A Fun Week

This week was full of plays and Shae’s activities pertaining to running for student body officer. As I mentioned in my email, there was no school on Monday. Teacher work day. There is always one at the end of the quarter so they can work on posting the grades. The kids did well.
We had group Family Home Evening at Andy and Becky’s, but the activity was actually over at Rachel and Danny’s. We had a nice lesson about having faith that God answers our prayers. We then went over and played on R and D’s Wii (pronounced ‘wee’). It is a game system that is very interactive although it is hard to tell that by the photos I took! I found it hard to snap shots without getting in the way. (Over Christmas break I took the kids over to their apartment and we made all of the characters ahead of time. I posted some photos of that on the blog after Christmas.)
We played darts. Michael was probably the best at it although Rach would probably argue that. Danny did well also. Not that the rest of us were awful (well, I did not do so well!), but a lot of it had to do with proper wrist action. Michael brought Heather also and that was fun except she was not feeling great. She has been sick a lot lately. Poor girl. We like her and we know Michael sure does! She likes all of us as well.
We had fun, but it was not nearly as much fun as our traditional Leprechaun Olympics.

This is Andy and Becky’s living room. The apartment is a mirror to Rachel and Danny’s.



Raymond is facing Andy and Becky.


Here is the famous carpet between their apartments!


Now we are over at Rach and Danny’s for the Olympics. Haylee was having a fussy day so I did not get any photos of her that are good to post.

Here is Rachel getting the game started

Andy was our first dart thrower.


The gallery:



Shae’s turn:

and then Danny’s:


And then it was Raymond’s turn:



Watching others is fun too:


We also finished celebrating Raymond’s birthday by having his favorite cake.

It is a yellow cake (the Betty Crocker butter recipe) with the Texas cake frosting. He thinks it is divine. The kids had his gift as well. They had all chipped in and bought him a very nice basketball.


Andy had organized the purchase weeks and weeks ago. He is very thoughtful! Raymond was very excited. He said he had been wanting a ball like this for about 5 years, so the kids did very well.


When we got home from family night to find this:

He had been asked to the Morp dance by a girl.

The dots went up along the stairs also, but he had taken them down already by the time I got to the camera.

Here is a close up of the poster that was on the porch.

He read the big poster which invited him to the dance and that parts of her name were on the back of some of the dots. He found out who it was and was very happy. It is his singing partner in Chamber Quire. But there was still a book on the doormat.

He did not know why it was there and then he realized that the book on the door mat had nothing to do with the dots. He had been asked by a second girl! They had not wasted any time- the Prom was just two days before. He had to search through the book to get clues as to who else had asked him. He and Raymond figured it out. He decided to go with the dots girl since that is the one he began with.



After school on Tuesday, Shae and I went over to Ashley’s for a little photo shoot. She needed to make two campaign posters to run for officer. So she used the same idea that we used when Blake ran his ninth grade year. It was a great success then (he won), so we thought we would give it a try again.




The make-up job:




She dressed up as a Grandma first and felt ridiculous! Part of her wanted to back out. She was afraid that her peers would just think she was an idiot and that the posters wouldn’t be funny. We convinced her that everything would be fine. I had to go pick up Blake from rehearsal and then brought him back with me. His help was invaluable in getting her head scarf right and showing her poses and facial expressions. She also dressed up as a Grandpa and didn’t like any of the photos that we took- not at first anyway. We reminded her that kids like other kids who are willing to take risks and make a bit of a fool of themselves. We came back later that night and Andy created posters for us and then went to his shop and printed them out. I loved watching Blake seeing Andy work so quickly in Photoshop. He is such a wizard at that! Shae liked them once they were done but was still a bit nervous I think.

On Wednesday, Raymond took Shae and Blake to the Junior High to put up the posters. They were such a huge hit that I can’t even begin to explain! Even teachers were even talking about them. The first round voting is next Wednesday. If she makes that then she gets to put up one more poster. We are working on that now since she has to bring in the poster the following morning after voting if she makes it through. I can’t imagine her not making it. The whole school was in such a stir about it. Kids were moving their posters to get closer to hers to try and take advantage of the crowds gathered around hers. A school counselor even came up to breaks up the huddled group . She was stunned to see that it was a poster that was all the hubbub! She loved it, too. Blake’s posters caused a stir as well except at the small Snowcrest JH, virtually everyone already knew who he was.

Blake is her campaign manager and is giving her advice and pointers. He was 8th grade officer and an SBO in 9th grade.

I will post a photo of the 3rd poster next week if she makes it through.

On Thursday Shae went to Weber State during the School day. All of the school district Concert choirs gathered and they prepared for the concert that was held that evening. It was wonderful!
All except for making her stand still long enough to take a photo of her.

I put the white arrow just beneath her. This is an advantage of having a child who is not tall- they always get in the front!


On Friday Blake worked after school aerating neighborhood lawns as their fundraiser for their summer activity. They are going repelling and other scary stuff that the boys love. He did more aerating on Saturday after his rehearsal in the morning. He was bushed! Here is a photo of the boys working on our lawn.
The front lawn:

And the back lawn:

Blake is not with them yet. He was still at rehearsal. They had 4 aerators working at once so it went quickly.

Raymond played basketball Saturday morning. He has not played for a long time. Having a new ball inspired him! He played with Andy and Andy’s brother-in-law, Jason, (the one they lived with for a bit) and some others that I don’t know. Andy is really getting in shape. I mentioned before that he is doing this special work-out plan and he is having great success. When he began 6 weeks ago, he started out being able to do 20 pull ups during his exercise session (in week 1). Now at week 6, he does 66- I could not believe the increase! He is also down to 179 pounds. I think that he was up to 204 at one point. I hope he took some “before” photos and will take some after photos. I will send them if they exist. He is one 1/3 of the way done on the program. He probably will lose some more weight seeing as he is 5’91/2” but he does have a lot of muscle, so we’ll see. He is very happy with his progress!

Today was snowy and windy. We just hunkered down for the most part other than church. We made pizza which is a family favoite!
Well, that's it. Hope things are great. Glad to hear you are enjoying your daffodils! We still don't have any more than the one I showed you. Love you both, Leslie

We had another busy week! Shae has had lots of rehearsals. On Tuesday she had a costume check so she had to curl her hair on Monday night. Her friend Karlee, who lives down the street, curled it for her. It relaxes overnight so it is the right amount of curl for the performance.


We didn’t have group Family Nite on Monday. We are having our Leprechaun Olympics on Monday the 16th. I am very excited about that! It will be fun to see the kids be so competitive with one another- especially the guys! Blake gave a nice lesson that he learned in class (he has a religion class every other day) about “feed my sheep” and how that has everything to do with loving and caring about one another. I can tell he listens in class!

Here is a photo of grimy, hard-working Michael. He is doing de-construction in his job. Lately he has been working with a different crew and his crew foreman is more exacting than his last one. So he comes home more exhausted than he is used to. So he unwound in front of one of his video games before showering. He was even too tired to shower when he first got home one day this week! Well, more than one really but who’s counting.


Wednesday was especially busy for me and Raymond. Raymond took some time off from work and we went to the peach orchard. It is part of the welfare project in our church. Our ward is in charge of pruning, thinning, and picking fruit off of 80 trees. So does every other congregation (they picked one million pounds of fruit from our orchard alone!) We watched a pruning video that has been posted up on the internet by the orchard and then we showed up and they gave us tools and we went at it! It was intimidating at first but we received some instruction and it wasn’t too bad.


We would have to stand back a bit sometimes in order to see what needed to be done next.
We worked for about 1 ½ hours and then had to head back. Andy and Haylee were coming over. Andy needed some help with a loan file and for us to watch baby for a bit as he went to take an application up here in North Ogden. She had a great time with the videos. I know I should not have let her get into them. We really need to get some toys for her. We did bring out a plastic measuring cup which entertained her for awhile.


She was tired though. I snuggled her for some time on the couch. She did not used to like cuddling. Andy wanted her to be at least somewhat of a cuddly baby so he began swaddling her and then holding her for a bit. She would eventually stop squirming and enjoy it—probably more just tolerate it in the beginning! So now she will cuddle without being swaddled. It is very nice (Rylie always loved to cuddle but Parker never did).
I had to go, so Blake took over the cuddling job to keep the sleepy girl happy.


Wednesday nights are what is called “Mutual” (long story as to the name). It is our youth group and we do different things. One Wed. we meet and do some sort of service. Well, it was pruning the peach orchard! (Our welfare system is set up so that those that need help can get food assistance and not be a drain on the federal government) So I took some of the girls that are in my group (14 to 16 year olds) down there. We pruned til we couldn’t see well enough anymore (for about 2 hours). I knew I was going to be sore the next day and I was right. A lot of these females were not very strong (including the women!) and they could not use the loppers to get the thicker branches. I was amazed! Blake told me the next day that they had labeled me “the beast” since I was cutting large branches that they could not. I am so surprised how thick branches can grow in just one season! Well, this “beast” was really sore the next day!!! It reminds me of how much I don’t use a lot of my muscles on a regular basis!
Our day still was not over after I got home though. Ashley and Andy asked us to babysit for a bit. They had been invited to a short surprise party at a friends! So we arrived at 8:00 and watched them for a little over an hour. The party really was short (just down the street). The husband (who it was for) wanted to get in the last of the Jazz game! I guess I am not married to the only basketball fanatic (the party was for him)! We had a ball- they are so cute and fun! At the end, Parker showed us how he is an elephant. He has these strips of paper as a trunk, tusks and tail. He has Ashley tape them onto him. His little mind is so creative and always working! He gave some to us to take home. Ash asked us to take a photo of Raymond with them on and send it to her email. She said that Parker want to get email. Ash will sit at the computer and he wants to know what she’s doing. She tells him she is check her email. He gets on after that and says to her that he wants to check his “female”! So the next morning Raymond dons his elephant strips and I snap some shots. If you look close, you should be able to see the tail!


He got those photos and said, “Awww- Grampa wore them at home!” in a sweet little voice! Too cute!!!
Andy’s appointment went well and he is happy about that!

On Thursday, Blake had to have his photo taken for Prom Royalty at school. Turns out that he and one other boy were the only ones not in a full tux with a vest and cravat. He was in his tux but had on a regular tie and no vest. They did not specify a dress code and in last year’s yearbook they boys were dressed like him. Oh well! I thought he looked very nice! He asked Rachel to escort him during the prom assembley which is on the 18th. It is early in the morning so she can make it with her work schedule. The girls generally have their dad escort them or an older brother. The boys do not usually have their moms do that! Rach is excited to do that!


On Friday, Blake also auditioned for what is called “Solo and Ensemble” which is a competition with students from other high schools. He tried out for a solo. The junior boys mainly do it for the practice it affords them before trying out for Chamber Quire (I think it is going to be stiff competition for Chamber Quire this year. Even though Blake was in it last year does not guarantee a spot for this year. The choir director brings in judges and they don’t know the kids so they are as impartial as possible). Blake thought he did well. The list is posted on Monday as to who made it. For this audition, is was just his choir director deciding who will go to S and E. Blake is also hoping that they will announce what the fall musical is going to be. He is hoping for Little Women since the music is beautiful, but I am thinking maybe not. I have no guesses though! His theater director Mr. Daniels did two Disney shows in a row so I don’t know if that is what he prefers. We shall see. Blake and a boy named Conner are the two best male actors in the company. Conner is better than Blake at acting. He is superb actually! He would like to go into that as a profession but knows there is no money in it for except for the lucky few. Fortunately for Blake, Conner and he are different enough that they do not compete for the same type of roles. Blake shines in comedy and Conner in more dramatic pieces. Who knows. There are a lot of girls who can sing and act so it is anyone’s guess.

Shae had over a few of her friends on Saturday. She usually goes to their houses. She expressed a desire to have our den become a place where she can take her friends and we are working on that. She says that everyone else has a basement where they can go to have to themselves. So that was nice.

I am happy to report that the last Women’s WSU basketball game was on Saturday night. He does not have to fly before the game like they do at the men’s game so he was only gone for a little while. We had invited Rachel and Danny over for dinner and to watch the Jazz game. Okay that part was for Danny’s benefit. And Raymond’s since it is more fun to watch the game with someone else who loves it too. Rach and Blake got to hang out which was fun for them. Shae had been invited to go to “Toads” which is an entertainment center. They played Laser Tag. There are lots of arcade games and food of course. It is not that far from here which is nice.


Raymond and Blake worked on taking down those broken branches in the back yard. Blake usually has things going on but not yesterday so that was ideal. It did not get completely finished but most of it. They could see that the neighbor who owns the tree has more branches on their property that need to be cut up. So they are going to go over the next time they work on it and offer to cut them up. We do not know them yet and R. figures that would be a good ice breaker!

The snow on our front lawn vanished completely this week. The back yard still has some but not too bad. Raymond is hoping that no more will stick. We want to aerate our lawn this spring so no snow sure helps! When I took this photo there was a volleyball sized patch toward the bottom of the picture and theat was it.


Oh, Raymond’s birthday card arrived safe and sound yesterday- thank you so much!
Soory if there are any typos, I was in a hurry!

Well, I guess that is it for this week. I have not forgotten to post the Cream of Mushroom Soup recipe. I need to find a quiet time to just write. Not enough hours in the day! Love to you both! Leslie

We had Group Family Nite on Monday. It is supposed to be the first Monday night of every month but it almost always seems to get bumped around for one reason or another. Last month was postponed a couple of weeks because Parker and Rylie were so sick. But we were all healthy now. It was our turn to host.
Ashley’s family got there first and the kids gravitated to the computer. They love to watch You Tube videos of dinosaur cartoons and animal videos. So Rylie climbed up on Michael’s lap to see some.

The “Layton”ites came along shortly. Ashley and Rachel don’t get to see each other often like they used to so I got a photo of them together.
And you can get another glimpse of Blake’s red hair. He has received WAY more attention due to his hair than he likes. He usually does not like to be the center of attention but he can’t get away from it at the moment.

Becky held Haylee up out of the fray of excitement, but she enjoyed watching her cousins play. She was quiet, but would just follow them all around with her eyes.


Parker seems to gravitate to Andy M. as a playmate when he and Becky are around. It’s funny to watch!


Ashley gave a little lesson about loving one another from John 14:16-18. She has this nice book that has lovely photos depicting scripture stories. They use it Nursery at church so the kids are familiar with it (Nursery for us is not babies. It is 18 months thru 3 years of age). She taught about the Good Samaritan. Parker had a really hard time holding still until she brought on the picture took and saw the picture of the Samaritan caring for the injured man.

He came right up to the picture to look at it closely. A quiet reverence fell over the room. It was a very special moment. Well, that didn’t last for long as you might imagine. Parker is not still for very long at our house! Andy was able to corral him for a few moments while Ashley talked.


Rylie had an easier time though. She sat on her daddy’s lap for awhile (could it be because she is a girl?)

and then went over by Ashley toward the end.

It was hard for Parker. Andy swung him upside down for a bit and I think he liked it. But he does not always like what we think he will like!

At the end of the lesson we sang a children’s hymn that has motions that go to it. Here is a photo of Rach and Danny doing part of it. The lyrics are “Jesus said love everyone, treat them kindly too. When your heart is filled with love, others will love you.” Rachel and Danny are singing the “everyone” part.


Michael and Shae were on the less busy side of the room just watching everything that was going on. All in all it went very well.


Rachel and Danny were in charge of the activity. We played Don’t Eat Pete. Shae calls it a baby game (and it pretty much is!) but we love it and we all have a lot of fun.
It’s played by dividing a paper into four squares. On each square is placed a bit of candy. The person who is “it” goes out of the room and the others silently decide which square is going to be “Pete” (why the name “Pete” I do not know). The object is to NOT pick up Pete. The person comes back into the room to begin. They reach for a candy and if we remain silent then they can take it and eat it. If they start to take Pete, we all cry out together (you guessed it) “Don’t eat Pete!” and then their turn is over. The last time we played this Parker did not like it very much as it can be kind of loud and startling the first few times. But after several had their turns he was calling out “Don’t eat Pete!” also. It was very cute and funny seeing as he did not have the same reaction time as us so he was our little echo. : )


Even Halyee got a turn but “Mommy” got to eat her treats!


Rachel was the last one to have a turn so we increased the stakes a bit! When Parker saw that we had made huge piles of candy for her turn , he came over to look up close. He thought it was pretty amazing!
Rach thought it was pretty funny until the first pile she went for was- none other than Pete, so she got nothing! : (




Andy & Becky brought the treat which was Toll House recipe chocolate chip cookies (Andy was over here one day when we were eating some cookies we had made. He went bananas for them and asked for the recipe. I told him to just Google it since it is an age old recipe and he went home and made some right away. This was the recipe I used as a newlywed, but stopped using it because Raymond liked a cookie better that mounded up. But after all these years I pulled out the Toll House recipe and made it again. Blake and Shae really loved them and wondered why I had not made them this way a long time ago. I just laughed. After Raymond tasted those cookies, he changed his mind about those "ugly flat cookies" it and now they are the family’s favorite. Go figure. So Andy made a batch for FHE. I thought they would just bring something store-bought, but I think he will make these for as many occasions as he can! He is quite a good cook. Becky doesn’t really care about food much and Andy loves savory things so he is in the kitchen more than she is- at least for now while the working situation is the way it is).

At the end of the evening Parker wanted to swing in a blanket. He loves that and he tells you exactly how he would like it done. He knows his own mind!



We rotate each assignment every month. Next month it will be at Andy and Becky’s.
Afterward we watched Groundhog Day (none of the marrieds could stay, but that was okay. The "working women" start early in the morning and they have a 30 minute drive to get home). I have not seen tis movie in a long time. We watched it on the Clearplay. I don’t know if I told you about it or thanked you for it. I don’t have time to scan my posts to see if I did or not. Anyway, it is a DVD player that filters out all the junk. We bought it with the Christmas money you sent. It has been one of our better purchases! So thank you!!!
I was very touched by the movie. What a great message about how loving and serving our fellowman is the only way to true happiness and peace.