White Christmas

Finally, last Saturday and Sunday we got a real snowstorm here in Ogden. Before that it had only been a few inches here and there, but now we have over a foot of the white stuff. It looks like Christmas!

I love how clear the air is after a storm. This is a pretty sunrise a day or two after the storm. Now, several days later, it looks nothing like this. The valley is full of haze again. We need another storm!

It's pretty at dusk, too, when the air is clear, although you can see a little haze beginning over the lake.

Our Christmas lights look much better in the snow!

Come on in!

It's Done!

It's been a big project, but the sports court is finally done! John did an awesome job and Scott helped him all along the way. The first step was placing a water barrier and metal studs.

Then they lifted the HEAVY melamine and fastened it to the studs. John had to prepare each piece with a tongue and groove edge before it was ready to place. He also had to rig up separate contraptions to even get the pieces down into the sports court (through the window) and then up to the top of the scaffolding.

The top row was definitely the hardest.

With the walls done, they could start the floor. This went a lot faster, and gave me fewer grey hairs, since everyone was safe on the ground!

Matt helped by pulling off the tape that was holding the floor in place while the glue dried. The basketball and racquetball lines were researched online and carefully marked and taped, then painted with special paint.

The last item of business was to hang a net for volleyball or badminton. There are different hooks on the wall, so the height is adjustable. Matt especially likes badminton.

Our first family doubles badminton tournament. Great job, John and Scott! This will be an awesome place for our family to have fun and for our kids and their friends to hang out. Now on to the next project! Poor John never gets to rest.

Pictures from My Garden (if you can call it that)

I can't believe it! I thought I'd planted this hibiscus too late to bloom this year. Most of my perennials were planted on the 4th of July, and they have survived, but not much else. But look! A beautiful bloom on my spindly little hibiscus plant! I hope it doesn't tip over.

My roses were the first thing I planted and they've done better than everything else.

Matt's canteloupe and watermelon were planted to late, I'm afraid. There might be hope for this canteloupe if the hot weather holds for a little while.


But this is our biggest watermelon. It's only 4 inches long, so I'm afraid we'll be getting our watermelon at Costco for the rest of the summer.



What grows best around here are weeds. But at this time of year some of those weeds reward us with beautiful flowers! It makes me wonder why I fight Mother Nature so much.

First Day of School

Summer is officially over! The kids headed back to school today, a little sad that their freedom is gone, but looking forward to a new year. Scott and Kevin were both excited about going to new schools -High School and Jr. High- and Matthew gets to go to a brand new shiny elementary school.

Camille is starting her senior year at Ogden High -it seems like yesterday that I was curling her hair for her first day of kindergarten!

Do you think they'll look this happy before school in a week or two?

I have always been excited about the first day of school. New clothes, sharpened pencils, empty notebooks. Anything and everything is possible! For me, even more than New Years, it is a time of goal setting and planning. And of course, it is the beginning of my favorite time of year -all the "...ber" months!

Raspberries

Matthew and I went down to Mom and Dad's house to pick raspberries a few days ago. We got a lot of yummy raspberries to bring home even though most of the berries Matt picked made their way to his tummy! It brought back a lot of memories and made miss Mom and Dad! The berries made a lot of jam. Mmmm! It's one of my favorite things - especially on homemade bread, which I don't make nearly often enough.

4th of July

We spent most of the 4th of July planting and spreading top soil. We still have a long way to go, but at least we have a few plants in front of our house now, even if they're all really small!

Kevin's friend, Trevor, lives right next door to a house in the Parade of Homes, so they set up a lemonade stand. They have been working pretty hard at it.

Finally, what everyone has been waiting for!

We wondered if we would be able to see any firework shows from our deck. We counted at least 12 separate shows that we were able to watch, from down by Lagoon and West Bountiful to way up north by Farr West or somewhere up there. None of them were super close -Ogden's was blocked from our view- but it was really fun to sit out and watch and listen to them all. It felt eerily like a warzone, and it made us grateful that we've never been exposed to anything like that.
Cleaning up the mess the next day before church.All in all, a fun holiday. We missed Camille, who went to Provo with a friend for the Stadium of Fire, and we had a lot of nostalgic thoughts about last year's 4th, when we were in Hawaii with Grandma and Grandpa and Niel and Amy's family, but we had a good day, and we're grateful to live in such a wonderful country.

Fun with Matt

Oh, to be young! Bubbles are such fun!

Guess what we did last weekend?

We spent the Memorial Day weekend covering up our lovely dirt with sod. I don't know what I'm going to do without muddy pawprints and footprints throughout the house! Now we just need trees, shrubs, flowers, a walkway, and a fence!

The new soccer field -replacing the family room!
Lucky Scott was invited to St. George for the weekend with a friend. We got a little work out of him before he left, though.
Kevin's quite a worker. He and Camille helped out a lot.

One of these two has been working hard and the other has been rolling around on the grass. Can you guess which is which?

Once the grass was in we could start the fun of de-rocking the flower beds. I promised Kevin and Matt it would give them big muscles.

What could be more fun than throwing rocks over the fence all day?

Take a Hike!

On Monday the kids were out of school, so John took the afternoon off and we suggested going for a hike. The boys love to hike with their friends on the mountain across the road from our house, so they wanted to take us up there. It was a beautiful view, but my goodness, I felt like a mountain goat. Next time I'll suggest something with, I don't know, maybe a trail?! We had a good time, though, and we all made it down in one piece, even me!






John took this picture of Kevin holding our house in his hand!

Construction workers

Scott and John are working hard to finish the sport court. The kids love to play there already, but it will be a lot nicer when it's not just cement.

Catching up - Christmas 2008

Matt and Kevin helped make an awesome gingerbread house for their school gingerbread contest. Yummy!

Matthew made cookies for Santa from the leftover gingerbread house dough. I have it on good authority that Santa thought they were delicious.



Christmas Eve dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Next Christmas they will be in Russia!



The kids are ready for bed in their new pajamas. They're also tired of posing for pictures, but they're being good sports!