I'm a Slacker!!

I know i know it has been a while since I last blogged... I'm sorry what with all the facebooking I've been doing I forgot about this and have neglected it. So I figured I would take time out of my busy facebook and get this updated. I will do better ( I know I said that last time but this time I'll do better. So let's see since I last blogged what has happened... Oh I know, we decided we were going to purchase a swing set for the kids. Well what we didn't realize was that it came in 2 boxes and it mentions that the swing set takes 2 men 10 hours to put it together... well to be more specific it told 1 Justin 5 nights to put it together along with a few choice words. I tired to help and so did Peyton... she even went as far as putting misc bolts in boards they shouldn't be going in. It was rather cute... she was so excited when we pulled out the slide... she even tried to slide down it. Justin worked on it till he couldn't stand to get bitten by the mosquitos any more. He started on Sunday afternoon and finished up on Friday evening. I ended up leaving him in the back yard to put the finishing touches on the set. That and he got tired of me telling him that he was "doing it wrong". So I left and went to visit the neighbor down the street. When I returned the Swing Set was COMPLETED!!! Yeah! So Satureday morning came and thankfully the weather cooperated. Petyon loved it so much that she took her "toy food" out and played in the playhouse with it. The other two kids played on the swings. Then the weather didn't cooperate so much... it started to get cold and then started to snow again so we had to go in. Since we got it up we havn't had a chance to enjoy it due to the snow and the odd winter like weather we have been having. Someday we will get the chance to use it. We are going to start working on the back yard to fix it up so we can have some more fun in the back yard.

Work has picked up so things are a little less stressful there. We got our contract extended for one more year, so now we just need to start making money. We are staying busy bidding work and just waiting for the word as to whether or not we got the job. We are staying busy and that is the main important thing. Justin is staying some what busy at work. That is always a good thing to. He has recently been talking about going back to school so that would be a great thing. He just needs to figure out what he wants to go to school for. He has been talking about going to the police accademy.... I tell him all the time I think he would look HOT In a uniform! I would love to see him go and become a cop. I think he would do a great job and would really like what he does.

Chance has since moved up to the Advance class at Karate and just tested for his second level green belt. Which means he is that much closer to receiveing his next belt. He is starting to learn how to use weapons now.. and we have to get him some "sparing gear" so he can start to learn combat. He still loves it and is enjoying every minute of it. On April 18th he has an interschool Karate Championship tournament. He is very excited about it and wants to sign up for each of the competitions. We will seee how he does. It isn't a usual Karate tournament. They do other things like obstacle courses and tug a wars. It is very entertaining. I'm excited to go and see how it all works. Chance wasn't able to participate last year because he was in soccer too. So this year should be a lot of fun.

Kelcee continues to learn gymnastics and is loving it. She has been trying to learn how to do a back hand spring. I showed her the other day that I could do one on the trampoline and now she wants me to teach her how to do it. We started working on it that night but then Peyton decided that she had to be involved too. So I tried to teach her how to do a back hand spring too to but that didnt' work at all Peyton was all over the place. Kelcee loves to go to her classes she is doing great in school. We miss her when she isn't with us but that is a sacrafice we have to deal with.

Since I last blogged our family had the opportiunity to go to the open house of the Draper Temple. It was an amazing experience. We had a great time and needless to say I cried the entire time. As we entered the temple all I could think about was the day that Justin and I get to take our kids and enter the temple and change into our white clothes and be sealed for Eternity! As we sat in the sealing room it hit me so hard. I had Kelcee and Chance sitting on one side of me and Justin and Peyton on the other side of me and all I could think about was this is where we need to be. I love my family so much and I want more than anything to have them with me in the hear after. It was such an amazing experiance I can only imagine what it will be like when we get to go for the real thing. It will happen and when it does I want all my loved ones to join with us.

Well until next time... Love you all! - Jerri Lynn

Hunter Expo / Jeff Foxworthy

Friday night my parents came down from Bear Lake...We had dinner at my house with my younger brother Allen and his wife. We played "The Farming Game" til 2:00 in the morning... if you have never played it before you should try it out. It is a lot like Monopoly however there is no cheating that can go on. You have to run your own farm and make your own decisions as fara as what to purchase and when. You don't pay rent to other players your wealth comes from your harvests. My parents came down to go the Hunter Expo so we decided to join them. My brother Curtis who works for the Forest Service was manning a booth at the expo and was able to score a couple extra passes for my parent. So Saturday morning we got up had breakfast...and got ready to go. Kelcee had her friend Cassidie here at the house playing when we got ready to go... Kelcee invited Cassidie to go with us. After the two girls begged Cassidie's parents they agreed to let her go with us. When we got to the Salt Palace we went in and met up with Curtis. We started on one end of the Expo and worked our way to the opposite end. WOW talk about some massive animals on display. Most of them are animals that I would never see in my life time. The kids had a lot of fun... After we were done walking through the expo we were able to go sit in on a Q & A session for Jeff "you might be a redneck if" Foxworthy...Even though it was a Q&A we still laughed till our sides hurt. I'm telling you this man should run for president! He is one smart cookie and has a lot to say about life in general. He was serious when he needed to be but funny when it was needed. He kept the material very clean as he knew his audiance age range was from 0 - 100. It was an amzaing experiance I enjoyed every minute of it up to the point where I got a Migrain and was out of commission for the rest of the night and even the next day. I felt bad as my parents spent that night with us as well and I was sleeping most of the evening. All things set aside we had an awesome weekend with my parents.

Dinner at Tepanyaki

The Smith Family enjoyed a night out with my brother Curtis. We decided to take the kids to Tepanyaki for dinner since they had never experienced anything like it. When we showed up we had to wait for about 5 minutes then they sat us. We looked at the menu and made our orders. We all decided that Water would be the drink of choice. That and sodas where $2.95 each. So when the cook showed up all eyes were on him. Chance and Kelcee were not sure how to react. Peyton just watched in AWWW.... When he threw the first Egg Peyton just looked up and wondered where it went then she saw the second egg fly and land in his hat... she then said "one more?" It was soo cute. The kids loved the whole experiance. I enjoyed watching thier faces. Chance tried to catch the shrimp in his mouth and it kept hitting his nose. Justin, Curtis and Myself had sucess with the catch of the Shrimp. Needless to say we had a great time and the kids want to go back. It was a great time and we will do it again... but it will be a while.

A few Thoughts....

Well since it has been a while since I last posted a blog entry, I figured I would post a few things that have been going on. I spent 4 days in Vegas for work leaving Justin home with the kids. Mind you the 4 day were broke up into 2 days for 2 weeks. It seemed like a long time while I was there but It actually went really quick. The saddest part of my trips was the fact that I didn't spend a dime or Penny on any gambling. Which was wierd cuz there were slot machines in the grocery stores and in the air port and not to mention in all the hotels. I refrained. My nights were spent in my Hotel room working on a few items for the office or chatting on "FaceBook".... I know I have become ADDICTED!!!!!!! Wow I really said it, I'm addicted to FACE BOOK. I cannot help it. It is like an obssession.... Who would have thought. The funniest thing is that Justin and I can be on FB at the same time (he is on the desk top and I am on the Lap top) and we comment on some of the same things..... yea it is pretty funny cuz usually we are sitting right next to each other. Anyway I have had so much fun talking to friends I haven't seen since High School. I truly enjoy talking with friends.

Also since I last blogged My BFF came back from London to have her baby and she had her 3 weeks early. Her name is Cambree Kae Christensen and she is soooo adroable. I'm not just saying that cuz she is my BFF... she really is adroable. So congrats to her and her little buddle of joy. Sad part is that her husband has to fly back to London on Monday the 2nd of Feb.

This last week at work was HERRENDOUS! I was not having what you would call a good week. It seemed like everything that could go wrong went wrong. I am hoping that this week goes better than this last week did. Work is so slow and it really starts to make one wonder if they will still have a job in the next couple of months. I am hoping that the Government starts "spending money" on the military end so that work will pick up. So I guess we will just see what happens.

Well on that note... I will close this little blog and start fresh....

Bear Lake

We decided to take a little trip to Bear Lake this weekend and just spend some time with my parents. We arrived at 8:00 pm on Friday and spent a couple hours talking and visiting, then turned in for the night. The next morning we got up and had a little breatkfast and then got dressed in our warm clothes to go out and play in the snow. We first started out with the four wheeler and then decieded to get the snow mobile out to pull the tube. We had a few wrecks on the tube and then Peyton got cold so she wanted to go in. Justin pulled the other two kids around a little longer then they too came in. When we found out that Dallas and Jaci were coming over riding thier two horses so we decided to go out again. Dad was trying to get mom to ride the snow mobile and she kept telling him "no i have no want to go on that" so then Justin said to her " If you will ride the snow mobile I will ride a horse".... well just a little background... Justin is SCARED to death of horses... doesn't like them doesn't want anything to do with them so this would be quite the event. The kids and I went up to the barn to see Dallas and Jaci and to see dad work with his new horse SASSY. Then we all hear the snow mobile fire up and I went to tell Justin not to come up to the barn for fear that he would spook the horses. When I see Justin walking towards me and the snow mobile going away from me... this is when i realized that it was my mom riding the snow mobile. Just a quik Recap.... this means that Justin has to get on a horse. Yes this was the day I've been waiting for.
Here is a picture of my mom on the snow mobile... it has been a while since she has riden it.
Here is a picture of Justin and I on the two horses. Justin is on Chief and I am on Vegas. He was a bundle of nerves getting on the horse. It was actually quite an event. Kelcee and Chance got the opportunity to ride the horses as well. Dad's new horse SASSY (who hasn't ever worked with cows before) decided she was going to be a "Knucklehead" and she stopped in the middle of the field and laid down while my dad was still riding her. I was like what the crap is she doing. It was actually quite enteraining. After we were done riding the horses it was time to do chores. Justin and the kids went with my dad and Dallas to feed the cows and the other horses. After chores we had dinner and then spent the rest of the evening playing games. One of which is "The Farming Game". We love playing this game because it is 1st of all educational in that it teaches math skills and then 2nd of all it teaches life choices and how there are risks involved with choices made. We were up till 1:00 am playing the game. Kelcee gave up half way through cuz she was tired and so Justin took her spot. By the time the game was over we were all so tired we could bearly keep our eyes open. To say the least we had a great weekend and enjoyed every minute of it.

Girls Day

Last Saturday I made an appointment to take Kelcee and one of her friends to Cultures Day Spa in Clearfield for a Girls day. So the night before we let Kelcee and Chance have a sleep over with one friend each. They invited Makayla and Jordon Black. The girls slept in Kelcee's room on the bunk beds... (when i say slept they didn't sleep i don't think). I remember getting up at 2:00 and checking on them and they both were still talking away. The boys slept in Chance's room and they fell asleep around 1:00. So it was a long night to say the least. I guess I forgot what it was like to have a sleep over. So the next morning I got up and fixed pancakes for breakfast. I let the kids just play all morning and then Kelcee Makayla and I went to the Day Spa. They both got thier nails painted and thier hair done. While they were being pampered I was tooo. I treated myself to a pedicure. (OH how i love them). We all got done about the same time. Makayla has really long hair so her's took a little bit longer than Kelcee's. They both had the same color's put on thier nails and thier hair done the same. They really enjoyed every minute of it.This is a picture of the two girls after they got thier hair and nails done. They both got a little prize after wards too... Kelcee got a neclace and Makayla got some lotion.
This is a picture of the three of us after we had been pampered!!! We Had a Great time. Kelcee wants to do it again soon. I'm game!!!

Christmas 2008

This year Christmas came and went so fast... I blinked and it was gone. This was the year were we had the two older kids for the second half of the day. Peyton woke up at 8:00 and all she wanted to do was to watch "toodles" (aka Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). It took a little coaxing but we got her to walk downstairs to see what "Santa" had brought her. She thought he was still here so she wasn't all that excited to go see him or what he had brought. I explained to her that he had come and gone and had left presents for everyone...She caught sight of the trampoline and was completely ecstatic...she squeeled and then started jumping imediatly. Then came the opening of a few presents mostly presents from mom and dad since the other two kids would want to see her open the presents from Santa. (In the picture above the presents on the couch are the presents from Santa... those on the floor are from mom and dad and others.) She wasn't all that excited to get the socks that she so despreatley needed... but it was just the thought of opening presents. She would have opened them all if we would have allowed her the opportunity. We actually ended up re-wrapping some that she had tried to open. We waited patiently (impatienly more like) for 11:45 to come so we could go get Chance and then pick up Kelcee. Once we got home the two older kids were so excited to have a "second" Christmas. They started with their stocking which gave away a lot of hits of what was to be expected... Kelcee received a couple of Nintendo DS games (of course that would mean that she would be getting a DS....) Chance got a cover for an iPod Nano (which would mean he would be opening an iPod...) (not too smart on Santa's side... maybe he should have thought about that a little more before stuffing the stockings. haha... We opened all the gifts and and Peyton kept walking around saying "where's my presents" we kept explaining that she had already opened all her presents. She just kept trying to open the remaining gifts under the tree which were for Cheyenne and some that were headed to Bear Lake the follwing day. Yes we did get Cheyenne for the evening. We were so excited to be able to share some of the holiday with her. After she got to the house she opened her gifts and then we headed to Justin's Brother Rob's house for dinner with all of Justin's family. During dinner the snow storm hit and we thought we better cut the evening short. So we headed home which took a little longer than normal because the roads were snow packed. When we got home we opened the gift from Santa that I was excited to get. Guitar Hero Aerosmith!!! (it came with 2 wired guitars) so the wireless guitars found their way to the garbage pretty quick. All the kids played with me till they got board with playing so I had no choice than to play by myself... for a little bit then we shut off all the games and everyone ended up in my bed watching a movie we recorded on TV. It was the perfect night to a perfect day. The next day came and went really fast as well. Kelcee and Cheyenne had to be back to Emilee's by 9:00 am so I took them home and then Chance, Peyton and I came home and cleaned up the house. When Justin got off work we loaded up the Pilot and headed to Bear Lake to spend the weekend with my family. The way up was HORRID!!! The roads were so bad, it was like the snow plowes hadn't even been out yet, I15 was completely snow packed... Logan canyon was actually better than the interstate was. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get to Bear Lake when it usually only takes 2 hours. Anyway we had a great time there, it was just nice to spend the weekend with the family. Saturday we had the traditional Keetch Christmas breakfast and then did the chores and then opened gifts. Again Peyton was a little sad when we ran out of gifts for her to open. The sad part of this was that Kelcee had to miss it cuz she had another family Christmas party to attend with her mom's family. We miss her when she isn't with us. The upside was we got to pick her up on Sunday for the whole week. One of the highlilghts of my night was giving my brother Dallas and his wife Jaci thier gift. I had one one of my close friends print me out a saying in vinyl letters that read "One way to have a little bit of Heaven in your home is to have a someone you love in Heaven" (compliments of the Burton family blog), and had it framed. I was so excited to give this to them as it would mean so much to them. The look on their faces was completely priceless. I felt so strongly about giving them this gift. Afater the gifts were all open Peyton decided she was going to play with Uncle Allen. She haad had him running and then he was her little horsy, when Logan (my Nephew) got in on the action. At one time Allen was "hiding" behind Justin so that he could get a little breather. Then he gave up and gave both of them a piggy back ride. The cutest thing abou that was that earlier both little kids had received a pair of "cowboy boot slippers" from thier Uncle Dallas and Aunt Jaci. So it looked like they were truly riding thier horsy. After all the playing was done we played some games as a family and I finally got Peyton to settle down and as soon as she did that she was OUT!!! It had to be the easiest time I have ever had putting her to bed. She was so worn out that it didn't take much. I love spending time with my family we always have sucha a great time. The only ones that were missing from our little family outting were Curtis his wife Nikki and their 3 girls and Kelcee and Cheyenne. Everyone else was accounted for. That is what you call a house full if you will, it always has been with 6 kids and thier spouses and all the grandkids. Mom and Dad love having everyone there but I am sure they are glad when everyone leaves. hah.... It is surly going to be a Christmas I will always remember. It was an amazing Holiday season!!! We really had a great time.