Draper Temple

Draper Temple Open House

January 17, 2009 It was awesome. We were there bright & too early on Saturday morning, but there were not many people, so we were able to take our time. The boys just looked and looked. We spent a lot of time in the Baptistry and in the Celestial Room There were only four other people in the Celestial Room when we were. How cool was that!!! They had a great opportunity to really soak up the incredible spirit of the place. It was so awesome!

School Strummin' & Singin'

Bryan loves to go to the boy's classes and sing with them.

He went in last Friday and sang with them for an hour.

They sang about:

Grandma's Feather Bed

His genealogy, "I'm My Own Grandpa"

Frog Kissin'

Smokin' the hive

Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes

Mud (the favorite)

If My Nose Was Running Money (I'd Blow it All on You!)

He's done it a few times and they have a great time.

This is the 2nd Grade with Benson

(The whole second grade - 3 classes - is about 42 students)

Crash!

They go to sleep in the funniest places

Bradley claims he is too big for a nap now.

I usually just let him crash on his own

One less fight

He always does too! They actually had both been asleep someplace else, then got that far and crashed again.

Another Mess!

Brett is at that WONDERFUL age

where he is into EVERYTHING!

I know the other boys were too, but he seems to be worse.

He pulls out everything and likes to sit and stand in and on everything he can.

I actually asked the cabinent guy if he could install

cabinent locks for me.

He just laughed.

I guess that's a no.

(He's trying to sit in the bread pan)

I wash everything again before I cook - just in case you were wondering!

I'm sure I'll miss this someday. Right?

Way to go, Bray!

Brayden is such a good kid

He loves being very active and involved

He told me YESTERDAY that he was on the

Math Counts Team

Oh, yea, and there is an

all day "battle of the minds" on Monday

In Farson. (Where is Farson?)

He's one of two 7th Graders on the team

And apparently he's holding his own

Way to go, Bray!

Brayden has a tough time with spelling

Bryan says it is just hereditary

If you know Bryan, you've heard something like...

"Mark Twain said 'I respect a man who knows how to spell a word more than one way'"

or

"Chalkboards & whiteboards don't have spellcheckers"

In California Brayden was done with spelling tests,

here, he's not.

So Bryan challenged Brayden...

Every Friday morning I give them a pre-test

Brayden writes down the word (he knows not to copy Bryan)

And Bryan spells the word

For every word Brayden gets right and Bryan misses

Bryan pays him a dollar

(it started as $10 - that didn't last long)

Last Friday, Brayden got $4 out of Bryan

Way to go, Bray!

Just so you know, Brayden has pretty tough words,

the one I can remember that Bryan missed was "colonel"

There is an awesome website www.spellingcity.com

that the boys love practicing on.

It is nice when they beg to do their spelling words!

Brayden was a December

Student of the Month

The theme for nomination was HELPFULNESS

They gave him some snack coupons & a certificate

Way to go, Bray!

Brayden is also great to help take care of Brett

and the dog

and he does most the snow shoveling.

Bryan is always asking him to do something.

Other than teasing & bossing his brothers

And a messy room

He's dang near the perfect kid!

We're glad he's part of our family!

Happy New Year

Whew!

Christmas is put away.

(We didn't have much here to put away)

It was great though - Here are some highlights...

A trip to both grandparents houses - twice

We love being closer!

Visits with all our siblings but Kelly & her family

Bryan's brother, Royce, had a Christmas Eve appendectomy - ugh.

My brother Doug & his wife Julie had a Christmas baby

Congratulations & Welcome Zach!

We had our traditional Birthday Party for Jesus

(always a cake and candles too)

Then a visit from Santa

There were pajamas, and toys, of course

our first video gaming system that Mark didn't pass down

(Brett can say wiiiiiiii)

Brayden got a cell phone - I've never liked kids having them, but with all the school traveling so much he was always taking mine, so he has a pre-paid phone, with restrictions, but he seems to be okay with that

We were in Soda Springs to welcome Grandma Hoggan & Royce home from the hospital the day after Christmas

Then we got snowed in at Grandma's

But Grandma made Cinnamon Rolls - all was good

Everyone but me & Bryan (that's a first) got a 24-hr crud stuff (not exactly the flu, but a little worse than a cold).

A quiet and uneventful New Year's

Blake was mad after he realized it was over.

We cleaned our new house a couple times - a huge load to the dump and 3 more gi-normous boxes ready to go. The house is textured, soffit & fascia are in the works, the piles of wood flooring are in the den (hopefully going in next week) as well as the finish moulding & shelving, the power and gas heat were turned on, and we got the mailbox put up.

And one last trip back to Lava Hot Springs with the Young Men - in the snow. They tried the Soda water (from Soda Springs) and more Cinnamon Rolls from Grandma Hoggan

The shinglers FINALLY came back up to finish their job, (it's been over a month) they got done Tuesday, and wouldn't you know it, today it's been really windy and a bunch of shingles blew off! They also are finishing the insulating in the attic and starting on the siding. Yea!!!

I'm glad school & work started again on Monday!

Oh, and of course the New Year's diet too

(there were all those Cinnamon Rolls - but they were worth it!)

Happy New Year!