Daddy Time

With Jer being gone part of the week now, it seems like when he gets home we have to combine things that need to get done around the house, and family time. This last weekend I looked out my window while I was finishing getting ready and saw the kids and Jer mowing the lawn. Both kids were following behind him with their own "lawnmowers." They helped him the whole time. I don't know why but I thought it was really cute. It just made me reflect on how big they are getting.

The kids traded back and forth between the lawnmower and the ball popper. Jer worked so hard at home this weekend even after a long week at work. When he was done mowing the lawn, he changed all the air filters in the house and washed all our windows and screens. Thanks babe! Looking forward to Thursday when you get home.

Solar Cooking

This year I have really tried to be better about emergency preparedness. I feel like we have gotten our food storage to where it is functioning and we have enough to last us for a long time. I have wanted one of these for a while and a few weeks ago our ward had a man come and speak to us and he is a distributor of all different kids of solar ovens. I think that if there really was a disaster or a time when we didn't have access to a kitchen, what better way is there to cook your food. And besides that, we obviously have plenty of sun here to cook most days out of the year.

I put it together while Jer was gone and planned on just trying it out to see how it worked. With him being gone so much more now, it has motivated me to be a little more independent and try things that I used to ask him to do.




All I did was put in a couple pieces of chicken, some taco marinade, an onion, and a can of green chilies to make some meat for tacos, and it turned out so good. I put it out in the sun at about 1 and it was completely done by 4. The neat thing is it never burns as long as there is a little liquid because no moisture is lost in the cooking process. You can cook basically anything in it, even bake two loaves of bread or do some cookies.

Jer didn't seem as excited as I am, but it was nice to put dinner out in a pot, turn the sun oven a couple times and have a delicious dinner ready in a few hours. I may still have a little convincing to do with Jeremy:) I am thinking I should put it out while we are at church and have dinner ready when we get home without even warming up our house or using any energy. Here is the sun oven link if anyone is interested. I got it for a bulk rate because I ordered it when a lot of other people did.

Tuacahn Plays

My sister Monique plays Pepper in the Tuacahn production of "Annie" this year. She puts in long hours and lots of work. We finally got to go see her perform last week and have been again since then. Here is Monique and the kids standing next to a life size board of Annie and the orphans. Tuacahn is a beautiful outdoor amphitheater that is really unique to St. George with the huge red rocks in the background.
Truman made it through the whole play and loved watching it. The kids knew some of the songs because they have sung them with Monique at home, so they might have distracted a few people around us while they sang them during the show. Prentice loved the dog, Sandy and would kind of loudly ask for it when it wasn't on the stage.

We got to go and see "Aida" as well. I have to say that this may have been my favorite production that I have seen at Tuacahn so far. Definitely might be more for the ladies because it is a love story, but the voices of the main singers were amazing. Some of the songs were from Elton John. It doesn't get better then that.

This week we went to "Footloose" and this was a fun one for the kids because there was lots of singing and dancing that was really upbeat to keep them entertained. The actors were really cute with the kids afterwards as well. Truman dressed up for the night with his cowboy boots and western shirt. I'm thinking I'll have to go and rent the movie with Kevin Bacon now!

We might try to see some of the plays again before they end for the year and I just got my tickets in the mail for "Thriller." Tuacahn puts this on every year in October and it always sells out because it is so good. We got tickets early this year and we are excited to go see it for the first time.

Mountain Meadow Massacre

While Phil and Linda were in town we took them to the site of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. They had never been and wanted to see the spot. We had been a couple times before, but didn't mind seeing it again. It really is a sobering place, but also so beautiful as you look out across the valley. At this place, over a hundred years ago, a group if immigrants traveling from Arkansas to California seemed to be killed for no apparent reason by a group of LDS members and Indians.


Here is a list of all the names of the people who were killed. Most of the children under about 8, survived and were eventually taken back to Arkansas to live with other family members.

This is the monument that the LDS church helped redo and dedicate. There are actually some of the remains of some of those who perished.

I always have mixed emotions when I come to his place. Sad for the people who seemed to be killed so randomly and pointlessly and sad for the surviving children who had to move on and are still doing so. Also confused as to why it happened and exactly what the motivation was. I guess there are a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to the event, but I think it helps that we remember and give respect to those who died.

Jam and Peaches

Jeremy's parents came down this past weekend and we got a LOT of bottling done. Much more than we anticipated. It helps when you have three people helping...four if you include Truman. He helped peel peaches right along with us. We also bottled the leftover peaches from the jam. We got 12 quart bottles of peaches.


We bottled 32 pint jars of jam. We did a batch of strawberry, a batch of raspberry, and a batch of mixed berry. Actually it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and we are motivated to do it again next year. We may not need to do it for a couple years, because we did get lots more bottles then we thought we might. We were thinking we might even give some away as Christmas gifts to the neighbors with a loaf of bread. I never know what to give around Christmas.



We tried the jam already and it tastes really good. We actually used half Splenda and half regular sugar so it is a little better for us and we don't have to feel as guilty eating it. I don't know if I can go back to store jam now. The question is, who is going to eat the rest of the jar I already have in the fridge?

Dentist Appointments

Two kids. Two appointments. Two extremes. Prentice screamed so loud the whole office and waiting room could hear her. She was hysterical with tears running down her face. This was when the dentist only wanted to LOOK at her teeth. With me holding her. We didn't even attempt taking xrays or cleaning. She was screaming, "he's hurting me," "STOP," "OWIE." Of she would have known how to say bad words to him, I think she might have. All he could say was are you okay mom and she's a smart one, huh.

They were both excited about their light up toothbrushes they got to help them brush for the right amount of time. Truman was my big boy and did whatever was asked of him. The dentist said both their teeth looked nice and that they must not get much soda or candy. Someday they will think me for depriving them of all the sugary treats, right?

Movement Class

My mom signed Truman up for a movement class and since Truman loves to move he fit right in. They do all kinds of stuff, but making loud noises with the tap shoes is the favorite. In fact Prentice has worn hers tap shoes multiple times around the house. Prentice actually wasn't going to do it but she left my side the whole first class, so I signed her up too. Her attention span and ability to imitate for her age always surprises me. The only time she would get distracted is when she needed to "mother" another child or the teacher's baby. They both had fun and there were no sibling fights during either class!

4th Article of Faith

Took a while longer for this tricky one, but he did it!

Congratulations!

Just wanted to congratulate Jer on his new promotion and wish him luck with his new endeavor. I am thankful for all your hard work and dedication to our family. I know that there will be some hard things about this new job, but that it is for the positive. We will miss you while you are away, but will look forward to the time you are home and cherish it even more. I feel blessed and humbled that our family will have this opportunity all because you are so amazing! I just hope I can keep it together until you get home to us each week.


Hopefully the gift on your pillow will help you keep track of the time before you can come home to us! Thanks for not buying it today for yourself:) Love you forever!!!!!!!

First Day of Preschool

Yes it's true, I officially have a child in school. Okay, so it's only 2 days a week for a couple hours, but it still seems weird. I didn't put him in last year, which seems to be the trend, so I was anxious to see how he does. He is going to Dixie State College Preschool. I love that there is the one way glass that I can watch him through whenever I want. Luckily he picked the brightest shirt he has so he was easy to pick out while I was watching him. There are 18 kids in this class and they all seemed to be a good bunch of kids. Today was the first official day and he was really excited. Especially to wear his new backpack. When I picked him up he had a grin on his face and told me he made lots of new friends.