Happy Birthday Jax!

 Jaxon has been very excited to turn 12 and has been counting down the days for quite a while.  In our family, we don't allow our children to get handheld electronics until they are 12.  They also have to pay for half of it.  He has had the money for a long time.  He had a hard time deciding weather to get a psp go or an ipod touch.  He researched the differences between both of them on the internet.  I think he decided on the ipod touch once Kierra got hers.  He was very excited to go get it and had a hard time waiting until after Jadon's football game. 

 Jaxon requested pizza and a chocolate fountain for dinner so that's what we did.  We haven't gotten the chocolate fountain out in a long time and the kids had a great time dipping strawberries in it.

 After dinner, we played the candy bar game.  Who doesn't love the candy bar game?  We had a great time and no one even cried.

 After that, Jaxon and Jadon went to the Utah game.  Doyle was able to get some tickets for them.  They were amazing seats.  It was fun to get them ready and they had a great time.  They even showed them on the jumbo tron!

 Jaxon was ordained as a deacon today by his Dad.  Dale gave him a wonderful blessing and it was neat to have our whole family, plus my parents, in there to hear it.  It makes me so happy to have two of my sons hold the priesthood.

It's hard to believe that Jaxon is already 12 years old.  My kids are growing up so fast.  He is one of a kind.  He's a very talented athlete and is good at anything he tries.  His favorite sport is whatever he's playing at the time.  He is a great student as well.  His competitive nature helps him in school because he doesn't like anyone to do better than him.  He is very affectionate and hugs me all the time.  He has a very strong personality and I hope he uses it to become a leader one day.  He is a huge pressence in our home and when he's not there, it feels weird.  I hope he had a great birthday.  I love you Jax!

Goodbye Jenny

 After a long time of trying to make a very hard decision, we took Jenny to a new home today.  I have a lot of guilt about this decision.  Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that I don't like dogs.  I should have know this because we didn't keep the last dog we had.  My kids really wanted a dog and I thought I would try it again.  It just wasn't working out.  I know that if I liked her, it would have been a lot easier to keep her, and I feel horrible about that.  My kids liked their dog but they didn't give her the time and attention that she needed. We decided that we needed to find her a better home.  I truly feel that Jenny will be better off in her new home.  She is going to be trained to be a service dog.  She will probably end up with an older man with diabetes who is in a wheel chair.  I think she will get the chance to be a loyal companion to someone who needs her as much as she needs someone to love her.

She really was a good dog and I hope that my children will not hate me for doing this.  I hope they will have some good memories of the dog they had for a short time.

Congrats Kierra!

Kierra has worked really hard and earned her Young Women's medallion which she received on Sunday.  We are really impressed with how hard she has worked for this and how much of it she did on her own.  I had to help her with one of her projects but she did everything else by herself.  She is a very independant girl who gets things done on her own.  She has set some great goals for herself and is developing a strong testimony.  We feel lucky to have such a sweet daughter!

Way to play prairie 10 ward girls!

Sabrina and Kierra waiting for the game to start

This week our the girls in our ward finished up the region volleyball tournament. A week ago was the beginning of the tournament.  Their first night, they won 5 out of 6 games.  It was awesome!  They played great and the games were very exciting and fun to watch.  The next night, unfortunately, they got beat by another ward in our stake.  Since it was a two loss tournament, they got to play this week.  For their first game, the other team forfeited, so that was a win for us.  The 2nd game didn't turn out so good.  They lost both sets.  That ended the tournament but we had a great time playing.  The girls had such a great time together.  One of the nights, the girls went out for ice cream after the game.  I drove a bunch of them there and they were all laughing and having a great time together.  I looked around at the girls in the van and realized they ranged from 7th-10th grade.  That didn't matter at all.  They all still got along great together.  I love that!  I'm so glad that Kierra has the oppurtunity to hang out with such a great group of girls. 

Kierra usually does pretty good with serving

Add caption

The girls getting ready to rotate positions

Our winning team!

The boys of fall

I love everything about fall! The changing of the leaves, the cooler weather, wearing hoodies and making soup, getting out the fall scents for my scentsy and watching my boys play football.  I don't really get football but what I love is that all the boys in the neighborhood gather in somone's yard to play.  They usually play right after school until it's time for dinner.  It doesn't matter how old you are either.  They usually range from 5 to 15 years old.  It's so awesome to see them all play together!

My favorite hike

Me, with my great kids, getting ready to start the hike.

 Today we went on my favotie hike.  It is the three forks hike up Spanish Fork canyon.  It is such a beautiful place, especially in the fall.  The hike is on a little trail that takes you through the trees while you are walking next to a stream most of the way.  There are so many beautiful scenes where the sun is shining on the fall leaves making the colors amazing!  All of the kids were awesome hikers!  Katie walked a good portion of the hike and never complained.  We packed a dinner and it was so nice to just sit in the leaves and enjoy the quietness of the mountains.  Pictures never seem to capture how beautiful the scene really is, but here are some of my favorites from our wonderful day!

Kyson, Kierra and Jake

Me and Dale

Kierra and Jenny

Katie got to ride on Daddy's shoulders for some of the hike.

Dale found this really cool caterpillar.  Unfortunately, Jenny stepped on it and either killed it or injured it pretty bad.

All the kids enjoying the leaves

The Byers Family (plus the dog who belonged to the stranger we got to take the picture)

Jaxon

Kierra

Kyson

Jadon and Katie

Jake

I love that my kids will always let me take their picture!

Jadon and Katie

Can't wait to come back next year!

Jake's space derby

 Last week our scouts had their space derby.  Jake was excited to build his space ship and he knew exactly what he wanted to do.  Here he is sanding the rocket to the shape he wanted.

Painting the base coat

Jaxon helping him paint some flames on the rocket

Jake with his finished rocket

 Jake was pretty happy with the way it turned out.  He did a lot of the work himself and he was excited to go to the race.

Unfortunately, we had a lot of problems with the boys elastics breaking and they weren't able to race their rockets as many times as they wanted.  Jake didn't seem to be bothered by the that.  He just had a good time at his first space derby!