Fall 2011

After carving pumpkins Nolan was trying to decide if he was still glad to be home or not. I never knew he hated it as much as Morgan did. I think it's great fun sticking your hands in all the gooey, slimy guts. NOT but it's a tradition and traditions can not be broken. So they did it just to appease me. They turned out pretty cute too. We had a great surprise of having Brielle and Madden come down here to trick or treat. Adam and Nolan took her around our neighborhood before it got too dark and then he drove her to a few houses around town. Brielle loved it and was really getting into the free candy spirit. She dressed up like Super Girl and Madden was Super Man.

Thanksgiving time rolled around and we had a great day. I am so grateful for my family being all together again and safe. We had dinner at our house and it was kind of a small group this year. My brother, sister in-law, dad and brother in-law were joined the five of us for a delicious meal. Even if I say so myself. I made the best rolls and stuffing this year. I think I like having Thanksfiving at my house because you get to have all the left overs. Yummy. Nicklaus and Nolan pulled the wish bone and I bet you can't tell who won.

He actually made it

Well getting my son out of Mexico, off his mission was really quite the undertaking. He was supposed to come home on Thursday, October 6 but on Monday the 3rd he sent me an email saying that they were having some sort of issues with his and Elder Pape's visa's and that they didn't know if they would get them fixed in time for him to come home this week. Okay this is when I started stressing. We had all the family that had flown in from California here and he was supposed to be talking that Sunday in church and why were they just figuring it out now that something was amiss with their visa's. He did say that he would let me know tomorrow if they had figured anything out. I didn't hear from him all day on Tuesday so Wednesday I called the mission travel office to see if they had heard anything. They told me that everything was going as scheduled and I didn't have anything to worry about. That they hadn't heard anything from his mission. So I called the mission home myself and they confirmed everything that Nolan had told me on Monday, but they didn't know any details. So I called back to the mission travel office and insisted that they call the mission president to get me some answers. They did call but President Cardenas didn't give them much more info. Just said they were taking care of it and would know more tonight. The travel office gave me the Presidents cell phone number so I could call later that night to find out what was going on. He speaks no English and I speak no Spanish and so we were going to be in a world of hurt. I found someone at my nieces wedding that spoke Spanish and she talked to him and this is what he told her. That their visas didn't get stamped properly when they were coming into the country and they were not going to let them out until they could get them fixed. They were able to fix Elder Pape's (don't ask me why) but were not able to fix Nolan's and the only one who could fix it was in Mexico City and who knew when he would be back to Tuxtla to do it. He told her that we could call back again later that night to see if they had decided what to do with Nolan. She also said that he wasn't very nice about it and that she wouldn't call him back. She told me she would have her mom talk to him next time. In a couple of hours we called him again and was told that Nolan was being flown by himself to Mexico City and that someone there would pick him up and take him to the guy that could fix it and that hopefully he would make a late flight out of Mexico City on Thursday. So then the travel office called me to tell me that he was indeed going to Mexico City and that they had him a flight home for the middle of the night Thursday night. Okay at least I had some kind of progress going on. Well Nolan gets to Mexico City and the guy can't fix it as easily as he thought he could and it ends up taking longer and Nolan misses his flight out. He ends up spending the day with this random guy who works for the church travel mexico office. He felt so bad for Nolan that he took him to the Mexico City Temple and they did a session there while the other guy was working on fixing Nolan's visa. He got to spend the night at the Mexico City Missionary Training Center, which was kind of a cool experience. And then he flew out Friday morning to come home.

3 calls to Mexico on my cell phone with out a calling program......87.00

1 bottle of aspirin.....3.00

Having my son finally in my arms.....priceless

Having all my little chick gathered together again made this momma very happy. Nolan said that Nicklaus had definitely changed the most since he was gone. He grew about 7 inches while he was away and it's a little harder for him to beat him up when they wrestle.

Morgan and Kyle treated us to Tucano's at the Gateway. That was so nice of them and it was so yummy. Nolan definitely needs to eat more. He left the MTC weighing 175 and came back 149.

Grandsons are grand

On September 29th I was lucky enough to be there to see Madden Kyle Kinyon enter into this world. It's a lot funner to be the grandma through labor and delivery than it is to be the mom. Morgan did great and Madden is perfect. He is the best little baby and only cries when he is hungry or poopy. Brielle loves her little brother so much and is the best little helper to her mom.

Grandpa decided he's a keeper and all ready has the hopes of getting him golf clubs for Christmas. And me I look like a giant fish. Yes I do.

State Golf 2011

Okay it's time once again to play catch up. I am going to break it down into several post so it doesn't boggle my simple mind at what order to start down loading pictures. We will begin with State Golf. It was held over at Palisades Golf Course on October 3-4. Nicklaus knew he was coming in as the underdog but he had big dreams of winning medalist but five days before state Nicklaus was in shop grinding some metal without gloves on (I am still wondering where the teacher was at) and he cut open his right index finger. He was so upset and thought that his chances of even being able to play at State where over with. He ended up with six stitches on the inside of his finger. We did a lot of praying and with lots of faith and some great bandages a few pain pills he was able to play. Thanks Doc Brown for doing your best to make the best out of a horrible situation.

Nicklaus and Murdoch, a golfer from Beaver who was State Medalist last year had battled it out for the whole season. And by the time region was over Murdoch had came out on top

so Nicklaus knew he was going to have to play hard at state. I always end up a nervous wreck watching Nicklaus play and then it makes him nervous so I was trying really hard to put up a good front. He played his first day with some really great guys. He ended the first day tied for first with a different kid from Beaver named Braxton. They both shot a 72.

If you don't love golf, then you know nothing about the game.

The second day the weather turned bad, the wind blew and Nicklaus' finger was really starting to hurt and bother him. He didn't play as well. At one point he was beginning to get down and thought that it was all over with but the crying. His dad just kept trying to be positive and let him know that he still had a chance. I had at this point bitten off what I had left of my finger nails. He posted a 77 for his second day. Now we just had to wait and see how the last four groups finished out. He was pretty anxious watching them come in on the 18th green. It was pretty intense but ended up great with Nicklaus winning by two shots. I want to take a minute and let him know how proud I am of him. Winning medalist as a freshman is a pretty cool feat and has only been done one other time in the whole state of Utah. Nicklaus puts his whole heart and soul into golf and loves it as much as we love watching him play.

Nicklaus with the Utah Section PGA representative presented him with his medal. In May they have the nicest banquet honoring all the top ten finishers from 1A through 5A. It is held up at a big country club in Sandy and this is where they will get their awards.

Nicklaus is so lucky to have the best golf coach ever....his dad. Adam knows so much about the game and how to help Nicklaus. They are the best of buds most of the time and I know that Nicklaus appreciates his dad more than anything.

My baby is 15

I just don't know where the time went. It seems like yesterday that he was my curly headed blonde baby running around the house with a golf club in his hands. And now he is a freshman in high school running around with a golf club in his hand.

He is such a great kid and I love how much he loves me. He is my only kid who has ever asked me how I am doing and if I had a good day. He is the best hugger I know. He loves to be home. He doesn't have to be doing something with friends all the time and he is a great help to his dad. It's always so fun to see your sons get stronger and be able to help with the hard stuff around the house. I love that he is tender hearted, although I wouldn't say it is Adams favorite quality. I love that people and things mean so much to him.

I just wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday. Hope your day is great and that you do well next week over at State Golf. We love you.

P.S. Pictures by Sally Sagers. I did steal them off her blog but they are the exact ones that I am buying so I hope she doesn't get mad at me :)

Where to begin?

I have pretty much sucked at keeping up with this blog this summer. I wish I could say it was because I was so busy doing fun and exciting things, but then that would be a lie. I am going to try and catch up on a few things that happened this summer, just so I can have a record of all that happened. I hope it doesn't get too lengthy and if it does, feel free to stop reading at any time, it won't hurt my feelings none.

In June my dear sweet nephew was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was coming home from a lake near Fresno and as he was going around a turn went into the other lane and had a head on collision with a vehicle. What a shake up for our family. I could never put into words how much I love this kid so I won't even try. Adam spent the week down there helping his sister out with all the planning and then the rest of us went for a few days for the funeral. He was a great kid and

will be greatly missed by our family.

Morgan and her family came down for the 4th and we had fun at the parade and the park. We then had a big friend and family bbq up at our house and then it started to rain and we had to move to eating in the garage. Nothing says red neck more than eating next to a stinky garbage can and a lawn mower. And I don't care what any body says....Fillmore has the best fire works ever!

This was a happy day in my life and a sad day in Mahala's. Yay she got a job. She works out at Burger King. I have always thought it is good for kids to get jobs just so they can see how hard it is to earn money and also it lets them learn at an early age how to manage money better. This is one little chicky that needs to learn the value of a dollar and her dollar not my dollar. Hooray for BK. That was my attempt at a poem. She was all smiles though holding that first pay check.

We went to California for a mini vacation. Adam had a work conference and so the family tagged along. It was the trip that almost didn't happen. Adam had been in the ER twice with bad

stomach troubles and got to feeling better right before we left. We didn't have any plans because we go to San Diego so much that we have done everything. I just wanted to spend the days in

the pool swimming and at the beach in the evenings. It was really fun and relaxing even if we did almost starve to death. (That's an inside joke) And I found out that Mahala is a lot braver than Nicklaus in all most everything. I'll just leave it as Mahala would have swam out a mile in the ocean if Adam wouldn't have been freaking out. Nicklaus well he's a happy just feeding the ducks kinda guy. It's all good.

As far as the yard goes. On the advice of our Bishop, I planted a garden. This is a big feat for me so I took it very small this year because I didn't want to put tons of money into it until I saw if I could do it. Everything is growing great and I did find out all you ever do need is one zucchini

plant. Yep it's true. And for the exciting thing we did, we put a pool in our back yard. We figured with all the land we had we might as well do something fun with it. As you can tell Nicklaus and Brielle have really enjoyed it. Feel free to come up swimming any time.

Mahala kept telling her dad that the ceiling was wet but I guess he never really thought it was that big of a deal until it went from this.....

To this... Yeah the pipe for the washing machine had been leaking and running down the wall and Mahala's room happens to be right under neath it. Hmmm I wonder how long we will be living with this hole in her ceiling? Well at least he got the pipe fixed.

Then Adam did have to have his gallbladder out. He had about four or five stones in it and it had started to deteriorate. I hope this puts an end to all his stomach troubles. He was down for a week or so but is feeling good now. I did have a picture of him in the hospital but I took it off for fear of my life. I can say though that he would be pretty entertaining if he ever did decided

to do drugs.

The last last big event of the summer was Mahala turned 17 on August 8th. But she can't settle for some nice little quiet birthday no she has to have it be a bang. And a boom. And a crash. And oh yeah a wreck. She had finally talked her dad into letting her drive over to Richfield with Shannon to do a little shopping. They almost made it too. Mahala looked down at the radio and when she looked up she was in the other lane. She would have been fine but she hit those little bumpy marks on the side that let you know that you are over too far and they kind of pulled her steering wheel to the right and it scared her and she over corrected and rolled the car at least four times down the median. They ended up upside down just hanging there. It was such a blessing that they were both okay and only had minor injuries. Now the vehicle on the other hand was a complete loss with no full coverage but that's okay...cars can always be replaced. It did however teach two girls and their families the importance of seat belts.

Well if you read this whole post completely your deserve a prize. Really you do. As you can see we had an eventful summer. Some good things happened along with some sad and life changing ones as well. It's those changes that make up the thing we call life. I am ready for a very happy fall. It couldn't be bad I have state high school golf, a wedding, a son coming home from a mission, and a new grandbaby coming all in one week. Wish me luck.

Nicko's Graduation

What a sad day for me today. My baby has graduated from middle school. I think I got more teary eyed during this ceremony than I did for my kids' high school graduation. I only have kids around for four more years and then it will be just Adam and I flying solo. That's kind of a scary thought. The graduation was the best ever. The top three students of the class got to speak and they all did really well but I would have to say the my favorite one was Amy's. She just did so well and she didn't acted scared like the other ones did, plus the fact that she is my favorite gal at the school doesn't hurt either. But I promise I am not being prejudiced at all. They served donuts and sprite afterwards in the lunch room. Grandpa Spencer, Granny, Morgan and Brielle along with Mahala, Adam and I were all there to help him celebrate. We took him out to lunch at Paradise afterwards. Nicklaus' grades have really shot up this year and I am so proud of him for realizing that he really is smart. I think it must have motivated him when I told him that to get a golf scholarship he not only needed to be a great golfer but he needed to be a great student as well. From that time forward he has been a mostly a straight A student. I am proud of ya bud.

They all went out side to release their balloons. Brielle thought that was the neat. She even got her own balloon to take home.

Nicklaus and the gang. I wish that Nicklaus' head wasn't covering up Dane, and hey whats with Austin being taller than Walker? A really fun group of boys.