The Newest Member of Our Family

Curious, friendly, a true exercise nut, and a constant source of frustration to our cat, this cute little guy has twitched his little nose into our kids' hearts.  Especially this kid's.

Growing?

So look at the bottom picture which was taken a year ago and you decide -are the boys growing or is Camille shrinking?

I had to throw the middle picture in because Spunky was so funny. The kids were all lined up and he just trotted over and sat at their feet and posed. He really wasn't supposed to be in the picture.

Easter Weekend in Manti

Easter Eggs

Following strings to find their Easter baskets

The new stake center being built on the land Grandpa donated to the church just up the road from the Manti house.

Manti temple at night

This is the old granary next to the Manti house that was about to fall down. Grandpa has just finished renovating it into a cute little guest house. The kids loved sleeping in it -they were the first ones ever!

Camille and Scott slept in the beds downstairs and Matt and Kevin slept in sleeping bags in the loft upstairs. They were all very cozy, even when it snowed!

The RC car was a hit.

All in all, a fun weekend. We enjoyed watching conference, playing games, and being together. The only downside...we were afraid to leave the pets home alone so we brought them with us. Spunky was fine -he never wanders and he stayed right by the house when he was outside. We kept the cat inside until he was crying to go out at 6:00am the first morning. He has stopped using a litter box and likes to go outside to use the bathroom, maybe from watching Spunky, I don't know. Well, I let him out and he promptly disappeared. We looked for him all that day and the next until we left. The kids made "lost cat" signs and placed them around Manti and we left word with the neighbors, but there was no sign of him when it was time to come home. Such a good cat -everyone's pretty sad about it.

Is My Cooking That Bad?

The other night Matthew had an interesting dream just in time for Halloween. In his dream he asked me what was for dinner and I replied, "the cat." Apparently I was going to "file off his hair and cook him on the pancake cooker." The boy has a lot of faith in me, doesn't he!

Granted, the cat does drive me slightly batty when he hops up in front of me almost everytime I sit at the computer and tries to play with my hands on the mouse or keyboard, but I don't think I'll resort to cooking him for dinner. Yet.

Fun with Spunky

Take a look at this picture then see if you can answer the following question:

Why has Spunky been shaved?

a. We're trying to hide his bald spot.
b. All the cool dogs are doing it.
c. We're trying to pass him off as a Chihuahua.
d. He got too close to a skunk with unfortunate results.

Anyone who has met Spunky will have no trouble believing that the answer is d. He's not the smartest tool in the shed. The really sad part is that we let him in the house before we realized what had happened. That was a mistake! Finally, a couple of shampoos and a trip to the groomer and a day and a night with open windows later we're all fresh smelling again -at least as much as we ever were!

Shadow

Meet the newest member of the family. I finally gave in and John and the boys came home with this cute little kitty Saturday night. He's already litter-box trained (is that just an instinct with cats?) so it's all good so far. He's a real cutie. He likes to sleep on top of the computer, I guess because it's warm and vibrates a little.

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!

Random Pictures

Blowing bubbles at sunsetJunior Prom
Napping with a friend