Jazz Basketball and new beds

Jenna and Luke started basketball the first of this month. They have a game every Saturday. They are on the same team so it is so nice to just go to one game and then we are done. Jenna is #24 and Luke is #15. Luke made a basket at this last game. They are actually starting to get it and are starting to be more agressive. At this stage they don't call fouls or traveling. If they did the kids would never get to play. At their first game a lot of the kids would get the ball and then just run down the court. It was really cute. Here are some pictures of their first game.
On the way to the game we saw a golden eagle and a bald eagle up in the try at the bottom of the pass. We haven't seen a bald eagle in this area before.

What a powerful looking bird, even from a distance. No wonder it is the symbol of our nation.

We must of spooked him because he flew off.

The kids warming up with their team the Mavericks

Jenna warming up with the team

Jenna in her first game.


Luke in the game

Luke with his hands up.

Lindee and Dad watching the game

JT and Dad

Lindee is offically a big girl. She kept getting out of her crib so we decided to get the girls some bunk beds. Then of course the boys wanted to stack their beds so bunk beds for everyone. We also got them new bedspreads. Jenna and Lindee's new bed. Jenna has single and Lindee's is a full so we still have plenty of room for guests!

Luke loves his new bedspread. He thinks he is so grown. Although you notice that he is on the bottom bunk. He still fall out of bed almost every night and we can't figure out way. We think maybe it is because he is a very heavy sleeper or it has something to do with the tubes in his hears! Who knows, but he is also afraid of heights so he agreed to sleep on the bottom.

JT still loves Cars as you can tell! We put the bed rail up after this picture, but he usually doesn't have a problem fall out of bed like Luke!

Arizona Days and The Hoover Dam

We spent the days playing games, taking walks, reminiscing, playing cards,watching movies, and playing in the desert. Grandma Fishers house has 2 bedrooms, an outhouse, solar electricity, a propane refrigerator, running water from an artesian well, and lots of cactuses. When the solar power goes out my parents have a generator so that we can stay up later at night and watch a movie and play cards. When it is cloudy you hardly have any power for the day. The kids found lots of things to do and found out that they could really live without electricity! One of the things that my family used to do when we went to visit Grandma when we were growing up was go to Burro Creek. It was much to cold to go swimming but we went and walked around one day. It was just like I remembered but everything seemed much bigger back then. I haven't been to Wikieup for 12 years. The kids threw rocks in the Creek and some of the big kids did too! We had a lot of fun in Wikieup and can't wait to go back again. Hopefully when it is a little warmer so we can go lizard hunting and go swimming, but not so hot that the rattlesnakes are out!

On th way to Arizona we crossed over the Hoover Dam. They have really tight security and we had to wait in line for 45 minutes to get checked before we could cross over. They are building a new bridge downstream of the dam. It was an awesome sight so we decided to stop on our way back to Utah.



Here is the new bridge and road that they are building. It looks really scary to drive over!

These are the famous statues that guard over the dam.
On the way to St. George we went through this gorge that had awesome mountains that surrounding the road. We had to stop and take a picture. I also found this good looking guy and decided to pick him up!

There is a story behind the hat. My Ryan was has little hair and the hair that he does have is blond and he keeps it short. So he is called Bald Ryan when we get together with my family because I have a brother named Ryan (we call him Red Ryan because of his red hair). Anyway, we found this hat at a little gift shop and I made Ryan get it so he is no longer Bald Ryan! He has had a lot of fun with this hat. People at work have asked who the new guy was!

The kids did really good on the 10 hours that it took us to drive one way to Grandma's house. We had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back.

Arizona Christmas

My brother Ryan and his family also spend Christmas in Arizona with us and my parents. So that night we decorated cookies and then it was off to bed so that Santa could come.
Here are the kids discovering what is in their stockings
My mom make all of us a pair of her famous slippers. She made 31 pairs!
Dad eating his pickled pigs feet that he always requests from Santa!
My cousin Cameron also came to Arizona. He helped entertain the kids on his 4-wheeler and put up sleeping in the same room with all of the kids. Thanks for coming Cameron it was a lot of fun!
Here is all of us after Christmas was over and all clod in our new slippered feet.

Christmas 2009

I have been a slacker on my blog lately. I just got some digital scrapbooking software and have been scrapbooking like crazy. I am hoping to get some books done by next Christmas to give to the kids. Here is some pictures from our ward Christmas party where Santa came.

Lindee is not so sure about Santa this year.

The kids had 2 full weeks off of school for winter break. We weren't going to go anywhere because we thought that our dog was going to have puppies (but she didn't take) so we decided to head to Wikieup! We had Christmas dinner with Ryan's brothers family on Sunday. Then we made Christmas suger cookies on Monday to decorate later.
We didn't want to bring all of our presents to Arizona so we decided to have Christmas eve on the 22nd. So we read the Christmas story and the kids got to open their 1 christmas presents and surprise it was new PJ's.
Then we got up on the 23rd and got to open presents from each other. We put in a call to Santa to let him know that we would be in Arizona for Christmas day and not to forget us.
We divide out all the gifts from each other and then they have to open them one at a time from youngest to oldest. Here the kids are waiting to open.Lindee wasn't quite sure about the gift thing but by the end she had it all figured out.

Thanks Grandma Ussing for the portable DVD players. They will really come in handy!
We packed everything up that evening and headed to Arizona early the next morning. We left Utah at -9 degress and 5 inches of snow and arrived in Wikieup at 50 degrees. It was wonderful.