Latest Hobby

Since I have been unemployed I have decided to expand my horizons. I signed up for a cake decorating class. I am loving it even though it is only my second class and we are still learning very basic things. Here are my little practice creations that I learned to make today. In case you can't tell what they are there is a green and yellow turtle, yellow chicks (or ducks if you prefer), a brown bear, a purple elephant, a green alligator and a pink pig. After looking at the photos maybe I need to expand my horizons more and take a photo class.
This is a frog and another alligator. The frog is my own creation. At least my own in the respect that we didn't learn to make it in class.

Watch out World

It's official...Tyler now has a drivers permit. Here he is outside the driver license office proudly displaying it for all to see. He is so excited to start driving. I'm not so sure I'm as excited as he is though.

Spring in Utah

Since the weather has been nicer and since I am currently unemployed I decided to plant some flowers in our front yard. Don't they look nice?

Unfortunately it froze the day after I planted and quite a few of them aren't going to survive. What made it worse is that the sprinklers came on during the night when it froze so they became "daisy popsicles". Oh well, welcome to spring in Utah.

HAPPY HUMP DAY

Today marks the one year "hump day" mark for Rob on his mission. He isn't nearly as excited as I am. In fact he calls it his Hump Day Mourning. He is doing great and was just made Zone Leader. We are proud of him and his service to the Savior. He has such a strong love for the people he is working with and all of the people of Australia. It is amazing to read his letters and see how much he has grown and matured over the past year. In some ways it is hard to believe that it has been a year, but in others it seems like it has been forever.

Rylie Softball

Rylie has decided to play softball again this year. This is Rylie and one of her team mates going to watch the BYU Womens Softball team play UNLV. They have gone to a couple of games to see how the game should really be played.

This is Rylie's first softball game. It was April 30th with an 8:30 start time. It is hard to tell but that is Rylie playing 2nd base (maroon jacket and gray pants) in the snow storm. I only had my cell phone to take pictures with so they aren't the best. It was pretty wild that it started to snow during the game. I kept waiting for them to call the game but they never did. The out come wasn't the best. Rylie's Red Sox team got run ruled in the 4th inning. Oh well, better luck next game.

Not the greatest photo. I was using my cell phone and trying to hurry before the snow all melted off of Hoby's shirt. He was helping coach Rylie's first game. You can see the snow coming down in the background.

On President's Day I got a call from Hoby saying that he had taken Rylie and two of my nieces sledding down this amazing hill. Unfortunately he decided to try and drive farther off the road than he should have and he got stuck.

Another angle. You can see just how buried he was. Our 4 x 4 has a lift kit on it so when you see the snow up to the bottom of the truck you can tell it is deep.

Trying to give some perspective on how far off the road Hoby was when he got stuck. The small SUV between me and the tractor is one of the two would be rescuers who also got their vehicles stuck. It amazed me that if the full size 4 x 4 is stuck, wouldn't it only make sense that the two smaller SUV/trucks would get stuck too?! MEN LOL

Heavy machinery to the rescue. He is headed to our truck now. This is after this front end loader got stuck himself and already pulled out one of Hoby's would be rescuers.

The front end loader is almost to our truck. It was pretty cool watching this guy work. There was a ton of snow to be moved. It is hard to see just how deep it really is from these pictures.

Almost out. This whole process took over an hour from the time the front end loader got there. I don't think we would have gotten the truck out until spring if it weren't for the heavy equipment.

All of Us

Our ward is putting out a new photo phone list so we had to get them a picture with all of us. As you can see we are all doing well. If we look a little frazzled it is because this was right after our monthly extended family dinner. It was our turn to host it so we had a house full. We love having these get togethers with my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. The only thing that would make it better is if our older children, our grandchildren and my two siblings (and their families) that live outside of Utah were there to join us.

Welcome to Utah Mr. Arizona

Welcome to Utah Mr. Arizona. This was a Sunday morning a couple of months ago. When we went to bed on Saturday night there was no snow on the ground and it wasn't snowing. When we woke up it was coming down like crazy and we had over a foot on the ground. This was the 2nd time that Hoby shoveled that morning before we went to church at 11:00 am.

It's good exercise. Of course the first winter that Hoby lives in Utah has to be one with record amounts of snow that fell. It helps the drought situation a lot but it sure wasn't fun shoveling it all. We got about 18 inches at our house and 3 or 4 feet in the mountains out of this storm alone.

Yes that pile of snow really is as tall as it appears. It wasn't all from this storm, but a big majority was. It was somewhere between 4 and 5 feet high before all was said and done.

I love how the snow is sticking to Hoby almost as fast as it is sticking to the ground. Now we all know what he will look like with a full head of white hair.

These are the steps leading to our walk-out basement door. They are partially covered by our deck yet look how much snow they got. Rylie was wishing they were a little bit longer so she could try sledding down them. (she and her friends sledded down the neighbors steps from their deck when they were snow packed from an earlier storm)

After watching this Hoby decided we need to get a quad. The kids were all for it too. Although I'm not sure if it is just an alterior motive on all of their parts.

Tyler out helping shovel the walks for one of our neighbors. He joined with numerous other young men to help others that morning.

One of the Priests from our ward out shoveling the neighbors walks. We have such a great group of young men in our ward. They just went out and started doing this without even having a leader call them and ask them too.