Monsters Inc.

Snow Canyon State Park

2011-10-23T22:08:00.000-06:00

We had a great time at Snow Canyon State Park.

July Jamboree

2011-07-22T09:09:00.000-06:00

Amy and I had a great time sponsoring a classic car entry in the Cedar City July Jamboree.

Amy's Booth

2011-07-07T19:36:00.000-06:00

Amy also had a booth at the 4th of July festivities in Minersville. We gave away a lot of balloons and the kids wasted a lot of money throwing knives into a block of wood and dunking eachother!

July 4th Parade Photos

2011-07-06T19:10:00.000-06:00

We were in our first parade! It was a lot of fun and there were loads and loads of people. We threw out 30 pounds of candy and could have used 60 pounds.

Here's our whole float before the parade!

Grand Opening

2011-05-08T19:27:00.000-06:00

We had a Grand Opening for Amy's State Farm Agency. It was fun, she got to cut the ribbon with the giant scissors and all!

Amy's Sign

2011-04-11T19:33:00.001-06:00

Amy got her sign installed. It looks great!

Happy Birthday Tyler

2011-03-23T11:51:00.005-06:00

It was Tyler's 5th birthday and he wanted a "Lego Pharaoh's Quest" Cake. Luckily we know some great bakers at Lin's Bakery and they put an image I emailed them right on his cake! I guess it's called an edible image—pretty tricky!

Amy's Sign

2011-03-23T11:26:00.001-06:00

After an intense approval process through State Farm, and waiting for the sign permit from the city, we ordered the sign for the front of Amy's office! Here's a mock up of the final design and should be pretty close to how it will look. What do you think? If I spelled Amy's name wrong or anything, it's going to be an expensive mistake. :)

Demolition & New Walls

2011-03-20T22:10:00.000-06:00

The construction on Amy's State Farm office is moving right along! This week they started demolition on Tuesday and by Friday they had all of the walls framed and sheetrocked!

Here's the photo I took on Tuesday with all of the old carpet and tile ripped out.

Here's what it looked like at the end of the week!

This is looking at Amy's office door.

This is looking from the inside of Amy's office out.

Final Office Plans

2011-03-13T22:09:00.000-06:00

I finally finished our final office plans. Hopefully we can get the building permit and start construction on Tuesday.

We signed our lease!

2011-03-12T13:00:00.003-07:00

Finally after months of searching for the right location for Amy's new State Farm Agency and a week and a half of going back and forth on the 36 page lease, we finally signed the lease and are ready to start construction on her buildout!

The office space needs a lot of work but we feel like it's a great location! It's next to the Cedar City Walmart parking lot in a shopping plaza next to a really great Thai Restaurant named Sweet Basil. Walmart is the only big retailer in the area so people from 4 or 5 counties come to this Walmart on a regular basis, which should give her agency great visibility.

The location used to have a bathroom remodeler in it and is in really rough shape. It's going to take a lot of work to get turn it into a nice office. It's really going to test our contractor's speed to get it done by April 1st, which is our target date to start setting up desks and office equipment for our May 2nd opening.

It's going to be fast and furious but it's very exciting! I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Happy Birthday Carter

2011-01-19T09:02:00.003-07:00

Carter turned 9 on the 18th. We invited ten 9 year olds and had a swimming party at the brand new Aquatic Center in town It was a fun, fun day!

Mom's Home!

2011-01-13T00:03:00.005-07:00

Amy got back this weekend from another week-long State Farm Agent training session.

Tyler ran so hard to see Amy he knocked everyone over!

Needless to say we were all so glad to see her!

The kids begged me to take a picture of them and "Mom's Airplane."

2 Years at the Pool

2011-01-12T17:15:00.000-07:00

These two photos were taken in 2008 and 2010. Things change but they still love going to the pool!

Swiming with the Carters

2010-12-17T00:20:00.004-07:00

We met the kid's cousins the Carter Family in St. George for an evening of swimming. The kids had a blast. We almost couldn't take pictures it was so foggy at the pool.

Carter's Snow Cave

2010-11-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

We had a few heavy snow storms this winter. This is Carter's Snow Cave after one of them. Katie's can be seen in the background. They had a lot of fun digging them and Carter's actually turned out to be pretty big. In some of the photos it doesn't look that deep but I could fit all the way inside.

Yum, Yum

2010-11-25T23:49:00.000-07:00

Yum, Yum, Breakfast at Grandma's!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T00:45:00.001-06:00

Happy Halloween from our cuties to yours!

Huge, Huge News for our Family!

2010-09-23T15:16:00.001-06:00

For those of you who haven't heard, Amy, who has been going through a grueling interview process for the past 3 months, has been accepted as a new State Farm Agent! She is officially an Agent Intern until she opens her office doors on May 1, 2011. (State Farm has an exhaustive 7 month training program before she can open.)

I'm so proud of her, State Farm is the #1 insurance company in the nation, bigger than the next two companies combined, and it's really hard to become a State Farm agent. Of course I'm her #1 fan and not biased at all but she's going to rock!

Fishing

2010-08-04T15:32:00.003-06:00

Amy let me go fishing last Saturday, she's the greatest wife ever. I caught a few nice ones. It was a great day of fishing!

Boating at Sand Hollow

2010-07-26T14:06:00.000-06:00

We went boating with Amy's sister Jenny and her family at Sand Hollow reservoir. They are so much fun. Both Carter and Katie learned to ride a kneeboard for the first time. It was awesome!

The 5 Star Pizza Party

2010-07-25T07:45:00.000-06:00

In an effort to help the kids be nicer to each other, we made a deal with them that if they were sweet to each other and didn't fight we would put a star on the calendar. When they got 5 stars we would have a pizza party and let them each invite a friend. It took about 2 1/2 weeks to get their 5 stars but it was worth all of the hard work. That is work all the work for Amy and I to put on a party in exchange for sweet kids!

And what's the only thing that could make a pizza party even better? When uncle Chris brings a Cotton Candy machine over and makes Cotton Candy! Yeah Chris!!!

Designer Sandals

2010-07-23T15:15:00.006-06:00

When I got home one day Katie was wearing some new sandals. Amy said she didn't even know Kate made them, all of the sudden she was just wearing her self-made sandals around the house. I thought they were pretty cute for a 6 year old!

I especially love how she traced her toes.

The Living Planet Aquarium

2010-07-13T10:52:00.005-06:00

For Christmas we gave Amy's Sister JoAnn and her family a trip to The Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake City. The kids loved it and actually the adults loved it too. It was a great idea.

4th of July Weekend

2010-07-04T10:30:00.000-06:00

Amy's extended family are from the tiny town of Minersville Utah so on the 3rd of July we went to their parade and festivities. It worked perfect because Cedar City celebrated on the 5th and we got to celebrate all weekend! I love holidays that celebrate freedom from oppressive government—we need more of those.

Katie's 2-wheeler

2010-06-30T07:00:00.001-06:00

Katie has been begging me to teach her to ride a "2-wheeler" for months but winter lasted way too long and it never seemed to be warm enough. Then it finally warmed up and I didn't have any more excuses. It was long overdue because she practically took off with very little help.

She did want me to run along side her and after about 20 minutes of that I discovered I'm not in as good a shape as I thought I was. Luckily the next day she didn't need anyone to run along side and I could just watch from the sidewalk.

Katie's Birthday

2010-06-29T10:51:00.003-06:00

Katie had a fantastic birthday. Amy made the cake and Kate got spoiled with presents. Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Lagoon Trip

2010-06-28T20:13:00.003-06:00

We took the kids on a road trip to Northern Utah. We visited grandparents and went to Lagoon. It was a fantastic trip and Lagoon was a big hit with everyone.

Father and Sons Campout

2010-06-19T21:20:00.002-06:00

Carter, Tyler, and I went on a Father & Sons Camp Out with our ward. Although the second day was pretty nice the first night was the worst I've ever spent in a tent. The wind was howling so hard that it was flattening other people's tents and when we woke up on day 2 half of the people had gone home. Our tent did fine but it sounded like someone was throwing buckets of sand against the outside of our tent all night—it didn't help that the camp site was a mixture of sand dunes and big rocks. None of us slept much but Carter wanted to stay even though Tyler and I voted to go home. We gave in to Carter and toughed it out.

Tyler is smiling here because after begging to get out of the wind and the blowing sand we spent some time just hanging out in the tent.

One of the highlights was that the boys got to drive some of the dirt roads on our way home. It was one of the worst weather ever but we still had a great time together.

Kindergarten and Pre-School Graduations

2010-06-17T21:27:00.002-06:00

Here are the kids at the end of the school year.

Here's Kate and her Kindergarten teacher.

And Tyler and his Pre-School teacher Mrs. Woolsey.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-06-11T07:35:00.004-06:00

When Amy and I got home one day Carter had left this Mother's Day card on the door for Amy. I think the picture says it all! Cute card Carter.

Kung Fu PJs

2010-06-04T07:46:00.003-06:00

While in San Francisco Amy and I picked up some "Kung Fu" PJs for the kids. They were a big hit!

Then things got a little crazy. I guess we were asking for trouble with Kung Fu in the name.

Pacific Coast Cruise

2010-05-26T22:33:00.006-06:00

Our friends Travis and Mary Ehrhart found an unbelievable deal on a Pacific Coast Cruise, so when they called with the invite we jumped at such a deal.

Here's Amy and I in front of our boat.

Us on the boat.

We stopped in San Francisco, Victoria, and Vancouver. Here are two photos I took in San Francisco.

Us with Mary and Travis in front of Alcatraz.

More San Francisco

One of the highlights of the trip for Amy was our stop at the Ghirardelli's Chocolate Factory—she's really got a thing for chocolate!

This equipment was over 100 years old.

This was in Victoria, BC, Canada

While in Victoria we went to Butchart Gartdens. They were simply amazing, 55 acres of garden of eden type stuff.

Here's Amy and I by one of the fountains.

I gained 8 pounds on the trip and am happy to say it I've only got a pound left of it to loose. I learned to play Canasta, I was the only one who didn't know how to play, and although they said I did well for a beginner I still got beat pretty handily. Overall it was a very fun trip, the food was amazing, and the company was fantastic.

Not the beach but close for Utah

2010-04-26T09:39:00.003-06:00

Amy and I took the kids to Snow Canyon State Park near St. George, Utah. It wasn't quite the beach but the kids had a blast playing in the sand dunes and it was nice to get some sun and think that spring might finally be here. I'm not holding my breath though, it will probably snow again this weekend.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-04-05T22:58:00.003-06:00

What's the best thing about your Mom's birthday being on April Fools Day?

Banana splits for breakfast!!!

Lego Crazy

2010-03-30T21:06:00.003-06:00

Tyler is crazy about Legos! Ever since we got them for Christmas Tyler wants to spend any extra free time making spaceships or helicopters or submarines. The funny thing is he's thinking about what he's going to build next so much that he forgets what he's supposed to be doing and starts building. When he's supposed to be getting his PJs on I frequently find him half dressed in the middle of some project.

It wasn't hard to get this Lego distracted picture of Tyler. One night after going to see what was taking him so long I told Amy I should get a picture of him. Two nights later before I even went to see where he was, I grabbed the camera and sure enough he had no pants, but was having a lot of fun.

So Lucky!

2010-03-28T22:04:00.002-06:00

This year for Valentines Day I made a little photo collage for Amy. In the middle it says, "So Lucky!" Which is how I feel to have such a great wife and great kids. It has about 90 or so fun family photos around it. Not only did Amy like it but the kids love to sit and look at the photos as well.

Good Job Speed Racer!

2010-03-25T20:53:00.002-06:00

Amy ran the St. George Lake to Lake relay. She ran 10 miles and did an awesome job. She's not going to be thrilled about me posting this photo, but I think she looks great. She had just completed her first 5 mile leg. She had a great time and the rest of our family got to be cheerleaders—Go Mom!

Hey, Hey, It's Your Birthday!

2010-03-25T08:12:00.005-06:00

It was Tyler's 4th birthday on March 10th. He as been looking forward and talking about it since he turned 3. Who doesn't love a party?

We went swimming and Tyler got to choose where he wanted to go out for lunch. He chose McDonald's—not exactly my first choice but he was in heaven.

We had dinner and presents at IHOP—very, very fun!

The next morning Tyler ran upstairs and yelled, "Mom! Your Birthday's Next!!!"

Carter's Baptism

2010-03-17T00:05:00.002-06:00

Carter got baptized on Saturday. The whole day was really fun and memorable. We didn't hype it up much and it was fun to see Carter so excited about it.

Cousin Fun

2010-02-21T16:11:00.003-07:00

My brother Spencer and his family came to visit. We had a great time reconnecting and the kids loved playing together. We also made shape pancakes.

Katie couldn't get enough of the twins and carried them around the house constantly.

Here's Katie and Ethan loving cousin time.

Let it Snow!

2010-02-06T11:28:00.003-07:00

We've gotten quite a bit of snow recently. Here's Katie and a snowman she made all by herself—pretty cute!

Pinewood Derby

2010-01-31T15:37:00.010-07:00

We started about a month ago building Pinewood Derby cars for our troop's Derby, which just took place. Since this is our first derby all three kids wanted to build cars and since I thought this seemed like some fun time together we built a car for each kid. Here's Carter cutting out his design.

Here's Tyler cutting his car out. Tyler needed a little more help than Carter, but still did a great job.

Here's Carter cutting the sides out of his car.

Everyone did a great job sanding and sanding and sanding!

The final cars!
The night of the derby finally came and there were 17 cars from the Cubscouts in our troop.

Carter's car got 2nd place out of everyone. Each car races in 6 rounds and the computerized timer averages their six times out and then places everyone with their average time. It was pretty suspenseful because there were a few cars that would alternate back and forth with the fastest times. The first place car was on average only nine one hundreths of a second faster than Carter's.

After the race was over they let Tyler and Kate race their cars. Their cars were also fast and their times were right up there with Carter's.

Happy 8th Birthday Carter!

2010-01-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

For Carter's birthday we went with a monster truck theme.

And for the highlight Dad and the kids went to Salt Lake City to a monster truck show. The original monster truck Big Foot was the star of the show.

It was very very loud and we were glad we brought our earplugs!

The cotton candy was also a big hit!

Here's Tyler showing off his cotton candy "mustachio" as he liked to call it.

One of the highlights of the show was when the truck Robo Machine went over backwards after jumping up the car pyramid.

The finally was Big Foot jumping over a real school bus! It was awesome. Carter actually took these great shots of the big jump.

Happy birthday Carter!

I Feel The Need...The Need for Speed!

2010-01-07T20:53:00.003-07:00

I found these two sledding pictures and thought I would add them to the Blog. Katie really captures how the kids feel about sledding.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T20:07:00.004-07:00

For New Year's Eve we took a road trip to Fabulous Las Vegas. We took the kids and spent the night at Tyler and Sarah Barlow's house. Tyler and I were mission companions in France for 5 months—5 fantastic months!

We didn't get wild and crazy, but it was a great new years eve. They are the kind of friends that you just feel at home with even if you haven't seen each other for a year or two—everyone should be lucky enough to have such great friends.

On the way home our kids figured out how to "picture text" each other on their Nintendo DSes. They giggled all the way home. We didn't even have to say over and over, "No we aren't there yet." or "No we aren't even close." It was one of our best road trips ever.

Christmas Photos

2009-12-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post some photos from Christmas. It was a fun year for our family!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T17:20:00.004-07:00

Here is the kids with Santa at our Ward Christmas Party!

On Christmas Eve we went sledding. We had lots of fun and even got to see Amy in her purple snowsuit from 8th grade!

Merry Christmas to all!

Halloween - Better Late Than Never

2009-12-12T21:26:00.004-07:00

Here are some Halloween pictures I never got around to posting! This year before I knew what was happening on pumpkin carving night the kids decided to have a clothing optional pumpkin carving party. They had a blast and the logic of, this way our shirts won't get icky seemed pretty sound after they explained it all to me. I don't know where they get it - probably their mom! They've even got a little song they made up that goes something like everywhere the Petersen's go it's a party! There so cute and crazy I don't know where they get it - probably their mom!

This year we had some great pumpkins and they all carved their own pumpkins with very minimal help.

John and Amy even got in on the fun.

Ditto

2009-12-07T16:01:00.001-07:00

I recieved this in an email and thought it was funny enough to share. That's not my house on the right but it could be.

Thanks for Grandpas

2009-12-06T09:50:00.004-07:00

The highlight of Thanksgiving for our kids wasn't the pie or the turkey, but being pulled by Grandpa "Pete" on sleds behind the 4 wheeler.

John's brother Spencer and his wife Whitney brought their 4 kids down from Washington and the kids had a blast playing together. Here's Carter and Logan and Kate and Riley. Spencer's twins will have to wait a few years before joining the fun.

Kate is still a little dare devil. She likes nothing better than spending some time with Grandpa while screaming, "Faster Grandpa, Faster!" or "Come on Grandpa flip me off the sled."

Here's to two posts in a row with Grandpas, we sure love 'em!

Katie's Big Fish

2009-11-10T08:16:00.002-07:00

While John was at scout camp Grandpa Garth took the kids fishing. We just got the photos back of Katie's big fish. She was so proud of it she held it in a plastic bag like a baby the whole way home.

Katie

2009-10-20T20:47:00.003-06:00

I just thought this was a cute shot of Katie—just love those freckles!

Bear Lake in the Rain

2009-10-11T09:54:00.005-06:00

Our good friends Mary and Travis Ehrhart have a cabin at Bear Lake. We went to visit, looking forward to a sunny day on the lake but it rained instead. We came up with the alternate plan of going through Minnetonka Cave. The kids loved the cave and did great up and down the 400 or so stairs twice—in and out. Tyler did negotiate giving me "sweet kisses" in exchange for carrying him up and down the last 100 stairs or so.

Minnetonka Cave is the largest developed limestone cave in Idaho with nine large "rooms" through the half a mile of the developed part of the cave. The largest room was over 300 feet long and 90 feet high!

After being in a crisp 40 degree cave the kids wanted to warm up. So they put on their swimsuits and took a hot bath together, bubble beards included!

We topped the trip off with Mary's Asphalt Pie! What a fun weekend. Thanks Mary and Travis, you are the best!

Logan Temple Photo Session

2009-10-10T08:38:00.009-06:00

On our trip to Logan we also stopped by the Temple and took some pictures.

I was the photographer most of the time, but after a little begging Carter convinced me that he should take over so I could get in some of the pictures.

He did a pretty good job.

When he instructed Amy and I to kiss we could barely do it because we were laughing so hard.

Let The Brainwashing Begin—Go Utah State!

2009-10-03T23:37:00.008-06:00

Amy and I took the kids on their first brainwashing trip to Logan, Utah. We spent hours going around the campus at Utah State University talking about how great college is, how you can stay up as late as you want, and how it's practically a year round party. We've decided they can go to college anywhere they want, but we really aren't sure you could have as much fun at any other school.

Here's the famous "A" where you become a "True Aggie"—really just an excuse to kiss someone or many someones in one night. College is so great!

Here's Romney Stadium where the magic happens or at least true fans dream about it happening.

We had a lot of fun at the bookstore. Buying books was the least fun thing to do there.

It was really fun walking around campus talking up how much fun they are going to have. At one point Carter said, "Don't you have to go to class and learn things?" That wasn't in the brainwashing program but since he brought it up we did go over all the fun things you get to learn at college.

The highlight of the trip for the kids was the "Famous" Aggie Ice Cream! I highly recommend it, you get to eat as much as you want when you go to college! College is so great!

Fire Truck Scavenger Hunt

2009-10-02T08:48:00.009-06:00

We helped the Fire Department with a fire truck scavenger hunt—apparently our address is hard to find. Each truck had to find our house and then we gave them a card with the next address on it.

There were about seven trucks that came and each one brought a little something for the kids. They had a blast waiting for each truck.

As it got later and later Katie entertained us with dance routines. Anytime they get to stay up past 8pm it's a party.

Anytime they stay up after 8 they also get tired—even Dad got a little tired.

All in all it was a fun night courtesy of the Cedar City Fire Department.

Amy's Elk Hunt

2009-09-21T21:41:00.007-06:00

After holding out for nine days and passing bigger bulls, Amy shot a nice 6 point bull on the last night of the season.

The hunt was grueling and we were very excited when Amy's dad, Garth, finished a hunt he was on early and was able to join us. She shot the bull right before dark and then the real work began. Amy shot him at the top of a really steep hill and I was hoping he would run down to the bottom of the hill before he died but no such luck—he pretty much died instantly. We had to pack the elk out in pieces and it took the three of us two trips.

We got all of the meat out last night at about 1 am, Carter and I hiked in tonight and got the horns.

We had a great night together and I was proud of carter for making the hike. After the hike in on the easy trail it was over half a mile almost straight up. Carter is also learning about rocks in school, where they suggested the kids start rock collections, so his backpack also contained a healthy start to his collection. In the end Carter agreed that the horns might be too heavy for him to pack out and dad got to do it.

It was a really exhausting hunt mentally and physically. We hiked countless miles everyday and I lost 8 pounds. I was thrilled that it turned out the way it did. Thanks to Amy's Mom for watching our kids for the entire 9 days, we owe you big time, and Amy's dad for helping us get it done in the last 10 minutes of a 9 day hunt.

The best part of the whole thing was spending a week with Amy. No matter how much time we spend together, I just can't get enough. I adore her!

Alaska Fishing Trip

2009-09-01T13:01:00.012-06:00

I got to take my dad and three of our magazine advertisers on an Alaska deep sea fishing trip—awesome perk! We fished for 3 days and caught a lot of fish. You'll have to humor all of the fish pictures. What do you expect from a Manblog?

Here's a Silver Salmon

Here's a Halibut

Here's a King Salmon

Here's a Lingcod, very ugly, but tasty

Here's a Red Snapper

Here's a 200 pound Halibut!

New Harmony Fire

2009-08-31T21:12:00.003-06:00

The smoke from the New Harmony fire is getting pretty bad. They have evacuated quite a few homes and I heard from a girl at work that lives down there that a few homes have gone up in smoke. The sun was orange all day today and you could almost stare right at it. The only positive from the whole deal is I was told the orange light makes me look tan. Looks like this tan is only going to last a few more days.

The Green Show Favorites

2009-08-30T11:15:00.006-06:00

I took Amy and the kids to the Green Show last night. The Green Show is the pre-show entertainment at the Shakespearean Festival. It's fun and short and just about right for the kids to sit through.

Tyler's favorite thing about the Green Show are the Apple Tarts!

Carter's favorite thing about the Green Show are the Lemon Tarts!

Kate's favorite thing about the Green Show is taking pictures of the dancers!

Amy's favorite thing about the Green Show is socializing!

John's favorite thing about the Green Show is all of the BROWNIE POINTS he gets for taking everyone!

Goodbye Anne

2009-08-24T09:22:00.003-06:00

On Saturday morning my cousin Anne Petersen Creager passed away after a long battle with cancer. We only lived a few miles away growing up and we were close throughout High School.

Here is a picture of Anne and I on the set of the one and only play I was in in High School. I had no interest in being in the play but Anne convinced me to be in it with her.

Unless you were lucky enough to know Anne it's difficult to explain how fantastic she was. The only thing I can think of is she was like an angel on earth. I love you Anne and miss you so much.

She is leaving a beautiful family, her husband Ward and three beautiful daughters McCady, MaLeah, and Maiya. If you knew Anne and would like to post a comment on her blog the address is http://wardandannecreager.blogspot.com/.

Tooth Fairy

2009-08-16T23:02:00.003-06:00

Our favorite fairy is coming tonight!

Katie lost her first tooth today, we're all very excited!

Carter wouldn't let us touch his loose teeth, but Kate had me tie dental floss around it and yank it out. I even told her it might hurt, but she wanted it out and mentioned the tooth fairy might bring money several times—pretty cute.

Run

2009-08-15T17:02:00.001-06:00

Do you ever wish you had enough energy to just run for fun?

There's something about this picture I love—don't know what it is.

50-miler

2009-08-11T20:46:00.005-06:00

I went on a 50 mile hike in the High Uintahs Wilderness with the Boy Scouts a few weeks ago. Before I left Amy said, "You're taking a week off work and being away from our family for a week. You better change some kid's life." It turned out good. The boys were real babies the first two days but by day four they really toughened up and turned into little hikers. It was good to see them grow. Everyone of them said it was the hardest thing they had ever done. Don't know if we changed any lives, but hopefully we made an impact.

(That's King's Peak right in the middle of the group shot.)

My life, on the other hand, was definitely changed, I caught my first ever Arctic Grayling and Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout. The Yellowstone Cutthroat ended up being almost 20" long!

4th of July

2009-08-05T00:29:00.004-06:00

We had a fun time at the Cedar City parade.

Katie insisted on wearing her beads.

My two favorite cuties!

When the tank went by from the 222nd Battalion Tyler said, "I want one of those for my birthday!"

The High Dive

2009-07-27T22:01:00.002-06:00

Swimming lessons are over. It was great to see Kate go off of the diving board and swim to the side and Carter go off of the high dive.

Road Runner's Baseball Game

2009-07-14T07:39:00.005-06:00

It's been so long since I posted that even my kids are complaining. I'll load many more pictures as soon as I get a chance.
Here is a picture from the St. George Road Runner's baseball game we went to with Garth and Sharyl and the cousins. The Road Runners got killed by the Orange County Flyers, but the kids didn't care, they couldn't stop talking about the mascots. Everyone had a blast!

Red Rider Afternoon

2009-06-10T20:54:00.004-06:00

We finally got out to shoot the kids BB guns. Everyone loved it and can't wait to go again.

Our Lake Powell Summer Vacation

2009-06-08T21:15:00.020-06:00

We got invited to "Boatsit" on Lake Powell for a family in our ward while they did some work on their boat trailer. We got to spend 2 days playing on the lake!

Here's Tyler at Rainbow Bridge

Here are a few of the cute quotes from our kids from the trip:

Katie while checking out the tub at the motel (it was the cheapest thing we could get, clean, but a real dive): "Wow! This place is fancy, they even have little bars of soap!"

Tyler while on the way to the bathroom by the lake: "Dad, you hold my 'Nola bar' and I'll hold my wee-wee."

My two favorite cuties!

Our kids got a little crazy climbing all over the tube while we cruised around the lake. This was right before Carter fell off the back, which he thought was awesome.

A cute shot on the hike to Rainbow bridge.

Here's the boat and the fish the kids thought were pretty cool. At one of the Marinas we fed the fish off the dock. There were so many I laid down on the dock and put my hands in the water and thought I would try and grab one of them while the kids threw in bread crumbs. To my surprise I tossed a sunfish right up on the dock. It was pretty cool, but it turns out that there is no fishing at the marina and the irate ranger said fishing with your hands is still fishing—who knew?

Carter decided he wanted to pose for the camera and Katie thought it was such a good idea she wanted to pose...

and pose...

and pose...okay, I don't know where she gets this.

By far the kid's favorite activity was riding the tube, they couldn't get enough!

Mom and Dad liked riding the tube just a little bit as well.

We love vacations!

Happy 5th Birthday Katie!

2009-06-07T21:26:00.006-06:00

It's Kate's birthday on June 8th, but we had a little party today. The cake turned out pretty good, considering all the requests (see my post from earlier today) other than the fact that it briefly caught on fire—Yikes.

She's got quite the swing!

Happy Birthday Kate! I can't believe you're 5, you will always be my "baby Kate."

You Can Do Hard Things!

2009-06-07T10:09:00.002-06:00

For a few weeks now, when our kids tell us they can't do something, like put on their shoes or clean their room, we have been telling them, "You can do hard things."

Today when I was designing Katie's birthday cake on paper, she put in several requests for a castle and how it should look. I said, "Katie, I don't know if I can do all that." She said, "Dad, you can do hard things!"

88 Cent Bargain Shopper!

2009-05-23T08:54:00.007-06:00

Amy has been getting into coupon shopping. I wasn't sure it's worth the time it takes to go through all of the coupons each week. Then the other day Amy came home with five bags of groceries for only 88 cents! I'm a believer.

Goodbye Soccer

2009-05-17T11:33:00.003-06:00

Goodbye soccer, dance, and gymnastics, hello baseball, swimming lessons, and summer. I can't believe how busy life is getting with these kids. I can't imagine how those of you crazy enough to have 5 or 6 of 'em are doing it all.

We went to Katie's last soccer game the other day. It was such a fun season, and a cute age for soccer!

Pack 'em in

2009-05-06T19:57:00.002-06:00

We were cleaning out the storage room and the kids tried to convince me to let them move into the storage they thought the shelves looked like great bunks. They even showed me how great it would work, but being a mean dad I didn't go for it.

We're Grillin'!

2009-05-04T21:56:00.003-06:00

We haven't really had a spring. It's been pretty cold the last few months, but it's finally warming up and WE'RE GRILLIN'!

Easter Egg Hunts are Awesome!

2009-05-03T20:34:00.003-06:00

I don't know why but "awesome" is becoming one of Tyler's favorite words. The other day I said to him, "Grandma Pete is coming over do you want to wear the Thomas the Tank Engine shirt she gave you?" He said, "Yes, she will like it cause it's AWESOME!"

Well our Easter Egg hunt at Grandma Sharyl's house was AWESOME!

Crazy Fish Pancake Day

2009-03-29T11:14:00.004-06:00

It was Crazy Fish Pancake Day today in our house! Dad doubled the pancake recipe and the kids ate more than their weight in fish pancakes!

You know you're tough when...

2009-03-23T09:32:00.003-06:00

you iron your shirt while it's on. Don't try this at home. Our company had business meetings last week in Salt Lake City with all of our advertisers and I had to laugh when I looked over and Chris was ironing his shirt after he put it on. Nothing stands in the way of looking good.

Sisters Are Great!

2009-03-17T12:31:00.002-06:00

Tyler loves his sister!

Piñatas, Presents, and Cake!

2009-03-15T10:42:00.002-06:00

It's the receipt for a perfect birthday! Happy 3rd birthday Tyler.

Happy Birthday Uncle Chris

2009-03-10T12:07:00.005-06:00

We had a birthday cake for my brother Chris. The kids love birthdays and birthday cake. Heck who doesn't love a little birthday cake and ice cream?

Happy Birthday Bro! Hope your wish comes true.

Fast ? Sunday

2009-03-01T14:47:00.002-07:00

Carter said to me in Church today, "Dad, do we get to go home after the sacrament?" I said, "No." He said, "Is Church shorter today?" I said, "No." He said, "Why do they call it Fast Sunday if it's not fast?"

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-15T10:48:00.004-07:00

The way to a man's heart is through pancakes. —Thanks Honey!

I finally learned that you can never go wrong with Chocolate!

Stuff Mart Dance

2009-01-30T08:21:00.003-07:00

Here is a little video I found of Carter dancing to a Veggietales video back when he was about 2. I guess he's been working on his moves for some time now. I just didn't realize it.

Dance Now

2009-01-26T20:19:00.007-07:00

We haven't posted for a while so we will treat you to a little dance. On my cousin's blog, she posted a video of one of her kids singing in the shower and asked, "Is this normal?" Which has made me question my own kids. What do you think, is this normal?

Gotta Love Christmas Morning

2008-12-30T09:57:00.003-07:00

Tyler was a little sleepy eyed at first, but Carter was wide awake and ready to go see if Santa came.

And he did come!

Once again Christmas was lots of fun! Merry Christmas everyone.

A Mouse in Our House!

2008-12-23T21:57:00.005-07:00

A few weeks ago, just as it was getting cold outside, Amy noticed the door to the garage was left open by one of the kids for quite some time. She thought I bet we are going to have a mouse in the house. Sure enough the next afternoon Amy was in the kitchen and all of the sudden the kids started yelling, "Mom, there's an animal running across the floor!" Carter said, "I think it was a rat." Amy said it was the funniest thing you've ever seen. They all got their flashlights and various kitchen utensils out and went on a mouse hunt. At one point they had it cornered behind the couch, a kid on each end, running it back and forth. Then it would escape and run under another piece of furniture.

One of Amy's friends called during the whole ordeal and Amy explained the situation and how the kids had been occupied for an hour. Her friends comment was, "Well, I don't think you want to get rid of it, it seems like quite the entertainment."

One of the conversations Amy over heard went like this. Katie said, "If we catch it lets take it to the pet store." Then Carter said, "The pet store only has fancy rats, our rat is just a regular rat." Amy told them it was a mouse and Katie said, "I'm going to tell all of my friends that we have a mouse in our house!" Amy tried to explain why we don't tell people that we found a mouse in the house but the kids didn't really get it. (We don't tell people, but we are willing to post it on our blog.)

Dad put an end to the fun when he trapped the mouse the next day. We didn't make a big deal about it or anything. The kids said they wanted to go on a mouse hunt and Amy told them that Dad had caught the mouse and that was the end of that for about a week.

Then one of my mission companions and his wife were staying at our house and Kate blurted out in the middle of a conversation, "We had a mouse in our house, but now he's in heaven." We never mentioned anything about heaven or even that the mouse was dead. The way she said it was so funny I had tears in my eyes we were all laughing so hard. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny.

'Tis The Season

2008-12-14T19:27:00.007-07:00

We went to Grandma Pete's house and the kids made gingerbread houses, well Grandma and the kids that is.

Grandma had the houses ready to decorate when we got there. Thanks for all the work Grandma!

Grandma let each of the kids decide exactly what they wanted on their houses.

And they turned out really cute!

Carter insisted his house was more than just a decoration. He said it could be a playground, a decoration, and a snack.

Everybody Loves Thanksgiving!

2008-12-10T20:26:00.011-07:00

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Amy's Mom's Condo in St. George. We had a lot of fun making indian vests and headbands.

We played in the pool. Amy and I learned that the first thing we should do is take the kids to the pool, so we don't have to hear about going to the pool for hours on end. The condo is all about the pool.

We played games

Made apple turkeys

And ate pie—Everybody loves pie!

Especially the whipped topping!

I Think There is a Problem

2008-11-24T22:29:00.009-07:00

The other night Tyler put both legs in the same hole of his pajamas, tried to take a step, and then looked at me seriously and said, "Dad—I think there is a problem!"

Dang Spoons

2008-11-12T12:09:00.003-07:00

I was feeding Tyler some applesauce and he spilled on the table. I said, "Tyler did you spill?" He said, "No, my spoon did it!"

Welcome to the Barnyard

2008-11-08T21:22:00.003-07:00

Here are our Halloween pictures. Carter came up with the title of this post and was really excited about it. He's been asking for the last week, Dad when are you going to do welcome to the barnyard? Here are the much awaited photos!

They look like cute little animals but I'm telling you they made out like bandits.

Doing the Dirty Work

2008-10-29T20:47:00.002-06:00

This may be too graphic for some of you if you haven't had toddlers. The other night I went into the bathroom to wipe Katie. After I was done I said, "Okay, let's wash your hands." Katie replied, "I didn't touch anything dirty, you did."

I couldn't argue with her logic, but still made her wash her hands.

Saving our Sanity During General Conference

2008-10-26T22:28:00.006-06:00

Okay, as you know John has been 100% responsible for the blog - so far. At the risk of him saying, “See how easy that was, you could totally do this.” I’m going to do a post. Just one. We had the best conference weekend we had seriously probably had in 5 years. I have to share the game that made it all possible. Credit goes to my sister JoAnn who shared this game with me and I tweaked it a little for my family.

So I cut out the pictures of the first presidency and 12 apostles from our most recent conference edition of the ensign, you know the ones in the centerfold, and taped them to bowls. I filled the bowls with whatever I could find in our pantry, fridge and food storage that I thought the kids would like. Can you believe I had all this on hand? Every time a speaker got up we said if they had a bowl. If they weren’t a “Big B” brethren the kids got a coloring page. Around conference time you can find oodles of conference packets on sugardoodle.com.

Every time Pres. Monson spoke over the pulpit they kids got an Oreo cookie (milk and John’s favorite cookie), I got them on sale at Albertson's for a buck fifty and was saving them for a special occasion. So the third time Pres. Monson gets up, as he was conducting the Saturday morning session of conference, Carter yells out, “It’s Pres. Monson give me a cookie.” Which worked out great because there weren’t a lot of “Big B” brethren that spoke that session.

General conference turned into an elaborate game of guess who. I lined up the bowls on our table behind the couch and John and I could hardly hold in the giggles as we over heard Kate say about Elder Oaks, “He doesn’t have glasses or hair.” And when Elder Nelson spoke she was like, “Okay, he has hair but only on the sides.” I was so relieved that Elder Bednar spoke in the Saturday afternoon session. He had the prized marshmallows and every speaker, hair or not, Tyler (2 ½) bought me his bowl and said, “Is this him?” I was so happy when I could finally say, “Yes, you got it!”

It was great to actually get to listen to our church leaders. I'm so grateful in these times that we have prophets and apostle to give us guidance.

First Snow 2008

2008-10-12T22:11:00.005-06:00

It's only the second week in October and it snowed this weekend!

The first Snow Angels of the Year!

and the first snowman!

The kids were so excited they played for hours. There was less than an inch of snow, but they played like there was a foot.

Story Time

2008-10-08T23:39:00.003-06:00

I'm getting a little behind on my posts, so I thought I'd post a quick photo that I took the other night.
Story time is one of our families favorite times. I don't know how much longer all of the kids plus a Dad or Mom will fit in our, "big chair" but we're sure lovin' it while it lasts.

SkyFest in Cedar City

2008-09-16T21:51:00.003-06:00

I stole these photos from our friend Ginger's Blog. We also went to see all of the balloons at SkyFest but forgot the camera, so thanks for the pictures Ginger! The kids loved the balloons and we discovered a huge new addition to the playground equipment at the park.

A weekend out west!

2008-09-08T20:21:00.004-06:00

We spent Labor Day weekend at Amy's parents cabin on the Utah Nevada border. We had a great time riding the Ranger around and feeding the fish at the neighbors pond. Neighbor is a relative term, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to drive there.

While Amy and I painted the pavilion the kids made "Lizard Houses." Here's Carter's Lizard House.

And here is Kate and Tyler's Lizard House.

On the way home we had 2 out of 3 tuckered out—not bad!

2008-09-05T21:28:00.002-06:00

This week Katie started pre-school. Tyler and Kate have been playing together really well while Carter has been at school. I guess you've seen the dress up pictures and the salon pictures. They have also played house and kitchen and Bob the Builder and Imaginext and Trains and Cars. It's been pretty cute!

So when Katie went to pre-school the first day Tyler cried, then asked if he could give her one more hug, and then cried again—pretty sweet. Lucky for Tyler pre-school only last 2 1/2 hours.