Tomorrow is the big rivalry game -- BYU vs. Utah. I think this is going to be the most exciting game of the year. Utah is undefeated and could go to a BCS bowl game if they win as well as winning the MountainWest Conference. BYU is 10-1 this year and if they win they will be in a 3 way tie for the winner of the MountainWest Conference. Our house is all blue even though my Dad's family bleeds red! I have great memories of going to my Uncle Steve's house for Thanksgiving right after a big BYU/Utah game, all dressed in my football BLUE!

Halloween 2008

Halloween has come and gone. We had a really fun time. The elementary school had a "Falloween Carnival" on monday night with bake sale, games, pizza to buy, cake walk, and even a haunted house. Ethan was really looking forward to working in the haunted house, since it is put on by the 6th graders.

On Halloween Friday, Ethan woke up that morning and decided that he wanted me to make him a costume...wrong question with 30 minutes before school. We improvised and made him into a "dead" soccer player.

I did get to help out his 6th grade class with their halloween party. I figured this is probably the last year I will get to help out in Ethan's class so I better take advantage of it while he still actually wants me to come.

Then when he got home, he quickly when to work trying to come up with a scary phantom outfit. I had to hold off he and his friends from trick or treating - they wanted to go at 4 pm. I held them off till 5:15pm.

Rachel wore a cute witch outfit that my mom found for her. She was happy wearing it all day long. She also felt old enough this year to go with her friends trick or treating, old pillowcases and all.

Luke also changed costumes mid day. In the morning, we had the school Halloween parade. He decided to go as Scooby Doo, thank goodness we have a zip up costume of Scooby Doo. After the parade we went home and I think Luke thought the Scooby Head was too heavy on top of his head so he changed to be Peter from Narnia. I think his comfort was much better and he stayed in this costume for the rest of the day. I am the assistant room mom for his kindergarten class and I was in charge of the Halloween Party even though I was going to be helping the 6th graders. I had some great moms helping out with games and crafts and we got everything to make Witch's brew (homemade rootbeer with dry ice). Turned out great and even had some left over to take home.

Brady wasn't too keen on having to wear a costume so luckily he had on a shirt and shorts underneath. Half way through watching the school parade, I glanced over at Brady and he had his costume around his ankles, trying furiously to get the rest off. I had to talk him into wearing it to go trick or treating. We did go to a few doors but usually before we even made it up to the porch, Brady would say, "I'm not going to say Trick or Treat". He was just setting up the expectations. No performing for him. So basically, Brady wasn't big on the costumes or begging for candy from strange neighbors. He only wanted to eat the candy, that's it.

Jared made it home in time to help pass out the treats, by then it has started to rain. And of course when the kids came home with all their loot, Jared imposed the "Daddy tax"!

I did actually dress up as a freaky witch too. Too bad I'm always the one behind the camera.

Just back from Las Vegas

We just got back from Las Vegas, visiting my mom and my brother Erik and his wife Christy. We had a great time. Erik has now passed on the "sister teasing" to "niece teasing". Don't get me wrong, I still got my fair share of teasing but Rachel is now involved too. Erik took Ethan, Rachel, Luke and me to the golfing range, luckily the kids brought their clubs that Erik bought them on a previous trip. Ethan was trying to hit the machine that picks up all the balls on the course. Rachel hit some balls, and then decided it was more fun collecting all the tees that were lying around. Luke accidentally got hit by a swinging club. After Luke recovered from the clubkiss, which left a big mark, he hit a couple of balls and then just ran around. We went through 180 balls in 30 minutes.

We also went to The Mirage, ate at the big buffet for lunch and then saw the dolphins and tigers exhibit. The kids were weirdly fascinated with the pooping habits of all these animals. They mentioned it while watching the alpacas, tigers, and dolphins, and did so very loudly so all the other visitors got a great chuckle too.

Late one night, Erik, Christy and I went to see a show by Jay Leno. His head is just a big in person as it looks on TV. Amazingly he was able to tell jokes for 1 1/2 hr straight. The opening act, The Alley Cats, were really funny too.

The weather was beautiful while we were there. Probably one of the funniest things the kids would say they did was to completely rip, tear, hammer, disassemble an old couch that my mom and Aunt Mary had put out in their backyard. Hammers and saws were flying - which of course can also be attributed to eating sugar cereals nonstop. Grandma's perogative is spoiling!

We did go to visit "Valley of Fire", north of Las Vegas. Natural red rock formations with petriglyphs. We saw a couple of lizards. Some other visitors said they saw a snake but we didn't see that. Ethan loved climbing as high as possible. Erik was taking pictures every couple of steps because Luke and Brady would find a new rock to stand on a bug Erik to take another picture of them.

I'll have to get more pics from Erik to post.

Kindergarten at last!

Luke is finally in kindergarten. He isn't quite sure about it. I think it is because he doesn't like change too much but he definitely likes riding the bus.

Brady asks where everyone is after they leave for school. We've become buddies. I must say it is easier running errands with just one verses two little ones.

The teacher asked what Luke was interested in...take one guess what his first response was...Star Wars...Clone Wars Movie. Unfortunately, this teacher has only seen the old ones (4th, 5th, and 6th) a long, long time ago in a galaxy far far away! So she isn't able to keep up on all the lingo. I think some of his new school friends are Star Wars knights too.

Back to School

Yes it is that time of year again. Ethan and Rachel started back to school yesterday. Ethan has Mrs. Nevarez for 6th grade. They are already working on their paper mache monsters. Flag Football training has started too with the 6th grade. His teacher also was awarded a technology grant which means that his classroom will have 20 laptop computers in the room to use everyday. Rachel has Mrs. Larsen for 3rd grade. They've been doing a lot of get-to-know-ya games and Rachel says she is really nice.

Luke has kindergarten testing this week so he will officially start riding the bus next Monday. So, he was still home asleep when we took this pic of Ethan and Rachel. Brady made sure he came to the bus stop. It was actually a little cold but Brady didn't want to miss any of the action. For all of you who know the "stinky eye", this next photo is for you! (Brady gets the one-eyebrow lift talent from my Dad.)

Most beautiful place in America

We have had a jam packed summer with family reunions and traditional get-in-the-car-and-see-places trips. By far, our favorite "nature-made" place is Arches National Park. We were only there for a couple hours in the evening, which proved to be a great call since it was soooo hot. The kids loved running through the dirt and sand and exploring. We saw several "dead" trees on the path to hike the Double Arches.

Brady definitely didn't want to be left behind and often tried to lead the way. This picture, taken by Jared, cracks me up. It looks like Brady was superimposed/photoshopped in front of the Arches. Brady was actually standing on a wood post fence and Jared took the pic.

It's a beautiful park and the kids want to go back to visit.

Our favorite "man-made" place that we visited this summer was Hoover Dam. Unfortunately, my camera had no battery power to take photos. I did take a couple of videos, none very good though. We took the PowerPlant tour, very interesting. We then tried to walk across the top the dam over to the Arizona side, but "wow" it was HOT, close to 105 degrees. We got about 2/3 way around and decided that was enough.

It is hard to believe that summer is almost over. School starts in 2 weeks, Aug. 18th. Ethan starts 6th grade, Rachel goes to 3rd, and Luke joins them at their school for kindergarten. He is excited to ride the bus in the mornings with them. Ethan is back into soccer and will be playing in the Addidas Cup Tournament next week.

Enjoy the rest of summer,

Lar

Family Reunion/Summer Vacation

Jared's mother's family decided to have a family reunion this summer in Wichita Falls, Texas. Since Luke is the only one of our kids who has ever been to WF and met some of this family, we decided we definitely needed to go. We aren't sure if they will do another one.

We left a couple of days early and drove to Arches National Park (Utah). We climbed the Double Arch and played in the dirt/sand. Then stayed in Moab that night. The next day we drove to Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado) and hiked around the cliff dwellings made by the Indians.

That night we met Jared's siblings and families in Albuquerque, NM. Then caravaned to WF, TX the next day. You can only imagine how excited 12 cousins were to see each other and we will say it got a little loud...and stayed that way through the weekend.

The reunion in WF was great. I've heard Lana, Jared's mom, talk about most of the people we met and I have met a few but many years ago. Meemaw and Lana, Jared's grandma and mom, couldn't wipe the smiles off of their faces. Made the whole trip worth it. We posed for pictures (the one on the left is a 4 generation pic with Meemaw, Lana, us, and our kids), visited, ate lots of Texas BBQ, visited some more, took the kids swimming, ate more BBQ and visited more. The cousins met even more extended cousins and had a blast. I think the cousins had lots of fun switching around who was going to ride in whose car throughout the weekend.

Even though this was a Givens/McClung reunion, Jared's uncle (his Dad's brother) Jim and his wife Mary drove 4 hours to come a visit with us for a couple of hours. I'm told that Jim and David, Jared's dad, look very much a like. This pic is of the brothers and Uncle Jim.

Unfortunately for Jared, he had to get back to work, so we drove him to the Dallas Airport and said goodbye -- me and the kids were not ready to finish our vacation (Jared wasn't either but he needed to get back). We then met one of my old college roommates, Kristan, and her family in Frisco, Texas - just north of Dallas. As luck would have it, our kids are just about the same ages. Ethan and Cole had a blast together, swimming, logos, ninetindo, boy stuff.... Rachel and Kayla did lot's of girl stuff.... and Luke, Braden, Brady and Jake had a great time too! I had fun too with Kris! We took the kids to the Hawaiian Falls Water Park (see previous post's video of Luke), hung out, swam at their neighborhood pool, went to Peter Piper Pizza and saw Kung Fu Panda (see previous post's video of Brady) again.

The visit went by very quickly and we needed to start driving back to Utah. Because it was just me and the kids, I wanted it to be fun for all of us. So we stopped in Sante Fe, NM and then Ethan wanted us to the Four Corners Monument - where the corners of CO, UT, NM, and AZ meet. The picture below shows the kids with Ethan having a leg or hand in all for states.

So all in all, we had a great trip! I have more pictures on Jared's computer, so maybe I'll add more later. Hope you are having a great summer too!

Laurie

How do you decide when to just fall on the ground laughing and when to do your parental duty by keeping your kids "dressed"? As you can tell I couldn't decide and thus had some video difficulties near the end of the clip. I think Luke might be a little embarassed if this video lasts until his dating years. But as for now, he is not a very "shy" guy! This video was taken at Hawaiian Falls Water Park in Frisco Texas, just north of Dallas, during our family vacation this summer.

Brady - A.K.A Kung Fu Master

We laugh everytime we watch this! We had just come home from the movie Kung Fu Panda. Jared is supplying the sound effects. Brady, of course, is Master Kung Fu. Luke, Ethan, and Jared are evil ninjas who, as we know, never prevail against the Master.

Finally learning to blog

Yes, it has finally happened. I am learning how to blog. I have always thought of myself as a technically savy person but I must admit I have been a holdout on blogging and phone texting. I just can't type very fast on those tiny buttons.

I am very new to this so I will try to get some photos on here from our recent trip.

Here we go!!!!