Weddings

Ethan and Bradon were both invited to

wedding receptions this week!

Bradon got invited to his last years first grade teacher, Miss Houghton's wedding reception.  Her reception was at The Gardens at Thanksgiving point.  Bradon was so excited that she was getting married and that he was invited.  There were quite a few kids at the reception that Bradon knew.  It was a total party!  Carsten is desperately hoping that Miss Houghton (who is now Mrs. Oxley) will be his teacher next year.  I think that Carsten seeing her in her wedding dress is what did it.   Reagan was very impressed with her beautiful wedding gown too!  After all, she did look like a princess!

A little cute and funny story:

On the way to the reception Bradon was asking me when Miss Houghton was going to open up her wedding present.  I told him that everyone does it different, lots of people don't open their presents until after they come home from their honeymoon.  He asked me what a honeymoon was.  I told him that a honeymoon was when a new married couple goes on vacation together to celebrate their marriage.  He said "Oh yeah, I know!  I think that for sure mostly they go on a picnic!"  I asked "They go on a picnic for their honeymoon?"  He said "Yeah, mostly!"  So then I asked him if that is what he was going to do for his honeymoon.  He said "I don't know, probably!"  I love kids and the way they think!  

So I hope that Mr. and Mrs. Oxley have a great time on their picnic!

Ethan was invited to his karate instructors reception.  Mr. Young married Miss Taylor.  The two of them have been Ethan's karate instructors for almost two years now.  All I have to say is that it's about time they got married!  Ethan was thrilled they were getting married and that he got to go to the reception.  I had a lot of fun going with Ethan.  Ethan is really growing up fast!  Before I know it I'll be going to his reception!

Grandparents Day

'Grandpa' Uncle Jay came to the kids school for Grandparents day!

The kids say that 'Grandpa' Uncle Jay is their substitute Grandpa.

Ethan says that he's the assistant Grandpa.

Whatever he is, we think that he does a good job and we appreciate him!

Thanks 'Grandpa' Uncle Jay!

Carsten and Grandpa Uncle Jay had a good time playing games together.

Bradon interviewed Grandpa Uncle Jay 

asking him what things were like when he was a kid.

Ethan showed Grandpa Uncle Jay his Mac and all the sound effects on garage band.

After all the fun and excitement of Grandparents day

 we went to Kountry Korner for a beer (soda).

Grandpa Uncle Jay taught the kids all sorts of fun things like:

Railroad crossing without any cars, can you spell that without any R's?

And he showed them a trick twirling a pen in his hands.  The kids wanted to learn how to do it so bad.  He showed them over and over again and told them that if they could figure it out and do it, then he would buy them some chicken strips.  Ethan was hungry and that's all the motivation it took.  He finally figured it out and Grandpa Uncle Jay was true to his word and chicken was had by all!

It was a good day and I think that everyone had a great time!

Thanks again Uncle Jay, you're a real good 'Grandpa'!

Here's our little Reagan bug!

Reagan is so much fun!  She is my little helper around the house and with 'her baby Talan'.  Whenever I say "my baby" she corrects me and says "He's not your baby.  He's my baby, he's your baby, he's all of ours baby!  Not just yours!" She is a little mother hen and I love it!  She wants to be right there helping with every aspect of being a mother.  From changing Talan's diaper to disciplining her older brothers.  She can hardly wait until she's a mother.  The other day Reagan told me "When I'm a mom I'm going to have a baby in my tummy and fat boobs like you!"  She said it with a look on her face likes it's just a matter of fact and she's proud!  All I have to say to that is, You Go Girl!

Reagan is 100% girl with lots of boy examples all around her.  She knows how to hold her own and get what she wants!  She loves to shop for clothes and shoes and well, anything really.  She just likes to get stuff!  She loves to play house and dress up and she loves to sing.  She likes to look cute and she notices when people tell her that she's cute and she likes it.  My friend had taken her to a store where several people had commented on how cute she was.  When they left the store my friend told Reagan that all the people in the store thought that she was cute and Reagan said "No! Only two people said I was cute!"  Too funny!

Reagan has a friend named Nyah who is a year older than her.  Reagan loves Nyah!  She wants to look like Nyah, she wants her hair to be long like Nyah's, she always wants to play with Nyah and whenever Reagan plays imaginary anything, Reagan is Nyah!  Sometimes I worry about Reagan's obsession about Nyah, but I guess it's normal for a kid to idolize someone older than themselves......I guess!

Something cute that Reagan says is "Don't be mean at me!"  or "He's being mean at me!" or "I'm mean at him!" I love it when she says this.  for some reason I think that it is just so cute!  Occasionally Reagan and I have it out with each other.  She might not want to wear what I want her to wear, or she might not want her hair done, or her underwear or her socks are 'hurting her' and we have a little power struggle.  Occasionally I give into her, but most the time I win with her saying "FINE THEN!"  or "Don't be mean at me!"  I love my little Reagan bug, attitude and all!  I wouldn't change her for the world! 

Spring Snowman!

BRADON,

CARSTEN

& REAGAN

Went out and had a little photo shoot with their spring snowman!

Monday morning we woke up to a little spring snowfall.  It was funny because all the kids were upset when they looked outside.  Bradon insisted that he needed to stay home from school because he was so upset that it was snowing.  Ethan told me that all the kids at school hate it when it snows now.  I told them that they only didn't like it because it's the end of winter, but I assured them that spring was coming and good weather was on it's way.  Ethan thought about it and then said, IT IS SPRING!

Cub Scouts

Ethan is a Webelo!

 At a recent pack meeting he received some award for something he did.  As you can see from the look on his face, he is very excited about it!

We are very proud of our Ethan!

I think that for the most part he enjoys going to scouts and learning new things.

Way to go Ethan, we love you!

Bradon is a wolf!

This is a picture of him right after he received his Bobcat!  They do this war paint ceremony thing every time a cub scout advances.  The first time they did this in a pack meeting the boys weren't so sure about it but now the boys love it and look forward to it.  We love our Bradon and his excitement and love for life!

Congratulations Bradon!

An Arizona Easter

The Mesa Arizona Temple

Easter 2008

We had our traditional easter egg hunt to lead us to our easter baskets at Grandma Adair's house. Talan found his basket in the kids bathtub!
(with a little help from his brothers)

Reagan found her basket in the cabinet underneath the microwave.

She was so excited to get a purple jump rope!

She was pretty sure that Santa was going to bring her one for Christmas but it turns out that the Easter Bunny brought it instead!

Carsten found his basket in Grandpa's shower.

He got some sidewalk chalk and thought that he was in heaven.

Bradon found his basket in Grandma's closet.

He got a football game.

Ethan found his basket underneath Grandma's sink in the kitchen.

Ethan wasn't so happy with the Easter Bunny this year.

The Easter Bunny got him something Pokemon and he doesn't like pokemon,

he likes Neopets and webkinz.

So I think that the Easter Bunny is going to try and remember

to not get him anything next year!

So we woke up Easter morning and had our egg hunt and got ready to go to church. It turned out that we missed church and so we went to the Mesa Temple instead. They had a special display of Photography called "Reflections of Christ". It was like an art gallery of pictures of Christ. They had the lights turned down and beautiful music playing. It was wonderful! The spirit was quite strong. At one point Bradon came up to me and just started to snuggle on me. I asked him if he was feeling the spirit. He told me that he thought that he was. It was very sweet! I think that all the kids felt the spirit that day.

HAPPY EASTER!

The Knowledge Bowl

On March 15th Ethan competed on the

Freedom Elementary School Knowledge Bowl team.
He studied for this for a few months and had practices with his team a couple of times a week. The colorful cards he's holding are his study flashcards.

David and I were so impressed and proud of Ethan.

This is a picture of his team. He was player #5 on the far right.

David and I both think that he was one of the smartest kids on the team. He wasn't afraid to buzz in and answer the questions and the room was packed filled with people quietly watching. Time and time again the team captain would say,

"That question will be answered by player #5."

And then Ethan would answer the question and more times than not he would be right!
WAY TO GO ETHAN!

Talan Haws Adair's Blessing day

Grandma and Grandpa Haws came to Utah for Talan's Blessing.  He was blessed on March 16th by his father David.  We had a good time visiting with all our family who came.  David's brother Kendall and his wife Elaine and their son Colton came all the way from Arizona too!  

Talan's special day!

Ethan, Bradon, Carsten and Talan were all blessed in this blessing outfit. 

I was a little worried that Talan wouldn't fit into it because he was 10 1/2 weeks old when he was blessed.  The other boys were closer to 6 weeks old for their blessings.

Grandpa Arnett

Great Grandpa and Grandpa Charles Arnett

1919-2008

This is Gandpa and Talan 2 1/2 weeks before Grandpa passed away.  Aren't they both just adorable!  I am so grateful for the few pictures I took and the few minuets I had to give him a hug and tell him that I loved him!  I love you Grandpa!

This is Monday, March 24th At grandpa's burial.  Grandpa had a military burial.  His  blue metal casket was draped with an american flag.  He was given a 21 gun salute. He had a military fly by in the missing man formation (that had to be approved through the pentagon).  He had a second fly by of two planes just like the ones Grandpa trained in for World War II.  It was wonderful!  I think that Grandpa would have enjoyed the beautiful sendoff he was given.

Charles W. Arnett 1919-2008

On March 12th I got a phone call from my sister Staci telling me that she just got word that Grandpa Arnett had passed away.  She said that he had gotten up and got dressed and was teasing grandma a little bit (just being cute with her) and then Grandma left the room for a while and when she got back he was gone.  At first I was shocked but at the same time I was not surprised. Grandpa was 88 years old and in January he had had a heart attack and they had put a pace maker in.  

I had gone to Arizona 2 1/2 weeks before this to show my baby Talan to his Grandma and Grandpa Adair.  While I was there I decided that I needed to go see grandma and grandpa Arnett to take pictures and see how they were doing.  I am so glad that I did!  Thinking back on it now, maybe the real reason for my trip to Arizona was to see Grandpa Arnett for the last time.   

They were so cute!  They were talking about dying and how they had had everything taken care of.  They had bought their caskets and Grandpa was proud that they were blue metal ones. Grandma had already made 512 dish rags to give to all those who attend her funeral.  Grandpa seemed quite proud of her accomplishment.  They were in a bit of a disagreement on where they should be buried though.  Grandma thought that they should have a military burial because it would be paid for and he would get a 21 gun salute and and american flag draped over his casket.  Grandpa said that he wanted to be buried in Franklin so that when he was resurrected the first thing he would see would be Franklin.  His eyes twinkled at the thought.  Grandma assured him that when he was resurrected all he had to do is think of where he wanted to be and he would be there so it didn't really matter where he was buried asnyways.  She said that he paid for those plots in Franklin and just doesn't want to see them go to waist!  I thought that their conversation was cute and I loved the fact that they were preparing to die and that they were almost looking forward to it.