Wheelin' Jazz

David took me to watch my brother-in-law, Jason, play basketball on Friday night. Woo Hoo! A date! Jason plays for the Wheelin’ Jazz basketball team. We don't get to watch him very often because they play in tournaments all over the country, but they hosted one here in Salt Lake this weekend. We watched them play the #1 team from Dallas and then a team from LA. The Jazz are 3rd in the nation out of about 200 teams. It is fun to watch, but also pretty brutal. It’s amazing how physical they are with their chairs crashing into each other all the time. Can you imagine shooting baskets sitting down? Jason is on the left in the picture above. Here is a link to his team profile. Check it out and help Jason get most popular page on their site. :)
http://www.wheelinjazz.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24:jason-hokansons-profile&catid=47&Itemid=16

Best Food Storage Site

If you're interested in food storage, check-out this website. It has great tips and ideas for planning, storing and eating food storage. I used their 7-day challenge scenarios at a Relief Society activity and we had a fun time realizing where we're prepared and where we could use a little more work.
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

This week in our Life

Liberty Girls at the Hutchings Museum where we participated in a Molly mystery.


Nicole's Birthday
Two of her friends came and "decorated" her room before she got home from school.

Her favorite meal: chicken alfredo on angel hair pasta with sundried tomato baguettes, salad and broccoli. Okay, the broccoli was my idea.

Pretty dress from Grandma. She loves it. Wore it to church today.

Silly, happy children. Tip of the day: if your cake falls apart when you're taking it out of the pans, just cut it into cubes and layer it with ganache in a trifle bowl. I used evaporated milk and it turned out delicious!

David thought Darci's ice-cream antics were picture worthy.

October Pictures

We love our Brother

Last night, Darci and Elisabeth were helping clear the table after dinner and they decided to make up a plate for Davy to eat when he got home from football practice. They put the food on a plate, covered it with a pot lid and left some notes on post-its.

"Dear Davy in joy" "it's yum withe salt and suer creme" "You can put salt and pepr on it" "this is for you :-) Love B.D.E." "thre is food undr the pan if you want" "did you have fun yes/no" "Plese ansr the stiky nost"

Notwithstanding the realization our spelling needs a little work around here, I thought it was terribly cute!! Thanks for thinking of your brother, girls.

First: Day of School, Football Game, cookies

School arrived! Everyone around here was pretty excited. They all liked their classes and had a good day. Elisabeth was happy she had three recesses and was excited about lunch at school. Darci was happy she had her own desk and no homework. Davy was glad he got to decorate his journal with motorcycles. Beka was happy to have a locker all to herself. Nicole liked her teachers.
Davy played his first football game on Saturday. The coaches have done a great job helping the kids learn their responsibilities. It was super hot, but they just kept on giving it their all. Davy plays almost the whole time as offensive left tackle, defensive nose guard, and on the punt and kick-off teams. He got a few great tackles, but most of the time kept two or three guys busy at the line so the QB could make good passes.

I took Darci and Elisabeth shopping yesterday to spend their gift cards they got for their birthdays. Darci bought a soccer ball and Elisabeth got playdough which they used to make me these cookies. They are great- no calories!

Grandma's House

We took a family outing to my Grandma's house two weeks ago. We had a nice time visiting with Grandma and helping her with some household stuff. David mowed the lawn and the girls helped shine things up inside. And then we played. I let Grandma entertain me while the kids rode ATVs with Dad and swam in the creek. Nicole, as usual, had her nose in a book. I had to take a photo of her reading on the swing-set, because you could have found me in the exact spot 25 or so years ago. And probably my mother before that, and my grandmother, would have read there preswing. It's the same ground my family has ranched for over 100 years.
I feel something deep and reverenced when I think of that. There's something intensely personal about standing on a piece of ground marked with greatness. Isn't that part of the reason people travel to Jerusalem or Mecca or Cumorah? To feel the atmosphere of the place someone great once walked? To feel as if you're seeing the same skyline, breathing the same air, touching the same soil? For me, being at Grandma's house is the tangible reality of the family history making me me.