Carsten's got braces!

A few months ago at the kids dentist appointment the dentist informed me that Bradon and Carsten are missing permanent teeth. {Just like me!} I decided right there and then that I was going to make them appointments with the orthodontist so that we could come up with a game plan. {Because heaven help me these kids are going to get this taken care of the right way in the first place so they don't have to relive my stupid white trash tooth horrifying experience in first person!} I took them into Dr. Fairbanks office and he said that Bradon's teeth were fine for now but recommended that Carsten get phase 1 braces right now and then phase 2 braces once all of his permanent teeth have grown in. Because his baby tooth that doesn't have a permanent tooth above it has fallen out already his mid line has shifted over to fill that space. He said that it's a lot easier to move his mid line back now than to wait until he's older. Not to mention that he looks kind of silly with his front tooth way off over to the side.

So we took him in earlier this summer and he had an expander put in. We cranked the expander everyday for 21 days and then went back in for a check up. We turned the expander 10 more times and then this past Tuesday he had his phase 1 braces put on. He has 7 brackets in all. They are going to move his mid line back and then glue a permanent retainer in behind his two front teeth to hold them in place. He will get his phase 1 braces off in about 6-9 months but keep his expander in. When he is older and all of his permanent teeth are in he will then get a full set of braces making the proper spacing for an implant. When everything is good to go he'll get a flipper retainer with a fake tooth on it to wear until he goes in for a tooth implant at age 18. So if everything goes according to plan by the time he leaves on him mission his teeth will be perfect!

Carsten is pretty excited for the process. Having braces is so GROWN UP if you know what I mean. Well except for when your 38 like me. This doesn't feel very grown up at all!

The most exciting thing about having braces is that you get to choose your own rubber band colors. Since Carsten is really into fashion and looking COOL this was an important decision! He was deciding between hot pink and black, black and yellow, and red and black. Since football season has now officially began he finally decided on RED and BLACK to strut his American Fork Caveman pride! Go Cavemen!

The trampoline story

Talan loves to jump on trampolines! The neighbors behind us have a trampoline and I find Talan going over there all the time to jump. I've wanted to get a trampoline but trampolines are expensive and I have a laundry list of other things I could and should spend money on.

I decide that I would go on KSL and find a trampoline to buy that was used but cheap. I soon realized that trampolines don't stay on KSL for very long. As soon as they are posted they are bought! I looked and looked and looked with no luck.

Then I noticed an ad for a garage sale right here in American Fork that advertised that they had a trampoline in the sale. It was the middle of the afternoon and thought that for sure the trampoline would be gone. I called and much to my surprise the lady said they still had it. I quickly took a little drive to the garage sale to take a look.

It was in pretty bad shape. Several springs were missing and lots of the tabs had fallen off because they had been exposed to the elements for 3 years straight without ever being brought in for the winters. I imagined fixing it up and remembered seeing a sign in front of an upholstery shop in down town AF advertising that they fix trampolines. I asked the lady what she was asking for the tramp. She commented back, "5" I said, "5 dollars?" She then said that she was asking 10 dollars but she would sell it to me for 5. Oh my gosh! 5 dollars is crazy cheap! I spend 5 dollars on stupid stuff all the time without even thinking about it! SOLD!

I got the tramp home and spray painted the frame black to stop the rusting. I went to the upholstery shop and found out that they charge $65.00 to restitch the entire tramp adding tabs to where they are missing. This includes a new protective strip that is sewed around the whole entire tramp to protect the stitching from the elements. I talked to David about it and he found a new mat on KSL that had already been restitched for $45.00. I jumped in the car and ran up to Sandy to buy the new mat. The new mat was in much better shape than the original mat so I was pretty excited for the great deal. I got it home and went to work on setting up the frame and putting the new mat on. And that's when I found out that not all 12 foot tramps are created equal! Our frame had 72 springs and the new mat had 84! CRAP!!! Now what was I going to do? Talan was so excited for his new tramp and now it wasn't going to work out. I drove down to the upholstery shop and dropped off our original mat and $65.00 later the tramp was assembled and ready for jumping!

And to tell you the truth. It turns out that the previous owner of this tramp had put the mat on upside down. And so when you put it on right side up the mat itself is in pretty good shape. The top of the mat had been protected. And with the new stitching and protective border it's as good as new.
So now what to do with the $45.00 mat? I'll either have to try and sell it on KSL or find a frame with 84 springs, buy it, and then sell an entire tramp as a whole on KSL. I don't know, I'll figure something out!

So what could have been a $50.00 tramp turned into a $115.00 tramp that is of course until I can find someone to buy this $45.00 mat, then it will be a $70.00 tramp!

Oh the things I'll do to save a buck!
But the kids are happy!

Look mom... NO TRAINING WHEELS!

Let me start this off by saying that Talan is
3 YEARS OLD!
He got a bicycle for Christmas this last year and then couldn't really ride it until this summer because it was so dang cold for so dang long. A couple of months ago the whole neighborhood busted out in extreme bicycle fashion. All the kids have been riding up and down the streets non stop!

Last week I noticed that Talan doesn't really use his training wheels when he's riding. A few days later I got a call from Bradon while I was at work. "Mom can I take Talan's training wheels off his bike?" I told him that I guess it would be okay. About 30 minutes later I received another phone call. This time it was Talan. "Mom, I don't need training wheels! I ride without them!" I was like, "Really?" And he was like, "Yep! Bye Bye!" When I got home he was riding all over the place! Bradon said that he was prepared to have to help him and comfort him when he would fall off but Talan got on and just went. He's too short to reach the ground and so he can't start or stop on his own but he has quickly learned how to bail out in the grass whenever he's done riding.

He is so proud of himself! Everywhere we go he tells everyone about his newest accomplishment. He doesn't care if he knows them or not, he tells everyone! All the neighbors have commented on how crazy it is to see him ride. He's so little and young! The other day he was even trying the do a pop a wheelie and he rides down our neighbors steps from their front door to the street. He jumps off curbs too! I swear this kid has NO FEAR!

Anything you can do I can do better,
I can do anything better than you!

I guess this is what happens when your #5 in the line up! All he sees is older people doing older things and nowhere in his head does he hear NO YOU CAN'T! All this boy hears is YES YOU CAN!

Mapel Dell Scout Camp 2011

David is the Scout Master and so he had the wonderful opportunity taking off an entire week of work and going to scout camp at Maple Dell this summer. Ethan had the awesome opportunity of going as a scout! Ethan had an absolute blast and accomplished a lot! David and I couldn't be more proud of what a fine young man Ethan is becoming. He is hard working, helpful, reliable and doesn't complain! Not to mention he's good! He wants nothing more than to do what is right to please his Heavenly Father.

At camp they did all sorts of activities as a troop to help build unity.

Marcus Iverson doing the wall pull.
One of the big things they accomplished as a troop was the wall pull. Each of the boys had to make it over the wall and once at the top they were only allowed to help two of the scouts after them. They had to use team work and strategy. They had to be leaders and followers at the appropriate times to make it all work out.

They were so proud of themselves and I'm sure they all learned a lot about themselves in the process. There just isn't anything like watching a boy become a man! And that's definitely what these boys were doing here at camp!

They got to go canoeing along with all sorts of other things. This picture was of the actual canoe races they held on Friday morning. Our troop won the first race and won the honorary rock with the word canoe spelled "CONNOE."

The last night of camp all the families were invited to come for a special program. We went up and Ethan was elected into the Order of the Arrow. The Order of the Arrow is the Scouting's National Honor Society.

Ethan along with his friend Marcus both received it.
This came as a surprise to the boys but what a wonderful honor!

At the end of the night they showed a video highlighting all the weeks events and then they finished the program with a very touching patriotic video about our country and scouting. During the patriotic presentation they dropped a huge flag down from off the top of one of the buildings and with the light shinning on it you could see the silhouette of these three scouts. It was AWESOME and breathtaking!

After the program we all headed back to the troops camp ground. Talan had a blast wearing the head light. I wanted to take a picture of it but every time I tried to get him to look in my general direction he would flash his light right into my eyes blinding me. Finally I settled with a side shot!

The boys got a fire started and acted like typical boys burning things.

Over all I think that camp was a huge success! The boys all accomplished lots of merit badges and personal growth. The leaders survived a week long of camping with 12 boys between the ages of 12 and 13 without killing one of them!

East Canyon Resort

David's cousins Robert and Jenny Slade invited our family to go to East Canyon Resort with them. It's a lot of fun and we always try to go whenever we are invited!

One year we stayed in one of the condos but this year Reagan and I slept in Robert and Jenny's trailer and David and the boys slept in the tent. My mom and dad drove up the next morning to spend the day playing with us.

We reserved the tennis courts and had a BALL playing together. The kids loved it! I set up a few little drills to run them through to teach them a few of the basics. They eat it up! I don't know why I don't make it a point to teach my own children tennis lessons.

My mom played tennis when I was a little girl. In fact she's the reason why I had interest in playing tennis in the first place. When I got into High School she was past her tennis playing days and I have never had success in convincing her to play. Not even going out and hitting a few balls. I was shocked and surprised when she picked up a racket at east canyon and hit the court in her sandals and all!
GO MOM!

And then dad!
My memories of dad playing tennis while I was growing up were always of him hitting the ball really hard like a baseball. So hard that the ball would fly over the fence! My mom would try to tell him how to do it right and then he would give up and quit trying. It was a lot of fun for me to see them both out there giving it a go! Especially since my dad just had 7 stents put into his heart just a few weeks before coming. So good to see him doing so good!

Ethan gave it a whirl too!
Notice David in the background searching for balls. Ethan takes after his grandfather in the tennis ball hitting skill department! Not to say that with a little practice thy could both become awesome!

Look at those gorgeous green eyes!
David and I chilled out under the Ramada after we were tired from playing tennis.

I have the stupidest pictures of myself on my camera.
They are all so candid!

Talan ran around like a free spirit!

We also reserved the shuffle board game. Shuffle board is pretty fun! I hadn't ever played it before. The kids all liked it too!

Bradon and Reagan played a pretty intense game against Ethan and Carsten. According to Ethan as soon as Bradon and Reagan were ahead by something like 2 points, Bradon called it quits! Game over! They win!

It was a fun weekend at East Canyon. After East Canyon we made a quick trip to the outlet stores in Park City and then took the scenic route home through Provo Canyon.

Monday morning my mom and dad left for home and Talan gave them super big goodbye hugs! There is just nothing more fun than hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa!

Thanks for coming for a visit mom and dad!
We loved every minute of it!

I want to ride a horse!

Talan loves animals! He's always begging to ride a horse. So what better place to go see the animals but at Thanksgiving Point! I've probably blogged about Thanksgiving Point umpteen times by now. But hey! What can I say, we never get tired of the place!

It seems like whenever someone comes in from out of town Thanksgiving Point is one of those places we always go. My mom and dad hadn't been to the Thanksgiving Point farm yet so we thought we had better take them!

I love how up close and personal you can get with the animals. This cute little calf gave Talan a little lick! Talan thought it was awesome!

All the adults/big kids watched as Talan and Reagan rode the horses.

Funny story, so one of the first nights Grandma and Grandpa were here, Grandpa took Ethan and Bradon to Wingers for dinner. At Wingers they gave Grandpa and Ethan an adult menu and then gave Bradon a kids menu WITH CRAYONS! Bradon was totally offended! Grandpa and Ethan found it to be hilarious! When they brought out their drinks they gave Grandpa and Ethan large glass cups and then gave Bradon the little kiddie cup with a lid and straw! Bradon only became more offended and Grandpa and Ethan only became more entertained! When they got home it was the first thing they told us about. Grandpa and Ethan were laughing and Bradon was still not finding it to be too funny!

Well when we got the the farm the lady asked how many of the kids were under 12 years old. I told her and then she gave me tickets for the the 12 and under kids to ride a horse. I gave Bradon his ticket and he acted all offended, "I don't want to ride a horse!" We all teased him, "A kids menu, a kids cup, come on Bradon why not a kiddie ride?" He just rolled his eyes at us in disgust! Oh to be 11 years old and just on the verge of busting out into being a big young man! The wait has got to be painful!

Ride a horsey ride a horsey
ride ride ride...

You've got to love the skirt!

Talan absolutely loves to ride these horses!

After his ride he gave him a pet and said goodbye.

We had a lot of fun! We fed the ducks, rode on a horse pulled wagon ride and got a close look at a lot of cute little farm friends like this little bugger.

The peacock was in rare form strutting its stuff and showing off it's feathers. Ethan who is really kind of like a walking encyclopedia explained to all of us why the peacock does this.

After the farm we made our traditional trip to the deli for ice cream cones. Yum!

Toothless!

Reagan lost another tooth and now she's singing,
All I want for Christmas
is my 2 front teeth!

Pretty cute don't you think?

Hi Ho! Cherry-O!

We have a cherry tree that has quadrupled in size since moving here 5 years ago. Every year it produces more and more delicious cherries. This year while my mom and dad were here I noticed that the cherries were ripe and ready to be picked. We got out a ladder and got to picking... and then it began to rain! But that didn't stop us. We cherry picked in the rain!

Look at all those cherries!
It reminds me of the game Hi Ho! Cherry-O that I use to play as a kid!

And not only were these cherries gorgeous,
they were delicious!

Criminal Minds!

On the 4th of July my mom and dad flew into town. Shortly after they got here my mom and I and a few of the kids took a trip to Walmart. Talan needed a new pair of flip flops and so after picking out a really cool pair he wore them through the store. We took all the tags off of them so that we could show them to the cashier to pay for them. When we got out to the car after checking out I saw the tags still sitting in the cart. I asked my mom, "Did you pay for these?" She answered, "No! Did you?" Oh crap we just stole a pair of flip flops! We quickly came up with a plan to right our wrong. My mom was going to run back into Walmart to pay for the flip flops and I was going to get the kids in the car and then drive to the front of the store by the door to wait for her.

As I waited in the car I did what anyone would do and I people watched. And then I saw this one guy come walking out of the store that caught my attention. He was wearing a hunter green sweatshirt. A sweatshirt? Really? Who wears a sweatshirt in the middle of summer? Then I noticed that he had something tucked under his sweatshirt. And that's when I said out loud to the kids in the car, "That dude is totally shop lifting!" I kept my eye on him as he walked through the parking lot. I wanted to see what car he got into. But he didn't get into a car. He just kept walking all the way through the lot! Right about then my mom finally came out of the store. She got in and I told her that I had just watched a dude walk out with his sweatshirt stuffed with stuff he was stealing! I flipped my car around and took off through the parking lot to get a closer look at him. By this time he was in front of the strip mall across from Walmart. I asked my mom to take a look at this guy and tell me if she thinks he's got junk under his sweatshirt. We slowly drove by him and took a good look. She was like, "he TOTALLY has stuff shoved under his sweatshirt!"

Oh my gosh! So what do we do now? Too bad there isn't a cop around! Then I looked out onto State Street and low and behold their was a Sheriff! But how was I going to get his attention. I pulled out onto State Street but in the opposite direction as the Sheriff then immediately whipped back into the strip mall. I decided that I needed to see where this BAD GUY was walking to. As I got back to where I began I realized that the Sheriff had pulled into the parking lot too but the bad guy wasn't there anymore. I couldn't see the bad guy anywhere! I rolled down my window and motioned for the Sheriff to come over to me. He rolled down his window and I told him that I just witnessed a man stealing stuff from Walmart. He told me that that's who he was looking for. Just then I saw a vehicle start up and begin to pull away. I told the sheriff that I had a feeling he was in that car. I told the sheriff that I was going to follow him. I quickly took off to follow the car. The Sheriff flipped around and followed behind me. I told my mom to get out something to write with to take down his license plate number just in case this is the guy. He pulled out onto State Street and I followed close behind. I looked back in my mirror and the Sheriff didn't follow us. WHAT? Dude!... Sheriff! Come get this guy! Okay whatever... I still have to know if this is the guy or not. He jumped on the freeway and I followed him. I sped up and moved over a few lanes so that I could get a good look. As we pulled up next to him we got a good look and it was him! My mom rolled down her window and gave him an I KNOW WHAT YOU DID YOU NAUGHTY MAN YOU kind of stare! You know the stare only a mother knows how to give! I was sorta freaking out hoping this bad guy didn't have a gun that he was wanting to use. Wanting to use on a mother giving him the mother stare! Fortunately for us... He didn't!

So now what? I saw this guy stealing, I followed him, I alerted the Sheriff, I got his plate number, I pursued him,... NOW WHAT? The dang Sheriff didn't bother to follow me! So I got off the freeway and let the thief go. My mom and I talked about it for a minute and decided to go back to try to find that dang Sheriff! And what do you know... I FOUND HIM! He was filling his tank at the gas station. I pulled up along side of him and when he looked over he immediately knew who I was. I told him that I followed him and it was for sure him! He told me that he didn't follow me because he was entering the plate number into his computer to see if the description of the driver of that vehicle matched up with the description of the bad guy...and it did. He had me come to his Sheriff car and take a look at the picture of the guy on his computer. Sure enough, that was our guy!

He then asked me to go back to Walmart to meet with the American Fork police officer who was there. I did and she had me fill out a witness report. She thanked me profusely for my service and then I headed home. I few minutes later I received a call on my cell phone from the same officer. She asked if it was okay for her to share my cell phone number with the Walmart people. She said that they were so impressed and grateful for my help in catching this criminal that they wanted to give me a gift card. Later I got a call from the store manager and he told me that this one particular bad guy had been stealing from his store along with other stores for quite some time and that this was the closest they had ever come to catching him. If I hadn't followed him they wouldn't have gotten his plate number and with his plate number he is as good as caught! He told me that he wanted to give me a $25.00 gift card to thank me. WELL ISN'T THAT NICE!!! The next day I got a call from the loss and prevention department wanting to thank me too! Man I was a real Walmart HERO! Anyways a few days later I went to Walmart to get my gift card and the manager once again thanked me and told me that if I ever wanted a job in their loss and prevention department he would hire me! Too funny huh?

So there you have it. I now have one more awesome thing to add to my resume. I'm a thief catcher! I have natural police like reflexes and I didn't even know it! I mean I've always known that I was really good at watching people. Heck I've even been known for staring at people from time to time. And I've always been pretty observant... especially about what people are wearing! Well not so much in my older years, well okay, maybe! And chasing someone down in my car! YES! That's my specialty! I know how to put the pedal to the medal if you know what I mean!

SO WATCH OUT BAD BOYS!
Bad boys bad boys, whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do when STEPH comes for you?

4th of July Freedom Run

This is our second year in a row running the freedom run as a family.

Except this year instead of all of us running in the 5k, Carsten and I ran in the 10k instead. It's a fun family tradition that I hope we keep for years to come.

When David and the rest of the kids finished their 5k they waited for Carsten and I to finish our 10K. David said that when he saw Carsten he was running with a spring in his step like as if it wasn't challenging! He said that his face was red but other than that he didn't look the least bit tired! At least 8 minutes later I came up the road looking like I was about to die!

The kids pediatrician Dr. Mumford was at the race with his family. He told my kids that if any of them won 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in their age division that he would give them $5.00. So just before going home we decided to go look at our times.
Carsten won first place in his age division!
He was 20 minutes ahead of the 2nd place winner!
I tell you, this kid is a natural!
The furthest he had ever run in all his life before this race was a 5k.
We went over to the awards table and they had already announced his name. They gave him his award and then I had one of the girls reenact giving it to him for a picture. As you can see she was quite the actress!

We were all so proud of Carsten!
And I think he was pretty proud of himself too!

As we were getting ready to leave, one of the men that was there helping with the awards came over to us and told us that we needed to take a picture of Carsten with the BYU "Y" in the background. He told us that that way Carsten can set a goal to someday run on BYU's track team and this picture can always remind him of his goal!

I need to also mention that Ethan improved his 5k time by 10 minutes. That is an awesome accomplishment if you ask me!

I'm just so proud of all my kids and their desire to be fit and challenge themselves physically! I just think it's so good for them!

After the freedom run we all went to Seven Peaks to cool off in the water. What a wonderful start to our 4th of July day!

It's official, he's a BIG BOY now!

Talan is potty trained!

After the experience of potty training my oldest child I gained a testimony that it's not worth potty training until the child is ready to be potty trained.

I started the potty training process with Ethan when he was 2 1/2 years old and the boy wasn't officially potty trained until he was about 4! I was beating a dead horse! I have awesome story after awesome story about that process. Not a pretty picture to paint if you know what I mean!

And then I got this brilliant idea from someone. Go to the dollar store and buy a fancy fun gift bag and fill it with all sorts of cool dollar store prizes. Place it somewhere out of reach that they can see and tell your child that every time he goes potty on the toilet he can close his eyes, reach into the bag and pull out a prize! Eventually your child quits asking for a prize and they are potty trained! I tried it with Ethan and it was like a potty training miracle!

Talan has been saying that he doesn't want to be potty trained for quite some time now. In fact he would go as far as pleading with me while I changed his dirty diaper, "No! It's my poop! Don't take it! I want it! I like my poop on my bum!"

I did the peer pressure thing. "Oh look Talan, Wyatt is potty trained. He goes potty on the toilet because he's a big boy! Don't you want to be a big boy?" And every time.... "NO! I like my diapers!"

Okay so reality is that he's going to get potty trained before kindergarten but I would really prefer that he be potty trained before preschool. So what was I to do so that I didn't end up beating a dead horse?
I know...The miracle potty bag!

And oh my gosh, Talan ate it up!
He got prize after prize because not only was he good at going potty on the toilet but he could go potty on the toilet on command! And his big brothers and sister loved nothing more than reminding him that he could get a prize if he went. They even reminded him that he needed to ask for a prize when he had forgotten.
I was restocking my prize bag before Talan ever even went #2!

So I had a long chat with the kids about how this potty bag thing works and insisted they don't remind him about the prizes.

And before we knew it, Talan was going poop and pee on the potty without a prize! The boy is officially potty trained! And proud of it! He tells everyone all about it! And to tell you the truth, we are all proud of him too!
Way to go Talan!
Way to be a BIG BOY!