Days of Miracle & Wonder

Happy, Happy Birthday Regan, Dear

2011-08-31T18:56:00.000-06:00

My oldest is older (let's not even talk about what that makes me...

Regan amazing us daily with her intelligence, wit, kindness, sensitivity, and, of course, her fashion sense. She has really become my go-to girl with my busy school schedule. There's not much she can't do. She cooks, she cleans, she makes up games for her and her sister to play for hours...I aspire to be more like her.

Happy Birthday Regan. You are loved more than we can ever explain.

Here is an interview I admit to totally, unashamedly ripping off the idea, wording and even design for, so thank you, Susie Leggett and Tristan! Click (I hope) to make it big enough to read!

And, lastly, a few shots from the family birthday party on Sunday...

The cake she chose, which was actually a two-layer brownie completely covered in candy.

The birthday girl blowing out the candles.

Quick as Lightning

2011-06-22T23:31:00.000-06:00

Jeff and I L-O-V-E lightning storms.

When we first moved to Arizona we used to get amazing storms during the monsoon season and Jeff and I (no kids yet) would open the blinds and pull a couch up to our big picture window and sit all evening watching the lightning. Tonight, after we had put the girls to bed we noticed some lightening starting over the Boise area. The storm surrounded us in all directions, but we just had some (thankfully) cool breezes. We got the girls out of bed, and spent an hour enjoying the light show in the backyard and teaching Regan and Hadyn how beautiful a storm can be. It was spectacular! Jeff got some amazing photos and a video I thought I'd post to make all you non-Idahoans a wee bit jealous...

The girls on the grass watching the sky.

Now I think it is safe to say that

The Luke Family L-O-V-E-S lightning storms!

We Love Daddy, Yesiree

2011-06-20T18:03:00.007-06:00

Jeff, Happy Father's Day to one of the best dad's I know.

You are surrounded by girls and all that goes with that,

and you are such a great sport.

You work 24/7 to make our home nicer

and our family more functional and happy.

You never say no when the girls want you to ride bikes, play soccer, etc.,

even when I know the list of things you need to get done.

Being married to you makes me want to be a better person and

being a parent with you makes me want to be a better mom.

Thank You. You deserve more than one day a year of being celebrated.

I love you!

Love, Maria

Dear Dad, I love you so much. Thanks for being the best dad ever. Thank you for teaching me how to ski. I like it when you let me go build with you on the swings and stuff.

From your daughter, Hadyn

Yo, Daddy-o, thanks for being the best dad ever. Thanks for teaching me how to build stuff. I like that you taught me how to play checkers. Thanks for doing all the stuff you do for our family. Thank you for building all of the things that we use a lot, like the swing set.

Love, Regan

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, JEFF.

WE LOVE YOU.

Summing up six months in one post...priceless...

2011-06-16T10:50:00.000-06:00

So, my last post was exactly one day before I went back to college full-time for the first time in too many years to count. I got accepted into Boise State's nursing program and began working toward my BS-RN. I had a great semester, learned a lot (including that I could actually keep up with all those young whippersnappers), and really leaned on all my family and friends for support. Sadly, the blog was moved pretty far down on the to-do list and never got to-done. So, in no particular order, since moving photos around on blogger is really more hassle than it is worth, here is the Cliff's Notes version of the last six months of the Luke Family Chronicles...

Here we are on the BYU campus in Provo. Our lovely neice, Rachel, was a freshman this year and so we stopped to say hi. She took us on a tour of campus, her dorm, and we were all able to attend the Karl Bloch exhibit, which was amazing. Now, my girls, trained since birth to be Vandals, want to go to BYU...I'm still working through that one...

From the mouths (or markers) of babes... Hadyn's artwork pretty much sums up my last few months...

More soccer. Both girls played in the city soccer program, and loved it. Hadyn had already played a little, plus she was part of the youngest group, so she jumped in at the same level as the rest of her team. Regan, being 8, was on a team of kids who had already played for years, so she was a bit behind. She worked every night in the back yard on dribbling, kicking, everything. Sometimes alone, sometimes with her dad. She became one of the team leaders in skills (my unbiased opinion) and learned that if you work hard it pays off. We were proud of both girls. Neither of them can wait for Fall soccer to start.

Regan and Hadyn both participated in the Capital Classic this year. Regan ran it a few years ago. They both brought friends, and between them and their friends, were the sole participants from Middleton in the race. Way to represent!

Each spring our entire town (at least the cool people) participates in "Middleton Unplugged". Everyone gives up TV, computer games, cell phone games, etc. for an entire month. There are activities every night to take the place of being plugged in, parades, games, spa days, etc. It's really cool. Regan and Hadyn signed up for the challenge and made it the entire month without watching TV, etc. They posted signs all over the house to remind them to not watch/play. This is a particularly specific one reminding them not to watch anyone watch TV. The bottom arrow pointing to the picture should say, "a screen".

Yes, I even missed documenting birthdays. Hadyn turned 6. She wanted donuts instead of a cake. I was more than happy to oblige.

Jeff turned...well, Jeff had a birthday. I don't even have pictures of him with the cake, but here he is with lots of help opening his presents...

And lastly, here I am with my clinical group. We rocked clinicals, and it was a fun group. Next semester I have 20+ hours a week of clinicals, so I hope they go as well.

I hope you enjoyed the brief synopsis. I missed a lot, I know, but hopefully now I can do better at staying caught up. Happy summer!

Hadyn's First Soccer Game

2011-01-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

Today Hadyn played in her first soccer game. She had never played soccer before (except for her first practice that was the night before the game). Here she is with her first official sports uniform.

Hadyn did awesome and scored a goal! That's pretty impressive since there were only a handful of goals scored the whole game. I didn't get her goal on video, but I got one of her near misses. She had a couple bounce off the post or get stopped by the goalie. She has a great time, and can't wait until the next game.

What We Did Over Christmas Vacation, by the Luke's

2011-01-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

Oh December, we will miss you and all the magic you fill our home with. The girls had the long school break, of course, and Jeff was able to take most of the month off which was so fun. We got to go to the Middleton Christmas Celebration (yes, they said Christmas...I love living in a small town!!) where we watched a parade, ate cookies, drank cocoa, took part in the tree lighting, and, of course, visited with Santa.

The girls made many a gingerbread or graham cracker house between church and school. Here are their creations from Regan's Achievement Day activity. It's a group in our church for girls 8-11. Hadyn doesn't qualify, but when her mom is one of the leaders she gets to participate.

We made our lanterns for Santa. We have made these each Christmas Eve since Regan was born. It's just four gingerbread walls held together with royal icing. Each of us creates one of the walls and we use hard candies to make the stain-glass windows. Our lantern gets lit right before the girls go to bed on Christmas Eve, and helps Santa find our house. It works. He's never missed us yet.

Hadyn has become family scribe. She loves to write reminder notes, cards, lists, etc. I'm sure I've picked up 100's of her memos over the past month, and I'm sure I've been irritated at the volume of paper she leaves all over the house, but then sometimes, like yesterday, when I had mountains of things to accomplish and only a molehill of time to do it in, I find this propped up on my kitchen counter, and all the clutter is forgotten:

Man, I love that girl...maybe she could give some love note tips/reminders to her father... :)

Snowy Days, Crazy Weather, Air Hockey, and Random Catching Up

2010-12-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

We have really been enjoying this winter.

Here is Hadyn all geared up for fun after the first big storm and Regan with the first snowman of the year.

The fog out here has been crazy, some real pea soup. I don't know if Boise has been this fogged in this year or if it's just Middleton, but this is a pretty standard morning for us. Normally you can see barns and cows out there...

I kept meaning to post this sign Hadyn made for me after I got admitted to BSU's nursing program. She's such a cutie. I probably should have corrected her that I am still two years away from being a nurse, but I really just smiled and enjoyed it.

Last week we made the trip into the big city of Boise because I (hold your applause) SCORED a full-size, fully operational air hockey table off of Freecycle!!! Could that be any cooler? We have spent many an evening and afternoon in the garage working on our skills, and as the girls say, learning our angles.

Then, since we were already down there, we stopped by the Capitol building to see the tree and walk around. I do not think there is a prettier state capitol building than ours. I haven't been to the capitol since they finished renovating it. It was awesome to see the old photos of all the past sessions of the Senate, here is the 33rd Session and my Great-Grandpa, H.T. Moss. I know you're thinking, "what a looker", to which I must reply, "of course, where do you think I got my dashing looks from?"

Jeff checking out Boise from above. This is just behind the senate chambers.

Hadyn striking a pose and looking very fashionable. A future senator...

The Luke family in front of the Poinsettia tree in the basement level of the rotunda.

Looking up. Isn't this gorgeous!?

A close up of the tree...I spy with my little eye, something cute and red-headed!

And here we have Idaho

Winning her way to fame....

(for you poor, neglected friends out there from other states, that's from our state song...)

All I Want for Christmas...

2010-11-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

In order to show that the Luke family (at least two of them) have already completely accepted the commercial side of this Christmas season, I present to you Regan and Hadyn's Christmas Wish Lists...get comfy...I'll add my own thoughts in parentheses and keep the original spelling, because it's just so cute).

Hadyn:

Ice Cream Maker (we already have 3)
Dipindots
Beard-a-Bear (I think Build-a-Bear, but Beard-a-Bear sounds like an interesting take on it)
Pendo (I have no idea)
Gttre (Got nothin')
Doggy
EZE Bac Micwav (EasyBake Microwave)
Liv Doll
Fla Scen TV (Flat Screen TV...I got my first flat screen TV when I was...)
Gogo (I'm not sure what this is)
IPod in blue
Laptop in pink
ITuch in Green
Kitty that's brown
Nal Polish that's sparkly
DSI
Stilish clothes
A room with food in the room (We never let her leave the kitchen with food. Apparently she's tired of that).
Dollhouse bed
Trning rack with clothes (turning rack, I guess like in stores)
Dollhouse and dolls with furniture with it

Regan:

Justice dance shirt and pants (FYI, Regan loves the store Justice, you'll see that as you read along)
Liv doll
Flip Flop slippers, pink, Justice
Justice sequin jeans
Jo-Ann kids sewing machine (my mom would be proud)
Dip'n Dots maker
I-Pod or I-Phone (what!)
Justice sandstone skinny cords (skinny underlined)
Puppy! (exclamation point included...both girls asked for this, and both girls literally climb up my body if they even see a real dog)
Clay Pepperoni (I'm not sure what this is)
Barbie video girl
Scrabble Flash
Spy video tracker
Paper jams (?)
Easy bake cookie maker
Pendo Penguin - Pink (this must be what #4 on Hadyn's list is)
Membership in Poptropica (Kids web-game)
Laptop !! (Again, she added the exclamation marks)
SpyNet night vision
SpyNet spy watch
Cute snowboots
Air Hogs Vectron Wave
Cell Phone
My own bedroom (Dream on sister)
Skateboard
Magic Fabric
Snowboard
Build-a-Bear
Light brwon boots
Earrings
My own flat screen TV
EasyBake microwave
GoGo Walking toy puppy (This was on Hadyn's list too, I'm sensing some collaboration on these lists)
Justice on the Go Sugar Sweet Set
Justice Blue Skinny Cords (Can you tell we just got a Justice catalog in the mail?)
Laptop mouse
$10,000,000 (I'll get right on that)
Laptop in black and white
Cream snow vest
Kit Kat (now we're hitting closer to my budget)
Tic-tacs (again, I'm willing to consider this one)
DS
DSI
Wii
Candy maker
Legos
Sleeping bag
Make-up set (WHAT?!!)
A pink throne (why not)
Dollhouse

I'm out of breath, and ran out of pretend money hours ago. Luckily, they know these lists are just for fun, and they really aren't expecting really any of this. I love Christmas dreaming :). I remember going through the big Sears book every year and choosing something off each page with Rich and Kathi. So fun...

Ummm...Merry Christmas

2010-11-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

I decided to update my blog today.
I'm also sick...did I mention heavy doses of cold medicine.
Buttons were pushed, changes were made, and I lost my links.

All of them.

Blogs I follow.
The craft sites from which I steal countless good ideas and claim them for my own.

If you have any sort of sympathy for your sweet, runny-nosed, fuzzy visioned friend, please send me your blog links. I'm sort of at a loss for how to continue on...

Sigh...

It's Not Late, I'm Just Stretching Out the Halloween Season...

2010-11-06T12:23:00.000-06:00

We were lucky to go back to our old alma mater and spend Halloween in Moscow with Jeff's sister Cathy's family and the only friends who will still be our friends from the old U of I days, Dave, Christine and their boys. We had a lot of fun trunk-or-treating, and we even spent an afternoon at the ice rink where Dave gave us all ice skating lessons. Fun, no injuries, lots of candy...a very successful Halloween weekend...

Ninja Regan

Queen Hadyn (do not say princess or you are likely to be banished)

The cousins, ready to hit the trunk-or-treat. Quite the motley crew, a ghost, queen, black cat, ninja and a fireman. Jeff's company would be very pleased with the diversity we have embraced...

Regan rockin' the rink. She took to skates immediately, no surprise. If my kids have all this natural talent, shouldn't I have a little...I don't understand genetics...

Hadyn after letting go of my hand. She did awesome. Once she started, there was no getting her off the ice. Let's just say she slept very well that night.

The crew of cousins and friends. Fun times...

Field Trip Double-Header

2010-10-19T07:29:00.000-06:00

Hadyn's class went on a field trip double-header yesterday, walking to Ridley's Market and the local fire station. I loved the comments and questions that can come out of the mouths of kindergarten children :). Hadyn had a lot of fun, and I left have small anxiety attacks about our lack of fire readiness. Guess what our next Family Home Evening Activity is going to be... Anywho, here are a few pics from our fun day.

Hadyn being lifted into the firetruck

Showing the kids what a fully outfitted fireman looks and sounds like so they won't be scared if they see one. Sparky the fire dog fielded the most questions..."How does he stand on two legs", "Why doesn't he have a radio", and other very important facts were discussed.

Regan's Photo Shoot

2010-10-16T20:31:00.000-06:00

We had Regan's pictures taken professionally by Brooke Mack in her baptism dress (that is, Regan was wearing her baptism dress...Brooke was just in jeans :)). I wanted some really nice photos to remember the moment between her and her dad. I love how they turned out. Brooke is amazing, and if you are in the Boise area, I couldn't recommend her more. Between the beautiful girl, handsome dad, and talented photographer, how could we go wrong?

Back on the Chain Gang

2010-10-06T09:37:00.001-06:00

After a lot of patience, Hadyn has her new bed, and yes, it does swing back and forth and side to side. It actually makes me a little sea sick watching, but she loves it, and actually went to bed at bedtime and, get this, stayed in bed! She has a great dad who was as happy with the bed as she was...I suppose he was just happy to see the perma-grin on her face.

Now they both have their super-cool beds.

After getting them to sleep, Jeff and I went to bed in our very boring, headboarded, sitting on the floor bed...

Burn Baby Burn and Ride Baby Ride

2010-10-02T18:44:00.001-06:00

I grew up in southeast Idaho, and burning stubble fields and ditches is not a new thing for me. However, doing so with the right equipment is. Our neighbors (the one's with horses) are going to put some cattle behind our house, so was burning the ditch bank and clearing brush so a fence could be put up. Jeff went out to help, and was excited to learn a gigantic flame thrower/propane tank would be used. To say he had fun is an understatement. I just kept wishing that my dad lived closer, because he would have loved it.

As a side note, as I left the men to their work and walked back into the house, Hadyn was standing at the back window with tears rolling down her cheeks. All she could see was Jeff standing in the fire. So sweet. I wonder what she thinks of me, since I just walked away leaving him to the flames...actually, I don't want to know...

Also this week, we had something very exciting happen...

Livin' the Life

2010-09-14T08:03:00.002-06:00

Just a few pics of the goings-on at the Luke residence...

I just thought this was funny. Those are noise cancelling headphones that Regan is wearing, so, of course, the volume on the TV was totally jacked up. To make it even more interesting, guess what she was watching?

Yep, the Antique Roadshow on PBS.

Hadyn has probably been a little neglected in recent posts, with a baptism and a birthday for Regan. She got ready for school the other day and came out of her room and I was suddenly hit with how fast she is growing up.

This is not a picture of my baby...where did little Hadyn go?

We found that we have a slightly lackadaisical tooth fairy here.

It took her two days to come get Regan's two teeth that came out.

In what I am sure was an attempt to make up for/release some guilt over the incident, she left two intricately folded dollars.

Regan thought it was awesome and can't wait to see what else the tooth fairy can do on the next tooth...

I bet the tooth fairy is a little nervous since, I bet, that was the only origami she knew...

This weekend we got all of our Saturday work done quickly, mostly by choosing to put it off, but that is another post...so we went for a ride on the greenbelt. It was, as always, fun. The most exciting thing was that Regan rode her own bike the whole time. This may seem less-than-exciting unless you understand that Regan DOES NOT do anything she is not immediately good at. Luckily, she is a natural at most things, but riding a bike was not one of those things. She's been able to ride for some time, but has never liked doing it. Just the last week or so she has been actually having fun riding around our subdivision. The greenbelt was her first time with crowds and a narrow space (since there are two lanes of opposing traffic).

She did great and rode over three miles.

She crashed and burned once, but that was my fault.

I know, super mom.

Hadyn got the sweet ride in the bike trailer.

Someday I'm going to find a bike trailer I can ride in.

It seems like a very relaxing way to travel.

More Horsin' Around

2010-09-08T11:06:00.001-06:00

Sam...aside from my own, the cutest kid on the planet. He's 4, and just a little gentleman cowboy.

Sarah, Sam's sister. She and Regan are really good friends. The sun is in their eyes...

I Like to Look for Rainbows...

2010-09-06T19:42:00.000-06:00

Regan had a big day on Saturday. We are so proud of her. Got teary-eyed then...getting teary-eyed now...better keep it short...

...Like I Need a Hole in My Head... Two actually...One in each ear...

2010-08-31T19:23:00.027-06:00

The birthday festivities continued today, Regan's actual birthday. We took cupcakes in to her class. She was the first person to celebrate a birthday, so everyone was pretty excited. The frosting was very popular, and ended up on many a chin, much to the 3rd Graders' delight.

Then, the "most exciting thing that ever happened in my whole life, Mom!"...Regan got her ears pierced. She was quite brave right until the moment before they started to count to three, but then was immediately all smiles again. She looks great and loves the earrings.

BEFORE

GETTING SANITIZED

AFTER...A BIT TEARY-EYED, BUT THRILLED!

MaD ScIeNCe

2010-08-28T19:16:00.001-06:00

We were proud to host the most recent Symposium of the World's Greatest Scientists. In attendance were some of the foremost Geologists, Vulcanologists, Astrophysicists, etc., and they all had a great time doing science experiments, playing Scientist-May-I, eating cake and lava, and celebrating Regan's eighth birthday.

Regan teaching the other scientists about the effects of water, oil, and salt (hint: think lava lamps...)

The Volcano cake...not my best, but nobody seemed to mind. The exploding lava was actually sucker syrup that we made, poured, let cool, then stuck into the cake.

One of the cutest scientists ever, even in I am biased.

Regan getting her lab notebook ready. No real scientist is ever without a well-decorated lab book...

School Days & Days of Catching You Up...

2010-08-25T23:07:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year, and for the first time ever, I sent both girls to school. I thought I would be excited for some "me" time, but I was really kind of sad today. Not only do they insist on growing up, they do it so fast!

Hadyn is just a little excited to go to school...we had to go outside to wait for the bus 20 minutes early...

Regan playin' it cool. 3rd graders don't get excited...or nervous...

Since my last post, we Luke's have been a busy bunch, making sure we fully filled up our final days of summer.

Sniffle, sniffle...we said Goodbye for a while to my neice, Rachel. She's off to make something of herself at BYU. She's my oldest niece, and having her leave for college makes me feel old. If you ask my girls, they will tell you she walks on water, and does so very fashionably :). We will all miss her and hope she makes it back to Boise a lot.

Regan with her BFF/cousin. Jenna is about a month older than Regan, and was baptised this summer. She looked gorgeous, of course, and Regan was so excited to share the day with her.

We also got to do a lot of camping and hiking. We used this summer to get the girls a little used to backpacking, which we hope to do a lot of next summer. We weren't sure if they would like it, or just complain, but they did great on some decent-length day hikes. To be honest, they both thought it was funny to take off running up the trail, laughing at their old, slow parents. We'll get our revenge next summer when we make them carry the food and tent...

What a Weekend!

2010-07-17T22:50:00.002-06:00

What was supposed to be a relaxing weekend spent camping and hiking turned out much differently. We made it just past the little town (how is it possilby a town...store is more like it) of Banks, when Jeff decided the check engine light was not messing around, that the truck battery was quickly losing power, and that we needed to turn around ASAP. Prayers were said quickly in hopes of making it to some form of civilazation before we completely lost power. We made it through Horseshoe Bend and slowly made it up the big hill between Horseshoe Bend and Boise, the engine died at the top of the hill and we coasted to the Chevron station in Eagle. Civilization! After way more drama than I choose to go into, we spent the day at Jeff's dad's replacing the alternator in the truck. Fun times.

So, instead of lazing about camp and hiking through beatiful and cool forestland, we spent the weekend doing a bunch of stuff that actually ended up being fun, like...

Climbing trees with cousins...

Riding tricycles with cousins...

Losing our 5th tooth...

Searching for four-leaf clovers in our grass with a whole different set of cousins, and actually finding about 20! Seriously. Regan said, "Why do people think it's lucky to find a four-leaf clover? Our lawn is covered with them." Well Regan, when your lawn has as much clover in it as ours does, the odds are definately in your favor...

Regan even found a five-leaf clover. What does that mean?

In hindsight, we should have hunted for the four-leaf clovers before we attempted the camping trip. We could have used a little luck this weekend...

Home Sweet Home

2010-07-13T11:36:00.002-06:00

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG POST...Get comfy, maybe get an icy beverage, and a bowl of chips. Everyone wants pictures, so I'll give up my plan of waiting until everything was unpacked, put together, and organized. Here is our new home in Middleton. Ignore the boxes, etc...

A few of my favorite things about the house are my bathroom...

...and the kitchen...

...that has an attached workspace for me.

I also love the pantry that even has counter space and outlets so all the messy stuff can stay off my kitchen counters...the toaster, mixer, etc.

The girls' room is amazing, with built in bed, bookshelves and a walk-in closet. The door on the other side of the bed goes to their own playroom complete with bookshelves, a dutch door, and a balcony! Hadyn's bed is currently on the floor because originally the second bed was hung from the ceiling with chains. The previous owners took the hanging bed, so Jeff is going to reinstall Hadyn's the same way.

The room that probably sold the house (for me at least...Jeff was probably less interested) was the laundry room. Anyone who ever saw the size of my previous laundry room would understand why I love this room so much. I actually like doing laundry! Who knew!!!

Add to this an additional food storage room, mud room and guest room, all of our stuff actually has a place, which means my life is so much less chaotic.

Our lot looks out over a farm, and has lots of flower beds and what used to be a large garden plot. By this time next year we hope to have grapes, tomatoes, cukes, etc. filling in where, hopefully, the weeds once were. The uprights are still in place from a HUGE swingset that we also hope to have back in working order soon.

The flower beds have a lot of work needed. It has been rainy, and before we closed on the house a gazillion weeds made themselves at home. Now that I am more situated inside the house, I plan to tackle the weed situation. We had a little push in that direction last night. We spent yesterday evening with a couple families that Jeff went to school with. We got back late, it was dark, but next to the flower bed closest to our front door was this:

and one of our very large flower beds was weeded. This was no small act of service. Here is what all of my flowerbeds (and until last night this one as well) currently look like (yikes, I know):

And here is what the "service project" area now looks like:

So on top of a home we love, we are surrounded by new neighbors we love!

I am already calmer, more organized and more productive. Now we just need people willing to traverse all the way to Middleton to visit (we'll only make you weed for an hour or so).

C'mon! We have a room waiting for you!

Gettin' Countrified

2010-07-10T18:23:00.005-06:00

And so ends our first week in our new house in the country, and we are loving it. Not even living out of boxes has dampened our enthusiasm for our new home. Today we spent the day taking care of the basics: laundry and more unpacking for me, and lawnwork for Jeff and the girls.

All the lawn mower pictures were taken from the back yard. Check out the view from our back patio. I love the barns that are behind our home.

This morning our neighbors asked if they could cut through our pastureland with their horses. We, of course said yes, and then they asked the girls if they would like to go for a ride. Only Regan was willing to jump head first into our new country life. She is with Johnny. Now she wants a horse...

Lastly, but perhaps most important, is that we had Jeff's sister Debbie and her family over for dinner last night. It was fun to have all the kids running around, and to have room for them to run around. Here are all the kids, minus brand new Margaret who was napping, having dinner on the back patio. Look at all those red heads! No one can convince me that red heads are going extinct (although strangers at random stores always try to...)

Anyway, we love our new home. Anyone who would like to visit is more than welcome. We just can't promise that you won't be put to work unpacking boxes, filling holes in walls, or, if Regan gets her way, feeding the livestock.

Frozen Grand Central

2010-06-17T20:08:00.002-06:00

I rarely have a laugh-out-loud moment when I'm by myself, but this is so cool! You must see this. It is some improve group that creates huge real moments to make people smile. I love this. I especially love the driver of the cart...

You should also check out their "Who ya gonna call" and "Food Court Musical" as well.

Regan's 2nd Grade Rainforest Extravaganza

2010-06-11T08:43:00.004-06:00

Regan's entire 2nd grade performed their year-end program last night. It was amazing. Regan's school is an art magnet school, which basically means that they integrate art into all their schoolwork. They have been studying the rainforest, so to close the year out the performed "The Rainforest", a musical. They made their own props, created the backdrop which was so beautiful, practiced their songs, learned parts and choreography, etc. It was performed at the high school's performing arts center. It was truly amazing. Here are a few shots and clips from the night...

In the clips, you'll have to look for Regan. She was a black army ant. One of the clips shows her marching with the rest of her class, army-style. The drill sergeant's voice comes from her teacher, Mr. Broyles, who was on stage in camo. I inherited my mom's ability to cry over anything not warranting emotion, had tears running down my face the entire performance. I am such a baby...

The first clip is just a stage shot. Regan was not actually on stage yet.

Here she is marching. They were told not to smile or look for/wave to their parents. They are fierce army ants and were to behave as such. She is the last in line.

From the closing number.

I Am Such a Loser! :)

2010-06-08T08:37:00.002-06:00

Yesterday marked the end of the 12-week Biggest Loser competition I joined at my gym. Had I know in advance how hard I would work or how healthy I would be eating, I'm not sure I would have dared sign up, but ignorance is bliss I guess and I signed my life, lungs and abs away in an effort to find the healthier me. Now, 12 weeks later, I am proud of what I have accomplishedMy poor trainer, Brandee, may never recover from the awful things I have been saying about her at home. My girls think she is an agent of torture, and since we see her at church each week, Brandee has to see the looks of terror my girls give her on a regular basis. Anyway, I don't know the results of the competition, but I'm pretty sure I did not win. There were some seriously focused individuals who deserve to win much more than I, but I think I placed in the top five.

Here's a few of my stats:

I lost a total of 25.5 pounds.

I lost almost 4.5 inches off my waist

I lost an inch or more off each arm and each calf

I lost a total of 25.5 inches (measuring everything, I think, except my earlobes)

I got VERY strong. There were even a few times when Brandee and I had to adjust the weight machines heavier AFTER a guy got off.

Anyway, I still have a ways to go, but I thought I'd share...

Just a quick update...

2010-03-16T09:56:00.002-06:00

Oh the irritation. Blogger won't let me move the pictures around...Anyone know why? You'll just get the photos as they fell I guess.

Things have busy around the Luke house. I am finishing up my Anatomy and Physiology class and have been studying so much! I have a final this week and am looking forward to the break. Jef has been snowboarding as much as he can, which is nice. I love that he has a hobby that he is good at and can get to whenever his work will allow. Regan and Hadyn are just loving life as usual. Regan is now on track break, and liking being able to sleep in, have more fun with Mom and Hadyn, and just rest.

Jeff recently had a big birthday, of which he is really having issues with, so I won't say which birthday. To celebrate, we met up with some friends in McCall to have a ski/snowboard/swim weekend. It was so much fun. Here is photographic proof that we had a vacation, and more importantly, that we have friends willing to hang out with us for an entire weekend!

Hadyn hitting the slopes at Brundage in McCall

Jeff, I guess paying homage to the gods of the mountain...it must have worked, he had a great, injury-free time.
Here are my silly girls with one of their new favorite games, bobbing for plastic toys... Whatever makes them happy and allows me to study, right? :)

Vote for President Regan!

2010-02-20T18:55:00.004-07:00

Regan's very awesome 2nd grade teacher, Mr. Broyles, had the class write essays about what they would do if they were president. They did three seperate rough drafts, then chose their favorite to be hung in the classroom during the month in honor of Presidents' Day. Here is her final essay...

If I were president I would do many things.

First, I would build a chocolate hot tub on the rooftop of the White House. It would be blue and green. It would be made out of pure gold. Sometimes I would chip off gold to give it to the poors. They can get food and homes for the needy.

One of the essays that did not make the cut had a platform I could really get behind and support, here it is...

If I were President, I would have a sugar beach that rained

candy. My house would be chocolate and the beach would have

two sugar snow hills. I would build a treehouse that's red and black.

It would have a drawbridge door and a fancy bed that's gold.

It would also have a T.V., a gold radio, and a lamp. I would plant ten trees

that grow money. I would give the money to Haiti

to help build homes, buy clothes, and give $200 to everybody.

To be honest, I'm not sure that plan is any less realistic then the current plan in Washington...

Happy Birthday Hadyn!

2010-02-08T21:29:00.003-07:00

Little Hadyn turned five on Saturday. However, because of scheduling she's had a long weekend of birthday celebrations. Friday she got to take treats into preschool. Saturday, her real birthday, our family went to Chucky Cheese to celebrate (can I just say wow...crowded...chaotic...). Sunday, we invited some good friends over for dinner and a little (a lot) chocolate fondue. Jeff's family was unable to make that fondue party, so we celebrated the extended family party with more chocolate fondue tonight. I think she is actually birthday'ed out.

Just to recap her past year for the sake of history... She has been very busy learning all the things she put her mind to. She has learned to tie her shoes, read level-1 books, help out more around the house, and is still a great sister and friend. She started preschool this year and can hardly wait until she starts Kindergarten in the fall. She loves primary, giggling, and trying to keep up with her big sister.

Happy Birthday Hadyn, we love you!

Hadyn asked for a chocolate fountain in stead of a cake this year, so Jeff and Uncle Dave improvised on the cake so Hadyn could still blow at a candle and get her wish...

Danica Patrick...Eat Your Heart Out...

2010-02-08T09:26:00.003-07:00

Okay, so if you knew me in high school, you know I was uber-competitive. I still cringe if I run in to people I competed against back in the day. These days, I've really tempered that compulsion to turn everything into a contest and to win each contest. Every now and then, however, it still seeps out... Case in point, this morning taking Hadyn to preschool.

I usually drop Regan off at the elementary school before dropping Hadyn off at her preschool a few miles away. As I was pulling out of the elementary school, I noticed Gracie's mom in the van in front of me. Gracie goes to preschool with Hadyn, and Gracie's older brother is in 2nd grade with Regan. Using my awesome skills of deduction, I guessed that Gracie was now on her way to preschool, just like us. Fine. Great. I tell Hadyn, "Hey, look! We get to follow Gracie to school today." Everything is great, until we get to the stoplight where I generally turn right. Gracie's mom went straight, choosing a different route. Oh yeah, it was on! I drove as fast as I could semi-legally go, determined to get to preschool first, thus exhibiting my superior navigating and driving skills.

What is wrong with me?

Long story short, Gracie's mom may not know it, but she totally got smoked in the Great Preschool Race this morning. It was a good morning...

Dancing Queen(s)

2010-01-31T20:25:00.002-07:00

Here are a few shots of Regan and Hadyn's ballet recital. The recital for their studio, Treasure Valley Ballet Academy, was last Saturday. There were 30 different groups that performed. Of those, six were chosen to perform again this week in a valley dance showcase, Freeze Frame. Both Regan and Hadyn's groups were chosen, but Hadyn's group got put into the Freeze Frame matinee, while Regan's group were placed into the evening performance. What that translates to is over the past two Saturdays, I shuttled ballerinas to three seperate dress rehearsals and three seperate performances. I am officially balleted-out. On a more positive note however, the girls did great and looked like true ballerinas. I loved their very traditional costumes for this recital. Enjoy the pictures. I'm not going to sort them chronologically...

Dad brought both ballerinas flowers following their performance.

Before the show

Happy or Sad?

2010-01-09T18:20:00.002-07:00

Today I took our tree down and all the other decorations. They have been carefully stuffed away in boxes and bins for another 11 months or so. I'm really torn as to whether am relieved to finally have everything boxed back up (it is January 9th after all) or so sad that the Christmas season is officially over. I really love Christmas because of the magic that surrounds it. I love the spirit of giving that is evident to me everywhere. I miss that my girls put so much thought into what treat they leave Santa and truly try to be better behaved around this time of year. Regan is seven now. The "magic" won't be here for much longer and I really want to just pause everything for a little while... Speaking of magic, check out this awesome picture my super-cool bro-in-law took of us on Christmas Eve...I love Christmas!

Our Annual Ornament Creation and Special Song by Hadyn

2009-12-15T20:07:00.007-07:00

Merry Christmas to all of our friends. Our Christmas cards are still in progress, but they will get out. But, just in case they don't get out before it's too late to actually wish you a Merry Christmas, we thought we would do so now.Each year our family makes a new ornament for the tree. Tonight was the big night, and I am very happy with how well they turned out. We stole/borrowed the idea from here.

Here is Jeff hammering away at the washers for all of us. How nice of him to sacrifice his fingers for his family. That is true love!

Here is Regan with her finished ornament. So pretty...the ornament looks nice too...

Here is Hadyn's. I'd put a picture of her holding hers, but she was not feeling well tonight.

In fact, here is how she spent most of the evening... Lastly, here is a little something I found on the camera tonight when I downloaded pictures. She cracks me up. For the record, we are not going to the beach. I don't know where this song comes from, but it definately needed to be shared. My future pop star...she already sounds similar to Marah Carey... (be sure to pause the Christmas music at the top of the page first)

Family Pics

2009-11-17T12:20:00.004-07:00

I keep putting off posting because I am so behind. I'm just going to post and catch up (maybe) later.

We had our family pics done by Mandie again this year. She is awesome and if you are in the Boise area, check her out. Her blog is in my sidebar, it's called Captured Moments. Anyway, here are some of my favorites...

This one of Hadyn just makes me smile. Okay mom, I'll take this picture, but I'm not super excited about it...

Those Ingalls' Have Nothing On Us...

2009-09-05T21:51:00.003-06:00

Here's what we've been up to this weekend...

We turned these beauties from our garden...

Into 29 pints of stewed tomatoes. These will be added to the 18 pints we got a week or so ago. It's by far the best harvest we've had from our tomato plants.

Homegrown raspberries also came out of the freezer to become freezer jam, and homemade, fresh ground whole wheat bread was made (and almost an entire loaf consumed).
Regan discovered a new obsession/talent/skill. Hadyn gave her an embroidery kit for her birthday and I finally sat down with her to show her the basic stitches. She ran with it and loves it. She actually was surprisingly good at it very quickly. She has a good touch for how big to make her stitches and how hard to pull.

We ended today with ice cream cones in the backyard. You can't see Jeff in this shot, but the girls are tormenting him with the ice cream cones and are giggling as he tries to steal their treats.
It was a good weekend.

I'm an Empty Nester at 34

2009-09-02T12:20:00.004-06:00

Well maybe not an official empty nester, but for two and a half hours a day, three days a week, I'm on my own.

HADYN IS IN PRESCHOOL!

She was up at the crack of dawn today and fully dressed before I even woke up. She could hardly wait to see Ms. Janis. She wouldn't even let me walk her to the door, she said "Ms. Janis said we can just walk in." She loved her day and couldn't talk fast enough to tell me about it when I picked her up. What a big girl she is becoming. I'm undecided on how I feel about that...

Lucky #7

2009-08-31T20:48:00.006-06:00

About this time every year Regan decides to have a birthday, it's almost like clock-work...

Here's her current information, so we have something to tease her about when she's older:

Her favorite color is GOLD.
When she grows up she wants to be an art teacher or a fashion designer.
She wants to attend BYU-Hawaii.
Her favorite subjects are art and math.
What she wanted more than anything for her birthday was a nail design machine that could add sparkles, etc. to your fingernails. Unfortunately, her mom read the reviews on that product and dodged a major bullet).
Her favorite show is Scooby-Doo.
Her favorite food is pepperoni pizza.
Her favorite book is "If I Were a Lion" by Sarah Weeks, which Aunt Beth gave her for her third birthday. She still loves it, and so does her mom.
Her favorite things to do are run, dance, swim, read and write stories.

Here she is celebrating... Her new Didj, which on top of being able to play games on, she can program with her spelling words and current math topics each week and have it make games for her. Cool.

Mad Libs. It was cool when I was young and I thought it was cool that they were still popular. What is even cooler is that I can still remember what most of the parts of speech are...

Blowing out the candles on her special request lemon cheesecake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REGAN...WE LOVE YOU!!!

Meet the Mohawk

2009-08-29T21:54:00.002-06:00

We just got back from a really fun overnight camping trip (yes, camping generally does mean overnight, but in this case I mean we spent just the one night). Unfortunately, as I pulled out the camera to capture all the fun, all I got was a dead battery message. Sigh... Anyway, we had a lot of fun with some families Jeff grew up with. Two of the boys were Regan and Hadyn's ages, and the four of them got along wonderfully. It was funny to see Regan trying to balance on that fine line between being scared that Jeff's friend, Scott, was taking us on a 10:00pm bear hunt, and laughing at the fact that we really didn't expect to see any bears. We did have one glitch in our otherwise perfect trip. The zipper on the door of the tent broke, and would not close. Normally this would not a major problem, I just figured we'd keep the lights off inside the tent to keep the bugs inside to a minimum. I didn't quite work out that way. First, we had just gone on a "bear hunt", and second, Regan can read now, and could understand the signs posted at the outhouse that there were indeed bears in the area and to keep our garbage safely contained. Well, everyone knows that bears politely wait outside of zipped up tents, but actually go inside tents with broken zippers. This caused some understandable panic in Regan and Hadyn. Not to fear, Jeff and Scott marched off like the men they are to fix the tent. 15 minutes later, they came back. We were a little short of duct tape, but the door was sealed with bear-proof tape. Luckily our tent has two doors. Crisis averted.

Upon returning home, we quickly cleaned up and got ready to go to visit yet more friends (could we be more popular?) for a birthday party. Jeff announced that he needed a haircut. Now, many of you have heard me talk about how much I like it when Jeff cuts his hair really short, aka, with the clippers. Well, I've been trying to convince him to do it again, and I finally wore him down. We, of course, started with your basic mohawk, which, truly, Jeff looked great in. I'm not just saying that, he could totally pull it off. Sadly, this picture is as close as most of the world will get to seeing it. I'll try to wear him down on the mohawk being a permanent fixture, but until then, at least I get the buzz cut.

And yes, I did say our camera battery was dead, but it was a mohawk! It had to be captured. I charged the battery for 2 minutes, and was able to get exactly one somewhat blurry picture out of it before it died again. Enjoy. Feel free to leave your positive comments about the mohawk. Maybe if we all in blog-world team together we can see more of Jeff's wild side in the future.

Spa Luke

2009-08-25T15:32:00.002-06:00

Last week Hadyn came home from a play date with a make-up kit. Regan immediately took control of it and started giving make-overs to any and all willing participants. On Sunday, Regan and Hadyn informed me that it was my turn, and, let's be honest, much needed.

I was told where to sit, a blanket was draped across my shoulders and I was beautified. Hadyn was in charge of putting lotion on my legs. Both treatments were very much appreciated, and I think the end result was well worth the $1 my neighbor paid for the make-up kit.

Eat your heart out America! Get your apointments fast.

Since they have school and early bed times, slots fill up fast...

Civil Disobedience

2009-08-12T20:58:00.002-06:00

We have a standing rule at our house about growing up.

It is strictly forbidden.

Not only do I want to keep my girls little and sweet and cute, but let's be honest, I don't want to be old enough to have grown children.

Unfortunately, this rules seems to go the way of other household rules, and is completely ignored.

Case in point, today Regan started second grade. Seriously, 2nd Grade! I can still picture her the day we brought her home from the hospital (and can still hear her scream...you who knew her then, or had the pleasure of living within a one block radius of our house knows what I'm talking about).

It just seems to be going too fast.

Anyway, here she is on her way out the door.

Why do I even bother to make rules.

I should have made a sign about it.

I hear signs work...Sigh...

And just for reference, here she is on her way to her first day of kindergarten...sniff, sniff...

Route of the Hiawatha

2009-08-09T20:50:00.002-06:00

This is a little old news, but newsworthy all the same. A few weeks ago we met up again with the Prestwich's for a camping/biking adventure in Northern Idaho. We actually camped near a tiny town called Avery, which is just past St. Maries, ID. It is a logging community, so their school mascot is a lumberjack. Jeff really gets a kick out of this guy at the high school. I would feel bad not including since Jeff took such pains to really capture his tree-chopping essence...

When we started looking through the three possible campgrounds for a spot for our group, we were starting go get worried that so many spots were taken already, in spite of it being a Wednesday. Luckily there was one spot left, and it was literally the best spot out of the entire area. We had tons of trees and shade, space for a large tent and a camp trailer, trails for the kids to explore, trails to the river for fishing and playing and even huckleberry bushes!

Here's Dave, AKA the pied piper. He had all the kids entranced watching him make a whistle out of a willow.
That's all of our group walking along the St. Joe River. Isn't it so beautiful!? Dave and Jeff are in the waders in the water, and Jeff just caught a fish. He's such a good provider...wait, it's catch and release... oh well, I wasn't thrilled about cleaning them anyway...

One of the days of the campout was set aside for the Route of the Hiawatha. It was such a cool family activity. It is an old railway that has since been converted to a bike trail. It is about 15 miles long and the entire route is on a gentle downhill grade with a shuttle at the base. It is in beautiful mountains and you go over huge trestle bridges and several long, dark tunnels.

Here I am at the trailhead, a tunnel that is just under 2 miles long and dark and muddy and even a little chilly in the deepest part. It was a little eerie at first. You would be in touble without a decent headlamp. I have the girls in the trailer behind me, and they serenaded me the entire tunnel with "Mud, mud, glorious mud, nothing's quite like it for cooling the blood"...that helped, a lot...

One of the bridges we crossed.

At the end. I was hoping for a group shot, but everyone was a little tired and grouchy and wanted to run around. These were the only troopers willing to work with me, and two of them had no real choice. That's Jackson in the middle of my girls, he and Regan became quite the BFF's.

Alas, not everything can go as planned however...

Go for the Gold - Girls' Camp 2009

2009-07-21T09:06:00.004-06:00

Thanks to my sister for taking my girls for the week, I was able to attend the entire week of Girls' Camp. It was an amazing week. My spirit has been lifted, my resolve to improve strengthened and my body exhausted.

Jeff and I and another couple in our ward were lucky enough to get to lead 8 4th year girls on their overnight backpacking trip. We took them up to Boulder Creek and hiked up to Boulder Lake and Lake Louie. This was no easy hike. Packs were heavy (due in part to enough smore's fixins to feed an army), weather was wet and we covered around 14 miles, mostly uphill, inspite of Brother Blaser's claim that we were "coasting" most of the way :)

Here we are at our uppermost point of the hike. That's Lake Louie you can see through the trees. We were able to drop our big packs at Boulder Lake, where we set up our campsite before continuing on to the upper lake. It is so beautiful up here, especially with the wet spring. There were wild flowers everywhere.

This is the mountain of boulders we had to navigate to get back to camp. Our tents were right on the other side of the embankment. Below us you can see Boulder Lake.

After 6 hours of hiking, we were ready for some good, warm food. Everyone was wet from their knees down since it had been rainy and we were walking through tall grass part of the way. Warm hawaiian haystacks hit the spot, followed by Smore's...yummm...

Here are the girls the next morning preparing to head back down the mountain to our cars. They look pretty good for having hiked long and hard the previous day and what seemed to us leaders as an entire night of yelling, wrestling and truth-or-daring in their tent. Thank goodness we OLD leaders had our own tent.

A morning view of Boulder Lake.

After meeting up with the rest of the girls' camp at Camp Ee-Da-How, we had the traditional and infamous skit night. Here are our valient Priesthood leaders. They were doing a skit...or were they...
Group picture at Cascade Lake.
Group picture on our hike.

Activities like Girls' Camp really make me realize how good kids are these days. They get a bad rap sometimes, but I am continually amazed by their kindness and real desire to live as they have been taught. I am strengthened just be being around them. It gives me hope and excitement for my own girls to be this age.

I'm Tryin' to Tell You Somethin' 'Bout My Life...

2009-07-10T17:07:00.005-06:00

Tuesday I, my friend Karla and my sister (also my friend) Robin went to the Indigo Girls concert in Salt Lake City. It was amazing. I've been a HUGE fan of them since I was 16. Listening to them live was so surreal. I am still floating around on Cloud 9, and poor Jeff is constantly being subjected to their CD's or, worse, me singing (badly) their songs.

Emily & Amy, as cool as ever.

(I can't take credit for this pic, I just borrowed it, I never actually got this close. Although we thought we might try to storm their bus during the opening artist, but decided against it.)

Their new CD. It is really good, and has two discs with the same songs, one disc is the acoustic versions, my personal fave.

The opening act was Gregory Alan Isakov. He was also amazing. I'd never heard of him, but he had an amazing voise. Sort of like a sober Bob Dylan. Nice. We got to talk to him for a while and he autographed his CD's for us. He's cool, and fame, or at least his pending fame hasn't spoiled him yet. Let's keep our fingers crossed... I'm a sucker for a guitar, throw in a fiddle and the occasional cello and I'm yours for life.
The Indigo Girls put on a great show. They played a lot of their new stuff, but ended with a long list of their greatest hits. It was amazing to hear so many people singing their lyrics with them and dancing. I admit I was hoarse by the end of the night.
Check out this beautiful venue! Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City.

The "Girls" are in Boise at the end of the month. Who's with me? :)

He Said I Run Like a Girl...I said he could too if he Ran a Little Faster...

2009-06-23T10:52:00.004-06:00

Today was the closing ceremony for Regan's school's Mini-Marathon program. Kids who chose to participate would use their morning recess twice a week to run the paved track at the school. Their laps were punched on their punchcards and tracked all year long (minus the snowy months). The goal was to run 26 miles, which is no small task. There were only a handful for 1st-5th graders that actually ran that far, but Regan was given an award for reaching a half-marathon of 13 miles. So cool. We are so proud of her.

Here's all the swag that they were going to give away at the closing ceremony. Those are all bags of gift certificates, Gatorade, water bottles, etc. that were provided by local running shops, as well as the awesome PTA volunteers that ran it all year long.

Here she is with her prizes and her punch card. It is such a cool program. For every lap they get a punch on their card. Three punches is one mile. At certain goalpoints, they get special beads for their lanyard, like feet, tennis shoes, etc. Regan was really excited about this program all year. It's one of my favorite programs at the school.

In other news, our garden is on a record-setting pace, in spite of the late frosts that attempted to thwart our efforts. We have tons of lettuce and some green onions. We're looking forward to a great harvest of tomatoes, potatoes, squash, zucchine, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermellon and canteloupes. Right now, we are just starting to pick raspberries. We are hoping for enough this year to actually make some jam. We had our first picking last night for Family Home Evening. Not many of these raspberries will ever see the inside of a jam jar...not when there's vanilla and chocolate ice cream in the freezer. Yummm.

Anyway, here is our first raspberry picking. It may not seem like much, but this is just the beginning. There are tons still green on the bushes. This is literally more than we got all of last year combined.

And here is Jeff picking away and wondering if it is really necessary to document EVERYTHING. Yes, Jeff, it is necessary. Now smile. :)

Then, just a little pat on my own back. This is what the girls and I made for Jeff and his dad for Father's Day. I totally admit to TOTALLY ripping off the idea from Bakerella, but I actually made it, so that should count for something, right? We thought it turned out really cute. If you can't tell, and don't go to the trouble to follow the link, that is a yellow cupcake for a bun, brownie for the hamburger patty, and different icings for the condiments. On the side is some sugar cookie "french fries". That's my kind of happy meal.

A Father's Day Shout Out

2009-06-21T11:03:00.006-06:00

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. I know a lot of great one's, and I hope you have a great day. A big thank you goes out to my own Dad. There are so many things I have learned from my dad, often just by watching him. One of my greatest loves is reading, and from as early as I can remember, my dad has been instilling that love for books in me. Thanks dad. Happy Father's Day.

Another important dad in my life is Robert. Technically he is my father-in-law, but he is much more to me than that. He never hesitates to come to my aid when I call and ask for help, ask to borrow something, or for a favor, and trust me, I do that a lot. On top of that, he is the father of one of my favorite people, and although there are many times he would probably choose NOT to claim responsiblity for raising my husband, he did a great job, and I'm forever indebted to him for the man/husband/father he raised. Happy Father's Day Robert (I'll see you later tonight for Father's Day goodies and to bring back some of the aforementioned borrowed items :)

Last but definately not least, Happy Father's Day to my husband. He does so much for our family, and is a constant example to me of patience and caring. My favorite thing about Jeff is that he understands that kids should be allowed to be kids, and he loves to join in. From jumping on the trampoline to watching Sponge Bob, Jeff is Regan's and Hadyn's favorite play date. For all you do for us Jeff, Happy Father's Day. We love you.

Where I Fall in the Hierarchy

2009-06-09T09:49:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Hadyn told me this:

"Mom, I still like you,

but I think I like my balloon more than you.

It's just so much fun."

It's not even a fancy mylar balloon. No helium...currently no air. Just a give-away balloon from Regan's race Saturday.

It's comments like this that really make motherhood worth it... :)

The Capitol Classic

2009-06-06T22:53:00.005-06:00

We could not be prouder of Regan today. It was such a fun day, where the fact that my firstborn is growing up way too fast was thrown at me many times. Regan and her friend Katie ran in the Capitol Classic Kids Run. It is for kids ages 6 to 14, and is a one-mile race from the Boise Train Depot, down Capitol Boulevard to the State Capitol. Of course, as seems to be the Luke girls' luck, it rained until about the time the race ended. Regan and Katie didn't seem to mind. They had a lot of fun and made us all so proud.

Pre-Race with Buster Bronco...GO BSU!

Doing a little warming up...

Runners, take your marks... Get set...

GO!

Coming in with a strong finish.

Regan goes for the pass

Run a race and still look this good...

Good friends

Year End Shows

2009-05-16T08:09:00.008-06:00

It is that time of year when we get to see what our children have learned from a year of schooling and their extracurricular activities. We have had a fun time seeing the girls showing us how they've grown and improved.

Regan just completed her second year with Treasure Valley Ballet Academy. She loves ballet, especially getting ready for the recitals and seeing and wearing the costumes. The year-end recital was The Wizard of Oz, and Regan was one of the Wicked Witche's wolves that were sent (prior to the flying monkeys) to stop Dorothy. She had a lot of fun and looked beautiful. Grandma Moss was able to come up from Utah, which was probably one of Regan's favorite things about the whole event.

Here she is with some of the flowers she was given. The next picture is her in her costume on the way to dress rehearsal. She did change into ballet shoes at the auditorium. The full costume had a fur vest and hat with ears. For some reason I didn't get good pictures of that. I'll try to scan the pictures she had done at the studio and post them soon.

Hadyn has just finished her first year of gymnastics with The Little Gym. She loved it. It was a perfect fit for her personality and her complete lack of fear. This will probably be the end of her career as a gymnast, as she is getting more and more interested in ballet and becoming even more like her idolized big sister. She is also beginning to control her energy level just a little. Hadyn is looking forward (as in asking each day how many days until...) starting preschool in September. I don't know who is more excited, Hadyn or Hadyn's mom... Here she is doing one of her favorite gymnastics tricks (with the moral support of her friend, Cascade, that take the class with her):

A Little Catching Up

2009-04-30T23:04:00.011-06:00

So you all missed some fun stuff while I was on blogging hiatus. Here are a few of the highlights in no particular order...actually in whatever order Blogger decided to stick them into this post.

In February, we travelled to Kalispell area in Montana and spent a week with some good friends, the Prestwich's, that Jeff and I have known since the good old days at the U of I (GO VANDALS).

This is us at a huge lake (which I'm too lazy to look up the name of and it's been too long to actually remember) in Glacier National Park. Try to focus more on the beautiful lake and mountains rather than on us. We're cold, windblown, and looking into the sun. It was such a great vacation. We sledded, skied, ate really good and played. The Prestwich's have boys our girls ages roughly, so it was fun for the kids. The last time we went on vacation with these guys they just had Isaac, and I think I was about 20 weeks into my pregnancy with Regan.

Hadyn got to go one a date with her dad to go skiing at Bogus. One day she'll probably be embarrassed that we took our own packets of instant oatmeal and used the water from the coffee makers in the cafe in the ski lodge. At this age she just thinks we're cool for remembering spoons. Ahhhh, to pause time...

For April Fools day we had the first annual mixed up dinner. All the parts of dinner, each food, plate, cup, etc. was written on a slip of paper and each of us had a set of all the slips. Each course you could draw out three items. After each course your placesetting was completely cleared. It led to some interesting combinations. Here's one of my courses. What I wouldn't have given for a drink of anything. Those are some dry foods! Luckily I had my fork...

Unluckily for Hadyn she drew juice but no cup. Dad to the rescue. I think I may adopt this all the time. No more dirty glasses or cups to wash.

Our Easter egg hunt. This was the first year we really hid the eggs. We were smart enough not to use real eggs in case some didn't get found, but not smart enough to just write down where everything was hid. Somewhere there is one plastic egg waiting to be found.

And lastly, the much anticipated Moss Family Reunion was a great success. My brother Dave and his family were visiting from Alaska, so we were excited to get everyone together. It was a one day event, and my other brother, Richard was in charge (translation: My sis-in-law, Jamie did an awesome job). I love the picture of Hadyn and my mom.

Why We Love Living in Boise

2009-04-21T10:05:00.005-06:00

Wow, I almost feel that I should introduce myself...Instead, I think I'll just pretend that it hasn't be a month and a half since my last post...The Luke clan has been well, although very busy. I aced my first two classes, and am working my way through another while trying to get registered for several more. Regan is loving the new spring weather and doing well in school and ballet. Her recital is next month and she is very excited. She's also participating in her school's mini-marathon, which has her running laps two recesses a week. She past her 10-mile mark, and seems to enjoy running. I know, it's hard to understand. Hadyn is enjoying her gymnastics class and counting down the minutes until she starts preschool in the fall. Jeff hasn't made as many international trips this year, for which we are grateful. He has kept busy with work, his church calling and snowboarding (not necessarily in that order).

So, yesterday was an amazing day, and we were reminded of how great Boise is. We started our day as usual, running Regan to school, etc. After school though, was our first day this year of running through the sprinklers...

Then, we quickly got ready to meet up with Jeff's sister's family, and we headed up to Bogus Basin for some sledding/snowboarding. The ski lifts and everything are closed, but there's still snow, so off we went. It is a long winding road to get up to the hill, but so worth it. The girls sledded a few times on sleds, then a few times on just their backsides, then they just played in ths snow. Jeff snowboarded a little on the sledding hill, then, when we were starting to pack up, he went all the way down the hill and we picked him up at the base of the mountain.

It was so warm we only wore gloves and snowpants to keep dry. I was actually in shorts and didn't even get cold. I love Boise!

Here's Jeff snowboarding. I know I'm biased, but I think he looks pretty good...and he's a good snowboarder :).

And then we finished our day with donuts and this view. Does it get any better? (No.)

This Month is Such a Special Month...

2009-02-06T23:06:00.003-07:00

Hadyn, all shiny and new with her big sister (who seems so small here).

She was not shy with the cake on her first birthday.

She was still all smiles by her 2nd birthday.

It is a rare day when Hadyn is not happy and giggling.

Birthday number 3 found her in Boise surrounded by family.

I'll let her tell you how old she is today:

Hadyn is such an amazing girl. She is always ready with a smile, hug and kiss. She loves to take care of people and she loves her big sister. She wants to be a mom and a doctor when she grows up. She thinks her mom is the best cook and she misses her dad when he travels. She is a natural skiier, a great gymnast and my helper. Her favorite thing to do is watch SpongeBob with her dad. Happy Birthday Hadyn. We love you!

What We've Been Doing Instead of Blogging

2009-02-06T21:41:00.004-07:00

I cannot fully put into words how crazy our lives have become, and yet, here I am putting it into words... My sis-in-law did this a while back and I thought it was a brilliant way to catch up on the blog without too much time or stress. So, here it is (in no specific order. Chronological would have been nice, but no:

What I did on my Blogger Vacation

by Maria Luke

Jeff has been to Vietnam twice in the last two months. He only stays for a week each time, which means he actually spent more time traveling to and from than actually in Vietnam.

I have officially gone back to school and am in a pre-nursing program. I am currently taking 7 credits, but on the quarter (vs. semester) system which means we move fast. I am loving it, and find that either I am way smarter, or dating Jeff is significantly more distracting than being married to Jeff...

Regan has had two ballet recitals. One was just her usual Winter recital, where she and her class did a really cute dance to "One" from Chorus Line. The second was a much bigger recital for which her group was chosen to participate. The did the same dance, but in a recital with groups chosen from about 10 area studios. I'll try to post a short video at the end of this.

I spent a week flat on my back. Not the relaxing, eating bon bon's type of rest, more like the cockroach that simply can't get up sort of thing. Apparently I herniated two discs in my lower back, and, also apparently, that area of your body is affected when you do anything, including blinking. It was very painful, and I was a huge baby, but my dear, loving husband, was amazing taking care of everything that he could. What a guy.

When I was finally upright again after #4 (not running any races, mind you, but at least sobbing in pain), I sent Jeff snowboarding. I'm sure he needed a break from being my nurse for a while. He came home earlier than expected with a limp and a sprained knee. We were quite a pair.

After #'s 5 & 6, Jeff and I have come to the conclusion that we are old and falling apart.

We have replaced most of the trim in our home that we took off to tile our kitchen and dining rooms a year ago.

I also don't think I've mentioned yet that at the end of last year I started doing medical transcription for an orthopedic surgeon. I really like doing it. I am a total geek. I love typing. I can't play the piano, but I can type and I find it very relaxing. Weird, I know.

Hadyn has finally found an outlet for her boundless energy. She goes to gymnastics once a week. It doesn't make her any more likely to take a nap, but it is nice to see her chanelling that energy into something productive. I tried to convince her that cleaning toilets and scrubbing floors for her mom was an equally fun way to use up energy, but she wasn't convinced. Sigh...

Regan was awarded the Citizenship award for her class. We were and are very proud of her.

We spent a couple days in Driggs, Idaho, celebrating our anniversary (11th), loving the idea of being snowed in my aunt and uncles cabin and hoping for glimpses of the Grand Teton (it never came out from behind the fog, clouds and gusting wind) and hoping the cabin withstood the CRAZY winds that blew. It was fun and very relaxing.

Well, I think that's it. I feel like I'm beginning to get my feet back under myself and I am adjusting to my new schedule so I hope to update a bit more frequently, but don't hold me to it.

Here's a little snippet of Miss Regan performing "One":

Coming back to Real Life...Sigh...

2008-12-28T22:44:00.003-07:00

Wow! We have had such a great holiday! Jeff's company shut down for two weeks, which means we get him full-time for two weeks, and it has been so nice. We have had so much fun doing family stuff...stuff that obviously did not include blogging. So, here is a whirlwind tour of our Chrismas. Enjoy.

This is on Christmas Eve. The girl hasn't even received a stocking full of sweets yet. She is so excited for Santa to come.

Here is what we ate on Christmas Eve. I would say the girls actually look forward to this more than opening presents. I love this tradition. On Christmas Eve, we eat our Shepherd's dinner on a blanket on the floor. We try to keep the food simple. This year we had roasted beef, homemade bread, grapes, home-canned grape juice and assorted cheese. We talk about the shephards, what they were doing before their angelic visitation, and then how they left to find the Savior. This year we also read a children's Christmas story by Helen Ward, "The Animals' Christmas Carol". A good friend read the story in church and I loved it and it's message that each of us has a gift we can give to the Savior, and for each of us it is different but equally important. Regan and Hadyn liked the story, but kept saying, "Why is Mom crying?". Curse my emotions! :)

Fast forward to Christmas morning. Santa brought the girls Barbie clothes, and several costumes to add to their dress up chest. Here is Daphne (Regan and Hadyn LOVE Scooby Doo, and especially love Daphne) and the Snow Princess.

Here is Hadyn with her favorite gift. Regan picked out a beautiful snow globe for her that plays Christmas music. She carries it around everywhere, and wound and wound it all Christmas morning. I don't know how fragile it is, it seems pretty sturdy...I'm sure we'll find out soon enough...

Then, here we are on Saturday. We got dumped on with snow. We played in the backyard, and went sledding with Uncle Matt's family. Good times. I'm glad we went then, since it has been raining today, and all we have now is a lot of slush.

Merry Christmas from the Luke Family. We hope you all had, and continue to have a great Christmas holiday!

2008 Christmas Ornaments

2008-12-16T09:35:00.004-07:00

Each year, since we were married (which in exactly two weeks will be 11 years) we make ornaments for our tree. One for each of us. Our tree is mostly homemade ornaments, either by us or by friends, and we love it. Anyway, my friend's friend start an awesome crafty blog, where I found the cutest, no-sew ornaments. For the full directions, you'll have to go to this site, which is also an awesome site for simple crafty projects.

Anyway, we each made our ornament last night for Family Home Evening. The girls loved it, and Jeff tolerated it :). I was able to let the girls be creative rather than continually correcting them to make them look "right". It was such a fun night, and I love how Regan and Hadyn's turned out.

I So Don't Want that Electric Bill

2008-12-12T16:12:00.005-07:00

It took me several hours, but I got our Christmas lights up on the house. I think it was worth the time... (be sure to scroll down to the bottom of my page and pause my music so you get the full effect)

Okay, so I didn't do it, but this is amazing. My mother-in-law emailed this to me today and I showed it to Regan and Hadyn. Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon looking at more on youtube. You should check the others out. It looks like this house, that may be in Pleasant Grove(?) has done several such things. It took me a week, and several of Jeff's and my father-in-laws man-hours to get my four strings of icicle lights up.

All I Want for Chrithmath...

2008-12-07T20:23:00.002-07:00

It has finally happened! Regan lost her first tooth. She has been waiting to the very edge of her patience. She claims that she is the last first grader at her school to lose her tooth, which I doubt, but there aren't many left that haven't. The tooth has been loose for a few weeks, and she spent a lot of time wiggling it around trying to speed up the process. I have been dreading the moment that it would need to actually be manually pulled, having heard awful stories from friends, and family sit-coms, all without need. She came home from school last Wednesday with her tooth missing...literally. Once she stopped sobbing, I got the full story:

Said tooth was really wiggling around a lot at school, and starting to bother her so Regan just grabbed it and yanked it out. She was very proud. Her teacher gave her a special necklace that you only get if you lose your tooth at school, one that you can put your tooth in for safekeeping until you get home. Regan wore it, I'm sure, as a badge of honor through class and out to recess. When she came back from recess, the necklace was gone, as was (of course) the tooth, and, according to her, all hope of a visit from the tooth fairy. To make matters worse, I wasn't even picking her up from school that day, she was coming home with my friend. They searched the playground and checked at the office, but it was gone.

I eventually convinced her that the tooth fairy would KNOW that she had lost a tooth and visit anyway. We remembered a Charlie and Lola (I love that cartoon more than the girls do. I'm a sucker for a good British accent, even coming from a cartoon) where the same thing happened. Lola just had so sleep with a big smile on her face so the tooth fairy would see her missing tooth. Regan seemed relieved. Later, I went to mutual and Jeff put the girls in bed. When I came home, I went to check on the girls and say good night to anyone not yet asleep. I found Regan with tears running down her face. She said she couldn't fall asleep with her mouth open, but she didn't want the tooth fairy to not see her missing tooth. I finally got her to go to sleep, with her mouth closed, after promising to leave an explanatory note to the tooth fairy.

To make a long story short, the tooth fairy did come, and Regan was happy. The kind fairy even left a note telling Regan that this happens to a lot of kids, and that she has a specially trained dog that would find the tooth and bring it to her (the tooth fairy) if it didn't turn up. Crisis averted.

Four Tickets for the North Pole Please

2008-12-03T21:58:00.003-07:00

Saturday night we travelled to the North Pole and back via the Thunder Mountain Railways in Horseshoe Bend. It was fun to watch the girls. I know Chrismas isn't really about Santa Clause and presents, but I will be the first to admit that while I absolutely love the beautiful, Christ-centered meaning of Christmas, I also have a soft spot for the Magic of Santa as far as my girls are concerned.

We didn't tell the girls anything about the surprise trip. They are smart girls, and it didn't take them long to figure out we were going on a train ride, but they didn't know where we were going, or who we might see along the way. As we walked the length of a couple cars looking for seats, we walked through the refreshment car. Regan commented, "It's just like being home except it's longer and has lots of junk food." I'm still trying to figure that one out. Anyway, we got settled into seats, and waited for the train to start moving. The girls were literally bouncing around. It was really fun to watch and imagine what life would be like with that much energy. Sigh...

It wasn't long after the train started moving than the big man himself strolled into our car. I wish I had a picture of the girls' faces. That's the magic I'm talking about. Santa asked everyone in our car who believed in Santa. Hands shot up from kids and adults alike. I was so busy watching the girls reaction, my hand was the last one up. Santa commented that I was running a little slow this year. There's nothing quite like getting insulted by Santa :). I have since forgiven him. Santa actually sat down and talked with us for a while, which was fun. During our trip, Hadyn, with all the sincerety and earnestness a 3-year old can muster up, asked Santa if he was real. He said yes, and both Regan and Hadyn KNOW that they sat by and talked to the real Santa. (As opposed to some of the "helpers" they've seen in the mall and on street corners).We arrived at the North Pole and were given milk and cookies. I looked around. There were a handful of building fronts propped up. You could easily see the poles holding them up. They were pretty, but they obviously weren't real buildings. My mind started racing to explain to Regan and Hadyn why they were like that, when they both just stared and Regan whispered, "I can't believe we're at the North Pole!" Again, I love the magic of Christmas.
Could she be any happier? I hope you can click on this and make it bigger, because she actually looks like she's counting off her list on her fingers. Smart girl. You get the real Santa, you don't want to forget anything!

(Speaking of making your pictures be able to be bigger if they are clicked on, can someone explain the magic of that to me? I thought I had it figured out, but, I obviously do not. I would appreciate anyone who can let me in on that secret...)

Come, Come Ye Saints

2008-11-30T16:50:00.006-07:00

This is a special day for our family. On this day, 152 years ago, the surviving members of the Edward Martin Handcart Company reached the Salt Lake Valley. The company left Iowa City, Iowa with 575 saints, on July 28. 145 of these pioneers perished enroute, due to the freezing cold and starvation. Among the survivors were my great-great-great grandparents, Joseph and Mary Moss and their six children, ranging in age from 21 to 8. Also, in the same company, and also surviving was Jeff's great-great-great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Haydock and her daughter, also Jeff's grandmother, Mary Haydock (later Luke). You can read a good, yet heartwrenching account of the crossing here. I'm sitting here at the computer crying as I read the journal entries.

We had a really nice dinner after church today and talked about our pioneer family from the Martin Handcart Company. Reading the account of the unbelievable sacrifices that were made, especially after eating such a filling meal, was heartbreaking. I know I speak for all of us herewhen I say that we are so grateful for that sacrifice. Words cannot express, nor our tears convey our feelings. Today, we often speak of sacrificing for what we know is right. 152 years ago, so many saints made the ultimate sacrifice. For their examples of bravery and obedience, we say, Thank you.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

2008-11-28T22:53:00.004-07:00

For the first time in our nearly 11 years of marriage, we have our tree up on the day after Thanksgiving. Having a six and three year old talking about it for the past week may have helped light a fire under us... We love our tree and we love decorating it. I think it looks great. We spent some time today "Christmasifying" the blog and our house. Much of the music selection, especially the Miley Cyrus song, is courtesy of Regan and Hadyn. Here is wishing your families a very merry Christmas season!

So Blessed

2008-11-27T09:56:00.010-07:00

This is one of my favorite holidays. I love having family and friends gathered together. I love the smells of the food. I love the baking and cooking. I love eating the food and visiting. I love having my husband home for an extra-long weekend. What a great day! Our family is so blessed and we have so many things to be thankful for, we thought we'd start the day off with listing some of our greatest blessings.

We are thankful for such a great family. We love each other and we love spending time together, which is good, since we plan on being together forever, something for which we are so very grateful.

We are so grateful that we live in Boise. We miss (daily) our friends in Arizona, but being here, with so much family, and so many activities that we love is amazing.

I am grateful for the friends I have, both herE and scattered about the country. All the support I need is always just a phone call away.

We are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the direction it gives us and those we love. I don't know how we would go on sometimes without it.

Okay, so the girls want their chance to say what they are thankful for as well.

Regan is thankful to be sisters with Hadyn.

She is also grateful for her family and her cousins, because her cousins are fun to play with, Thanksgiving, because it's fun to be with the family, and Christmas, because "it's my favorite. On the day before Christmas, we dress up like shepherds and eat like the shepherds, by our Christmas tree."

Hadyn: "I'm thankful for food. I'm thankful for Mom. I'm thankful for Regan. I'm thankful for Dad, and myself. I'm thankful for dinner."

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

When In Doubt, Pinkie Out

2008-11-24T23:55:00.004-07:00

Regan and Hadyn prepared a tea party for the three of us for lunch today. How cute is this? They made sandwiches and drinks all by themselves, set out blankets, dishes, even a vase (mason jar) of flowers (silk). It was a lot of fun. We decided we are going to make it a weekly event for after school snacks. A few things to note as you look at the picture:

1. Notice the teacups. They are from their kitchen play set, and hold, maybe 2 Tablespoons of lemonade.

2. Notice how vibrant the lemonade is. That is a smaller than average pitcher we bought in Malaysia, it holds just over a quart of liquid. The girls insisted on doing everything themselves, including mixing the lemonade. It's Crystal Light and is supposed to be mixed with two quarts of water. That was some very lemony lemonade. My cheeks still ache.

It was the best lunch date I've had in a long time. They were so proud of themselves, and I was proud of them too. I am the luckiest mom! Great kids, great husband, great life.

P.S.: Here's a little trivia question...Where does my post title come from. If you lived in my house, you'd know...

New Callings

2008-11-16T15:49:00.002-07:00

Jeff and I have both received new callings. Jeff was called to be the Assistant Executive Secretary, and if you know Jeff, you know how much he likes to make phone calls...if you don't know Jeff, trust me, he's not a phone guy. He doesn't make phone calls, he doesn't answer our phone when it rings, he won't even order a pizza. This call will be great for him :). Actually, he was called last week, and after one week, he has foundthat he is actually liking it. Today he was officially released as a Sunday School teacher to the 14 year olds.

Today I was released as a Beehive Advisor, a calling I love, but called as the Young Women 1st Counselor, so I get to stay in the Young Womens' program and, I'll get my girls back in, at most, two years, so I'm happy. The Mia Maid girls that I get to work with now are great, and I am really excited. There are 20 of them (gulp) but with the three awesome advisors and I, we should have a lot of fun. Wish both Jeff and I luck in our latest endeavors!

Deep Thoughts from a Six-Year Old - Surviving Sisterhood

2008-11-13T09:13:00.005-07:00

Regan has been on track break for a couple weeks now, and, although Hadyn and I are loving spending our days with her, there has been a noticeable increase in the little spats and yelling matches between the girls. They are still trying to adjust to sharing things, giving each other space, the usual problems that two girls that are two and a half years apart in age go through. The other day when I found myself with some one-on-one time with Regan, I talked to her about how, although little sisters may seem annoying at times, that all Hadyn is really trying to do is be exactly like Regan. So I asked her to try to be the kind of sister that she would want Hadyn to grow up to be. Regan smiled and really understood. I walked away, patting myself on the back. Since that talk, I have been blessed with some priceless gems of wisdom and understanding from Regan.

"Mom, I'm only yelling at Hadyn because she yelled at me. You told us to treat each other the way we would want to be treated. So, I'm yelling at Hadyn because that must be how she wants to be treated." Stated with a big innocent eyes. She really thought she was doing the right thing. You can't argue with the logic. Who new the Golden Rule could be turned around that way?

Regan had just come to me after laughing and giggling with her little sister. With an out-of-breath, very excited voice, she told me, "Mom, being nice isn't so bad!"

My work here is done.

Go Steelheads!

2008-11-12T08:35:00.002-07:00

We were given some tickets to last night's Idaho Steelhead's hockey game, so we thought we'd introduce the girls to the world of skating, hockey pucks and gratuitous fist fights. Actually, I forgot how much I love watching hockey. Many may not know that Jeff's and my first official date was to a hockey game in Spokane. Ahhh, it really warms the heart, doesn't it.

Anyway, this was our first hockey game in...possibly a decade, and our first time in Qwest Arena. We were surprised by how small it was. It was awesome. There weren't any bad seats, and ours were better than most. The girls really seemed to love it. Regan even cheered enough to have a t-shirt tossed to her between 1st and 2nd periods. Strangely enough, they didn't get the same satisfaction as their parents the first time gloves were thrown off, shirts were bravely pulled over the opponents head and fists started flying. I will admit that that is one of my favorite parts. The first time it happened Regan and Hadyn just sort of stared and then asked a serious of very logical questions (rudely interrupting my cheering to let the fight continue) such as "Why is our guy trying to pull the other guy's shirt off?" and "Why are they acting like little kids?" Don't worry, by the end of the game they were cheering right along with the rest the aggressively repressed crowd. That's my girls.

Here are a few shots of them enjoying the evening. Sorry about the picture of Regan. She was sitting right next to me, so it is blurry. As I said, they really did enjoy the game, and really got into cheering for the Steelheads. The only two sad points of the night:

1. We lost, but we put up a good fight. Watch out next time Fresno Falcons!

2. We never got on the big screen. Regan really wanted to...me, not so much...

Strike a Pose

2008-11-08T12:55:00.006-07:00

We loved the pictures Mandie took of Regan and Hadyn a few weeks ago so much, that we set up another sitting for her to do our family pictures. Once again, she did such an amazing job! I love that we are having a hard time deciding which pictures to print, they are all too good. Would it be weird to just wallpaper a room or two of our house with her photos...of us? Anyway, here is just a fraction of the amazing shots she got. Enjoy! (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger).

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T23:43:00.002-07:00

Just a quick look at Regan and Hadyn on Halloween. They had a great time and made a serious haul on treats. Hadyn has been wanting to be a skeleton since she was scared by one last Halloween. She explained that if she was in the scary costume it wouldn't be scary. Very logical. I doubt she was the scariest skeleton that night, with that big smile on her face all night, but she was definately the cutest! Regan loved being a good witch, emphasis on the good. She is our super-sensitive child, and was brought to tears when some suggested she was a wicked witch. So sweet...

Jeff took us into HP for some early trick-or-treating in the afternoon. They filled their buckets there, and then filled them again walking around one of the subdivisions in our ward. Needless to say, they have been a sugar high for a few days. I'd be stricter with rationing it if they weren't nice enough to share the chocolate with Jeff and I. Hmmm, it's almost midnight and I'm blogging, maybe they aren't the only one's on a sugar high...

We're the Keenest...

2008-10-30T14:41:00.005-06:00

My cousin, Teri, recently posted her photos from Yearbook Yourself, and I loved them. So, if you ever wondered what Jeff and I might have looked like in our past lives, here you go:

1952

1960 (I actually look alot like my mom when she was in high school, but I never knew it)

1990, Yes, I could actually do this to my hair back in the day.

1988 - Actually Jeff's High School graduation year, and, lose the goatee and you have what he looked like. So funny. Sweet feathering.
1982

1960 - He looks like a high school science teacher.

Man, we would have been good looking throughout all ages. As if there were any question...

Don't Get Me Started :)

2008-10-27T23:16:00.001-06:00

Red Ribbon Week

2008-10-25T21:11:00.004-06:00

This past week at Regan's school, and all over the rest of the country, was Red Ribbon Week. For those not "in the know", it is the kick-off the school's anti-drug campaign. Speaking of drugs, I must have been on some, since I agreed to co-chair the festivities... Last year I volunteered on this committee, and somehow that turned into one thing, which turned into another, which turned into the PTA president handing me a thick red binder, the phone number of another, probably equally confused PTA mom who was my co-chair, and wishing me good luck. Sigh...I really do have issues with saying "no", but that is for another blog entry, or more likely, therapy.

Anywho, the week has come to an end, and I think we did a pretty good job. The teachers, parents and kids all seemed to find the week fun and educational. I admit, that my co-chair and I focused on the fun, letting the school counselor and teachers lead the charge on the educational side. I love Regan's school, and so far, I love all the teachers she has had as well as any I've had the pleasure of dealing with through various committees and volunteering gigs, and they really did an awesome job this past week talking to the kids about making the smart decisions about drugs, etc. We had conversations with Regan and Hadyn here and there about good drugs and bad drugs and how good drugs can become bad drugs, and so on. I felt that for a first grader, she had a healthy dose of information for her teacher to build on.

So, Tuesday, as we were preparing for a postponed Family Home Evening, Regan announced that she wanted to teach a short lesson about drugs. Cool. It is always awesome when you realize that what you are trying to teach to your kids is actually sinking in, even a little. She had learned some from us and some from school, and she was ready to teach the rest of us. I love it.

She comes in with some throat spray and some of my prescribed cough medicine from last winter. She talks about how we shouldn't do things like sniff glue or paint or any medicine. Then she talks about prescriptions and how you should never share presicribed meds. I was beaming. She really got this whole anti-drug thing. Nice. I was just checking the "Have the Drug Talk with Daughter" item off my to do list when she says, "Using someone else's prescriptions is really bad. You might get the other person's germs and get sick."

Okay, so she doesn't have it completely figured out, but she still did awesome. Besides, who wants to get someone's germs that was needing cough medicine? Not me, and definately not Regan. Good girl Reg's. She drew us all a picture so we would have a visual reference of the forbidden drugs. I thought I'd share...

New Pictures of the Girls

2008-10-10T16:57:00.004-06:00

We had a real photographer, Mandie Anderson, take Regan and Hadyn's pictures yesterday. I had seen some of her work and loved it so we asked her to set up a sitting for the girls down by the Boise River. That was just yesterday, and the pictures are already done. I don't have everything yet, but here are a few from the teaser she posted on her photography blog. You can check out more of them at http://capturedmomentsbymandie.blogspot.com/.

Isn't she a great photographer?! Don't the girls look amazing?!

General Conference

2008-10-05T09:25:00.003-06:00

We had a great day yesterday watching conference and just hanging out with each other. I generally really like the Saturday of General Conference. I, of course, love listening to the speakers, but I love that we spend the entire day with the family in a relaxing atmosphere. No meetings to run off to, no getting girls in and out of the bathtub, etc. Just a day to be together. I love it. The girls did great. They had an activity packet to keep them busy, so they felt more involved in the speakers. We had the added benefit of not having to argue with them to stay inside...

That blob at the end of the driveway? Yes, that's my newspaper. I'm sure when the paper lady (to clarify, she delivers the paper, she's not made of paper) tossed it out her window it was a lovely, if not dark, 5 am. However, by the time we taped this, during the morning conference session, it was not so lovely. Thanks Idaho Statesman!

Just Singin' in the Rain...

2008-09-25T10:10:00.002-06:00

Regan really wanted an umbrella for her birthday last month. I looked and looked for one that I thought was cute. She even got matching rainboots. How cool is she? Anyway, since then, she has been praying for rain. Saturday, while I was getting drenched at the Womens' Walk, she was lovin' life in the backyard with her rain gear. I just thought it was a cute picture.

St. Luke's Womens' Fitness Celebration

2008-09-19T15:17:00.007-06:00

Some friends and I did something really cool today. We participated in the Women's Fitness Celebration! This has been going on in Boise since 1993 and it is the largest race of its kind in the United States. It was my second year doing it, and it was a lot of fun, again. I could have done without the downpour that lasted the entire time we were outside, but I was proud to take part in such a cool event. Last year there were over 12,000 women walking or running the 5k course. There probably weren't that many this year, due to the rain. Here are some pics of the day!

Waiting for the starting gun.

Almost to the finish line. This shot is just to give you an idea of how many women participated.

After you finish, and have burned all those calories, you walk through the park and are handed so much food. Chocolate milk, bagels, apples, etc. We stopped at the Subway tent where they were handing out cookies, and look who was there handing us our treats! Thanks Jared, those cookies were just the thing we needed to kick start our weight-loss efforts :).

There were six of us who started the race together, but the rain was motivation for three of them to actually run. I, however, stuck by my guns. It takes more than a simple downpour to make me run. Here are the three of us walkers after our finish. Notice that one of us looks considerably drier...hmmm....Not to name any names (Heather), but Andrea and I really appreciate how selflessly you shared the umbrella. Don't worry about the pneumonia we caught, we'll be fine...

Here we are, six tough chicks willing to brave the elements to help woman-kind. You are all welcome. (Again, notice how pretty Heather looks, and how wet the rest of us look...)

And finally, to fully illustrate how much I was willing to sacrifice for a good cause, I present to you my shoe. Yes, that is a bloodstain from my walk. Wet shoes, wet skin, wet ankle socks and are not the best combination.

High School Tag

2008-09-19T15:17:00.005-06:00

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yep. That's all you get.

2. What kind of car did you drive? As if my parents would let ME drive. For some reason I had to ride with my YOUNGER brother Richard. That was fine until he started driving a lavendar hatchback that he and his friends cut the top off of to make it a convertible. Sigh...

3. What was the most embarrassing moment of HS? I think I've repressed those memories. I can't think of anything.

4. Were you a party animal? Nope.

5. Were you considered a flirt? Also no.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I was in band for a few years. I played the clarinette.

7. Were you a nerd? I don't think so, although the clarinette didn't help anything. I was more of a jock/preppy/brain. It was a small school, everyone had to fill more than one position.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? Yes. Basketball and track.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No way.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? I remember my mom could always sing it, but I don't remember it.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? I loved English from Mr. Barber, he made me love reading, writing, and made me feel smart. I loved every class and sport that Coach Johnson taught or coached. He's a cool guy.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? Cafeteria down at the Elementary School. We had to walk a couple blocks to it since our high school didn't have a cafeteria. Some kids ate at the pizza place or Maverik, but I never had any money.

13. School mascot? The Mighty Bulldogs.

14. Did you go to homecoming, and with who? Yes. I only remember my Junior year though, Cannon Mix from Rexburg.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Mmm, not so much. I had some identity issues. I like myself a lot more now. I do miss a lot of people though!

16. What do you remember most about graduation? Not much. I do remember that we were all told we couldn't throw our hats in the air because it was too dangerous or something. I don't think anyone paid any attention, I know I didn't. I threw it as high as I could.

17. Where did you go senior skip day? Lagoon with the rest of the class...

18. Were you in any clubs? Just the honor club. I don't know if there were any others?

19. Have you gained some weight since then? I'll plead the 5th on that.

20. Who was your prom date? Junior year - Casey, Senior year - Brent. Our theme songs were both ballads from hair bands. We were so cool!

21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? I haven't been able to make to any of my reunions. I am determined to make to the next one.

22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Don't worry about what others think.

My memories are pretty sparse. Either I'm really old or I'm repressing everything. Probably a little of both. I tag Debbie, Beth, Heather and Karolyn.

Our Garden's Bounty

2008-09-08T14:37:00.003-06:00

Our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, and we have tons of hot peppers. Our zucchini has recently taken off growing. We got several good sized a few weeks ago, then nothing. Now there are several new blossoms. We'll have to see if anything comes of those. Can anyone say salsa?! Hadyn came out helped me pick everything that was ready. She was very proud of "her" vegetables.

The New 'Do

2008-09-07T21:47:00.003-06:00

How could I pass up the opportunity to post a picture of myself? Yeah right, I tend to shy away from that, but I had to document this moment. For the first time in decades, I (1) have bangs, and (2) cannot tuck my hair behind my hair. It is that short! I love it, and I think it kind of says, "I'm trying to stay hip", rather than, "I'm the mom of two kids, deal with it." I could be wrong, but if so, don't tell me. Let me stay in my little world I've created for myself :).

In other news, we were able to find some awesome renters for our house in Arizona, and I'm headed down there this week to get things ready for them to move in. I can't wait to see all my friends for our old ward! My sister's also going to be there for an education conference, and we're sharing a hotel room (what I mean by that is she has a hotel room, and I'm mooching off her for a free place to sleep, thanks Robin!!) We haven't see each other for several months, so we should have fun.

And last but certainly not least, a photo of my favorite person, Jeff. He took off this weekend for a solo backpacking trip and had a fun time. Here is a self-portrait taken somewhere along the trail. I thought it looked cool and he looked oh-so-good-looking. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Reggers!

2008-08-31T22:16:00.005-06:00

Today Regan turned 6 years old. It has been fun this evening to look back at the pictures of her. She is such a great kid with a big heart. There really is nothing she wouldn't do to make someone happy. We are so lucky to have her in our family! Happy birthday sweetheart. Some of the highlights for her past year? Starting 1st grade, learning how to read, completing her first year of ballet and learning how to swim. We can't wait to see what she will accomplish this year.

Here she is through the years...

1st birthday...she wouldn't "dig in". She only stuck her finger in to lick frosting. So lady-like...

Blowing out her candles on her 2nd birthday...

3rd birthday

4th birthday, and the beginning of the Spongebob obsession. She's holding a crabby patty she made out of playdough.

5th birthday, her first in Boise

Here she is, almost 6, at the Shosone Falls.

Regan's Groovy Birthday Party

2008-08-28T13:46:00.002-06:00

Regan's birthday is coming up this weekend, and since it is a long one, most of her friends were going to be leaving town, so we had a party a little early. She wanted a tie dye party, and me, being crazy, said okay. We ended up with 13 girls (including Regan and Hadyn). We tie dyed shirts, made blown ink art, sculpy art, and generally had fun. Here's the group of girls. I don't think I've heard so much giggling ever!

Here's the birthday girl blowing out candles. I made her a t-shirt cake and "tie-dyed" it. She loved it. I even poked holes into it before I frosted it, and doused the cake in Jell-O water to tie-dye the inside of the cake. It turned out better than I thought, and Regan seemed to like it. We'll update more birthday stuff later, since we have my cousin's family coming for her actual birthday on Sunday, and the Luke's are getting together on Monday for the holiday and we'll have birthday cake there. This is not a good time to start that diet...

Playing Catch-Up

2008-08-27T19:06:00.004-06:00

Just some glimpses at what we were up to for the last month of summer vacation. We were busy, and blogging sort of got lost in the shuffle. Sit back and enjoy. Seriously, this may take some time. . .

At the beginning of August, we took the girls to Twin Falls to see the new temple. My parents were able to meet us there, which was awesome. As was the temple itself, although, we didn't end up with any pictures. Take my word for it, it is beautiful. We also went by Shoshoe Falls, which I had never been to. They were so beautiful.

The next weekend, we went camping in the City of Rocks with Jeff's brother's family. It was also amazing, and, again, I had never been there. As much as I like to travel, it seems I neglect to go to some pretty cool places right in my (relatively) back yard. Here are the girls in a covered wagon replica. We had been in the car for some time by the time we got here, and so we were letting the girls climb and play to their hearts content. As we were leaving, we finally got around to reading the plaque that was installed next to the wagons. It gave information about the area and the wagons, as well as warned us to "not climb or play on the wagons". Hmmm, perhaps the sign should have been more prominent...
These are the rock formations that surrounded our campsight. The rocks were a weird texture, and it was easy to climb on them without slipping. Regan and Hadyn loved playing on them. That's Jeff's brother, Matt, in the background (is it just me, or would this be a really creepy picture if we didn't all know that was Matt?) Our families had so much fun camping!
From the camping, we drove directly to Bear Lake for the Luke family reunion. We stayed in a cabin that was big enough for everyone. It was so nice, and the lake was so warm. Nothing like I remember my previous visit to Bear Lake. The kids had a blast. Here's Hadyn collecting for a bouquet that she later presented to me. So sweet.Here's all the cousins. I actually think everyone is here. Impressive. As a quick note, I am always stopped in stores by people alerting me that "studies show red heads are going extinct." Check out the front row of the Luke family. We are doing our part to keep the red-headedness (is that a word) alive and well.
And, lastly, just a couple cute shots of Hadyn. She is a sweetheart, but she is also the messiest child ever. It is due, in part, to the fact that she has the energy of three children, and loves everything, so, she must do everything at warp speed, so she can move on to the next "something". Here she is finishing Jeff's McDonald's chocolate sundae...

Wait for it.....

She is cute, but she needs a bath about every hour and a half :).

Tag!

2008-08-19T22:01:00.002-06:00

This is an easy and fun tag, it's one word answers. And I tag... well, nobody. I think every blog I follow has had this already posted, I'm just the last one to post (although I was tagged in early-July I think... {head hung in shame}

1.Where is your cell phone? bag
2. Your significant other? Jeff
3. Your hair? short
4. Your favorite thing? date-night
5. Your dream last night? nope
6. Your favorite drink? milk
7. Your dream/goal? organization
8. The room you're in? office
9. Your hobby? cooking
10. Your fear? dark
11. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Boise
12. Where were you last night? home
13. What you're not? rested
14. Muffins? CostCo
15. One of your wish list items? Bosch mixer
16. Where you grew up? Ririe
17. The last thing you did? laundry
18. What are you wearing? jeans
19. Your TV? off
20. Your pets? never
21. Your computer? Dell
22. Your life? ever-improving
23. Your mood? happy
24. Missing someone? many
25. Your car? Mazda
26. Something you're not wearing? shoes
27. Favorite store? Target
28. Your summer? over
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? tonight
31. Last time you cried? yesterday

Memories

2008-08-18T22:00:00.001-06:00

I was supposed to do this a while ago. We all know I am slow at this stuff, give me a break...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

I'm Too Young to Have a First Grader

2008-08-13T22:07:00.005-06:00

I swear we I just dropped Regan off for her first day of kindergarten last week, and here we are starting a new school year! She was very excited, she loves school, but she was a little nervous that she would be there ALL DAY. I was a little nervous about that as well, but she did great. Here she is as we were leaving for school.

And here she is in her new classroom with one of her close friends, who, luckily, is with her in first grade as well. There are six kindergartens, and six first grades. She had such a great class last year, that I would have liked for them to move the whole class together, instead of splitting them off to different rooms...surprisingly, no one asked for my opinion...

Also, I know I've been a total slacker in the blogging department. In the last two weeks I've had to get Regan ready for school, go to girls' camp, we took the family camping in the City of Rocks, and attended a family reunion at Bear Lake (I'm breathless just typing it!) I've had no time to blog, but I'll get some updates from all our travels soon. Tune in!

Mountain Biking

2008-07-26T16:47:00.003-06:00

Here are a few pics from Jeff's and my date with the Boise foothills yesterday. It was much hotter than last time we rode this trail, but it was fun. I think it is really pretty up there. We basically rode up to a ridge that overlooked a couple outlying subdivisions. I'm not sure I would like my house being down in a valley like that. It would be weird knowing anyone could ride along those trails and look into my yard...but maybe that's just me...

Have Bike will Travel

2008-07-25T17:20:00.003-06:00

I've commented some on my new-found hobby of bicycling. We bought a bike trailer a couple of months ago, so I could ride and take the girls with me on errands, etc. Well, I quickly realized how much I enjoy riding my bike. Soon after the arrival of the bike trailer, and the realization that the purchase wasn't doomed to just sit in the garage (shockingly), Jeff found me a really cool bike computer. It is so awesome. It tracks everything about my current ride, how fast, my average speed, how long I've been riding, etc, and also tracks the total miles I've ridden (like a car odometer). It's great to ride with, it sort of motivates me to keep my speed up, or to ride just a little longer... Well, I've had my bike computer since June 1st, just under 2 months, and I am so excited to announce that I passed 100 total miles last night. It may not seem like very far, but I was excited. That's 100 miles of going to and fro that I did not have to buy gas for. I am 100 miles further away from my next scheduled oil change. Most importantly, I am 100 miles more in shape, especially considering that most of those miles were logged while towing a trailer a 3 and 6-year old inside. I'm going to start tracking my mileage on my blog each week, maybe it will be even more motivation to ride more, drive less. I just thought I'd share.

My computer... the top line is my current speed (yes, I decided to stop before snapping the picture...I'm not that good...yet). The 2nd line is the how long the current ride (last night's) was, 1 hour, 13+ minutes (Jeff and I and the girls rode around some greenbelt trails along the Boise River that we hadn't ridden on before). The 3rd line is the current ride distance, 10.16 miles. The 4th line is my odometer, 108.4 total miles ridden since June 1st.

It's date night again tonight, and Jeff and I are going to try the same trail we tried last weekend, to see if we (mostly me) can do better. It should be fun. Wish me luck!

S'mores Anyone?

2008-07-21T10:46:00.005-06:00

I am off to girls' camp in a week or so, and, as a leader have been given assignments. One of those assignments is to certify the girls on fire-building. It has worked out great, since, as I practice in our backyard firepit, we generally roast hot dogs and, most importantly, marshmallows. I can't think of too many things that taste better than a gooey s'more. The girls love them (Regan skips the chocolate...I'm still trying to understand her dislike of the tastiest substance on earth).

Jeff and I also got to go on a date this weekend. I've been wanting to learn how to mountain bike, but have been nervous to try. Jeff goes fairly often to the Boise foothills, and last week, he found a trail he thought would be good for me to start out with. It was really fun. I was surprised at what I was able to do, and hopeful that if I keep going, I'll improve. Jeff is an awesome teacher, and helps me with technique, gears, etc. It was really fun. I will admit that going back down the mountain after the big climb was so fun. It was so fast! It almost makes we want to climb higher next time, just to have a longer ride down...

After we left the foothills, we rode into downtown Boise for the annual Twilight Criterium. It draws professional and amateur bikers from all over the country. It is a speed race, and held basically around a city block. They go around and around for an hour or something. They actually create a breeze as they pass. There's a good chance for wrecks, and since there are so many bikers, if there is a wreck, it is usually big. We got there in time to watch some of the pro mens' race. It was so fast! To put it in perspective, as I was coasting down the foothills, thinking I was going so fast, my bike computer said I reached a top speed of just over 24 miles an hour. When I am riding around town with the girls in the bike trailer behind me, I try to keep my speed over ten miles an hour. The bikers at the criterium, on a level road, were going 33. Wow.

That blur behind Jeff is way too many bikes, way too close to one another, going way too fast... Or maybe that's just my mom-ness coming out...seriously. That's crazy.

Your's truly.

And just to give you an idea of the speed...here's a small clip of the action.

Is it just me, or was that last "biker" cheating...

Zoo Boise

2008-07-18T00:03:00.006-06:00

Most days I feel like a zookeeper, so what could be more appropriate than spending the day at one? We had a great day with lots of cousins, lots of sunshine and a few animals that didn't mind the mid-day Boise heat.

All the kids, all ready to go. Cathy was wise enough to suggest a picture before we got started, and before any of these angelic faces became less so during the day. How fun to have so many cousins so close in age. Meet, from left to right, Natalie, Calvin, Jared, Samuel, Ian, Caleb & Levi (twins, and I can never figure out who is who), Hadyn and Regan.

Regan loved the statues of animals which the kids were aloud to climb all over.

The zoo has a playground area that was a hit with everyone. Here are Regan and Hadyn digging for fossils, and Hadyn zipping down the giant giraffe slide.

Just a couple of prairie dogs? This is from the prairie dog tunnels. The place in which they are standing is topped with a huge bubble dome. It allows them to see down into the actual praire dog area, and for those of us looking from the front, we see two cute, red-headed prairie dogs poking their heads out of the ground...

Locks of Love

2008-07-10T18:23:00.006-06:00

Regan has two cousins, Anna and Lisa, that have donated their hair to Locks of Love. A while ago, Regan decided she wanted to do the same. She has been growing her hair out, waiting for it to reach the required 10 inches. Today was her big day. Here are some pics from her experience:

BEFORE:

THE BIG CUT:

A LITTLE STYLING:

DRUMROLL PLEASE...

I think she looks beautiful! I know I'm biased, but I really do think she looks great in her new 'do.

Very stylish...

Sweet Land of Liberty

2008-07-05T22:28:00.003-06:00

We had an awesome 4th of July here in Boise. We had a great family BBQ at Jeff's parents' home including ice cream with red, white and blue toppings. Yummm. Then, keeping with the tradition that we started last year, our family climbed up into the foothills to the north of Boise to watch all the fireworks from around the valley. It is the coolest fireworks show anywhere. It puts us up high enough to see all the Boise city fireworks, plus all the surrounding areas, and all the illegals (and there were a lot this year) being shot off. There is never a break in the show, since you can see so far. We even make a game to see who sees one first. It's especially good for Regan, since she isn't a fan of the loud booms and whistles. We are close enough to hear the slightly muted explosions, but far enough that you can still talk over them. The best part is that there is no fight for a good spot, parking or traffic to get there. We shared "our mountain" with maybe 10 other people, and most of those we didn't actually see until we were hiking back down to the truck. It was so great, and we were excited that Jeff's brother Matt came with us. Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Here is a picture Jeff took from our seats. I think it is so pretty. He takes really cool panoramics. One of these days I'll just post a bunch of them. Click on it so you can look closer at it. Jeff doesn't think it turned out well, but I do, and since I do the blog... He takes a bunch of individual pictures, then uses software to "stitch" them all together. Anyway, this was our view, before the fireworks really got started.

Utah

2008-07-03T09:10:00.003-06:00

What a great weekend! The girls and I drove to Lehi, UT on Sunday and spent several days with my sister's family while she (Robin) and her husband played Ma & Pa for their ward trek. It was so fun. Regan and Hadyn loved having Erin, Alli and Jenna to play with, and I loved watching them. Erin is 12 going on 20, and was so awesome. Not only is she beautiful, (see below) but she is the most responsible, helpful girl I know. I would think, I should go throw the swimming towels in the dryer, or I should go sweep, and I'd find Erin already doing it. I'm thinking of kidnapping her...

We spent most of the time in the pool, which was so great. Although, the game they chose to play was called lifeguard, and it's not one of those games that allows the adult suppervisor to read a book. Every 30 seconds or so someone would be yelling help. Looking back I probably should have come up with a better game, but they were loving it.

Here's Alli, amid the sea of swimmers. She was definately my comic relief. I wish I could bottle her energy and carry it around for emergencies. She never stops smiling. Hadyn thinks she walks on water...

Jenna and Regan are only 1 month apart in age, and they love playing together. Aren't they cute!

You can never have too much eye protection...

Hadyn loved the pool. This was as close as I could get to her actually standing still...One of the best parts of my trip to Utah was catching up with my roommate from Ricks College, Courtney. We lived together most of two years, and had since lost touch for OVER TEN YEARS! This was the first time we had seen each other during that time. We (or should I say I...hmmm) had fun getting to know each other again. Here we are as new college students. Courtney is the blond in the red, our super-cool (then and now) roommate, Rebecca, in the middle and yours truly looking super hot in some skinny-leg, navy blue jeans. Cute. There were six of us in that apartment, and the three of us sort of stuck together. I can't believe it's been 16 years since this picture was taken. We have 9 children (I think) between the three of us, and so much wisdom...no laughing. Court is still as cool and fun as ever, and hopefully we'll stay in closer contact than we have in the past. I did convince (beg) her to give me her address, so now she'll have to physically move to lose me.

Kindergarten End-of-Year Program

2008-06-25T13:51:00.005-06:00

Regan's last day of school is Friday, and her kindergarten doesn't have a graduation, but yesterday, they put on a showcase for the parents. It was so fun to watch. These are all the AM kindergarteners (3 classes). The kids seem so much older than they did when the year started. I'm not sure I'm ready for First Grade. Not seeing Regan all day is going to be weird. I know Hadyn's not ready...

Here's Regan waiting in line for one of her speaking parts. They asked her what she would do if she were a kindergarten teacher. She said she would take the kids to art class. (I thought she said Iceland, which would also be cool).

Another speaking part. Look how much smaller she is than the other kids. Her birthday is the actual cutoff for her class. She is a petite kid anyway, but some of these kids are a full year older (or more for some of the boys).

The greatest teacher in the world. We were asked to fill out a questionnaire for next year's teacher assignments, telling them what kind of teacher would be best for Regan (you couldn't specifically ask for a teacher by name). We would really just like to see Mrs. Emery graduate to First Grade with Regan... Doesn't she look like a cool teacher? She is. Thanks Mrs. Emery. We'll miss you!

Here is part of their grand finale song. It totally made me cry. What is wrong with me? (Don't forget to pause me music first).

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks...

2008-06-24T21:11:00.007-06:00

For Fathers' Day, the girls gave Jeff a t-ball set. It has become their new favorite toy. It is a toss-up whether they like playing baseball or being a cheerleader while someone else hits. Jeff and I both loved softball, and I like to think at least some of the girls' enthusiasm for baseball comes from me. The cheerleading stuff...I have no idea, but I bet my friends from high school are smiling as/if they read this, picturing my girls as cheerleaders...

Frogs Revisited

2008-06-20T14:32:00.003-06:00

Later, I will try to get Jeff to post and explain some of his trip. He took some great pictures. But for now, here's a teaser...I thought this was funny. I posted a picture of the frogs earlier this week, but he also took video. I think this is so interesting. It's just not something I see when I go shopping. Maybe I just don't shop in the cool parts of town...

He's Home!

2008-06-19T17:30:00.002-06:00

We are so glad to have Jeff back home!

We'll have to add some more pics from his trip, once I find the camera... He's sleeping, the girls are playing with the stuff he brought back for them, and I'm going to start dinner...a grown up meal. I can't wait to eat something that doesn't include the word "fingers" or come between two pieces of bread.

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T22:24:00.005-06:00

We are having an unusual Fathers' Day since Jeff is so far away. We celebrated him in his absence, however, and he was so missed. We will have our own Fathers' Day party for him next Sunday, but since he has access to the blog, we wanted to give him a shout out. He is such a great dad. From the day Regan was born he seemed to morph into a SuperDad. He even changed Regan's first diaper in the hospital without coaxing or even suggestions from me. In fact, I took longer figuring out the mom thing, and didn't even realize she needed changing.

Here are just a few moments captured for posterity of Jeff taking care of us:

There is rarely a time when at least one of our cars doesn't need some tinkering at the very least. Jeff puts on his mechanic hat...

Landscaping, yard clean up, spider and ant killing, weed sprayer, garbage taker-outer, Jeff's our guy.

Even a new tile floor! Is there any job he can't do? We haven't found one yet

We girls spent some time at bed time talking about how great of a dad we have. Jeff, we love you, appreciate you, and lately, miss you so much! Thanks for all you do. Have a great Fathers' Day!

On to Shanghai

2008-06-14T10:58:00.003-06:00

Jeff left Tokyo yesterday, and flew straight to Shanghai. He'll be there until next week. He was excited to get to spend the weekend in Shanghai since a friend, Brandon, that worked with him here in Boise has since relocated to Shanghai. Brandon and his wife will be spending the weekend showing Jeff the coolest spots and best food. It's always nice to have a local tour guide. Jeff said that it reminds him of a much bigger Penang, where he and I lived in 2001, but not as much pirated software, and the knock-offs aren't quite as cheap.

Jeff in front of some awesome buildings. I love the boat in the background.

A picture from one of the wet markets. This does remind me of Penang. Hopefully you can click on this picture and make it bigger. (Sometimes it will let you get a bigger view, sometimes not...any of you bloggers know why that is and how I can control it? I would love help with that...) If you're stuck with the smaller view, at the bottom of the picture, that green thing that Regan says looks like a green toilet seat, that is, of course, a bag of green frogs. Yummm...

On the Road Again...or Island, I guess...

2008-06-11T16:45:00.005-06:00

Jeff is travling for a week or two right now. He's even going to miss Fathers' Day. So sad. The girls miss him a ton, as do I. We did a mini Fathers' Day celebration before he left, so he could take one of his presents with him. We got him a Gorilla-pod (shown here). It is the coolest tripod. It can wrap around anything and hold your camera steady, so you can get a lot of cool photos with you actually in it, versus just scenery shots, etc.

Yesterday he sent us a few pictures of where he is right now. He's working with Canon, in Japan this week, and most of next week he'll be in Shangai at the HP site.

I wonder if it is a good idea to work for HP, visit Canon, and wear your Intel polo shirt...confusing... I think this is from his hotel room. Look at all those trees behind him. Cool.

The hotel he always stays at in Japan is in the middle of some big forest and blueberry plantation.

They were ahead of schedule, so he got half a day off. He borrowed a bike from the hotel and went exploring. That is a sweet bike. I want a basket like that on my bike...seriously, I really do, that would be awesome!

Cool butterfly.

Yummm...School Lunch

2008-06-09T18:20:00.003-06:00

Today Regan's Kindergarten class got to eat lunch in the cafeteria. My friend Val was thoughtful enough to email me pics, and forward-thinking enough to think about going to actually take pictures. Regan has been so excited to eat at school. I hoped that the meal could live up to expectations...I had my doubts. I remember eating school lunch, and I don't remember leaving full very often. However, Regan thought it was great. They got pizza, peaches, salad, baby carrots and milk, all on those cool partitioned trays. She is ready for first grade now, if only I could get the same excitement for all the homework that I hear is coming...

Waiting in line.

Awww...my baby girl is growing up so fast...yes, that comment actually annoyed me as much as it did you...

Busy Little Bees

2008-06-08T20:26:00.007-06:00

The Luke Hive has been very busy and productive these last few days. We finished our downstairs bathroom, finally, and I think it is beautiful. I love it. I wish I had taken a before picture, because my description just won't do the old bathroom justice. First, the door only opened up half way, since it opened in, and would hit the pink (yes, pink) counter of the HUGE vanity. Then, the blinds in the window were never actually installed, just jammed into the window frame, so if you forgot, and tried to pull the string to open the blinds, they came crashing down. Finally, the toilet had a slow leak into the flooring, which had discolored the vinyl and made a mess of the subfloor. Our little guest bath has been out of commision for some time, but we are welcoming it back into the fold. It has a new color on the walls, a very dark burgundy, almost chocolate brown. A new vanity that is a much better fit for such a small room, an updated mirror, new tile floor, and Jeff removed the door frame and turned the door completely around so it now opens out. I really do love it, and the girls love that they no longer have to make the mad dash up the stairs to their bathroom when nature calls.

We also got our garden planted. We are still getting used to this garden thing, so we were pretty late in the season. Luckily, since we missed the window for planting seeds, we were still able to find most everything we wanted in seedlings at the garden store. Come fall, we'll have corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, jalepenos, strawberries, and raspberries. I also planted a couple nasturtiums. They are a really pretty flower that some friends of ours grew last year. It is edible, petals and leaves, and tastes like radish. I loved the taste, and thought it would be cool to have flowers in our salads, so we'll see how it goes...

Here's Jeff roto-tilling the tomato area.

What a Great Weekend

2008-06-01T16:15:00.006-06:00

This has been the greatest weekend. Friday night, Jeff and I dropped the kids off at our friends (Thanks Crystal) and loaded up our bikes in the truck. We drove down by the greenbelt and spent the next hour and a half riding along the Boise River and in the Boise North End streets. The weather could not have been better for a bike ride. It was so fun! The biking, the weather, the surroundings, and having one-on-one time with Jeff was awesome. We even capped the night off with a little Maggie Moo ice cream. Perfect.

Then, Saturday at our house is Family Fun Day. We have a brown lunch bag full of family activities from which we draw, and have a great time together. Yesterday we drove up to Bogus Basin to go treasure hunting. Regan and Jeff (and when it's not too scary, Hadyn) have bonded lately over Indiana Jones. So, we went in search of our own treasure at the newly uncovered ski hills of Bogus Basin. Jeff and I hoped to find "real" treasure such as dropped sunglasses, money, property deeds, etc. from under the ski lifts. We found slightly different treasure, but the girls were in heaven. They kept saying how this was the funnest family fun day ever. It truly was great, even if we weren't any richer monetarily when we left...probably poorer, thanks to gas being somewhere around $12/gallon...

We hiked almost all the way up the face of one hill. If you know Bogus, we hiked under the 4-man lift, and almost got to the end of the lift. Jeff and I were amazed at how well Regan and Hadyn handled the hike. It was very steep in places, but they were real troopers the whole time, thanks, in part, to all their treasure. Again, just a great day, great weather, great family, great time.

Here's Hadyn and Jeff on the lift (it was off of course). You can see Regan on the seat behind them. I love the look on Hadyn's face. Do you think she was getting tired of the camera?

Hadyn again, giving the classic Luke camera pose. The bandage is from a scratch she got the day before in a fight between her and a tree branch. The branch won...

Regan and Jeff about half way up the hill.

Our little hikers...

The loot: Several rocks, a bolt, a broken snap, a shiny lid from a lotion bottle, a blue plastic circle, a dried up pen, a toggle from a jacket, half of an orange sunglass lens, part of a buckle and a piece of glass. The only treasure no longer there is a Captain Morgan liquor bottle. It was one of those small ones, maybe from a minibar or something. We let them bring it down, but it smelled so bad when I opened the bottle to rinse it out, I tossed it... The girls really, truly love their treasures. I love that this is what can make them happy. I know it won't last, they'll grow up and demand treasures of IPods and cell phones, but for one weekend at least, they were so happy to find this stuff.