escape of the Turtles

Tanner has 2 desert tortoises that live in our back yard. We moved them outside this summer and made a nice little section of the yard for them. We made sure there were plenty of plants for shade and made a little covered area for them. They love it much more than the aquarium that they came in. But the big one named Spike is ALWAYS trying to escape. I need to add one more row of bricks to their wall. He shouldn't be able to get out, but somehow he does. If he doesn't make it over the wall, he falls backwards onto his back and gets stuck. I found him on his back 2 times yesterday! He could die like that, you would think he would stop trying!!! I found him by the lawnmower yesterday and over by the pool filters today! He walked all the way across the yard right along the pool! He must know he can't swim. HE tries all day to get out...the little one is just happy to be out of the cage and he just wanders around. They are right outside my kitchen window and I love watching them while I do the dishes. The kids think I am crazy because I talk to them and to the hummingbirds. I have actually named my birds and I LOVE them. They are so cute and fun to watch. I love my little animals! They keep me company during the day!

Homecoming Weekend!

It's been a fun, crazy weekend! Ashley worked manny hours on the Junior float for the football game and it turned out awesome, but my pictures of it didn't! Hopefully Ashley got some good ones. I will post them when she gets time to download them.

She was also in charge of getting a couple people to drive convertibles to carry the royalty during the parade and one of her drivers couldn't make it at the last minute and he felt so bad that he told Ashley that she could drive the car for him! He was very brave (thanks kevin!). She got it to the school and drove around the track and got it safely home! We were very relieved. John and I had a 50's party to go to for John's printer company that they use. So, we went to the school and checked out the floats and then headed to our party. It wasn't that exciting, so we left after a little while and headed to Luv It's for custard and met up with Scott and Jenn and my cousin Geoff McAllister and his new wife Rachel. They came down from Provo to go to the BYU vs. UNLV football game. Geoff takes pictures for the Daily Universe.


Saturday was just as crazy! Got up and Tanner had a football game. They had their first loss, it was a bummer. Then we raced to Mitchell's soccer game and they lost too. Not a good day for games! Then we got home and helped Ashley get ready for the big dance. She got her nails done yesterday and went and had her hair done this morning. She was so excited. Her friend Jen came over and they got ready together. They looked beautiful. John about cried when Ashley came down! Cute dad, hard to see his little girl grow up. Then we had a bit of a heart attack! We forgot to order a bootanier for Ned! totally forgot.....we called this one florist and they got one made in 20 minutes! We barely made it. (can you find Ashley in this picture?)




Then the boys came and we took some pictures and then we headed over to one of the kids house and there were about 20 couples there and we took lots of pictures. Then they broke into their groups and left. Ashley just got home and she had a wonderful time!! I will give details on the date tomorrow and post more pictures.




After she left for the dance we headed to the BYU game. It was fun to see them win. It was a nightmare getting out of the parking lot!! I wish tomorrow was going to be a day of rest, but I have an early morning Stake council meeting and then another meeting right after church and then a PPI with the stake president....I don't think I will get my nap....not sure how all the men leaders do it with all the meeting they have each week!

finally finished.....

I have been away for a week because I was deep into a book. Actually, one book led to the sequel (New Moon), so 2 books. Sharolyn was talking about how wonderful "Twilight" was when I was in Utah this summer, so I bought while I was there and finally picked it up a couple of weeks ago and was reading it to Tanner at bed time and that was going to slow, so I read on my own last week and couldn't put it down. So needless to say, my children, husband, house and calling have been deprived for the last week and a half. I won't let myself buy the 3rd one till my life is caught up...but really, do you ever get caught up?? Maybe when laundry is caught up! : ) If you have a few days to kill, pick this one up. I haven't let myself get into a good book for a while, it was a nice change. But I have a lot of guilt now! I have a big Stake Leadership training tomorrow night that I am not prepared for...so why am I blogging?? Because, I am a good procrastinator. I still have a hard time believing that I have the calling I do, and wonder why I am in charge and not someone else. I must say that my counselors are amazing ladies and support me so much. I love them! The Lord knew what he was doing when I was praying for good counselors, we are all so different and bring a different perspective to the presidency and we all work so well together because of our differences. Well, I better work on what I am going to say at the training meeting!

Musical Mitchell...

Last night was the open house at Johnson Junior High and the symphonic band played a few numbers while the parents were arriving. They sounded great. I tried to attach a little video that I took and couldn't get it to upload...oh well. You will just have to come for a concert. I talked to his band teacher last night and he was telling me that Mitchell is getting really good and he can't believe he's only been playing for 2 years. He's had a great teacher, Mr. Matta is an amazing band teacher. He's not your ordinary junior high teacher, he really teaches them about life and how to be a good person and going after your dreams. A really good man! Mitchell really loves and respects him. We are so happy Mitch decided to play the bass and not the drums, not sure I could handle the noise!