Saturday, August 4, 2012

July 29 - August 04, 2012

We have watched a TON of the Olympics this week.  We all pile on my bed and watch until late.  I would bet I watch more TV in the two weeks of the Olympics than I do the entire two years in between. 
E1 got her wisdom teeth out this week. It went well but her cheeks are really swollen. 
 
Posted by Picasa

July 22 - July 28, 2012

I am behind on posting as I have lost the battery charger to my Canon Rebel.  It is driving me NUTS.  The fastest way to get me to a boiling point is to have me try and find something.
I can't download any of the pics I've taken on that camera before it died, so here are the pictures for the week of July 22nd. By then I'd switched to my little Canon Powershot D10.

We had a week of parties.... E1's birthday, pioneer day, E2's birthday, and then the opening ceremony of the Olympics.   Good times....

 
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, July 8, 2012

July 1 - July 7

Click to view larger
This week we visit the Dairy after our bi-weekly library visit, celebrate my birthday, have fun on the Fourth, celebrate Mom's birthday, and play at the Crowther's house. Darren takes his new (used) motorcycle on it's longest trip yet as he rides to Fishlake and surrounding areas to go fishing with Brian and Skyler.  He returns home happy but sun-burned.

Independence Day

I love the 4th of July in Richfield.  From the Miss Richfield pageant to the Patriotic Program to the Children's Parade to the planes to the big Parade and the festivities at the Park, I spend a perfect week surrounded by people I love and reminded of the greatness of our nation and the sacrifices of those that have come before.
This year we were in such a hurry to get to the parade so we could see the jets fly over that I forgot to take the cupcakes I was making out of the oven. It wasn't until almost 3 hours later when we were heading to the Smith's house for lunch when I remembered them. The house smelled terrible but at least was still standing.
The parade was great as usual. It was so funny to see how fast my nephew Roman learned the whole get candy at the parade routine.  E2 was in the parade with the drill team and they looked so cute in their new jerseys.
We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the Smith's while the kids enjoyed the booths at the park and hit Grandpa up for dollars.  It is a tradition that I enjoy.  N participated in the fish grab (another Richfield tradition but one I usually make sure we are not around for). 
After a nap at home in the late afternoon, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Taylors for a BBQ.  My Aunt Peggy and Uncle Burke had come over from Moab so they could see all of my sisters while they were in town.  We had a nice evening.  The best part was seeing how happy my parents were to have all their children and grandchildren in one place.  During the firework show my four and JB climbed up on the roof to watch. It was fun to see them all together just hanging out and having fun.  It made me very happy.

Happy Birthday to me.... Happy Birthday to me....

Following in the footsteps of my mother-in-law, I throw my own birthday party.
I don't know remember exactly when or even why we started doing this, but I do know it's been several years running now.  We used to have pizza at the park with my parents after the Children's Parade  while we enjoyed the entertainment but somewhere along the line we switched to a shin-dig at our house.    We always serve "Cafe-Rio" style salads with my mom's yummy frozen lemon dessert.

I appreciate those that come each year and help make my birthday special.  I am blessed with amazing friends that make my life so much more complete.  It was especially awesome this year to have all three of my sisters in town. I was surprised when Todd and Angie came from Cedar City.  It meant a lot.   New this year were the Morgans.  It was fun to get to know them even more.  We had about 40 people in attendance.  The weather was gorgeous.  The cilantro rice turned out PERFECT.  Regina brought six flavors of "Aggie" Ice-cream.  It was truly birthday bliss.

YUBA


We took our boat out for the first time on June 30th.  We have started putting in on the Gunnison side rather than the Scipio side.  After launching, we took a drive around the entire lake.  When we got to the Scipio side near the dam, we could see several fires burning on the left side of the freeway near Scipio. The smoke was blowing up I-15  towards Nephi.  It was exciting as the helicopters with their water buckets were coming to Yuba to get water. We were hoping they would dip in near us but they were taking it from the output of the dam.  We could also see planes flying in to dump retardant. The smoke would all of a sudden turn odd colors and then you could see a plane flying out of the thick of it.
As the day progressed, the smoke from the fire over the ridge got thicker and thicker.  Soon it was covering the sun which made it bright red.  It looked like a sunset and the reflection of the sky turned the lake a bright orange.  The pictures above were taken about 6:00 in the evening.  The smoke looks bad in the picture but it was never so bad that we were uncomfortable or could even smell it.  It just made for an unusual experience as the lake water looked fiery.

June 24 - June 30

June 10 - June 23

We buy our school shoes at Gary's annual sale.  We visit Bryce Canyon in order to use the telescopes. We see the rings of Saturn and a spiral galaxy. Very cool.  E3's Young Women leaders come over to welcome her.  E1 and N make a rocking constellation viewer. We have our first swim meet.  Our family visits 7 Peaks in SLC and we have a great day in the sun.

June 3 - June 9

We visit the library and the Piggy Bank.  N plays his last baseball game.  He makes an awesome weather vane for scouts. E3 turns 12 and gets her own cell phone.  She is one happy girl!

May 27 - June 2

May 20 - May 26

May 13 - May 19

May 6 - May 12

April 29 - May 5

April 22 - April 28

April 15 - April 21

April 8 - April 14

April 1 - April 7

March 25 - 31


We say goodbye to Teven Sherman as he leaves for Brazil.
I play Bunko with my wonderful friends.
N wows the crowd with his dance moves at his 3rd grade program. We laugh so hard we cry.
E1 visits BYU and the highlight of her visit is seeing Riley Nelson.
We watch the Jr. Promenade.
I test out my new blender. :)

March 18 - March 24

Saturday, March 17, 2012

March 11 - March 17

Posted by Picasa

March 04 - March 10

Posted by Picasa

February 26 - March 03

Posted by Picasa

February 19 - February 25, 2012

Posted by Picasa

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Pinewood Derby 2012

FEBRUARY 2012

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Sunday, February 12, 2012

FEBRUARY 5 - FEBRUARY 11

CLICK TO ENLARGE


Posted by Picasa

January 29 - Feb 04

Just catching up...

This was quite the week.

N was home sick with the stomach flu Tuesday the 31st. We made sure E1 and E2 stayed far away as we didn't want either of them to get sick as they both had their state competitions the weekend of the fourth.
Darren and I took the day off Friday and spent a relaxing day heading to Provo with N and E3. We did a little shopping, enjoyed pizza, swam in the hotel pool, etc. We went Friday night and watched Emily and her relay friends set a new school record in the medley relay. They did awesome. I can't remember what place they scored now.... the fact they even qualified for State is awesome. Only the top 16 teams in the entire state can swim.

Our plan for Saturday was to get in a final swim at the pool then go watch E2 at her drill competition. Darren and I were prepared with our "Azurette Dad" and "Azurette Mom" T-Shirts (and I had my cute new red Toms to wear). I would drop off D later in the day to watch E1 swim while I finished up the drill competition. As soon as E2 finished her final dance I would race to the pool to catch E1's last few events (changing to our swim shirts in between).

Well....
While E1 and E2 didn't end up sick, E3 did.
Saturday morning she woke up sick. She threw up and threw up and threw up. We stayed at the hotel until almost 1:00 as she was still so sick. It was really sad. She was really pale and shaky. Finally we HAD to leave and when we were walking to the car, she was so weak she completely blacked out, hitting her head on a picture frame in the hotel hallway as she fell. It was quite scary. We debated taking her to the emergency room but finally decided to pump her full of water and just get her home.

Leaving the others in the truck, I went into the drill competition to try and find E2 and help her with her hair. I couldn't find her and was feeling hysterical when my angel friend Tammy R came around the corner and saw me. She said she would take care of E2 and help her out. And she is the type of person that is always helping people and when she says she will do it, she means it. I felt so bad missing E2 perform. I was in tears with all the worry of getting E3 home and missing both E1 and E2 compete. I was sad to miss E1's final races of her high school career.

I dropped of D at the BYU pool where Grandma and Grandpa T where timing for the meet and then headed south. We made it home okay and spent a quiet evening at home waiting for news about the girls. E2's team took third place at State. She was quite upset that E3 was sick and while she understood why no one was there to watch her, she was still sad. E1 set four new school records. She got her best times in all her events. She medaled when she won a fourth place in the 100 breast stroke. She was .01 of a second away from third and .5 away from second. It was a good way to end her successful High School swimming days.

So there you have it... what a week..... glad THAT one is over with.
Posted by Picasa

January 22 - January 28th

I realized I forgot to post the collages for the last few pics of the day. Enjoy.

Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

January 2012
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, January 22, 2012

CLICK TO ENLARGE























Another full, busy week. We enjoyed having the holiday off on Monday. We were able to complete several mini projects we've been trying to get done for literally months. Darren was able to get the wireless connected and Netflix installed (oh joyous day). We were able to get some editing software reinstalled on my new computer. I figured out how to print directly on the Project Life cards from my kit. Darren and I got the Christmas lights down. We worked hard all day.

I really did not enjoy the task of taking down the lights. I usually don't mind it but I sure did this time. It was so cold outside and I felt like I was made of lead. The chore seemed to go on forever and I had no energy. Now I realize I was coming down with the flu. It hit me full force Monday night and I ended up missing work both Tuesday and Wednesday as I was in bed with all over aches and pains and zero energy.  I felt like a slug.

But life goes on. I drug myself to take the kids to the orthodontist ( the receptionist told me she has been so worried about our family as it has been her experience that when a family misses six months of appointments in a row then something drastic is usually wrong....  I told her we just wanted the kids to have braces until they were 43), drug myself to the school to watch E2 present the flag at the wrestling match, and drug myself home again.

Thursday was better. N had pack meeting. It was a lot of fun. He was awarded another arrow point from his days as a Wolf and also received three belt loops and three pins in the areas of Soccer, Geology, and Kickball. He is quite the little scouter.

Friday I had already arranged to take the day off to work on Emily's Sterling Scholar portfolio. I felt bad working so little this week, but I knew if I didn't work on it now, it would not get done. We have everything scanned and have decided on a layout.

Friday night E1 had her pre-Region dinner. The assistant coach, Angie Taylor, made an amazing cake that looked like an Olympic size swimming pool. It was pretty awesome. Grandpa T paid for our dinner as I had planned to only attend the parent meeting as I refused to pay $8 per plate for spaghetti.  As usual Grandpa was right on and knew we needed to be there.  It ended up being a nice time and I was very glad we got to share that time together with E1 as a family.
My cousin Deb brought her traveling volleyball team to stay the night Friday on their way to a competition today in Fillmore. They got here late and left early, but left a beautiful quilt in RHS colors behind as a gift to us for letting them stay over the years. I thought that was very nice.

Saturday was the Region swim meet. We swam against Carbon, Emery, Spanish Fork, and Delta. Coach Crimin called me in a panic about an hour before the meet started as the computer would not interface with the timing console. Finally 90 minutes later we tried a different laptop and got it to work. It was stressful as everyone was waiting for the meet to start and several events had to be updated and hand entered and I run the computer for the meets. We got it all done, but as usual it was a team effort with Grandma fanning the printer so it doesn't overheat (a lesson learned the hard way in previous meets), Darren running the meet sheets around, me printing and stapling, and Grandpa T providing the Diet Coke with lime.

Once we got started, things went fine. It was a long, noisy, exciting meet. Emily swam so well, winning both of her individual events and both of her team relays. Every race she swam broke a school record. Is that not crazy? I was so proud. I was even more proud that she was one of only three girls in the entire region to earn Academic All-Region status. My favorite part of the meet was when Principal Brown had Grandpa T award E1 her final medal. It was a sweet moment for all of us. The girls team won the Region title.

For one of N's scout electives, he needed to plan a party. For another elective he needed to host a family video game tournament. For another he needed to create an invitation. So we killed three birds with one stone and tonight we had a "Wii Battle of the Sheffer's " party. He made invitations earlier in the week and passed them out. We purchased a new game and an extra controller plus Darren borrowed two more from Crowthers. We had pizza and snacks. We played Mario. We played tennis. We played Michael Jackson The Experience. We played Mario Kart. I have NEVER played a Wii at any time. So I was so clueless. But it was really fun. And I have to say that even though I had never played Wii AND had never played the Michael Jackson game, I still destroyed everyone else on the first two games. Oh ya... the old lady still has some moves :)

Posted by Picasa

Sunday, January 15, 2012

PROJECT LIFE - week 2

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Posted by Picasa
It was a busy week but a fun one.
E1 is doing a picture-a-day album this year. She bought a pair of cute slide-in photo albums and decorated them cute.  She has been taking a lot of pictures with her new camera. It's been a lot of fun to see the pictures she has taken.
E1 had a swim meet and met one of her swimming goals by getting less than a minute on the 100 free.  Can you believe she can swim down and back and down and back in less than one minute? That is INSANE!  Darren was able to watch the meet and said it was pretty exciting. She also got her acceptance letter to USU this week, and worked a shift at the library and the event center. Both she and E2 finished up their first quarter of school.
E2 had a drill competition this weekend. It was in Richfield so E3 and I spent the day at the Event Center.  Darren worked as an usher the night before for the solo competition and also all day Saturday during the regular competition. He warned me Friday night after he got home that the drill team moms were out in force so Saturday I made sure to wear my tightest jeans and my highest heels. I even wore MASCARA.  Crazy, I know.  I didn't get up early enough to curl my hair and I honestly don't own anything with bling as that is soooo not my thing.  But I kept catching the usher checking me out so I figure I was still successful :).  By the end of the day my feet were KILLING me.  Four inch heels and stadium stairs are tricky.
E2 did awesome. She was in the character routine. They were chinese dancers. Getting her into her hair and makeup was intense. It was a fun day.


E3 spent the week roller blading, reading, and going to school.  She is taking care of the neighbors cat while they are on vacation.  She went with me to the drill competition and it was great to have some girl time.  She had a panic moment when she realized Wednesday that she'd left her trumpet on the bus, but good old dad drove to the bus barn and found it for her.  After N leaving his coats, jackets, and backpacks on the bus ALL THE TIME last year, we are on first name basis with the Sevier School District transportation department.
N:  N made the treats for Scouts this week.  He make "candy sushi".  It was rice crispy treats rolled up in sheets of fruit roll-ups then sliced so it looked like rice in seaweed rolls. This was a Rachel Ray recipe we found in her children's cookbook.  It was a blast and he said his den liked them.  He also had basketball this week.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

PROJECT LIFE - week 1

In 2010 I made an album with at least one "Picture a Day" for the entire year using a kit from Becky Higgins.
It was a good way to capture the little day in and day out details of our lives. The album itself is a simple "slide a picture in and write a few notes about it on a card" kind of album. So EASY. So different from the traditional albums I have made in the past for each child. Who would have thought it would be the album the kids most frequently pull out??

I didn't do it last year and the kids really missed it. So in 2011 I am doing the album again, with some alterations. The actual printed album will have a picture a day but also will add in extra pictures and pages here and there to make a more comprehensive type album. The amazing Becky Higgins is the creator of "Project Life" and her blog at beckyhiggins.com has a ton of ideas. I purchased the Turquoise kit and fillers. I am excited :)

Like I did in 2010, I will be posting a weekly montage of pictures here so you can have a glimpse into life at the Sheffer house.

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO MAKE IT LARGER
Posted by Picasa