2010

I definitely didn't blog much in 2010. I still blame it on the blog post a day for a whole month. (You can go back and find it if you are interested.) It pretty much killed me, but I did it. It was hard. But, here I am now. I don't really make resolutions, so don't expect me to say that I am going to blog more. If you see it, then you get it. BUT, I did figure I'd do a re-cap of the last half of the year (and maybe some stuff I missed) considering I didn't blog for the last half of the year. Don't expect any pictures at this point, that is asking a lot. Maybe I can update the sidebar pictures, what do you think about that idea? Maybe tomorrow. Maybe.

Where to start, I don't even know! I'll just jump in, so this may be a little random and crazy. I think I'll do list format, and then expound if I need to. That way my fingers (and sanity) will still be intact when I am finished, AND I'll still have a desire to do another post SOON.

Bryce - That kid, you just HAVE to love him! He is CRUISING through his scout stuff. He shot through Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, 1st Class, and is now sitting pretty at Star (but only for a little bit longer.) He has earned about 15 merit badges so far, and is not slowing down anytime soon. Okay, maybe he will once soccer starts again. Wait, it never stopped. (I was supposed to be doing list format.)
Excelling at Piano (still)
Turned 12 and ordained a Deacon
Outgrew ANOTHER suit
We FINALLY Painted his room. It is an awesome Red and Black, with silhouette images of him (and Chase) on the walls in soccer action shots. There are also some cool quotes and other things. I'll try to get pictures posted (as soon as they clean it up!)
6th grade now, and "afraid" of girls
Academic All Stars for Science (this means he got the highest score on his science test, IN THE WHOLE SCHOOL!)
Student of the term for academics. (Bryce is not at all "nerdy" though, he makes being smart, cool.) He has gotten a few of his friends interested in reading, and is working on the Reading Merit badge right now.

Ambri - She is still "Taylor Swift's Biggest Fan", and has every one of her songs on her iPod.
Turned 9 this year and started 4th grade
She loves school, and still wants to be a teacher, because of the great 3rd and 4th grade teachers that she has/had
Still doing soccer and piano
Student of the Term in June for Academics, which is very hard to do, because there are so many good students, and there are only 3 chosen for the whole school year!
Last year her "Rock Band" did a great recital in their music class. They Rocked! This inspired her to buy her own guitar and she is working on it again this year, with her awesome music teacher at school.

Chase - He had an awesome "Wings of Wonder" field trip at the end of Kindergarten, where they went to a Butterfly farm and saw all kinds of butterflies and got to go into the greenhouses where they fly around and live. Amazing!
Kindergarten graduation last year and thoroughly got into each and every song that they sang for the program. He has quite the personality.
Turned 6 over the summer and then started 1st grade.
Soccer
Chase is an amazing reader. He is challenged at school, and reads the scriptures very well.
He was Santa in his class play, and was hilarious!

Oakli - She also has been doing soccer. She turned 5 over the summer, got her shots, and zipped off to Kindergarten. She has waited for this day for SO long. She is loving every day of it, and she brings mom along with her 2 days a week to help out. She asks mom every day if she is coming to help out, just to see if she can talk Mom into coming a little extra.
Oakli was also student of the term, for the first term of Kindergarten. Way to go!

Doug - In June brought a new challenge for Doug, he was called to be the bishop of our ward. He has made some interesting changes, and we have been blessed as a family for all of our sacrifices.
We had a good wheat harvest this last year (17 acres) and then part of that land, Doug planted with more blueberries. The rest he put back into wheat for this coming year.
We made it through a strange flood in June, of all months, and the blueberry harvest was good, better than 2009, so that was a blessing.
Doug participated again, in the Newport Marathon in June, and finished again, just like he always does!
November took Doug and Kari to Santa Barbara where they did another marathon, hoping it would be warm. It was warmer than Oregon.
The summer found us at OMSI with Grandma and Grandpa Baxter, boating, water skiing (Ambri tried for the first time) Doug water skied with his own flag (hilarious, maybe I can figure out how to put the video up... you know when the skier goes down and you have someone hold the flag up? Doug skied with his own and held it up. So funny!) We also spent time camping, swimming, a little fishing, and time with cousins.

Halloween found us with 2 pirates, a rockstar, and a security guard. We had a wonderful Christmas that we got to spend with Grandma and Grandpa Baxter here for a whole week, what a surprise for us! All in all, we had a wonderful 2010! Here's to hoping for a great 2011.

January 6

Today is my sister's birthday. I don't know how to contact her, besides e-mail, sad I know. So I decided that I'd do a blog post to say "Happy Birthday". (Okay, I admit, I did wish her happy birthday on Facebook, but since I don't spend half of my life there, I don't consider that really counting, plus everyone else gets a reminder for it, so that is cheating.) Besides that, I don't know what else I am going to type about. I guess I'll see how far I get until I have a child come in and see "what I'm doing". (Sadly, I probably won't get far, but here's to hoping... maybe that's why I haven't blogged much lately.) Someone came in. Here's hoping for tomorrow.

2nd Annual Super-Duper-Cooper-Looper Half Marathon

Things have been so busy that I just haven't had time to do any blogging, sorry!

Our 2nd annual Super-Duper-Cooper-Looper half marathon was on June 19th this year. We started off with a shot-gun start from Doug:

Here are a few other pictures:

(starting line)

(Kari, Oakli, and Ambri)

Here are the results. This year we had 23 participants. Here are the finishing times, in no particular order:

Bryce Burton: 1:55:40 (bike)
Ambri Burton: 2:31:40 (bike)
Chase Burton: 2:16:50 (bike)
Oakli Burton: 2:41:00 (bike)
Kari Burton: 2:41:00 (bike)
Brent Baxter: 1:46:09 (bike)
Karen Baxter: 1:46:08 (bike)
Preston Baxter: 2:16:40 (bike)
Kaeli Baxter: 2:16:07 (bike)
Caiden Baxter: 2:16:10 (bike)
Kate Merrill: 1:48:50 (bike)
Kyle Merrill: 2:24:06 (running)
Goldie Burton: (walking)
Michele Burton: 3:31:20(walking)
Nathan Tolman: 2:03:30 (bike)
Nick Tolman: 1:55:40 (bike)
Debi Burton: 2:30:38 (running)
Taylor Burton: 2:05:07 (bike)
Jace Burton: 1:56:40 (bike)
Garrett Burton: 1:55:50 (bike)
Jessica: 2:05:07 (bike)
Kendyl: 1:56:40 (bike)
Hunter: 1:55:40 (bike)

So that's it. Any questions? We'll be doing it again next year if you would like to join in!

Life...

So obviously life is passing us by, and I need a serious reality check. Here we go.

I missed posting about Ambri's 9th birthday, sorry babe! Here's a picture of the AWESOME cake! No, I didn't make it. It seems that our tradition includes Safeway. Our kids have come to expect the annual trip to the bakery to pick out their cake. Sounds good to me. This year Ambri adapted the Mother's day purse for her own purposes. It turned out cute. She also had a huge sleepover for her party. She invited a lot of friends, thinking only a few would be able to come, and I think they ALL came. What a bash!

Oakli is seriously my dramatic child, and she is hilarious! She has a sense of humor that is second-to-none! We were driving in the car 2 days ago (remember, she is 4) and she was looking out the window just talking to Bryce (who is 11, so naturally, he wasn't listening) and then after she made a random comment she said, "did I just say that out loud?" Um... hello??? I better watch what I say. Sheesh! She is freaking funny!

Okay. Other things on the agenda. We have been so busy! Doug just ran the Newport marathon again. He did so awesome! After working really hard to get ready training only (well, I shouldn't say) not as much as he should, he came in only 30 minutes after last year's time. That is REALLY GOOD because his goal was to finish before they stopped taking time and he blew that goal out of the water. I'm sure no one ever feels completely ready, right? This year's marathon makes 3 years in a row. We didn't take the kids over this year, so I got to go 8.5 miles with Doug on the course. It was great! I only got sunburned on one shoulder. Guess that is what happens when you only put sunscreen on once, and you do it yourself. Doug put it on like 4 times. Good for him!

Life has been super crazy with end of the year school activities, assemblies, field trips, and parties. We still have a few days to go, but I think we are going to make it. Ambri got the Academic Achievement award for the 3rd graders for the semester. Go Ambri! It was great to go surprise her at school. Chase had kindergarten graduation, and it was fun too. Just like the older two kids, and it was fun to see Bryce and Ambri singing the songs, even though they wouldn't admit to that. Oakli can't wait to be in Kindergarten next year! She has gone with me to help out in the classroom so many times, she is an honorary member of the class, and gets angry when I won't let her do the projects, because I know she gets to do them next year, even though Mrs. Graham would gladly let her do them.

The horrid spring rain hasn't stopped here in Oregon yet. It's pretty sad, actually. We had flooding last week. This is JUNE, people. This is worse than in the winter. Do you hear me people... FLOODING... IN JUNE!!! Oh, when I said that my shoulder got sunburned, don't let that fool you, that was at the coast. That doesn't count. That was FAR away from here. :-)

Bryce has been working really hard on his scouting stuff. He is one camp out away from getting his 1st class rank. (That camp out is tomorrow!) Yippee!!! He has been doing so great. He turned 11 in December, so he has been really working hard. He has also earned 2 merit badges. He is going to try to earn the 4 centennial merit badges this summer as well. We'll see how that goes. If he can do that, then he'll have his star earned before he turns 12. That is his goal. You go Bryce! He is also super busy with Soccer, still. All the other kids finished up, and Bryce kept on going. He had try-outs for a new team. He actually tried out for 2 clubs. He made both of them, and decided to go with VFC. (Valley Football Club, which is actually Soccer. - Think Spanish, people.) The team is very good and making great progress. It is kind of a new team because most of his old team is on this new team with him. So it is really a good fit for him.

Broken arm boy: AKA: Bryce. Don't tell the Dr. that he played soccer with a broken arm, or this mom will be fired. (YOU DON'T SEE THE CAST IN THE PICTURE BELOW... YOU DON'T SEE THE CAST IN THE PICTURE BELOW...) Bryce's coach even put him playing an offensive position, which is a position that Bryce normally doesn't play. Bryce got a chance to play up during this game because his team was totally creaming the other team.

Bryce normally plays defense, and is really good back there. Okay, back to the broken arm. Bryce was riding 4-wheelers with a friend and his friend was in front of him on a quad and stopped. Bryce wasn't watching and rammed right into the back of his friend on his quad and flipped off his quad, and fractured his arm. We made him go to practice that night and play in hi99game the next day with the broken arm, before we even knew it was broken. (It happened on a Friday.) We didn't take him in until Sunday afternoon, which happened to be Mother's day. The Dr. at the urgent care, said absolutely NO soccer. Um, I don't think the mom was there to hear those instructions, because she made him go to soccer try-outs on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. Actually, I think he played soccer 5 nights that week. Scratch that, make it 6, he had a game on Saturday and played with his card cast on. The ref came over to make sure he didn't have any weapons INSIDE his cast. Hello??? Whatever. The next weekend I took him to the game and that ref wouldn't let him play with the cast on. He said it was too hard. Luckily it was one of those hard casts that was just held on with a couple of ace bandages. It was Bryce's last game, so being the executive decision maker, I told Bryce to take it off, and play with just the ace bandages. Being the last game and all... you know, priorities. All was well, we never went back to the Dr. and he stopped wearing the cast after 3 weeks. Oopsie.

Overall we are stressed out, overwhelmed, and super busy, BUT, we are making it. Bryce now has soccer practice 2x a week in Corvallis (which is 30 minutes away) for 2 hours, and they call it "training". I guess that means you are big time. Well, no "guessing" about it. You know it is big time when your coach goes to England to get your teams uniforms while he is on his way to the World Cup. Kind of embarrassing when I had to explain to Bryce what the World Cup is. I told him not to ask anyone at practice training what the World Cup is, because they are taking the next month off of practice training for the World Cup. I guess they are hard core.

Blueberries are "trying" to ripen in all this rain. I guess the one good thing is that Doug hasn't had to run the sprinklers much.

Hunh.

Family Night Board (FHE)

Here's the board that we use for family night (FHE). It helps us rotate through to know who is doing what and cuts down on the fighting. Ironic.

I don't have any "production" pictures, but it was pretty simple to throw together. Here's a list of the supplies that I used:

12 x 12 pine frame

12 x 12 sheet metal

2" tiles (that really aren't 2". I never could figure out the way men measure their supplies - you know, how a 2 x 4 really isn't "2 x 4"? Whatever...)

strip magnets
hot glue
vinyl cut outs for words
black paint
clear paint or top coat paint
sand paper

I used coupons for the frames and sheet metal. The sheet metal I just picked up from the craft store and it was already the size I needed. I loved it because the magnets will stick right to it!

Paint your frame black. After it dries, give the edges a light sanding for some personalization. Give the whole thing a once-over with your top coat to seal it in.

Put your sheet metal in, so you know how much room you have to work with for your words. Depending on how many names you have, you can make the tasks larger or smaller, add a few or leave some out. We had to "make some up" so that we all had something to do. In the past, we did not have "Scripture" on our list, but now that our numbers are larger, I added that. Just do what works for your family.

You need to cut the vinyl to fit your space, or order it from your favorite vinyl source. You could also use stickers. If you need help with the vinyl, let me know. Add the names to your tiles, then hot glue the magnets to the tiles and you are good to go! I used 3 strips of magnet across the back of each tile. I wanted to be super safe. Now the only thing my kids fight over is who gets to rotate the names each Monday night!