Still Kickin

A lot has happened since my last post. The kids and I took a trip up to Logan, now that we are 5 hours away it isn't as easy to make the trip as the 2 1/2 hour trip was.

For Mothers Day we went on our annual trip to Joe's Valley over near Price. This year Brett and Triessa and their kids joined us. It was a lot of fun.

The middle of May we started moving things into storage and moving in with Richard's parents. We were officially out of our apartment June 1st.

I started working back up at the State Hospital mid May. I drive from Cedar City up to Provo Friday morning, work from 2-10 pm. They have allowed me to stay there at the hospital so I don't have to pay for housing. I work 16 hours on Saturday, 16 on Sunday and then up once more for 8 hours Monday morning then I drive the 3 hours back to Cedar City were I just get to hang out with the family and enjoy life! (I hope to only do this until sometime in Aug.)

All I know is that it always seems to be Friday and Monday afternoon never comes.

Kortny got engaged and is getting married on the 27th of June. Since I am gone on weekends she agreed to do a reception on a Wednesday so that I could be there. Sorry if that doesn't work out for most of you.

Kenzie turned 7, has lost one of her top front teeth and has learned to ride a two wheeler. She misses her mom a lot while she is gone working and can't get enough of her when she is home.

Kenna doesn't turn 11 until Aug. but if you ask how old she is "almost 11" has been the answer for the last 2-3 months. She is a great helper and every little kid loves her to play with them, she is a wonderful babysitter.

KayLee just turned 13 and lets us know she is now an official teenager! She thinks she needs more sleep and more privledges.

We had a combined birthday party which happened to be on KayLee's birthday. We had dinner then went to the pool. It was a lot of fun.

The Easter Egg Roll

Today the girls and I participated in our first ever Easter Egg roll. The day started out freezing at the city park for the Easter egg hunt. We got snowed on and it was all over in about 30 seconds. Aunt Tres did get Kenzie to have a picture with the Easter Bunny even though Kenzie was sure she was too old for such an event.

Next we headed over Cedar mountain through the snow to play in the sand at the sand dunes. It was pretty hairy for a bit but Mardi said a prayer and we made it over the mountain and for that matter through the day just fine.

Tres's family has some property near the Coral sand dunes. Her parents, Grandparents, an Aunt and Uncle and a couple cousins met us there for a picnic and to roll some eggs. Tres thinks I am kind of funny cuz when ever she takes me somewhere I get excited about silly things like the old wagon and the out house. You just don't see those things much in Northern Utah!

Thank you Tres, Mardi and Whitni for taking us with you we had a fun day!!!

March

Lets see, a lot happened in March. We took a ride out to Minersville and Richard tried fishing. No luck but the kids had fun running around. So did Shadow. Rich told the kids they were not allowed to throw things into the water for her to fetch since the water was too cold. Well the dumb dog still got in anyway! On the way home we stopped at the Parowan Gap. It is a gap between the mountain and there are some Indian writings on the rocks.

Richard turned 37! Boy how did we get to this point so fast?

The next day I was laid off from my job at Dialysis. I had a slight breakdown but thanks to many prayers and some time I am fine. I still don't have a job full time but have picked up a few hours at the nursing home.

God works in mysterious ways, Dale and Linda went to China for 10 days and so I was able to help out with Brett and Triessa's kids. Dale has been diagnosed with Melanoma and had surgery yesterday so I am watching the girls for Brett and Tres while Dale and Linda are out of town.It is hard to get depressed when you are serving others.

February

We went to Fish Lake for the Valentine/Presidents day weekend. We stayed at the state cabin, it is nothing to brag about but it was warm and dry with a functioning bathroom. I got out of the truck to walk into the cabin and did not go outside again for 3 days and that was to walk from the cabin to the truck. I read a book, and made yummy food. The kids watched movies, went sledding, colored, read books and went fishing. (oh, yes there was quite a bit of fighting too)

Brett came and stayed 2 nights and Stuart came for one day. It was a very nice get away. The kids had a hard time with the T.V. it had 3 stations with the rabbit ears, and no remote! It is an older T.V. with the turn knob for on/off and volume. We taught them to play rummy and Kenzie won KayLee every time.










Richard has taken up water color painting. I think he is very good. Kenzie wants to know how much money he will get for each one. (if anyone would like to make an offer....)










He also took an old dresser and refinished it. I did not have anywhere to put it in a bedroom so I decided to put it in the entry way with my linen in it. Looks good Huh?

New Years 2008

Once again you could find the Hepworth clan at the Moose Hollow cabin at Fish Lake. It was a time of games, Wii, movies, fishing, sledding, eating, laughing and just enjoying each other. Linda and Dale preformed a little Hawaiian number that surprised us all.

The lake was glass and very slippery, I did not venture out but the kids informed me. Everyone had a great time!


Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!!

December 2008

December was full of parties, programs and fun. We all headed up to Logan on the 12th to have Christmas with the Jenkins side. We have grown too big for one car so Richard drove his parents car with Kortny, Taylie and Brice, while I drove our car with KayLee, Kenna and Kenzie.


It is always fun to get together with everyone. Steph and Chad's kids are sure growing and Stacey's are all teens now.Kenna has been taking violin and had her first concert on the 16th. The longest song was about 60 seconds and it was all over and done with in about a half hour. Grandma and Grandpa came over after to hear a jingle bells solo.

Christmas Eve was spent cleaning, and then over to Grandma and Grandpa Hepworths for dinner and they took the girls to a movie. Richard took in a lot of the cooking channel while laid up for 3 weeks so he tried to make a cherry pie.

Christmas morning came around 8 am at our house, we were awake before the girls! That evening we went back over to Hepworths for the family get together. It was the first time in probably 15 years that Linda and Dale had all 5 kids home on Christmas.


Tres, convinced me to go out and do aerobics with her Saturday. Kenzie had spent the night so I picked her up and we went to Walmart. She was embarrassed that she was still in p.J.s so she was hiding in the cart. At this point she informed me we had enough stuff and needed to go home.

We got home to find out that everyone was meeting at Applebees for lunch. Stuart and Shannon were the only ones missing, we took up quite a bit of the restaurant.

Breakfast with Santa and a Parade

Yesterday the girls and I along with Aunt Triessa, Mardi, and Whitni went to Lin's to get a donut, milk, orange and candy cane and to see Santa. Kenzie was the only one of my girls who would sit on Santa's lap.

Later we went to the Story Book Parade on Main Street. There were a lot of fun characters to make it enjoyable and look how people were dressed, 60 degree weather in Dec. is not the norm. for Utah. We toured the festival of trees where Tres was volunteering and then brought Mardi home with us to play.

When you don't put your tree up in time......

Grandma Hepworth sent me home with this tinsel garland and later that night I found this. If you like it all you need to make one is: Vacuum, Green blanket, tinsel, ornaments, 3 bored children.

Yes, I have finally Posted

Well to start off, I have 2 jobs now, Shadow our lab had 10 puppies, Kenzie has lost 2 teeth, Richard has another Kidney Stone, KayLee did not get her elk, and Kenna plays the violin.

My kids are baby animal magnets as I have said before. A tiny kitten some how ended up in our backyard. Shadow was scratched when she was a pup so even though she was much bigger than the kitten she was afraid of it. She even allowed it to nurse with the puppies and join the litter until we got rid of it after like 3 weeks.

We took the puppies and kitten to Walmart to get rid of them. It took 3 different Saturdays but they are finally all gone.

Benifits of living close

Triessa loves to hike. She invited the girls and myself to go along with her and her kids to hike in Zions National Park.

We got lots of looks from all the tourists and comments on what a "crew" we had. Tress had Whitni strapped on the front of her and even managed to feed her a bottle while continuing to hike. I think the comment was "Wow, what a stud Mom."

Mardi and Kenzie managed to not kill one another as long as Mardi got to be in the lead, which worked out since Kenzie was too busy picking up acorns.

We saw a huge tarantula, several squirrels, a few lizards a butterfly that got mauled by Kenzie and Mardi. A woman scolded them because now that butterfly would never fly again because they had wiped off all its flying dust.

We went to a park to eat lunch and I am sure Tress doesn't want to take me and my kids out in public again. I was catching ants for our new addition, Henry, the horny toad. Then I got poked by a cactus while trying to brake off a piece for the iguana.

On the way home I made her stop so we could get a picture of the "shoe tree" in Toquerville.

All in all we had a really fun day!

THANKS TRIESSA!!