Ethan's Baptism

Ethan was baptized on November 6th. It was a great day. We were glad to have family there and be able to witness his special day. What a great thing to be baptized!

Pumpkin carving We carved pumpkins on Ethan's birthday this year. Joshua didn't want to be in the picture. His pumpkin is the small one in the front.

Here is a close-up of Ethan, Eli and Erica and their pumpkins. They designed them on their own and had help carving from Dad and Mom.

October Birthdays

Ethan had banana cream pie for his birthday. He was glad to turn eight. He started cub scouts the first part of October. He visited the fire station and took part in a flag burning ceremony as first experiences in scouts.

Ethan was given a volcano set and chemistry set for his birthday.

Ethan also got a new bike.

Allison received most of her presents on Saturday, a couple days before her birthday. She went shopping at the mall and picked out her own gifts. We went to dinner on her birthday and then she opened a few presents. One was Jon Schmidt piano music.

Halloween Costumes

Cherilyn and Allison, gypsy and pirate, made their costumes this year, with a little help from Mom. They had them mostly finished here for the ward Halloween party.

Here is Super Joshua. (The suit didn't fit how he liked so he just wore the cape.) Yes, he was freezing that night and ready to go home halfway through Trunk or Treat.

Our fifties girl, Erica, Eli in Bumblebee and Ethan as Harry Potter.

Fall Field Trip
During fall break we drove the Nebo loop with Sam's family. We went on a short hike that overlooked "Devil's Kitchen." Here's some of us on the way.

Pumpkin Patch

We went on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch again this year. We grew pumpkins, but they all turned out small. They were great for canning pumpkin, but not for carving.Allison and Joshua picked one together.
Eli found one he could barely carry. He decided not to get this one.

Here are the kids on an old tractor they placed for picture taking.

Back to School

The summer seemed to fly by. Now the kids (all but one) are in school. Time goes by so fast at this stage of life.

Cherilyn is in 10th grade and attending the high school now. Her favorite classes are ASL and choir. She is also in orchestra, chemistry, math, english and seminary. She has A and B days at the high school. She went to her first high school football game last Friday. She had fun and understood enough to cheer for the right team. (Her friend cheered for the wrong team a time or two.) Payson (her school) won the game by one point, so it was a good first game. She looks forward to going to more games.

Allison is in 8th grade. She likes school in general and her favorite classes are choir, band, math and history. She was disappointed to be an alto in choir, but she still enjoys it.

Erica is in fifth grade with Mr. Bailey as her teacher. She had a rough first week, only attending Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It was a stressful week for Mom. Now she is happy with school and thinks her teacher is great. She has her own keyboard with a small screen so that she can type some assignments at school or home. She is happy that her friend sits next to her.

Ethan is in second grade. His teacher is Mrs. Brandley. He was disappointed to not have his good friends in his class, except for girls.

Eli was excited to start kindergarten. When the other kids were nervous about school, he suggested that he go in their place and they wait a week. Eli's teacher is Mrs. Holt. He likes school, riding the bus, and seeing friends. He also started soccer this week. He has had fun learning to play.

Joshua is the only one not in school. He wants to go to school and says he needs mom more than when "his boys" are home. He will start a "preschool" once a week with some friends rotating at their houses (like Joy School). He has started reading. He opens a book and sings his version of the alphabet. Today it was "q, r, s, a, b,c."

Maui (again)

Charles and I went to Maui for our birthdays. We have been before and were glad to see some favorites and go to new places. One of our favorite things on Maui is the drive to Hana. This waterfall, The Three Bears, is on the way. It had more water than last time. There was even a fourth little waterfall to the side (not visible in this picture). We drove past Hana and hiked the Pipiwai trail. This is where the majority of our pictures are taken from both trips. We saw more than ten waterfalls and pools. We swam in the pool at the top of a 200 foot waterfall hiked through a bamboo forest and ended up at a 400 foot waterfall. Then we returned to our car and ate then hiked down to the ocean. We watched the surf hit the black lava rocks then climbed to the lower pools of Oheo Gulch.

This was one of the upper pools of the lower pools. That is me swimming close to the waterfall. It felt like I was closer to the waterfall than it shows because I was getting sprayed in the back of the head. We both jumped into the pool from a side cliff.

Here is Pololenalena beach. We went here our first and last day. It was a good beach. We snorkeled the first day and saw at least three turtles. At one point there was a large turtle and two little ones swimming close to us.

We snorkeled at Honolua Bay this time. It was the best snorkeling we had ever done. We saw some big fish, big schools of fish and fish we had never seen before. There was also plenty of coral.

We also enjoyed Kaanapali beach. We hadn't been there before, but went twice this time.

We enjoyed playing frisbee, reading on the beach, watching skimboarders and playing in the ocean. It was great to spend time together without anything to worry about.

Eli's birthday

Eli turned six. He wanted apple pie for dessert.Here is our silly boy. He loves to dance.

Eli's (and Joshua and Ethan's) favorite present was the Captain America sheild that shoots discs.

They also enjyed this water ball that squirts out water.

Summer Activities

Ethan moved on to coach pitch baseball this year. His team was the Athletics.

Eli was glad to play Tball this year, after two years of kickball. He liked going after the ball. Ethan and Eli often had games at the same time. It was nice when they were on adjacent fields. Our big baseball event was losing the van keys.

On Friday the boys were practicing Tball and playing catch. Ethan and Eli set up bases and tried to get Joshua to run to the right base. After awhile Joshua said "I'm tired of this." Joshua also likes to hand me food he no longer wants and say "I'm full of it."

Matt, Anslin, Brooklyn and Benson came to visit in June. Brooklyn and Joshua had fun playing together and are so cute.Ethan is turning into a great babysitter, especially with Benson.

Cherilyn, Allison, Erica, Ethan and Eli went to Gartin Caber (my parents land in Fillmore) for Cousin/Grandkid Camp. They enjoyed making crafts, swimming, playing in the sprinklers and eating Grandpa's camp food. This is a fun tradition for them to spend time with their cousins and grandparents.

Starting on the 4th of July we had an Elder family reunion. On Monday night we had a fun family home evening where we played a game with questions about each grandkid. Then we lit fireworks (in the rain). Throughout the week we ate together, played lots of games (cornhole, dodgeball, volleyball, soccer, basketball, croquet/golf, golf), went swimming, hiked by Bridal Veil Falls, had a bridal shower for Rochelle and visited. One day Grandma Elder said "I love to see you playing and laughing together." My favorite was going to the temple with Rochelle and so many family members. It was a good, tiring week. Ethan has loved swimming at Marianne's pool this summer. He has started jumping in, wearing goggles and swimming underwater. He wanted some pictures of him jumping in. This is our favorite. Erica wears goggles and looks underwater now too. Eli is in the background climbing out with a lifejacket on. He likes to swim around with the lifejacket and jump in to Mom.

Cherilyn turned 15!

Cherilyn celebrated her 15th birthday. We don't have her signed up for driver's ed. yet. She isn't excited about it, but I am. She received an ipod player for her birthday.
Cherilyn is having a fun summer. She has been to California, camping with her Buchanan cousins, an Elder family reunion, youth conference at Bear Lake and boating at Utah Lake. She is now looking forward to Girl's Camp in August. She loves being with family and friends.

Here she is with Allison.

Joshua turned three on Saturday.

He was happy to get a motorcycle. When we drove to California he noticed many motorcycles. He is planning on buying one when he is older (and a 4 wheeler and a blue backhoe).
Joshua enjoyed opening a new scooter. Now the boys all have their own.

Joshua likes his scooter so much his tongue is sticking out. What a cute boy!

California!!
We left for California the day after school got out. The drive down went well and we made good time, arriving at Michael and Candy's house in Glendora at dinner time. It was great to have a nice place to stay with generous hosts.

We went to Huntington Beach the next day. Here is Allison, Eli and Ethan playing in the ocean. It was the first time the two little boys have been to the ocean. The other kids haven't been in almost seven years. Cherilyn and Allison spent hours out deep getting hit by waves. Erica enjoyed standing in the waves and letting the water push against her. Ethan and Eli liked running from the waves and standing in them to get wet. Joshua liked to run into the water then back up to our chairs and towels then into the water and back up to our seats. The boys also "surfed" on the sand. We built small sand castles and dug pools. We like the ocean! We took a break from the beach on Sunday. It gave us time to heal our sunburns. (We did use sunscreen, but Cherilyn and I still burnt.)

We also took a break on Thursday. We went to a local movie theater and saw Kung Fu Panda 2, which everyone enjoyed. We also went out to dinner. Chile's is now the kid's new favorite restaurant. Here we are finishing dinner.

This picture is taken at Crystal Cove State Park. Charles is jumping with a seaweed jumprope swung by Allison and Ethan. We went to this beach three days. It was not very busy, a little less windy and very pretty. Crystal Cove also had some tidepools and cool rocks to climb on. One day we saw a seal sunning on the rocks.

On our last day, Friday, we spent 7 1/2 hours at the beach. Joshua took a nap on the beach. We read, walked on the beach, climbed on rocks, threw the frisbee and got wet. We lost two shoes, a frisbee and Erica's glasses in the ocean. We were worn out and ready to be home by Sunday evening when we got there. It was a good trip.

Summer Activities

Even before school got out we got started on our summer plans.

Ethan started baseball (coach pitch) and loves playing for the Athletics. He was disappointed that his two first games were rained out. We have had a wet, cool spring.

Eli started T-ball a few weeks later.

Joshua decided to be potty-trained. Yes, he is a very independent boy and he made the decision. He came to me one day a few weeks ago and said "I'm about to pee." I asked if he wanted to go on the toilet. He said yes and he did it. He was rewarded with candy. We have only had a few minor clean-ups. When Joshua decides what he wants, he sticks to it, especially if he gets candy.

The girls were all very glad for school to be out. They have set some goals for the summer. Cherilyn earned a 4.0 through the whole year, which was her goal at the beginning of the school year.

We started our garden in early May after the last frost. Some things have started growing (onions, strawberries and raspberries), others are slower and some we have replanted. I read Square Foot Gardening in early spring and was inspired to put more effort into the garden this year. I hope our work turns out productive.

Our Experiment

Charles was preparing for a financial class he taught at church. He reviewed counsel to have a financial reserve, along with food storage, starting with a three month supply. He suggested we try going one month without buying food to see how our food storage would stand up. We thought about it. After a week and a couple trips to the grocery store we started the experiment. Our one exception was milk. We know we have plenty of powdered milk and we know that we don't care to drink it, so we did buy milk.

Our four weeks ended today. What we discovered is our food storage is pretty good. I was pleased that noone was very grouchy about it. I think everyone had a time or two when they said "We need to go to the store." Yet we got by OK. What we missed the most was quick, fill-in foods. Frozen pizza was missed, but yogurt, fresh fruit and lunchmeat were at the top of the list. I did make adjustments, but I felt like I had more time to do so (without going to the grocery store). I was more prepared for dinners because we had fewer fallbacks. When we ran out of store-bought bread I made sandwich rolls for the kids lunches. They liked them and I will keep doing that. I realized that canned and dried fruit is important. The kids take fruit in their lunch everyday and obviously the fresh fruit ran out before the month was up. Lemon juice and evaporated milk came in handy for substitutes.

It was a good experiment. I feel better prepared to build up a food storage appropriate for our family. I am glad that we have followed this counsel. We have peace knowing that we have food to eat if we couldn't go to the store.

I just got this hung up last week. It is my favorite project of late because the kids were part of it. The kids all made their handprints and then wrote their name and age (except Joshua). I embroidered their names over their writing (in washable ink). I told the girls that it would be ideal to get handprints at age 2 and have them write their name at age 5. Yet I like it this way because each kid is different and I still see the kids work in it.

New Year's With the Buchanans
The Wednesday after Christmas we headed down to Mesquite to visit with Monica's family. We walked the dog with Grandma, visited with everyone, played lasso golf and win it in a minute games. Of course we also made gingerbread houses and decorated them, a family tradition.
Grandma B got help with the gingerbread icing from Lucie and Joshua.

Joshua, being one of the younger grandkids, decorated two sides of a house, instead of a full house. He didn't mind. He was just there for the candy and icing.

Ethan carried his gingerbread house on his lap the whole way home. He didn't want it in a plastic bag where it might break, which most of them did. We ate them all once we got home-mmm, gingerbread and candy.