Yard Boy

Some people have landscapers for their yard. Every week they come and clean up the yard, and you have to pay them...Not me, I'm grateful for my own personal yard boy. All I pay him is a few kisses, and maybe some homemade smores bars. (And I don't have to feel guilty day-dreaming about the help!)

That's my boy!!

So I never dreamed that I would be so proud to be a "football mom". Ty played in his first game tonight. I was coaching synchro, and only got to go to the 2nd half of the game...right when Ty played. Good timing! He was great, and made 2 awesome tackles. Their team won 25 to 6.

If someone had told me 6 months ago that Ty would be playing football, I would never have agreed. He has been completely dedicated, not missing a single practice since April. This included 3 hour practices every day this summer.

Way to go TY!! .....I wanted to yell "that's my boy" during the game, but I am working really hard not to embarrass him now that he is bigger than me!

I am not a dictator...

This post has been edited so as not to be offensive to others. I found this letter to be hilarious. I don't think I am anything like Marney...but the letter sure made me laugh.

From: Marney
As you all know a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner does not make itself. I need to ask each of you to help by bringing something to complete the meal. I truly appreciate your offers to assist with the meal preparation.
Now, while I do have quite a sense of humor and joke around all the time, I COULD NOT BE MORE SERIOUS when I am providing you with your Thanksgiving instructions and orders. I am very particular, so please perform your task EXACTLY as I have requested and read your portion very carefully. If I ask you to bring your offering in a container that has a lid, bring your offering in a container WITH A LID, NOT ALUMINUM FOIL! If I ask you to bring a serving spoon for your dish, BRING A SERVING SPOON, NOT A SOUP SPOON! And please do not forget anything.
All food that is to be cooked should already be prepared, bring it hot and ready to serve, warm or room temp. These are your ONLY THREE options. Anything meant to be served cold should, of course, already be cold.

HJB—Dinner wine

The Mike Byron Family
1. Turnips in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. Please do not fill the casserole all the way up to the top, it gets too messy. I know this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but most of us hate turnips so don’t feel like you a have to feed an army.
2. Two half gallons of ice cream, one must be VANILLA, I don’t care what the other one is. No store brands please. I did see an ad this morning for Hagan Daz Peppermint Bark Ice Cream, yum!! (no pressure here, though).
3. Toppings for the ice cream.
4. A case of bottled water, NOT gallons, any brand is ok.

The Bob Byron Family
1. Green beans or asparagus (not both) in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. If you are making the green beans, please prepare FOUR pounds, if you are making asparagus please prepare FIVE pounds. It is up to you how you wish to prepare them, no soupy sauces, no cheese (you know how Mike is), a light sprinkling of toasted nuts, or pancetta, or some EVOO would be a nice way to jazz them up.
2. A case of beer of your choice (I have Coors Light and Corona) or a bottle of clos du bois chardonnay (you will have to let me know which you will bring prior to 11/22).

The Lisa Byron Chesterford Family
1. Lisa as a married woman you are now required to contribute at the adult level. You can bring an hors d’ouvres. A few helpful hints/suggestions. Keep it very light, and non-filling, NO COCKTAIL SAUCE, no beans of any kind. I think your best bet would be a platter of fresh veggies and dip. Not a huge platter mind you (i.e., not the plastic platter from the supermarket).

The Michelle Bobble Family
1. Stuffing in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please make the stuffing sans meat.
2. 2.5-3 qts. of mashed squash in a casserole with a lid and serving spoon
3. Proscuitto pin wheel - please stick to the recipe, no need to bring a plate.
4. A pie knife

The June Davis Family
1. 15 LBS of mashed potatoes in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please do not use the over-size blue serving dish you used last year. Because you are making such a large batch you can do one of two things: put half the mash in a regulation size casserole with lid and put the other half in a plastic container and we can just replenish with that or use two regulation size casserole dishes with lids. Only one serving spoon is needed.
2. A bottle of clos du bois chardonnay

The Amy Misto Family (why do I even bother she will never read this)
1. A pumpkin pie in a pie dish (please use my silver palate recipe) no knife needed.
2. An apple pie in a pie dish, you can use your own recipe, no knife needed.

Looking forward to the 28th!!
Marney
(all credit given to the following blogger : http://californiakara.blogspot.com/)

Now quit your belly aching, and plan your own parties!!

Oh what do you do.....

....in the summertime, when all the world is HOT! Well at least our part of the world?

I know, I am a poor blogger. I am much worse at journaling. Here's a recap of our crazy summer. Some of it was actually documetned with pictures. It's a long post, so bear with me:

**Todd and I spent a weekend in charge of Youth Conference for the Stake. Crazy...Busy, but fun. Ty got to go this year too.
**Swim Lessons Galore, both Ty and I teaching. Ty spent the summer as a junior guard at Fremont Pool.
**Swim team and Dive team. All the kids did great, and loved every minute of it. Kaylee actually won high point runner up at the final city meet with 2 2nd places and a 1st. One of her best friends, Emily won the top prize.
**Kaylee went to girls camp for the first time, and had a blast. It was great to be on stake staff, and see her have so much fun.

**Tanner celebrated his 10th birthday. What a great kid he is. In July, he got to spend a week at Lake Powell with the Carr's. Thanks for taking him, he loved it.

**Todd and I went on a short cruise with our friends, the Muhlesteins. What a great way to celebrate my birthday a little late, and also relax after the craziness of being in charge of Youth Conference and Girl's Camp, 3 weeks apart.

**Kaylee went to Nationals in Florida. Kaylee swims with an older group. One of the girls was 18, so the whole team swam in the 18-19 age group. Kaylee's trio got 9th, and her team got 12th. Considering she is 12, and gets to swim with those great girls, we are thrilled. This next year, she actually gets to swim with her own age group, which she has not done for 2 years. (Sorry, no pictures because I stayed home this year.)
**Todd went to scout camp for a week, but Ty stayed home to work.
**At the end of July, we spent a week at the beach in Carlsbad. We went with good friends, the Willis and Muhlestein families. My parents were there too, and my sister and family came over late in the week. The kids had a blast surfing, boogie boarding and generally getting sandy. I got to read. A lot!

**We also spent a day at Sea World. Lots of fun, we got soaked on the rides, but not by Shamu.

**After waiting for "years" as she says, Kaylee finally got braces. She looks so grown up now!
**Todd celebrated his birthday. All his favorite foods, and favorite people(that would be us.) Boy he is getting old...

**And the best part of the summer...at least I think so on some days...Back to school!

SYNCHRO de Mayo

For all of you who are just dying to see Kaylee swim...the annual watershow is coming up next weekend. This is like a recital for dancers... but not nearly as long. Come on down to the pool to see how amazing she is, if I do say so myself.

The night will include a watershow, dinner and silent auction.
All Proceeds from the event benifit the Arizona Desert Dolphins Synchronized Swim Team.

The show is Saturday, May 2, at Brimhall Aquatic Center in Mesa. The Dinner and silent auction begin at 5 pm, show starts at 6 pm. Show tickets are $5 per person, and if you want to get dinner and the show it is $10. Dinner includes your choice of a Mexican meal of Bean Burrito, Tamale, or Cafe Rio style sweet pork. All the meals inclue beans, rice, and drink.
There will also be a silent auction with all kinds of great baskets and a raffle with tons of prizes. Raffle tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5.

This is a great show and a fun evening. Kaylee will swim a couple of times, and if you watch close, you may even see Todd in the water.

Give me as call or email me if you want to get some tickets. Hope to see you there!

Glad

Glad he's home, Glad he had fun. Glad he gets to do things like this with his son. Glad he has such good friends in the other scout leaders, 2 men who he can depend on, who he looks up to, and appreciates. Glad they all got home safe. Glad there is not much laundry (i'm not sure Ty ever changed his clothes) Glad to have a full house again. Glad to have someone to talk to. Glad to share my bed with him, not an 8 yr old.

(But secretly, quietly, GLAD because it means spring break is over)

PS... Todd said I had to edit this to at least tell people he and the scouts went fishing at Lee's Ferry at the Grand Canyon. Not sure why he was bugged that I did not say this, because he has only seen the blog 2 times...

Cousins

Tyler and Kaylee have no first cousins anywhere close to their age. I guess that is what happens when your parents get married so young, and then no brothers or sisters get married, or has kids any time soon. They have always complained about this...like it is something I can do anything about.

Lucky for me, I have several cousins close to my age. There were 3 boys and 4 girls in a 2.5 year span. We always had fun when we were growing up. Some of my favorite memories are with them. ( do any of you remember the dime into the funnel tucked into Matt's waist band at the rocket ship park?)

Most of these cousins have kids my kids' ages. So Ty and Kaylee at least have some cousins. We only see each other about 3 times a year, or less for those in Kansas. We finally got them all together, including Porter, who was meeting some of them for the first time ever I think.

My house was full of teenagers, and I have never enjoyed it more. Pizza, games, 007 (we did not lose anyone!) and a plethora of laughter. I love seeing all of these kids get along so well. (I keep telling Ty and Kaylee that someday they will want to date their cousin's friends, or at least have their cousins set them up with cute boys/girls. I'm not sure they get it yet.)

I wasn't sure where it would go from here. But as everyone was leaving, they all told their mom's about their grand plan...getting together the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month, always at different homes so each family would host only every 3 months.... Boy that sound ambitious, yet fun. Hopefully we can get them together soon, but we will sure miss Porter if he's not here.

I'm grateful for such fun cousins who made wonderful memories with me, and also that we can help our kids make fun memories together too.

The whole crew Top row: Ashton (not related, but a friend of Elyse's), Michael, Braelyn
Middle Row: Porter, Elyse, Ty, Conner
Bottom Row: Hannah, Audrey, Kaylee, Elisabeth