What to do.......

So I am so sad.......

I had been hinting to Nate for the past six months or so that I would really like an external hard drive so I could back my pictures up. So for Christmas he got me one. So of course it has sat for the past month and a half and nothing has been put on it. :) So last Sunday he decided to take it upon himself to put the pictures on it himself. So he did. But by the time I got home and looked at the pictures I noticed that all of 2009 was GONE except for 2 months, also 2 folders in 2002 are gone. He said he didn't delete any pictures (by this time he was cleaning my hard drive of all the crap that gathers on it), but we went to the recycle bin anyway and restored everything that he had deleted. Nope, no pictures. So we did a system restore to 2 days earlier and got 2 more months (now a total of 4 months) appeared in the 2009 folder. YEA! So we tried a system restore to earlier (I know they were there 2 weeks ago), but NOPE they didn't come back. I am so sad.

So my question to all of you is........Who is a good COMPUTER GENIUS that can get my pictures back????!!! Who do you take your computer to when it is being dumb? That is all.

It's all Greek to me!

So Nate calls me from work sometime at the beginning of January and asks if I want to go to Greece. Well, of course I do! So I did some calling and found that Donene and Caitlin could watch the boys while we were gone (step one), bought a ticket (step two), and waited a week and a half and boarded the plane to Athens (step three). When we finally got in Athens we got to our hotel and it was less than a mile from the Acropolis, which has the Parthenon and lots of other old stuff. :) Ithought this picture looked like the stadium from Gladiator. Nate didn't think so, but I am saying it is.

Right across the street from our hotel there was the temple of Zeus and Herodian's gate to the city. As you can see it was cold, while we were there. It was interesting to see how advanced they were in their building (most of the ruins dated back to 400 or 500 B.C.) CrazY!

We also went the the OLD olympic stadium. You can see just how excited Nate is at about this point!

Everywhere we go I like to see how that particular country buries their dead (morbid I know). In Greece they have these big marble boxes above ground and most have shrines on top of them.

We stayed in Athens for a day and a half and then started on our way to Volos. This was the city that was close to the air base where Nate was going to be working. We drove for a couple of house and then found that we had to detour off the freeway. So we started our detour and after about an hour we thought we must have gotten lost, but there wasn't another road we could have taken. FINALLY, we got to the freeway again, and there were cops blocking it saying we couldn't get on and had to go on another detour. But while we were there we saw this monster line of tractors on the freeway and thought it was strange. So we get to our hotel and ask the front desk person why all the detours and he told us that every year, this exact week in January the farmers in the area hold a protest against their government for more money for their goods and they use their tractors as blockades on the freeway.

So in Volos there weren't as many people that spoke English so it was a little bit harder for me to get around, especially because Nate ended up working for about 8-9 hours for 3 days, so I was by myself. But one day I got a taxi and rode up to this mountain village called Makrinitsa. It was GORGEOUS! It had cobblestone streets and you had to park your car and walk the streets to the different homes (well that's what I did). The streets zig zagged up and down the mountain. There was a little market that had little shops where everything in them were things that the people had made themselves, so of course I went shopping :).



We stayed in Volos from Sunday until Thursday morning and then left on the train to Athens again. On Friday we were supposed to go on a cruise to some of the Greek Islands, but of course this was the week that the cruise ship was being maintained. So I decided that we should take a ferry, but of course, it was windy and rainy so the ferry's couldn't travel. DANG! (we took a taxi to get tickets for the ferry, and ended up wasting $70 for the stupid taxi ride) So we decided to walk to the top of this mountain, where there was just one little old (ugly) church on the top, but the view was spectacular!



By this time, both of us were ready to go home and were ready to see the boys. It made me happy to hear that they missed us too :)

It was a very fun trip and there were lots of interesting ruins. It was so green everywhere and everywhere you looked there were olive trees. EVERYWHERE! We were surprised to see that they had some pretty tall mountains, we thought it was just going to be rolling hills, but nope, there were mountains. The food was pretty good. Not too sweet or rich. We went to a "tavern" on the sea and had some interesting sea food (this was my least favorite meal).

There were pastry shops everywhere. We wondered how they survived and stayed open because there were so many of them. At almost all the resturants there was Greek salad which was just vegetables, feta cheese (EVERYTHING came with FETA!), and olive oil.

Sorry this is SO LONG :)

Somone's special day!

I seriously can't believe that my Ty "the guy" is THREE! Where does the time go. It seems like the older you get the faster time seems to go. Here are some facts about Ty......

**He LOVES (understatement) tractors. He got all these fabulous toys for Christmas and when Heidi and Clayton gave them their dollar store tractor they got the best W-O-W a TRACTOR! He loves to ride with Cort and Brandon (aka Brenda) and Grandpa on the big tractors. He can stay out there for hours. He loves to dig with his tractors in the sand pile. He seriously does sleep with his tractors lots of nights in his bed. This picture is when we were coming home from Grandma Spencer's Christmas Party and he fell asleep clutching them. Really shows the love.

**He LOVES chicken nuggets......and treats (and that is about it j/k). Whenever I ask him what he wants for dinner or lunch he says, chicken nuggets. Although most of the time if we aren't careful he isn't hungry because he helps himself to whatever he wants in the cupboard or fridge and I come down to find the evidence on the table. He also LOVES pickles!

**He LOVES playing with his brother. He follows Kace around and wants to do everything he does. He will watch him play computer games, play monsters, build forts and play maniacs. Lately they have been loving to make "pillow piles." They gather up all the pillows in the house and make a monster pile and then jump off the couch onto the pile doing all sorts of tricks.

**He LOVES to dance. Almost every day Ty will tell me that it is time to dance and he will race upstairs to get his shorts on (he also does this when he goes "running") and come downstairs and put on his dancing music and JAMS! He really just jumps and runs around in circles, but it is pretty awesome. I honestly think the kid has better rhythm than his mother.

**He LOVES to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. He loves playing with his dinosaurs and loves them until they break. He LOVES to go the dinosaur park and loves to make the sounds.

**He does NOT LOVE to sit still for very long.

**He LOVES playing with his friends. Right now he especially enjoys playing with Olivia, Summit and Thomas.

**Ty has a very tender heart and falls to the ground in tears immediately when he gets in trouble. He then sends himself to a time-out or decides that he needs to go "to bed. "

**He loves the shoot the "bad duys (guys)" with his nerf guns. He gets them every time.

We are so blessed to have someone as sweet as Tydon as a member of family. We love him so much and know that everyday will bring a laugh. He has been so excited for his birthday (another understatement) and has been bringing it up every day since Christmas (we told him that it was after Christmas). We love you, bubba!

What a SURPRISE!

I know, I know. I have been seriously neglecting the blog lately (and keeping up on everyone else's.......SORRY!) At first I had a good reason......my camera died and I didn't have one until just after Thanksgiving and I didn't want to do a blog post without pictures...as Kami would say that is BORING! But after that, I have no excuses, just laziness :) So it would have to take something really big to get me out of my blogging slump........CHRISTMAS!

I was so excited for Christmas this year, Tydon and Kace are at such fun ages. During the summer I found a powerwheels 4-wheeler on KSL.com that I knew Ty would be so excited about. He did not disappoint. When he came downstairs Christmas morning, he ran in the front room and said "WHOA BABY!" It was pretty classic!



Kace (and the whole family) got a wii and some games. He had been so excited for Christmas and woke up early this year. Every Christmas (before this one) we (Nate and I) have been able to sleep in because the boys sleep in until 7:30 or 8:00......not this year. Kace woke up at 6:00, but I guess it could be worse. I told him he had to stay in our room until Ty woke up and I would tell him stories like my mom used to tell us while we were waiting for dad to come in from chores on Christmas morning. Like the 'boy with no ears' and others. Remember that mom?!



I decided to make a good breakfast this year and had the breakfast casserole and pull-apart bread all ready on Christmas Eve. We had no room in our fridge so I just left it (the casserole) outside in the garage to set overnight. After we had come downstairs for the initial sighting of the presents and the boys had started playing I decided I had better go get the casserole and put it in the oven because it had to cook for 30 minutes.

So I went to the garage and I saw this big bow on our car. My eyes weren't registering clearly. It looked like the Rodeo, but NO IT WAS A TOYOTA SEQUOIA! I said, "WHAT!!!! N-A-T-E!!" He said, "What? Did you find your present?" He had a big smile on his face. I seriously couldn't believe it. We had been looking at cars during the summer and had decided that we should just save our money and that the Rodeo could last for one more year. I guess I was the one that decided that, Nate thought I needed a new car. :) He did such a good job! I don't think I have EVER been more surprised.

He bought it in November and kept it at Shirleen and Curt's (our neighbor's) and they drove it over on Christmas Eve. It was funny because just the day before Shirleen had asked me if I thought Nate had done any shopping. I told her that I didn't have any idea, I told him I didn't really want anything (other than big stuff that would be too expensive) and I just wanted to enjoy it with the boys. WOW, was I off!

So anyway, back to Christmas....Nate's biggest complaint EVERY CHRISTMAS is that we don't get to stay home on Christmas we are always running to both of our parents homes and by the time we get doing something it is time to go to the next parent's home and the boys don't ever get to stay home and enjoy their gifts. So we did things a little bit different this year. Nate's parents and Caitlin came over to our house about 8:30 and played with the boys (and Caitlin played tennis and mario kart with me :) ), took the car for a little spin, watched a movie and had a good time.
They stayed until about lunch time and then went home so Ryan could play his games :) and just played. Ty was so funny on his 4-wheeler, he would go maybe a foot and then jump off and strut back to the trailer and inspect it and then get on to go again (it was like he was scared, but too proud to admit it).
Mary and Isaac came over with Lincoln to see what everyone got and Heidi and Clayton came over as well. Later in the afternoon we went to my mom and dad's to exchange presents with all of them. Kami gave me a GORGEOUS :) Logan temple picture, that I was so excited about. In past year's we haven't drawn names, just gotten gifts for all my siblings, and every year Heidi and Clayton get Nate this monstrosity of raspberry filled hostess doughnuts. He LOVES them! So he was a little disappointed at the drawing of names, but don't worry Heidi drew his name (or Clayton, I am not for sure). So they got him some wading boots and then Clayton made this doughnut man. Completely made out of doughnuts. It was to be Nate's "hunting buddy". I will just have to get a picture because you can't picture it until you see it. It was pretty funny.

Oh, one more funny thing.......Ty was asleep when we got to Trenton so Nate just went and put him on Cort's bed. Well apparently he was in a DEEP SLEEP, because when I woke him up to do presents, he was covered in pee! HEHEHE SORRY CORT!

The BIG one!!!

Every year Nate says that he is going to shoot the "BIG ONE." He was excited for the muzzle loader hunt and had seriously been counting the weeks (maybe even months) for it to start. He went on the opener with his old roommate Dave and then the next day with yours truly. It was a good hike when we went, but we didn't get the BIG ONE this day. He then went on Saturday with his dad and said that today was the for sure day he was going to shoot one (THE BIG ONE). But after about 14 hours for that day.......NOTHING! So he decided to go on Tuesday by himself (I can't say exactly where he went because then we would have to kill you--I guess a hunter's hunting spot is very sacred to him :) ) I called him so many times because I was worried about him being by himself and something happening to him (I tend to let my imagination run away with me). He finally called back and said, "How am I supposed to talk to you when I am stalking THE BIG ONE?" So then he told me that he got it (if you want to hear the actual "hunting story" you can call and I am sure Nate would be happy to tell you ALL the details) and was really excited. We are now making jerky and it is actually pretty good. I was a bit skeptical, but it is good.

When he got home with the deer the boys were so excited. I had to leave for YW and told him to take some pictures. Please notice Kace's magnifying glass. I guess he wanted to look at it close up. Weird. Ty was really excited and kept saying, "deer, deer, deer, deer, deer." It was a happy day in our house!

Birthday BOY!

On Sunday Kace turned SEVEN years old. I can't believe it. It means I am getting OLD. Kace had a birthday party this year and was REALLY excited (understatement). We started his birthday on the Wedesday before his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Jones coming over for a birthday dinner and his soccer game (they were going to PA to visit Mel and were going to be gone on his actual day so we celebrated early. We had a good time and Kace loved having them come to his game.
His actual bday was on a Sunday and turned out to be the same day as our primary program. So Grandma and Grandpa Andrew, Brandon and Chelsea, and great-grandma Andrew came to church with us. Another fun dinner followed (Cortney showed up in time for the dinner....go figure :) )




The day he was most excited for was Monday because that was the day of his birthday party with all his friends. He wanted an under the sea party, but we kind of altered it a bit. First we played, "don't eat pete". I loved playing this game at parties when I was a kid and was pleasantly surprised at how much fun they had playing it too.

We then pretended we were pirates and went on a treasure hunt for their buried treasure (i.e. treat bags). When Nate turned 8 he did this same activity for his birthday party and Kace has always wanted to do one. We gave them about seven clues and thankfully the rain stopped just in time so they could go outside (I was praying).

Then came the fishing adventure. We filled up a little plastic kiddie pool and got a bunch of little planter fish in it. The kids got to 'catch' the fish with their hands to take home (sorry moms! :) ) They LOVED this.

Kace is such a joy to have in our family. He is always the peacemaker and loves to make people laugh. He can be such a goof ball. His favorite color is blue and his favorite food is macaroni and cheese. He likes to play soccer, baseball and basketball and is very very excited for when he is old enough to play football. He loves to go camping and fishing. We LOVE our Kace!

End of summer

Of course I couldn't NOT do a post about Kace's first day of 1 grade. I seriously, (and I know every mom says this) can't believe he is in first grade already. I asked him while he was eating breakfast the first day of school what he thought first grade was going to be like and he said, "Lots and lots and lots and LOTS of math." I hope for his sake he is right or he will just be working on his workbook at home. He was excited to go all day and to ride the bus again. We have to meet the bus about a 1/2 mile from our house, so we do a lot of waiting :)



Also a couple of weeks ago (I think it was like August 15) I went up to the mountains to put some salt out for the little deeries, so that they would be in the area when Nate went hunting and it SNOWED. Not just a little snow, but like a blizzard, it stuck to the ground and I was NOT prepared for snow and froze my BUTT off.

It seems like every night Kace wants to go swimming in the pond. So we all head out there and he chases the ducks around. Luckily Ty doesn't like to go out too far.........yet!

Lately whenever Ty sees the camera he wants to take a picture with "mama". I have a million of these.

Sometime in August Kace was begging to do a lemonade stand....I was trying to find this picture of Heidi, Kami and I and our lemonade stand when we were little. We were sitting there looking like rag muffins and our lemonade was 2 (yes TWO) cents. Anyway, fast forward to last month when kace wanted to have a lemonade stand. We decided to go to the Weese's so that we could get a little bit more traffic going by. He was so excited to go buy something at King's. Thank goodness for Jami, Shirleen, Curt and Cami......so he made $4.25 (I think....it was $4 something). Anyway, he had a good time and Ty had fun playing with Boston.