Olivia loves to make funny videos with the distorted setting on the computer camera. I thought you might like to check this one out even though she'll probably kill me when she finds this! Of all my kids, Olivia is the least shy and the most determined to win American Idol or somehow be famous! Enjoy!

Super Saturday

We did it!! 

We had 47 women making 191 crafts at over $1,100 worth of supplies rockin' the Val Vista building today, Sept. 27, 2008. I was called to be a 'specialist' in charge of Super Saturday. I had just been released from YW and I think I had a target on my back.  I am glad though because it was a great way to get to know the sisters in relief society again. A big thanks to all the teachers who taught classes and to Joy Marinez, Mandy Stewart and Allison Wirthlin who were the main women behind the scenes!

Here are two of the projects that I did.  The magnetic-clip board-chalk board-chore chart was a total hit! Taught by Brooke Sampson.  She painted the magnetic paint ahead of time and then we painted them with chalk board paint and added the ribbon and chalk she provided.  At home I printed up the chores that Chloe and Olivia do each morning and their name and pictures. I laminated them (Thanks Suzan Eck!) and hot glued them to magnets and stuck them on their boards. Now when they are finished with each chore they can just put a check mark next to it with the chalk! They love them and we are going to hang them on a nail outside their bedroom door.

The fabric boxes are ones I made to practice for the class that I taught.  I got the idea from my sister-in-law, Jami, who made some darling boxes for me for Christmas a few years ago. She taught me how to make them over the phone and then I tried it out myself. They turned out sooo cute and they look great in my newly redecorated blue and brown master bedroom! 

Other projects included scrapbook paper covered tin recipe boxes, marshmallow guns, family plaque picture frame, JOY block letters, glass block light up pictures and temple bracelets. I will try to get photos of them so you can see these great projects!  Everyone's turned out unique and beautiful!  

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf was right, creating something new from unorganized matter does feel AMAZING! 

Tess Battles a Mother-of-a-Spider!

I was hungry for a midnight snack last night and headed down stairs to find the house in disarray, the lights all on and the back sliding door open! Tess explained that she had battled a mother of a spider who was carrying hundreds of babies on her back.  Of course, the battle begun with Tess grabbing the camera and snapping this picture! 

 

See all those fuzzy balls on her back, those are living, crawling little spiders!  After snapping the all important photo Tess grabbed a clear plastic container and trapped the spiders inside.  Next she searched for a chemical that would kill them without hurting the carpet.  "Spotshot" was her solution.  She lifted the edge of the container and sprayed them and watched as they scattered around the inside of the container and start to slow. She then bravely lifted the container and smashed the momma and all the babies that tried to get away with her geography book.  Then she took the container full of poisoned babies and ran out the back and threw it over the fence! I vacuumed her room out several times as she uploaded this picture to her facebook page. At about 12:30 she headed to bed and I ate Wheaties straight from the box and read my new science fiction book. What an exciting night and a brave Tess! 

ATTENTION:  An hour after posting this story I was sweeping the kitchen when I saw another huge wolf spider run behind the fridge.  When Russ got home for lunch I asked him to move the fridge so I could kill it.  I wedged myself back there and smacked it with my flip flop and guess what happened..... hundreds of babies went skittering off her back!!!!!!!!!!  I am not kidding!  I was screaming, HOLY BABIES!!! and smacking all over the place with my shoe. Russ grabbed the 409 and we sprayed the babies that tried to get away!!!  Some one needs to call the pest control guy!!!  I guess that would be me!

Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grade... Teacher?

Once a month Chloe's class has to take a standardized test called the Tungsten.  As an incentive their teacher also takes the test.  If a student scores higher than she does they get a big candy bar and Chloe picked a MILKY WAY!  

This week Chloe was the only one to score 100% on the math section.

Her teacher only got a 96%

It's nice when hard work pays off- in chocolate!

Good Memories with Livvy

Sometimes on Wednesday nights Olivia and I get to have some snuggle time alone because Tess and Rustin are at mutual, Dad is at bishopric meetings and Chloe is at gymnastics.  Last week she was in the mood for coloring so she picked these funny gorillas for us to color and we both got really into it!

Livvy's is the Dad. She called him "Mr. Grouchy Pants." I LOVE his briefcase on the grass!

Mine is the Mom. She is a homemaker but apparently not a happy one.  You might be able to tell she's in our kitchen.

Handy-dandy Blow Dart Gun

After staring at two mylar birthday balloons for over two weeks I decided to hire Rustin and Treven to shoot them down for me.  Treven brought over his blow-dart gun (Rustin's was bent) and chose the darts he thought would put the biggest hole in the balloon and the smallest hole in my ceiling.  They took turns balloon killing and enjoyed every breath!  Amazingly they never missed the balloons and no darts stuck in ceilings or walls.  The second balloon took a few shots to get the hole big enough but it came down!  Who knew their skills would come in so handy?

Thanks Treven  and Rustin for destroying the pesky balloons!

Treven in action

IT WORKED!!!

Rustin's Rockin' Party!

I challenge anyone to try and take a picture of 9 teenage boys without it being blurry! This was the best I could do and you can't even see 3 of their faces.  It was hilarious!  They had so much fun hitting each other with the pool toys.  I'll never understand why they have so much fun torturing each other. But trust me, they do. 

 Zack, Garrett, and Treven watching Rustin open a big box of sand with a $20 bill buried in it. 

Very funny Treven!

Tess made his birthday cake this year with very little help from me.  I photo copied my Sabers T-shirt and she used it as a pattern for the frosting design. The Sabers are Rustin's football team.  A lot of the kids at the party are on his team and thought the cake was AWESOME, which it was!

Rustin about to blow out the candles.  Notice his "Duder Mifflin" (The Office) shirt.  It was a gift from Mckay Taylor who called his mom to make sure she got just the right one.  Rustin has worn it almost everyday since.  It wins for favorite gift!

Here is McKay giving us his best smile! 

Here Sam is trying to teach him how to smile like a teenager!

Besides swimming, eating, and ripping a big hole in the trampoline, they had a blast playing Halo.  Rustin's friend, Cole, got grounded from the party and so the boys played Halo online so he could be a part of things.  It was pretty cute.  At one point they got tired of playing Halo and headed to the park and played a quick game of capture the flag. Mckay, Jake, Rustin and Zack started  up their game of Halo again and played until their parents dragged them home! 

Happy 13th birthday Rustin!

Flash Backward!

A few weeks ago my friend from high school, Michelle Rau Chard, posted these old pictures of us on her Facebook page. Do they bring back some great memories or what? Most of them from 1988 (I think)

My favorite part of this picture is my big bangs.  You get a nice close-up of what we now fondly refer to as "the Claw" I am in the front seat of our big red and silver "Koski-mobile" I learned how to drive in that big beast.  Now driving my big Suburban all around Gilbert is no big deal.

I'm sitting in my backyard on our trampoline trying to look sexy.  I'm wearing a tank top I made myself! 

What a hot seamstress I was.

Michelle Rau, me and Elissa Schmidt holding our favorite baby, Billy, who is holding his favorite drink, "Football juice!" (Notice the shape of his bottle)

Aimee Edwards and in the church parking lot. I would guess we are headed to seminary but it started so early in the morning it was usually dark so I'm not sure why we are hear or why Michelle is taking a picture. 

Me doing some tricks on the tramp.  Looks like my best Wonder Woman impersonation! She was my favorite superhero!

Happy Birthday Rustin! Love, Your Sisters

This was one of those moments that make all the hard work of being a mom worth while.  On the morning of Rustin's 13th birthday party I asked the girls (Tess and Chloe) and their friends who were over (Hailey and Josie) if they would bake Rustin's birthday cake while I was gone at his first football game of the season.  Tess and Hailey love baking and they said sure! They also said they would come up with a design for the cake and then frost it when I got home!  Chloe and Josie started blowing up balloons before I left and said they would decorate.  I took off for the game around 11:40 feeling like things were pretty well in hand for his party that started at 6:00 that night.  It was a crazy game.  The other team scored twice before the Saber's had and we had to mount a major come back.  Rustin and his team worked hard to tie it up right before the end of the fourth quarter.  The overtime began and they both held each other on the first sets of four downs.  On the second set of downs, the other team scored.  When it was our turn again we got the ball down to the one yard line and for the next 3 plays couldn't get it in the goal.  It was a devastating loss because we worked so hard to come back and then came so close to winning, but didn't.  It was 109 degrees out and Rustin was exhausted, hot and extremely mad.  He was in tears as we walked to the car and started feeling better once I got some burgers and a cold drink in him on our way home.  As I turned the corner to our house with my worn out little football player, this is what we saw....

My heart was immediately too big for my chest and I have never loved my daughters more. Rustin was very impressed and didn't want me to park in the driveway and block it.  He jumped out of the car all happy and checked the mail for his birthday card from Russ's parents which always holds the thrill of cash!  With football woes forgotten and card in hand, he went inside and told the girls how much he liked their surprise! 

I had no idea that the girls were going to do anything like this!  I just thought they might blow up a few balloons and bake the cake.  They each made several letters and showed me whose was whose.  You can see Tess's letter 'P' in the middle of 'happy' has a lacrosse stick on it.  Each one was a little masterpiece and labor of love. On either side of the garage and on the front door were smaller signs that said "Rustin's Birthday Bash!" Last but not least, there was a mylar birthday balloon tied to the handle of the front door.  What a welcome!

The fun didn't stop outside. Chloe and Josie had blown up all the balloons and wrapped the banister in streamers and added some of the balloons for the perfect touch!  The cake was baked, cooled and ready to frost.  All this was done and we still had almost 3 hours till party time.  Hailey made the chex mix and helped me whip up the frosting. Rustin added some streamers to the doorway.  Then Tess frosted an extremely difficult design onto Rustin's cake for me!  This was perhaps one of the best days a mother could have.  I was so thrilled to see that my girls have enough love in their hearts that it just naturally overflowed in an expression of love for their teenage brother.  They had no idea how his game had gone or that he'd been extremely upset, but they absolutely made his day, and mine. I love them all so much it's hard to put it into words!

Happy Birthday to Rustin and Happy Mother's Day to me! 

Our CRAZY Proposal Story!

For any of you who haven't heard the UNIQUE way that Russ proposed to me, hold on tight! Here it is:  

I told Russ I wanted our engagement to be special, unique, not your average dinner and roses kinda crap. Well, I got what I asked for unfortunately. He picked me up from work and we drove out to the canyon at dusk on a cool March evening (3/18/92) in Utah. Way up in Vivian Canyon where there are no more houses he pulls over because this creepy looking guy is flagging us down. 

 (Army jacket and jeans, plaid shirt, wool cap, gloves with the finger tips cut off and reeking of alcohol)

He tells us his car is broken down and asks for a ride to the nearest house. Russ lets him in the car even though I am protesting! As soon as we get going my worst fears are realized when he pulls out a gun and puts it to Russ's head and tells him to do exactly what he says or he will kill him and his girlfriend. He puts the gun to my head and tells me to put my hands on the dashboard and then on the floor and he smells like beer and is acting all crazy. After swearing and getting confused, he tells us to stop the car and me to get out and lock the door behind me. I do get out but I don't lock the door, I am so defiant! I walk to the back of the car and am sure he is going to kill Russ and then come back and rape and then shoot me. Surprisingly, Russ gets out and comes back to where I have been waiting for death. The guy drives off in the car around the corner.  

As soon as he is out of sight I take off running up the side of the mountain in case he changes his mind and comes back to kill us. I ask Russ if my engagement ring is in the car, he assures me it's not. My relief didn't last long because sure enough, he had turned around and is driving up and down the street looking for us. I dive down in some bushes and am praying out loud to God begging him to let me live long enough to marry Russ, have kids etc. I am laying there picturing the article in the paper the next day describing the murder of the two BYU coeds up in Vivian Canyon. Finally, when the guy is out of sight I take off running again toward where I think houses might be. The guy gets out of his car now and is hunting us on foot. I can see the gun in his hand as he searches for me.  

(This is us retelling the story after the fact. Notice the gun in his hand and Russ's Bronco II in the background. I have my hand up because I am fingerspelling everything...adrenalin helped my speed)

After running and hiding for what seems like forever, Russ is kind of obvious and the guy sees him. He waves the gun at him and yells at him to come down the side of the mountain to the street. I stay hidden on the ground hoping he doesn't see me. He does see me and says, "Get down here too, I see you!" I am sure we are marching to our deaths so I tell Russ that I think he is drunk and to try and grab the gun. Then I ask Russ to tell the guy that he can have the car or whatever he wants. By this time we are down to the road and the scary killer says to me, waving his gun at me, "You know what I want? I want you to marry him!" I am totally confused and say, "What?" and then look over at Russ who has my wedding ring in a box in his hand and asks me to marry him! Then it dawns on me that this is all a set up for our engagement and I am super mad and relieved and excited that I am not going to die and that I am getting engaged at the same time.  I say "Yes, you JERK!" and punch Russ as hard as I can on the arm a few times. I am alternating hitting him with looking in awe at my beautiful diamond engagement ring.  

(Me, biting my tongue as Russ puts the ring on my finger for the first time ever! Too bad I lost it 7 years later)

Russ's friend Tim had been hiding the whole time in the bushes along the side of the mountain with a video camera and he had tried to catch the whole thing on tape.  The car jacker finds him near the end so this last part was all caught on tape until my kids recorded cartoons over it!! Luckily I was able to take all of these pictures from the tape several years ago before that happened! Phew! On the video we retell the whole story together. Russ and I are kissing and the scary guy is laughing about how I did exactly what he said and how I unexpectedly ran half way to Heber.  

Russ and I are both wearing our long winter jackets that kind of match. He has shaggy hair on top and was wearing his stylish glasses. I have super long hair and am nervously playing with it and wrapping it in a big knot on my head and fingerspelling crazy fast (I was taking ASL at the time and had a habit of fingerspelling constantly).

As you might have guessed, things didn't go according to plan. The car jacker was confused in the car because he had taken his glasses off (to look scarier) and couldn't see the right spot where he was supposed to make us get out of the car and get it on tape. He also screwed up by driving so far away, around the corner (thus giving me time to run away and mess up their little plan). He was supposed to act like he was driving away and then get out of the car, come to us and point the gun at Russ and say, "What are your last words?" Russ then was going to get on one knee and say, "WIll you marry me?" 

Instead I was getting scratched up running through the woods for my life! But happiness was the overriding emotion as you can tell from these pictures! After we finished retelling the story on tape we headed to the Chalet restaurant where we met Jim and Marisa, and Tiffany (Tim's girlfriend) for a "celebration." I went and threw up in the bathroom then watched them eat. I spent the next 5 years or so suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Really. I was terrified of being alone, outside, around scary looking strangers (places like Pike Place Market in Seattle scared me to death) or camping in the woods or being in canyons. Basically, I never wanted to feel like I was in any kind of danger. I didn't want to ever feel like I was going to die again. At least not until I was an old granny! I am better now thank goodness, but even telling this story to my friends gets my hands shaking and my blood pumping.

Our official engagement picture. April 1992

I feel bad for Russ though because the whole thing sounds so terrible but it got way out of hand. My roommates and future sister-in-law helped him come up with the idea and plan it all and then when it all went horribly wrong, they kinda left him high and dry. I wasn't mad, I was mostly glad I was alive and getting engaged. I knew Russ didn't mean for it to be so scary. In fact, they were sure the only real flaw in their plan was that Russ wouldn't be able to act like it was real or that he would start laughing or something. But the gun made everything seem quite real and Russ's acting skills kicked in. The other problem was that Russ let things keep going cuz he thought we would run into his friend in the woods with the video camera at any moment and it would all be over but still get caught on tape. This is why he didn't stop me when I ran into the woods. He still wanted to try and salvage the botched operation. 

This all happened over 16 years ago and even though it was scary, I am still glad I said "YES!"

Help! Another Teenager in the House!!

It's official, Rustin is now a Teenager!  He turned 13 today, Sept. 5, 2008.  His birthday started off with breakfast in bed consisting of Krispy Kreme donuts and orange juice.  Next he opened a card full of cash. Yummy!

Donuts in bed, it doesn't get better than this!

His latest obsession is with the T.V. show "Heroes" and so we got him a nice poster for his room.  Yeah, he likes it!

Unbeknownst to either Rustin or myself, Russ had bought him a gas powered scooter (which is what he was going to spend his money on) and had it hidden in the garage. So after he had breakfast and showered Russ asked him to go grab something from the fridge in the garage. He came in with his real present and a big smile on his face. Russ proceeded to teach him how to start it and care for it and so forth. Surprisingly, Rustin didn't try to keep the money AND the new scooter, but gave the cash back to his shocked mother.

Luckily Rustin still had time before the bus came to take his present out for a quick spin.  I love seeing the smile on his face.  Priceless!

Olivia and her Frog Prince

Olivia's probably the only girl in the world who hopes this frog DOESN'T turn into a prince when she kisses it!  She wants a frog instead! Olivia will always be our animal lover!  She was raised around hundreds of reptiles so we have no one to blame but ourselves when she comes home from a birthday party with a wild frog the kids found in the backyard and fully expects to keep it.  I can't say "no" to those big brown eyes and so after a trip to the pet store and $140 later we have "Skipper" as our newest family member.  He is really cute and she gets him out and plays with him every day.  She lets him hop around on the tile or the grass, even lets him splash around in the sink or tub with a little water.  It's quite cute.  The funniest is how she touches a spot on his back and he hops forward just like the little plastic toy frogs you normally get as a party favor! 

Boating with the Stapleys

A few months ago our ward had an auction to raise money for girls camp. Russ had a bidding war with Dave Blaser for a boat trip with the Stapley Family.  Of course we were victorious and on Aug. 16, 2008 we spent a wonderful day on the lake with our good friends Sean, Lori, Conner, Madi and Sheridan.  Aside from some major stress over the swarming bees near the dock, the day was perfect.  We ate tons of food, took some great pictures, had great conversations, laughed our heads off and played in the water.

Sean was a pro at driving the boat and whipping the poor victims on the tubes back and forth with some serious G-force.  Here you can see Russ and Tess trying to hold on.

Olivia and Sheridan showing off how easy it was to stay on when Sean was taking it easy on them.

Rustin having fun and trying to stay alive

Madi coaching Chloe over the cliff.  What a nice friend!

Russ getting the hang of wake surfing

Sarah trying to hang ten, or just hang on!

Rustin had fun surfing too 

Sean is so good at wake surfing that he can start with a girl on his back and then as soon as he gets going they crawl from his back to his front and slide down to the board and surf with him.  Here is Chloe above and Olivia below getting a great ride.

This is not as easy as it looks, trust me. I guess practice makes perfect!

Thanks for a great day Stapley's it was worth every penny!!! We love you!