Quick update

Wow here we are almost to the middle of May. Life continues to be very busy for us. Zachary is very busy with baseball. His team is doing well. I love watching him play but I hate the weather. It seems like every game he has it rains or it is very cold. So goes life in the Northwest.Sean has started drivers training and is liking it for the most part. He is still dating the same young lady and they are both excited because tomorrow is their anniversary. I am not sure how long but they seem to be doing well. Sean blessed the Sacrament this past Sunday and did a wonderful job. Austin continues to work hard on his driving. He has really enjoyed his shop class at achoo and has made 4 tile boards that are so lovely.Bryan is liking being 12. Today he got to go to the YMCA for a teen strength training class. This class teaches them how to use the equipment properly and sets up a good program for them. Brandon is enjoying being in the 11 year old scout program. He and Jay went on their first camp out recently and had a blast. Jay continues to work hard and go to school.I continue to be very busy helping my parents and taking care of my family. My dad has fallen into a very deep depression. We saw a new Dr.today who is a member of the church and he will watch dads meds much better and change meds that need to be changed. Thank you all for your love and prayers. We really appreciate it!!!

16 YEARS

Wow tomorrow Sean will be 16 years old! Where did time go? Things here are still busy as always. Jay took another Microsoft test today and passed!!! Woo Hoo! I am SO proud of him. Bryan will pass the sacrament this Sunday for the first time. He is growing up so much. Brandon is done with Cub Scouts and is enjoying being in scouts. He will go on his first Boy Scout camp out next weekend with jay and Bryan. Zachary is really busy with baseball. We finally have some baseball weather which is very nice.We had a wonderful Easter with family. We did a Mexican buffet with pulled pork and black beans. Wow very yummy!!!!!

Spring?????????

Well here it is the 4Th of April already. Today 12 years ago our family was blessed with another son Bryan !! Wow where on earth did time go? We are so blessed to have him as a son!!!!!!!!!!!! Life here has been crazy as usual. Jay is staying late every day after work studying for his tests at school. He will take another test the middle of this month. Austin is done with drivers training and is practicing to get his license. Sean spent 4 days in Seattle recently with his robotics team and had a wonderful time. Zachary is getting ready for baseball to start. Bryan is growing up every day and is looking forward to holding the Priesthood in a couple of weeks. Brandon is looking forward to graduating from Cub Scouts and moving up to the 11 years scouts. I am very busy helping out the High School choir with fundraising and taking care of my parents. My dad has his good and bad days but is doing good. Our family recently started taking a kickboxing class twice a week at the YMCA and we are loving it.Hopefully it will stop snowing soon so we can plant flowers and enjoy some warmer temperatures.

Exciting News!!!!!!

I now it has been a while and boy have we been busy!!! We have exciting news to share with everyone. Jay and I have been asked to be a mom and pop on our stake pioneer trek this summer. We are so excited to have this adventure!!! Austin started drivers training two weeks ago and is really doing great!!!! Sean is done building the robot. He put in many long hours and is glad it is done and looks forward to the competition in March. About two weeks ago Sean threw us for a loop. One day he cam home and was talking about a young lady at school. I had a feeling so I asked him and he confirmed it HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND!!!! Oh my heck was I ever shocked!!! Of course I could not react that way so I congratulated him. This is so strange for Jay and I. We are trying to teach him how to handle this relationship but not encourage to much. She is a really nice young lady and things are going well so far. Zachary is done with basketball and is enjoying some down time before baseball begins. Bryan and Brandon are busy with school. They just went back to school yesterday after a two week break. Wow that was a long two weeks. My dad is doing pretty good. He has his days where he is really down and others are good. He does not need his cane anymore and continues to go to rehab twice a week. Jay and I are enjoying Primary. We have 5 children and they keep us busy in class. Well tonight is bitter sweet for me. It is our last Cub Scout Blue and Gold. We have been doing this for so many years that it will seem strange to not be involved next year.

healthy peanutbutter cookies

I just wanted to let you all know that I made the most wonderful peanut butter cookies tonight. I used the recipe from the churches cook book called peanut butter Cris crosses. Instead of using shortening I used white bean puree and whole wheat flour. That is the only thing I did different. They are so good my kids ate almost all of them. I have also included the chocolate chip cookie recipe i recently found. I hope you all enjoy theses recipes like I do!!!

1/2 cup cooked white beans

1C. brown sugar

4 eggs

1tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 C. wheat flour

1tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp.baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 C. Chocolate Chips

1C.Pecans (or walnuts) Chopped if you want



Beat beans and sugar tog ether. Add eggs,vanilla. In seperate bowl, sift together flour,baking soda and salt. Aar mixture. Add Flour mixture to bean/sugar mixture. Stir until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350. Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes depending on size of cookies. Makes 4 dozen.

A FEW QUICK THOUGHTS

OK, I know it has been a long time and I am sorry. I get so caught up in our crazy life that I forget to update our blog and I a sorry for that. To start with my dad is doing very well. Thank you for all the support!!! Austin is about to start drivers training. Wow I am not sure if I am really ready for that.Sean is really really busy with the robotics team at school and looking forward to the competition in march. This robot has to shoot a ball into an opponents cart. He is really enjoying this. Zachary is playing basketball in school and loving it. Bryan is doing really well in school and he and Brandon are currently reading (along with the rest of their class) Fable Haven. The author will be coming to their school this month. Jay is really busy at work and still going to school. I am really enjoying my calling as the provident living leader. I am learning so much about cooking with food storage. I have made the most wonderful cookies that have no butter or shortening in them and are low fat and oh so yummy. If any of you want the recipe email ma and i will send it to you. I would post it but my kids don't need to know how they are made. Jay and I just called to be primary teachers on Sunday. That is two callings for both of us. wow that is allot but I now it is for a reason. Our relief Society president asked me today to learn about doing really small gardens for single people or for small families and just basically how to do a garden. Wow between my callings and my family life keeps me pretty busy but I would not have it any other way.

School and Snow

Wow what a week so far. We got pounded over the weekend again with about a foot of more snow. We shoveled out and cleaned off my parent's roof. Then the rain started and everything started melting. Oh my goodness, what a mess!!! The school started freaking out because so many roof in town were collapsing and they had not gotten their roofs cleared off. So they canceled school Monday and Tuesday to get the roofs and side walks cleared off. The plow came through and pushed the snow way far back to make room for the kids to walk to school and they started 2 hours late today. The parking lots are nothing but ice. It reminds me of my days in Alaska. Yesterday Jay and the boys spent the whole day clearing off 3 1/2 feet of snow off our roof and helping our neighbors with theirs. Boy were they tired today but happy to get back to school. It is just a bummer that they cannot go outside to for recess because there is 5 feet of snow on the playground. Sean has started with the schools robotics team again and is looking forward to going to Seattle this spring for the regional competition. The rest of the boys are enjoying making a little money helping neighbors dig out.

17 Years ago

WOW,where did the time go? Austin is 17 today. What a joy he brings to our family!! Today Jay and I took him out to lunch, and tonight after Young men's and Jay gets home from school we will have his cake. Christmas was wonderful in our house. We let the boys open their gifts from each other and then we gave them their stockings. Inside their stockings was an envelop. In the envelope was a clue. The clue sent them to another clue. They eventually found their gifts and were thoroughly happy. Bryan and Brandon got snowboard and boots and the three older boys got cell phones. We had dinner at my parent's house with my sisters and 3 of my nieces and their families. It had snowed almost every day for the last two weeks. I just keep reminding my self that it is water in the lakes this summer for us to go boating. My mom has a great way of putting it. She says that we live in a snow globe and someone keeps shaking it. I am happy to report that my father is doing great. He is getting stronger every day.

SOOOOOOO Busy

Well here we are only a few days away from Christmas and I am not totally ready. This past week has been a very difficult and trying time in our family. About a week ago my father had a stroke in the middle of the night. My mother called me about 1am and said that my dad could not move and that she needed to get him to a hospital. I rushed over there and her and i got him to my car and to the hospital really fast. You may be wondering why I did not call an ambulance. First of all my dad does not like them and second of all I knew that I could get him there faster. After all the tests were done we found out that it was a cor roted artery on the right side of his neck that was blocked and a piece of the plaque broke off and traveled to his brain and that was what caused the stroke. We are very blessed that is was a mild stroke and he is now at a wonderful rehab center for about 10 days and getting his strength back.This past Monday evening Jay,the boys and I went to one of our church buildings where every year they put on this huge display of Nativities and have different musical groups every night perform. Wow what a display. There were hundreds of different nativities from all over the world.Jay has been very busy at work which is good. He had been doing lots of training on some of the basic computer skills that some of the people in the company don't know. The rest of the family is doing great and looking forward to Christmas. Zachary will be 14 on Monday and is looking forward to the dances. Austin will be 17 at the end of the month and looking forward to getting his license this year.We feel so very blessed to know the real reason for Christmas and to be able to celebrate is in a free country. May you all have a fantastic Holiday season.

Update

I know it has been a long time so here goes the long update.Football season was wonderful!!! Brandon's team lost only 1 game and tied 1 game and won the rest. What a blast he had playing. Zachary's team did better this year. They won a couple of games and gave it their best shot.I survived the High school auction. We put in 9 beautiful baskets and raised a good amount of money. The last thing at the auction was 8 front row tickets to graduation this year. There were two women after them and the bid was $5,000.They the auction ne'er told them there was another set of them and the other woman paid $5,000 also. I was stunned and could not believe that someone would pay that much for high school graduation tickets. This last Friday night was Bryan and Brandon school auction. It was nice and the only crazy thing bought was a cake for $310.00. some people just have money to burn I guess.Last Tuesday night I took Brandon with the young men and young women on their annual ice skating activity. we had so much and I only fell twice. I did not fall the last year at all. We spent Halloween night helping some friends in our ward pack up their house and truck. Then the next day we got up and id Scouting for food and then finished packing their truck and then drove 2 hours west to their new house to help unload. Shortly after we got there,about 20 people that showed up from their new ward and had everything unloaded and were setting up beds. We left and headed home. We were almost home and most of the boys were sleeping and I was trying to stay awake when Jay said oh my heck call 911 now. I looked up right as a car a little ways in front of us hit the center median and flipped. jay pulled the truck over and I called 911. He thought he would see a dead body or someone badly hurt. We are happy to say that the worst injury was a broken leg, but her car was completely gone. We got home safely and have continued with our very busy life.We are looking forward to going to Moscow Idaho this Saturday for the Boise State versus University of Idaho game. This will be my 3rd year going to it and the boys second and Jay's first year. I will give details when we get back. I forgot to mention that Zachary started wrestling in school and was injured on the second practice. A high school student was wrestling him and slammed him on his left shoulder and sprained it badly. He is out the rest of the season and cannot play his violin for a while, but he is slowly healing thank heavens.