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Grays and Torreys

2011-10-16T18:31:00.000-07:00

For my birthday my brother and sister in law came to denver and we had the best time! So for my birthday Shilo and I climbed Grays and Torreys Mountains. They are two of the 14ers. Which means they are above 14,000 ft high. We left early in the morning and had the best time. Grays had quite a bit of snow on it and when the wind blew it was freezing. We had to stomp out our own trail since we were the first ones starting up the trail that day. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day.

Here we are putting on our micro spikes once we got to the snow. We were so glad we had them. On the way down there were people sliding everywhere without them. It would have almost been impossible without them.

And our shadows going up the mountain.

Me on top of Torreys Peak

And me again

And us together at the end, and so glad to be done. It took us 6 1/2 hours to do both peaks and we were beat by the end. It was definitely one of my favorite birthdays and will probably be one of my most memorable. Thanks so much Shilo! And thanks so much to my brother who watched all 5 kids all day! Best day ever!

Andy's Arm

2011-09-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

So two weeks ago from today Andy fell off the monkey bars at school and hurt his elbow. So I took him to get an x-ray and it was too swollen to see if it was broken or not. So they put him in a hard splint and I brought him back 10 days later to have it x-rayed again. It showed a fracture in his bone, so today we brought him to the hospital and he got a blue cast. I sure am glad it was just a little fracture and nothing too severe. Here he is doing some sort of a fighting move to show off his cast...he's crazy!

More!

2011-09-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

This summer me and my brothers and sisters and a few of the older kids hiked Prater Mountain. It sure was beautiful

This is the end of the Odgen Marathon that we did in May. My sister Rachelle, myself, Bert and Shilo. This was my best marathon with a time of 4:13. My goal of under 4 iddn't quite happen, but my last marathon was 4:54, so I did improve some which I was happy about.

This was the 4th of July at the start of a little race they had for the kids. They actually all ended up in the newspaper running. Little Andy ran so hard.....slow....but hard for him I guess, because when he was done he said he didn't feel good and then threw up!

This was the only picture I got of us at the Bolder Boulder 10k the nice lade so graciously cut off my head!:) This was a week or so after the Odgen Marathon, so it was a pretty crappy run for me, but I still loved being out there.

Here is Ali and Coleen when we all went out to dinner and icecream. Arn't they so cute?

Here is me and my friend and neighbor Milynda at my first triathlon this August. It was soooooo fun! I think I'm hooked! It sure keeps you on your toes hopping from the swimming to the biking to the running.

Me and Nicki after the triathlon.

Me and Nicki showing off our stylin' swim caps before the race.

And here they are again...those bright beautiful caps!

This was after the Star Valley 5k. I ran it in 22:30 which is my best time yet, but I sure felt sick afterward. Ali and my mother in law Sandy ran it, along with Bert and shilo and their kids, and her mom. And my sister and her family.

Here's me and Sam on the Snake river this summer

And Jeff and Sam the same day.

catch up again!

2011-09-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

So, I not mentioning any names....but someone has been horrible about posting on this blog! And one other thing...someone has been horrible at taking pictures this summer....period! So here is my next attemp to try to sum up what we Wheelers have been up to. These will totally all be out of order, but hey, some disorderly pictures are better than none right?

So this summer was very hot here. This was a couple pictures I got of Sam and Andrew playing on the slip n' slide in the front yard.

I thought they had a lot of fun, but his face kinda looks a little scared! He did have fun though.

Ahh, and here we have my littlest Andy on his first day of Kindergarten! I can't believe my youngest is gone all day. Lately it feels like there is a little hole in my heart. I actually feel kind of lonely during the day. I look around my empty house and hear....nothing. Oh boy is this what I have to look forward to when I'm older? Is this what empty nesters feel like? I'm not saying I haven't enjoyed some down time....and actually the first few days I had all to myself were wonderful, but now I feel a void in my life... It definately makes me very grateful for my kids. They are what make life worth living! They are what brings the spice to life. I feel so blessed to have these three beautiful children.

Here is my beautiful Ali, We took a small camping trip to the Poudre River Canyon. It only ended up being one night, but to me one night in the mountains is worth a month in the city! It makes you feel so alive! I love her beautiful smile!

And here is our little character! He is acting so crazy lately, so full of life and spunk!

This was the first time Jeff gave Sam the fly fishing rod and just let him go after it. Sam was in heaven for a long time....until he fell on his bum and scraped up his knee a little, then he informed me he was never fishing again! I laughed, only because I know Sam, and two minutes after he stopped crying he was asking when he could go fishing again.

Sam ...learning from the best!

This was Ali and Sam's first day of school. They attend a different school than Andy so they had different starting dates.

This fall Sam is on a soccer team. He loves any sport, but assured me that his favorite is baseball. He also wasn't going to do football because they only do flag football for boys his age and he informed me that, that was stupid and if he couldn't tackle, then he wasn't going to play! So soccer was his next choice. He's the one in a blue shirt with red socks.

Here he is with the red jersey taking a turn at goalie.

Jeff took the kids out to breakfast one morning and let me go for a run. The kids thought it was a great treat.

Long Over Due

2011-04-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

Well the title pretty much sums it up! I haven't posted anything since October! I keep meaning too, but around October I started just taking pictures with my phone, because it was so convenient and I always had it with me. But now I can't figure out how to get all those photos onto my computer....(I'm not very smart that way, so if anyone wants to let me know how it's done....great!) Anyway, so instead of not posting anything until I get that figured out I will post a few things of a few pictures I do have and try to be better from here on out. So I will try to sum up our last 6 months....ugh, I am horrible.

We stayed here in Denver for Thanksgiving. It is probably one I will never forget. I decided since it was just us for Thanksgiving I didn't want to cook a ton of stuff, and so we decided we would just go out to eat. We thought that would be a great idea, no clean up and more time to spend decorating the Christmas tree (a tradition I have carried on from my childhood:) Well, living in Denver we thought there would be plenty of options. We drove around for what seemed like forever, and everything was closed. We finally saw an IHOP with cars all around and lights on! Yes! We walked in and they said "Sorry, we just closed." So we drove around some more and saw a Village Inn. I walked in by myself this time and asked if they were open. It seemed like a dumb question, the door was open and there were people inside.... they were only open if we wanted pie! Well we finally found something that was open...McDonalds. Yep we ate Thanksgiving Dinner at McDonalds. Boy did I do great or what? Oh well, I redeemed myself and cooked turkey the next day.

Ali and I were able to go to a play of A Christmas Carol. Jeff and I were suppose to go, but Jeff ended up working so Ali and I went. It was a lot of fun going out with Ali. She is getting so big and fun to hang out with.

Jeff ended up getting hooked up with some Avalanche tickets from work, so he took Ali to that. While they were there Ali got to participate in the Quest High Speed Challenge. They had a camera on her and put her up on the big screen and asked her a question about one of the players. I think they could tell she was a little nervous and gave her a clue. She got it right and ended up winning a flip video camera. she was excited....but just a little.

For Christmas we went to Star Valley to spend time with our families.

One of the fun things we did when we were there was go to Granite Hotsprings with Jeffs sister and her family. We went on Alis birthday and it was so much fun. We had to snowmobile 10 miles up into the mountains and then got to swim in a nice hot outdoor pool. It was so beautiful and a great pool party for Ali's birthday. I must admit I never thought Ali would get an outdoor pool party for her birthday!

Christmas was great being able to be around family and friends.

Sam played basket ball this year in a city league team. He had a lot of fun and it gave us something to do every saturday for a couple of months. He even scored a few points now and then and he was really excited to be out there playing. We sure loved watching him.

Ali has stayed busy with girl scouts and choir. Her girl scouts spent a saturday collecting food and clothing for the 9 Cares Colorado.

In January Jeff and I were able to go to Florida for a Medical Conference which was a lot of fun and very relaxing. We stayed on the beach and while Jeff was in conference I got to run on the beach, nap, and read. Ahhh, I could get use to that! It was very cold while we were there, so there wasn't much soaking up the sun, but it was great to go on a date together. A special thanks to my sister and her friend, and also my parents for making a special trip out to watch our kids. You guys are the best!

February Jeff went to St. George and met his dad and his brother Korry there to play some golf. It was pretty cold so they didn't get much golfing done, but Jeff got away for awhile and had some R & R.

In March Bert and Shilo came out to Denver for the Salida Half Marathon. Me, Nicki, Bert, Shilo, and Coleen all ran. It was probably the hardest race I have ever ran! I think it was harder than my marathon. It was so many ups and downs. The hills were so steep that no one was running them, everyone was walking up them. It was on a single dirt trail that was rocky, and a lot of switch backs. You had to stare at your feet the whole time so you didn't fall off the trail and down the mountain, or twist your ankle. It was a lot of fun, because I have never done a trail race before and I really enjoyed it. But it was my slowest half marathon, but I guess thats okay. Everyone did really well and it was just a lot of fun running with some of my favorite people ever!

us before the race

Bert, Shilo, Lacey, Coleen, Nicki

Bert, Shilo, and I after the race. Bert was done so fast he had time to go change and get the camera. The mountain behind us is one that we had to run up....about 4 different times!!!

For spring break this year we were able to go to Star Valley. The snow was perfect for coasting at my parents cabin, so the kids had a blast all day in the snow. Jeff had to stay in Denver and work. We had fun making chapstick and snow shoeing.

Andrew just finished up a session of swim lessons. He use to be quite scared of the water, but now he is fearless! He is so cute flopping around in the water!

Okay, I'm caught up as good as I'll ever be!

Shake Rattle and Run/ Roof project

2010-10-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

My brother came down for the weekend and we ran the Shake Rattle and Run 5k. A couple of my friends were there too. Lots of fun! I was excited about my time of 25:03. And my brother came in in under 20 minutes.

Bert came to help Nicki fix her roof that was leaking, so we spent a couple of days helping fix the roof. It was a great weekend spent hanging out with family. Nicki and Coleen came over and brought Mario Kart and we even got Bert to play. It sure was a great weekend.

Star Valley

2010-10-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

I was able to take the kids to Star Valley last weekend. We had a great time hanging out at my parents cabin. Shilo and Rachelle came and stayed and we made a couple of different crafts and made a couple of batches of soap. The last day their my brother and sister inlaw and I went on a 9 mile hike in the mountains. It was so beautiful. We hiked to McDougal pass. It was freezing and we followed bear tracks the whole way there! Thanks everyone for the wonderful trip!

pumpkin patch

2010-10-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

We went to Berry Patch Farms a couple of weekends ago with my sister and her friend. The kids got to pick out a pumpkin, do some pumpkin bowling, make a little craft and grab candy from a pinata. They had a great time.

Random

2010-09-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

I was just flipping through some summer pics and thought I'd post some.

Andy with olives

The kids came down stairs one day and Andy was wearing these....Sam made Andy some pants, isn't that nice of him! I died laughing!

Miss Alison being the crazy girl she is

And a pool? A turtle? or Sam? Who knows!

This is me and my good friend Ann who did the Yoga for Congo Women

She sent me this picture and said I would enjoy it....well, maybe not the word I would use. Here it is anyway,

Jeff went on his retreat last weekend with all the residents up in Estes Park. Here they are.

2010-09-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

So I've been inspired by a friend to try to make my own soap, and thought it sounded fun, so I made my own soap mold.

Made some soap and poured it in

put the set up soap in my make shift soap cutter...and yes that is a putty knife.

And here is the final soap. This batch is coconut oatmeal

And my latest, brown sugar and fig with oatmeal. If you can't tell I like the oatmeal in it.

Field Day

2010-09-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

The kids had field day this month. Andrew and I went over to watch.

Ali's getting carried away in one of the games

It was so hot and poor Andrew just wanted to go home. Can you see the excitement in his face?

This is Sam and his best friend!

Heres Sam and his best friend racing on the hoppy balls.

The kids had a lot of fun!

My Free Giveaway!

2010-09-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone, Help support:

Find out how to recieve a free photo session within the Denver area!

http://www.simplyyou-lacey.blogspot.com/

Ali's Girl Scouts

2010-09-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Ali's girl scout troop planted a tree at her elementary school. They did such a great job. They actually were done before the older girls, what hard workers!

That's Ali on the right...putting some muscle into it!

Filling in the tree with dirt.

The End...5 hot tired little brownies!

First Day of School

2010-09-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well, my little Ali is in 3rd grade! I can't believe it. And Sam's in first grade! Where did the time go?

Wild West Relay

2010-09-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

The beginning of August we ran in the Wild West Relay. Another running relay that goes from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs. It was a ton of fun! We were the Rubber Chickens and had lots of fun with our little mascots! Here are some pics of everyone. My brother Bert and sister Nicki, and Rachel, Greg and Esther were in our van.

Rachel and Nicki

Our masot strapped to the hood of our van

Our sweet decals...Thanks Rach!

Nicki and Bert at the continental divide sign. Bert just got done running his hardest leg uphill for 8 miles and Nicki made him run a little further for a picture!

We love our chickens!

Rachel was the only trooper on our team who ran one of her legs with the chicken!

Nicki, myself, Bert

The Team at the finish! We finished 29th overall and 8th in our category! Not too shabby!

This is what I looked like after my last run, when some lady came and asked if she could take a picture of me with my "Snickers Marathon Bar" for their sponsers...boy do I look good or what...Let me know if you see my face....Am I famous yet?

More catching up

2010-09-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

This summer we took a family camping trip to Jackson Lake. We stayed on a little Island. Thanks to Jeff's dad who let us borrow his boat.

The kids putting the hot sand(more like little rocks and dirt) on them after a cool swim in the lake

The last night we were there, there was a super big storm. Lightning, thunder and the waves we pretty big. I was actually probably the most scared I have ever been...wouldn't tell the kids that. I kept telling Ali everything was just fine. Anyway, Jeff stayed out during the whole storm and kept checking on the boat. Well, in the morning......lets just say, we spent awhile digging the boat off of the beach.

Then as we were leaving, this is how beautiful the lake looked.....I guess it was the calm after the storm.
Sam found a black and red snake on our Island, which terrified him for quite awhile! I never saw it, but he stayed away from that part of the island.

The kids were in the lake catching minnows, and were excited when they found this cool worm-looking thing....it was a leech. Yeah, that kinda spoiled the water for me. Oh well, we went swimming, and no one got leeches on them....Although on the way home Andrew found one on his finger and I was too chicken to get it off, so Ali did, then it stuck to her, and she flung her hand all over and it flew off. We stopped the truck and Jeff got it out of the car....yuck! Good to be home!

Catching Up!

2010-09-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

Bert and Shilo and I took a hike up table rock. Once you get to the top, you are right there by the top of the Tetons, it is beautiful. Here is a panorama that I took looking off the other side. We went up the face of the trail....not the best idea ever, but you can't say they didn't warn you. There was a sign that said "Very steep, not maintained, not recommended" but dumb us, we did it anyway, and yes, it was very steep, and no, I would not recommend it! Needless to say, we made it to the top...I was dripping with sweat, and Bert was just laughing at me and Shilo! It was a great day though and worth all the effort to get to the top!

At the Top of Table Mountain

This rock chuck at the top of table rock, was a little too friendly! As soon as we sat down to picnic he came right over and started stealing our food, so then we decided to share with him. He did make me a little nervous and he licked my leg! Good thing he didn't bite me!

This is Bert and Shilo with table rock in the distance....almost there!

On the way down we went down the backside and had to cross over 3 streams. I killed my feet! So this was the last crossing and I just went through with my shoes on, and was able to get these pics of Bert and Shilo

Towards the top of our hike with the Tetons in the back

Our June Vacation

2010-07-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went to Star Valley in June for two weeks. It was two weeks packed full of fun! We got there just in time for my Brother and I to travel to Logan to run the Wasatch Back Relay. It's a relay race from Logan to Park City Utah. We had so much fun! Thanks so much to Mom, Dad, and Shilo for watching my kids!

Two days after we got back from the race my brother Bert and sister in law Shilo went on a 13 mile hike in the Tetons. We went up Cascade Canyon and it was so beautiful, I felt like I was Heidi in the Alps! It took us about 6 1/2 hours and Shilo and I were pooped by the time we got back! It was well worth it though.

I spent a couple of days helping my dad haul firewood at his cabin. We went on Ranger Rides, the kids chased butterflies, catched bunnies, and got awfully dirty every day! Spring in the mountains is so much fun. All around my parents cabin were probably about 5 birds nests, we had fun each day seeing if any more eggs had hatched, how much each baby bird had grown and watching the mom bring food and care for her babies. I took pictures of one nest and watched it for two weeks. The last baby hatched just before I left!

One week after the Wasatch Back, my brother and I decided to run the Jackson Hole half marathon. It was spur of the moment fun. My brother did it in 1 hour 34 min! I wanted to break 2 hours, but came in at 2 hours 2 min. Oh well, pretty good for not preparing I say. It was a great course, great post race food. A small race, but great!

I was able to take Sam fishing on the Snake River. That is pretty much a requirement when going to Star Valley. He is getting quite good and can do everything himself....now if mom could just relax a little on that big river. I'm always so nervous about him falling in that every 2 seconds I'm pulling him away from the edge.

One day we met my sister Rachelle's family and Shilo's family and went on a little hike with all kids. There is a star up on one of the mountains in the valley, where it is tradition for the Seniors in High School to hike up there each year and change the number of the year. So all the kids wanted to hike up there. I was pretty impressed with all of them, even my little Andrew made it to the top without being carried.

My mom and I went to Rexburg Idaho one day where my grandparents live and we were able to spend a little time with them. My kids were so excited because my grandparents live on a cute little farm and they had a couple of batches of kittens. My kids loved playing with them, and wondered if we could get another cat....to their dismay I said no.

Another day we took the kids to Minnetonka Caves in Idaho. It's a nice guided tour that lasts 1 1/2 hours. You have to go up and down 888 steps I think. Again, Andrew surprised me and did it all himself. After that we went to Bear Lake since it's not that far from the caves. Its always so nice to spend the day relaxing and letting the kids get as dirty as they want.

We spent an evening at Cottonwood Lake canoeing and having a hot dog roast.

Then we traveled to Roosevelt Utah where we had a Wheeler Family Reunion. Jeff was able to meet us there. It was great to have everyone there. We played at a lake, had a talent show, played games, watched fireworks, and tons of the family participated in the Neola 5K and half marathon. Alison ran the 5k with a bunch of her cousins and did a great job in 38 minutes. And thanks to Julie I finished the half marathon in 1 hour 54 minutes. She told me to stick with her and she would get me under 2 hours. So we cruised to mile 8, and then Julie got her second wind and left me, but she had us so far ahead that I just had to keep a nice steady pace. Thanks Julie! Some of the guys got to go golfing and after the family reunion, Jeff, Greg, Sam and Jesse went fishing.

Spring Fling

2010-06-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was Jeff's Spring Fling. This is a fun day for the residents. They start out the day by having a golf tournament in the morning. This year Jeff took Sam with him, and all the girls just love him....who wouldn't? Jeff's team won again this year! Yah, go team! They usually meet for lunch at a park for the whole family and have little games there to play. We didn't go this year...but last year was a lot of fun! Then that night they honor the 4th year residents who are leaving. They have a little program, hand out some awards and then they play a couple of skits done by the residents. They are always quite funny! They finish off the night with some dancing, which I have to admit, isn't very appealing anymore so we didn't stay for too much of that. Anyway, here are some pictures from the night, and Jeff with all the great people he works with. Good Luck 4th year graduates!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

2010-06-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial Day weekend Ali got to take an overnight zoo trip with her girl scout group. They went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. There is a lodge there and the girls got to stay in the lodge and feed the giraffes. Thanks to her great leader who gave these girls a great year. This is Ali's Girl Scout leader with her daughter.

Sam's Birthday

2010-06-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

My little Sam just had his 6th birthday! I can't believe how fast these little ones grow up! What happened? We had a pretty low-key day. Two of Sam's neighbor friends came over for cake and ice cream. Jeff was working a 26 hour shift, so we went to the hospital to have dinner with him. We played at the park with Sam's friend and just hung out. We love you so much Sam, you are such a crazy kid with so much personality! What would we have ever done without you?

Happy Birthday my 6 year old!

Track Meet

2010-06-07T08:08:00.001-07:00

June 5 there was a track meet that my kids went to. It was really fun to watch them! They all did a really great job. Here are a few pictures of them.

Here's Andy running the 50m dash.
Here is Sam in the Softball throw...
Here's Ali doing the long jump. She didn't want to do it, but just jumped in and took first jumping 4'7''. I knew those long legs would come in handy!

They each participated in 4 events and they got ribbons for all 4, they were so excited.

Congratulations!

2010-06-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post this for a week or so now, but I just wanted to say Congratulations to Jeff! Jeff passed his step three boards! We are so proud of Jeff. He is the most amazing person I know. I don't know how he does all that he does. He works so hard for all of us and we are so grateful to him and feel so blessed to have him as our Husband, Daddy and most of all friend. Jeff is so supportive of everything that we do. He puts up with me with all of the crazy running that I love to do. After a long day at work he comes home, rescuing me from the sometimes chaotic house that I run, and lets me go for a run. He always tells me how beautiful he thinks I am and how proud he is of me. He treats me so kind, even when I probably don't deserve it. Every day, even when he is completely exhausted from working long hours he calls each of our children over to him individually and hugs them and tells them how much he loves them. Sometimes he feels like he has no time for our children, but the time he does have, he lets them know how much he loves them. Jeff is so supportive of our kids and the extra activities that they do. If he's not working, he will be there to watch Sam play ball, or Ali in her school activities. Jeff we are so lucky to have you! We love you so much! Congratulations again for passing your step three boards!

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

I love Memorial Day Weekend! We always have such a wonderful time as a family. For the past 3 years we have run the Bolder Boulder. The Bolder Boulder is one of, if not, the biggest road race in America. This year 53,700 runners packed themselves into Bolder Colorado for a great Memorial Day Celebration. They also announced that 1,000 members of our troops participated in the Bolder Boulder while overseas! A bunch of us crazy people run a 10K (6.2 miles) Each year we run we add a couple more people to our little family of runners! I love it. Here is our pictures of each year we have run so far.

In 2008: Bert, Nicki, Greg, Rachel, Lacey
In 2009: Bert, Nicki, Lacey, Greg, Rachel, Sarah
In 2010: Bert, Shilo, Nicki, Jesse, Greg, Rachel, Lacey, Sarah, Tanner
This year was so much fun because there were so many of us! And also this year I was able to stay to the Memorial Day Celebration after the race. If any of you want to have a great time, this would be the place. After everyone has run the race, they have the international teams run. There are teams from Kenya, Ethiopia, USA, Colombia, Japan, and many others. These runners are amazingly fast. And the energy of the stadium when those runners come in and finish is indescribable! It is quite emotional to be there. Then they have a wonderful tribute to all those who have fallen in the line of duty. Sky divers come into the stadium from overhead carrying the flags of the marines, army,America etc... Fighter planes fly over head, the national anthem is played, and the feeling of unity for our country and all mankind is ever present! What a wonderful day!
We love having our families come and stay with us! We always have a great time. While Greg and Rachel were here Greg, Jesse, and Jeff went to a Rockies game and Jeff caught a Rockies jersey! The rest of us hung out at the house and created our own fun. The Nerf guns provided hours of fun! And a party just wouldn't be a party without a little game of Farkle! That darn Sarah is so dang lucky!
FYI: We have a huge sandbox in our backyard, which I really want to get rid of because our kids like to fill it up with water, make a soupy mess and end up completely covered in mud! Oh well it does provide hours of fun.....messy dirty fun, but entertaining non-the-less. So Abby and Ali made a lake in the middle of the sand box with rivers all around...huhhhh. And Andrew joined in the mess.

God Bless America, and all the men and women serving for our freedom!

Crazy Weather!

2010-05-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago I posted our big hail that came down. Today was crazy! There were tornado warnings for a few hours and this was the size of the hail that came down today, about the size of golf balls! Luckily we only got a few here and there, but when they hit the house it sounded like a gun shot! A little town to the south east of us wasn't so lucky. The car windows were all broke out, house windows broken, even pieces of house were knocked off. The mailboxes all flat on top, cars ruined! There was so much hail that the snowplows had to go out there. I've never seen anything so crazy. The tornado sirens were going off for quite some time so we went to the basement. My little Sam got tears in his eyes and asked if we were going to die. I said no. But they all grabbed apples, bananas, pillows....boy were they preparing for the worse! I thought it was kind of cute. What a crazy day!

Guess Who?

2010-05-24T18:11:00.001-07:00

Can you guess who this little mud blob is? The other day Ali and Andy made a huge water hole in our sandbox and he tripped and fell face first into the sand! It was so funny! It was so hot that day that it dried really fast and it was crusty on his face, it was a good facial.

Sam's Tonsils

2010-05-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

My little Sam-Sam got his tonsils out today. He was such a brave boy. We left at 5:45 this morning and he had his surgery at 7:45. The nurses were all so great and gave sam a mask to show him how he would breathe into it. He proceeded to put it up to his mouth and say "Luke...I am your father." ( from star wars for anyone who wondered why that was so funny.) We thought it was pretty funny and told him to say that when he went into the operating room. But I guess he just said "operating room"...not quite as funny. The nurse gave him a cute little Teddy Bear, which he named "OR" for operating room. (just a side note: When Sam was about 6 months old he got dehydrated and had to go to the Emergency Room. When he was there they gave him a teddy bear which we named "E.R." for emergency room.) So I guess he thought it would be good to have them match.
Here's Sam showing off his muscles.

Jeff was able to take the day off to be with Sam which was good because Jeff knows how to calm Sam down and Sam loves his daddy sooooo much. He just wanted daddy to hold his hand the whole time he was waking up.

He is doing well right now. He has eaten and is drinking lots of soda, so he seems to be doing well.

My sister Nicki and her friend Coleen came last night and spent the night so they could be here in the morning to watch Ali and Andy. We had a delicious dinner and then today they took Ali and Andy to the zoo for the day. It was super hot and super windy, so they were all worn out when they got home.

How sad it is when I hear people talk bad about their doctor, or that they have to wait sooooo long to see their doctor or to get their perscription. We are so blessed to live in such a wonderful place, where we have access to such wonderful health care. Our doctors are great and well educated. Our nurses are wonderful! Our hospitals are outstanding. We are so blessed to live in America! We feel so grateful to have a supportive family, who are always there to help when needed. They are loving and sacrifice so much for us. Thanks Nicki and Coleen for being to willing to help us out.

All in all what a wonderful day!

This is some art that the hippos painted or one of the other animals at the zoo I can't remember for sure which one.

I guess Nicki must have been behind the camera...no Nicki in any pictures!

I think these ducks trying to tell you something?!

A Few Blog Worthy Events

2010-05-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Just a little something fun.

The other day it hailed on us for about 2 minutes. I personally have never seen hail so big, only in pictures. But the kids kept busy collecting all the hail and saving it in my freezer. Sam also put a golf ball in there thinking he would "trick daddy" into thinking it was a piece of hail. Silly kids!

Sam graduated from Kindergarten today!

This morning Sam had his kindergarten graduation. They sang a few great songs and he got his own little diploma! We are so proud of you Sam, you have grown so much this year in so many different aspects! We love how tender-hearted Sam is. Yesterday after school he came out in tears saying he was going to miss his teacher, and he wasn't going to first grade! He felt a little better today after the graduation and is now excited to be a first grader! Yeah Sam!

Sam and his teacher

Sam getting his diploma

We are so proud of Alison! She was selected as a finalist in the 2nd grade spelling bee! Six kids from each class got to participate. She did very well and we were so proud of all her hard work in 2nd grade. She is definately very smart and her teacher told me she is so helpful to everyone at at school. Congrats Ali, you're the best!

Ali and her friend "K" got to be in the spelling bee together.

Andrew Turned 4 years old! Lately Andrew is pretty much focused on one thing...games. It's pretty much an obsession actually. All he wants to do is play the wii, or online kids games. I justify it by saying he is learning. Pretty lame excuse, but I think it's pretty cute watching him run a computer better than I could in Jr. High School!

Andy is very sweet. He loves giving mom lot's of kisses every morning. However he doesn't like to help out much around the house...probably because he is the baby and I've babied him...we're working on that one.

Andy is a character. He is just crazy, and loves when we laugh at him...he thinks he's the funniest person in the world, which then makes him a whole lot funnier!

We love you so much Andy! Happy 4th birthday!

Family Vacation

2010-05-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

Our family had a great 2 week vacation. We had a week planned and then Jeff's Grandma passed away the week before, so we ended up going to Star Valley for 2 weeks. Unfortunately I didn't do very well taking a lot of pictures, only a few. While we were there we went fishing....of course. Jeff and I got to go once while grandma watched the kids. We went to the Snake River, one of our favorite spots to fish.

Jeff, Jim and Korry and Sam went fishing a few more times. My little Sam was so excited to go fishing...He is 100% like his Daddy in every way. I loved watching him follow his dad and Grandpa around for 3 days getting stuff ready for fishing. And from what they tell me Sam pretty much out fished everyone! I sure do love that kid. I think it makes Jeff feel pretty good too that he is so excited about all the same things as him.

Notice the size of the fishes? Now who's the real fisherman here?

Jeff, Jim and Korry went to Idaho Falls a few times and did some golfing! I think they enjoyed themselves, because they kept going back! One day, Sandy, Tara, Becky and I met in Idaho Falls and then the guys took the kids back home and the girls went shopping. We had a great time together.

Here is most of the family, minus a couple who couldn't make it to Grandmas funeral. The funeral was beautiful, many people attended and it was wonderful to see so many family members again.

This is Jeff with his mom and dad and brothers and sisters.

We got to spend some time up at my parents cabin with them as well. Jeff did a little bit of shooting with Tony and Sam. The time went by way too fast, but as always, it's great to be home.

Here are a couple of random pictures of my kids who had these great balls that popped. They thought it was way fun to wear them on their heads for days on end. They remind me of that Big O commercial on T.V. Don't they look like "Little O"?

Our Easter Gift

2010-04-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny came and brought the kids a huge chocolate bunny and some more candy. The night before we decorated eggs with the kids. We were so excited when we found out Jim and Sandy would be at our house on Easter. They just finished serving a mission in Mississippi and on their way home they stopped by our house. We let the kids stay up late and had a nice Easter dinnner with them at 9:00 at night. We are so glad to have them back home. We sure did miss them! What a wonderful gift to see them on Easter!

Andy asked if he could eat his egg, I told him yes, and he took a big crunchy bite! I thought he knew he needed to peel it first, guess not.

Our Family with Elder and Sister Wheeler....welcome home, we love you!!!

A fun, busy week

2010-04-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

My sister in law had the same spring break as us, which never happens, so she came to Denver for the week to enjoy a break from the snow. It felt like we went non-stop all week.

Jeff was finishing his night rotation, so we tried to keep out of the house so he could sleep during the day. We went to the movie theater and watched How to Train Your Dragon (great show!) so we could escape the 82 degree weather we had that day, poor kids all ended up sun burned.
We had a little easter egg hunt for the kids early, since star valley is still covered in snow.
Nicki and her friend Coleen came over and we had a picnic too.

Ali and Miriam, hid one orange egg for Nicki so she went hunting.
We spent one night making easter cake pops. Now that was a very time consuming activity!

We spent a lot of time at the park. In this picture Ali had got herself stuck in a baby swing and couldn't get out. Instead of helping we just laughed. Ali was quite embarrassed and Miriam was saving her from being humiliated in front of the camera, kind of.

Ali's baptism

2010-03-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

Ali was baptised on March 6th by her daddy. It was such a special day for our little princess. We were so happy to have my parents come and also Julie, Jeffrey, and Annie flew in for the weekend. We are so appreciative and grateful for the wonderful support of our families. While they were here we went skating, dinner and a movie and just hung out and played the wii. And thanks to Jeffrey, Julie and I got a seven mile run in while he watched my kids. We have been enjoying the spring time weather that has started to find it's way here. We are looking forward to a great summer!

December/New Year's 2009

2010-01-15T19:08:00.001-08:00

The beginning of January we spent a week at my parents cabin. Jeff bought model rockets and we had a lot of fun shooting them off, it was even more fun trying to find them!

They got in a little bit of snowmachining.

looking for the rockets

The boy's playing with magnets at Grandmas cabin

For New Year's Eve we met Jeff's family in Bear Lake at a cabin. It was a lot of fun

We had a pool tournament. I think Tanner and Jesse ended up winning the whole thing!

We had a great Christmas together as a family. Jeff was home this year so it was so great. Last year he had to work all Christmas day. We are so greatful that we could all be together.

Christmas Eve Jammies from Grandma Sandy and Grandpa JimThe kids watched the Santa Tracker on the internet all night!
We made cookies on Christmas Eve

Andy hangin' with Trap

Ali Turned 8!

It's a BOY!!!

2009-12-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

It's a boy....Okay, admit it, I got you all with that one didn't I. This is the new addition to our family. We got him yesterday. Jeff surprized us with him. He is the funnest little puppy and our kids are soooooo happy to have him!!! (That by the way is an understatement.) We named him Trapper....yes, it is after Trapper in the MASH show...if you know my husband, then you don't even have to ask why! The kids like the name too, so I think it's a go!

Random

2009-12-20T16:36:00.000-08:00

My two little boys were watching the lights on the Christmas tree and we came in to find them both asleep. I though it was so sweet.

Ali had her second grade program of songs around the world. It was a very cute program.
She had her own little part to say and did very well!

This is Ali's Brownie Girl Scout Troop. She is having a lot of fun. This was their dedication ceremony they had and the all did a super job.

This is Ali lighting her candle.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

2009-11-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

If anyone knows my husband, then you know he doesn't like a big fuss over birthdays. He made me promise him that I wouldn't get him anything....except "a pistachio cake" He loves this cake so I make it once a year...on his birthday. (see I didn't even buy candles...I used a left over Halloween candle:)) After dinner went to the pet store to look at puppies and make the kids drool:) I just wanted to say how much I love you Jeff! Thank you so much for all you do for our family! It amazes me how hard you work, all the time and hours you are gone, and how much you sacrifice for us. Thank you so much! We all love you! Happy Birthday!

Happy Halloween?

2009-11-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween?...More like Merry Christmas. A few days before Halloween we got dumped on for 2 days straight. They even closed school for 2 days, we went sledding and the kids had fun. Jeff actually had Halloween off so we had fun with him here. He even dressed up! Boy does he look good or what? We always have a lot of fun carving pumpkins, but I think this year was the best, because we had a bout 8 pumpkins that we grew ourselves this summer, so it made it much more fun. Sam was batman for Halloween, but he was having one of those nights and wouldn't let us take a picture of him. Andy was a lion, and Ali was Alice in wonderland. Grandma Sandy made both costumes that have been handed down through the grandkids! Love it! Jeff started his night rotation this week...ugh! Oh well, we sure have a lot to be thankful for!

Shake, Rattle and Run!

2009-10-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

Today a few of us from our ward ran in the Shake, Rattle and Run 5k. It was pretty much freezing, but it was a lot of fun seeing so many people run in costumes. We have some great families in our ward. A couple of the dads came and watched my kids for me so I could run. Thanks so much it was a lot of fun!

Jeff hard at work

2009-10-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

So we have a lot of people ask why Jeff chose to be an OB/GYN, this is one reason. He gets to deliver beautiful babies and meet wonderful families. He loved this family of these two little boys that he got to deliver.

Lair of the Bear

2009-10-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took the kids to Lair of the Bear Open Space Park and we hiked around for a while. It's always good to get away from the city and enjoy the mountains.

Fall

2009-10-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

We raked up the leaves in our backyard today.....well, we had them raked up...but I think we'll have to try again in a couple of days because the kids were having too much fun in them.

Andy's stitches

2009-10-17T18:15:00.001-07:00

Well a couple of days ago Andy slipped in the bathtub and cut his chin open pretty bad. I couldn't get it to stay closed so I went to see Jeff and they all agreed it definatlly needed stitches, so Jeff just stitched it up for us. Andy was so brave and sat there so still. Sam was crying because he didn't want it to hurt Andy, and I just sat there with my eyes closed so I didn't puke. Yeah, I'm not real good with that sort of stuff.

Vacation

2009-10-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

Things sure have been busy around our house. The first week in October was Jeffs week off so we took a trip to Star Valley. We hung out there for a couple of days at my parents cabin.

Ali and Miriam at the cabinSam, Jeff and Tony Shooting guns
Yes, that is snow the beginning of October, and a lot of it! So the kids went sledding at the cabin. We didn't really come prepared for snow....notice Ali's church shoes?

Sam sure had fun....until his feet froze off...

Then After being in star Valley for awhile Jeff and I went to Las Vegas for 4 days. It was a lot of fun, but we were both missing our kids by about day 2. Shilo, my mom and Angie took turns watching our kids so we could go. Thanks everyone!

One of the things we did while in Vegas was go to the Barrett Jackson car show/auction. There were a lot of really neat cars there.

We went golfing a couple of times...well, Jeff went golfing, and I rode around and took pictures with the fun new camera Jeff got me for my birthday.

One of the courses we played was the Rio Secco, It was the toughest course Jeff has ever played and it was so beautiful! Tiger Woods had the record for the course. Jeff played really well on such a tough course, but Tiger still beat him by 14 strokes...ahhh.

Oh, I had to throw this in too. It's amazing at these really nice courses, they drive to your car and get your clubs for you. And when your done they wash off your clubs for you and bring your bag back to your car. The golf carts had GPS systems in them that told you how far to the hole, and looky here....You don't get a bucket of balls to practice...you get a pyramid of balls, already there and waiting for you!

While in Vegas, you can't go home without gambling....at one of the holes there was a lady there taking money, and if you hit it onto the green they doubled your money. Yeahh for Jeff, he put down 20$ so we came home with a whoppin' 40$.

This was at Bear's Best Golf course. Another fun one.
While in Vegas we went to the Hoover Dam. While we were driving there there was a sign that said Helicopter rides! Jeff's always wanted to ride in a helicopter, so we did. He wasn't happy at all. They let him sit up front with the pilot. It was like watching a kid at Christmas time.

Those cute little fanny packs are life jackets we had to wear in case we crashed into Lake Mead. Sure glad we didn't have to use them.
This is a picture of the new bridge they are building in front of the dam. Those little specs at the very top are people working up there... scary!
We got to go to a few different shows and we had a great time together. Then we went back to SV to see our little kids, boy we sure did miss them.

Picture of the moon outside my parents cabin window.
I love this picture of Sam and Jeff. Sam is daddy's little boy. He loves everything that Jeff loves and he has his daddy wrapped around his little finger. Sam was in Heaven having Jeff help him shoot guns.

Back in the swing of things

2009-09-12T11:13:00.001-07:00

Well school has started for the kids, so we are officially back into the swing of things. One of my good friends introduced me to photoshop so I have been having some fun messing around with my pictures, here is one where andy was in the garage, but I really liked his pouty face.

Jeff had labor day weekend off, so we went camping on the white River. It was so beautiful and we had a lot of fun. Here is Jeff with one of the fish he caught.

One crazy family picture....

Our crazy Andrew with tongs on his head...

A crazy Jeff drinking hot chocolate...

We found this really fuzzy caterpillar, and the kids just love it. They let it crawl all over themselves.
This is me fishing....although I never caught anything, but Jeff said I looked cute anyway.

There were a lot of little snakes up there....icky!
Our beautiful princess
We stayed in a hotel on Friday night because it was so late when we got there.

We went to the annual fishing derby for the kids the end of August and sam and Ali both caught a fish, and they both got to tie a fly, which Sam was way excited about!

Here is Ali on her first day of 2nd grade....Sam was being stubborn that day....thus, no picture.

Another picture playing on photoshop

One Busy Month

2009-08-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, this past month sure has been a busy one! Shilo and her kids came to stay with us for a week, and we had so much fun! One day the boys picked all the cucumbers and banana peppers in my garden and we made pickles, and pickled peppers, we'll see how those turn out!

One day we pampered the girls....okay, shilo and me too, but I thought I would do us both a favor and leave those pictures off. Miriam has been wanting her hair cut for a long time so Shilo asked if Iwould do it for her. We cut hair, did nails, and yes, even facials!
It reminds me of some spooky horror movie!

I had to put this picture of all my boys in. Poor Jeff works so hard and long, that this is about the only thing he gets home in time for, so he likes to hold the boys while they fall asleep, sometimes he ends up sleeping first. I sure do appreciate all he does for us, he is a wonderful husband and father, who we miss alot, but sure do love.

Sam had his last Tball game of the year. His coach was great and had a BBQ, and got all the boys a trophy. Sam was quite proud! He did so great this year we all had fun watching him.

One night Shilo watched the kids while Jeff and I went to The Wall Flowers concert at the Botanic Gardens. It was at a big ampetheater, and everyone brings blankets and dinner and just sits on the grass and enjoys the music. One of Jeff's co-workers gave us the tickets. It sure was a great night.

One day we went to the movie theater and a fun spray park and playground. The kids were all a little tired after this day!
One day we went to a big indoor swim pool that had big slides and a playground in about 2 feet of water, we brought a lunch and spent the day. It was great fun.

After Shilo was here for a week, we packed up and spent about a week and a half in Star Valley. It was a bummer that Jeff couldn't come. While we were there we went and visited my grandparents and Becky and Raphael in Rexburg. We stopped by Palisades and picked huckleberries. My Aunt Susan and her son met us there, and Shilo and her kids came to. Ali stayed a couple of nights with Becky in Rexburg.

The Huckleberries were a huge success! And as you can tell my boys were not going to smile for this one!

We also picked Huckleberries up by my parents cabin. It was not quite as pleasant because you have to fight the mosquitos all the time!

While I was in SV I wanted to do something fun with each one of my kids. Of course Sam and Andrew both wanted to go fishing, so I took Andy to the Tree on Snake River and he caught a couple of fish all by him self. He just kept saying "I'm so glad a caught a fish,...I'm just so happy!"
Then I took Sam to the Rock on the Snake River the same day. He caught a few and was very excited to eat his fish every morning for breakfast, and lunch....and dinner!

Then Ali and I ran the Swift Creek 5K in Afton. It was her first race ever and she did pretty good. She finished in 38 min. She also won the drawing and got a 20 dollar gift certificate to Lone Pine Sports, a little sports store in Afton. She was pretty disappointed when she went in and it was just a bunch of fishing, camping and boyish things! She picked out a little backpack to put her stuffed animals in?!;) Shilo and Miriam ran with us. It was a lot of fun.

We took a day and went to Bear Lake to play on the beach. Shilo's family came and also my mom.

I love this picture of Ali and Miriam.

Sam and Andy and I also did a lot of fishing up Tin Cup Creek by my parents cabin.

One night Bert and Shilo invited us to go to Cottonwood Lake with them. We had a hot dog roast and Shilo introduced my to roasting starbursts on a stick....Never heard of it but it was pretty tasty. Then I got to go fly fishing in their canoe. It was a lot of fun, although I never caught anything.

We feel so blessed to be able to enjoy so many wonderful things and to spend time with such wonderful people. We have had a great summer and Ali just started school on the 13. I can't believe she is in second grade! I must say it feels nice to get back into a routine after this past month running around!

Some Summer Fun

2009-07-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

Jeff finally had a whole weekend off so we headed up to the Poudre River to go camping and fishing. It's been 8 whole weeks since Jeff has been with us for the whole weekend and it was so nice to have him with us!

Jeff was on call the night before the 4th, so we just did some little fireworks in the back yard and watched a few fireworks from there. Andrew was afraid of the snake fireworks and even had nightmares that night about them..
At first he just peeked around the door and wouldn't come out.

The kids have enjoyed playing with their friends this summer. One day we went to the spray park, playground, and the movies.

I got a baby sitter one day and Ali and I had a date. She wanted to go to water world. We spent the whole day there and had so much fun together. Ali's favorite was the wave pool, where huge ocean waves come splashing on top of you!

Guess what else, our garden is actually producing real food!!! We got tons of peas! And everything else is growing too! Andy and the kids loved to pick the peas....and eat them too!

Ragnar

2009-07-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

While we were in Star Valley my parents watched my kids while Bert and I drove to Logan Utah to run the Wasatch Back with Greg and Rachel. We had a team of 12 and run from logan to Park City. We had a great time.

S.V.

2009-07-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to S.V.

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-18T14:38:00.001-07:00

This post is for the most special man in me and my children's lives. This is for the person I fell in love with when I was 16 years old. The person I walked beneath the stars holding hands with. This is for the person who makes me laugh...especially when I'm ticked off. This is for the person who I married almost 9 years ago, for the man who treats me like I am the most beautiful person on earth, for the man who loves me unconditionally despite my many, many shortcomings. This is for the man whom I love fishing and camping with. This is for the father of my three beautiful children, for the man who loves our children unconditionally and is the best father a kid could ask for. This is for the love of my life, the person I want to grow old with, Jeff. I wish I could be with you this Father's Day, but because I can't I want you to know how much I love you. Thank you for all your love and support in all I do. I thought I would send you something for drooling purposes.

Happy Father's Day! We all love and miss you!

Spring Fling

2009-06-13T08:14:00.000-07:00

Last night was the Spring Fling BBQ and awards dinner for Jeffs work. Jeff and a bunch of the residents went golfing in the morning. There was a BBQ for the families for lunch, and then in the evening was the awards dinner. It was basically to honor the 4th year residents who were leaving. It was a good evening to get to know the people Jeff works with a little better. Here is the cross I carry.....Notice how Jeff works with a bunch of georgous women? I guess that happens when your husband becomes an OB/GYN.

Jeff and I

The next 4 pictures are the 4, 4th year residents who will be leaving Exempla St. Joseph Hospital.

This is Jeff and Sonya, one of Jeff's very good friends at work. She is super sweet!

Sam's First Game

2009-06-13T07:59:00.001-07:00

Sam had his first T-ball game this Thusday. It was so much fun to watch all of those little kids out there. It brought tears to my eyes a couple of times just watching Sam so excited to be there and just trying so hard. I sure do love that kid! He was so excited that he got to keep his shirt and hat! Jeff was even able to get off work a little early to come watch him. It was really important to Jeff to be there, and Sam was so excited when he showed up to watch him.

Finished Bike

2009-06-04T09:28:00.001-07:00

Here are before and after pictures of the road bike I finished. I took the whole thing apart and cleaned everything. I painted it and put new bar grip tape on it. And thanks to my friend, she hooked me up with some cool vinyl lettering! This was a ton of fun!

Fishing

2009-06-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

The other day we went fishing. There are some little ponds close to our house and there are always people fishing there so we decided to try. It ended up just being a nice walk and looking for flowers and bugs, but it was such a beautiful night that it was great.

Best Buds

2009-05-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

Sam and Andy were watching a movie and I came in to find them both sound asleep and I thought it was so cute. They really are best friends and love each other so much.

T-ball

2009-05-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is our little Sam, finally getting to play T-Ball! He was so excited to have his first practice. I told him he didn't need to wear all of his stuff to practice, but he insisted and came down all dressed and he finally got to try out his "cleatures" that's what he calls his cleats. I couldn't help but get all teary eyed watching him play and being so excited. I love his tonge sticking out of this picture!

This is Sam waiting for practice!

Alison Nicole

2009-05-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

Beautiful, Sweet, Helpful, Energetic, Full of Love, Teaser!

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-25T15:35:00.001-07:00

This weekend Gregs family came to stay with us. Jeff had the whole weekend off so it was great to be able to spend time with them. Rachel's sister sarah came with them too. Here are some random pictures of the weekend.

This is Sarah and Andrew. Andrew thought Sarah was pretty great because she showed him how to put on make up. He threw a fit when we tried to wipe it off later that day.

This is just a little side note, but my garden is in and it is actually coming up, we'll see if it actually produces anything. We have peas, onions, lettuce, carrots, bell peppers, banana peppers, pumpkins, cantaloup, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and corn. We'll let you know if it actually produces anything edible.

So memorial day was the big Bolder Boulder 10K here in Boulder Colorado. Debra was nice enough to be our designated driver....for drop off purposes. Every one was pretty happy about their times...except Rachel who just ran a marathon last weekend and qualified for boston. Her knee hurt pretty bad. Jesse commented and said she must have really been hurt if Greg beat her! As for me, my pony tail holder broke right at the starting line, there's nothing like running while trying to tie a knot in your pony tail holder! Hee hee, I guess if that was the most of my worries it was great!

Debra, Nicki, me, Bert

Bert, Nicki, me, Greg, Rachel, & Sarah

We all couldn't be entertained without a little bit of Rock Band....okay, it was a lot of rock band!

Okay, another little side note...I found this great old road bike at a garage sale and I'm going to fix it up. I've been wanting to do a triathlon, so I'm starting to get into the whole biking thing. So we'll see how this project goes. Jeff just thinks I'm crazy and shakes his head!

Pictures Continued

2009-04-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from the Marathon....

My Mom and Nicki

Shilo, Bert and Nicki

Ali

Sam

The end of March we went to Star Valley for the kids spring Break. We spent most of the time up at my parents cabin. Here are a few pictures.

Our Family Vacation

2009-04-20T07:36:00.000-07:00

We just had one of the best weeks! Our family took our first real family vacation to Disney Land. The kids had a lot of fun...and so did Jeff and I. We left Friday and got to Disney Land on Saturday. The kids loved the pool and the warm weather. The rides were fun and Ali was big enough to go on everything!...and she did! Jeff and I wore her right out. One of us would take the boys back to the hotel during the day to give them a nap while the other one would stay and go on the bigger rides with Ali. Then at night one of us would go put the boys to bed and the other one would stay out until about 11:00 pm with Ali.

Jeff, lookin' good with Sam's Mickey Ears

Sam loved Space Mountain and roller coaster in the dark with little lights all over that looked like you were going through the stars, but he was terrified of the 3D shows. There was the Jedi Training academy where Sam got called up on stage and they put this robe on them and give them a light saber and teach them some moves. He was so excited....until Darth Vader came out and they had the kids go fight him one at a time, and he looked so terrified and started to cry....they gave him a little diploma anyway. My tough little Sam isn't really so tough.

Andrew liked all of the rides he could go on. And we discoved on this trip that little Andrew can have a melt down at any moment. He can be fine one second and the next second he can be screaming and throwing a fit that can last a good half hour....oh the embarrassment, oh well, he can be cute too.

One day we went to Huntington beach. It was a cooler day and the water wasn't really warm, so we didn't stay long, but it was a lot of fun anyway.

After our trip to Disney Land we drove to Salt Lake City and met up with a lot of our family. Saturday was the Salt Lake Marathon, half marathon and 5K. We all stayed in a hotel with each other and Saturday I ran my first Marathon! Bert, Julie, and Dan all ran the half marathon, and Nicki, Shilo, and Becky ran the 5K. We had so much fun with everyone. Korry and Tara came to and Jeff and Korry and Raphael did some golfing. My parents came to help watch some kids and everyone was there to cheer me on during the marathon. I sure do love all of our family, they are so supportive and we have such a great time together.

This is everyone who ran the race, except Shilo was watching kids at the hotel, so we took a picture with her later.

Nicki, Becky, Bert, me, Julie, and Dan, ( but the baby he's holding didn't run)

We will post more pictures later after we get them from other people!

Andy gets surgery

2009-03-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

On March 3, Andy got his tonsils out. His tonsils were so big that he couldn't breathe at night, so we had his tonsils taken out. He is doing well, he talks pretty cute now with a sore throat, but he can breathe now at night. All the nurses loved him, he really is very sweet.

Right before surgery they gave him some "happy juice" and it sure made him happy. He was acting very drunk!

The Love of my Life

2009-01-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

In honor of Valentines Day, soon approaching I thought I would post this picture of me and Jeff's first date back in 1997. He had came to my house and asked me to prom. I had never even met him before, and didn't really even know who he was. Turned out he was pretty great, and well, the rest is history! I love you Jeff!

Our little Andy

2009-01-29T12:52:00.000-08:00

Well we really haven't had much to talk about this month. Nothing really new or exciting has happened. After the Holiday's we have just gone back to normal, Jeff working a lot and kids at school. However I do feel we have one great milestone..... ANDY'S POTTY TRAINED!!! A couple of weeks ago he wanted to wear his Thomas the train undies, and of course I wasn't going to say no, so we put them on and every time he went potty I gave him a penny and he got to get a bubble gum out of Ali's big bubble gum machine that she got for Christmas! (Thanks for supporting the cause Ali) Anyway within about 2 days he was going by himself and I think he's done. We are so excited to have all of our kids out of diapers, at least during the day. Our little Andy is such a sweet boy, I sure did fall in love with him these past few weeks getting potty trained. He sure is a good boy!

Our Sam Sam
One thing we have discovered lately is how much we love to watch Sam. He gets so excited about everything in life. Jeff had couple of days off a week ago and accidentally said "fishing" and so that's all we heard out of Sams mouth for 3 days. Jeff took him to Sportman Warehouse and bought him a little box to put flies in. Then Jeff tied some flies for Sam's box and you would have thought Sam had died and gone to heaven! He sat there with Jeff for hours just watching him tie flies to fill up Sam's box. Now he thinks he needs to fill every pocket in his fly vest.

Also Sam had Pajama Day at school and they got to bring a teddy bear to have a teddy bear picnic. Usually Sam doesn't want to go to school, but he was so excited to get to wear his pajamas to school that all week long he was so excited. Jeff and I both envy Sam because he gets so excited about things.

Our Princess with an attitude

Here's our 7 year old that acts like shes 15. She like to argue with mom and thinks that she knows more than me. Oh well, this too shall pass right? Anyway she is doing great in gymnastics and school.

Over the River & Through the woods to Grandmothers House we Go!!!

2009-01-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

For the first week in January we were able to go to Star Valley and see our family. We spent most of the time up at Lacey's parents cabin. It is so beautiful up there with no one around and nothing around. It is peaceful! We had lot's of cousins up there and we played in the snow a lot, went snow shoeing and sledding, snowmobilling and played games inside. We sure had a fun time. We also spent some time with Jeff's family and had a new years eve party at Dan and Angies house! Lots of good times! Here are some pictures of us in Star Valley.

Lacey, Bert, Sam and Aaron spent a long time outside building this huge snowman!

Lacey, Shilo and Rachelle

The view out the cabin window

The cabin( or lodge as some might call it)

All the Wolfley cousins

The boys played with the train a lot

Andy Rooney

Ali and Lacey

Jeff, Andrew and Sam

Sam (Sorry, couldn't figure out how to rotate the picture)

Thanks to our Great Grandma and Grandpa Withers who sends us nice new jammies every year for Christmas!

Ali, Andy, Sam

December

2009-01-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

Well I guess I better up-date a little. December was a quick month. Alison had a friend over and we called it a birthday party. We went sledding and the girls just hung out and had fun.

Ali and her friend Melia

Ali and her bubble gum ice cream cake...Andrews a little ticked he doesn't get to blow out the candles, and Melia's a little confused at the way he is acting.

This was the first Christmas we have spent away from Star Valley. It was good to be in our own home, but it didn't really feel like Christmas. Jeff had to spend all day at the hospital, and so Christmas Eve we opened all of the presents except for the Santa ones. Then we woke the kids up at 5:30 am and let them go through their stockings and check out what Santa left before Jeff left for work at about 6:00 a.m. It was strange to be there alone, with no one...no cousins, craziness or anything. But it was good.

Sam and Andrew opening the presents. Every year Grandma Sandy gives the kids new jammies for Christmas eve. There's nothing yummier than clean, good smelling kids in nice new jammies!

Yes, our little fisherman finally got his own fly fishing vest....but no real flies yet, that one might have to wait for a few years, but as you can tell, he was quite pleased!

Ali...not much of a morning girl!

"All right Black Bart, now you get yours!" Sam got a gun that shoots down cans, you can see the can flying up in the air!

Christmas Eve the kids made cookies for Santa

Andy giving daddy a kiss.

The kids and I went to the hospital to have Christmas dinner with Jeff, which was pizza in the family waiting room. "The Christmas Story" was on T.V. so we hung out with Jeff between deliveries and watched and ate, anyway, it was a very different Christmas.

THis is where we hung out for Christmas dinner so we could all be together.

Getting Ready for the Holiday

2008-12-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough to have it snow enough to go sledding. There is a tiny little hill close to where we live, tiny, but good enough for a little sledding after school.

Ali making a Snow Angel

Sam

Andy

The other night we were all able to go to High School Musical on Ice. It was great family time and the kids just loved it....(Lacey and Jeff didn't think it was too bad either:)

A Nice "Ryan" hat came with the cotton candy bag.

I don't know what it is about our family but we all love trains. We have a couple that we like to get out around Christmas time and the kids just love them.

THAT DARN CAT!!!!!

Our little cat Milee likes to climb to the top of our tree and knock off all the balls! I thought it was the kids, but found out it was the darn cat. So our tree looked good for about 2 days, now it's pretty much a wreck!

More Thanksgiving Break Happenings

2008-12-01T14:25:00.001-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving Rachel and I woke up and were at the stores at 4:00 am. I had never done the whole black Friday thing, so we thought we'd give it a try, it was pretty much insane, but I guess it was worth it because we got some good deals. It was also Jesse's birthday. We went to eat at Casa Bonita, a little mexican place that has cliff divers and a mexican band and a magic show, however they stuck us in the little room where the magic show was suppose to be, but it never happened! Bummer. Then we went to the Aquariam.
After the aquarium we went home and had cake and ice cream. Jesse and Andrew had a secret handshake that was way too cute and Andrew helped blow out the candles.

Also on our way home it was snowing!!!yeah the first real snow in Denver! It snowed so much that night that the kids built a snowman the next morning!

Yep, that's Andrew in a pink snowsuit, what can I say, it keeps him warm.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T18:54:00.001-08:00

We are so excited to have Greg and Rachel and their family here for Thanksgiving. So far we have had a great time. We started out with Rachel coloring my hair, it turned out a little...uhhh scary, quite a bit darker than we both thought, but hopefully in a week or so it will tone down.

Before

The hair dresser

After

Today we Rachel and I woke up and did the Turkey Trot (4 miles) in Denver. It was pretty cold, but a lot of fun. Rachel ran it in 28 min and I came in at about 41 min. There were so many people there that we couldn't find each other after the race so it took an extra hour or so for us to locate eachother.

We had a great Thanksgiving Dinner too!

A wonderful thanksgiving poem

2008-11-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

Jeff is at the hospital for 26 hours so the kids and I had to find something to do. We made a "Thankful Door" It's always amazing at how profound their simple words are. We wrote as many things as we could that we were thankful for. And yes, I am thankful for Sam, our strong willed little boy, who refused to make a hand print. Guess you know which ones are his:)

I heard this poem many years ago and have always found it so true.

I Am So Thankful
For the teenager who is not doing dishes but is watching TV,Because that means he is at home and not on the streets.For the taxes that I pay,Because it means that I am employed.For the mess to clean after a party,Because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.For the clothes that fit a little too snug,Because it means I have enough to eat.For my shadow that watches me work,Because it means I am out in the sunshine.For a lawn that needs mowing, windows thatneed cleaning, and gutters that need fixing,
Because it means I have a home.For all the complaining I hear about the government,Because it means that we have freedom of speech.For the parking spot I find at the far endof the parking lot,Because it means I am capable of walkingand that I have been blessed with transportation.For my huge heating bill,Because it means I am warm.For the lady behind me in church that sings off key,Because it means that I can hear.For the pile of laundry and ironing,Because it means I have clothes to wear.For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day,Because it means I have been capable of working hard.For the alarm that goes of in the early morning hours,Because it means that I am alive and have a reason to get up.And finally...For too much e-mail,Because it means I have friends who are thinking of me.

Ali's First Grade Program

2008-11-20T19:06:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Alison's first grade program. It was on all kinds of weather and they sang songs, danced, and played some musical instuments. She did a great job and was fun to watch. I thought I would grab a picture of us before we went, but trying to take a picture with our little clown proved harder than I thought.....(I wonder where she gets that from?)

Hey how come this one turned out so cute...I guess you know who wears the pants in this family:)

Ali playing the bells

Picture Tag

2008-11-19T08:27:00.000-08:00

I thought this was fun. You are suppose to share the fourth picture of your fourth file. Heres mine. And I tag Rachel, Tara, Camie, Shan, Betsy, Stacy, Britney, Brandy

This is Jeff as a new medical student 4 years ago!

Star Valley

2008-11-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

Last week the kids and I took a trip to Star Valley. Of course Jeff couldn't come and he was on call at the hospital all weekend, so I thought I would leave.

While we were in Star Valley I promised to take Sam fishing. Thanks to Korry(Jeff's brother) and Tara who watched Ali and Andy. We went on the Snake River and it was freezing!!!! It was snowing off and on and the trail down to the river was snowy. I kept asking him if he really wanted to go and being the die-hard fisherman that he is he said yes. He caught a real nice fish about the second cast. It was enough to make his day! We stayed about 10 more minutes and were freezing! So we went back to grandmas house.

I love the excitement on his face every time he catches his own fish

Our Proud fisherman Sam

Its kind of strange going to Star Valley and not having grandma and grandpa Wheeler there.( They are on a mission in Mississippi and really enjoying it.) Any way we let the kids play with all their cousins and we spent a lot of time at grandma and grandpa Wolfley's cabin.

Usually every Thanksgiving when we are at the cabin we let the kids all do some sort of humanitarian project. One year we did hygeine kits and another time we did baby kits and stuff like that. It's fun because we get to spend the whole year getting ready making diapers and night gowns and stuff. Anyway this since we are not going to Star Valley for Thanksgiving we did it this weekend.

Ali sucking the air out of one of her bags.(makes it more compact)

Andy is very proud of his bag, he did it all by himself
He couldn't quite get the sucking the air out thing, he kept blowing up his bag.

Grandma decided we needed to do 72 hour kits for the kids. It was so much fun. I think they liked the whistle the best. Nanny brought them all outside and they all got to blow to their hearts content. Then at the end Nanny let them all pick a little stuffed animal that she has always had at the cabin for the kids to play with so they would have a comfort object with a good memory. They kids had so much fun

Grandkids blowing their whistles

Sam and the cabin animal he picked for his 72 hour kit

We spent one day with Angie and her kids (Jeff's sister). We went to Jackson and went to eat at Bubba's and went to the movie theatre. We spent one day with Korry and Tara and Becky and her kids. The kids love their cousins so much and have so much fun with them. Korry even cooked a nice Sunday Dinner for everyone!

The kids were very sad when we had to come back home. They had way too much fun.

Beautiful Weekend

2008-11-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

This weekend was so beautiful. It was so nice and warm. Jeff finally had a weekend off and the only one he will have until Thanksgiving. We decided since it was so nice we would put up our Christmas lights. Sure it's kind of early but we thought it was a good time and we wouldn't have to do it in the cold snow. Or maybe it was because we are just so excited to have our own house to decorate, yup, that was probably the real reason for it. Anyway, I'm sure we got a few strange looks but now we're all hooked up and ready to go. We also finished up a few fall projects and raked the leaves. It is so nice to have Jeff home and spending time with us.

The other day I found the kids in the bath tub, I think they are already ready for summer!

Okay, and here are the grape nuts I like to make. Believe it or not they taste just like the real thing and my kids love them. One batch of grape nuts only lasted two days around here with Alison. She thought she needed them for every snack.

2008-11-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

Whole Wheat Bread Rolls

Lately I have been trying to perfect a wheat roll recipe, and by golly, I think I've done it. I really wanted to learn to bake bread by grinding my own wheat. Making bread takes a lot of practice and a lot of time and patience. Every time it gets better though and now if an emergency strikes, we can at least eat bread that tastes good. My children prefer the white bread though.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T08:05:00.001-07:00

For the real Halloween we went over to Nicki's house. They had a little fire pit out front and served hot chocolate and cider. Jeff was able to come right after work, and he decided to dress up like a Doctor. Someone asked if he was really a doctor or just dressed up. He told them he was just dressed up and they said it was pretty convincing.A couple of days before Halloween the kids and I spent some time raking up the leaves in our yard. However the pile of leaves ended up strewn all over the lawn worse than when we started. We had a great time anyway and believe it or not when we were all done playing I looked out the window and found Ali and Sam cleaning up all the leaves. What good kids!

This week was fun for Ali at school. They had dress up days everyday. Pajama Day, Spirit Day, Mismatch Day, and Crazy hair day. Both Ali and Sam had a Halloween Party at the end of the week.

Ali's Crazy Hair

And of course Halloween wouldn't be complete without carving pumpkins. We weren't going to do it this day but I came into the kitchen and Samuel, our persistant one, had his pumpking lid all carved off and was already pulling out the guts. And Andrew had a poker and had poked his pumpkin to death, so we made a night of it.

One day I came upstairs and Jeff was giving the boys a bath, I was quite surprised to find them both Shaving! (Don't worry, the covers are on the blades) Both boys thought it was pretty great to get shaving cream all over their faces and shave like daddy. Lets just hope they don't try this by themselves without the cover on!

Sam...he looks like a professional

Andrew...that looks like it hurts!

Early Halloween in Henderson

2008-10-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this week was a little crazy for all of us. For some reason everyone does all of the "trunk or treats" early around here. Friday Ali's school had their trunk or treat and I signed up to decorate a car, yeah the ugly green witch with too much eye shadow is me. When I came downstairs after putting it on Andrew was a little scared and kept telling me to take it off. I asked if he liked it and he pulled a face and said "no, it's freaky!" So I guess I got the look I was aiming for.

Then on Saturday it was the Halloween party for our ward, so I helped out with that also.

Aunt Nicki came over to walk around with the kids while I passed out treats. They always have lots of fun with Aunt Nic.

A witch, Hannah Montanna and 2 little Pirates

Nicki and Andrew

My little Pirates!

This week was also a good break for Jeff. He had the week off, and so he threw a matress in the back of the car and took off for a week long fishing trip, which was well deserved I might add. Which also explains why he's not in any of the Halloween photos. This was his first break in a long time and he has been working about 70 plus hour weeks, and really doesn't have time left to do anything. He sure works hard for all of us and we love him very much. So he took off headed toward Utah, fishing all along the way and sleeping in the car. He ended up in Roosevelt Utah and stayed with his brother Greg and his family. Greg and his two sons tanner and Jesse and Jeff went to Stawberry Reservoir.

Greg and Jesse(Gregs son)

Tanner(Greg's son again)

Jesse

Yep, this cute one is my husband...No, not the fish!

Bert and Shilo's Visit

2008-10-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

Bert and Shilo came to visit last weekend. We had so much fun. We went to Hammonds Candy Factory here in Denver for a tour. They make all of there candy by hand. They have to make 2000 pounds of candy a day for the whole year to get ready for christmas. Williams sonoma is one of the companies they produce candy for.

Miriam and Ali

We also went to "Lair of the Bear" an open space up in the mountains. Nicki and Debra came with us and we had a nice picnic and let the kids play.

Andrew, Sam, Ali, Aaron, & Miriam

One day we went to the Berrry Patch Farms. Its an organic farm right here in Henderson. Every Saturday through October the have a Harvest Festival. We went on a little hay ride to a strawbale maze for the kids. Once the kids make it though the maze they get to choose a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.

Andrew and Sam

Alison

Our new home

2008-10-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Home Sweet Home

The end of June we moved from our small 2 bedroom townhome to this home in Henderson Colorado. Jeff graduated in May and is doing his residency in OB/GYN at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver. We were so excited to get to stay here in Denver. We have really grown to love it here. We also love Henderson. It is a little north of Denver in a little farming community. There are farms all over and it really makes us feel at home coming from Star Valley.

Jeff's Graduation from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center

This summer we were able to go camping a few times. We usually go to our favorite spot on the Poudre River. We love it there. It is beautiful, there is a great place for the kids to play in the water, and probably the most important reason....the fishing is great! We all love to fish! However I think that our little Sam has taken after Daddy and his fishing has become an obsession.

Our Nice Clean Family Camping

This is one of our favorite videos, you'll see why!