Vampires, Cougars and Utes

Today was a very fun-filled day with a very bad ending. Jessica and I left Logan at 10 a.m. to drive to Ogden and do a little shopping at New Gate Mall before meeting 12 family members for lunch at Costa Vita and the matinee of "Twilight." We had all read the books and were excited for the movie. All but two or three liked or loved it, so that's a pretty good percentage. I liked it because I went into it with low expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed seeing what I had imagined in the book (which I read several years ago so really had no strong memory of) come to life. It was fun seeing it with people I had shared books with and talked about our enjoyment of them together. The ages of those present ranged from 13 year old Taylor to 82 year old Mary. (sidenote: I would travel an hour any day to see a movie where you have reserved seating in the theatre and you can bring in any outside food you wish. What are we doing in Logan? Living in the dark ages?)

Jessica and I drove home listening to the BYU vs UTAH football game the whole way (much to her dismay.) I met Mike and the boys (along with about 10 other people) at our friends the Lesters for the second half of the game. The BYU fans were definately outnumbered, which is why BYU possibly did so horribly. Did I say BYU? I should have said why Max Hall personally did so horribly. . . It was a real disappointment- to say the least. I can't imagine being in attendance at that game. Sorry Romneys. Notwithstanding the outcome of the game, it was a fun day.

Christmas shopping weekend

This past weekend I went on my 13th annual Christmas shopping weekend with Freda, Teresa, Jessica W. and Kylee. Stacie was unable to come because of Rick's illness, and she was greatly missed. Kylee got invited for her first year and had a lot of fun finding out why this weekend is one of my favorites of the year. I loved having her there. We left Logan at 10 a.m. on Friday and didn't get home until 11 p.m. Saturday. We spent most of Friday afternoon in Park City at the outlets (although most stores aren't actually outlet stores). All of us benefited greatly by having Claire's 30% off coupon to Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic. Thanks Claire! We ate dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, then headed down to SLC to spend the night at the Crystal Inn. The next day we shopped all over SLC-with Jessica only lasting til 5:00, and Kylee until 6:00. Their husbands rescued them- probably to stop them from spending any more money. Haha- The three remaining die hards lasted a few more hours until there were no more stores open. I love this weekend and enjoyed my time spent with these gals. Thanks for the fun time, and thanks especially to Freda for the meals and hotel.

This is Jessica's daughter Avery's loot. We always carry all our purchases into the motel room to organize and show to everyone. We were all the most excited about these clothes! She's the best dressed one-year-old in town! Since her birthday and Christmas are in the same month, she really got spoiled.

friend fun/latest sports/planning ahead & costumes

Jake and Cam are enjoying having two of their best friends, who are also brothers stay with us for 5 days while their parents are in China. Jake and Corey play football, do swimming and lacrosse together. Cam and Parker play on the same football team, but in the past have played on the same basketball, baseball and soccer teams as well. We enjoy their whole family, so it was easy to say yes when my friend Janae asked me if they could stay with us. Coincidentally, Janae came to our house in Rupert one weekend over 30 years ago when her friend Margie came with her brother Rick to visit his girlfriend (or maybe fiancee at that time)-my sister Von. Crazy huh? It was really fun when we put that together soon after we became friends when the Lester family moved to Logan about 8-9 years ago. Freshman football got over on a Thursday, and Jake started swim practice three days later, practicing everyday for 1 1/2-2 hours. He's already had two swim meets and has done well. This is him in his first 50 meter free. (He's in lane 2.)

Cam is playing on a Jr. Grizz basketball team and also a super-league team which has games once a week in Brigham City. So he has a practice a week for each team, plus 2-4 games a week. This week he will resume football practices three times a week to prepare for the Thanksgiving tournament he'll be playing in for the third year in Brigham City. It's always so fun to go watch the boys in their sports.

I had a great idea Halloween weekend when we were enjoying an unusually warm 70 degree Saturday that Mike would sure enjoy hanging the Christmas lights that day rather than wait a month and do it on a 30-40 degree day like he usually does. He was very glad for the suggestion, and 10 minutes later was up on a ladder. I spent the time he did that putting lights on the bushes, raking, and pruning the perinnials.

I thought Jessica looked so cute as Elphaba from "Wicked." She dressed up for the halloween party at work- a daycare. She didn't scare any of the little kids too badly, although one of the kids a week later made some comment about her witches costume- so maybe she did give some of them nightmares!

OK- so this is my least creative costume I've ever been associated with. I just can't get into providing a fun costume when kids go trick-or-treating past the age when I think it's appropriate. I really have come up with some very cute costumes in my time- maybe I'll do a post of them sometime in the future.

Tribute to Jake

Jake turned 15 on Wednesday, so I decided to spend a few hours learning how to scan some old pictures so I could do this post. That's a mother's love for you. Maybe Jake won't think so when he sees some of the pictures I chose to include in this post! Hold on, cause I'm going to tell you more about Jake than you possibly wanted to know! See how many of these things come as a surprise to you. Jake was born on Friday, October 29, 1993 at 7:29 p.m. It was an extra special and emotional time, because just one year earlier on October 12th, we had our stillborn baby boy Michael. Jake weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces and was 22 inches long. We knew ever since my ultra sound showed that he would be a boy, that we would name him Jacob Christian. He was a good baby right from the start, sleeping 6-8 hours at night by a month old. He had a fun, lively personality from early on, and has said and done some funny and entertaining things over the years. I mentioned a few of his funny sayings in an earlier post, but here are a few more: our first winter in Utah when Jake was 3, Mike and the kids made a snowman. Jake came into the house and said to me- "I made a frosty and I said hi to him and he didn't talk to me. Maybe we should buy new batteries." The girls were swinging Jake by his hands and feet, and he said "I know, lets do one for the money, two for the quarter." I was playing blocks with Jake and I said I would look for the letter "J" which stood for Jacob. He said "then look for the letter gup so it will spell Jacob!" Jake was pulling down his own undies to go potty so I told him he was a big boy and he said "ya, I'm a huge boy- I'm almost a dad!" He always keeps us laughing, that's for sure. Here are some other facts about Jake, in no particular order. . .

HE LOVES HIS FAMILY- He loves to be at home, and do things as a family. He is especially close to his brother Cam. They have had some great times playing together over the years. They will still occassionally sleep in the same room, and like to play outside playing catch, riding their ripsticks, jumping on the tramp, or playing Wii or PS2.

When they were younger, they would let the girls dress them up in their dance clothes, and fix their hair. (this picture may be one of the ones I'll get in trouble for including. . .)

FREE TIME- In Jakes free time, he likes to play on the computer, play Wii or PS2, jump on the trampoline, and watch TV. His favorite shows are: The Office, Monk, and Monday Night Football.

SPORTS- Jake loves sports. From a very early age he's been very active and involved in the sport of the season. He's played soccer, football, basketball, wrestling, swimming, and lacrosse. He also can snowboard and ski quite well. Now that he's in high school, he's narrowed it down to: Football, Swimming, skiing, and Lacrosse. It is so fun watching him play and compete. He's a natural athlete. He just wishes he could gain a little weight and grow a little taller (he's 5'5")- esp for football. He takes after his Dad, so the height will come, but probably not the weight.

HE LOVES CARS AND TRUCKS- Ever since he was little, he's loved to drive cars and trucks around. One of his sayings as a little boy when he would see a truck was "look, there's a big ole' truck." He knows the names of so many trucks and can spot them out from far away. His favorite car (at least at the time of this photo) is a mustang, and he got to ride in this nice one of his friends last year.

HE'S A PICKY EATER- Some foods he loves- his favorites being watermelon, waffles, noodle soup, hamburgers, spaghetti- but there are many things he doesn't love, and won't eat anything that contains these ingredients: white cheese, cottage cheese, mayo, mustard, and cream cheese. He likes things dry- like sandwiches- no mayo or mustard. Toast- only jam. He doesn't like butter on toast, pancakes, waffles, cheese toast, or french toast. Fries- nothing. Chicken nuggets- nothing. So if Kylee asked her famous question from when she was little- "do you dip?" and liked to dip everything in something - Jake would definately say no!

HE'S A GREAT STUDENT- Jake has always been a very good student getting good reports from his teachers in parent teacher conferences. Right now at LHS, after one grading period, he has a 4.0! He did this report on Henry Ford for the history fair in 8th grade. He memorizes easily, and is a good test taker.

HE LOVES LITTLE KIDS- He has always loved playing with little kids- not tiny babies so much, but when they're old enough to run around and be chased, or laugh when he tries to get them. He talks often about how cool it will be someday when he's a Dad.

HE'S DARING- Jake is always up for anything. When we went cliff jumping this summer, he jumped off a cliff higher than everyone else. He has done the sky coaster at Lagoon many times, jumped off this three story high jump at lava hot springs, loves scary movies (well, until he saw THE GRUDGE- that freaked him out) wants to go bungee jumping and sky diving. Amazingly, his only injuries he's had was when he was 4 and he broke his collar bone jumping off the trampoline. (the one area he's not at all daring in however, is trying new foods. We're certain he'll be sent to some far away place on his mission that will cure him of this problem!)

HE'S VERY MUSICALLY GIFTED- When Jake was 5, he would listen to the girl's playing songs on the piano, and go to the piano and play what they were playing. He picks up a lot by ear. So I got him into piano lessons which he took for about 4-5 years. He took guitar lessons in middle school, and bought his own guitar. He can pick out tunes on that, and make up his own songs. He took private guitar lessons last year, and did really well. We have yet to figure out a time for lessons this year with him having two hours of football (and now swimming) practice after school everyday. He also loves listening to music.

HE'S FUNNY- He created this look while we were on our vacation this summer, and it freaks us all out- esp Brody- cause he just stares at you when you don't know he is, and when you look at him, there it is. He makes funny noises and other funny faces- and he's worn some funny halloween costumes and carried them off in character the whole night. When he dressed as a nerd a few years ago, he totally acted like one the whole time- even trick-or-treating to neighbors and ward members. Many people told me afterward how funny he was.

HE LOVES BYU FOOTBALL- Even though he is mocked for it living here in Logan, he really loves BYU and BYU football. He wore his BYU shirt to school a few weeks ago when USU played BYU, and really took a lot of grief for it. He has enjoyed going to one BYU home game for the past 4 years now. He also has a BYU sweatshirt and beanie.

HE WORKS HARD- He's either helped with or had his own paper route for the past 3 years. Believe me- it isn't easy getting up every day at 5:45- especially when it's dark, cold, snowy, rainy or foggy. He loves having his own money to buy "stuff" and has bought a lot of stuff over the past 3 years- including 7 different IPOD systems. . . When he was little, he set up his own toy sale in our front yard, and had kool-aid stands quite often with Cam and Jessica. He does weekly chores, and keeps his room clean.

Well, that's it. We are so blessed to have Jake in our family and love having him around to entertain us and keep us laughing. He's a very obedient, kind and sensitive boy who has an inquisitive mind and asks some very well thought-out questions. We love you Jake!