Today on our family blog I would like to welcome Kaitlin, who will be co-writing with me.

Becky: Welcome Kaitlin
Kaitlin: (Laughing) Hey.

Chaz Turns 15

Becky: Chaz turned 15 on Saturday. We celebrated by going to the city parade.

Kaitlin: Then we had cake, which wasn't cake, and all that. Late at night we went to a park and anxiously awaited fireworks, which were really good for a city thing.

Becky: Chaz got a tennis racket, a wallet, some shorts and some headphones. Kaitlin and Chaz were so excited that now they each had a tennis racket that...

Kaitlin: ...we went to this tennis court that doesn't get used very often and it was really hot and we practiced. We didn't really practice we kind of learned how to do it.

Becky: Chaz also spent most of the afternoon at the City Fair with a friend. We have no idea what he did but he wasn't arrested or anything so I guess it was okay.

Kaitlin: Chaz got his face painted, a red helicopter, but after he wore it for awhile it looked like a big bloody, zitty mess. (giggles) Like in this picture.

Becky: I think Chaz looks pretty cute in this picture (the face painting thing aside). He is looking like more and more like a young man every day.


Kaitlin had a Birthday Party

Kaitlin: I had a fun Pop-Star birthday party. All the girls got silly sun glasses and crowns, like in this picture. I look so cool. The girls painted nails, sang karaoke, and dressed each other up in toilet paper (That was fun!). I got twenty bucks for Target which I am anxious to spend.

Becky: The coolest thing about Kaitlin's party is that she planned and paid for the whole thing herself. Now that she is 12, Mom won't plan friend parties anymore.

Kaitlin: I decorated my own cake and cupcakes. They look silly. I love smily face cupcakes!

Kaitlin: For my birthday present I got my ears pierced, finally! Although they hurt for the first hour, now they don't and they are very pretty. I will not tell you where I got my ears pierced [at which establishment] because it is embarrassing. Now they are cute. And I love them. I don't know why my mom never did it before. She is probably just afraid. The end.


City Days

Becky: Saturday was our city celebration.

Kaitlin: We had a parade that went on for-ever! It wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't been siting in the blazing heat and at the very end of the parade [route]. So all the dancers and cheerleaders were so hot and tired that they didn't do any dances. I was disappointed. And then we had all the political people I don't care about driving by in their cars. At least I had the shade umbrella.

Becky: In the afternoon Chuck and Jared and I went to the fair. We are too frugal to buy tickets for the rides so we just visit the booths and watch the free entertainment. Kaitlin and Ruth decided to stay home and swim in our little pool. It was very hot.

Jared's Eye Doctor Visit

Becky: This week we took our 3rd visit to Primary Children's Hospital to get Jared's eyes checked. He's been on the "chemical patch" for the past 3 months to try to strengthen his lazy eye. I was happy to learn that he now has equal eyesight in both eyes. We will go back in the Fall to see if he has any regression. Jared is dressed as a pirate in this picture just because. He dressed up one day and looked cute so I took his picture.

Kaitlin's Artwork

Kaitlin asked me to post this painting she painted today. She challenged herself by painting using only 5 paint colors. She said "I never knew there were so many shades of brown."

Watching TV on the Internet

Here is another of our favorites on the web: Full-Length TV Shows on Yahoo TV. Watch oldies like Airwolf, Fame and Remington Steel (I loved that show when I was 10!) There are a few new shows in there too.

We also like watching shows on ABC Full Episode Player . This summer Chuck and I have watched all the first 3 seasons of Lost - which I am convinced is the only way to watch Lost and truly enjoy it.

Jared's Spiderweb

When Jared saw that Kaitlin got her artwork posted he didn't want to be left out so he brought me this spiderweb with spiders painting that he did today to scan and put on the blog. So here it is!

Kaitlin Turns 12


Yes it is true! Kaitlin is now 12! 12 is a really big birthday because that means that you are done with elementary school and will be moving on to middle school. It also means you will be leaving the Primary program at our church and will be entering Young Women (our youth group for girls). And the most wonderful thing about being in Young Women is that now you will get to go to camp for a week with the older girls. Kaitlin is very excited. We celebrated Kaitlin's birthday by eating waffles and then she went to her dad's house for more birthday fun. Kaitlin got a tennis racket for her birthday because both Kaitlin and Chaz will be taking tennis lessons this summer.



A Visit from the Texas Snows and to Temple Square

This week we enjoyed a nice visit from my brother Richard and his family. On Tuesday we had a very fun baby shower for my niece Meagan. Can you believe that I will be a great aunt. And I don't just mean that I will be wonderful I mean I will really have the title "great aunt."

On Thursday Chuck took the day off of work and we went with the Snows to our favorite tourist destination - Temple Square. We saw the Joseph Smith movie and had a picnic on the Plaza. Here is a nice picture I took of the temple there.

Rodeo Fun

In our attempt to further expose our children to high levels of culture and learning experiences we took the kids to the City Rodeo.

We especially enjoyed the mutton busting (children riding sheep).

Ruth cheered for the calves in the Calf Roping Event. Every time a calf got away she would yell "Go Calves!"


Chaz especially enjoyed the bronc and bull ridding. I caught this action shot of a young 17 year old bronc rider who was kicked in the neck or head and was taken off on a stretcher. Rodeo is NOT a safe sport. I couldn't help but think of the song "Mama's Don't Let your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys."

Beautiful City

We can't say enough about how much we love living here. I tried to catch a picture of the beautiful view of the valley we had as the sun set during the rodeo. If you look really closely you can see the new Oquirrh Mountain temple that is being built on a bluff right in the middle of the photo (it has turned this week from yellow (insulation) to black (some sort of sealant)). The rodeo grounds are withing walking distance of our house.





















Pandora - One of our Favorite Websites

If you haven't yet discovered Pandora Radio at http://www.pandora.com/ you should check it out. It is an Internet radio station that plays the specific music you select. It is very cool and best of all it's free! We listen to everything from Chris Daughtry to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Happy Father's Day!

"I'm about to fire both of you!"

These are the words I uttered to Jared and Ruth as they "helped" me make chocolate cupcakes. Jared learned that when Mom adds 4 cups of powdered sugar to the kitchenaid mixer is not the time to turn the mixer on high speed. With powdered sugar everywhere, on the floor, on the counter, on the stove top, on the cupboards above, I went for the vacuum to quickly bring the situation under control. Meanwhile Ruth and Jared thought this was heaven as they put their finger licking and dipping skills to work. It was when Ruth knocked down another pile of powdered sugar onto the floor I just finished cleaning when the above statement was said.


The Big Cheese

Chuck is the Big Cheese that we love on Father's day. Chuck was greeted by his "Big Cheese" gift this morning. It's creation was all Ruth's idea, I only helped a little in the actual making. Chuck also enjoyed his favorite dinner of lasagna, and some cupcakes (see above article). Chuck is a wonderful father and a fabulous husband and we were happy to honor him on this special day.



Poor Kaitlin

Poor Kaitlin had to spend the week away with her father, step-mother and younger sister Megan. She was forced to go do Disneyland, California Adventure and Seaworld. And if that weren't torture enough, she had to spend her final day at Universal Studios. We got a call from her on Thursday and she was having a wonderful time.

Here at home Ruth and Jared enjoyed some fun days bouncing on the trampoline.


























Come buy our junk!

On Saturday we made $93.50 putting on a yard sale. I was amazed at how much junk we pulled out of our house to sell. I wonder now where we kept it all. And now that the sale is over, we still have tons of junk left over. The truly amazing thing is... the house inside seems exactly the same - nothing is missing at all. It looks like some day this week we will be taking a trip to the thrift store to make a very large donation. So if you want any baby clothes infant - size 5 boy and girl, a pasta maker, or various toddler toys, come on by before they are donated.







Just for fun, here's a picture of our back flower bed. It looks good right now with everything blooming.

No More Teachers No More Books...

School's Out for the Barnums

Yes it's true. We are all finished for school for the summer. Now just if the weather would cooperate! It has been nothing but rain, rain and more rain, which is great for my garden but no so great for spring frolicking. All the kids brought home report cards. Kaitlin and Chaz both did very well, and Ruth surprised us all by bringing home a perfect report card. We never considered Ruth to be a super strong student so wooh-hoo Ruth!


The Eagle has landed... almost

Chaz finished up his Eagle project this week. That just leaves one and a half merit badges between Chaz and his Eagle scout. He's set a goal to finish it up this summer so cross your fingers everyone. He dropped off the outdoor play toys he collected to an inner city school in Salt Lake. I think it was a real eye opener for him to walk down the halls there and look at the challenges that children in this poor area faced.


In the end Chaz collected:



36 Play Balls
6 Sports Balls
21 Frisbees
31 Jump Ropes
58 Bubbles
2 buckets of chalk

Becky's Training Video

This week I put on a big training meeting for all the people who teach primary classes (children age 3-12) in my ward. For that training meeting I made the following video. I had to totally shrink it to make it fit on the blog so I hope the idea comes across if not the quality. The video contains pictures of some of the 150 children that we serve in our primary taken at primary activities we have had this year. Kaitlin, Ruth and Jared are all in the video.

Stephanie Meyer's Books

This week I was browsing Stephanie Meyer's website. For those that don't know, Stephanie Mayer is the author of the Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and her new book The Host (an adult fiction book, not related to the Twilight books). I've read all of the Twilight series and have enjoyed them very much and we are all counting down the days to the her new book, Breaking Dawn, that will hopefully finish the tale of Bella and Edward.

What I didn't know and what I wanted to share with you is that after Breaking Dawn is released Stephanie Mayer is planning on releasing a book called Midnight Sun, which is written from Edward's point of view and she has posted the first chapter on her website! Here's the link: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

For those who aren't familiar with the books - yes they are about vampires. But don't be put off by that, they are great escapist chick books. (Chuck tried to read Twilight and said he felt like some voyeur reading the thoughts of a 17 year old girl so he quit after one chapter).

I havn't read The Host but I have it on hold at the library. And get this, I'm number 1049 in line. Which isn't as bad as my hold for Breaking Dawn where I'm number 1555.

Click here to watch the Twilight movie trailer (this movie is going to try to battle it out with Harry Potter with a December release). My Talbot nieces are not very happy with the choice of actor for Edward. But Edward is described in the book as a Greek god and I'm not sure any one actor would represent that for everyone. Movies are always tricky because they are never as good as the book - but I'm still excited for this one.

"You like me, you really like me!"

I've been excited to hear this week that people are actually reading this blog. Not just one or two someones but several someones. So if you're reading this. Thank you! Feel free to leave a comment, then I know you were here.



Cultural...no...uh...World Fair

This week was Kaitlin and Chaz's Fairs (Chaz's was the "Cultural Fair", Kaitlin's was the "World Fair"). It was amazing how differently they approached their projects. Kaitlin worked and stressed. She spent hours in research and sent emails to relatives for advice. She started her board over a week in advance. Her goal was to have it totally finished several days early, but in the end she turned it in right on time. She memorized an oral presentation and picked out a cute outfit to wear that represented her country. Chaz got ready for his project by jumping on the trampoline. Then he watched some TV. Two days before he sat down and spent 40 minutes on the computer trying to decide what font to put his title in. That tired him out so he went to jump on the trampoline again. The night before the fair he went to his partner's house. After several hours they accomplished gluing some colored paper to the back of the board. Very very early the day it was due Chaz frantically printed photos and cut and past information off of the computer. As it was time to go to school he was printing his last items.







For those of you that are wondering, Kaitlin got an A+ and Chaz got a B-.

Chuck's New Calling

Chuck got a new calling today. For you not up to date on your Mormon lingo that means that he was asked to do a new job in our church. He is now the 1st counselor in the Young Men program. (That's the youth group for boys ages 12-18. He will be over the 14 & 15 year olds). He is excited for this new oportunity and he seems to be excited to be out of the Scouting aspect of it all. With me as Primary President (all children ages 18mo - 11) and Chuck now in the Young Men that makes us pretty busy in our church service.

Coming to an End

This is the last week of school for the kids.



It was also the last week of soccer for the season. Here is an action shot of Jared trying to pass the ball to his team mate.

Some Photos from my Garden

Right now is a wonderful time in the garden. We have a pair of gold finches that have frequented our bird feeder every day. We also have two pairs (at least we think that's how many) humming birds that we watch from our kitchen window.