Happy Birthday Brig!

Holy Moly! My little fellow is 12! (August 16th) I shouldn't say little- Brig is almost as tall as me, we are separated by only 1/2 an inch. For his birthday we had a huge party. All of my family- minus the Thompson Troop- drove up, and The Redds- from Merica on down were all here to join in the party. We had a pool party at our neighborhood pool Brig asked for Chicken Souvlaki and Baklava- we had a little Greek theme going on all week. It was delicious.
Playing water polo
We even watched a little Olympics. You probably heard us shouting when Phelps and the rest of his relay team came from behind to win.
Uncle Kaleb taught all the kids how to make these cool bracelets. That was probably Brig's favorite gift. Thanks Kaleb! On Sunday- Brig had a ton of family to help him receive the Aaronic Priesthood. My heart was very full. Brig shared a very sweet testimony at the end. Wow- what a great kid. We are so blessed to have him as the eldest in our home. A big thanks to all of our family for driving up and staying with us. We love you!
An interview with Brig:
What is great about being twelve? I get to pass the sacrament now!( This ward has a tradition of the new priesthood holders passing the sacrament for the first time with their dad. Brig really enjoyed passing it with his Dad opposite him.)What is your favorite food? Chicken Lettuce Wraps
What is your favorite song? Called To Serve
What do you like to do? Play soccer, write my story, (he has part of his story up on his blog. ( http://www.theworldofbrigham.blogspot.com/), computer games
What is your favorite dessert? Any type of pie
What is your favorite scripture story? The 2000 Stripling Warriors- they were really brave and young fighters
What is your favorite present? MP3 player
What is your favorite color? red
What is your favorite thing to do with your family? Go swimming, watch movies
What is your favorite animal? The Golden Dart Frog
What is your favorite book? The Lord of the Rings and all of GA Henty.
Favorite Sport? soccer
What is the scariest thing you have ever done? Riding these really steep gondolas up in the Swiss Alps
What is the last chore you did? Making breakfast
How are you like your mom? I like to be listened to the first time
How are you like your dad? I have his name
What is the most important thing to you? Returning to heaven
12 Words to Describe Brig
1. Athletic
2. Intelligent
3. Spiritual
4. Humorous
5. Responsible
6. Brilliant
7. Handsome
8. Clever
9. Obedient
10. Witty
11. Thoughtful
12. Fantastic
We love you BRIG! Thanks for coming to our FAMILY!

FHE on the LAKE

Who da thunk. Just 20 minutes from our home is a lovely reservoir. You are driving through miles of sage brush and voila- right in the middle of the desert scape there is a drop into a water wonderland nestled in the hills, or I guess I should say- a canyon type place. The water was a bit nipppy- but you didn't give it a second thought once you started enjoying the thrill of the ride. Katry, Seth and Brig loved hanging on for dear life.
Kaleb was forced into this ride with Mom and Seth. By the end though- he was loving it.
This was Brig's second time knee boarding. He looks like a pro.
This was Seth's first time on the knee board. He just popped right up out of the water like it was nothing. He already can't wait to go back and do it again.
Brigham- showing us how its done on the slalom. The water was so much fun. Considering we used to have at least one ski trip a year- it had been a long time. What a great sport and what a fun way to spend time with your family. Thanks Doug!

The Big Squeeze!

Squeezing my Heart!
We all headed back to school on Thursday! The kids were all pretty darn excited. Brig headed to Middle School and 7th grade. Katry is attending elementary school in 5th and Seth headed right back in the door to have homeschool for 3rd grade with Kaleb, Kai and I. Well I must say it was much much easier sending off a 12 and 10 year old for their first days of public school than I imagine it would be to send of a kindergardner. They were excited and enjoyed it quite a bit. Katry was nervous about not knowing anyone. But three little girls from her class came right up to her and asked if she wanted to play on her first recess and she hasn't looked back since. Brig made the Middle school soccer team and has been wearing himself at that for a couple of hours every night. He has been wearing our ears out at night telling us about everything that goes on at school . I love it! Brig has been riding his bike to school and today Dad, Katry and Seth rode their bikes to school to greet him as he was leaving school. He said that he was happy to see them, but a little embarassed to have his family show up at the school. We squeezed every bit of summer out that we could the three days before school started. I have been wanting to make pretzels all summer and we finally fit it in. Yes these pretzels tasted as good as they look. Way to go kids!
We watched a video, went swimming several times, did last minute school shopping, got all our supplies ready, rode bikes and ate popsicles galore. Wednesday night, Brigham gave us all Back to School Blessings. We love having his calming priesthood power to bless us. Thursday morning we arose and began our school routine. We excersized as a family, read scriptures, ate yummy waffles and strawberries, then headed out the door.
Our little Kai- for your viewing pleasure. The kids like to dress him up.

Kaleb & Lindsey 8/8/08

Hey- I just figured out how to add more than five pictures to a post. Unfortunately, they didn't tag on to the end of the post like I wanted them too. Anyway- here are some more pictures I like from the festivities.
Uncle Kaleb teaching Brig a new tie style.
All the grand people in the family. Parents and kiddos

Kaleb if you can't remember that wedding date- you are in trouble! :) The wedding was so super sweet. Both Kaleb and Staven had great Sealers. They had a tastey luncheon before the sealing and a fun program. We made up another diddy honoring the couple. It was to the tune of "Rise and Shout". Brigham is so creative in coming up with things like that. If the other song we did was out of tune- this one was even more so. Oops! Anyway- it was fun. After the luncheon we had a few hours to kill so we went to Farmington- then came back for the wedding. After pictures etc. it was quite late, but we were all hungry- so we went out to eat at Fudruckers. It was fun gabbing the night away.
I loved this picture of the girls all holding Lindsey's dress.
Twirling Angels
Before and during the recption on Saturday we had a bit of a drizzle. I thought it was lovely. The reception was a lot of fun. There was a bouncing ball and cotton candy for the kids. There was also a chocolate fountain for dessert and the kids were all covered in chocolate. Good thing the pictures were before the party.
Towards the end there was a fun dance with a lot of party music. It was fun dancing under the lights.

Lehi Water Park with The Thompsons

After the second day of the Grand Retreat- we headed to Lehi to their fun water park.
It was so much fun cooling off and partying with our fabulous cousins.
Inseperable buddies, Maizie and Kaleb
Love those little fat rolls, and those handsome eyes.
Pure joy!

The Grand Retreat

For the second year in a row my parents held the annual "Grand Retreat". It is a day of learning and fun with grandparents and grandkids. This year was a little different cause Grandma Naegle ended up taking a trip to the hospital so Grandpa took the kids up and did his activities with them one day and the next day Grandma taught the lessons. The kids loved all of it. Wednesday they went up to Silver Lake in American Fork canyon.
They caught bugs, and swam in the lake.
They practiced shooting targets with 22's.

They BBQ'd pizza's ate a yummy chicken and rice dish, and then later that night roasted marshmallows and made s'mores around a campfire. Then on Thursday, Grandma taught them lessons on developing Christlike attributes. Each grandkiddo was assigned an attribute to give a short little lesson on. They all did a great job. They were each given a statue of Christ to help them remember the things that they learned and who they want to be like. What a treasure the whole experience was. Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa for the amazing lessons and fantastic Memories.

Staven & Ashlee- July 30, 2008

My fabulous brother Stave and his gorgeous wife Ashlee were sealed together forever. Our whole family is super thrilled. We love Ash and we love Stave. The ceremony was perfect. They had a lovely, intimate wedding dinner at this home. There was great BBQ and a fun little program. The Thompson Troop did a dance for everybody and Brigham and I made up a little jingle for our family to sing- honoring the love birds. It wasn't sung in tune- but it was performed with great love.
To end the program- Stave and Ash had a romantic dance, then the parents joined in- followed by anyone else who desired. It was so fun dancing with Brigham, Brig and my dad. Such great gentlemen. Katry also had a sweet dance with her dad and Brig cut up the rug with Aunt J. Seth and Kade ran around eating cookies and causing havoc. We all had a great time.

Uncle Micah, Uncle Heath, Brigham and Kaleb relaxing.


Beautiful Ladies

Showering Our Brides with LOVE

These lucky ladies right here- plus a cute Kelly in Florida are super excited to have two new sisters join the family. (These cute ladies have already joined the family- but since I am back tracking to get a good deal of our happenings recorded here in my picture journal....play along with me and pretend it is really just July 19th and the weddings haven't actually happened yet.) Mom, J and I threw a little shindig in celebration of the upcoming nuptuals. Mom found us a delightful store called "Dear Lizzies" in Highland. It was a super fun backdrop. All the ladies in our family, cousins, aunts, grandma's etc were invited. J put together a super fun video of the Stave and Kaleb answering questions and we ate some super cute cupcakes with huge red and pink flowers on top- all swished down with a yummy cherry drink. Delish. I loved watching my brothers answer the questions- they are just too cute and sooo funny.

These are my beautiful new sisters. Ashlee is married to Staven and she is next to Jaleah and Lindsey belongs to Kaleb ( she is next to me).
Katry was super excited to come along and join in the festivities. She helped me as we played a memory game that involved candy. She loves candy- so it was right up her alley. Isn't she beautiful!
A big thanks to all our fabulous family that came and celebrated with us. My only regret is that we totally spaced sharing more information about Ash and Linds. Woops!

Happy Birthday Daddy-O!

We celebrated Brigham's 37th Birthday on July 16th. It is hard to believe that we are getting so old. My how time flies. Its a good thing that some things get better with age. Brigham is amazing and he is definitely more wonderful every year. This cake threatened to set off the fire alarm.
It is nice to know that his lungs are still in good shape!
37 Things We Love About Dad
1. He is nice (Katry)
2. He is awesome (Seth)
3. He is thoughtful (Brig)
4. I like Daddy (Kaleb)
5. He never gets angry (Heather)
6. I like it when he plays soccer with me (Katry)
7. He plays games with me like Axis and Allies, Risk and wrestling (Seth)
8. Riding bikes with Dad (Brig)
9. I like to play Memory game with Daddy (Kaleb)
10. I love how concerned he is with our happiness (Heather)
11. He is a tease and that is fun......sometimes (Katry)
12. He is happy (Seth)
13. I like talking with Dad (Brig)
14. Wrestling with Dad (Kaleb)
15. I love what a sincere, honest person he is (Heather)
16. I like to race dad when he comes home from work. I'm on my bike, he is in the car (Katry)
17. He is talented- he can fix stuff (Seth)
18. He is a good teacher in work projects (Brig)
19. I like to play Go Fish with daddy. (Kaleb)
20. I love how kind and respectful he is to everyone (Heather)
21. He is a good teacher in soccer (Katry)
22. He is a genius- very smart (Seth)
23. I like how he copes with Kaleb- he doesn't scream (Brig)
24. I like daddy to watch me play soccer (Kaleb)
25. I love how he leads our family to follow Christ (Heather)
26. I love what a good sport he is (Katry)
27. He is athletic, I like to watch him play soccer and basketball (Seth)
28. I like how he wants me to do good (Brig)
29. I like him to tell me stories (Kaleb)
30. I love how caring and considerate of my feelings he is (Heather)
31. He teaches me things I need to know (Katry)
32. He is a master bug killler (Seth)
33. I like how he loves mom so that I know that we have a good strong family (Brig)
34. He takes us to do fun things like Germany(Kaleb)
35. I love how he shows us by example what true love is (Heather)
36. He loves us all so very much (Katry)
37. He is the best Dad in the whole universe (Seth)
WE LOVE YOU DAD THANKS FOR BEING OUR ROCK!

Lavender Days

Lavender Days takes place in Mona, Utah every year around the first of July. It is a celebration of the lavender fields coming into bloom, and a money maker for the company that my dad works for- Young Living. They have a lot of fun things going on. We saw a couple wild west shows, a jousting competition, the kids rode horses...
climbed rock walls.....
and learned to twist a lariat. They also jumped on bounce houses and slid down gigantic balloon slides. A good time was had by all- even if it was a bit hot out. Sizzling!

Happy Birthday Katryanna! #10

What is great about being ten? I am one year older and wiser too!
What is your favorite food? fettuccine alfredo
What is your favorite song? I Belong To The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
What do you like to do? Play soccer, spies with Seth, I like to eat food, read, be with my family.
What is your favorite dessert? ice cream cake
What is your favorite scripture story? King Benjamin, I like it because he taught the people that when they serve each other it is the same as serving Heavenly Father.
What is your favorite present? Marine Mania, candy, lava lamp
What is your favorite color? Light blue
What is your favorite thing to do with your family? play soccer, go swimming, just hanging out with them
What is your favorite animal? Horses, tigers, dolphins and monkeys
What is your favorite book? Little House on the Prairie and Harry Potter
Favorite Sport? soccer
What is the scariest thing you have ever done? Go off the high dive
What is the last chore you did? pick-up and vacuum
How are you like your mom? People say that we look alike
How are you like your dad? We both love soccer
What is the most important thing to you? My family
Ten Words to Describe Katry
1. Beautiful
2. Angel
3. Athletic
4. Aggressive
5. Creative
6. Brilliant
7. Lovable
8. Fun
9. Responsible
10. Peacemaker
A conversation with Katry: The funniest conversation that I can remember with Katry was just a few months ago. Katry has wanted a baby sister forever. That's all she asks for for Christmas and birthdays etc. Well, when we found out that I was expecting we brought her with us when we had the ultrasound done. It was quite obvious that it was a boy. Her little face was just stunned, she was super sad. After we left the room we were walking down the hall holding hands, and I said to her, "Well what do you think?" She replied full of hope, "Maybe it will fall off!"
We love Katry, she is so wonderful in every way. We can't imagine life without her spunk.

We Love America!

The Fourth of July was a lot of fun this year. We went to the parade and had great seats thanks to GmaT and Grandpa. We loved the jets thundering over head, the soldiers past and present marching by, and the warrior missionaries marching on. We are so blessed to live in a country of such great opportunity. Despite its current flaws and struggles, it is still the most blessed nation on the earth, and I have no doubt about the fact that it is a privilege to be an American.
Aunt Jaleah- Soon to be Aunt Lindsey (Uncle Kaleb's finance), & GmaT
Uncle Staven and Aunt Ashlee and Grandpa
Grandpa and 2 1/2 month old Cutie Kai
After the parade we headed up American Fork canyon to Tibblefork and had a fun picnic lunch and rowed on grandpa's canoe. Those that were brave enough got into the icy water. Micah humored me with throwing the frisbee back and forth. I am not a great frisbee thrower. It was so beautiful up there. It reminded me of Southern Germany, and here it is right in our own back yard. After that, Dad and Mom took me out to the Spagetti Factory for a birthday dinner. It was delish and the company was superb. Thanks! I guess I am officially old now- because I opted out of waiting up for the fireworks and just went to bed. I was just too exhausted. I knew this day would come I just didn't expect it to hit me when I was still relatively young. Ouch! I am going to blame it on being a nursing mom and I am just plain exhausted most of the time. :)
We love you America! Land of the free because of the brave!