Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house. The whole weekend was kicked off with "Pie Night" at the Horton's house. My friend Wendy spends days makes tons of pies (Razzleberry, S'more, Reese's, Dutch Apple, Banana Cream, and more!!!). Unfortunately Steve had to work, which is too bad because pie is his favorite dessert, but Mom and Belle came with me over to visit. We left with a couple of extra slices to enjoy later in the evening.



The next morning I got up and prepped the bird. I had pulled Martha Stewart's Thanksgiving dinner recipes off the internet. So this year we were having a Maple Glazed Turkey. Mom and I worked on side dishes, snacked, made rolls, snacked, watched the Macy's parade, and yes we snacked some more.



We had a bunch of pumpkins left over so Steve allowed the kids to carve them up. We spread newspapers on the floor and set out the carving tools and let them goto town. There designs were interesting, but the best part is it kept them busy. Steve took all the seeds and cooked them in the frying pan. They were quite tasty.

The menu for our Thanksgiving:

• Maple Glazed Turkey
• Chestnut & Apple Dressing
• Candied Sweet Potatoe Casserole
• Corn Souffle
• Italian Green Beans
• Fresh Cranberry Sauce
• Turkey Tail Rolls
• Pecan Pie
• Apple Pie

Once the meal was eaten and the dish done, which my wonderful husband cleaned by hand. He's a keeper. I sat done with the massive stack of ads and began to come up with a game plan for my "Black Friday" shopping spree. I went out again with my friends Stacy and Dayna, but this year my dad came along. We got some good deals and had a great time.

Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving with your families.

Early Halloween

Our church had their Halloween Party last night. This year we decided to do Halloween a little frugally. The kids went through the box of old costumes and the dress up box and chose costumes. Every year Steve asks what I am going to dress up as. So this year I pulled out a witch costumes from a few years back and decided I would get into the act. I think Steve was pretty pleased to be getting dressed up and wore a scarecrow costume I made for him a few years back.

• Steve- the Scarecrow
• Nikki- a Witch
• Zack- Harry Potter
• Belle- Dorothy
• Katie- Charmander
• Becky- a Groovy Witch

Katie has been so excited to be going as a Pokemon. I made Belle ruby slipper from a pair of shoes I bought at DI. It was a little frustrating because the glitter wasn't sticking, but I eventually got it to work. Then I worked on Becky's cotumes. All I can say is she looks way too grown up. Everyone looked great.

There was a huge turn out at the church. All the kids looked fabulous. Not many adults dressed up so Steve and I really stood out in a crowd. My freind Annette said my costumes was quite appropriate for me, too funny. We had a light supper of soups and rolls and then we all participated in the parade. After the parade was over the kids went and played games. One of the funest ones to watch was the kids eatting the donut off of the string. Too funny. While the games were finishing up the parents headed out to the cars to get all set for the trunk-o-treating. We have some of the coolest kids. Lots of thank yous and not a ton of puching and grabbing. Luckily Tuesday ahd been the warmest day we had had in almost 2 weeks and it made the evening pretty comfortable for the event. Good thing it was yesterday, today the temperature is suppose to drop 3o degrees and even snow, YIKES!!!!!

We still have a school trunk-o-treating to participate in, school parties and trick-o-treating on Halloween night. I never realized that Halloween was such a huge holiday. I remember when you only got dressed up once and that was it. Now it is a HUGE production.

It has been one whole month since I have updated my blog. Life has been crazy!! So, I want to get you all caught up with what has been happening in the Weber household.

I wanted to share a picture of the kids enjoying the last HOT day of 2006. Our neighbor Wendy invited to her inlaw's house to swim. All the kids had a great time. And it was fun to take advantage of the last day of summer.

I have joined a bowling league (sorry, no photos yet) I am on a team with my friends Dayna and Lucy. They are both pretty good bowlers. My game is not quite threatening. BUT it has been a blast. All the women that are in the league seem so friendly and nice. It is a fun thing to do on a Monday morning. It also gives us a chance to visit with some of the other women from our neighborhood that we don't see very often.

Katie and Becky finished up their soccer season last week. They had a great time. Katie is a little less enthusiastic about playing, but Becky...HOLY HANNAH. She is aggressive. Steve and I were both impressed at how she caught on to the game. Next they want to try basketball in the next couple of months, along with Zachary. Belle is still involved in her dance team. She has class for an hour and a half every week and the practices in her rooms as much as possible.

The girlie girls (Katie and Becky) celebrated their 7th birthday on the same day as the church primary program, which they thought was a huge honor. I cannot believe that my babies are already 7 years old. But they are still very much little girls. Steve and I talked about when Belle turned 7 and she received all her Bratz stuff and she just acted so much older. Katie and Becky were pleased as punch to get a Doodle Bear, plastic ice cream cones and books about horses. Papa and Gramma Sansevero bought them an outfit they makes them look so grown up!! YIKES!!!!

Papa and Grandma Weber sent them gift cards (the girls call them credit cards) to Target to shop. Katie picked out a pretend vet kit and a My Little Pet Shop animal. Becky chose a stuff animal and a Cabbage Patch premmie baby. Too cute. Becky had her little birth certificate filled out as soon as we got home and spent the evening answering the questions in the little baby book that came along with the doll.

Things have been busy at both of the kid's schools. I have started doing "Junior Great Books" with Belle's class once a week. The children read a story on Tuesday in class, then read it again Tuesday night as homework and also come up with 3 question about the story. Then Wednesday 3 volunteers and I come and split the class up into smaller groups and kids of have a book club discussion. It is very cool. I have also taught art to Zack's class. I spoke to them about Edgar Degas and then had them do an art project use a technique of his. It was a lot of fun. I only have to do this once a month really think it is going to be fun. I have also been busy with PTA and Katie and Becky's school. We are halfway through the fundraiser chaos. We have placed orders and collected most of the money. Next will be the delivery of the stuff that will have to be distributed to the children. We also had Red Ribbon Week this past week. Every day had a theme. Katie and Becky's favorite them was the CRAZY HAIR DAY!!!

Bend It Like Becky (and Katie)

Today was Katie and Becky's first day of Soccer. They decided this year to skip dancing and give athletics a try. They have been so excited about soccer. We had a meeting and a short practice on Saturday. That is when they first got their uniforms. Then we bought some shin guards (essential when there are 9 other 7 year olds trying to kick 1 soccer ball) and their cleats.

Their coach is our neighbor Kirk and his daughter, who they already are friends, with is on the team. They also have a girl from their 1st grade class on the team.

It is so much fun to watch my children learn new skills and have fun.

Basic Grey Anatomy

One of the SILLY, but fun parts of CKU is the dorm contests. Not everyone participates, but Sarah and I are die hards. I think we have managed to bring Kim over to the dark side too. This year we chose "BASIC GREY ANATOMY" as our them and name. For the non scrapbookers out there, Basic Grey is a paper company and so we played with the whole medical theme from Grey's Anatomy. Members of our dorm were (from left to right):

• Suzanne
• Kim
• Deb
• Me
• Catherine
• Teri

With Suzanne's husband being a doctor, my husband a pharmacist and other relatives are nurses; we were able to acquire some fun goodies to decorate our tables. We filled the syringes with eyelets and buttons, Steve brought home prescription bottles that I decorated and filled with candies, we had a "layout in distress" as the centerpiece of our table and and IV hooked up to it. It sounds a bit corny now in the real world, but it was quite cute. We all dressed up in hospital scrubs and wore pink Crocs (this freaked Steve out, he finds them extremely unattractive).

Catherine sewed the Basic Grey paper to make masks and Suzanne decorated stethoscope that we wore as our name tags. Deb had decorated band aid tins with the Basic Grey paper and had bubble gum bandaids in side.

We actually won one of the contests for our costumes. The prize was a little bit of a let down, but there was much satisfaction in FINALLY winning on of these silly contests.

Freedom Trail

Sunday I returned from my trip to Boston, Massachusetts. My main reason to go back to the east coast was to attend CKU and get together with Kim and Sarah (aka my Maine Buddies) . But since I was there my travel buddy Suzanne and I decided to take in some of the sites on the one "free" day we had. We took the shuttle from our hotel to the beginning of the Freedom Trail. Some of the sites that we saw as we followed the red brick trail were:

• BOSTON COMMON
• PARK STREET CHURCH
• GRANARY BURYING GROUND
• KING'S CHAPEL
• OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE
• FANEUIL HALL
• PAUL REVERE HOUSE
• COPP'S BURY GROUND
• OLD NORTH CHURCH
• USS CONSTITUTION

It is kind weird walking along and seeing modern buildings and then in the middle will be church or meeting house that is 300 years old wedge in. The Granary Burying Ground was probably one of my favorite spots. The headstones have such interesting images; skulls with wings, flowers neat inscriptions. We saw where Paul Revere was buried and the monument to mark where John Hancock was laid to rest and as we let the burial ground we caught a glimpse of Samuel Adam's resting place.

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We also walked around Faneuil Hall and returned later in the day to do shopping there. That area has so much energy. There was a man propped up next to a building playing plastic buckets and metal pans, a clown making balloon animals for the children and some young men with boom boxes dancing-kind of.

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We walked through a neighborhood that was a "Little Italy". This was probably my favorite spot. The streets were lined with pastry shops, Italian restaurants, and Gelato shops. Can you say, "MMMmmmmmmm". We went to a pastry shop that had been recommended by our neighbors (thanks Lindsi!!!) named Mike's Pastry. I bought a canoli, some pizzelles and Suzanne bought a whoopie pie and some chocolate dipped strawberries. We came back to that Little Italy area and had dinner that night. We ate at a restaurant named La Dolce Vida. The food in this restaurant was to die for, I had some gnoochi in a pink sauce. H-E-A-V-E-N!!!!

We also walked to the USS Constitution. Initially I was not too excited to see a ship. I am just not into the whole "nautical" thing, but it was actually kind of neat to stand on its deck. My first impression was that I was so surprised at how small the ship was. After watching Pirates of the Caribbean I thought those ships were gigantic.

I enjoyed my day of walking around the city. Suzanne was an awesome traveling buddy, but I hope to go back sometime with Steve and the kids and do the whole thing with them.

Emery County Fair

This past weekend the kids and I went down to Ferron to visit my parents and attend the Emery County Fair.

It all started off with sitting on the side of the road in Castle Dale and watching tIe "floats" pass by. The girls were all excited to see girls wearing crowns and cheerleaders dancing, but the best part was ALL the C-A-N-D-Y that they scored.

Following the parade we walked over to the town museum and looked at the different art work that had been created by members of the community: quilts, afghans, turned bowls, paintings, widdled figurines, bronze sculptures...There was some beautiful stuff. Then we sat outside the museum and listened to a local performer sing and play his guitar while Papa and Zack shot bows and arrows.

We finally wandered over to the fair grounds and the kids got to play on the slides and bounce equipment.

Once they had bounced their little hearts out Zack and Belle decided to give the rock wall a try. Zack only made it about half way up, but Belle made it all the way to the top. I was shocked. She can do anything she can put her mind to.

We visited the different booths. I bought one of those cute wooden wall plaques that says, "All because two people fell in love". After visiting all the booths we wandered over to the food area. So many choices, so little room in my tummy: ribs, BBQ corn, Navajo tacos, scones, Corn dogs, burgers, Chinese food,Pizza, frozen bananas (which Becky and Belle manage to wear more than got into the tummies).

It was a fun way to spend a summer day. I know my parents get a kick from showing their grandchildren off to all their friends.

Back to School

Yes I am not joking...We have gone back to school already.


After 3 weeks of summer vacation ALL of my children headed back to school. This year I have a 5th grader, a 3rd grader and 2 - 1st graders. That's right Katie and Becky began all day school!!!
Zack and Belle both began the ALPS (accelerated learning program) at a new school. It is the same distant away as Elk Meadows so they can still ride their bikes and scooters. Belle's friend Ryan is also going to the new school and they even lucked out and got to be in the same class. And Zack will also have a familiar face in his classroom since Trae has also transferred schools.
Both Zack and Belle were a little nervous about the change, but by the time they came home they had smiles on their faces and were excited about their new teachers: Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Lybbert.


Katie and Becky started a day later than Zack and Belle. They were so excited, to the point that they were impossible to live with for the couple of days preceding the first day. They would ask questions hourly,

"Mommy, I wonder what our teacher will be like"

"I wonder who will be in our class"

"Do you think we will see Miss Snow?"

"How many days now until we leave?"

I am glad that they are so enthusiastic to learn and go to school. I am sure they will do well. I think they are excited about their new independence too. They get to ride their bikes to school and make their own school lunches. I can't believe my babies are in school all day long.

Finally...Our Trip to New England

Last night my friend Wendy informed me that I needed to blog.

Life has been crazy since we got back from Rhode Island, but I am finally sitting down on the computer and filling you all in on our trip.

Instead of spending our whole trip in Rhode Island, Steve's family decided it would be fun to go to New Hampshire together. His sister, Suzy, opens a condo there and Steve's parents rented another on that was next door.
So we all:

• Suzy and her son Eli
• Sandy and her kids Alex & Will
• Steve and I and our brood Zack, Belle, Katie & Becky
• Scott, his wife Jen and their children Abby & Tyler
• And last, but certainly not least Mom and Dad Weber

Met up in New Hampshire on Monday. The kids ran around outside and got reacquainted with each other. The women folk went food shopping and then came home and had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. Then the kids got to roast marshmallows and have smores. Steve diverted Suzy's attention and the rest of the gang ran into one of the condos and hid so we could surprise Suzy with a 40th Birthday Celebration. She seemed to be surprised we had done this for her. Jen made a cute cake and Eli, who is 7, had even managed to buy his mom and birthday gift and smuggled it to New Hampshire in his car.

We spent a great majority of our time swimming. All the children enjoyed going to the pool. I think the dads even had some fun playing with the children. We took a trip to Loon Mountain and rode the gondola to the top and had the kids play in some rock caves and climb a little tower. There was also a trip to some water falls and streams that everyone played in. We also went to a little pond that had a floating dock and paddle boats that could be borrowed. Steve and some of the boys went frog hunting and found a HUGE, BRIGHT GREEN FROG.

As you might expect there was some game playing. Sequence was a big hit with everyone. The little boys spent time playing their Gamboys together. One of the most fun activities was when we pulled the Guesstures game out. We formed 2 teams and had a blast watching each person act out their clues. It was H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!!

A good time was had by all. When Thursday finally rolled around we cleanup the two condos, packed up our belongs and headed back to Rhode Island. We spent the remainder of our trip in Rhode Island. We even managed to squeeze a trip to the beach.

One More Camping Trip

June 30th was the last day of school!!

To help celebrate we have made a tradition of going camping the same day that the children are let out of school. Last year we invited our friends the Duves to join us and this year the Duves came along, but we also invited another family the Nighs along. Each family consists of 6 people, so we totaled 18 and has 3 sites at Smith Morehouse Campground.

What we did on our vacation:

• Fishing
• Eating
• Playing games
• Eating
• Taking walks
• Eating
• Wading in the reservoir
• Eating
• Canoeing
• Eating
• Chatting
• & don't forget Eating

The scariest part of the trip. Steve when tout in the canoe with some of the kids. As he paddled across the lake Daisy decided she would follow. Those of us standing on the shore tried calling her back, but she was focused on being with Steve. Once Steve realized that Daisy was tailing behind he made his way to the far side of the lake and the other shore. Daisy slowed down a bit. We were all afraid she would not make it. Finally we saw her pull herself up onto the shore. She was so exhausted after he little adventure she hardly moved for 2 days after the swim.

Another cute memory for me was my friend's son Heston. He is about about 3 years old and is just so stinkin' cute. When we went to the reservoir he's dad had a little fishing rod for him to use and Heston was one of the only people that day to catch a fish and he was so excited. Unfortunately the fish had ripped a gill and did not survive. Heston's dad tried to save the little fishy. Then Heston's big sister came over and took the little fish and threw into out into the lake. Not long after that a seagull came by, swooped down and gobbled up that fish.

"Poor fishy."

One of the best parts of this camping trip for Steve and I was when the kids were safe in their tents and the adults congregated at the picnic table, played games and ate the grown up treats. It is so nice to have good friends. Lots of laughing and sharing how each one of the couple met. We had some fun conversations. I still think Dayna does something sneaky when we play Kaboom, but I can't prove it yet. BTW...Congrats on your win Dayna!!!

Yellowstone: Part 2

As we came around the corner for the Fishing Bridge there was more traffic. We began asking people standing on the sides of the road what they could see. Their reply,

"A GRIZZLY BEAR".

Sure enough in the middle of this field was a small grizzly bear laying there.
We pulled our truck off to the side of the road and joined the rest of the vacationers. It laid there for a while and then got up and ate its way through the dandelions, closer and closer to us. There were a couple of Park Rangers there that were controlling the situation. We took 2 rolls of film and about 20 digital images of the bear. A couple of people commented that the bear was pretty small, but as we stood there and watched him eat and lay down I got a good look at his crawls and came to the conclusion that he was big enough for me. When the Park Ranger informed us that if the bear got any closer to us, he was going to clear out the area we decided it would be best to leave.

We took a long and uneventful drive around Yellowstone Lake. After having encountered so many neat animals in such a short time, this part of the drive was a bit boring. Just before we got to our camp ground we saw to women taking pictures of something. I thought, "It is probably another bison".
But, it wasn't. It was a coyote standing around the picnic tables. We got out of the truck and watched the coyote. He walked around behind the picnic table and then stopped for a moment. It was watching something very closely. Then he pounced on a mouse and ate it. We took a few more photos and moved on.

We decided after a few hours of seeing animals and wilderness we would head into West Yellowstone and have an ice cream and do some window shopping. As we were leaving the park we hit, traffic again. There was a bison standing on the side of the road and on the other side of the road was a small group of full grown and baby bison. It appears that the one bison was acting as a crossing guard so that the small herd could cross and join him and the others on the side of the road. We got a couple of neat, fairly close pictures of those beautiful animals.

On the way back from West Yellowstone we saw a beautiful bald eagle perched on a log. Not far from where he was perched was her nest with 2 babies in it. We did not get a good view of the babies, but Steve got a couple of good shots of the eagle. It was incredible. I have never seen one of those in person. Once we finally got back to came, we began to make our supper. Steve went up to the restrooms and when he returned he told me there was 4 bison right there in came. I went and looked at them. It was kind of a surreal moment.

We saw so much in those short 2 days. I feel like this short blog entry doesn't even do justice to what we saw.