While Dad is Away, Mom and Children will PLAY!

What a super fun Deer Widow's weekend we've had. Dave left thursday, and I'll admit I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, but I didn't let that get me down. Instead, I made the best out of it. I started off with treating myself to shopping and lunch with my sister on Thursday. Got some super cute stuff at Nordstroms. I hardly ever shop at Nordstroms, but when I heard they had a New Moon line of clothing, I had to go take a look. Really, I went because one of my YW (Kristen) is on the teen fashion board and got entered into a drawing for every card with her name that was turned in. I think we got 6 or 7 turned in for her. Hope she wins something fabulous! To shop at Nordstroms you have to have ALOT of money. Holy Cow - The boots I want are only $297. I'm sure Dave won't mind if I get those in brown and black. Haha!

Friday I watched my friend Denza's cute little girls, Kylee and Alexa. Wow, I forgot how crazy it is having little kids running around the house. My house isn't baby proof anymore, funny how things change. Friday afternoon Jessy and Cody both went to friends houses while Kassy, her friend Brianna, and I went back to Nordstroms to see Kristen in the New Moon Fashion Show. Kristen looked great in her "New Moon" clothes. After that I picked up kids and headed home to wash the car. It took me a really long time to wash my car though, because friends kept stopping by - not complaining, it was so good to see Scarlett, Stacey, Connie, and Jeanette. I love chatting with friends, just ask Dave or my kids. Later that night Denza and her girls came over and we picked up dinner and brought it back to the house so the kids could play, or in Kassy's case, "hang-out". It gave me another chance to chat with a friend. Sleep overs, late nights, and movies, perfect for a Friday Night.

Saturday brought more fun as well as work. We got up in the morning and went to watch our friend Mikayla's last soccer game of the season (which by the way if you read my previous post you know Cody had his last soccer game - Not as succesful as the others. Played a super hard time. Final Score was 6 - 2. Not in our favor. You win some you lose some.) Once the soccer game was over the work began, we headed home to do some chores. Good news - the house looks clean and the lawn is mowed. Reward for all our hard work, we went to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point. It was a blast and we only had one small issue over a chair. Below are some pictures to show you how much fun we had. All in all, it was a pretty great weekend. Enjoy - we sure did!

Kassy, Cody, Karey and Jessy - Thanksgiving Point "Scarecrow Festival"

Mikayla, Jessy and Cody. Cody won't ever let me take his picture when I want to, but when I am trying to take someone elses picture he always seems to pop in! Jessy is so Bendy - Flexy!

Kassy and Kylee - Notice Cody trying to sneek in - AGAIN! Jessy in the background.

Alexa was such a trooper.

Karey and Denza.

End to a fantasic weekend. Would have been better if our dad's would have been there with us, but we made due without.

One more quick thing....On Thursday night when Jessy was saying her prayers she said, "Please bless my dad that he won't see a deer so he won't be able to shot it." Busted me up!! As of 9:00 tonight Jessy's prayer still was answered, no Deer for Dave. We will see what tomorow brings!

A Little Bit of This and a Whole Lot of That

HALLOWEEN SEASON
I love this time of year, it's my favorite. I love the changing leaves, the end of the harvest, the yummy smells of the season, the clothes that you wear this time of year (t-shirts, jeans, flip flops and a sweat shirt as needed), the excitement of Halloween, picking pumpkins, and going to see the witches at Gardner Village. It's the best time of the year!!!

Here are a few pictures from some of our recent Halloween adventures!

Picking pumpkins for family home evening.
The girls

The Boys

Kassy

Jessy

Cody

Gardner Village - The Witches
Dave - looking thrilled, as always!

Kassy, Cody and Jessy

WEEKEND AT THE CABIN

Thanks to Brian and Michele and their family for inviting us to spend the weekend at Michele's parents cabin. We had such a great time. The kids loved being with their cousins and Dave and I loved getting away. The best part about the weekend was that we didn't do a whole lot of anything. We lounged around ALOT, took a MUDDY ride, and played games (Michele, do you think our version of Apples to Apples would be as funny if we had played it earlier in the day?). What a fabulous way to spend a weekend!

Jessy, creating a masterpiece!

Nap time!

Jessy, Dave and Brody

Muddiest Ride EVER!!

I think we might need to get one of these - super fun!

SOCCER
The soccer season is quickly coming to a close. Cody's last game is Wednesday night. I have to admit I am going to miss watching him play soccer, but I won't miss the 2 games a week plus a practice.

When soccer season began I was a bit worried about Cody's "skills" or shall I say lack of. He ran really hard and alot, but usually he was running away from the ball, not to it. The first few games were almost painful to watch. I remember yelling at him several times to run to the ball. We almost had to ban Dave from coming because he would get so frustrated. As for his team, hmmm, not the greatest players. This was the first time playing for a few of them and some of them seem to live in lala land (Not a bad place to visit at the right time). The first few games we lost. Finally on the Saturday pictures were being taken, the team got their first win. It was a big one at that. 11 to 1. WOW! It did something to our team and all of a sudden they began playing!!! The next game was more of the same, not as high scoring, but still an impressive improvement over the first part of the season. Cody had 4 shots that night. 2 of them were just short and the other 2 blocked. He was happy about the win, but a bit sad that he hadn't gotten a goal. We reminded him that he played an important part by being a great defender and getting the ball to those who had scored. I yelled less at him to run to the ball and more at him to take it all the way!! He was EVERYWHERE!

On the way to last Saturday's game, Cody told Dave and I that he was going to get a goal. We said that would be great, but the most important thing was to just do his BEST. His best was AWESOME! He was unstopable! If he wasn't running down the field with the ball, he was taking it away from someone, passing it to someone else, blocking it, or making a goal - 3 goals to be exact. It was fun to see his face beam with pride each time he made a goal. Each time he got a goal he would hold up that many fingers to show us. At the end of the game he held up 3 fingers and kept those fingers up pretty much the rest of the day. As he ran down the field to give the other team five, I had to laugh when I noticed he wasn't giving 5's but 3's. Way to go Cody!!! 3 might be his new favorite number.

So, like I said, one game left. We are hoping for another win, and a few more goals. As for now HIGH "3's" to you all!

Cody is on the Dark Blue Team. There team name is Blue Fire Breathing Monsters. We call them Blue Fire for short!

Give me 3! Seriously he kept his fingers like that most of the day!

Whew! The end!

Tribute to my sister

God made us sisters, but we chose to be friends! Love to sisters everywhere!
Kassy and Jessy - sisters and friends!

You know that one person who's always there no matter what, loves you because of your faults and insecurities, doesn't care if you don't call everyday, but loves it when you do, is willing to do anything for you, you can disagree with and it doesn't matter because each of you are unique with your own unique style. We all should have at least one of those people in our lives, if not more. For me one of those people is my sister. I would be lost without her!! She is not only my sister, she is my best friend. The crazy thing about that is, I think back to our younger years and think, "hated her", the feeling was mutual. To put it mildly, we did NOT GET ALONG! She was way to cool to associate with the likes of me. LOL! I'm not sure exactly when that all changed, but I am so glad she came to her senses and realized just how cool I am - hehehe. She has been my "life savor" over and over and I can't even begin to express my apprecaitation, love and grattitude to her. Jen - Thanks for all you do for me. You are the best sister ever!

Hawaii
Yellowstone

Being silly

As to the rest of you who maybe reading my blog, I just want you to know how much I love and appreciate you. We may not be sisters through blood, but we are definatley sisters through love. Thanks to all of you for being their for me as well. I couldn't ask for better "sistas".

Book Reviews

I've been MIA for the past few weeks due to the fact that I have had my nose stuck in a book, actually several books. I thought I'd share with you some of my book "experiences". If you are interested, I've got a book list on my Blog that I will continue to add to.

I use to be a huge reader then I stopped because I didn't have time for it. Kassy really wanted to read The Twilight Series, but My sister-in-laws suggested I read it before letting Kassy read it to make sure I was okay with the "material". Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. As many of you already know, I read the series multiple times - love it!! Just so you know, I let Kassy read the 1st 3, but told her we would have to read the 4th 1 together. She has opted to wait until she can read it on her own, which might be awihle. After months of obsessing with "Twilight", I decided it was time to move on to something new. My friend Monica suggested the "Hunger Games", by: Suzanne Collins. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do. (For you Twilight fans, Stephanie Meyer recommends this series as well. She says, "I was obsessed with this book I had to take it with me out to dinner and hide it under the edge of the so table so I wouldn't have to stop reading..." They really are that good. There are 3 in the series. Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and a third one to be released next August. If you are like me and hate waiting for the next book in a series, I would suggest waiting until next August to read them. If you can be patient, go for it NOW! I devoured both books as soon as I got my hands on them and can't wait for the third one. She left me totally hanging. I love Katniss and Peeta.

My little brother also felt as if I might need some help in getting over my Twilight obsession. He said I needed to, "broden my horizons". He gave me "The Secret Life of Bees" by: Sue Monk Kidd, which I loved and now want to watch the movie, and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" by: Gregory Maguire - the author of Wicked. It is an interesting version of the Cinderella story. I struggled with it at first, I think because Cinderella is engraved in my head a totally different way and it was hard for me to see a different perspective. It was a little slow for my liking, however, in the end I liked how it was wrapped up and was proud of myself for going outside of my reading comfort zone.

Right before all the above mentioned books, I read a few of John Grishams books. "A Painted House", "The Broker" and "The king of Torts". All of these books were great, but then I think pretty much everything John Grisham has written has been great. He's got a whole list of books if you need a great read. I also read his newest one, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. It just came out in paperback.

My most recent readings have been from Richelle Mead and Alyson Noel. Richelle is the Author of "Vampire Academy". These books sucked me in just like "Twilight" did. I found myself pondering over the books when I wasn't reading them and becoming consumed by the characters. I loved Rose. She is a sassy half vampire, half human, wanna be guardian of her best friend Liss who is a full Mori vampire. I also love Dimitri he is Roses teacher/trainer/you'll have to read them to find out what else. There are 4 in this series that are out, with 2 more forth coming - AGH. Again, I can't wait for them to come out. Alsyon Noel is the Author of "Ever More" and "Blue Moon", another series that has one coming out next fall. This wasn't my favorite series, I think maybe because I always felt bad for the main character Ever, she has to go through so much. That being said, I still liked them and will read the next 1 as soon as it comes out. My biggest issue with both of these series is the language. Really, I don't understand why they have to throw in the swear words. I think that is one of the reason so many of us liked "The Twilight Series". They were written with such intense feeling that made us believe they were real and because the language for the most part was clean. I remember maybe 5 or less swear words in the entire series. Way to go Stephanie Meyer. I wish all writers would take her lead and clean up their writing.

So there are my book, reviews for the day. I've read a bunch more, but none that I feel as if I need to write anything about. As you can see I love to read. I think one of the main reasons I stopped reading was because I get so engrossed with a book that I can't do anything else. I just have to read and read and read and READ until it is done. That becomes an extremely huge problem when I read a series. If any of you have a book that you loved please let me know, I am always looking for a good book. Happy Reading to you all.

Journey of the Trail - Trek 2009

Recap of Trek 2009 - Tonight was our Family Reunion - It was great to see all of our "kids".

I have to admit, as a youth I never-ever-ever wanted to go on trek. My sister told me horror stories about the trek she went on, so when it was my turn to go I found every reason possible as to why I couldn't go. Years later I regreted not going so when Dave and I got asked tobe a Ma and Pa 8 years ago, I was so excited. Unfortunatley we couldnt go (pregnant with Jessy) so my fullfillment of trek dreams was crushed. Then 4 years later we were asked again to go as Ma and Pa and again we had to say no (Trek fell on Kassy's 8th birthday). As they say, third time is a charm, and it truely was. I was so excited when we got called as Ma and Pa, and yea, we could actually go. Dave was okay with the idea until he heard we had to sing, dance and play games. Our previous bishop wrote me in an email to tell Dave not to fear because not all Pioneers sand and danced, some were used for their muscle. That began to be my own personal joke. I wasn't taking Dave for anything but his "Srength"!

Preparing for Trek was a huge challenge, very time consuming and very expensive. I have joked that I've paid my fast offerings for the year in what I paid out in Trek - lol! Dave was super busy with work, school and come on let's be honest, play. He wasn't a ton of help in getting things put together. I do have to admit though, that I am a bit of a freak and have a tendency to go over board in preparing. (I know some of you are saying to yourselves right about now - REALLY?)

The time for trek finally came. I was nervous about leaving my kids, worried about my health, due to some health issues I had in the early spring and scared to death about pulling off a worth while experience for our Trek "family". But all my fears were soon erased. Our Trek Family - affectinatley known as "Da Mormons, surpassed all of my hopes of having a great family. Each one of them brought something special to our family. I feel honored to call them my kids and humbled to have them continue to call me their "TREK MA".

So here's the quick version of Trek - otherwise this could get a bit lengthy. Family: Pa - Dave, Ma - Karey, Big bro - John, Big sis - Jen, kids in no particular order - Sean, Chase, David, Wilson, Jordan, Heidi, Shandy and Lindsey. They made our family complete, they never complained, they helped out and as a bonus for Dave they weren't huge on playing games or singing songs - However our boys would sing little inserts of songs to entertain themselves as they walked. It was entertaining for all of us. The boys also played a game that I'll call kick the rock. I know, sounds kind of boring, but whatever entertains. Rules for the game, kick the rock until it goes off the trail! Our girls brought pretty amazing qualities with them. Heidi hurt her arm yet carried on. Shandy had blisters so bad she could hardley walk, yet she carried on. And Lindsey had 1 of her hands on the cart literally the whole time, carrying on. All of our kids hold a special place in my heart!

I know, I know, quick version! Fabulous Food, Great Games, Learning Opportunities and Spirital Growth sum up Trek pretty quickly. I am so glad that I was finally able to go. My hope is that in 4 years I will be able to go again and be there with Kassy. Just 1 final thing and then I'll wrap up this post. Like I said before I was taking Dave for his "strength" joking like meaning muscle, but what I got was his "strength" in so many other ways. 1 of the most powerful moments for me on Trek was when Dave was asked to fight in with the mormon battalion and had to leave. I was very aware of his strength leaving me and knowing that I had to pull the weight without him - something I do not EVER want to have to do again. Pulling the cart with my girls on the women's pull truely was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. As I came up over the top of the hill I couldn't look at Dave because I knew if I did Iwould lose it. Once the pull was over and the boys took the cart from us. Dave said "good job" Those words meant more then he will ever know. Dave at times drvies me CRAZY, but he truely is my strength (wow - sappy)!

So much more I could add, but I think I better call it a wrap. Below are some pictures of our incredible adventure. We are 'Da Mormons!!

Ward Family - Right before we loaded the buses

Ma and Pa

'Da Boys

'Da Girls

'Da End!