Family Vacation

Nicholas Family Vacation

Summer 08

and

Gibbons Family Reunion

Two days after school got out for the summer, at about 8:00 PM, Earl and I loaded up the kids (loaded up on caffeine) and headed for Utah for summer vacation. On the way there we stopped in Tremonton to pick up a few items from Earls Uncle Dale and Aunt Karen (Rohner). They originally were going to buy us breakfast at Denny's but I think they chickened out when they thought about all eight kids in a resteraunt. So they ended up bringing cereal and milk and meeting us at a park, which was great for the kids after being cooped up in the car all night.

We finally got to Grandmas. Earl made himself right at home by throwing up all over Grandma's bathroom and then sleeping for 24 hours straight. Grandpa drove him to an airport on Sunday morning and I prayed for whoever he sat by. Several of the kids got sick with strep like symptoms that week but only Bexi ended up with a positive strep test.

Mom was nice enough to let me invite a few gals from my threadanimal group over for lunch on wednesday.

On thursday morning I took Sam, Tacie, Hyrum, and Ben to Kim's. We went to the Springfield
Art Days kids fair. They had fun making sun catchers, paper "china" and other items.


That night we headed to Ogden and attended a party for Rebecca Stoner, the daughter of our good friends, Kathy and Dennis.

Monday morning we drove to Saint Anthony Idaho for our Gibbons Family Reunion. It was so great to see everyone and spend time together. We rented a lodge in Idaho called the Three Peaks Lodge and stayed for 5 days. It has 8 bedrooms, lots of bedrooms, and space galore in the kitchen. The also have a garge full of outdoor toys that my kids enjoyed.


Everyone took turns making a meal. The food was wonderful.

My kids favorite part were some mangy, fleabitten kittens they found near the woodpile. Tiffy and Tayla played nurse for the next few days, trying to clear up their eye infections.

The kids spent some quality time together, and some not so quality time.

Dad did devotionals, which was a highlight for me and also took me to the Rexburg temple which was fun. Tiffy registered for School and it was fun to visit the campus but so MUCH has changed...it was so weird.

The day after we got home several of the kids broke out in spots. In my family Ben was the worst and he still has dark marks all over his chest where the spots were. A doctor here said it was chicken pox and so did Sophie and Tallen's doctor. Some of suspected a Jacuzzi rash as it was getting pretty funky by the fourth day and some kids spots disappeared right away.... Just glad everyone is OK.


I am already looking forward to next year!

Prom, Tayla.

The saga of Princess Tayla and the Prom.

Once upon a time there was a princess who wanted to go to a ball. When the princess was asked she was very excited.
But First the princess had to work hard to make her dress. (Her grandmother was a big help)


The evening of the ball she had her hair done up in fancy ringlets and jewels.

Her prince (Nathan Lord) arrives bearing gifts. Tayla made her grand entrance.



They left the castle and exchanged gifts and flowers on the lawn.

Pictures, Pictures, and More Pictures.

She had a great time. Truly a Princess that evening, and her date behaved like a Prince.

I can't believe she is 17!! I can't believe she is going to be a Senior next year! How did that happen? She was just born last week. She is hoping to go to BYU in an art program. Yesterday she bore her testimony at church and it was beautiful. I had had a bad morning wrangling children and felt like quitting the whole church thing till they were older, her testimony reminded me why it is all worth it. I am so proud of her.

REUNION:

I will be sending out the info and assingments for the reunion soon. If you have a preference regarding room or food, please email or call me this week!

love, deBBie

Micah recently participated in a Kids Culinary Cook off. To be invited she had to submit a recipe. Three students from each elementary in the area were chosen to participate in the cook off.

Her recipe was called "Extreme Peanut Butter Balls". Anyway...the kids who sampled them absolutely loved them and came back for seconds, thirds, and 10ths. She had a great time.

We are always looking for a place to buy, but homes are so expensive. This particular home has been abandoned for years. (since the owner went nuts and disappeared). It has just come on the market. Earl is interested but the realtors aren't even taking offers yet. Earl hasn't been working much (Construction has stopped here!) so we probably can't buy anything right now...but the house is interesting.

We have a place here called Bauman's farm where the kids can go feed animals and play in a Tee Pee and Wooden Stockade. The only cost is the quarters for the pellets to feed animals. Come visit and we will take you.

This was the view from our house the other day.

If you are enjoying all these pictures you can see more at photobucket (as well as videos).

The URL is

http://s264.photobucket.com/albums/ii199/debbittybears/?action=view&current=2008_0217scouts0046.jpg

Please let me know you were here.

love, deBBie

If you get a chance to pick up this months Good Housekeeping. I would reccomend it. There is a story in there called "Star of Wonder" that I enjoyed very much.

We have a tradition (well we started this year with the purchase of a 7 piece nativity set) of reading one story a night and placing one piece of the set up. Hopefully, if I timed it right, baby Jesus will be the last piece after Christmas Eve. I am going to hide him somewhere and let the children find him before they can open their presents.

I really want them to understand the true meaning of Christmas...don't we all though?

The above picture is of our Christmas Display. Tree pictures coming soon!

love, deBBie

Ben And Hyrum Fighting in the Mud

Amazing what a little soap can do. This is Ben at his baptism.
I can't tell you the joy I feel when my children choose baptism or the responsibility that I feel resting on me for continuing to "nurture and train".

love, deBBie

halloween

Happy Halloween

I went to the festivities at my kids school. Here are some pictures.

Here is my 10 year old as a creature of the night.

6 year old as a snake.

8 year old as a teenage mutant ninja turtle "Van Gogh".



Baby elephant, 4 year old kangaroo, and bird of pardise friend waiting for the halloween parade.

This halloween, like many before it, left me wondering WHY? do we do this? It really is one big pain in the rear. We get the kids ready and drag them everywhere, to school, to trick or treat, to trunk or treat, etc. All so they can get so much candy it makes them sick and cranky, and gives them something to fight over for the next week. (if their candy lasts that long). And it make mommy have to be the big candy sheriff. 'you've had enough. dont' steal your sisters candy. Give that candy to me. no more candy tonite. NO I did not steal your candy. Where did you leave it? WHO left chewed gum in my bed? Why are there 300 candy wrappers next to the garbage instead of in it? ARGGHH!" And all of this to celebrate what is basically some kind of pagan holiday right? Urp.

Here are videos of the baby saying "Hi"

and of the 4 year oldf throwing a tantrum. I decided to film it for posterity. It was either that or get angry.

We hope to be "home" for thanksgiving...so see you all then!

OH What a BEAUTIFUL Morning.

These are the views I had from my front porch this morning. The one on the left was taken by my 10 year old daughter. I took the one on the right. There was a light fog which the sunrise was filtering through.



For those that haven't seen it yet, below is a picture of the house we are renting...



It is an old 5 bedroom farmhouse on a huge hazelnut orchard. It is spacious and fun, and old and cold...or hot. I am so grateful for it. The housing market here is very pricey and out of our ability to afford, while the rent we are paying is very low. It is such a blessing.


Couldn't help showing you a few more pictures that I took this morning. Try not to be jealous. But maybe the view from your life is just a wonderful?















Here is another blessing, my baby...

trying on a Halloween hat I. I don't think she liked it!


















The rest of us are doing OK. Earl is still driving his truck 6 days a week. We are so grateful when he has work work although he is missed a lot.


We took this picture of Dad's truck a while ago.


My oldest daughter is getting ready to take her psat's as this is her junior year. She has also been asked to illustrate a book called "Henry goes to church"... as part of the process we visited Henry...here is a picture. Henry is on the right.



This summer I visited a camp for the blind in Sandy Oregon as a possibility for an upcoming reunion I am planning. This is a picture I took of my daughter on the swing set there. It was a lovely place with lots of room, but there was one MAJOR problem. There was only ONE women's bathroom. Granted it had 3 shower heads but we aren't blind so that wouldn't work.
There were some minor problems like price was more than I originally thought but it was a very nice place.


I feel like I need to type something for all of my kids, mother's guilt, but I will just say they are all doing well. School has been going well for most of them and not to bad for others.

I really enjoyed the LDS General Conference this weekend. I was able to stream it in from byutv.org/streaming it is also available from lds.org I just sat and listened and crocheted. I remember when I was a child conference seemed to last FOREVER...now it is much too short. I heard a lot of things that I appreciated but I think what stuck the most was President Eyerings talk on acknowledging the hand of God in all things. We based our Family Home Evening on that talk and I gave the children books to jot down for one week the things that they are grateful for and also how they see the hand of God in their lives.

Sister Beck's talk on Mothers who KNOW was a good encouragement to do better as a mom and create more order in my home. Elders Scott's talk has me thinking about each activity as "Good Better or Best"?. Not sure where Blogging falls...probably Good. If I print it up and place it in my journal will that make it better?

love to my family and friends,
-deBBie