Hello

Carter in his play
The kids at the annual blue and gold banquet
Was down on a graveside service in the pleasant grove cemetery visited the kin folk
Houston's first hair cut - yes he is in his high chair he was way tired and cranky, but it needed to be done

the kids at Carter's play in the cut outs




Well things in our house have sort of come to a screeching halt. Landon finished his Jr. Jazz basketball season and Carter finished his school play, so we are not quite as busy as we were the last couple of months. Landon's last game was really good. They only had 5 kids show up, so they played the entire game. Landon had 4 points (the only points he scored during the season) It was fun to see him get excited about scoring. Carter's play was really good. They did Pirates of Penzance. The last week or so, he was getting really tired because they would practice after school and so he would come home and crash after dinner. Afton has been getting bigger and smarter. It is fun to see her pick up on different stuff from pre-school. Houston is getting faster and faster on his feet. He loves to play outside and the weather has just changed so that he can be outside, but now we have to fight the mesquitos for dominion of our yard.

Wow it has been a long time - Not going to try and catch up here are some pictures I have taken with my phone over that last few months

Not a lot of snow this year, but one day it snowed enough to get the sleds out for a few hours - you can see the snow melted to the grass pretty quick.
This is shopping with Nicole's broken ankle


Here are some funny pictures of the kids falling asleep in different places - they can sleep almost anywhere




Our casket supplier sent me back to their plant in
Indiana - Dinner one night was at a steak house - This was my 22 ounce Kansas cut steak topped with melted blue cheese - very yummy that is a full size plate
Took the kids out duck hunting one afternoon - lots of walking no ducks you can see Landon was the happiest to have walked that far they still had a good time
This was an airboat ride at the Delta Waterfowl Association youth duck hunting fair that we try and go to every year. the kids always have fun.
The only animal that fell to the mighty barrel of my weapons this year. One lone duck - he is still in our freezer.
Me and Booga in the truck - she likes going with daddy in the truck
Afton dropped out of pre-school to go to beauty school - doesn't look like its going to work out for her.
This was at Cracker Barrel in honor of dad - Don't know if anyone else went when they were doing this, it was the hold hands across America to support the troops - you took your picture - uploaded it to their website and then you could see your picture holding hands with everyone else that had done it. sort of fun
We hit the drive-in movie a few times this summer - the kids loved it but would not sit still long enough to watch the movie and then would fall asleep before the second movie even started. Good times plan on doing again this summer
Me and Booga goofing off

So this is Carter at the Hill Air Force Base Museum - Fun day trip
This is Landon's Jr. Jazz you can see him in the middle of the court in the black undershirt and blue jersey - he keeps getting better each week.
Me and Houston goofing around one night when he should be in bed.
Afton is sleeping cuddled up to my old teddy bear that mom made for me a long time ago, the fur is all matted down and rubbed off in some places, she found it and took a liking to it for a while
The family walking home from church one day - I love Afton holding Landon's hand.



Well I am going to try and do better and the blog, especially since this is going to print now.

Ice Fishing Trip

So I was talking to a guy from work and we have been talking about going ice fishing for a couple of years, and the stars aligned Saturday and we went up to Strawberry for an afternoon of ice fishing. It was a perfect day and that was a good thing as Landon went thigh high into a hole after we had been there for only 1 minute or 2. After taking him back to the truck and getting him situated we were back on the ice. Fishing was slow and we only caught 1 fish that was in between the throw back size, so back into the hole it went. Outside of getting away from everything and hanging out with the boys and John, it was a good waste of time.

Houston is doing good. He wakes up about every 3 hours to eat and then back to sleep. The other kids like to help with him and we have to be careful as they have all been fighting coughs and colds. Nicole has been getting better day by day.

Anyone up for a trip?

SO just thought I would throw it out there - I think we will try and do a trip to Yellowstone trip sometime this summer (2011) . I am thinking maybe a long weekend with a night or two at Colter Bay Cabins. Let me know if it is something that you think you would want to do this as a group. Not a big deal if no one wants to do it. I am thinking maybe in August, but nothing set in stone

Another Hunting Entry - ELK HUNT

Well not much to report - just went on an elk hunt this weekend and got back this afternoon. Had a good time, went with my buddy from work and his 2 kids, another buddy of his and his father-in-law. We went to an area east of Strawberry Res. about 2 hours from SLC. We were an dirt roads for about 45 minutes. We had to drive through 2 ponds that had water about 2-3 feet of water and slid around in the mud, but made it there safely. Woke up early and rode 4 wheelers to the area were were going to hunt and then walked down and up the valley where we were going to hunt. It was a though hike. The weather was cold, but nice. The three pictures are what I looked at for a day and a half looking for elk to shoot. This was a spike hunt which means you can only shoot bull elk that there antlers have not forked yet. I only saw one that I could have shot, but he was moving really fast, and by the time and put a scope on him he was in the trees. I did see a few cow elks and a big bull elk, but couldn't shoot them. All in all it was a cold fun weekend - can't wait to do it again. Anyways with that much spare time I did some carving. I know it's not nice and destructive, but I've always wanted to do that in an aspen tree.

Just an update of Landon, last weekend he had an urinary tract infection, which is not supposed to really happen with boys - a few years ago he had issues with this and they ran some test, x-rays, ultrasounds, etc. Anyways he has an apt, with a urologist on Tues. to make sure everything is OK, but the antibiotics kicked in and his pee-tail is doing better. He told Nicole this morning that "it doesn't feel like there is a needle in my pee-pee when I go to the bathroom anymore"

DUCK!!!!

Well the duck season is here in Utah. Saturday was the opener and me and a guy from work went out with 400-500 hundred other nutheads for the opener. It was a good time. There was a lot of ducks flying and they started a half hour early this year, so we had a lot of chances to shoot ducks. We probably shot 10-12 ducks and went through 2 boxes of shells. There was some guys shooting close to us and they winged a couple that we finished off. After we searched for a while in the 10 ft. weeds, we ended up finding 4 of the ducks. It was a fun few hours. Hopefully I will be able to get out a few times in the morning before work and get some more. We will see how that goes. this weekend I am going on an elk hunt with a buddy, so we will see how that goes.

We had a good conference weekend and watched most of conference. We had yummy stuffed french toast instead of postum cake.

Things seem to be going good with our baby. Nicole has an apt. on Weds. to see how things are going, but so far, things are good. We are still working on names - any suggestions?

The boys are doing really good in school and love to come home and ride their bikes around the neighborhood. Afton misses the boys when they are not home, but seems to find trouble to get in most days.

G and an O, O and a D, T and an I with a M and an E"

So Landon had his first pinewood derby on Saturday. Other than the guy that they brought in to run it was a grandson of Adolf Hitler, we had a good time - I guess the guy that ran it has reasons, he was a little strict. there was about 12-14 cars, Landon ran pretty good and ended up in the finals and overall ended up in 5th place. We had a fun time cheering him on. Carter was a little green with envy and can't wait till he is old enough. Landon woke up Saturday morning at 6:30 as I was getting ready for work and the first thing he said was "Dad what time is the race today?"

Fall is in the air in Utah and the trees in the Mtns are starting to turn all kinds of pretty colors - for those stuck in an area where they don't have 4 seasons (Texas) you are welcome to see a pretty fall any time in the next few weeks. If you live somewhere where there are 4 seasons (Minnesota) come see where they are prettier in the mountains.

That's about the only news from around here. Baby seems to be getting bigger and healthier, Afton seems to keep finding trouble to get into with the boys at school, and the boys are doing great in school. Hunting season is around the corner and am getting excited about that, hopefully it will be productive.